def get_components(self, component_config: Union[ConfigTree, List]) -> List:
        """Extracts component specifications from configuration information and returns initialized components.

        Parameters
        ----------
        component_config :
            A hierarchical component specification blob. This configuration information needs to be parsable
            into a full import path and a set of initialization arguments by the ``parse_component_config``
            method.

        Returns
        -------
        List
            A list of initialized components.
        """
        if isinstance(component_config, ConfigTree):
            component_list = self.parse_component_config(component_config.to_dict())
        else:  # Components were specified in a list rather than a tree.
            component_list = component_config
        component_list = _prep_components(component_list)
        return _import_and_instantiate_components(component_list)