Essential Leadership Skills & Community w/Alicia Lomas

What are the essential skills for a leader to create a supportive work culture?

With retic and humor, our conversation with Alicia Lomas uncovers the nuances of leadership, exploring invaluable lesson on emotional regulation, the art of providing and receiving feedback, and the distinction between mentoring and managing-all essential skills for any leader striving to create a supportive work culture.  

The conversation also delves into celebrating the joy and camaraderie found at industry events such as OT SCADA CON, highlighting the vibrant, interconnected professional community. 

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Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
very.
You have to keep that up for alittle bit too long, but that

(00:21):
was great.
I loved it.
We should.
You know, I saw this.
You guys, I don't know, it'sprobably you, ali.
You you're the only one thatsends me memes and videos.
Like everyone should startmeetings this way.
And the guy was just likedancing and everybody got in the
.
You know, they got hyped, theygot hyped up.
So welcome to automation.

(00:42):
Ladies live season five.
This is well, I guess not our.
This is our second live,because I did one last week with
Frank Hurt at the AHCD fallmeeting In which I got to see
Allie and meet Allie's mom.
So that was really cool.
She's an amazing cook, buttoday we have two Alishas with

(01:04):
us.
Finally, finally, we havesnagged the Alicia Lomas on to
Automation Ladies.
Welcome, alicia.
How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm so good, I'm so excited to be here.
It's like way, way overdue.
I was in a hole for the lastfour years and I'm ready to be
here and talk to the world, allright?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, we were also super stoked to have you at talk
to the world All right.
Well, we were also super stokedto have you at OT Skatecon
earlier this year, so that wasour first time meeting in person
for me and you.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Process safety.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
You guys have met before, though, right have you
or no?

Speaker 4 (01:37):
We did because of Carlos.
So we met in Reno.
Once she showed me Redwood, Isigned an NDA and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
And then I tried to hire her and she was like no, oh
, okay, cool, that's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
We find ways to work together eventually, don't we
one way or another?
This industry it's a smallcommunity, yeah, and once you
get to know good people, youknow, your reputation kind of
precedes you, right?
People that you know want towork with you, they recommend
you.
So we've kind of been in yourcircles a little bit.
In that sense, we have somepeople in common that we work

(02:15):
with, josh over at Trace Route,just yeah, tons of great people
in our community.
Michael, michael Weta I thinkI've been saying your name wrong
this whole time I thought itwas yeah, so did I, uh, but then
we just talked to alex cool uh,the owner of mass style
technologies, where michael hewas cool he was super cool.

(02:37):
We uh listened to that we vibed, we vibed hardcore.
We'll probably have him onagain, yeah, but yeah, sorry, k.
Yeah, sorry, kathy Rini andMichael Weta, if I'm getting it
right this time, hopefully maybegiving me a thumbs up.
Alicia Lomas, we got that right, do we?
Is there?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
anything wrong, you did, okay.
I mean, you guys say it alittle weird, but I forgive you.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
How do?
You say it, it's lomas oh, youalways say like low mass.
Yeah, that's more of an e to me.
Yeah, yep, growing up iniceland I I tend to.
If I don't know how topronounce things, I usually get
them wrong because I default tosome side of my brain that like
well, I go super hispanic.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
I'm alicia lomas.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, I know I know and I have no back like no, no
family tie to that, like all myfamily's from like great britain
.
So I have no idea.
How did you get?

Speaker 4 (03:32):
the name.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
I don't know, that's awesome some names are the same
spelling in different languagesbut pronounced differently, but
they come from like the sameroot name.
Where's your dad from?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I mean his dad moved over from england and his name
is lomas.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Yeah, so it's not lomas, it's lomas, whatever
you're saying like it's not.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, right, and my dad's name is fabian.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Like we need to say it, like okay, that's confusing,
that's confusing.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I know, I don't know.
Confusing too for me, isn't it?
So you know, you just can't.
You can't judge a book by itscover, or people by their names,
or any of those things, right?

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah, no, I thought you were Mexican too, Nikki, and
she's like her husband isFilipino and Spanish and
Mexican's not really a part ofthat, even though there's a
Gonzales name.
So, yeah, we really can't tellanymore because we have just
what.
Is it bread between all thethings?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Melting pot.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
There's no way to know, and I come from Hawaii and
, like everyone in Hawaii islike Filipino, japanese,
hawaiian, portuguese, english,like French, you're like holy
crap, but they're beautiful.
But yeah, there are a millionthings.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, so where are you located, alicia?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I'm living in Burbank , Glendale area, oh.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
California.
I'm in LA.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Courtney and I go to Automation Fair in a few weeks.
Oh yeah, absolutely yeah, I'vebeen meeting in the neighborhood
somewhat.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, very cool.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah.
Are you going to Rockwell Fair.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
No, I'm not.
I'm a Siemens girl.
I mean, I can do Rockwell and Istill can whip around in Studio
5000, but I'm a Siemens girlAll right.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, maybe we'll see you at SPS next year in Atlanta
.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I would love to go to one of those shows.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
They're doing an SPS in Atlanta.
Yes, is that the first one?
Yes, oh shit.
First one yes, oh shit.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Wow, let's go.
Yes, ahp's spring meeting isalso in Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
Let's go.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Alicia, you have to go SPS.
We're going, I know, let's planit.
I talked to their people atIMTS a few weeks ago.
They actually had an SPS stagein the North Hall, I guessPS
stage in the North Hall, I guessyeah, the North Hall is where
more of the automation stuff waslocated and they had SPS

(06:13):
representatives there and theywere running some talks on a
side stage.
Nice SPS means PLC.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
I just don't know how to say the full programmable
logic controller in german isgoing to take me a while because
I can speak spanish and thatgerman shit is hard yeah because
I did was a lot of like uh,machining and those sorts of um
machines which obviously have alot of automation and then the
automation around it.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
So machine tending and all kinds of technologies
right, a lot of ro, robot arms.
But our stuff, like controlstuff, plc stuff, components
that we build into our things,or your guys's stuff is well,
she does robots too sps is yeah,sps is kind of the closest
thing, I think, for that exactniche.
Yeah, and there isn't likeautomate also kind of quite a

(07:02):
bit you know, introducingautomation to manufacturers, and
then there's different likepackaging shows and this and
that.
So I think SPS kind of possiblyfills a little bit of a void
that we had here on this side ofthe ocean.
That sounds great.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, that would be a fun.
Yeah, last year I got to go toHanover, mesa, like the big
conference.
That was like a dream of mineand it was great because it was
Phoenix Contact and Siemens likefighting for me to go on their
dime.
And I picked the best packageand it was Phoenix Contact.
Sorry, Siemens.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
That's dope.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
It was such a cool show.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
Next year just go on the other one's dime.
Just kidding, but seriously.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
People even had like Equal opportunity, right, let's
give them a chance.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
They had special Pumas that were Siemens Pumas.
Oh my God, I want that.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
With like the dark blue and like the light green
they have.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
It was the yeah, yeah , yeah, yeah, totally color
schemed yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
I really like the trend it's like teal.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
It's beautiful color-schemed.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, I really like the trend of like it's like teal
, it's beautiful.
Dplan had those red and blackNikes, I think, and Harding also
.
They have shoes.
Well, we got our purple.
We gotta get you a pair of ourpurple Automation Ladies.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
Oh yeah, a shirt and everything and a hat.
But like I want to comment thatthat like it costs a little bit
more money to make all yourplastic a blue hue like this,
but it's worth it.
Like that brand, everyone knowswhat this is.
It's elegant as hell.
Yeah.

