Engineering Entrepreneurship Ft. Ali G.

In this episode of the podcast, we have a special guest, Ali G. Director of Engineering &  successful business owner. She shares her unique story of how she transitioned from a career in engineering to starting her own company, and the challenges and opportunities she faced along the way. She also talks about the importance of taking calculated risks and the value of being an entrepreneur in the engineering field. Ali also discusses the importance of work-life balance and how she manages to balance her roles as a business owner and engineer. She also offers advice for other men and women who are interested in starting their own business. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights and inspiration for anyone interested in engineering and entrepreneurship.

Connect with Ali G here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-gilpin-ali-g-8675b322/

Listen to Ali & Nikki on their podcast, Automation Ladies: https://www.automationladies.io

Transcript

Ali G on Failing For You 1

 U1 

 0:00 

 Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of failing for you. I'm your host, jordan yates. And today we have another very special guest. Everybody, please welcome the ali g. Ally, introduce yourself, girl. 

 U2 

 0:16 

 Hi, everyone. I'm extremely excited to be here. I really like jordan's show. I started an engineering company and e a couple of years ago and it has been a wild ride. And that's kind of what I want to talk about today with jordan. And that's kind of me. I in high school, thought that I really loved science and math, and so I was like, I'm going to do actually, it ended up being chemistry that I thought I loved the most, 

 U1 

 0:47 

 which, oh, interesting, 

 U2 

 0:49 

 ended up being not true. But I didn't know. So I was like, I love chemistry. I will be a chemical engineer. And that is what 

 U1 

 0:55 

 I oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. That's so hard. That is so hard. I can't even imagine. I think I had to take one chemistry class and that was enough for me. I'm not a 

 U2 

 1:06 

 huge fan of those. 

 U1 

 1:08 

 Yeah, it was just like, it was a lot of memorization, and I'm not good at memorizing, so I don't know. That was overwhelming. But, guys, today we have a lot of fun questions. So I got a lot of buzz around, like announcing that Ali was going to be on and we have somebody who wrote in some really good questions and to the point where it's like, I'm only going to ask. You a few of my questions. Questions? Because I love his question so much. And he's been checking in, like, hey, when's the episode coming out? What was her answer to this question? I have to know. And guys, we make this like I said, it's in the title, failing for you. We're here for you. So if you're writing in and you want to know something about who we're bringing on or about me, we take your writing in seriously. And that's why we're going to be asking these questions today. Day so before I give basically your resume of what you do, he suggested a few icebreakers. So. Thanks, Ed. The first ice breaker is who has the best swag hats? 

 U2 

 2:16 

 Well, the reason why I believe that mine are the best is that I have 1s the ear flaps. Hold on, let me demonstrate 

 U1 

 2:26 

 for you. Yeah, let me see. 2s Oh, my gosh. Wait, that's just on like a baseball hat. 

 U2 

 2:32 

 Can you even handle that level of cool on my hand? Wow. Guys, if you are listening and podcast cast version, ali's wearing what seems to be a baseball cab. And then she took her headphones off, she reached the top and what I heard was velcro. She undid it from the top and two flaps came down on each side to cover her ears came down and it velcro is under her chin. So it kind of looks like what is that? To go under a safety hat for a colder environment. 

 U1 

 3:03 

 Okay, that too 

 U2 

 3:04 

 fix it. You can make that happen. 

 U1 

 3:07 

 So wait, Ali, these are obviously for your company, but 2s where do you get these made? How does that work? These are so cool. There 

 U2 

 3:17 

 is a hatworld.com where you can basically and actually we're going to make automation ladies hats like this. But basically 1sthis logo needs to be. 3s Within their specs. 

 U1 

 3:33 

 Okay. Some of the issues that can happen, and it's happened to me. It's like I've had it where my logo is too complex, and they want to make it less pixely. So they're like, yeah, delete some of these lines and then make it so that we can print it. And so that's how they were able to print my hat. And you could still see a valve there, even though it's harder 

 U2 

 3:55 

 to see. This 

 U1 

 3:56 

 episode is brought to you by hatworld.com. No kidding. 1s Allie has the best swag hats of her own. She gets them made@hatworld.com next. I don't know why this is an ice breaker. This feels like this would be a serious question. But, ally, I guess they don't know that you went to high school in hawaii, but they asked, how did you manage to find two internships in hawaii? I guess that would be something related to probably the fact that you lived there before. But they want to know, how did you manage to find those internships? 

 U2 

 4:29 

 That's a really good question. 1s And. 

