We recently had the chance to connect with Alicia James and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Alicia, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is a normal day like for you right now?
“Normal” is a word I gave up on a long time ago.
Right now, my days are a mix of mom-life chaos and CEO grind. We’re coming off summer, which means I’ve been prioritizing time with my kids – vacations, pool days, and ice cream for dinner – while still keeping the business moving. Some days I’m juggling carpool lines and client calls in the same hour. Other days I’m glued to my laptop from 9 AM to 7 PM, building strategy documents and coaching founders who are also trying to build businesses without burning themselves down.
The truth? No two days ever look the same. And honestly, that’s the joy of it. But it also means my calendar runs my life – if it’s not on there, it doesn’t exist!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Alicia James – a marketing strategist, speaker, writer, and single mom of three who has built (and rebuilt) both businesses and a life from the ground up. I run Flamingo Consulting, where I help small businesses grow without losing their soul. But my brand isn’t just about marketing – it’s about reinvention.
I know what it’s like to “do everything right” – the degree, the career, the marriage, the house – and still wake up one day thinking, Whose life is this? My story is about setting fire to the shoulds and rebuilding something that actually fits. That’s what makes my work unique: I don’t just teach strategy; I live it. Marketing isn’t just how you grow a business – it’s how you design a life.
Right now, I’m writing a book, expanding my agency nationwide, and quietly working on a top-secret new business venture that I’m not quite ready to spill the details on (yet). My mission is simple: to help women stop shrinking, start telling the truth, and build lives that feel as good on the inside as they look on the outside.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
The part of me that believed my value was tied to how much I could juggle — that version is dead to me. For years, I thought if I was the perfect mom, the overachieving business owner, the loyal partner, the dependable friend — then I’d finally be enough. That version of me served her purpose: she built businesses from nothing, kept babies alive on no sleep, and proved she could carry more than was ever fair. But let’s be honest — she was also exhausted, resentful, and one PTO meeting away from a full mental breakdown.
So I’m releasing her. Or at least, I’m trying to. This isn’t a one-and-done kind of shedding — it’s ongoing work. It takes time to unlearn decades of people-pleasing and “good girl” conditioning. I’m taking it one strong boundary at a time, reminding myself that “no” is a full sentence, and that protecting my energy is not selfish — it’s survival.
I don’t need to be the martyr who runs herself into the ground to earn a gold star no one’s actually handing out. The people who love me don’t need me broken and burnt out. They need me present, whole, and still a little dangerous.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
For most of my life, I carried pain like it was a secret job. My blazer was my armor. My smile was my disguise. I thought if I looked successful enough, no one would notice the cracks — the grief, the burnout, the nights I cried on my bathroom floor so my kids wouldn’t see.
But pain doesn’t stay hidden. It leaks. It showed up in the red blazer breakdown, the Disney trip that broke me, the red couch where I signed divorce papers. And for years, I let it define me in silence.
The real shift started at 32. My dad died at that age, and I was convinced for decades that I wouldn’t live longer than he did. I carried that panic like a ticking clock — 25 years of waiting for the expiration date I was sure was coming. And then the birthday arrived… and I didn’t die. I was still here. Alive. Breathing. Still standing.
That moment didn’t magically erase the fear — but it cracked something open. If I wasn’t dead, then I had nothing left to lose. I could finally start turning toward the pain instead of running from it. Using it as power instead of shame.
And to be clear — I’m still learning. After carrying impending doom for 25 years, it’s not like you wake up one day healed. It’s a process. Every time I share my story, every time I set a boundary, every time I let myself be seen without the armor — I’m practicing. I’m proving to myself that pain doesn’t have to be my prison. It can be my power.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Legacy. Not the kind measured in bank accounts or titles — but the kind my kids will carry with them long after I’m gone.
What matters most to me is raising daughters who see a mom who is present but never perfect. I’ll never be Mrs. Cleaver. I’m not the Pinterest PTO president. Even when I tried to be, it never fit. What I hope they see instead is a woman who showed them that success isn’t one-size-fits-all.
I want them to know that life doesn’t have to fit in a 9-to-5 box. That you can build something from scratch, burn it down, pivot, explore, change your mind, take adventures, and never feel ashamed of the decisions that made sense at the time. I want them to see that failure isn’t final — it’s just feedback.
If my friends described me, I hope they’d say: what matters most to Alicia is that her kids don’t just inherit her stories — they inherit her courage to write their own.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days.
Honestly? I’m always excited about work. Sometimes too excited — I usually need my VP to talk me down when a shiny new idea or opportunity lands on my desk. My default mode is: “Okay, we’re not getting excited… BUT also, check out this giant, terrifying, amazing thing we could create!” Cue me happy-dancing with a glass of wine while we dream up goals so big they make us a little nauseous.
That’s what I love about what I do — there’s always something worth celebrating. A client breakthrough. A flamingo sighting at the zoo. A kid headed off to college. Even just a random Tuesday where we survived the chaos. My “virtual office” is constantly cheering something on, because if you only wait for the big milestones to dance about, you miss all the joy that’s tucked into the everyday.
So yes — maybe I’m not tap dancing into work every morning. But I’m damn sure happy dancing my way through it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flamingoconsultingllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flockherway/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-james2023/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlockHerWay
Image Credits
Isabel Media Studios
