January 8, 2023 • 46 mins
What an exciting episode for the new year. We are excited to release our episode featuring Ashley Cline. We think she brings big value to the table, especially in the world of coaching and trying to market your own business. She has a cool widget called ice cream social that allows for growing your business with your customers to the next level.
Ashley Cline is a Digital Marketing Consultant and Freelancing Expert. With more than 15 years of experience in the digital marketing space, she specializes in building strategic marketing plans, mapping strategy execution, and collaborating to optimize tactics that drive increased performance for clients, primarily in the Events & Entertainment space but has extensive experience working with Medical Device/Healthcare and Finance Technology sectors as well. She is also the EVP of Client Strategy at TicketSocket and Vice President and Co-Founder of Ice Cream Social.
Across her tenure in the field, Ashley has held nearly every role in the digital marketing space, giving her unmatched expertise in customer acquisition and email, search, and content marketing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dustin Steffey (00:00):
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Jaden Norvell (01:00):
Welcome to your top rated business
entrepreneurship selfdevelopment and smart investment
podcast. This podcast is hostedby creator and founder Dr.
Dustin Steffey and also hostedby coach, music producer and
influencer yours truly Jadenrush Nora Bell we are blessed
for our many accolades such asbeing nominated for the People's
Choice Award for Best BusinessPodcast, as well as raising over
(01:20):
$5,000 last year for the CysticFibrosis Foundation as well as
for the Boys and Girls Club,spending a global reach our
podcasts in the top fourdownloads in four countries.
Without further ado, welcome thechopping wood fire ladies and
gentlemen, let's chop it up
Dustin Steffey (01:42):
Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to season two,
episode two of chopping withfire. You're joined with your
host today Dustin Steffey Jadenis enjoying life on an island
away from everyone not in thesnow like I am, and having fun
golfing, and all the fun things.
So hopefully we see him soon.
(02:02):
But for now, we'll just be stuckwith me and have some fun and go
from there. I have nohousekeeping. Actually, I just
wanted to remind everyone sincewe are in season two, there are
a lot of changes that are comingdown the pipeline. It would be
greatly appreciated. If youcould go to any of your favorite
(02:23):
social media platforms. Andsubscribe to choppin woodfire.
We are on Facebook, Instagram,LinkedIn, Twitter, Tik Tok,
which that's been fun for me.
And Snapchat, which has alsobeen fun for me. And we do have
our website that houseseverything WWW dot chopping with
fire, CH O, P I N, wi th F ire.com, where you can go and see
(02:50):
everything, all of our guestprofiles, which are amazing. We
have awesome guests that havebeen on the air starting a blog
this year, which will be kind ofa pseudo after the episode kind
of take on how we felt afterthat episode key points if you
missed them when you werelistening. So you can kind of
(03:12):
take a read on that andunderstand where these episodes
are heading. We do have a lot ofspecial things planned for this
year, we do have a militaryinterview with a veteran, which
will be a five episode series.
That'll be great. I'm excitedfor that. We also are going to
have a sports series as well,too. Not your typical sports
(03:36):
series, just for all my sportsfans out there. It's going to be
on the business side. So a lotof talking about this transfer
portal, talking about thebusiness transactions within
sports and how that works. Wewanted to spice things up a
little bit. I know we've beentalking a lot about
entrepreneurship chasing yourdreams. We've been talking a lot
about cryptocurrencyinvestments, smart decisions
(03:59):
there, but we want to spice itup a little bit more. Want to Be
That One Stop Shop podcast thatgives you guys everything. So we
have a diverse audience. So withthat being said, I do want to
dive right into our episodeagain. This is season two, we're
definitely upgrading right so asof right now, if you guys notice
(04:20):
the camera camera quality'sclear, because we're upgrading
our equipment, we are definitelytrying to make sure that we
provide the best that we can foryou all, and we're gonna
continue to do so. So I'm goingto introduce in my guests I'm
excited to introduce AshleyKlein. She has 15 years plus of
experience within the digitalmarketing landscape with
(04:42):
expertise including buildingstrategic market plans,
strategic edge execution, andoptimizing specific strategies
to make sure your business issuccessful. She is currently VP
and co founder of ice creamsocial, which is a digital
Marketing widget thatincentivizes word of mouth
(05:03):
marketing. There will be a lotmore that we can discuss on
that. But I didn't want tointroduce everything and then
she doesn't have anything totalk about. So without further
ado, let's invite Ashley, howare you?
Ashley Cline (05:14):
Hey, Dustin, thanks for having me. I'm doing
great. I'm ready for thisinterview. It's cold and rainy
in Southern California, got mycup of tea, ready to hang out
and chat.
Dustin Steffey (05:26):
We have a foot and a half of snow up here. So
I'd rather be in the cold andrainy.
Ashley Cline (05:34):
I don't mind we don't it doesn't happen very
often here.
Dustin Steffey (05:38):
Absolutely. So I mean, having you on. It's
amazing. Your accolades areamazing. I mean, you and I could
probably have accolade war andhave some fun and talk about all
of that. But I want people toget to know you a little bit. I
mean, you have all thisexperience. But let's peel back
a few layers. Like, how did youget all this experience? How?
(05:58):
How did you decide to go intodigital marketing? Right? I
mean, 15 years is a lot. I feltlike I had a lot, but now you
beat me out on that. I'm justcurious. So let's, let's let
people know who you are.
Ashley Cline (06:11):
Sure. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw it back
way back to childhood. And Ithink that's a great place for
people to reflect. And as I was,in this time period, I never
thought, Okay, I'm gonna grow upand be this. But as my journey
evolved, and I had to learnwhich paths to take, it was very
(06:32):
informative for me to reflectback on my childhood, as many
people advise you to do andthink, what were you good at?
What did you enjoy doing? Beforeyou had the pressure of life and
making money with your career.
So, as a child, I was an avidvideo game player, because I'm
sure many of us were had aNintendo. And honestly, the only
(06:55):
game that we really had wasMario. And you can only play the
game so many times before youbeat it. And as a kid, quickly,
my brother and I beat the game.
And to keep ourselvesentertained, what we would do is
(07:16):
just set new challenges forourselves. Every time we sat
down to play, you know, howquickly can we beat the game
this time? How many more coins?
Can we get this time? All thoselittle things and reflecting
back now I see how that playedsuch a vital role. And what I
like to do today with marketingcampaigns, and it's all about
(07:36):
optimization, what are thoselittle tweaks that you can make
to further improve, you know,your, your campaigns and how
they're performing day afterday. So I like to think of what
I'm doing now is essentiallyjust a big video game. Always
working on better ad copy, youknow, better email subject
(07:57):
lines, trying out new tools,like SMS and different kind of
online marketing widgets.
Dustin Steffey (08:08):
I'm definitely a fan of video games for sure. A
good video game every once in awhile, especially one that makes
you think so I know when I grewup, right? REO Oregon trail that
was kind of my jam. And then,and then it evolved. I wanted to
tear computers apart and learnwhat they insides look like and
(08:29):
build those. So very much sotechnology driven for me as
well, too. So this podcast, ourupgrades and everything right
down my alley. Have fun. Andmisery. Yeah, at the same time.
So yeah, you and I have asimilar kind of upbringing.
Taking it back. Right. Let'smove forward though. Let's fast
forward a little bit. Obviously.
You grew up right. We both did.
(08:53):
We went school. What happenedafter school and what like led
you to where you are now?
Ashley Cline (08:59):
Yeah, sure. So actually, when I was in high
school, and I grew up in areally small, small town, almost
one stoplight farm town an hourfrom a real city or any kind of,
you know, civilization. And wedid have a marketing club in
high school though and me senioryear, performed really well made
(09:21):
it to a national level got tolead my hometown, which I'd
never really done before andtraveled to California to
compete. And this marketing Clubwas called DECA for anyone
interested. And I was competingin sales. And obviously I'm in
high school, so no salesexperience or marketing of
sorts. And I carried that withme right out of high school. I
(09:47):
was able as I started enrolledto my local community college
for visual communications,knowing I wanted to do marketing
because of this marketing club.
But I leveraged that success ButI had in high school competition
and kind of parallel path andwas able to get my foot in the
door at a web development agencywho wasn't hiring, but said, if
(10:08):
I want to do sales on commissiononly, I can do that. And I could
come in once a week at night,and one of the developers would
teach me how to code and tookthe opportunity, you know, to do
that, while I was going toschool, took me nine months to
close my first job and make anymoney from it, but did not give
up. And not too long after that,maybe a year and a half later,
(10:34):
this company said that they weregoing to move to California and
start a new office, does anyonewant to go with us. And so
immediately, I signed up andsaid, Yes, I'll go packed my
bags, I was 1920, at the time,moved to California, had $100 in
my pocket, and was going to beworking on commission only
(10:56):
still, to this day, I still workwith these people. And they like
to make fun of me, because Iliterally boarded the plane
holding my SpongeBob pillow.
With tears running down my face,I was so scared to leave. But
putting myself looking back now.