 U1 

 4:36 

 I don't remember, but I will give you the best that I can remember about it, okay? This 

 U2 

 4:42 

 guy who was my boss, he had an 2s analytical chemistry lab. 2s He had stuff in his lab that people don't really have in their labs. So he could test different kinds of watercolor quality. 1s And I think that might be one of the ways, like, if you were in a remote island or something, that would be how you would kind of get that kind of technology 3s within your reach, would be to work on water quality stuff. But what he had was he had something that I had never seen, and it was a micro segment flow analyzer. The 

 U1 

 5:27 

 TV baby pipe that you talked about last night, it blew my mind. The reason why is because 1s this guy has this, like, machine, 

 U2 

 5:39 

 but. 2s He hadn't used it in all the ways that he wanted, but what was neat about it was 

 U1 

 5:49 

 just like, the different chemistry is going on inside of one different machine. So it was like, oh, my God. You can test all these different things in this tiny it's like an assay test. They call it assays, right? 1s In a lab, you think assay, and you're like, okay, so there's like, multiple samples, and we're going to do different things to the samples and then come up with a report that said, when we do this, this happens, and when we do whatever. 2s I started getting these assay tests for some of these machines that he had, and I just felt like 

 U2 

 6:28 

 on top of the world just because 2s Troubleshooting was its own thing. And that was my first Troubleshooting ever. 

 U1 

 6:36 

 Was this your first internship or your second one? Okay. 

 U2 

 6:40 

 Yeah. And my first time that I ever, he was like, I don't know, figure it out. The needle would get stuck, or the needle would move, and then it would get stuck while it moved because this was still a robot. Like, he had a needle that would do dilutions or micro dilutions, but 1s it had to be able to move right to the different like, because there are multiple test tubes. So it had it was so much like a robot, and I just I never even bothered, like, connecting the dots because I was just like, Whatever. So I was doing this from a long time ago that I had no idea that I was doing this. And it was, like, since 2000. I graduated high school in 2006, so 2007, eight, nine I was able to get jobs like this. Where they were like, I don't know. Sounds pretty 

 U1 

 7:37 

 smart. Yeah, because they were, like, chemical engineer. Was there a lot of competition for jobs in Hawaii? I don't know. How many people are there? It seems like it's a small populated place. 

 U2 

 7:52 

 Chemical engineering is not a major that you can get in Hawaii, period. 

 U1 

 7:56 

 Okay. Okay. Wow. If you wanted 

 U2 

 7:58 

 that, you'd have to leave and be like, I'm coming back. And then they'd be like, to what? 

 U1 

 8:04 

 So to answer your question, Ed, that's how she got it. She was from there, and the talent pool was nonexistent, so she created one. 

 U2 

 8:14 

 I knew the guy because he's. Lived in my town. There was no one else. There was no one else who was like, I want to test water quality stuff. They're like, I don't give it. 

 U1 

 8:25 

 Supply and demand, people. Supply and demand. If you want a really cool job, go somewhere where there just, like, isn't people 1s how sweet they are, 

 U2 

 8:37 

 because I didn't understand 

 U1 

 8:39 

 that's. So fun. Okay, so now we're going to exit from the ice breakers and enter into the actual interview, if you will. So I'm going to ask a few of my own questions. I hope that is okay. 1s Not to you. I was talking to Ed. 3s My first question would be, ally, you are the owner and director of engineering for your company. Can you tell us when your company started and kind of what your company does? And then we'll go from there? I don't want to ask you too many questions at once. So when did your company start and what is your company? What does it do? 

 U2 

 9:24 

 I have two. Official start date because I created the company before I actually had the Kona's to actually run it. 2s When I first started my company, it was a what if the world ends. 3s Lots of what ifs. Lots of what ifs that were related to, like, 2s what is it called when you're like, conspiracy theory 

 U1 

 9:55 

 type? Yeah, like, into the world, people's. Maybe 

 U2 

 9:58 

 that, maybe this. I don't know. So I was scared different ways. Yeah, it was really doomsday. And I was like, 1s am I going to have a job? And so, like, part of this discussion with myself included, 2s you know, how I felt about this type of work. And I went for it and 2s yes. So today, like, what I do, I mean, it's still engineering, so I sell engineering services. 1s To the end, not the end user. So you may buy cookies. Right, but I sell my services to cookie factories, or I sell my services to it doesn't really matter. Like, they make anything. But I don't sell to the end user. 3s I help companies create end products, but I don't create end products. Do you 

 U1 

 11:00 

 work with more Mr. OS or OEMs? 

 U2 

 11:03 

 OEMs. 

 U1 

 11:04 

 Okay. And, guys, OEM is an original equipment manufacturer. I feel like a lot of our listener base would know that. But in case you're like my mom and you're listening, hi, mom. Love you. An OEM is an original equipment manufacturer, and that means that they're the ones who build the machines, and they sell those machines to places like the cookie makers. Yeah. And then the cookie makers use those machines to make cookies. Those are usually the MRO. And then people sell the cookies to the stores, and then the end user would be the person eating the cookie. Yeah. So I'm the person currently. Yeah. I come full circle. I've been on both ends, and I continue to consume the cookies. I love the 

 U2 

 11:43 

 example. I love to be part of making. 

