Becky: [00:00:00] Welcome welcome back to the issue did it podcast you guys. I'm really excited to share this episode with you guys today. I had Ashley Pollard on and she is such an amazing entrepreneur. She has she's the owner of three businesses. She is an amazing business mentor. But something that I love that she's done is she's created this company called Have a Moment for Yourself. And it's a morning routine company that includes this really amazing journal as well as eucalyptus, essential essential oils and an affirmation card deck. And I love it. And I actually have a discount code for you guys to be able to get your own. So I'll share that with you at the end of the episode and it'll be in the show notes. But you guys, you're going to want in on this. It is so awesome. I am obsessed with it. She was so kind and gifted me one of her sets and I have been loving it. It has become my morning routine, my morning ritual, and it's an amazing way to start your day. And she just has so much amazing insight. I've been really struggling with creating a title for this episode because it's really juicy and we get to learn a lot about her journey and becoming an entrepreneur and building a successful business, building multiple successful businesses in all that juiciness.

Becky: [00:01:09] But we talk a lot about mental health and growth in business and how much creating our businesses have allowed us to grow as humans in the entrepreneur space. It's just it's a really powerful conversation and I'm really excited for you guys to listen in on it. So without further ado, let's let's dive in. Welcome to the If She Did It podcast with your host business coach and business bestie Becky Fagan. This is your one stop shop for all things business growth, energetic alignment, strategy, mindset, and a fun touch of spirituality. Nothing is off limits here and you're bound to read every single episode inspired, excited, and ready to take massive action in your business. This podcast was created to help create more badass female CEOs and help you see that business gets to be simple, strategic and fun. Now let's dive in. Welcome to the podcast, Ashley. I'm so excited to have you.

Ashli: [00:02:05] I'm so excited to be here. Becky Thank you for having me.

Becky: [00:02:07] Of course. So to dive right in, let's start with you.

Ashli: [00:02:12] Sharing.

Becky: [00:02:13] Your story into entrepreneurship. What got you started and what got you to where you are today? Take the floor.

Ashli: [00:02:20] Yeah. I mean, the short version is like the pandemic happened and I decided to just go for it. Right. I said, I've been in corporate for ten years. I see other people doing similar things to what I know. There's a lot of people who are out of business who I feel like if they knew some really good high level strategic concepts and processes, then maybe something could have been avoided. And that's kind of like what kickstarted this road I'm on. But I've always been entrepreneurial. I come from an entrepreneurial family. My parents owned a business the entire time I was growing up and ran that together for 25 plus years. And we're also like very involved in other businesses as well. So I've always kind of been around hard working, scrappy people who wear 9 million hats, right? And I have kind of like always been the go getter who's like, I'm going to reach out, I'm going to make this happen, because it's just kind of been instilled in me growing up in that environment, like the risk is not doing it. That's the rest to be afraid of instead of the risk of like going for it and trying. So I've been the person who like applies for an internship in New York at Oscar de la Renta and gets it or applies to work for Kelly Cutrone in the height of her fame, which like if you know her, then that ages me. And if you don't know her, that age is me who had a TV show on MTV about like working in the fashion industry.

Ashli: [00:03:55] And I literally called the office and asked if I could start working. And I went down later that day and started working. And so I've always just kind of been this person that's like. Try. Like, I'm not very afraid of rejection because I think, like I know I learned from an early age it doesn't typically happen as often as people are scared of it actually happening. So I've always kind of been entrepreneurial. I worked in the fashion industry for ten years, which we can dive into, and while I was working in the fashion industry, I always had a side hustle. So I had a blog that I grew to have like really strong SEO, where I was getting tens of thousands of visitors a month. And this was like kind of at the beginning of Instagram where I had like 50 followers. And so it was really more important to have strong SEO and Pinterest strategy. So I did that. I started a business called Room for All, which was a female empowerment company, and I grew that to be pretty lucrative and I ended up selling it. And then I was just kind of doing my own thing, being a consultant in the fashion industry. And when everything happened in 2020, I said, Let's go officially on my own because I was on my own, but I was kind of being still hired, like dedicated to a brand instead of like working for a ton of different clients, which brought me here. So it's been an entrepreneurial road or a lifestyle I guess. Really?

Becky: [00:05:14] Yeah. So for our listeners who don't know who you are, what is.

