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April 1, 2025 14 mins

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What happens when someone pushes the boundaries of their potential? Ashley's journey—from working in a hot dog factory to becoming a Vice President of Human Resources—is a testament to the power of self-belief and determination.

Raised in a blue-collar family with no clear path to college, Ashley never envisioned an executive career. At 20, as a single mother, she walked into a staffing agency looking for work—only to leave with an opportunity that would launch her into the world of HR. "I wanted to be a mom my son could be proud of," she shares, describing how motherhood became the driving force behind her ambition.

In our conversation, Ashley reflects on how The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People transformed her approach to personal and professional growth. Now a certified facilitator, she’s introduced these principles across multiple companies, creating what she calls "a common leadership language" from the executive level down. Her biggest personal challenge? Redefining her relationship with food—moving from seeing it as a source of comfort to making healthier choices while still enjoying life.

At the core of Ashley’s philosophy is the belief that "we don’t fail, we learn." Her story proves that with mentorship, education (earning her bachelor’s, master’s, and MBA), and relentless commitment, it’s possible to break past limitations. Ready to unlock your own potential? Listen now and take the first step in your transformation.

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Hi, I’m Marc Thomas, Founder and CEO of Current TEK Solutions and CYBER GUARDIANS. If you or someone you know could benefit from our cutting-edge IT and cybersecurity services, we’d love to help. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business. https://www.currentTEKsolutions.com

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wanted to explore what my full capabilities were
and at times I thought I hadmaxed those out.
I had people who pushed me andput me in roles that forced me
to grow and learn.
Failure is never an option,right?
I mean, we don't fail, we learn, right, so it is.

(00:21):
How do I figure out if someonetrusts me to do this?
I cannot let them down.
If you're telling me that thisis my job, I'm going to give you
everything I got.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
There's no sense in doing things halfway what's the
hardest thing that youexperienced in changing your
habits, short of getting off thecouch?
Right, but what?
I guess what's one of thehardest things that you
experienced personally and howdid you overcome that?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
yeah, great question.
So the hardest thing was likefood.
I'll be honest, because I lovefood and it's entertainment.
It's you know, you connect withpeople through food and so, and
it's really it was trainingmyself so I can still enjoy it
and make good choices.

(01:09):
Um, so I don't, and this isthis is kind of a plug, but not
really but have you ever gonethrough the training of seven
habits that highly of, highlyeffective?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
people.
I've heard it numerous timesbut've never never invested the
time into that so that programchanged my life.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm actually a certified facilitator, like I
now yeah, I now train others onthis, um, but it was
revolutionary in my life, sothat started about eight years
ago when I went through thefirst session.
And it is literally simple.
Principles that when you putthem together you're like, huh,

(01:52):
sounds simple, but it's not thatsimple.
But just that was a huge.
That was a huge inspiration.
That was a huge inspiration.
So, uh, in my current job I hadthe opportunity to introduce
this to the organization and Ithink it clicked in me again.
I'm like, if I'm gonna tellpeople to believe in this, I

(02:14):
gotta live it.
And that's really like I need tochange habits and but, and I
know how to do it, and I knowhow to teach other people how to
do it, so just go do it.
I love that.
I had no idea.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
you know the things I learned and, once again, I
would try to be as transparentas possible.
Right, you and I obviously havea connection here.
I've known each other for quitea few years, but there's so
much I don't know about you, andyou know.
You talk about the food thingand, yes, I mean, for me it's

(02:50):
more the sweets, and yes, I havea tend to overeat and things
like that.
And, yeah, I have noself-control.
You know, um, I don't know whento stop or I'll eat to the fact
that I'm miserable or I'm sick.
I know I just can't leave italone.
It's just, mark, come eat me,right, like going.
So I and I think it was lastsummer I was visiting and, um, I
think at that point youintroduced me into, like the.
Was it low sugar, no sugar,ketchup or something right?
I mean it quickly found its wayinto my refrigerator, and at a

(03:11):
cost, because we know that itseems like in order to.
If you want to eat better it.
You know the cost is you caneat like crap really cheap,
which sucks right, we'rebackwards in society when it
comes to that.
But, yeah, you know, justsharing a piece of that.
So, no, I had no idea that, a,that you did this thing and it's

(03:31):
amazing.
But as far as you said the food, and that was the biggest
struggle in changing that, andyou're right, what do people do?
Hey, let's go grab a bite toeat together, or let's do this,
or let's go have some drinks.
Well, we know that thosecalories are really good for you
, right?