 U1 

 11:47 

 Yeah. So, like, what kinds of services are you selling? So you do, like, panel building or integration. Can you explain what the sort of main bread and butter 

 U2 

 11:57 

 I am making money off of are actually the service industry? So SCADA, once it's created, you still need to support that for years to come. You need to add points or add screens or ads. There are so many things you could add to your Skater that exists or just more points to monitor. So your Skater system isn't done when you first build it. You need to keep at least some kind of staff that can edit the screens or your historian content, because what you want is to be able to look back at any data you've ever collected and then make decisions about that. And you can make really smart decisions about that because you're just like every spring we break this thing because the temperature, whatever, there's so many things that we can decide 1s based off of really smart data, and that's what we're trying. That's the whole point of Industry 4.0. 1s Can we make a decision here that's going to benefit all of us and cost all of us less money? 

 U1 

 13:07 

 We love database decisions. 

 U2 

 13:10 

 Data driven. Yes. 

 U1 

 13:11 

 Yes. Data driven is the vibe these days. Okay, Ali, you started your business. It's still relatively fresh in terms of year over year. What would you say on the business side has been your greatest challenge so far, and something you might have overcome and some advice you could give on the theme of failing for you. There's so many things we could talk about where failure occurs, but we also like to hear about how you came back from that failure. And I think it would be interested to hear, like, in relation to your business or whatever you feel most passionate talking about. 

 U2 

 13:51 

 So the biggest for the type of business that I have, which is a sole proprietor, LLC, 

 U1 

 13:59 

 and other people have this type of business. And the biggest thing about this business is that 

 U2 

 14:10 

 the 1s solutions aren't 

 U1 

 14:17 

 there's such a huge variation in the solution. Yeah. 1s Node manual for all of it. Yeah. 

 U2 

 14:25 

 It's not all manual. 2s Picking who's going to help you becomes a challenge. And 2s some of this work is just 3s you don't have to be like reinventing the wheel. And some of us try to do that because we're scared of various things. But in general, I want to say that, like. 3s I don't know. Lots of people have the same drive to try to fix some of the same problems. 4s I don't know. There's lots of options for who 

 U1 

 15:06 

 can help. 1s So you struggled with finding good team members to help you execute your projects is what you're saying. 

 U2 

 15:15 

 Or 

 U1 

 15:15 

 employees, if you will. 

 U2 

 15:19 

 It's hard to find that customers that understand the struggles. So you can find people that will learn how to do Plc programming or learn how to do Sketa. And then the customer is like, Well, I bought all these 1s hardware. Why aren't you done programming them? And it's like, yeah, these aren't the same as all the other ones that you have a phone? 

 U1 

 15:42 

 Yeah. It's not like copy and paste. 

 U2 

 15:44 

 We have to a fight with them a little bit to try to explain that everything is to copy paste. Like, they think a lot of our customers do believe that most of our work is just like copy paste, and it isn't. And then they get angry because we can't. Can't copy paste. And actually we get angry ourselves because we go to Rockwell. We're like, Why can't I copy paste it? We're 

 U1 

 16:08 

 all mad. 2s And Rockwell says, that'll be $1,000. Thank you for chatting today. 

 U2 

 16:18 

 It's not wrong. It's a way to make money. Oh, yeah, 

 U1 

 16:23 

 I wish people paid that much to talk to me on the phone for an hour. 6s But yeah, that sounds like that is frustrating because I think which something you guys brought up. So I was just listening to Ali on another podcast before recording this, and something they said there's like this big sort of miscommunication or lack of communication between the manufacturing world and the people within it and the people outside of it. So all this stuff seems like such a mystery. And so that's why sometimes they have these notions like, oh, it's just that easy because they really don't know and they don't have the experience. And then it becomes like, whose fault is it that they don't know? But at the end of the day, it's your business and you're the one stuck explaining that to them. And that sounds like that could be frustrating. On the flip side, how cool is it that you own a business and that you are in a position where you're educating people no matter how hard to educate them sometimes? But what's been like the highlight of being in that space of, like, getting to teach these people how things really work, 1s the absolute. 1s Coolest thing about this entire 1s endeavor is that there are people who come up and they're like, 

 U2 

 17:47 

 you make me feel like I can try something. Yeah, 

 U1 

 17:53 

 that shit makes me so happy. No one really gave me that, and I wanted that. And, like, to be able to give that to other people that I don't even try to give it to 