(08:37):
Yeah, those are beautifulcolors like and that's, and
that's just a little bit ofextra money to make your grey
like blue.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's it and we love this crap yeah, I'm gonna throw
in one more anecdote here.
Allie, when I was crossing theborder from Seattle to Vancouver
via car, at the time I didn'thave my green card, but I had
like a paper I could use.
It was called a parole document.
They really like to callimmigrants, aliens and parolees.

(09:07):
It's oh god, I've been on paroleokay I had to go inside the
office both times to getbackground checked and all this
kind of stuff and just the starkdifference between the rundown
everything was brown and tan andnobody was happy to be there us
side of it coming in versus theblue cherry, everyone was

(09:29):
really nice.
Uh, canada side coming in, itchanges your mindset, it matters
yeah, it does.
Your environment matters.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
You know, I like natural light, like the colors
that you have to endure lookingat um or the lack of color I
care what color my panduit is, Icare what color my ethernet
cables are, and people are likeno one's ever gonna see that
ever.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
And I'm like that's true but you care and that's
what matters, and you spend alot of time in the panels.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
It's just my art, yeah, red plastic, I believe
that.
So we accidentally so rememberduring the like famine of
freaking supply chain.
Um, we would buy crap frommcmaster car and we're just like
we just need gray terminal box,we don't care.
And they would ship us red onesand we're like, holy, we don't

(10:24):
have time to switch these out,so we just used them.
We're like, well, it'stechnically 120 volts, so we're
going to go for it.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
You had to do what you had to do.
During that, I had to throw allmy standards out the window,
and so I had Schneider, I hadSiemens, I had ABB, like
whatever.
And you know, thank goodness, Ihad an amazing controls team
that could figure all that outand get all the GSD files and,
you know, talk to every littlething.

Speaker 4 (10:52):
That's integration for real.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
You had to do it.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
You had to do it, you had to do it.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, that's, and people are always like, like,
yeah, when they're I had nikkisending me jumpers and then we
get the wrong jumpers I mean adifferent jumper set and I'm
like shit, not 6.2 millimeters,8.2 millimeters people think
that you know a controlsengineer has to have something
on their resume that saidthey've worked on every platform

(11:19):
that they're going into andit's like no engineers new yeah
that's just like a mean thing torequire.
Be like okay, so we want someonethat's a hundred years old,
like who's gonna do that?
Be like oh yeah, I worked onplc5 and slick and uh
micrologics and uh controllogics and schneider we're gonna

(11:42):
start interviewing some ofthese folks that were around
during the early.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
I love that.
Oh shit, I love that that isepic.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Yeah, I heard frank.
I heard Frank was talking aboutworking Like he was the kid
right, the like kid for the guysin 1977 when he graduated
college.
He was the kid like internworking for the three guys that
were like basically implementingPLC one and so they were taking

(12:12):
all the calls.
So that is epic shit to me,even though it's Rockwell, I
don't care.
That is historical, epic epicry.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
If that's about it absolutely.
I want to hear all the stories.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, when he came to visit, we talked about that too
, because I was always theyoungest too, and it happened
within the last like few yearsthat I'm like the old lady now,
like I was always the youngeston every team I was on.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
Me and Nikki are old now.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Let's hear about your beginnings, alicia.
How did you get into controlsengineering and you know, tell
us kind of how you got to bewhere you are.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, so basically I was a nerd in school.
I was like an athlete and anerd.
I played soccer and I was likeI have to have a 4.0.
And you know it was justimportant to me and I just was
good at math and science andloved it and so I had a
chemistry teacher and he like it.
You should do chemicalengineering because you make

(13:09):
more money, because you could dochemistry, but it's going to be
hard to find a job and you knowyou want to be comfortable in
life, that's a good teacher Okay.
Yeah, right, and so I was like,okay, cool, I'm going to do it.
So then it was like that was it?
Like I was going to be achemical engineer.

(13:30):
I ended up, you know, going offto University of Washington,
graduating and getting my firstjob down in Texas for Schreiber
Foods, which they do likeoff-brand cheese, private label
cheese and I was like aproduction supervisor.
So I just wanted a job out ofschool.
And food is relatable.

(13:50):
So I like food because I cantalk to people.
Well, obviously, we love food,we love cookies, we can talk to
our family, we can talk to ourfamily and be like I'm making
cheese for a living.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Like they know what he's talking about.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
What we actually do with that, exactly, exactly.
But that was wild, being like22 and like having 30 people
report to you and you don't knowanything about anything.
And we were starting up a newshredded cheese production line
and so you know, you're writingSOPs for the first time, you're
trying to get the equipmentrunning successfully,
changeovers, all that kind ofstuff.
So then I was like, well, Ineed to get into engineering and

(14:26):
I don't really like this.
So I went over to Daisy Brand.
They recruited me and I wentover to be kind of like a
liaison between ops andengineering.
But the engineers just kind ofwas like, oh she's good, you
know, we should pull her over.
And I lucked out, I had thesetwo guys, tom Lambert and Tom
Larkowski, that took me undertheir wing and taught me

(14:49):
everything.
So I was, you know, it wasWonderware.
It was, you know, some slickcontrol logics.
It was Toshiba BFDs, we werestill doing like control net and
they, they just taught meeverything from the ground up
and gave me the whole cottagecheese process.
So it was a brand new productfor them then.
And I got to run the whole dangthing like from scratch, like

(15:12):
we were sketching out isometricdrawings for sanitary piping.
I was, you know, working withcontrol panel designers to get
my control panels built,overseeing all the contractors
and then programming everythingand commissioning it.
And I just remember, like thefirst we were making cottage
cheese, the owner of Daisy wassitting next to me and I'm like
gosh, I hope my sequences runright Like I was so nervous and

(15:34):
everything worked great.
So that just gave me thatfoundation of like controls
engineers are more than justprogramming.
They size heat exchangers, theysize valves, they do everything
.
And that's where me and Alliehave a lot of similarities.
We're process controlsengineers at the end of the day,
like we're chemical engineers,right.
So we have to know all of that,we have to know what works.