And that situation whereessentially your backs against
(11:18):
the wall, and you have to figureit out if you want to survive
and even just thrive in so thatwas kind of the start of a lot
for me, because I quickly wasable to build trust in myself
and realize, you know, I'mcapable of a lot more than I'd
ever thought I could be. Andthat was kind of the beginning
(11:41):
of my career there just workingfor this web development
company, which later evolvedinto a company that I still work
for to this day called Ticketsocket. And through ticket
socket, we found it ice cream,social. But even through that
journey, I was just learning somuch about digital marketing,
(12:02):
and kind of became the go toexpert in my town for marketing,
because I knew about websites.
And from there, I kind ofbranched off and started my own
consulting agency where I justfocused on social media
marketing for many, many yearsand then evolved that into just
kind of full stack digitalmarketing, email, SMS, social
(12:25):
ads, SEO, all of that,
Dustin Steffey (12:28):
yeah, we've discussed a lot of different
strategies, SEO, SMS, all ofthat, not in great depth, right.
But at least we have kind of aknowledge within that business,
in my opinion. But what led meto it is, while a lot of people
take it, it's advanced, there'sa lot of different avenues that
(12:49):
you can go into that are fun andinteresting in a lot of niche
markets as you as you know, andas you have with ice cream
social, obviously. But there's alot of terminology. And there's
a lot of stuff that people don'trealize, especially when like
you and I are looking at itright like entrepreneurship,
entrepreneurship, all of that,like I think we should kind of
(13:12):
help scale it back a little bitand help people understand in
your journey, kind of where thedifferences lie.
Ashley Cline (13:19):
Definitely. So I was Dustin and I were chatting a
little bit before and I wastalking to him, I kind of
identify in this world ofbusiness as a printer. And that
kind of covers three differentareas. One being an
intrapreneur, where I am anexecutive at ticket socket, and
(13:41):
have been able to kind of play alittle bit of an entrepreneurial
spirit role kind of within thatcompany and you know, build my
own little department and kindof have that freedom and
flexibility. As well as anentrepreneur with you know,
getting out there working on ascrim social, starting that
company, and then thesolopreneur because I do still
(14:03):
enjoy taking on, you know, theright consulting projects and
having that open to me as well.
And you're probably thinkinglike, well, that's a lot like,
how do you get it all done? Howdo you focus? And I'll say, for
many, many years, I did focusbecause you have to put in those
hours to get that mastery. Andthen I reached a point in my
(14:25):
career. So I'm not saying youcan necessarily jump that you
still want to get the thatmastery level and put in the
hours and dedicate yourself to acertain craft. But I just kind
of got to a crossroads where Ihad to decide like, what, what
am I doing? Where am I going? Somany. I think anyone who's an
(14:46):
entrepreneur might have what welike to call the shiny shiny
object syndrome, where there'sso many new opportunities that
are coming at you and you wantto be a part of them all. But
you have to to figure out what'sdriving you and what path you
want to take, and I was readingthis book, highly recommend this
book. It's called the desiremap. And it's by a woman named
(15:09):
Danielle Laporte. And it's morethan a book, it's also a
workbook. And it takes youthrough all these different
questions. And it'll take you afew days to get through. So give
yourself time and space. Butwhen you get to the end of it,
you kind of determine what arethese core desired feelings that
(15:29):
you want to live day to day. AndI tried to do the desire map
every couple years, because, youknow, your life evolves, things
change. And, as I've done this,the two words that always come
up for me, that I'm looking tokind of live in my day to day
life is freedom, andflexibility. And freedom can
(15:52):
mean different things todifferent people. To me,
obviously, yes, financialfreedom. Also, it's just
opportunity freedom, ifsomething really interests me, I
want to be able to pursue it, Idon't want to be stuck somewhere
where I can't, because I'mcommitted to this or it just
don't have you know, the time,money, resources, whatever to
(16:15):
focus on it, I always want thatfreedom and flexibility to just
be kind of opportunistic. And ifanyone's read Michael stingers
book, what is the UntetheredSoul, that's a great one, we're
just you know, having that kindof freedom and flexibility to
also follow where life will takeme. So kind of knowing what your
(16:36):
end end end goal is, and whereyou want to go, is really
important before you can kind ofjust decide, you know, which
path you want to take.
Dustin Steffey (16:49):
As you were talking about that I, it sparked
a question for me, right? Sowhy? Why did I go through this
journey? What, what have I gonethrough so far? And what led me
to being an entrepreneur? Whatled me to wanting this lifestyle
versus versus just while I stillwork a nine to five or nine,
(17:12):
whenever, right? But I mean, asthis grows, obviously, the nine
to five gets less and less. Butagain, you sparked a question
me? Why did I want to be anentrepreneur, and like you were
saying, there are so manydifferent avenues, right?
Financial freedom, maybe youhave children, or family, and
(17:33):
you want to spend more time withyour family. And so opening a
business or doing somethingentrepreneur wise, might be
advantageous. Although you didbring up a good point too, with
being an entrepreneur as well,it takes many, many, many hours.
And it takes a lot of blood,sweat and tears in the very
(17:53):
beginning. So it may not seemlike you're in game is in sight,
depending on what you open. Butin the same time, as you start
establishing, then you startseeing the light at the end of
the tunnel with some of these,these different avenues that
people want to go, whether it befinancial freedom, whether it be
more time with the kids, morevacations, whatever the case may
(18:17):
be. But the question that I hadfor you is what led you down
this lifestyle. So like for me,I'm the single father. So yes, I
want more time with my daughter.
But I also want financialsecurity, and I want to teach
her financial security as well.
And I want to teach her thatwhatever she chases in a dream
she can attain as long as sheputs in the work.
Ashley Cline (18:39):
Yeah. So I'll be real as, as I pursued this path
that you know, 1819 20 yearsold, it was very superficial.
And I just didn't have like theknowledge in life or anything
experience. Grew up, you know,single mom and I just wanted to
be rich, I wanted to make my ownmoney, I wanted to be able to
(19:01):
take care of myself, come back,take care of my family. It was a
little superficial, but that wasmy motivating driving factor.
And that was enough to kind ofcarry me through to my next
phase in life. And then I didhave children. So I have two
children. And that's reallywhere that freedom of
flexibility came in place.
Because soon as I had a child, Iknew I absolutely wanted to
(19:25):
build my career around beingable to be the most present mom
that I possibly can. And for me,you know, knowing those driving
factors is important as anentrepreneur because I think
anyone will tell you, it's notfor the faint of heart. There
are times where it gets toughand there's times where, you
know, you're really wanting togive up and just applying for
(19:50):
jobs and kind of in that despairof not wanting to carry through
but knowing what's motivatingyou is important and I knew that
I never wanted to stress abouthaving to call in sick to work
because my kids are sick and Idon't, I get to stay home and
watch them or always want thefreedom flexibility to attend
all their little programs atschool or take them to their
(20:14):
different sporting events andjust be as present as possible,
while still showing them that Ican chase my dreams and achieve
things. And so kind of, that'sbeen my new motivating factor.
And I think it'll always evolveand change as you grow. I mean,
my children are getting older,want to continue to be that
example. But then I also knowvery soon, they're gonna be,
(20:37):
they're gonna be gone, they'regonna be at college, starting
their own lives, I'm gonna haveto find, you know, even further
motivation for myself. And thatdriving force that wants to keep
me going and drew me.
Dustin Steffey (20:49):
And I know, this is going to be another topic for
another discussion maybe laterfor you and I. But I also want
to make sure that I'm developingmy daughter, right? You know
what I mean? Because I see thesegenerations that are ahead of us
right ahead of you and I, and Idon't, I don't necessarily like
(21:12):
where it's heading, especiallyfor business and everything like
that. And a good example ofthis, just to put it into
perspective for you and me,right, is you and I are in a
generation, where we're takingover like, the baby boomers
coming out and us coming in. Andthere wasn't a good transition
(21:32):
even for us in taking thosepositions right now. Because our
work ethics are so polardifferent. The baby boomer
generation even, and even ourmom and dad's right, they were
about working long, hard hoursto put food on the table. And it
didn't matter what they weredoing, where it's our
(21:54):
generation, when I look at youand me right among millennial,
whatever you want to call it forus, ie, we had technology
backing us. So we were smartenough to realize that if we
leverage technology in the rightway, we should be able to create
some time to be able to spendwith our families and do a
little bit more and develop ourchildren a little bit better.
(22:17):
But I'm not seeing thatextrapolate right now, between
you and I right? I'm not seeingthat we are able to put that
time in because now withtechnology be in here.
Especially if you work in a nineto five or if you work for a
company, they're takingadvantage of that by giving you
seven or eight different jobs.
Yeah, for one job, right. Sowe're, we're falling trap,
(22:40):
essentially to the same trapthat our mom and dads our
grandma and grandpa's fell into,with the difference of we're
producing more output than theydid in their time.