 U2 

 18:09 

 just makes my death worth it. I just feel like now I can die and people will be like, she wasn't worthless. And that's so messed up, I think, in that way, 

 U1 

 18:23 

 but it's valid. A lot of us want to make a difference, and that's kind of what that is, is just like, did you make a difference? And can you measure that difference? And sometimes you can, because all you did was just empower somebody else to have some guts that they didn't have before. And a lot of us, they just need, like. 2s A little bit of guts because they have it already. They're just like, I know what I want. I know what I want to do. I just need a little bit of people to pretend like this is normal for me to ask, which it's not, but it is because it's almost you should look at it as, like, the American way. So if you are crazy and you ask these things that people think you're crazy easy for, like, maybe that just means you're American. And don't think that you're crazy, because you're not crazy. You're just an entrepreneur and you're just 

 U2 

 19:17 

 thinking ahead of other people. And other people are going to be like, you don't need to do that. And in their lives you don't. But in your life you do. So don't listen to them. 

 U1 

 19:27 

 Do you feel like you have the power to be more creative in your problem solving, being the owner and the final on these projects? That's so cool. Someone today was like, 

 U2 

 19:39 

 make decisions that otherwise 

 U1 

 19:41 

 be questionable. 

 U2 

 19:43 

 Yeah. Would be like, well, my customer wants this, so I can't really say anything. 1s I do feel that about certain things, but most of the time, like, my customer is just like, can you just make us money? Because, like, at this point, 1s I just want 

 U1 

 19:57 

 money. Yeah. We're trying to not die in the economy, so Ali is there to help 

 U2 

 20:05 

 right now. And that's what everyone is really scared of is how do you protect yourself from this current economy. And part of that is just 1s having a passion for your job, but appreciating your job for what it brings because you don't care about what that job even does. And other people are going to express that to their boss and then they're going to get work that you're not going to get. You don't show that initiative interest in something 2s before you are in the position where you felt like you had to start your own company. Did you ever, coming out of college or even younger, think that you wanted to run your own company? Was that ever something exciting? No, 1s what I wanted was to live in my corner in the quietness. Yeah, I loved it. I loved I was like, because I'm an engineer. I'm like, can you just tell me what to do? And I swear to God I'll shut up. And that's not how it works, 1s but that's how I wanted it. I wanted silence. I wanted 2s not a big deal, because I got to be like, oh, my God, everyone on. Let's have a hand of applause, or whoever 

 U1 

 21:24 

 that drives me crazy and makes me want to die, because I don't want to deal with that. Kind of, like it's almost social stress, and I think 

 U2 

 21:32 

 that that's, like, a thing that engineers don't like, 2s granted, 2s people always try to celebrate me, and I appreciate them for loving me in the first place. 1s One of my favorite things, I was once given, like, an award for, like, best laugh. 

 U1 

 21:52 

 It's so cute 

 U2 

 21:54 

 you laugh so funny that can we just give you an award for laughing the best? Which is super arbitrary. 

 U1 

 22:02 

 Yeah, no, but it's amazing. What does that even mean? In the first place? Put that on your resume. 

 U2 

 22:07 

 Yeah. I was really happy. I was like, well, people want to give me, like, best laugh. 1s Like award. And so I felt like, I don't know, that kind of stuff is like meaningful to people and I think that everyone should try to do that with their group. It's like give these weird prizes out. I don't mean give everybody a 

 U1 

 22:27 

 participation sticker. Yeah, 

 U2 

 22:28 

 I'm not saying give everybody like a prize for existing, but there's a lot of stuff that you can celebrate about the people you work with that make it into fun thing. And you're still not commemorating people for not doing anything. 

 U1 

 22:44 

 I know, I get that 

 U2 

 22:46 

 because there's fun to have and it creates a camaraderie 

 U1 

 22:50 

 for sure. And I relate a lot to what you're saying at the beginning of not think you'd ever start your own business. Because for me personally, I really like my full time job. I love, one, that it's remote, two, that I'm basically left alone if I want to be and then I can reach out and collaborate with people when I feel like it. But there's something just so beautiful about just getting to do things on your own time, in your own way and to have to branch out from that to the full on business owner of you're having to find clients, you're having to do 2s just like the accounting side, the legal side and all of that. That is a lot. And recently I started like a side business related to the podcasting, content creation and all that. And I've even felt overwhelmed just in the space of getting my LLC going and all that. But I don't see myself doing that full time because I can't let go of the stability of my day job. And honestly, I love my day job. I love being a marketing engineer. I get so much out of it. It's very fulfilling. And 1s I can't imagine just being in the position I'm in now of making that full leave. So I think you're so brave and awesome for doing it and so far succeeding at it. So good for you 