Ashli: [00:05:21] So great question. Yeah, you're like, what if someone's just meeting you? So I am. You know, it's really funny because when I was 21, I moved to New York to full time work in the fashion industry. I had gone twice to be an intern in the past three times technically, and I moved, moved when I was 21, 22, excuse me. And I took the first role that was available that sounded great, which was working at Gucci. And so I was there for like a month, quote unquote, two months. And then I migrated to a segment of Gucci, which was just like a smaller brand, but working with the team still, and the only thing that they really had available was like data analysis. So taking numbers, making Excel spreadsheets make sense. And so it's funny because like I've always done something with Excel and numbers and I part of me doesn't know if I'm an analytical person or if I have 15 years of analytical training. But what I was doing was basically like making spreadsheets, tell a story. So we would get all of this information for stores nationwide, and I would take all of that information and say, okay, well, this is selling better than this. We need to do this. This is what we need to plan next. And it started where I was just like bringing in the information and bringing it to a manager who is dissecting it for me to kind of teach me.

Ashli: [00:06:47] Then I became the person dissecting it and then I became kind of the person managing all of that. And when I now work with clients, I do exactly the same thing. We basically, like take a look at all of their numbers, take a look at their business and say, like, this is what we're noticing. This is what you need to be doing. This is how you need to scale. Paired with what I think I do differently than everybody else is a true, really deep psychological understanding of why consumers say yes to different prices. Pricing is one of the most intricate concepts in any sort of sales experience, and the tiniest number can make or break or change a business or an offer or a sale or a launch. So a lot of what I do on a one on one basis is product suite and pricing focused. So now that's what I've been doing. I now have a team of seven under me who offer different services as well. So if somebody wants to join the team, a consulting family, they can have a brand designer and a web designer and a copywriter and a tik-tok strategist and a social media manager and a project manager. And so now we're just like a really big team of different services where we can kind of like under one roof, help somebody grow their business in a really it's pretty attainable, affordable way.

Becky: [00:08:03] Awesome.

Ashli: [00:08:04] So long winded answer. Oh, it's a great.

Becky: [00:08:06] Honestly I love long winded like I'll have sometimes I'll have people on like I had a friend on and she gave like a really short answer and I was like, okay, I'm going to pull this apart because I want more for my people. So no, I love long winded. So you have that and then you have another business that you've started three businesses.

Ashli: [00:08:27] I joke with people that I have three under three. You know how like some parents have three kids under the age of three and they're like, Oh yeah, it's three under three. It's like, so do I have at their businesses? Because apparently I'm a masochist. I don't really know. So I started to AP consulting, I technically started as a solopreneur. It was just actually working as a consultant and we grew and grew and continued to grow, which is really exciting where we're potentially going to hit a million this year, which is insane. It's not really a goal of mine, but it might happen. And so that's one business. The second business that I have is called me time and the reason that I started meeting. I was because, you know, I'm going to try to make this short because I'm just such a talker today. But I got in a car accident in 2017 and it really made me make do like a really hard look at my life because it could have been fatal. I almost had brain surgery. It was like a really big ordeal. And after that I was like, I really need to understand myself better. I need to know myself better. I kind of was like, I'm a little bit of an asshole. It was one of those like movie moments where someone has like something bad happen and they're like, Maybe I should be like a better person. Like, that's kind of what happened. And I started journaling and I started going to therapy and I really, really, really fell in love with journaling and just simple.

Ashli: [00:09:46] I'm not talking about writing like ten pages a day, but like a paragraph, right? Just something to like see my thoughts on paper and get them out was super cathartic and therapeutic for me as well as going to therapy. And so over time I started to say like, Oh, well, I want a journal that's like constructed, right? That prompts me. And I've tried every journal on the market and all of them were either like way too overwhelming or way too simple. Some of them were great, but like really ugly. Some of them were really cute but didn't really do much. So I decided since I journal in a very specific way, I also got a lot of my followers, hundreds of my followers to journal the same way that I do, just writing on paper instead of like buying a constructed journal with a specific prompt format. So I made the journal. I also like, you know, do an affirmation every day. So I made these affirmation cards to go with it. I also use eucalyptus oil. So I made the eucalyptus oil, the cards and the journal, and it became a business where now we have nighttime available separately for purchase. You could buy just one of it, or you could buy the kit all together and have your morning routine kit and a box. And that's my little that's my passion project, my baby.

Becky: [00:11:02] I love that. But now that we're on this topic, I mean, we have other things to talk about. But I still now I need to know, you said you have three businesses. So what's the third?