Ashley Cline (22:54):
Yeah, I was listening to a really
interesting philosophy the otherday, and I can't remember who it
was. So apologies to thisperson. But they were talking
about, you know, how can wesupport our children with their
future careers, because the timethat we're in, it's going to be
very different for them. Andreally, what we're shifting into
(23:16):
is this world of creation, andvery soon, technology will be
able to replace most of ourjobs. And at that point, you
know, for our children and ourchildren's children, they're
going to get back to this periodof creativity and entertainment,
like what is their true passionthat they can give back to the
(23:40):
world in the form of creativityand creating content, because a
lot of the day to day basic jobsthat we have now will
essentially be replaced withtechnology. And they found that
really interesting. And theperson was framing this up in a
way of, you know, they want toexperiment and make YouTube
videos like let them becausethat is going to be an important
(24:03):
skill for them in the future,knowing how to create rather
than, you know, the typicalEducation
Dustin Steffey (24:12):
Well, good news, I'm ahead of that game. My
daughter is definitely watchingme with the podcast and with all
of that going on. Creativitybehind that. She's very artistic
which I don't know where she gotthat from because I'm not
artistic. I mean, a lot of myfriends say I am because of this
because it's a different form ofan art but she's super like pen
and paper artistic right? And sothe job she wants to go into
(24:37):
which I want her to continue tochase her dreams is like a
veterinarian, right? I don'tthink a veterinarian is going to
disappear anytime soon. We'regonna need we're gonna need
doctors. We're gonna needveterinary right. We'll need
engineers to engineer this newtechnology obviously, isn't so
isn't disappearing, either.
We're going to need people to beable to run business, kind of
like you and I do so though alot of jobs are going to stay
(25:00):
even with technology advancing,but like you said, a lot of
these other like Lower, lowerjobs that are that can be
automated, are disappearing. Agood example of this is we walk
into Walmart and I have to checkout myself, right? Yeah. And so
I look at that, and I'm like,well, they're saving overhead.
(25:21):
That's a good thing. But they'renot paying me to do this either.
Ashley Cline (25:27):
Right? Yeah, it's really interesting. And I think
that's great, just letting herkind of evolve those passions.
Dustin Steffey (25:36):
Well, I think I think you and I have had some
some good points that have comecome up. I think we've addressed
those pretty pretty well. But Iwant to give you a little bit of
a moment to ice cream, socialone awesome name made me made me
want to go get an ice cream forsure. But let's kind of explain
that a little bit to myaudience. Obviously, you have a
(25:59):
lot of experience backing you.
So I'm curious about it. I'mcurious what it does. And I'm
curious who it would impact. Ingeneral, it doesn't sound like
something super crazy. Itdoesn't sound like you're trying
to sell anything. So let's let'sdive into that.
Ashley Cline (26:16):
Yeah, well, sorry to disappoint. It doesn't have
anything to do with ice cream.
But I will explain the name in aminute when we get to it just
because that's a frequentlyasked question that I get. I'll
say the most important factor toconsider with ice cream social.
And some of the success thatwe've already seen is ice cream
social was birthed from a need aneed that our clients already
(26:42):
had. I mentioned before I workat a company called Ticket
socket. And we're a white labelticketing platform. So we power
a lot of race registration, timeticketing, museums, all kinds of
different circuses. Soessentially, it's ticketing. I'm
sure many of you without evenknowing it, have bought tickets
(27:03):
through the ticket secondsystem. And I work with our
clients to help them strategizebetter marketing tactics, you
know, how can they sell moretickets this year without
increasing their marketingbudget? You know, what are those
little tweaks and things that wecan be doing. And through
talking with our clients a fewyears ago, we came up with the
(27:27):
idea ice cream, social, and verysimple. You guys have all seen
this kind of philosophy,somebody gets to checkout, they
make their purchase. And as soonas they purchase, we say, hey,
this event would be a lot morefun if your friends went with
you. So here's a promo code,send this to your friends. And
(27:48):
if you get five friends to buy,we'll refund you for your
ticket. And that was kind of thepremise of it. There's a lot of
different ways that you can dothat. It could be the goal could
be three friends 10 Friends, youcould give them a gift card, you
give them free swag. But at thevery basic level, the idea is
kind of gamifying and rewardingyour already existing customers.
(28:11):
So that was were one way tooptimize a marketing budget is
we're tapping into existingcustomers and asking them to
invite people who they alreadyknow are going to enjoy coming
to this event. And it'sessentially kind of taking that
word of mouth marketing andbringing it online. And that's
(28:32):
kind of where ice cream socialcame from. Because way back in
the day, before we had all thisdifferent kind of marketing. A
lot of people would share, youknow, their favorite products
and what's happening in theirlife at these different socials,
whether it was like a Mary Kayparty or a Tupperware party or
(28:53):
like an ice cream social. That'swhere they swept ideas is where
word of mouth, word of mouthmarketing happened. And people
were sharing you know what theirnew favorite products were. So
that's kind of where the namewas birthed from. And, again,
just focused on what issomething our clients need, that
it's just a no brainer. And wealso found that putting that on
(29:15):
someone's confirmation pageafter they make a purchase,
especially when it comes toevents. That's prime real estate
that confirmation page becausethat is when someone is most
excited about their purchase thesecond day purchase it they
can't wait to go to that event.
They're so excited. And that'sthe best time to ask them to
(29:37):
invite people
Dustin Steffey (29:38):
it's a clever strategy when I when I look at
it, you're you're right, if welook at the Pathway to Purchase
is what we call them businessright you and I Yeah, people are
excited about a product. Theypurchase a product. So let's
just use an example here. So Ilike flannels, right so I love
Dixon flannels, and Dixon is anawesome Same company I go
(30:01):
through, I get one of theirlimited edition flannels, it
would be cool. At the very end,if they incentivize customers
like me that spend tons of moneyon flannels and have a closet
full of them, to be able torefer people and market for
them, because one, it saves thatbusiness money on marketing,
right? Because word of mouthmarketing, probably, in my
(30:23):
opinion is one of the mostpowerful forms of marketing to,
it incentivizes me to continueto buy more, and to continue to
refer refer more people. Three,it's just a clever strategy in
general, I think that that'sclever. Um, with that being
said, Is this something that youguys niche and only use for
(30:44):
yourself? Or do you guys helpother businesses kind of create
a platform similar, where theycan kind of create the same
success?
Ashley Cline (30:53):
Great questions.
So working in events a couple ofyears ago was a very different,
difficult industry to be in whenCOVID hit. So what we did is we
already had a scream social,built, and it was just part of
our ticket socket system. Andthen when COVID hit and none of
our clients had events, what wedid is kind of pivot our, our
(31:15):
dev team and say you don't wantlet's extract ice cream social
out of tickets socket, build itas its own standalone product,
so that we had a lot of clientsthat also had to pivot. So we
had a lot of clients thatcouldn't have events, but they
did have an online retail sitewhere they sold, you know,
(31:37):
different types of merch. And sothey're like, Hey, can we use
ice cream social on our retailsite. And so that's kind of
where we started branching outof events, and also doing some
online e commerce. So it doeswork across many different
industries. Events is still anarea where we love to focus. And
we actually work with otherticketing engine companies, and
(32:00):
in help them integrate ice creamsocial into their system. So we
also played pretty nice in thesandbox with other event
companies that, you know, couldhave potentially be considered
competitors. But we found a wayto work with our competitors,
too, which has been a reallyinteresting kind of pivot for
us. And, yeah, it's, it doeswork. In more than just events,
(32:25):
it does work in retail, as youmentioned, flannel, it really
creates that customer advocacy,because people who are buying
their favorite products online,why not reward them to invite
their friends, because you'regonna know other people who love
flannels, because you're wearingthem every day, and you're
probably getting compliments,and then you can share, just
(32:45):
like you did with us, Hey, Ilove this company, and you
should check out there. So whynot arm them with the link to
easily incentivize them andtheir friends with the promo
code.
Dustin Steffey (32:58):
I think it's even advantageous. And you can
correct me if I'm wrong, becauseobviously, I'm learning about
this with my listeners. But Ithink this would be something
that's advantageous forconsultants, that consultants
certain things, whether it beweb design, whether it be
financial consultant,accounting. And I also think it
(33:19):
would be advantageous to contentcreators and coaches as well,
too, because we're in the dayand age now, where we're seeing
a lot of people that are sayingtheir business coaches, right,
or their coaches, forrelationships, or their coaches
for how to make money or coachesor a motion, whatever the case
(33:39):
may be, I think this would begreat. Because essentially, what
they could do is they could takethis strategy, they can apply it
to their website, and then usethat word of mouth marketing to
get more clientele essentially,is my thought, correct me if I'm
wrong? Yeah,
Ashley Cline (33:55):
absolutely. I, I kind of always think back and
laugh about if anyone remembersseeing this movie, it's probably
been 20 years. I don't know whenit came out. But Idiocracy. And
essentially, everyone is awalking billboard, if someone is
purchasing from you, or has anykind of close relationship with
users, they are kind of awalking billboard for you if you
(34:17):
give them the tools to be. Andwe found back to this whole love
and drive for optimization andvideo games. My clients that I
work with, and I take their costper acquisition to acquire a
customer and kind of calculateit, what's their cost per
(34:37):
acquisition for Facebook ads foremail for SMS for ice cream,
social ice cream, social alwayscomes in at the lowest cost per
acquisition, because it's justword of mouth marketing, and now
you're able to quantify it. I'mnot saying that you can just do
that. I mean, all the othermarketing is still somewhat of a
necessary evil, but it allowsyou that optimization away where
(35:01):
you're not like, well, I guesswe got to spend more money on
Facebook ads, because we don'tknow how else to convert
anything. By growing your wordabout marketing, you grow your
email database. And you can, youknow, essentially find ways to
optimize that with email and SMSas well. And not just always
that pay per click marketingthat we're used to, or have
(35:21):
become so reliant on.