 U2 

 24:09 

 for yours. Because whoever designing your job or like, kind of being the boss of your job is doing a really good job. And if they can keep doing that with everybody else, then 2s they need to sell that recipe because that is what people want. People want to be felt. People want to feel like they are appreciated. I never wanted to work in a job where they're just like, I don't like Allie and Allie just wants to do with her own shit. It was like, I really want to do what Allie is doing because it sounds like she really passionately wants to help the whole team go to level two or three or whatever, and 2s that's where we're at. 4s What are we missing? I don't know. Yeah, it's weird because 1s I don't fully understand it because I literally one day was like, I need to write a book called The Peter Method. Peter's my boss and I'm like how he channels my because, like, for me, I'm very ADHD and I have a lot of thoughts and I have a lot of, like, good ideas, but I have a hard time taking all my creativity and engineering nonsense and making an end product that's usable and digestible. But my boss is so good at reeling it in, giving me direction and making me feel so purposeful and useful to me is normally so chaotic. Director cares about how we are as people and there's something just so intangible about that. And last week I had Mark Levine on and he is at Thermosystems and he talks about their company culture, their company goals for the year and their year goals like wellness and things that were like self care. And we want you to be cared for as a human. And it's just so cool seeing that this is the thing that matters to people now. And I'm so lucky. 

 U1 

 26:05 

 Ali, we're getting back to the questions from the audience. These questions are labeled more serious. Now, I don't want to say keep your answers concise, but we do have five questions to get through, and they are loaded. So think about what you want to say and give us the good answers. So, Ali, when you're designing a new prompt process line from scratch, do you personally work more on the hardware side or the software side? 

 U2 

 26:38 

 I got a question like that from the bank guy the other day, and I said, I can't do my job unless I'm an expert at both. And he went 2s and I was like, that's the truth. Yeah. So I can't have a preference, even though I actually do prefer the hardware side, but I have to be really good at the software side, and the software side is available immediately, especially. 

 U1 

 27:11 

 That is nice. You don't have to wait on lead times. What a gorgeous thing. I never thought of that. You do, because you can't make it come anytime quicker, but at the same time, like, your hardware and your software. 3s Yeah. You can't wait for someone to show you one or the other. You do need to just be ready to battle either one. And that is something that I pride myself in, is just I love hardware. I'm really good at hardware, but I fight software, and 

 U2 

 27:42 

 that's just the way it has to be. I can't just have it easy, and I know that, and I'm not trying to pretend the other way. 2s I love both. So 

 U1 

 27:55 

 she does it all. I do it all. But I live in a hardware balanced world, and then I just get ready to do the software when need be. 2sIt's so hard because for me, when something is physically broken, I can fix it so quickly, but when I'm scanning through lines of code, I'm just like, what is going? 2s Okay, next question. This one's interesting to me because this is a question I would ask. Do you find it easier to work with a client that has no technical knowledge, just knows what the final product should be? Or a client with general technical knowledge, but limited process knowledge that is more hands on and design? Design? 2s I could repeat parts of that. That was a big 

 U2 

 28:43 

 question. Enjoy. Someone messing with their 

 U1 

 28:48 

 stuff. If they do, I don't trust them. 

 U2 

 28:54 

 Unless you're working with a customer that they design something that you never worked on, the likelihood of you being super stoked that they're going to decide everything is really, really low. It doesn't matter because you're going to do whatever your customer wants because you're going to make money. Yeah. 

 U1 

 29:12 

 Whatever they're paying you to do, you just adapt. 

 U2 

 29:15 

 Right? And so you do have to have that adaptability, but you're not going to be happy that they have a lot of opinions that you're not going to agree with. You can't even stop them. You're just going to have to be like, I guess we'll check when we check next. 

 U1 

 29:31 

 When you get ready for dinner and you walk out in your outfit, and then someone's like, is that what you're going to wear? 2sAnd you're like, okay, cool. Going to go change. I was going to wear that. No, yeah, exactly. So in an ideal world, they just tell you what to do and you do your thing. And then when you're done, you say, here you go, give me all of your money. But Ed, unfortunately, that's not the world we live in. Insert sad face emoji. And 

 U2 

 29:59 

 they're like, why didn't you tell me to do something 

 U1 

 30:02 

 else? And you're like, 

 U2 

 30:03 

 because you were so dead set on this really stupid thing. But that's also part of your problem. So you do need to fight your own customers on things they want because they're going to blame you later for buying it, even though you told them not to. So you do need to worry about that and worry about where is that blame going to go later? And you need to get ahead of it because it's coming. 

 U1 

 30:30 

 Have you ever lost a customer due to telling them, like, this plan is not going to work. Here's my idea, and they just reject it? And they're like, we'll go with someone else. 

 U2 

 30:39 

 I haven't yet. 