Ashli: [00:11:11] The third business I'm not very involved in. I'm more of an advisor. But we did start it together. My friend Sam and I, she's one of my closest friends. We were college roommates. He. She is my podcast producer and Weekly Listens, my original first podcast, The Daily Hype podcast. I have a second new one now called The Unfiltered Entrepreneur, and she grew that first one to that 10,000 listeners with her strategies with the way that she does podcasting. She was incredibly helpful and vital in the support of that and also using that as a top of funnel. And so everybody has come to us and been like, I want to work with Sam, I want to work with Sam. So we decided that all these podcast production companies that we find are like five grand, ten grand to work with a month, and they're not really offering anything crazy. It's audio editing that there may be paying 200 bucks a month for and cover art design and a couple of other things that really shouldn't be that much. So we decided to do the same thing, but we're offering it for a drastically lower price. So it's a podcast production company called Fast Forward, and it's for podcasters where we quote unquote, Sam technically and her team will help you plan out all of your podcasts for a quarter, edit them, help you get them set up, you basically record and then you never lift a finger again for three months, which is amazing.

Becky: [00:12:39] I love that. It sounds to me like to an extent you find holes in markets, whether intentionally or not, and you say I'm going to fill it.

Ashli: [00:12:47] And that pretty much, yeah. Yeah. I either notice that something's not there or that it's way too expensive and I want to do it for cheaper. I mean, the whole goal of everything at the heart of everything is making women money, period. Always. You know, even in our consulting agency, like, we're not cheap. I'm not going to act like we are, but we're way less than other people and we give insane deliverables. So with our agency, like, yes, you're going to be paying, but you're also going to be receiving so much back and actually seeing huge results as if you were to hire an outside consulting agency like who doesn't work within our space, you know, the production company. Like the whole idea there is the women are speaking, that's our tagline. So like amplifying female voices A that you have a top of funnel and you can start making money from your podcast B so that you can get some brand attention and maybe a sponsor, but also so that it doesn't weigh you down so that it's like a fun part of your business instead of something that's too overwhelming. And then finally with me time, like I fully believe and I say this all the time on my Instagram, that therapy is the best thing that's ever happened to me for my business. And we all know how much mindset is important, but I have nothing to give if I don't give to myself first. Right?

Becky: [00:14:05] Yeah, it's true. It's so funny that you say that about therapy because I'm always telling I had a friend reach out to me yesterday who is I've met through entrepreneurship and she was like, I don't really have like I always joke with her. I'm like, Oh, it must be nice because she's like, I've never really dealt with mental health and I'm like, Oh, mental health issues. I'm like, Oh, it must be nice. What is that like? But she was like, I've decided to hire a therapist just because I think it'd be helpful. And I'm like, Honestly, I think if this if the entire world sort of journaling every day and went to therapy, we would have a better world.

Ashli: [00:14:36] I agree. You know, and a lot of people feel like therapy is like physical therapy. I broke my ankle. I have to go to therapy. Right. And or like some things in pain. I have to go to emotional therapy. Right. And I don't view it that way. I view it very much like like going to the gym, right. Where it's not you don't go to the gym because something hurts or because something is wrong. You go to the gym to maintain your health so that something doesn't break. And that's kind of how I view therapy. I've definitely paused it on and off throughout the years when you know for a number of different reasons, but I would say for 75, 80% of the past ten years I've been in therapy and not necessarily because I'm like working through trauma. Sometimes I am, but mainly just to a verbalize some of the things that we internalize because a lot of times we don't have the space to do that and to also kind of like work through emotions and find the language to communicate something in your life in some capacity. And it's been really great for me to give myself grace, to give other people grace, to forgive, to let things go. And I'm a pretty like chill person, which like if you talk to me pre accident, I always tell people like you would not be friends with me like I was a mad woman, you know? So it's been great for me.

Becky: [00:16:02] Yeah, yeah. It makes such a difference. And I think with what we had talked about before we started recording of discussing today, you know, avoiding burnout and how to not go insane when running a business. I think that, you know, mentioning therapy is like it all fits so well because I like I had this same friend that I was talking to. She asked me if my therapist helps me when it comes to my business. And I was kind of joking with her and I said, you know, even though I have like sometimes imposter syndrome comes up in my business or comparison, I was like, I have enough shit in my personal life to talk to her about that. We don't necessarily always get to that, but even still, it helps me so much because I'm able to offload that stuff and talk about that stuff and break it down and whatever. So, I mean, I know for me a big thing that's helped me not go insane recently has been having therapy again because I wasn't seeing a therapist for a long time and I just recently started again. And it's made such a difference in the way that I show up in my business just because I'm not holding on to all that information that I otherwise would be. Because, like you said, you can find amazing support system in the world, but sometimes there's things that you're like, I don't want to burden them, right? And I don't even necessarily realize, like, it's almost like a subconscious decision. And then when you have the space to talk about it, it's like, Oh my God, that was in there somewhere.