Dustin Steffey (35:24):
So the million dollar question, are you ready
for it?
Ashley Cline (35:27):
Yeah, hit me.
Dustin Steffey (35:29):
All right, let's do it. If someone were
interested in doing somethinglike this, what is the cost to
start it up? And the cost to getit going? How expensive is it? I
mean, you and I already talkedabout how word of mouth
marketing is the least expensivecost per acquisition. But
there's still a cost to systemslike these, especially since
(35:52):
it's been put together. So whatis that cost?
Ashley Cline (35:55):
Definitely a great question. And back to that
optimization and love for videogames, we love to have a little
skin in the game to itsespecially as we are venturing
into new markets and newindustries. So typically, the
way that we charge for ice creamsocial, is we will charge a
(36:15):
percentage of net new revenuethat we bring in for you. So
let's say you have a site, youwant to install ice cream
social, will charge 10% of anynew revenue, that ice cream
social directly Branxton foryou. So it's kind of like you're
paying us as a salesperson oncommission only.
Dustin Steffey (36:37):
And how does one determine how much they make for
it? So just to because thequestions are pointed. So I'm
sorry, I'll make it easier onyou. Yeah. Multilevel marketing.
We know it's around. We knowit's been here for a long time.
So we're talking about the MaryKay's the seven C's, the, the
(36:57):
melaleucas, all of that if theydecided they wanted to do
something like this, becauseit's a good strategy to help
bring in people especially ifyou get one person locked in,
they start, like snowballing,how do you determine how much
they make because they're paidso polar differently based off
of how much they bring in, evento
Ashley Cline (37:16):
Sure. So it is different than multi level
marketing, I would say it's morein line with affiliate
marketing. So one person who hasa link, an ice cream social link
to share your website, they'renot building a team of people
underneath of them to also buildtraffic for you. We're just
focusing on your customers, whoessentially are everyone's an
(37:42):
influencer. Even if they have nosocial media presence, they're
still an influencer. They havefriends, they do have people
they have a life outside ofsocial media. And and
essentially what happens is, youcreate the goal. So if an
influencer gets five friends tobuy, and they get a ticket
(38:03):
refund, great games over. That'sit. It depends on the industry.
So that's where we kind of workwith you Strategy Session of
what campaign is going to workfor you and your industry in
your business and your pricepoints. If you have something
more in lineup, okay, every timesomeone gets one person to buy,
(38:24):
we want to issue them a $10 giftcard, we can do that too. And
they can repeat the reward asmany times as they want. One way
that a lot of our clients use itis to identify influencers that
they can go out and approach andwork more closely with. So we'll
log into the system and we'llsee a lot of people will get,
(38:44):
you know, one friend to buy twofriends to buy. It's not that
all these people are out thereand reaching their reward,
you're giving out all these freegift cards and refunds. Most
people don't necessarily alwaysreach the reward. So that's
great too, because it gets you alot of word of mouth marketing
without necessarily giving outall this free product and
(39:06):
promotion. But what we'll findis someone will get 60 people to
convert within a one day period.
And so then we can identify,Okay, that person, we can see
they shared it on Facebook, theygot this many people to buy.
Let's reach out to them and seeif they want to do a content
campaign with us becauseobviously they have whether they
(39:27):
are an influencer or just anaverage person that has like a
loyal friend group that youknow, trust what they have to
say. This is someone that weprobably identify and want to
work more closely with.
Dustin Steffey (39:41):
There's some great information I want to
remind my listeners that we goafter interviewing people, not
only to give everyoneinformation on how to chase
their own dreams, but to givesolutions to people that are
already within entrepreneur.
Leadership. So this, again, isgreat for my business coaches
(40:01):
that follow me, this is good foranyone who is looking to propel
their business to the nextlevel. So again, not trying to
sell anything. But in the sametoken, as everybody knows in
business, in order to makemoney, you got to spend money.
And this is good avenue withsomeone who's been in digital
(40:22):
marketing for 15 plus years. SoI just want to remind everyone
that I also want to remindeveryone that we will have
Ashley's information on ourwebsite at WWW dot Troubleman
feiyr.com under her own profileon our website, so we do have
guest profiles, her informationto contact her will be on there.
(40:42):
But we will actually talk aboutthat. Now. Ashley, if people
want to get a hold of you.
What's the best median?
Ashley Cline (40:50):
Yeah, sure. So I would say, for ice cream social,
you can go to ice creamsocial.io. For ticket socket,
you can go to ticket socket.com.
Or if you want to connect withme personally, to kind of touch
on anything I've shared withyou, you can go to Ashley n
klein.com.
Dustin Steffey (41:08):
And I want to tell everybody, she's very
approachable. So don't thinkshe's scary at all. So if you
want to get to know her, Irecommend it.
Ashley Cline (41:15):
Yes, definitely.
I'd love to hear from anyone.
You have
Dustin Steffey (41:19):
LinkedIn and social media? I would imagine
too, right?
Ashley Cline (41:22):
Yes, it's linked up on all the sites. So you can
find me?
Dustin Steffey (41:26):
Pretty Yeah, it's pretty easy to find people
these days. So yeah. Perfect.
Last question for you. funquestion. Are you ready?
Ashley Cline (41:35):
Yes,
Dustin Steffey (41:36):
let's do it. So I like to end everything. And I
don't want to change this goinginto season two, with if you had
one major piece of advice togive to my listeners that are
trying to chase dream goingentrepreneurship, whatever the
case may be, what would that be?
Ashley Cline (41:55):
So I would have to say, the foundation of where I'm
at today, in my business for thefirst two or three years of my
career. Even if you're alreadyinto your career, but you're not
where you want to be, you canstill do this, this isn't
something you only do at thebeginning. All I did was
network, people to peoplenetwork, I went, I joined a
(42:18):
group called BNI, BusinessNetwork International, joined
all my local chambers. And youcould find me every breakfast,
lunch and sunset mixer at one ofthese networking groups, meeting
people handing out my businesscard, getting to know people
finding people at these eventswho I thought that there's some
(42:42):
sort of connection and somewheredown the road, we can work
together on a referral basis ona client basis and scheduling
follow up coffee meetings. All Idid for two to three years
straight was network. And thatallowed me to build such a
strong foundation in my careerthat essentially, I'm not saying
don't network because I stilldo. I'm heading to CES this week
(43:05):
to network but essentially,everything flows. And now people
refer me to people. I'm not outthere, you know, kind of ever
really looking for business. Andit just comes.
Dustin Steffey (43:16):
I give you all these compliments. And then you
tell me you're going to CES andyou don't even invite me. Thanks
a lot.
Ashley Cline (43:21):
Sorry. Yeah, let's go see Yes,
Dustin Steffey (43:24):
has been one of the biggest things that I've
always wanted to go to I love Iwatch it right. And so
technology that's like the meccaof new technology coming out.
Ashley Cline (43:34):
Yes, I'm excited to see see what's coming down
the pipeline. So if
Dustin Steffey (43:39):
you have to call me because I doubt I'll be able
to make it. You'll have to callme and tell me how it
Ashley Cline (43:44):
was. Yes, I will.
I'll let you know. I'll let youknow what's coming.
Dustin Steffey (43:48):
Where's it out this year? Is it same place as
always? Yeah, it's in Vegasevery year, so I thought okay,
gosh, I'm so close to Vegas.
Yeah, I'm so far away.
Ashley Cline (43:57):
I know. I know. I can't turn down a weekend in
Vegas.
Dustin Steffey (44:02):
No, it's not my favorite place. But then again,
it has everything that is nice,like CES and other fun events.
So
Ashley Cline (44:10):
yeah, I'm a foodie. So Oh, you're gonna
enjoy your
Dustin Steffey (44:13):
life there.
You're gonna get back like 10pounds
Ashley Cline (44:16):
bigger. Yeah, for sure. Looking forward to it.
Dustin Steffey (44:20):
That's awesome.
Ashley, thank you so very muchfor not only providing some
awesome key nuggets, but justkind of talking about how your
journey was and what you do nowand providing such a awesome and
powerful value added widgetessentially for marketing.
Ashley Cline (44:39):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you having me on the
show and looking forward togetting to know some of your
your listeners. So please reachout. We'd love to chat, love to
network, Zoom coffee, whateverit is. Let's let's connect.