 U1 

 30:40 

 Wow, that's pretty good. So 

 U2 

 30:42 

 desperate. I'm just kidding. They want, like, to believe me and that I'm going to stick with them. And it's. Would be very difficult if they abandon me and then ask someone else to stick with them. But 

 U1 

 30:55 

 my goodness. Yeah, that would make me really nervous 1s having to deal with that constant thought. But okay, here is 1s the next question. This one's a little simpler. What is your favorite part of your job? Design phase. Construction phase or sign off phase? Phase. If there's another phase, let us know. But these are the options he gave. 

 U2 

 31:17 

 Oh, man. I am super stoked about construction 

 U1 

 31:21 

 phase. Okay. My favorite commissioning. It's when all the crazy stuff happens. So it is the most exciting part of that. And it's also the one that tests your rigor. 

 U2 

 31:33 

 Want to call it that 2s construction is messed up commission construction part. 

 U1 

 31:40 

 That's the most concise answer I think, you've ever given. Edwards questions are so good that he's speaking to your soul. He knows what to ask. 2s Okay, I forgot about this. So he answered the question himself. He said, personally, I like them all, but find sign off phase most gratifying. Something about seeing my design actually working, making someone's life easier. Smiley face. Dot, dot, dot. 

 U2 

 32:10 

 So 1s that's the 1s what is it called? 1s If you get to the end and you do it right, that's the glory you're going to have? Is that you're like my process or your machine, whatever is working, and I don't have to be there. And that is huge. 1s Just for your own personal satisfaction? Yeah, 

 U1 

 32:34 

 absolutely. Is going to be something that you cherish, and no one could take that from you, man, female, whatever. No one can take away that machine is running because you made it run, 1s regardless of your gender or race. That actually, I think, is something to sell to people that are like, do you want to do something crazy? Yeah, because I love doing crazy stuff, and, like, this is the crazy stuff I like to do. Do you want to join me? 

 U2 

 33:01 

 And people are like, I do. 

 U1 

 33:03 

 See, I struggle with that because for me, I think that whenever I'm solving problems, which I personally love to do, or I'm building something or starting a project, I really struggle to show my plan to other people. Because to me, when I have an end goal in mind, I know I'm going to figure it out. I know I'll find a way. But getting there is so freaking messy. And although it makes sense to me, it never makes sense to anybody else. And all my DIY projects around the house just drive whoever I'm living with crazy at the time. And they're like, please, what are you doing? And I'm like, I can't explain. You'll see when it's done. And so for you to have to basically be like a project manager and relaying every step along the way, that stresses me out so much. And the fact that people like you exist that can do that is very impressive to me because I'm telling you, I don't know what's wrong with my brain, but I'm a very inductive style thinker. So I see the end goal and then the steps that happen that I need, they come to me as I get it. I'm not very deductive where I know, like, step one, two, three. And it's weird. It's weird to think that not everybody has the very chaotic brain I do that you have these crazy ideas, but you can relay them to people. So that's just my long winded way of saying I'm impressed with you. I'm impressed with people who do things like you. And guys, if you have a crazy idea. 2s Find a good way to pitch it and then do it and then make it work, or else it's just going to be crazy. 

 U2 

 34:35 

 Make it work, because if you can't make that part work, you're 

 U1 

 34:37 

 screwed. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Or else you just might seem like you're absolutely mad. But okay. So I did ask you already how you started your own company, but moving to the next portion of this question, I think that this is an interesting question that he asked, which is, how do you find your contracts and your clients? I've actually wondered this too. Do you get many requests from LinkedIn? Because, guys, if you don't know which if you're listening to my podcast, you know who Ali is. Ali has a ridiculous amount of followers on LinkedIn, like 45,000 plus insane. So I'm curious, do you get leads from LinkedIn or how do you find customers and contracts? I you 

 U2 

 35:18 

 get leads from LinkedIn and I'm getting more and more of those and grow like my brand. But just like most people that you meet 1s and most people will tell you this, that your first several customers are people who knew your work somehow. 1s So I have ten years of being out there and trying stuff. And so there are ten years worth of people, especially because I move jobs a lot, a lot more than is normally advised. It's 

 U1 

 35:55 

 common in this industry, I've noticed. 

 U2 

 35:57 

 It's also common in our age group. We're like,

 U1 

 36:01 

 none of my 

 U2 

 36:05 

 give me job opportunity. Not, I don't know, the other way around. And so there's a lot of kids or people that have what they think that they should be doing, and that's a good thing. But 1s at the end of the day, 1s no one is ever going to be able to just delete word of mouth. Word of mouth. You've heard that from people from 40 years ago, where, like, word of mouth works really good. 