Ashli: [00:17:32] Yeah, that's the thing. Like, you'll say things and you're like, I did not know that that was upsetting me. Like recently. I haven't really told anybody this, but it's not a secret. I mean, like, my friends know and things, but I've decided to freeze my eggs this year and that was something I'm 33 going on 34. It was probably it was something around this age that I would probably have done anyway. I don't feel overwhelmed by it. It's a natural decision for me. It was just what I was kind of probably going to do anyway. And so when I decided to move forward with the appointment, I was talking to her and I had a fucking sorry. I don't know if I can curse on her.

Becky: [00:18:07] Curse? Yeah.

Ashli: [00:18:08] I had an absolute breakdown. Like I was hysterically crying and I was like, Wow, this is way more triggering and emotional for me than I would have known. And had I not been speaking out loud about it, that would not have been something I was aware of. And now I'm able to like dive into that. Where is that coming from? What does that stemming from? What is my actual fear there? And part of it is like I'm very scared of surgery and part of it is like, wow, I'm actually like at the age to think about this and things like that, which is just an interesting thing to know that like, okay, so that's coming up and now I can give love to that part of me, you know, and it's funny because like with imposter syndrome, right? I do a group program every once in a while called Inward Onward Upward. And the idea is like self-love as an entrepreneur, how to bring what I've learned from therapy into your business. And it's funny because my therapist, I've worked with a few, but like there was one that I was working with at the beginning of the pandemic and. We were talking about imposter syndrome. And she was like, you know, when you're feeling imposter syndrome, when you're nervous that a client is going to bail, you're probably upset about something that happened on the playground when you were nine.

Ashli: [00:19:16] You're scared that that group of kids are going to make fun of you if you're a failure. And it's like triggering that. So finding like the youngest pain is probably the thing that's encouraging the imposter syndrome to flare up. And a lot of times we can say like, No, that client's going to sign, and if they don't sign, then it's fine. That's like nursing the symptom instead of the wound. And it's something I encourage a lot of my clients to kind of take a look at. I mean, they don't owe me anything. I'm not their therapist. I'm definitely not qualified. But like that was an exercise that she had me do was like, what comes up at the deepest root? It could be like, okay, well if they say no, then no one's going to work with me. If no one wants to work with me, then maybe I'm stupid. And if I'm stupid, then no one's going to be friends with me. Like no one wanted to be friends to me on the playground when I was six or something. And it's really it's a funny way to kind of connect. Connect, like all these things that happened in our personal life will look like business problems and they're really not.

Becky: [00:20:12] You know. Yeah, I love that you brought that up because something that I'm that I always kind of almost like poke fun at is how crazy it is, how much you change as a person when you get into entrepreneurship in ways that you would never expect. Like I never expected that entrepreneurship would lead me to get into self-help books and working on myself and wanting to work on my mindset. And, you know, I almost I've always like pretty much my whole life I've been in and out of therapy, but up until college I was really resistant to it. It was like my mom told me I had to go. So I went. And even in college, it took me a while to want to hire a therapist and then I got one. And then she moved and then I was like, Oh, I don't need one. Like, you know, it took it was a long process. But, you know, when I started as an entrepreneur, I almost became more open to therapy and I started to realize how much it really benefits me. And the older that I've gotten, and I think it's really through the lens of entrepreneurship, I've realized how much past experiences have impacted my life. And even a couple of weeks ago I was with my whole family and some unrealized. In a way, trauma came up for me of feeling that. If this had happened several years ago, I wouldn't have been able to connect the dots and find something that ultimately helps to make it not as difficult. Whereas now I was able to connect these dots because honestly, I really believe because I became an entrepreneur and yes, because of therapy as well. But this lens of entrepreneurship, I feel like a lot of times people don't realize when they're stepping into building their own business what it's going to bring up for them and what that about. Like going back to the root of the problem. It's so true. Like you can really connect almost everything in your business to a past experience that impacts one way or another that therefore makes you feel a certain way.

Ashli: [00:22:13] Yeah, something that I always share with my clients and again like I'm super open about is in all of this work I found my deepest, deepest, deepest fear in the world is my mom dying? And so when I would, let's say, lose a client or a client would like decide to go with someone else, I would be like, oh, my God, I'm I'm so nervous that I'm never going to make money again. But what it really is, is I'm so worried I'm not going to make money again, which means I won't be able to support my mom the way that I really want to give back to her, which means, like, who's going to take care of her? And if I can't take care of her, is she going to be okay? And if she's not okay, then what if she's gone? And then if she's gone in my alone and it's like, it's so funny because I can now and I know this, right? And again, like, this is something I talk about on my podcast. And so it's not like some internal secret that people have to like. Sometimes I'll talk about the stuff that people will be like, Are you okay? And I'm like, I'm totally fine.