Dustin Steffey (44:54):
Yeah, that's the biggest thing guys so
challenging this year for seasontwo. I'd love to hear from more
of you. You and so with myguests as Ashley just said, so
please don't hesitate to reachout to any of us and let's let's
kind of start chasing somedreams this year. Let's go into
this new year. Really like justtaking it by the horns. So let's
(45:15):
have some fun again. Ashley veryapproachable. I love her. She's
awesome. Welcome to it. We'rehitting the ground running so
here it is.
Ashley Cline (45:25):
Yes, thank you Dustin. Let's do this. 2023
Dustin Steffey (45:28):
Yeah, let's let's kill it.
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Jaden Norvell (01:00):
Welcome to your top rated business
entrepreneurship selfdevelopment and smart investment
podcast. This podcast is hostedby creator and founder Dr.
Dustin Steffey and also hostedby coach, music producer and
influencer yours truly Jadenrush Nora Bell we are blessed
for our many accolades such asbeing nominated for the People's
Choice Award for Best BusinessPodcast, as well as raising over
(01:20):
$5,000 last year for the CysticFibrosis Foundation as well as
for the Boys and Girls Club,spending a global reach our
podcasts in the top fourdownloads in four countries.
Without further ado, welcome thechopping wood fire ladies and
gentlemen, let's chop it up
Dustin Steffey (01:42):
Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to season two,
episode two of chopping withfire. You're joined with your
host today Dustin Steffey Jadenis enjoying life on an island
away from everyone not in thesnow like I am, and having fun
golfing, and all the fun things.
So hopefully we see him soon.
(02:02):
But for now, we'll just be stuckwith me and have some fun and go
from there. I have nohousekeeping. Actually, I just
wanted to remind everyone sincewe are in season two, there are
a lot of changes that are comingdown the pipeline. It would be
greatly appreciated. If youcould go to any of your favorite
(02:23):
social media platforms. Andsubscribe to choppin woodfire.
We are on Facebook, Instagram,LinkedIn, Twitter, Tik Tok,
which that's been fun for me.
And Snapchat, which has alsobeen fun for me. And we do have
our website that houseseverything WWW dot chopping with
fire, CH O, P I N, wi th F ire.com, where you can go and see
(02:50):
everything, all of our guestprofiles, which are amazing. We
have awesome guests that havebeen on the air starting a blog
this year, which will be kind ofa pseudo after the episode kind
of take on how we felt afterthat episode key points if you
missed them when you werelistening. So you can kind of
(03:12):
take a read on that andunderstand where these episodes
are heading. We do have a lot ofspecial things planned for this
year, we do have a militaryinterview with a veteran, which
will be a five episode series.
That'll be great. I'm excitedfor that. We also are going to
have a sports series as well,too. Not your typical sports
(03:36):
series, just for all my sportsfans out there. It's going to be
on the business side. So a lotof talking about this transfer
portal, talking about thebusiness transactions within
sports and how that works. Wewanted to spice things up a
little bit. I know we've beentalking a lot about
entrepreneurship chasing yourdreams. We've been talking a lot
about cryptocurrencyinvestments, smart decisions
(03:59):
there, but we want to spice itup a little bit more. Want to Be
That One Stop Shop podcast thatgives you guys everything. So we
have a diverse audience. So withthat being said, I do want to
dive right into our episodeagain. This is season two, we're
definitely upgrading right so asof right now, if you guys notice
(04:20):
the camera camera quality'sclear, because we're upgrading
our equipment, we are definitelytrying to make sure that we
provide the best that we can foryou all, and we're gonna
continue to do so. So I'm goingto introduce in my guests I'm
excited to introduce AshleyKlein. She has 15 years plus of
experience within the digitalmarketing landscape with
(04:42):
expertise including buildingstrategic market plans,
strategic edge execution, andoptimizing specific strategies
to make sure your business issuccessful. She is currently VP
and co founder of ice creamsocial, which is a digital
Marketing widget thatincentivizes word of mouth
(05:03):
marketing. There will be a lotmore that we can discuss on
that. But I didn't want tointroduce everything and then
she doesn't have anything totalk about. So without further
ado, let's invite Ashley, howare you?
Ashley Cline (05:14):
Hey, Dustin, thanks for having me. I'm doing
great. I'm ready for thisinterview. It's cold and rainy
in Southern California, got mycup of tea, ready to hang out
and chat.
Dustin Steffey (05:26):
We have a foot and a half of snow up here. So
I'd rather be in the cold andrainy.
Ashley Cline (05:34):
I don't mind we don't it doesn't happen very
often here.
Dustin Steffey (05:38):
Absolutely. So I mean, having you on. It's
amazing. Your accolades areamazing. I mean, you and I could
probably have accolade war andhave some fun and talk about all
of that. But I want people toget to know you a little bit. I
mean, you have all thisexperience. But let's peel back
a few layers. Like, how did youget all this experience? How?
(05:58):
How did you decide to go intodigital marketing? Right? I
mean, 15 years is a lot. I feltlike I had a lot, but now you
beat me out on that. I'm justcurious. So let's, let's let
people know who you are.
Ashley Cline (06:11):
Sure. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw it back
way back to childhood. And Ithink that's a great place for
people to reflect. And as I was,in this time period, I never
thought, Okay, I'm gonna grow upand be this. But as my journey
evolved, and I had to learnwhich paths to take, it was very
(06:32):
informative for me to reflectback on my childhood, as many
people advise you to do andthink, what were you good at?
What did you enjoy doing? Beforeyou had the pressure of life and
making money with your career.
So, as a child, I was an avidvideo game player, because I'm
sure many of us were had aNintendo. And honestly, the only
(06:55):
game that we really had wasMario. And you can only play the
game so many times before youbeat it. And as a kid, quickly,
my brother and I beat the game.
And to keep ourselvesentertained, what we would do is
(07:16):
just set new challenges forourselves. Every time we sat
down to play, you know, howquickly can we beat the game
this time? How many more coins?
Can we get this time? All thoselittle things and reflecting
back now I see how that playedsuch a vital role. And what I
like to do today with marketingcampaigns, and it's all about
(07:36):
optimization, what are thoselittle tweaks that you can make
to further improve, you know,your, your campaigns and how
they're performing day afterday. So I like to think of what
I'm doing now is essentiallyjust a big video game. Always
working on better ad copy, youknow, better email subject
(07:57):
lines, trying out new tools,like SMS and different kind of
online marketing widgets.
Dustin Steffey (08:08):
I'm definitely a fan of video games for sure. A
good video game every once in awhile, especially one that makes
you think so I know when I grewup, right? REO Oregon trail that
was kind of my jam. And then,and then it evolved. I wanted to
tear computers apart and learnwhat they insides look like and
(08:29):
build those. So very much sotechnology driven for me as
well, too. So this podcast, ourupgrades and everything right
down my alley. Have fun. Andmisery. Yeah, at the same time.
So yeah, you and I have asimilar kind of upbringing.
Taking it back. Right. Let'smove forward though. Let's fast
forward a little bit. Obviously.
You grew up right. We both did.
(08:53):
We went school. What happenedafter school and what like led
you to where you are now?
Ashley Cline (08:59):
Yeah, sure. So actually, when I was in high
school, and I grew up in areally small, small town, almost
one stoplight farm town an hourfrom a real city or any kind of,
you know, civilization. And wedid have a marketing club in
high school though and me senioryear, performed really well made
(09:21):
it to a national level got tolead my hometown, which I'd
never really done before andtraveled to California to
compete. And this marketing Clubwas called DECA for anyone
interested. And I was competingin sales. And obviously I'm in
high school, so no salesexperience or marketing of
sorts. And I carried that withme right out of high school. I
(09:47):
was able as I started enrolledto my local community college
for visual communications,knowing I wanted to do marketing
because of this marketing club.
But I leveraged that success ButI had in high school competition
and kind of parallel path andwas able to get my foot in the
door at a web development agencywho wasn't hiring, but said, if
(10:08):
I want to do sales on commissiononly, I can do that. And I could
come in once a week at night,and one of the developers would
teach me how to code and tookthe opportunity, you know, to do
that, while I was going toschool, took me nine months to
close my first job and make anymoney from it, but did not give
up. And not too long after that,maybe a year and a half later,
(10:34):
this company said that they weregoing to move to California and
start a new office, does anyonewant to go with us. And so
immediately, I signed up andsaid, Yes, I'll go packed my
bags, I was 1920, at the time,moved to California, had $100 in
my pocket, and was going to beworking on commission only
(10:56):
still, to this day, I still workwith these people. And they like
to make fun of me, because Iliterally boarded the plane
holding my SpongeBob pillow.
With tears running down my face,I was so scared to leave. But
putting myself looking back now.
And that situation whereessentially your backs against
(11:18):
the wall, and you have to figureit out if you want to survive
and even just thrive in so thatwas kind of the start of a lot
for me, because I quickly wasable to build trust in myself
and realize, you know, I'mcapable of a lot more than I'd
ever thought I could be. Andthat was kind of the beginning
(11:41):
of my career there just workingfor this web development
company, which later evolvedinto a company that I still work
for to this day called Ticketsocket. And through ticket
socket, we found it ice cream,social. But even through that
journey, I was just learning somuch about digital marketing,
(12:02):
and kind of became the go toexpert in my town for marketing,
because I knew about websites.