 U1 

 36:34 

 It's still the best. It's still the best way to get anything. So your customers have worked with you. 1s Have they seen what you can do by yourself? Deb you even, like, express that as something that's possible because they may be like, oh, my God, I would love to just have you come work here, but they didn't even know that was an option. 1s Did you tell the people around you that know you that you're even available for that kind of work? And then the other thing is just, have you ever been available for that kind of work? Interesting. 

 U2 

 37:10 

 See what happens. But word of mouth is not something that you're just like, oh, I'm so good at marketing that I don't even use word of mouth. Yeah, that's bullshit. Word of mouth is where all my money comes from because somebody else told somebody that I knew that I was worth something. And it's going to be really tough for you to just fake that out in the world. 

 U1 

 37:35 

 So you absolutely 

 U2 

 37:36 

 just say what the truth is, and they're like, I worked with that girl, and I work with this guy, and when I did, this is what happened. So you should do it too, because it's not that bad. That's literally what we're doing out here. Word of mouth is massive. And yes, there's tons of opportunity that you could create from LinkedIn, but that's person still has to believe that you're not a liar. I'm just faking all of this ability. That's why there's less of that and a lot more of the. 1s People who are just like, I believe you. Just give me 1s I heard from word of mouth. So I'd like a quote. 1s Those end up better because those people believe you? 

 U1 

 38:25 

 Yeah, absolutely. They're not just, like, cautiously following you online for a while and curious, like, does this girl that wears all these hats actually do these panel things? I don't know. But I feel like the posts that you make about your home office are so hard to fake. Like, you have the most insane contraptions going on and panels wired up in PLCs and HMIS, and you always have something going on. If you are able to fake that, I would be so much more impressed than if you actually were doing it. 

 U2 

 38:58 

 Fake that. Because there can be some guy, like, behind the scenes who's, like, giving me all the answers. I can just be like, I don't know, posting this crap with someone else, telling me what to do. And 2s it's really funny if you know me personally, I think that there was, like, a guy here showing me how to do this.

 U1 

 39:20 

 He's locked in the basement. You let him out, right? I don't work like that. People don't tell. Tell me what to do. And I don't take it that well. It would be super funny if any of that was true, because they would have to fight me so hard. 1s Believe what you want. 

 U2 

 39:40 

 And I'll keep trying to prove one way or another 1s what I'm doing, but I don't really care because it's just like this. There is no one telling me what to do, and am not scared. 

 U1 

 39:52 

 Absolutely. Yeah. So on that note, I actually wasn't going to ask this, but I'm feeling compelled right now. 3s Do you feel that since starting your own business, that anyone has ever doubted your ability due to the fact that you are a woman and that you're an engineer? Do they ever look at you like, I wonder if she can do it? Because I don't see a lot of women that are running engineering companies. That's kind of weird. Red flag. I haven't seen that before. How many times are you the first woman running a company like this that they come across? Is that something where you see reasonable doubt? Because they're not used to it. Most of these guys I am the first time they've ever seen this, but most of them don't. Don't care. Yeah. I've actually found, sadly, that the only person who's ever just, like, made a weird comment related to. This was my own dad. So outside of that, the men that I've encountered are like, when are we starting? I don't have time. I don't have time to worry about your gender because that's so stupid. And we start tomorrow to do the thing that I need. So 

 U2 

 41:09 

 gender mostly, especially to the people that are issuing the contracts. Absolutely. I have not found that. They 1s they just don't even find it. Willing to spend two minutes being, like, stupid about it? Yeah, stupid question. And it makes you sound stupid when you start talking about that kind of stuff. Like, tell me as a woman how you shut up. What are you going to 

 U1 

 41:36 

 do if you get your period? Will you be able to

 U2 

 41:40 

 nobody does that anymore. They're just like, okay, well, what's the problem? What are we doing? How much do I have to pay you? How fast can I get you to do this if I pay you this? 

 U1 

 41:51 

 Yeah, that's what we're doing. 1s I only ask not to be, like, the cliche, oh, you're a woman engineer, so I have to ask that. But the reason I ask is because, like I said, the theme is failing for you. So I want, if we have any girls out there listening that are in the technical space that have this worry or concern that when they go out there, that they may be discredited due to being a woman. That's why I ask your experience, because sometimes the fear is so much more daunting than the actual situation itself, because, like you said, half the time they want someone to get it done. If you say you can get it done and you have history of getting shit done, they're most likely going to be like, okay, cool. Yeah. What's your parts availability? Like, what's your schedule? Can you fix my problem? The girls that are in engineering listening, don't let that deter you from starting or putting yourself out there. Don't let the fear of failure stop you from even trying at all. Or it's like, what are you going to do, just sit there and worry? No alley is living proof that it's not that bad. Yeah. How did you get past that? Was it just supply and demand? Like, you just realized you had to just start? 3s I don't know. That is yeah, I think it is supply and demand. Because you just kept getting issues where at some point there is no one else and they're going to ask you to walk out there and you're going to solve it. And then you're going to be like, yeah, 

 U2 

 43:20 

 shit. So that's when you gain this confidence that you're going to gain no matter what, because you're going to start fixing fixing things. And you're just going to be like, 1s I think I have to fix some more things. And so you just become this force and you're even learning about yourself as you do this. Because people are like, I saw her and she did that and now I want her to do it again. And so you get all these people be like, hey, what's your 

 U1 

 43:48 

 name? Yeah, yeah. 