(15:54):
So that kind of built myfoundation and my love for
automation.
So then I needed to move back upto Washington because my niece
was born and I wanted to be apart of her life.
So I became like a projectengineer at a pancake factory
and they were making browniesand pancakes and it always
smelled really good, but so Iwas the only engineer and in

(16:17):
charge of the capital plan forthe plant, basically so
installing, you know, packaginglines to increase throughput,
putting in a new shorteningsystem, those sorts of things.
I still got to dabble incontrols, although we had like
integrators or vendors do a lotof it.
But I would come in and likefix it to get it over the finish
line and help maintenance, youknow, anytime they needed to get

(16:38):
in the controls or add a newrecipe, that sort of thing, and
then just kind of bopped aroundas a project engineer for a few
different companies all food andBev and then ultimately landed
at Chobani in Twin Falls, idaho.
So it's the world's largestyogurt factory in the US I, I
love yogurt.
It might be the world, yeah, soit was a brand new factory with

(17:00):
a bunch of new production lines,so I got in early there as well
.
So it was I mean, shabani's astartup.
At the end of the day, it'sstill a private company and so
there were like four of us andthen ultimately they were like
the VP of engineering, who'sbeen my long term mentor, was
like you should be a leader,alicia.
I think you're ready.
And I'm like no, I just want tobe the kick ass controls

(17:21):
engineer.
And one of my coworkers whoactually has worked for me twice
now he worked for me at Redwoodas well Like we would just like
race to see who was the fastestprogrammer.
And like if anybody would comeinto the office when we had to
go look for an issue in theplant, it'd be like Dan and
Alicia.
They would come to us and itwas like who's the better
controls engineer?
I was so competitive.
So then I they asked him ifhe'd be okay If I was the boss.

(17:45):
He was like heck yeah.
I don't want to be the boss,like I just want to be an
engineer and let Alicia do it,let Alicia deal with the BS, so
that kind of story of our side Iknow.
So that was the leadership sideand I made mistakes.
I I foolishly thought that, uh,all engineers should all be
kick-ass programmers and youknow, everybody should fit into

(18:07):
this mold and come to find outthat's not true and you just
have to figure out what people'sskills are.
So I had somebody that was nota great programmer but he was,
like, awesome at electrical.
So I figured out how to like,utilize him and make him grow.
I was holding him back bytrying to push him into this
weird mold.
So those are some of the earlylessons that helped me
understand.
You have to meet people wherethey're at, and I love leading

(18:30):
people.
That's amazing, yeah.
So then just kind of did acouple other things to get some
different industries under mybelt.
I did um walmart e-commerce.
I thought I was being hired byjet, but then, like, jet got
bought.
So then I'm switching bait,yeah, and I'm like freaking
walmart, I've always been like,and so now I'm in bettenfell ark

(18:52):
it's this big name I would takethat job in a second, like
that's a big ass name.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
So I was really surprised, like how much I liked
Bentonville.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, no, it was a really cute place to visit and
they have such coolaccommodations like fancy, like
employee stores and gyms andreally cool stuff.
And it was cool learning thethe logistics fulfillment center
side, I mean the the plc partof it is actually pretty boring.
The the complexity is warehousemanagement system and figuring

(19:24):
out where everything needs to gothe barcode scans and all that.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
It's a specialty skate out basically exactly so.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Did that, went to medical device startup for a
while, which was cool because Igot to travel to europe a lot
because we were buying a bunchof equipment from Switzerland
and Italy, did that diabetestesting devices and then went
over to Redwood and so that'swhere I was for the last four
years starting up a bunch ofproduction lines for Redwood.
I was the first 50 employees,first controls person, built a

(19:54):
team and by the time I left Ihad built four factories in
three and a half years on mycontrols design so really proud
of that and a team of 30 people,so really incredible team that
I had there.
It was great and I miss themevery day.
I have like a group textbecause I miss being able to
collaborate with them, becausenow I'm back on my own.

(20:14):
I miss being able to likecollaborate with them because
now I'm back on my own.
I'm the.
Basically I got hired to do theintegration and controls for
Terraform which we're basicallymaking.
We're basically making a systemthat will take solar to create
hydrogen via electrolysis andthen direct air capture to make
CO2 and then combine the two togo through a reactor and make

(20:35):
methane, so natural greenmethane, and so, yeah, we're
building that up.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
I was wondering where the carbon came from, so CO2.
Oh yeah God, I was like how arewe making fuel OK got it.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, we're going to ultimately make other things as
well, but that's cool, so that'sreally incredible.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
I'm kind of being the only engineer here and bouncing
ideas off myself.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
I have a great network.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
What do they do?
I got a tour of that place.
That was cool.
She might be frozen.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
We have joining the party.
Courtney Bernadette, sorry I'mlate.
You froze a little.
Alicia.
Courtney Fernandez.
Hey, courtney, sorry I'm late.

Speaker 4 (21:17):
You froze a little, Alicia, but now let's get you
back.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Okay, Okay, cool, yeah.
So I was asking with Terraform,like what you're doing is
incredible if it succeeds on amass scale.
Right, yeah, and RedwoodMaterials is also.
I was going to say you've beenreferring to it as Redwood.
I'm sure many people know whatit is, but what they do, what
did those factories and thoselines that you started up do?

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, so we were taking in lithium ion batteries
and of any form, so laptopbatteries cell phones brushes,
yeah, up to big Tesla batterypacks and battery packs from
lots of cars, disassembling andrecycling those materials and
then creating new batterymaterials as well, like copper

(22:02):
foil, cathode active material.
So basically trying to createthat circular supply chain,
because we were also taking inproduction scrap from like
Panasonic and then deliveringthem copper foil.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
So, yeah, really, really cool industry to be in
because we have to figure outhow to deal with all these
end-of-life batteries meltingbatteries oh yeah there were
some crazy things giant, giantkilns, lots of batteries so cool
, but it also sounds like somuch like toxic stuff going on.