And from there, I kind ofbranched off and started my own
consulting agency where I justfocused on social media
marketing for many, many yearsand then evolved that into just
kind of full stack digitalmarketing, email, SMS, social
(12:25):
ads, SEO, all of that,
Dustin Steffey (12:28):
yeah, we've discussed a lot of different
strategies, SEO, SMS, all ofthat, not in great depth, right.
But at least we have kind of aknowledge within that business,
in my opinion. But what led meto it is, while a lot of people
take it, it's advanced, there'sa lot of different avenues that
(12:49):
you can go into that are fun andinteresting in a lot of niche
markets as you as you know, andas you have with ice cream
social, obviously. But there's alot of terminology. And there's
a lot of stuff that people don'trealize, especially when like
you and I are looking at itright like entrepreneurship,
entrepreneurship, all of that,like I think we should kind of
(13:12):
help scale it back a little bitand help people understand in
your journey, kind of where thedifferences lie.
Ashley Cline (13:19):
Definitely. So I was Dustin and I were chatting a
little bit before and I wastalking to him, I kind of
identify in this world ofbusiness as a printer. And that
kind of covers three differentareas. One being an
intrapreneur, where I am anexecutive at ticket socket, and
(13:41):
have been able to kind of play alittle bit of an entrepreneurial
spirit role kind of within thatcompany and you know, build my
own little department and kindof have that freedom and
flexibility. As well as anentrepreneur with you know,
getting out there working on ascrim social, starting that
company, and then thesolopreneur because I do still
(14:03):
enjoy taking on, you know, theright consulting projects and
having that open to me as well.
And you're probably thinkinglike, well, that's a lot like,
how do you get it all done? Howdo you focus? And I'll say, for
many, many years, I did focusbecause you have to put in those
hours to get that mastery. Andthen I reached a point in my
(14:25):
career. So I'm not saying youcan necessarily jump that you
still want to get the thatmastery level and put in the
hours and dedicate yourself to acertain craft. But I just kind
of got to a crossroads where Ihad to decide like, what, what
am I doing? Where am I going? Somany. I think anyone who's an
(14:46):
entrepreneur might have what welike to call the shiny shiny
object syndrome, where there'sso many new opportunities that
are coming at you and you wantto be a part of them all. But
you have to to figure out what'sdriving you and what path you
want to take, and I was readingthis book, highly recommend this
book. It's called the desiremap. And it's by a woman named
(15:09):
Danielle Laporte. And it's morethan a book, it's also a
workbook. And it takes youthrough all these different
questions. And it'll take you afew days to get through. So give
yourself time and space. Butwhen you get to the end of it,
you kind of determine what arethese core desired feelings that
(15:29):
you want to live day to day. AndI tried to do the desire map
every couple years, because, youknow, your life evolves, things
change. And, as I've done this,the two words that always come
up for me, that I'm looking tokind of live in my day to day
life is freedom, andflexibility. And freedom can
(15:52):
mean different things todifferent people. To me,
obviously, yes, financialfreedom. Also, it's just
opportunity freedom, ifsomething really interests me, I
want to be able to pursue it, Idon't want to be stuck somewhere
where I can't, because I'mcommitted to this or it just
don't have you know, the time,money, resources, whatever to
(16:15):
focus on it, I always want thatfreedom and flexibility to just
be kind of opportunistic. And ifanyone's read Michael stingers
book, what is the UntetheredSoul, that's a great one, we're
just you know, having that kindof freedom and flexibility to
also follow where life will takeme. So kind of knowing what your
(16:36):
end end end goal is, and whereyou want to go, is really
important before you can kind ofjust decide, you know, which
path you want to take.
Dustin Steffey (16:49):
As you were talking about that I, it sparked
a question for me, right? Sowhy? Why did I go through this
journey? What, what have I gonethrough so far? And what led me
to being an entrepreneur? Whatled me to wanting this lifestyle
versus versus just while I stillwork a nine to five or nine,
(17:12):
whenever, right? But I mean, asthis grows, obviously, the nine
to five gets less and less. Butagain, you sparked a question
me? Why did I want to be anentrepreneur, and like you were
saying, there are so manydifferent avenues, right?
Financial freedom, maybe youhave children, or family, and
(17:33):
you want to spend more time withyour family. And so opening a
business or doing somethingentrepreneur wise, might be
advantageous. Although you didbring up a good point too, with
being an entrepreneur as well,it takes many, many, many hours.
And it takes a lot of blood,sweat and tears in the very
(17:53):
beginning. So it may not seemlike you're in game is in sight,
depending on what you open. Butin the same time, as you start
establishing, then you startseeing the light at the end of
the tunnel with some of these,these different avenues that
people want to go, whether it befinancial freedom, whether it be
more time with the kids, morevacations, whatever the case may
(18:17):
be. But the question that I hadfor you is what led you down
this lifestyle. So like for me,I'm the single father. So yes, I
want more time with my daughter.
But I also want financialsecurity, and I want to teach
her financial security as well.
And I want to teach her thatwhatever she chases in a dream
she can attain as long as sheputs in the work.
Ashley Cline (18:39):
Yeah. So I'll be real as, as I pursued this path
that you know, 1819 20 yearsold, it was very superficial.
And I just didn't have like theknowledge in life or anything
experience. Grew up, you know,single mom and I just wanted to
be rich, I wanted to make my ownmoney, I wanted to be able to
(19:01):
take care of myself, come back,take care of my family. It was a
little superficial, but that wasmy motivating driving factor.
And that was enough to kind ofcarry me through to my next
phase in life. And then I didhave children. So I have two
children. And that's reallywhere that freedom of
flexibility came in place.
Because soon as I had a child, Iknew I absolutely wanted to
(19:25):
build my career around beingable to be the most present mom
that I possibly can. And for me,you know, knowing those driving
factors is important as anentrepreneur because I think
anyone will tell you, it's notfor the faint of heart. There
are times where it gets toughand there's times where, you
know, you're really wanting togive up and just applying for
(19:50):
jobs and kind of in that despairof not wanting to carry through
but knowing what's motivatingyou is important and I knew that
I never wanted to stress abouthaving to call in sick to work
because my kids are sick and Idon't, I get to stay home and
watch them or always want thefreedom flexibility to attend
all their little programs atschool or take them to their
(20:14):
different sporting events andjust be as present as possible,
while still showing them that Ican chase my dreams and achieve
things. And so kind of, that'sbeen my new motivating factor.
And I think it'll always evolveand change as you grow. I mean,
my children are getting older,want to continue to be that
example. But then I also knowvery soon, they're gonna be,
(20:37):
they're gonna be gone, they'regonna be at college, starting
their own lives, I'm gonna haveto find, you know, even further
motivation for myself. And thatdriving force that wants to keep
me going and drew me.
Dustin Steffey (20:49):
And I know, this is going to be another topic for
another discussion maybe laterfor you and I. But I also want
to make sure that I'm developingmy daughter, right? You know
what I mean? Because I see thesegenerations that are ahead of us
right ahead of you and I, and Idon't, I don't necessarily like
(21:12):
where it's heading, especiallyfor business and everything like
that. And a good example ofthis, just to put it into
perspective for you and me,right, is you and I are in a
generation, where we're takingover like, the baby boomers
coming out and us coming in. Andthere wasn't a good transition
(21:32):
even for us in taking thosepositions right now. Because our
work ethics are so polardifferent. The baby boomer
generation even, and even ourmom and dad's right, they were
about working long, hard hoursto put food on the table. And it
didn't matter what they weredoing, where it's our
(21:54):
generation, when I look at youand me right among millennial,
whatever you want to call it forus, ie, we had technology
backing us. So we were smartenough to realize that if we
leverage technology in the rightway, we should be able to create
some time to be able to spendwith our families and do a
little bit more and develop ourchildren a little bit better.
(22:17):
But I'm not seeing thatextrapolate right now, between
you and I right? I'm not seeingthat we are able to put that
time in because now withtechnology be in here.
Especially if you work in a nineto five or if you work for a
company, they're takingadvantage of that by giving you
seven or eight different jobs.
Yeah, for one job, right. Sowe're, we're falling trap,
(22:40):
essentially to the same trapthat our mom and dads our
grandma and grandpa's fell into,with the difference of we're
producing more output than theydid in their time.