 U2 

 43:49 

 Ashley, come here. And Ashley gets called over and you're like, Ashley, what did you do last time? And all of a sudden people are listening to you, where normally they're like, well, girls, they don't know things. It's like, I saw Ashley fixed it last time. 

 U1 

 44:09 

 Street cred is real. Yes. 

 U2 

 44:12 

 Street cred is massive in our industry. And there's no way around it. You go out there and you fix stuff and then they're like. 4sYou're in trouble now because everyone knows you could fix this. So good luck, girl. Good luck. And like, yeah, it's a wonderful world for all of us if you want to be out there fixing shit. 

 U1 

 44:35 

 Yeah, honestly, I think the thing I've been discriminated most for is actually just my age, because they're like, you're young, you don't know anything. And it was usually true because I'm like, yeah, I've never seen this before. But luckily I had companies I worked for where I'm like, I have this really old guy at the office who's been doing this 100 years. I'll give him a call. So if you're afraid of being discredited for being young, make sure that you actually have the credit to be making these promises. And if not, surround yourself with people who are knowledgeable and can help you get it done. Have a good team if you don't have the experience yourself yet. Luckily, like Ali said, she had ten years of experience going in. She had the word of mouth built, so she didn't necessarily have to find a way to compensate for that. But if you are really young starting and you don't have experience, just recognize that and then find a way to deal with it. Yeah, exactly. You have to start somewhere. Don't let that be a reason to stop you. But also, don't be super arrogant and think like, oh, I can do anything. They're just saying it's because I'm young. Experience matters, for sure. So just have good resources and people you could depend on that you're not afraid to sound dumb to and ask those questions too. But yeah, that was the end of all the questions that I had. Ready, allie, is there anything that is on your heart that you just feel compelled to say to the listeners? But also, guys, I completely forgot to mention, allie has her own podcast as well, where she's a co host on Automation Ladies with Nikki Gonzalez, who I absolutely love and will be a guest when our schedules align. So if you liked listening to her here, she is also, there just about every single week. So listen to automation ladies. But back to my question. Allie, did you have anything you wanted to say? 

 U2 

 46:30 

 No. I appreciate everyone who listens to my podcast, but also Jordan's podcast because you're helping us and what we're trying to do is not nothing 1s and it's hard. And so anyone giving us the street cred to continue, we appreciate you a lot and we're going to keep doing this and God bless. 

 U1 

 46:56 

 God bless America, everybody. No, that 

 U2 

 46:59 

 is like, definitely America, because 1s I think about that a lot and I'm like, yeah, I couldn't do any of this, most of this without the country back me up. So me having my bank accounts, everything is mine. 2s The only one who can break it for me is me. And that's really amazing. 

 U1 

 47:24 

 It's just beautiful to come in and just be like, I don't like this. I'm going to break your business. I'm going to break my own business or no one's going. Break my business. 

 U2 

 47:34 

 And that is just I swear to God, I feel like that's the American dream. 

 U1 

 47:38 

 That is so cool and I love to see that you're living it and that you're somebody who has a platform, who can talk about these things. Between your podcast, between LinkedIn and that, you are just such a positive influence. I would say for women, but really for everybody. Like, yes, you're a woman and you're out there champion women, but you also champion everyone. You were just the biggest supporter just out there. Yeah, Ali is championing. I can't say champion. 

 U2 

 48:08 

 It's my mom. Like, my mom raised me like 

 U1 

 48:10 

 this. Your mom is so cute. I love her. 

 U2 

 48:14 

 My dad definitely didn't show me this. My mom was the one. Everyone has something to contribute. Like, are you even listening

 U1 

 48:25 

 if you feel like you lack the self confidence or motivation or anything? Guys, literally follow Ally on LinkedIn and you'll get your daily dopamine hit of Allie and a fun hat with her panel and sometimes cat photos. So her cat is her best employee. Absolutely. So, guys, that is all we have for today. I'm going to link Allie socials below. That way you can find her, connect with her, listen to her and Nicki on their podcast as well. But that is all I have for today. Thank you all so much for listening. I'm your host, Jordan Yates and in the meantime, I'll be failing for you. See you next week.