(22:37):
I'm sure there's like safety.
Yeah, you didn't ask yourburner for that.
I know it's a very toxicprocess to like make it in the
first place and to recycle itand all that.
So I'm curious actually aboutlike all the I mean just
chemical safety that you have toparticipate in over there.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Something that I was really proud of is that you know
, if you looked at our stacks,we were cleaning that exhaust.
So, yeah, we had various piecesof process equipment to make
sure what we're sending you knowyou have to.
You know there's air permitsand things like that.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
Depends on where you are right.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah, it does.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
It, it totally does.
You're in the south, I may notcare.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, I think a lot of businesses go to go to places
that don't care.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
We're in some, yeah, if you're in california, you're
going to do it.
Right, you have to.
I remember the coffee industry.
Different places needed anafterburner, other places we
would just let the coffee dustjust out into the atmosphere.
I think new hampshire doesn'tcare, but you go to boston or
massachusetts and they're likeyou absolutely need to burn all
that.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
So it really is like state, local government
dependent on how much they careabout, like, your emissions dude
, this is kind of unrelated, butI read an article once about
like the people that live by thesriracha factory and how like
your eyes burn.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
I bet that's rough in the air or whatever.
Have you ever been?
I went to the tabasco factory.
What is that?
Like some island in in, uh,louisiana, and in the parking
lot you're like damn, just toget in there.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
You're like like damn , just to get in there.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
You're like they don't necessarily regulate how
much like capsaicin you put inthe air.
It's a lot because I'm puttingit in barrels.
It's delicious but like it is aspicy parking lot.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
It is a spicy parking lot so, courtney, I know you
relate because I think you'vebeen out um you want to tell us
what you've been up to today.
Yeah, putting out fires in somecases that I started myself.
So a day in the life of apeople's integrator.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Sometimes I think trying to play business owner
and engineer in the same day isnot something I would recommend
anybody do.
I've had several moments whereI've opened a panel on a low
voltage control system that I'mdoing.
It's full of 16 gauge wire.
I'm going to fire myself as theelectrician on this project.
But yeah, I've just beentroubleshooting a system that

(25:12):
should be done by now and itjust keeps rearing its head.
Well, we're sorry.
Sorry to hear that, but welcometo the support group.
I'm going to say I'm very happyto be here, but I'm a terrible
programmer.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Or I said programmer I meant electrician, because my
mind got all jumbled.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
But yeah, I'm a terrible electrician, I'm a good
programmer I actually I'm a badprogrammer and a pretty good
electrician.
That that's nice.
I feel that way yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
I'm not sure which one I'm good at anymore.
I have glasses that I droppedand, like I can't see where I
dropped them now because they'remy glasses, so that's having an
effect on all of it.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
Another, another Hispanic last name.
That is not hispanic person.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, that's funny oh , we got married in also while I
was at red gold, we made aseafood sauce and the horse rats
are in your eyes from theparking lot.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
Yeah, I bet, like, what about a wasabi factory, you
know?
Or a horseradish sauce factory?
Yeah, um, I mean onions are badenough, I thought.
But like that doesn't go intothe parking lot from what I
could bear, mace that's afactory like, and regular mace
capsaicin spray is a factorylike someone's got to put that

(26:33):
pepper spray.
Where do you make pepper spray?

Speaker 3 (26:36):
somebody's doing that on a scale or they're just like
oops, they're actually theworst thing I've ever
experienced was, um, there wasactually a factory behind the
one that I was working for butthey were doing, uh, dog food
like packaging dog food, but itsmelled horrific and I was in

(26:57):
the rodding meet.
I was in my first trimester withmy first kid actually, and I
the company I was working forlike put text on the garbage can
lids and then like inspectedthe text on it and everything.
But when they were, the factorybehind him was doing the dog
food.
I was like, do you guysactually deal with the trash too
, because this is terrible?

(27:17):
All right, they informed methat no, the other factory is
processing dog food and itdoesn't smell good.
But when you're pregnant likethat's.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
That's gotta be rough , that was rough extra sensitive
very kimchi unfriendly.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Like very quickly yeah, so much good what's your
favorite food?

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Alicia, our guest today, my favorite food.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
I like Indian curry of any sort is my favorite.
I love spicy so all this spicystuff just makes me hungry.
I don't want it.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
In my eyes, though, because we hadn't gotten a hold
on scheduling at all and we werejust pre-recording.
Um, we ate in probably likehalf of the first season
episodes, at least the one thatnever aired.
Do you remember that, like oneof us was eating dinner mostly
me, yep.

Speaker 4 (28:11):
So we've stopped.
Like what is that?
Chicken wings.
Like what is that?

Speaker 3 (28:15):
I was honestly gonna bring a big bag onto this one,
but I didn't well, you would bewelcome to it, would?

Speaker 1 (28:24):
it would be on brand it would be on brand.
We have to live like yeah rightand like yeah we're busy how
many, yeah, how many people likereally do have these extra
hours every week.
We have to make the hour orwhatever, and it helps that,
it's fun, because I thinkotherwise we would have quit by

(28:47):
now.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Have all of you guys had a run with sales engineering
already?

Speaker 4 (28:52):
I've never, because I feel like that was.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
I'm constantly just eating while I drive to the next
place.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
You know, I don't remember it was the last time I
sat down and ate but yeah, likeas a manager of a department, I
definitely felt like I wasn'tgonna leave, so I was gonna eat
there and just, yeah, not.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
But that was as probably one of the few healthy
like leaders in our, in thisgroup of four here, in terms of
somebody that's grown a teammentored people.
Uh, how do you try to have likea good culture from the top
down as a leader like that forthings, for instance, like
taking your lunch right or likebecause we all know, like this,

(29:31):
this job has a lot of pressuresand time.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
You know it's just constant so I I didn't do a good
job of showing my people howyou should act, because I was
literally on call online at lateat night.
You know I'd go home from workand still be working until
midnight and then be the one toanswer the phone like in the
middle of the night.
So, but my team, very much like, would encourage me Alicia,

(29:56):
take a break.
They try to take things off myplate because they cared about
me and trusted me.
So that's really what it is islike building that transparency
and trust, and I will say thatI've been told from various
leaders that they don't like myleadership style, but it's very
effective if you look at theproof.
And so I get told all the timelike you have the most highly

(30:17):
effective team, the mostcollaborative team, but it's
like intimidating to otherleaders.
It's really really, really,really weird and I would love to
unpack that.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
But to me it's like you've got to give.
They don't want to do the workthat you just showed them
they're going to have to do.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Probably I'm motivated to be good, do good,
work, work, and what I do ismake sure they feel heard.
They I know what their barriersare try to like, shelter them
from all the BS from the uppermanagement and just let them go
do what they're good at.
And so I want it to be wherethey can come up to me and tell
me anything, even if it's likeoh, I'm late or oh, I screwed up