Ashley Cline (22:54):
Yeah, I was listening to a really
interesting philosophy the otherday, and I can't remember who it
was. So apologies to thisperson. But they were talking
about, you know, how can wesupport our children with their
future careers, because the timethat we're in, it's going to be
very different for them. Andreally, what we're shifting into
(23:16):
is this world of creation, andvery soon, technology will be
able to replace most of ourjobs. And at that point, you
know, for our children and ourchildren's children, they're
going to get back to this periodof creativity and entertainment,
like what is their true passionthat they can give back to the
(23:40):
world in the form of creativityand creating content, because a
lot of the day to day basic jobsthat we have now will
essentially be replaced withtechnology. And they found that
really interesting. And theperson was framing this up in a
way of, you know, they want toexperiment and make YouTube
videos like let them becausethat is going to be an important
(24:03):
skill for them in the future,knowing how to create rather
than, you know, the typicalEducation
Dustin Steffey (24:12):
Well, good news, I'm ahead of that game. My
daughter is definitely watchingme with the podcast and with all
of that going on. Creativitybehind that. She's very artistic
which I don't know where she gotthat from because I'm not
artistic. I mean, a lot of myfriends say I am because of this
because it's a different form ofan art but she's super like pen
and paper artistic right? And sothe job she wants to go into
(24:37):
which I want her to continue tochase her dreams is like a
veterinarian, right? I don'tthink a veterinarian is going to
disappear anytime soon. We'regonna need we're gonna need
doctors. We're gonna needveterinary right. We'll need
engineers to engineer this newtechnology obviously, isn't so
isn't disappearing, either.
We're going to need people to beable to run business, kind of
like you and I do so though alot of jobs are going to stay
(25:00):
even with technology advancing,but like you said, a lot of
these other like Lower, lowerjobs that are that can be
automated, are disappearing. Agood example of this is we walk
into Walmart and I have to checkout myself, right? Yeah. And so
I look at that, and I'm like,well, they're saving overhead.
(25:21):
That's a good thing. But they'renot paying me to do this either.
Ashley Cline (25:27):
Right? Yeah, it's really interesting. And I think
that's great, just letting herkind of evolve those passions.
Dustin Steffey (25:36):
Well, I think I think you and I have had some
some good points that have comecome up. I think we've addressed
those pretty pretty well. But Iwant to give you a little bit of
a moment to ice cream, socialone awesome name made me made me
want to go get an ice cream forsure. But let's kind of explain
that a little bit to myaudience. Obviously, you have a
(25:59):
lot of experience backing you.
So I'm curious about it. I'mcurious what it does. And I'm
curious who it would impact. Ingeneral, it doesn't sound like
something super crazy. Itdoesn't sound like you're trying
to sell anything. So let's let'sdive into that.
Ashley Cline (26:16):
Yeah, well, sorry to disappoint. It doesn't have
anything to do with ice cream.
But I will explain the name in aminute when we get to it just
because that's a frequentlyasked question that I get. I'll
say the most important factor toconsider with ice cream social.
And some of the success thatwe've already seen is ice cream
social was birthed from a need aneed that our clients already
(26:42):
had. I mentioned before I workat a company called Ticket
socket. And we're a white labelticketing platform. So we power
a lot of race registration, timeticketing, museums, all kinds of
different circuses. Soessentially, it's ticketing. I'm
sure many of you without evenknowing it, have bought tickets
(27:03):
through the ticket secondsystem. And I work with our
clients to help them strategizebetter marketing tactics, you
know, how can they sell moretickets this year without
increasing their marketingbudget? You know, what are those
little tweaks and things that wecan be doing. And through
talking with our clients a fewyears ago, we came up with the
(27:27):
idea ice cream, social, and verysimple. You guys have all seen
this kind of philosophy,somebody gets to checkout, they
make their purchase. And as soonas they purchase, we say, hey,
this event would be a lot morefun if your friends went with
you. So here's a promo code,send this to your friends. And
(27:48):
if you get five friends to buy,we'll refund you for your
ticket. And that was kind of thepremise of it. There's a lot of
different ways that you can dothat. It could be the goal could
be three friends 10 Friends, youcould give them a gift card, you
give them free swag. But at thevery basic level, the idea is
kind of gamifying and rewardingyour already existing customers.
(28:11):
So that was were one way tooptimize a marketing budget is
we're tapping into existingcustomers and asking them to
invite people who they alreadyknow are going to enjoy coming
to this event. And it'sessentially kind of taking that
word of mouth marketing andbringing it online. And that's
(28:32):
kind of where ice cream socialcame from. Because way back in
the day, before we had all thisdifferent kind of marketing. A
lot of people would share, youknow, their favorite products
and what's happening in theirlife at these different socials,
whether it was like a Mary Kayparty or a Tupperware party or
(28:53):
like an ice cream social. That'swhere they swept ideas is where
word of mouth, word of mouthmarketing happened. And people
were sharing you know what theirnew favorite products were. So
that's kind of where the namewas birthed from. And, again,
just focused on what issomething our clients need, that
it's just a no brainer. And wealso found that putting that on
(29:15):
someone's confirmation pageafter they make a purchase,
especially when it comes toevents. That's prime real estate
that confirmation page becausethat is when someone is most
excited about their purchase thesecond day purchase it they
can't wait to go to that event.
They're so excited. And that'sthe best time to ask them to
(29:37):
invite people
Dustin Steffey (29:38):
it's a clever strategy when I when I look at
it, you're you're right, if welook at the Pathway to Purchase
is what we call them businessright you and I Yeah, people are
excited about a product. Theypurchase a product. So let's
just use an example here. So Ilike flannels, right so I love
Dixon flannels, and Dixon is anawesome Same company I go
(30:01):
through, I get one of theirlimited edition flannels, it
would be cool. At the very end,if they incentivize customers
like me that spend tons of moneyon flannels and have a closet
full of them, to be able torefer people and market for
them, because one, it saves thatbusiness money on marketing,
right? Because word of mouthmarketing, probably, in my
(30:23):
opinion is one of the mostpowerful forms of marketing to,
it incentivizes me to continueto buy more, and to continue to
refer refer more people. Three,it's just a clever strategy in
general, I think that that'sclever. Um, with that being
said, Is this something that youguys niche and only use for
(30:44):
yourself? Or do you guys helpother businesses kind of create
a platform similar, where theycan kind of create the same
success?
Ashley Cline (30:53):
Great questions.
So working in events a couple ofyears ago was a very different,
difficult industry to be in whenCOVID hit. So what we did is we
already had a scream social,built, and it was just part of
our ticket socket system. Andthen when COVID hit and none of
our clients had events, what wedid is kind of pivot our, our
(31:15):
dev team and say you don't wantlet's extract ice cream social
out of tickets socket, build itas its own standalone product,
so that we had a lot of clientsthat also had to pivot. So we
had a lot of clients thatcouldn't have events, but they
did have an online retail sitewhere they sold, you know,
(31:37):
different types of merch. And sothey're like, Hey, can we use
ice cream social on our retailsite. And so that's kind of
where we started branching outof events, and also doing some
online e commerce. So it doeswork across many different
industries. Events is still anarea where we love to focus. And
we actually work with otherticketing engine companies, and
(32:00):
in help them integrate ice creamsocial into their system. So we
also played pretty nice in thesandbox with other event
companies that, you know, couldhave potentially be considered
competitors. But we found a wayto work with our competitors,
too, which has been a reallyinteresting kind of pivot for
us. And, yeah, it's, it doeswork. In more than just events,
(32:25):
it does work in retail, as youmentioned, flannel, it really
creates that customer advocacy,because people who are buying
their favorite products online,why not reward them to invite
their friends, because you'regonna know other people who love
flannels, because you're wearingthem every day, and you're
probably getting compliments,and then you can share, just
(32:45):
like you did with us, Hey, Ilove this company, and you
should check out there. So whynot arm them with the link to
easily incentivize them andtheir friends with the promo
code.
Dustin Steffey (32:58):
I think it's even advantageous. And you can
correct me if I'm wrong, becauseobviously, I'm learning about
this with my listeners. But Ithink this would be something
that's advantageous forconsultants, that consultants
certain things, whether it beweb design, whether it be
financial consultant,accounting. And I also think it
(33:19):
would be advantageous to contentcreators and coaches as well,
too, because we're in the dayand age now, where we're seeing
a lot of people that are sayingtheir business coaches, right,
or their coaches, forrelationships, or their coaches
for how to make money or coachesor a motion, whatever the case
(33:39):
may be, I think this would begreat. Because essentially, what
they could do is they could takethis strategy, they can apply it
to their website, and then usethat word of mouth marketing to
get more clientele essentially,is my thought, correct me if I'm
wrong? Yeah,
Ashley Cline (33:55):
absolutely. I, I kind of always think back and
laugh about if anyone remembersseeing this movie, it's probably
been 20 years. I don't know whenit came out. But Idiocracy. And
essentially, everyone is awalking billboard, if someone is
purchasing from you, or has anykind of close relationship with
users, they are kind of awalking billboard for you if you
(34:17):
give them the tools to be. Andwe found back to this whole love
and drive for optimization andvideo games. My clients that I
work with, and I take their costper acquisition to acquire a
customer and kind of calculateit, what's their cost per
(34:37):
acquisition for Facebook ads foremail for SMS for ice cream,
social ice cream, social alwayscomes in at the lowest cost per
acquisition, because it's justword of mouth marketing, and now
you're able to quantify it. I'mnot saying that you can just do
that. I mean, all the othermarketing is still somewhat of a
necessary evil, but it allowsyou that optimization away where
(35:01):
you're not like, well, I guesswe got to spend more money on
Facebook ads, because we don'tknow how else to convert
anything. By growing your wordabout marketing, you grow your
email database. And you can, youknow, essentially find ways to
optimize that with email and SMSas well. And not just always
that pay per click marketingthat we're used to, or have
(35:21):
become so reliant on.