Becky: [00:23:05] I'm totally.

Ashli: [00:23:06] Fine. But it's funny because like, let's say a client goes somewhere else. I'm now at a point where I feel really good and I feel really stable, but like when it would trigger me, I would I would literally tell myself, my mom is alive.

Becky: [00:23:18] She is.

Ashli: [00:23:19] Fine.

Becky: [00:23:20] She has.

Ashli: [00:23:20] A job. Like she lives in a great home, like she's good, you know, like, and that actually calmed me versus me saying, like, I'll find another client. I'll find another client where I would be like, okay, I'm sure I will, I'm sure I will. And like, still pretty tense. The thing that would actually call me was like, What am I actually afraid of? And it's not going to make sense. It doesn't make sense that my mom, who has a great job and a great place and a car and like lives a great life, like, isn't going to die because I don't have a freaking client, you know what I mean? But that's what our brain does. So it's been interesting to kind of be able to take care of the actual problem instead of this symptom.

Becky: [00:24:00] It's so true. And it's it's just the other thing that I find really interesting that a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with, especially in the beginning, is it is about the clients landing the clients. And a lot of times people connect it to making the money and like mean you did too. Like if I don't have the money, then and then it goes down the spiral. And I find that that's a big fear almost with entrepreneurs at any level. Like you can be thriving and have like hundreds of thousands in a savings account. You're still, like panicking because you didn't land the client or whatever it is. But I find some people have such a hard time with that connection, like I'll use myself for, for an example, like for me, when you look back at why I would have stressors around not landing a client, it was more so. It was like half and half. Half was this fear of If I do make money, then am I going to have to use that money to support family members who have less than me and end up still no money of my own? And so there was this one half where it was like, am I am I pushing back this money? And at the time I was like, No, no, why would I do that? I want money. I want when I'm.

Ashli: [00:25:14] Checking my money.

Becky: [00:25:15] When I look back now, I would have panic attacks before sales calls and cancel them. Like I wouldn't get on calls with people that could be clients if I just got off the call. Right? So there was that half. And then the other half for me was this fear of like making money or never having enough money. So if somebody said no, not having enough because I was I was afraid, like again, like you're saying, it always goes back to something. I never felt like anybody had my back growing up. I felt like if I didn't stick up for myself and speak up for myself, I wouldn't be invited to hang out with my friends. I would be forgotten or, you know, people you know, other than my parents and my sister, essentially, I didn't feel like anybody took care of me. And I always wanted to feel taken care of by friends and other people in my family. So that was a big thing for me with money was this fear of if I don't have this client who's going to help me if I never make money again? Kind of a thing.

Ashli: [00:26:12] But interesting.

Becky: [00:26:13] But so just like you're saying, it's like and I think it's so helpful for people to hear other entrepreneurs share what their like original point is because I know for the longest time I was like, I don't have one. Like I was convinced that there wasn't something.

Ashli: [00:26:30] And it also typically never makes sense. So you're like, nothing happened. Or like there wasn't something like hugely traumatic in my life. And it's like if nothing traumatic happened in your life, then that's a trigger. You know, maybe.

Becky: [00:26:44] There's something there, too.

Ashli: [00:26:46] Like, everybody has something, you know?

Becky: [00:26:49] Yeah. And I think it's also knowing, like, you know, something for me when I started my business was so I had started my business originally in 28 at the fall of 2018. And back then a really big thing was storytelling. And oh, that's still a big thing, and it should be. But storytelling from a place of like literally hitting rock bottom. And that was like then like this massive come up from the ground, like super successful story where it's like rock bottom to like thriving. And I always thought I haven't hit bad enough of a rock bottom. I haven't gone through enough to be successful. Like, I was interesting.

Ashli: [00:27:30] I haven't hit the far low.

Becky: [00:27:32] Yeah. Like, my story is not good enough. Almost. And so that was something that came up for me a lot when I first started my business. And, you know, of course, now that I'm sharing this, I mean, that in and of itself is an interesting realization. But of course, now I'm like, where was I going with this point in the first place?

Ashli: [00:27:50] But I mean, isn't that the nature of organic podcast conversations?