(30:57):
.
And that's the culture I admitwhen I'm wrong.
I want them to admit whenthey're wrong, you know.
And so then they want to workhard for me and.
I care about them outside ofwork and I want to just make
sure they grow, and that's thebiggest thing.
And engineers need to know whatthey're working on.
For some reason, some leaderslike to just give them little

(31:20):
bits and pieces and say go haveat it and, plus, you have to do
it really fast and really,really cheap.
And if you know like, okay,well, we have to come in under
this target to make money andthat's why these pressures are
here and they're going to askyou to do this really
challenging thing, that doesn'tmake sense.
But then they explain why.
Then it's like okay, I can getbehind this, I can do this
really weird thing, but it's forthe business and, for whatever

(31:43):
reason, some leaders don't liketo share all that context and
background information.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
That's incredible to hear.
I, one of my favorite and bestleaders when I was in sales was
a gentleman named Craig Tamita.
He's he's retired now, but he'sdown in SoCal.
He I've worked with Craigactually, yeah, purposely like
this was amazing to me.
I think he was like my thirdmanager of my career, maybe, and

(32:10):
like he would do things likehey, I want everybody, or we got
mandated to read some book.
He's like I'm gonna, I'm gonnagive you the notes that I think
are really important so that ifyou don't have time to read some
book, he's like I'm going togive you the notes that I think
are really important so that ifyou don't have time to read it,
like here it is.
Or he would fill out reportsfor us.
He would take care of busy work.
And then he was like superclear with his action items to
us and like what he was askingand why.

(32:30):
And it was just like it was sorefreshing and his rationale was
like yeah, I want you to beempowered to do your job, not
doing a bunch of BS that likehinders you, and my job is to
facilitate and exactly know whatthe blockers are, how to help
them be successful, make surethey're clear on what they're
supposed to be doing and thenget the training that's required
.
If you're lacking somewhere,right Like that's to me is

(32:53):
leadership.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Exactly, yeah.
And the other thing is like Idon't ask people to do something
that I've not done or won't do.
Now, as I get, you know, as Iget older, there's, you know, as
, as things change and we'removing more towards scripts,
script-based programming, thingslike that, I don't have time to
stay up on everything,obviously.
So you know, I have to be okaywith not being able to do it,

(33:18):
but they know that I could do it, like if I had the time and I
wanted to go be an engineer notbe the leader anymore like I
could go figure it out, and theyknow that.
So it's hard to get a technicalleader in this space.
I I've only worked for maybelike two in my entire career
that actually did patrols andautomation.
So you work for mechanicalengineers or chemical engineers

(33:39):
and they don't really understandyour world.
We're just like this weirdblack box.
So you know, I think one of thereasons why I was successful as
a leader is because I amtechnical and I can really
understand the challenges.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
I think it's important to be willing to do
the work that you're askingother people to do yeah, and
give them that confidence.
You know that, like you're notjust telling them to do
something that you think isgoing to work, like you already
know how this stuff works.
You've been there, you've doneit.
Now you're handing off, youknow, the next generation that

(34:15):
knowledge.
I actually used to.
I was a Sparky no, I still am aSparky, but like I was a Sparky
doing like a mechanicalengineering type job and like
it's not what I studied but Ican figure things out really
quick.
So I was out turning wrenches,you know, with the mechanics and
that to your point, you know.
I had other leaders telling meI don't really like this
leadership style because you'rethat's the those are the most

(34:37):
expensive bolts that are turnedout.
They're like this leadershipstyle because those are the most
expensive bolts that are turnedout there, the ones that you're
turning.
And my stance was always Ican't understand what I'm
telling them to do if I'm notout here breaking it and doing
it myself.
I'm just basically throwinghopes and dreams out into the
ether and praying for a machineto come out.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah, Without micromanaging you truly, without
micromanagingaging, you trulydon't know how hard the task is
that they're going through,unless you have some semblance
of understanding.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
So what's the largest team you've ever had working
under you?

Speaker 2 (35:11):
it was the recent one of 30 people, so that that was.
That was new previously.
Previously it was like 12.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Those are both huge Like what is?

Speaker 3 (35:24):
what is your approach to managing that many engineers
out of curiosity Like do youjust meet with everybody
frequently or do you have likereally large group discussions?

Speaker 2 (35:36):
What we ended up having to do is basically take
the engineers that wanted togrow into people leaders and
promote them, because there's noway I was going to be able to
100% meet with everybody.
And then even engineers thatdidn't want to be managers but
they could at least look afteranother engineer, there would be

(35:58):
like pairings like that.
So, you know, I kind of had aninformal mentoring program, so
everybody that was below, like asenior engineer, was paired up
with a mentor, so they hadsomebody to go to.
And then, yeah, I mean, myleadership style is also to like
know what's going on in the dayto day.
So that one on ones.
Yes, we need to do them becausesome people only like to really

(36:19):
talk about things that aregoing on in those spaces, but I
always kind of know what's goingon day-to-day, but not in a
micromanaging way Like oh cool,like look at that win or hey,
tell me what's going on, youknow, trying to uncover those
problems or issues or blockers.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
I mean, that's you.
Just you get close to your team, you have those conversations.
So do the engineers steppinginto mentor roles?

Speaker 2 (36:46):
do they usually do so voluntarily or so when it was
just like mentorship, I justkind of talked to them and
people were really excited aboutit, Cause we just had new, you
know green engineers that wereexcited to learn.
And I found that not allindividual contributors want to
be a manager because they don'twant to deal with the meetings

(37:08):
and the BS, but they like tomentor a lot.
So that was not a problemgetting people to sign up for
mentorship.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
One of the first times I ever did a review on
another person, because Ihaven't done that very much in
my life, but I was a manager atone point and I had two people
under me and, like one of them,uh, it was like the first time
I'm doing a review ever in mylife.
And this guy cries oh no.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Did you feel like it was warranted, or was he just
sensitive?

Speaker 4 (37:41):
It kind of just turned into like my dad was
really hard on me and I'm like Iam not a psychologist, I am not
qualified, I'm not qualified,oh no, allie.
So I've always been traumatized.
I don't really want to be amanager for like a million
reasons, and that's part of it.

(38:06):
It's just like I have so muchof my own baggage that, like I
don't know how to be a therapist.
Do you feel like a therapist?