Dustin Steffey (35:24):
So the million dollar question, are you ready
for it?
Ashley Cline (35:27):
Yeah, hit me.
Dustin Steffey (35:29):
All right, let's do it. If someone were
interested in doing somethinglike this, what is the cost to
start it up? And the cost to getit going? How expensive is it? I
mean, you and I already talkedabout how word of mouth
marketing is the least expensivecost per acquisition. But
there's still a cost to systemslike these, especially since
(35:52):
it's been put together. So whatis that cost?
Ashley Cline (35:55):
Definitely a great question. And back to that
optimization and love for videogames, we love to have a little
skin in the game to itsespecially as we are venturing
into new markets and newindustries. So typically, the
way that we charge for ice creamsocial, is we will charge a
(36:15):
percentage of net new revenuethat we bring in for you. So
let's say you have a site, youwant to install ice cream
social, will charge 10% of anynew revenue, that ice cream
social directly Branxton foryou. So it's kind of like you're
paying us as a salesperson oncommission only.
Dustin Steffey (36:37):
And how does one determine how much they make for
it? So just to because thequestions are pointed. So I'm
sorry, I'll make it easier onyou. Yeah. Multilevel marketing.
We know it's around. We knowit's been here for a long time.
So we're talking about the MaryKay's the seven C's, the, the
(36:57):
melaleucas, all of that if theydecided they wanted to do
something like this, becauseit's a good strategy to help
bring in people especially ifyou get one person locked in,
they start, like snowballing,how do you determine how much
they make because they're paidso polar differently based off
of how much they bring in, evento
Ashley Cline (37:16):
Sure. So it is different than multi level
marketing, I would say it's morein line with affiliate
marketing. So one person who hasa link, an ice cream social link
to share your website, they'renot building a team of people
underneath of them to also buildtraffic for you. We're just
focusing on your customers, whoessentially are everyone's an
(37:42):
influencer. Even if they have nosocial media presence, they're
still an influencer. They havefriends, they do have people
they have a life outside ofsocial media. And and
essentially what happens is, youcreate the goal. So if an
influencer gets five friends tobuy, and they get a ticket
(38:03):
refund, great games over. That'sit. It depends on the industry.
So that's where we kind of workwith you Strategy Session of
what campaign is going to workfor you and your industry in
your business and your pricepoints. If you have something
more in lineup, okay, every timesomeone gets one person to buy,
(38:24):
we want to issue them a $10 giftcard, we can do that too. And
they can repeat the reward asmany times as they want. One way
that a lot of our clients use itis to identify influencers that
they can go out and approach andwork more closely with. So we'll
log into the system and we'llsee a lot of people will get,
(38:44):
you know, one friend to buy twofriends to buy. It's not that
all these people are out thereand reaching their reward,
you're giving out all these freegift cards and refunds. Most
people don't necessarily alwaysreach the reward. So that's
great too, because it gets you alot of word of mouth marketing
without necessarily giving outall this free product and
(39:06):
promotion. But what we'll findis someone will get 60 people to
convert within a one day period.
And so then we can identify,Okay, that person, we can see
they shared it on Facebook, theygot this many people to buy.
Let's reach out to them and seeif they want to do a content
campaign with us becauseobviously they have whether they
(39:27):
are an influencer or just anaverage person that has like a
loyal friend group that youknow, trust what they have to
say. This is someone that weprobably identify and want to
work more closely with.
Dustin Steffey (39:41):
There's some great information I want to
remind my listeners that we goafter interviewing people, not
only to give everyoneinformation on how to chase
their own dreams, but to givesolutions to people that are
already within entrepreneur.
Leadership. So this, again, isgreat for my business coaches
(40:01):
that follow me, this is good foranyone who is looking to propel
their business to the nextlevel. So again, not trying to
sell anything. But in the sametoken, as everybody knows in
business, in order to makemoney, you got to spend money.
And this is good avenue withsomeone who's been in digital
(40:22):
marketing for 15 plus years. SoI just want to remind everyone
that I also want to remindeveryone that we will have
Ashley's information on ourwebsite at WWW dot Troubleman
feiyr.com under her own profileon our website, so we do have
guest profiles, her informationto contact her will be on there.
(40:42):
But we will actually talk aboutthat. Now. Ashley, if people
want to get a hold of you.
What's the best median?
Ashley Cline (40:50):
Yeah, sure. So I would say, for ice cream social,
you can go to ice creamsocial.io. For ticket socket,
you can go to ticket socket.com.
Or if you want to connect withme personally, to kind of touch
on anything I've shared withyou, you can go to Ashley n
klein.com.
Dustin Steffey (41:08):
And I want to tell everybody, she's very
approachable. So don't thinkshe's scary at all. So if you
want to get to know her, Irecommend it.
Ashley Cline (41:15):
Yes, definitely.
I'd love to hear from anyone.
You have
Dustin Steffey (41:19):
LinkedIn and social media? I would imagine
too, right?
Ashley Cline (41:22):
Yes, it's linked up on all the sites. So you can
find me?
Dustin Steffey (41:26):
Pretty Yeah, it's pretty easy to find people
these days. So yeah. Perfect.
Last question for you. funquestion. Are you ready?
Ashley Cline (41:35):
Yes,
Dustin Steffey (41:36):
let's do it. So I like to end everything. And I
don't want to change this goinginto season two, with if you had
one major piece of advice togive to my listeners that are
trying to chase dream goingentrepreneurship, whatever the
case may be, what would that be?
Ashley Cline (41:55):
So I would have to say, the foundation of where I'm
at today, in my business for thefirst two or three years of my
career. Even if you're alreadyinto your career, but you're not
where you want to be, you canstill do this, this isn't
something you only do at thebeginning. All I did was
network, people to peoplenetwork, I went, I joined a
(42:18):
group called BNI, BusinessNetwork International, joined
all my local chambers. And youcould find me every breakfast,
lunch and sunset mixer at one ofthese networking groups, meeting
people handing out my businesscard, getting to know people
finding people at these eventswho I thought that there's some
(42:42):
sort of connection and somewheredown the road, we can work
together on a referral basis ona client basis and scheduling
follow up coffee meetings. All Idid for two to three years
straight was network. And thatallowed me to build such a
strong foundation in my careerthat essentially, I'm not saying
don't network because I stilldo. I'm heading to CES this week
(43:05):
to network but essentially,everything flows. And now people
refer me to people. I'm not outthere, you know, kind of ever
really looking for business. Andit just comes.
Dustin Steffey (43:16):
I give you all these compliments. And then you
tell me you're going to CES andyou don't even invite me. Thanks
a lot.
Ashley Cline (43:21):
Sorry. Yeah, let's go see Yes,
Dustin Steffey (43:24):
has been one of the biggest things that I've
always wanted to go to I love Iwatch it right. And so
technology that's like the meccaof new technology coming out.
Ashley Cline (43:34):
Yes, I'm excited to see see what's coming down
the pipeline. So if
Dustin Steffey (43:39):
you have to call me because I doubt I'll be able
to make it. You'll have to callme and tell me how it
Ashley Cline (43:44):
was. Yes, I will.
I'll let you know. I'll let youknow what's coming.
Dustin Steffey (43:48):
Where's it out this year? Is it same place as
always? Yeah, it's in Vegasevery year, so I thought okay,
gosh, I'm so close to Vegas.
Yeah, I'm so far away.
Ashley Cline (43:57):
I know. I know. I can't turn down a weekend in
Vegas.
Dustin Steffey (44:02):
No, it's not my favorite place. But then again,
it has everything that is nice,like CES and other fun events.
So
Ashley Cline (44:10):
yeah, I'm a foodie. So Oh, you're gonna
enjoy your
Dustin Steffey (44:13):
life there.
You're gonna get back like 10pounds
Ashley Cline (44:16):
bigger. Yeah, for sure. Looking forward to it.
Dustin Steffey (44:20):
That's awesome.
Ashley, thank you so very muchfor not only providing some
awesome key nuggets, but justkind of talking about how your
journey was and what you do nowand providing such a awesome and
powerful value added widgetessentially for marketing.
Ashley Cline (44:39):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you having me on the
show and looking forward togetting to know some of your
your listeners. So please reachout. We'd love to chat, love to
network, Zoom coffee, whateverit is. Let's let's connect.
Dustin Steffey (44:54):
Yeah, that's the biggest thing guys so
challenging this year for seasontwo. I'd love to hear from more
of you. You and so with myguests as Ashley just said, so
please don't hesitate to reachout to any of us and let's let's
kind of start chasing somedreams this year. Let's go into
this new year. Really like justtaking it by the horns. So let's
(45:15):
have some fun again. Ashley veryapproachable. I love her. She's
awesome. Welcome to it. We'rehitting the ground running so
here it is.
Ashley Cline (45:25):
Yes, thank you Dustin. Let's do this. 2023
Dustin Steffey (45:28):
Yeah, let's let's kill it.
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