Greetings!

Hello! Hola! Ciao! Salut! Aloha! Hej! Hallo!

Welcome to Alicia Speaks! I have been putting off starting a business blog for many reasons. One, is I fear I will share too much of my personal life. Two, I feared I didn't have anything pertinent to say that my readers and business associates would find useful in their business.

Well, I have since discovered that not every blog post has to pertain to business advice. And apparently it is okay to share personal tidbits because people relate to you as a human. And that is how trust and respect is born. And when people trust and respect you, they refer you to their family, friends and associates.

So it is with this first blog that I welcome you and thank you for following my blog. To get started, I guess I should share a little about who I am:

I am loyal, friendly, funny, sometimes down-right hilarious, smart, creative, a perfectionist, genuine, direct, blunt at times, happy, a good listener, and successful.

I love to design, laugh, help, travel, photograph, dance, eat, play, talk, make beaded jewelry, swim, decorate, karaoke, and relax.

It feels really great to thoroughly please a client, discover new methods, complete a project "perfectly," plan and accomplish a goal, hear Rick's laugh, have belly laughs with my parents and friends, be comfortable in my skin, think about the future of my career, plan retirement with Rick, go to Yellowstone.

And for those interested in my life's path and successes:
- As an only child, I was raised in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
- I love my mom and dad and miss my grandma.
- Three years after graduating with a nuclear medicine degree, I moved to Greenville, Texas.
- My husband, Rick, is my soul mate (it DOES exist!).
- Rick and I were married in 1996 and it was the most wonderful day of my life!
- In 1996, we built our first home in Wylie, Texas.
- Jazz, a Husky-mix, became our first furbaby.
- In 1998, I went back to college and graduated with honors with a BS in Mass Communications.
- Rick and I became fire photographers for Wylie Fire-Rescue in the summer of 1998.
- I founded a local community message board www.WylieView.com in the summer of 1998.
- In 2000, Rick and I became members of Box 4, a volunteer group serving firefighters in Dallas.
- After employment in both a non-profit and corporate setting, I started a graphic design firm in 2004.
- In 2006, Rick introduced me to Yellowstone National Park. This was a huge reset button in my life.
- In 2010, became the founding president of the Wylie Citizen's Police Academy Alumni Association.
- We have two cats, Callie and Alex, and a Husky-mix, Bailey Mae (named after my grandma).
- April 2012, published my first business book with Michelle Ketterman for E3!
- Started the Speakers and Authors Briefcase in 2012, the first of its kind in the industry!
- In the process of writing two photography books.
- August 2012, Nominated for Leader in the Small Business Influence Awards.

Alicia White is the CEO of Back of the Room Productions, home of the Speakers Briefcase™, Authors Briefcase™, and The Speaklet™ and North America's first Back of the Room Branding and Marketing Materials Provider. Copyright 2012.