Speaker 2 (38:11):
sometimes yeah, I mean some of it is listening and
and being there for your teamwhen they're going through some
struggles.
But you do have to getcomfortable delivering bad news
and delivering tough feedbackand in fact, when you have good
engineers, they're going to askfor it.
You know, I had some incredibleengineers that I didn't really
have anything negative otherthan just some really chintzy

(38:32):
stuff, and they're like no, giveme more feedback.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
I want feedback and I'm like well, we're talking
about how you can go to the nextlevel, but as far as like where
you're at, you're doing great,all right.
We heard a little quick or Idon't know story the other day
from one of our other ladiesshe's got some younger employees

(38:59):
from the newer generationyounger generation and she was
giving some constructivefeedback and I was like oh no, I
think I'm doing fine.
Gen Z and she like continued tokind of press the point and he
said that he felt like thisconversation was demoralizing.
Oh gosh.
And so clearly like thedelivery needs to be adjusted.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
Oh God.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Delivery when the message is just like no, I
actually disagree with you.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
A little cringe and that's yeah, that's not going to
work.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
How are we going to do that?
Yeah, how are we going to dothat with them?
They're just like no, I don'tfeel good.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
I'm not making any judgments, but I am also feel
wholly unprepared to manage.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
anybody like that isn't a millennial, I would say.
Feeling super warm and fuzzywas never part of controls
engineering when we were comingup, so that's the part that
we're just struggling with.
For them, it's just like I'mnot going to make this super
nice because that's not what'sactually going to get you where
you're supposed to go.
That's not this kind of job.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
I actually made a guy cry too, and it was one of
those where he shouldn't havecried Like I didn't do anything
wrong.
He was just really upset and hewent off and told everybody
that I'm such a mean manager andthis, that and the other and he
needed a couple days off toheal from me making him cry oh,

(40:30):
we're live.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
I'm not gonna make the comments, but he's healing
from something else.
A case of something else.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
This was a good one, where I had a, there was a man
that decided to tell me that thereason why he cried and the
reason why we're having suchissues is probably my leadership
style, like it's probably myfault that I'm not approaching
him in the right way.
So he moved over to somebodyelse's team and that guy got to
to lead him and in one of theperformance review meetings he

(40:58):
was like that is one of the mostdifficult people I've ever had
to work for me and I felt sovindicated.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Validated Hell.
Yeah.
Mansplained to me oh my goshLike nope, he's impossible for
everyone.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Like no, he's just a problem.
We've got some really coolcomments, so I'm going to throw
a few up on the screen here.
I really like this Empowermentis the greatest motivator.
I feel like I canwholeheartedly nod to that one,
thank you.
Thank you, jackie.
We really appreciate that we'rehaving fun with this.
Look, vlad is here fromManufaktur.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
Hi Vlad.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Hey, Vlad, You've been a guest there, right?

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Alicia, I'm going on in November, but we've caught up
when I'm one before.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Exciting, that was my first podcast.
Yeah, Jason Jones says Alliegoing off would probably make me
cry too.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
I've heard that Because back in the day I was
the nicest person and now todayI'm like told multiple times
that I do make people cry andthat, like my energy is so
intense that they don't wantit's not because I'm mean, it's
because they don't want to letme down and they truly like,
like, like what I, what I, whatI stand for, and so if I do give

(42:21):
them like any kind of negativefeedback, they think that that's
really bad and like I don'twant to hurt anybody and I don't
even feel that kind of negativestuff towards people, but like
I get it now, like I'm not my,my, my, uh, my moods, and like
my ability to control myemotions is, like, really
important because I can hurtothers in ways that I never

(42:44):
thought about and I don't wantthat, because people look up to
you, yeah, look up to you, andthat's yeah, that's a
responsibility I need to acceptand just be like I can't be
right, how I used to be, andjust freak out about anything,
because that's people are gonnaget really damaged by that and
that that's not fair.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Um which is crazy.
They're going to feel it, yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Your stress, your people feelyour cortisol Yep.
I was uh, I was recommending toeveryone earlier today to watch
this like two hour YouTube videoon neuroscience.
I'll make a post about it onLinkedIn.
I put my summary together soit's like most people probably
will not watch this, but youhave to make your TLDR.

(43:28):
Yes, exactly, I have a TLDRlist, but one of those is
exactly that that your cortisolis contagious, Both from just
kind of like being around peoplethat are really stressed.
If you have any kind of EQ, youwill pick up on that.
But secondly, it's a hormonethat leaks.
It goes from your skin topeople that are in proximity

(43:49):
with you and it will be absorbedby their skin.
So even if you're a leaderthat's very good at hiding your
stress from your people, or youthink that you're doing that,
may still very much be oncommitting like pheromones, yep
yeah, and I think you're reallyguilty when you're running late
for school.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
You feel stressed out that you're late for school I
always feel like I could.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
Since I was a little kid, I could feel what others
felt and so I always was like,well, I'm gonna say what is
going to make them not sad,cause, like I can tell and that
was when I was really little Iwas like why did that kid say
such a mean thing when it'sreally obvious that, like this
other kid is in pain?
And so I could just notice thatwhen I was really small, like

(44:32):
less than 10 and like other kidsjust don't see it.
And even when grow up theydon't see that shit.
So I don't know, it's just a eqand some kids like is kind of
high and mine for some reasonhaunts me it seems like now
they're doing a lot of uh likemindfulness stuff.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
That's good, it's like way more than when I was
going through school and, uh, ifthere was any skill I could
give my kids that I don't feellike I was taught at their age
was like emotional regulation,because if you try to analyze
something before you'veemotionally regulated, you'll
never get to actually yeah, yougot to go be mad somewhere, keep
analyzing and never actuallycalm down.

(45:13):
So you have to regulate firstand I hope I hope the next
generation has learned that likeway earlier than me.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
I'm almost 40 and I just figured it out like I think
honestly also our professiondoes have some, if you're not
conscious about it healthhazards oh yeah obviously
there's safety hazards, but thenjust general kind of health.
I mean, I remember so I, youknow, started my career in the
sales engineering and I justremember looking at a lot of the
people that I was looking up toprofessionally and when I

(45:40):
looked at them like health-wise,I was like I'm not looking up
to that, like that's not whatI'm looking forward to.
I don't, uh, I don't want thatfor myself.
Yeah, and I, michael we madeanother great comment here
something about sitting on abucket laptop, balanced on a
trash can, troubleshooting adown machine at 3am.
It toughens you up quickly, itdoes, and if you're not careful
it will also run you down prettyquickly.

(46:02):
Uh, yeah, at least I'm gonna goahead.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah, I'm on.
I was gonna say I'm on like therecovery of being that person
for 20 years.
To be very honest, like myfriends would always be like
what in the heck?
Because I'm getting callsfixing the yogurt plant.
You know, know all the time ittook me until maybe a few years
ago to even start shutting offthings when I go on vacation.
This is just who I am.
I'm I'm majorly defined by work, but I need to work on that.