Becky: [00:27:54] Yeah, that's true. What was the point in the first place? But you know, that was something that did come up for me and I would find it almost like difficult to share a story at all because I was like, you know, I don't have something. Oh, you know what? I think I know where this was coming from. You're saying, like, even if you don't have trauma, there's something there. Yeah, I was like, my story is not good enough. I I've I've definitely had trauma in my life, but I was like, that's not why I became the entrepreneur that I am necessarily. And so whenever you hear these horror, horrible stories of why people feel the way they feel about money or entrepreneurship or something like that, I was like, Well, I don't have anything like that. That didn't happen. I was raised well off and like all those things. And at the end of the day, my thing with money has nothing to do with money. I wasn't not supported money wise. I just didn't feel supported in other ways. And now that I'm an adult and I don't want to have to rely on my parents. I now feel like I'm the only one and no one supporting me, or like that's how I did feel. So that's what led to that spiral when it comes to money. So anyway, that was the point there of like it doesn't oh, like you said, it doesn't always have to make sense.

Ashli: [00:29:09] It's real and it won't, you know. And so I have friends where they're like, I don't really go to therapy. I feel like I'm pretty good. And I'm like, Yeah, but like it goes back to the physical therapy metaphor, you know, like it's not because it's broken, it's to keep the engine running smoothly, you know what I mean? To like make sure that everything's good, which, like to tie in, burn out. I always tell people, like, I don't really love the term burnout. And the reason I don't love the term burnout is because it sounds like something that could happen to someone once, like a plane crash. You know what I mean? It's like if I get if a situation happens, then maybe I'll like this could happen that you hear it happening to other people and to me. I don't think I don't think that's what it is. I think burnout is just a is rest and you can choose rest or it will force itself on you. And that's when quote unquote burnout happens, which is like disconnect, like a step.

Becky: [00:30:03] Away from the computer.

Ashli: [00:30:05] Step away from clients. We are not creative, we are not excited. We are tired, we are not working, we're canceling things. And that will either be imposed on you without your choice or you can choose it. And there are ways that you can incorporate rest into your day so that you aren't. I have been doing this for almost two years now. We are. I mean, I'm working more than I've ever worked in my life. And that includes the fashion industry where they work you to death. Pretty much. Right. But I love what I'm doing. Right. And I have never experienced I don't want to do this anymore burnout or like I have to take a week off work burnout. I've experienced, I'm really busy and I need to shift some things, but that's not at all due to like my emotional stability. And the reason for that, I think, is I've honored a couple of things that I've noticed within myself. One, I don't take calls until 10 a.m.. Well, now I'm on the West Coast. I just moved to the West Coast. So now I'm taking calls before 10 a.m. because a lot of my clients are on the East Coast. But that used to be a really hard and fast rule ten or 11 a.m..

Ashli: [00:31:09] I would not take calls till then. That was my time for me. I would sleep in, I would do my morning routine. I would take a moment for me to plan Instagram or to get back to clients or answer Slack or do something that sounds really fun or exciting, or a project that I came up with overnight in my head or something. So that was one is like starting my day later too was like really capping my accessibility. For instance, clients will never and have never had my cell phone number. I also tell all of my clients like the only communication will be in slack. If you DM me, I will ignore it because we have a space for communication and that way it kind of honors a little bit of a boundary of mine. I also got a different cell phone for work apps, and my work apps on my personal phone are not accessible past a certain time. So I have these boundaries in place where like my brain shuts off, right? I have things that I try to do twice a week, once a week. I go out to dinner once a week.

Ashli: [00:32:17] I make myself a beautiful dinner and that's because I love to cook. It's also time for myself. I have social time integrated into my calendar and knowing that I'm doing these things, you know, a lot of people are like, I'm going to cancel that dinner because I have way too much work. I hate to tell you you're not going to get so much work done in that hour and a half that it's going to change the rest of your week. Like it's really not, you know, go to dinner. That to do list is still going to be there. There's always going to be more to do. So I've chosen burnout versus it forced upon me. And I do think that's the biggest difference that I see, is that I'll talk to people who are like, I'm totally burnt out, I can't work. And they they lose maybe a month, a couple of weeks. Right. And it's because they're not integrating rest and play into their life in a way that feels like something they should honor. Not my way, but like something that feels like their way, you know? Do you feel like that? Do you agree with that?

