Alice Smart

I attribute my success to my mom. She always told me that I can, and she's a big inspiration to me. No matter what I've been through and the things that I've done, she's always encouraged me to believe in myself. She told me, as beautiful a writer as she is, that I write such beautiful poems and that I'm gonna be a better poet than her one day, and I'm looking at her like, what? There's no way, ma. My mom is my number one cheerleader, and she grew me to be the person that I am as a Black woman, strong woman. She's worked for the White House and done all these different things, so we've had a mix in our lives. I've lived luxury, and then I've also lived in a community where it was paved, but she's always found a way to make us feel like we were rich. That's the gift of a mom.

The best career advice I've ever received came from Mimi Ramos, who always told me: work with what's already here. Don't try to recreate everything. Don't try to recreate something that's already working. Instead, find your place within its cycle. She's always told me, like, don't try to recreate what's already out there. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. I take pride in that advice in the things that I do, because as I am in business development, I'm always the person ready to say, you know what, I'm tired of Google because their customer service is horrible, I don't understand why we can't speak to people. I know AI is taking over, but goodness gracious, can we have a human to speak to? So I'm thinking, are we gonna create our own Google Suite and email? But instead of trying to recreate, I'm like, you know what, maybe I can advocate to Google as I move further along. Maybe I can advocate, hey, you know, we're people, people matter too. That's why we're set up the way that we're set up with customer experience and AI, because I want relationships to stay and I want these growing fields in every sector to still keep human existence professionally in the workspace. I'm not trying to recreate, but I want to make better.

My advice to young women entering my industry is to stay steadfast on your goal. Understand your reason. Understand your why. And don't try to take somebody else's place. When you're into business development and consulting, you have to understand that you have to put yourself back and put yourself in their shoes. You have to listen so you can help them develop their craft and their expertise in the way that is theirs. Even though you might want to put your saying and who you are into it, it's still there. So my advice is to listen and to allow your skill set help create others.

The biggest challenge and opportunity in my field right now is AI, all in one. It's an all-in-one deal, seriously. When you're looking for candidates and clients and sifting through everything, there's all these different systems. You think you're talking to a hiring manager, but then it's AI, but then AI is helping you with your system. AI, AI, AI. It's a pro and con for me.

The values most important to me in my work and personal life are loyalty, respect, genuinity, laughter, the ability to be humane, empathy, and compassion. Family orientation is really important for me, even professionally. As a boss, as a CEO, I want to acknowledge that people have a work-home balance, and that's very important to me. I want to ensure, as a leader, that I keep that up for everybody, and I am compassionate about their lives.