(46:30):
So now in my current role, wehave really good work-life
balance.
I'm loving LA, like it's justbeautiful and I'm learning who I
am.
But that's weird too.
Like what do I like outside ofwork?
So I started like junkjournaling and I'm having a
blast.
But it's just, it's reallystrange.
I just put my whole soul intoit for so long and I was worried
about my health very much.

(46:51):
Like way too stressed out andyou get like a little a weird
heart palpitation.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
You're like, oh god, I'm having a heart attack and
it's hard to find in women, youknow, it's just uh, yeah I
started that at age 30 workingon the mindfulness, yeah or I
thought I was having a heartattack every day until a doctor
said that's not what that is, itwas panic attacks, right, yeah?
He was like can you just make aless stressful life?

(47:18):
And I was like no, no.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
No, my therapist and my psychiatrist try that on me
every time.
Why don't you just not stress?

Speaker 4 (47:26):
Can't you just have a chill life?

Speaker 3 (47:30):
And with explicit detail, paint me a picture of
what that even looks like, sothat I can copy it.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Or like can you come into my life and start doing a
lot of things for me so that Icould copy it?
Or like can you come into mylife and start doing a lot of
things for me so that I can nowCan you change all my childhood.
Can you take care of all mydependents?
That would be great, so funny.
I also am kind of currentlyentering a recovery for my last
three years of sprinting andlots kind of like lots of

(48:04):
associated things.
And yeah especially early on,when I had just had kids and
they were really young, right, Ihad a baby and a toddler and
people are like oh, make sure totake some time for you.
It's super easy said than doneand people are like oh, make
sure to take some time for you.
Can you come babysit for methen?

Speaker 3 (48:27):
and like buy me a gift card and go somewhere or do
something, or just let me takea bath like one of the funniest
things I ever heard.
Somebody said, hey, I keephearing sleep when the baby
sleeps and it's like sure, andI'll do laundry when the baby
does.
And it's like sure and I'll dolaundry when the baby does
washes, dishes oh, will you paythe bills when the baby pays the

(48:48):
bill?

Speaker 1 (48:49):
yeah, I'll pay the bills in the baby.
My baby's first male was a billfrom the hospital in which she
was born.
Of course, course it's sofucked up Like oh, I got to
frame this your first piece ofmail.
Yeah, yeah, multi-thousanddollar bill to a few-day-old
baby.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
Like I feel like that's so but she was a preemie,
right.
That was why it cost money.
That's stupid.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Big NICU bill yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
So what do you guys do when you know that's
happening?
Like I've just been going toeat food or take a shower or
something, If I know I'm gettingto that music crying music.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
So else my daughter has this book, um, uh, parker's
big feelings, it's called andthis girl, parker, has a
terrible day at school.
She like falls on theplayground and she spills juice
on herself and she's new at theschool and she misses her friend
and, uh, she's upset when shegets home and her mom advises
her to breathe, exercise andthen read.

(49:53):
I think was her like activityto calm down her big feelings.
And I was like you know what I?
I can get on board with thismanual.
It's very short, it's very easyto read, it's practical, fairly
easy to implement.
She went to go ride her bikefor like 15 minutes, so I've
been trying to do that Breathe,get a little bit of exercise and

(50:14):
then try to do something.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
Breathing is huge, it will go away, but when it's
there like it's big.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
So you got to walk away Deliberately and just so
you gotta walk away deliberately.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Did you ever have to make one of your 30?

Speaker 4 (50:32):
engineers go out and breathe.
Yes, there were a lot ofbreakdowns.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
You just gotta get them out, get them away, yeah,
like so team building stuff.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
I have a colleague at quobeam, um his he used to be
he did improv theater orsomething and when we have our
off sites, uh, he led thisexercise once that like improv
verse do before they practice orsomething.
I don't know, but it was justabout this like whooshing like
good energy to people in acircle and it took maybe five
minutes, um, but it reallybrought like it just brought a

(51:00):
whole new bright, positiveenergy to the whole room.
It was impossible not to feelbetter after doing that and it
was also like a team camaraderie, team building type um activity
.
That's cool.
Have you done any kind of offlike team building activities
that you had to put together foryour team um off-site at any of
your jobs or anything like that?

Speaker 2 (51:21):
yeah, yeah, my, my favorite one is sending the team
.
When I was at Chobani to theescape room and they got stuck
basically trying to recalibrate,there was this little tabletop
scale and they tried torecalibrate it and that wasn't
even part of the journey at all.

Speaker 4 (51:41):
Like it was wild that that's hilarious, because you
put different things on thereand be like I know what this
weighs, like wow, I know this isthe four grand.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
It's really important yeah, I feel like karaoke is a
good way of doing it.
Uh, we did a lot of trivia.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
We did a lot of trivia.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I like karaoke too, yeah karaoke we like, or I mean,
we only started trying itrecently, but it just forces you
to be really uncomfortable withpeople and you get to like
laugh at it together and havefun, and as long as I think
you're with people that have thecapacity to like be kind and
have fun, um, you'll break downa lot of barriers that way

(52:25):
capacity to like be kind andhave fun.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
Um, you'll break down a lot of barriers that way.
People told me, like when I wassinging, like when I opened,
you know, for like Traceroutecons, like night, that that
after they saw me suck, thatthey felt like.
They felt like we nobody had totake anything seriously anymore
.
So it's just like this isn'tserious Because it's not, it's
freaking karaoke.
It's not serious.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
I feel like people miss the point of karaoke when
they go up and they're reallygood.
Stop that You're going to suck.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
That's the point of this whole thing.
Is that like you sound likecrap?

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Yeah, but David is good, david is not allowed to
open everything.
No, he's not allowed to openeverything.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
David is way too good for karaoke.
He's really good though.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
He puts on a good show.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
He himself says amazing karaoke singer Dave.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
It is kind of intimidating If you have a
published album.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
You don't qualify as a karaoke singer.
You're a real singer.
But we need both.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
We're going to all be like like oh my god, this
person's amazing.
And everyone else?
We're just like well, what didyou expect?