Becky: [00:33:09] Oh, I completely agree. I think that the worst thing ever was when I started my business, I was like, I need to work every single day. And I think there are people that say that to this day, like in your first year of business, you're going to have to hustle and you're going to have to do this. Whereas I preach to my clients because a lot of my clients are in their first year or two of business, like I want I want them from day one to have at least one day off a week where they are completely shut off from their business. Because for me, I was told that I should be working all the time. So that's what I started to do. And then when I realized I needed a break, I had a hard time giving that to myself because I was used to it and it felt wrong to not work for a day. Whereas. Now, like, for example, when my grandpa passed at the end of January, I took essentially two and one half weeks completely off of my business and did it in some way sent me back a little bit, sure. But I wasn't stressed about it. I was like, It just is what it is. I'll readjust my goals. Whereas if this was two years ago, I would have been either working while like trying to deal with the loss or not working and having a panic attack every single day about the fact that I wasn't working. So I think it's just I completely agree with you. It's so important to create boundaries from day one to come up with ideas of how you can and you know, if money is an issue, because I know for me a lot at the beginning I was in a position where I actually got laid off. So when I started my business, it was like my business needs to make money. So money was a little tight for me and I'll have a friend come over and make dinner or go on a walk outside or.

Ashli: [00:34:49] Like it could be free, you know? Exactly. It could be like my morning routine. I do sell that morning routine in me time now. Right. But at the end of the day, those are free concepts that it's writing in a journal, giving yourself an affirmation, taking a deep breath. You know, that's in essence what the morning routine really is. I love that you said that you kind of tell people to like take a day off per week if people are listening and they're like, what's something else? I can do something that I do for our clients because we'll plan out 12 months of launches, 12 months of marketing campaigns, we'll do six like hard and fast, like stick to these and then a soft six to be like, this is how it could go, but you have the ability to change your mind and that kind of thing. But every quarter I tell people, I'm forcing you to take a week off and I'm not going to sit here and be so naive that I'm like, You're not going to work at all during that week. No. But like or like you have to go on a vacation. Like, you don't have to do that either, but you are taking a week off. I even run programs where that week runs in the middle of the group program and I'll say, Hey guys, you have an implementation week. I'm off this week. I'll see you next week. Nobody cares. It doesn't affect my business. And during that week I can do a few things. One, I can do whatever it feels fun. I can do what feels like I need to catch up. I could also take that time to go on a trip or to go away, or to spend excessive time with my family or my friends or whatever it is.

Ashli: [00:36:19] But the point is like, step away, just step away. So a forced one week per quarter is one thing that I always try to implement. And to a CEO day at least twice a month, I try to do my own weekly. It doesn't always work out perfectly, but like I tried to. So that for me is on Mondays. Now I will meet with the team, I'll meet with my project manager who runs all of my client projects, kind of touch base on everything. I'll talk to my social media manager and then I get to play in my business. What do I feel excited about? I want to do this free webinar and I want to talk to people because I love doing free things, so I want to create that or I want to do this or whatever it is. And so knowing that I have that to look forward to, like, sure, it's still work, but like it's not a to do list. That to do list, like I said, can wait. And you know, at the end of the day, we have to remember like nothing's going to burn down, you know what I mean? Like, if we're not having fun, what's the point? You know? So we have to integrate a little bit of rest, a little bit of play. Otherwise, we're going to hate this just as much as a job that we left to work for ourselves and have this life of freedom that feels like a jail cell. You know what I mean?

Becky: [00:37:30] Yeah. Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. I completely agree with you. Like, it's just it's so important. And I love that that's something that you do with your clients. Taking time off is so crucial. I even share like the big piece of my story is like my first half year in business. In 2018, I went with my parents to see my sister who was living in England, and then my parents and I traveled after we visited her and we were gone for like a little over two weeks. And I was literally a ball of anxiety the entire trip because I was scared to tell my clients that I was going away. So I was still working when I was there. Oh, wow. That time I was I started my business as a social media manager because that's what I did in the real world before starting a business. And part of what I did was engagement. So I had to find time when I was traveling for two weeks to get online and engage for each of my clients every day for 30 minutes. Like it was a nightmare. It was miserable, it was horrible.

Ashli: [00:38:29] And and you're not going to remember those engagement times, you know what I mean? And your clients wouldn't have remembered if you took that time off. But that's now part of a memory for you, like when you were with your family. I had the same experience when I was in corporate. I went to Italy for two weeks with my mom and I remember being like, Oh my God, I have to work, I have to work, I have to work. And I'm thinking now, like, I don't even work for that company anymore, you know what I mean? Like, and here and granted, I've talked to my. I'm about it and I'm like, I just feel like I shouldn't have been working on our trip. And she's like, I don't remember that. And I'm like, Well, I do, you know, like, that's part of my memory of the trip. And I've tainted now a really beautiful moment with someone who I love, for someone who doesn't even remember I worked there. You know what I mean?

Becky: [00:39:10] Exactly. Exactly. So I think that, like. Moral of the story here. Everybody that's listening like take care of yourself more than anything else, because your business will suffer if you're not taking care of yourself, first of all. And second of all, like whatever is getting to you right now, it's not going to matter a year, two years from now. So why let that impact like your happiness now? Like, I feel like that's the biggest thing.

Ashli: [00:39:38] Yeah. You know, I try to remind people, like, think so much bigger than your to do list. Like the to do list will happen, you'll get it done, like unless you are lazy and don't care about your clients, which I think everyone who's listening probably cares. Like you're going to get everything done. Trust yourself on that, right? But think so much bigger. If you want to be in business for the next ten years or the next five years even. Do you want to do that right this second or can you ask for an extension? Like I just also operate my business super flexibly. There are people who are cool with that. There are people who are not cool with that. I'm the kind of person where when you sign my contract, it says you can reschedule it any time. If you need a mental health moment, you need to schedule 5 minutes before the call. You have it. But guess what? So do I. So you know, I'm the kind of person who likes to work that way and who likes to add a ton of humanity into business, because I don't want to run the business that I've been a part of for the past ten years in my corporate, I guess not past anymore now that I've been doing this for two years, but for ten years of corporate in the fashion world in New York, like, I don't want that.

Ashli: [00:40:40] Like I want to create a business that if you're in my space, like we work with humans and souls and we are humans and souls like showing up for you. We're allowed to make mistakes. We're allowed to ask for an extension, and people are allowed to say to push back and obviously have a boundary. We would never like cross somebody or like hurt someone's business or like do anything like that. We know where our limits are. But at the end of the day, you know, I really encourage my clients and I very much encourage my team to show up as humans. And if you are saying, like, what? Everything that's going on in the world is like a lot for me right now. Is there anyone on the team that can step in and support instead of me? Because I'm taking it really hard? If someone's there to raise their hand and say yes, then guess what? When they raise their hand, I know that someone else on the team is going to be like, I got you now, you know? And I think, you know, not to like get super.

Ashli: [00:41:31] Topical with everything that's happening like in Ukraine or anything, but like at time of recording, that's kind of what's happening right now. And, you know, something that we are really talking about a lot on our team calls and like in our slack together is like we can really do very little to change the world, but we can change our world. And that's something we all keep coming back to is like me, changing the world starts with making sure that I take care of myself and my needs so that I can take care of my team and my clients, so that they can show up feeling supported and they can feel good. So they can take care of their needs and they can take care of their people. And I think that that's the butterfly effect at the end of the day, and I know that sounds really deep, but I truly believe like with me time that business that I have my wellness business and with some sort of morning routine or some sort of space for yourself, that's the best thing that you can do to change the world is to take care of you. You know what I mean?

Becky: [00:42:27] Absolutely. I completely agree. We have to like if we're not taking care of ourselves, what do we have?

Ashli: [00:42:33] Yeah. What do you have exactly? Broken machinery.

Becky: [00:42:37] Exactly. Exactly. Well, Ashley, I have loved having you on the podcast today. Before we close out, I just want to give you an opportunity to share with everybody where they can find you. And obviously, I'll link everything in the show notes. Sure. Yeah.

Ashli: [00:42:56] So you can find our business team app consulting on Instagram. We do so, so, so much for free. Tons of free content, tons of free webinars, tons of free downloads. Take the Archetype Quiz because you'll get an entire web page of just freebies to download, which are really great. You can follow me personally at Ashley as I underscore P or you can follow me time at. Have a moment for yourself, which is our tagline. I love that I can also give everybody a little discount. How about that? If anybody wants to go buy me time, I'll give everybody a 30% discount with code. Becky, how about that?

Becky: [00:43:35] Amazing. I love that. Awesome. I will I will put that in the show notes for you guys. And thank you again, Ashley, for being here today. What a phenomenal episode. Am I right? Like how freaking cool is Ashley. Make sure to use code Becky to get 30% off your meantime morning routine bundle. It is seriously so amazing. I just love it. The link to grab that will be in the show notes as well as the links to Ashley's consulting company and her me time company, which is what you get an amazing discount off of. Before I let you guys go. As a reminder, it's always so, so appreciated when you leave a review of the podcast, so please do that. Share on your Instagram stories, tag myself, tag Ashley. Let us know you enjoyed the episode and my one on one coaching is open for enrollment, so go get your application in and I cannot wait to work with you and I will see you guys next week. On The Issue Did It podcast.