Speaker 1 (53:30):
like, and you just clap anywhere, you're good job
you suck like it's amazing tohave an amazing singer at
karaoke.
I'm just saying don't open,because you're like you have to
go after.
Nobody will want to go.
Yeah, touché, as the closer oras the middle, like just any
other position other than likethe first one.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
That's so much fun, we should tell everybody that
they should come to OTSkate-a-Con next year so they
can do karaoke with us.
Yes, I already bought my ticket.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
Boop, boop.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Aw yeah, it really like that was a level of also
because I we had kind of no ideawhat to expect, like how it
would actually play out with theattendees, like just the group
of people that we had was reallyacross the board, like all
different positions, alldifferent levels, um, kind of
different corners of our littleworld in the industry, and I

(54:23):
thought it was really incredible, like how the room came
together, even those that didn'tend up going out to karaoke
with us or whatever.
Can you tell us a little bit,just, alicia, from like your
side of things, what was thatlike?
Like, did you get?
What were you expecting, andwhat was it that you found there
that made you want to come back?

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Yeah, I didn't know what to expect and you know, I,
I, I didn't like I had no clueand I was kind of, yeah, I
didn't plan on going Cause Ijust, you know, didn't have time
or whatever.
But then Josh is like Alicia,you need to go, I'm going, I'm
speaking, you should go.
And so then he convinced me tomessage you guys and be like do

(55:06):
you have a spot?
I want to come.
So I mean, it was so incredible, and Dave Grills, one of my
people that worked for me atRedwood, also came and we just
had the greatest time it was.
It was everybody just cametogether.
Everybody was so supportive andyou know we talked about it a
lot at the conference.
There were people that hadnever spoken before but they
have lots of cool things to saybecause they've been in this

(55:27):
industry and they have a lot ofknowledge.
And they got up there andeverybody was just like woo yeah
, cheering them on, like nobodyfelt bad.
It kind of helped people growand it was just such a good
community that I felt like youguys built up and everybody
brought their a game to likenetwork and care about each
other and I just I want to dothat all the time.

(55:48):
It was so cool, such goodenergy.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
Thank you, it was good energy.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Thank you.
Thank you, allie, for coming upwith that Like that.
It is really Allie's brainchild.
I know operations wise likesome of us, kind of boots on the
ground were a little bit morevisible, but this was like
entirely Allie's brainchild.
I know operations wise likesome of us kind of boots on the
ground were a little bit morevisible, but this was like
entirely Allie's concept fromstart to finish and it could
grow into anything.
Yeah, I think we've been kindof clear, even with automation

(56:17):
ladies from the start.
Like mostly our rules are noassholes allowed, like it's for
everyone.
People think it's whatever that, that it's for ladies, but it
will stick with the nameAssholes by ladies.
The main rule is no assholes onAutomation Ladies or in our
community.
You can see yourself out.
There's plenty of other placesfor you to go where that's

(56:39):
appreciated.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
Yeah, no, there's asshole culture everywhere.
We just don't need that.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Yes there is, I was telling alicia earlier you, if
that's what you like, and Iprobably said it again like I
want all the constructivefeedback, just please be kind
about it like I want to hear it,but I will cry if you're going
to be mean about it if you don'tgive me a compliment sandwich
there's no need to be mean aboutit.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
That's the thing I don't even need the compliment
sandwich.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
You could just, like you know, say it like you don't
think I'm dumb yeah, can yougive me some credit for anything
?

Speaker 4 (57:12):
like did I?

Speaker 1 (57:14):
do anything, right, all right, uh, mean poppy's here
, he really wants to.
Oh, david darcia, yeah, okay,uh, he says juan pino, one of
our other wonderful speakers theonly asshole, yes, juan pino's,
the only asshole allowed.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
We do love one.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
We love you, juan it's because he breaks tequila
he's a self-identified assholenot actually.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Well, doesn't everyone have that one like at
least one asshole friend thatyou love, even though he's an
asshole?
Yes, she right, that's a unisexterm in my yes, emily, just
kidding, like at least oneasshole friend that you love,
even though he's an asshole.

Speaker 4 (57:45):
Yes, right, that's a unisex term, in my opinion,
emily just kidding, I'm anasshole.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
I'm an asshole too.
I love her, but damn.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
I just try to keep the ratio down below 5% of the
time.
I have a designated one in mylife.
It's one of my husband'sfriends from high school, so
I've known him since like fortoo long, and when he comes to
my house I have to be his guest.
That's how I've figured out away to make that relationship
work.
But learning to read people,knowing what their strengths are

(58:22):
, knowing like things thatyou're not going to change about
them that also applies in theworkplace situation, right?
So, alicia, you said you kindof figured out that you know,
instead of trying to makeeveryone the same, figuring out
people's strengths and that'sreally like, I think, one of the
biggest things about likereally high performing teams.
It's it's a puzzle, not youknow, I don't know checkers
board, where every chart oranything.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Yeah, something like that, right?
Yep, that's cool.
Yeah, you have to determinewhat things you can work on and
grow someone and what things arejust part of their nature and
then work around it.
And I think things likebehavioral tests, like
predictive index and, you know,disc and all of those are
actually pretty cool tools for ateam.
If you're willing to like,share the results, because I can
give you mine from.
It was like over 10 years ago,but I can give you mine and it
talks about like, oh, aliciadoesn't like it when people use

(59:12):
jargon that's not common, orwhen people go too slow and it's
like I know I need to work onbeing patient, but other people
need to understand that whereI'm coming at it from.
So, yeah, those tools arereally helpful.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Yeah, we just recently did one called the
Enneagram.
But I think as you get olderand wiser as well, you kind of
realize, like that, readingabout yourself, like some of
those things may change but someof those things are just
realities.
And like, rather than trying to, I used to try to present
myself as like a mold of aperson that I was told in
college is what people, whatemployers wanted, right.

Speaker 4 (59:48):
and then now I'm at a point where I'm like here's all
of it to go to college or likeme to be in all of these like
volunteer things.
Are we faking volunteering likejust to get into college, and
is that that even like good?
But that's probably like acrazy thing to go start talking
about.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
But yeah, well, we are actually at time, so I'm
going to go ahead and throw itover to Alicia one last time.
Can you tell us where peopleshould be connecting with you,
following you, if there'sanything coming up that you want
us to know about?
And yeah, all of that goodstuff.
Brag about whatever you wantand pitch whatever you like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Yeah, so I was kind of in a hole for the last four
years just building factories.
So I'm kind of back out and I'mon LinkedIn pretty actively, so
that's probably the best place.
I love connecting, I lovetalking about automation stuff,
I love answering questions, Ilove helping people.
You know, know what's out thereand know what's what problems
they can run into.
So, yeah, network with me.
For sure.

(01:00:48):
I'm working on getting awebsite and all that kind of
stuff, but, yeah, I'm justaround.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Very cool.
Well, thank you so much forjoining us.
This was a blast and we lookforward to seeing you again next
time, because this isdefinitely not.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
Yeah, we will have you again.
Please, please, of course, ifyou allow, joining bye.
Thanks everyone.