Speaker 1 (03:50):
and we know where that tends to store as fat.
I mean, this is it's not whatwe're trying to accomplish,
right, so right.
It's a whole new discipline,and for me it was.
It was a whole new disciplineof putting that like as a
priority.
I've never done that before, solike it's like retraining your
brain yeah, and that in itselfcould be a challenge, right?

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I mean yeah, and then you have you have a family and
with that family, then you havethose, those influences right
around you, right and um.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
That can be a challenge in itself yeah, and
not everybody wants to eat mom'shealthy recipes, right?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
sure, sure another one of mom's healthy recipes no,
we went to pizza andbreadsticks and all the things
that go with that, not thehealthy stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
So you touched on these seven healthy habits and
bringing it into your workplace.
You're in the manufacturingindustry as far as the industry
you're serving and your employer, but you are on the human
resource side of things, correct, correct, yes, and that's where
you've built your career yes,yes, so I this is.

(04:54):
This is my 20th year in humanresources congratulations,
that's a nice round number yeahthat's awesome, um, and you
introduced this to.
You're able to introduce thesehabits to a team and teach them
on that, um, the management teamyeah, so we are one, one of six

(05:15):
companies under a holdingcompany.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
okay, so, um, what was really awesome is I shared
this idea with our board ofdirectors and they were so open
and they're like let's do it.
We had the opportunity to bringleaders from all six companies
through multiple groups andsmall courses and introduce it

(05:37):
company-wide, so it was a lot offun.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, that's fantastic and the feedback you
get from people, the team.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, so it's really helping build a common
leadership language right.
So when we, when we started atthe executive level, it's like
if we can't do it from the topright, we got to start there.
We got to start there and buildthe stability.
So we were fortunate enough tobe able to have a consultant
from Franklin Covey come in andlead some of those classes.

(06:09):
And then the last two I havedone solely working down to like
the supervisory level or, youknow, engineering those strong
individual contributor levels aswell, but really just
introducing.
You know small things like justplanning and communicating and
preparation.

(06:29):
You know small things like justplanning and communicating and
preparation, and it reallyfocuses on self-improvement
before you can improverelationships.
So it's really, you know, builda relationship with yourself
and then go build betterrelationships with the people
you live with and work with.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Love it.
I know myself I'm working on me, right.
I may have to work on me beforeI can work on anything and help
those around me.
So I can really appreciate thatand understand where you're
going with that and how you'remaking that work for you but
helping others make that workfor them.
But you went from zero to 20.
What influenced your careerjourney?
What got you started Right?

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, and I have thought about this and it's just
crazy honestly to me how I gothere.
If you would have said to 16year old Ashley that at you know
, in your mid 30s you would be aVP of HR.
I would not have believed you.
You know I just I wouldn't have.

(07:39):
I had, I had great influences.
I was so I didn't grow up in afamily that was like very
college bound, right like Like Igrew up very blue collar.
My parents worked inmanufacturing.
Actually putting myself throughcollege, I worked at the same
hot dog factory.
It was hired by the same HRlady that hired my mom 18 years

(08:02):
before you know.
So I had the opportunity throughhigh school and I think back
about it, high school and myfirst couple of jobs people saw
things in me that I didn't seein myself and I was like I can't
thank those people enough,right, and so I try to do that

(08:24):
now and I have the opportunityto be in a career that lets me
do that.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
But it's you know there was times where I was
working three jobs going toschool full time, you know and
trying to just figure it out.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
So I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of
lessons, because my path wasnever straightforward.
I was taking all the dirt roadsLike I made it a little bit
harder than it really had to beRight.
But, luckily, they all kind oflike circle around to each other
.
Yeah, and then what reallyhappened is um, surprise, hey,

(09:04):
you're going to have a baby at20.
And so then I'm like like Ihave to be somebody for this
human right, like I want to be amom that my son can be proud of
, build a life that's maybe alittle bit easier pathways for
him than how it worked out forme.

(09:26):
so I walked into this, so Idecided to change colleges so I
went from community college touniversity because I could take
all my classes at night, I couldparent, I could work and go to
school, and that's what I didfor four years.
Um, and I walked into this tempagency looking with my baby

(09:53):
okay, because, I was a singlemom I was.
I ended up being a single mom at20.
So I walk in with this babycarrier and I'm looking for a
job.
That's in the same town as theuniversity and this lady looks
at me and she says well, how doyou feel about working here?

(10:14):
I didn't even know what thatmeant, right?
So I got the job in thestaffing agency and that's where
my love for HR came from.
So I started interviewing youknow working with companies to
do their job placements, helpingwith job descriptions.

(10:36):
You know managing, you knowpeople on site at other
companies, learning aboutpayroll, and I was like, oh, I
like this.
So, for the third and finaltime, I changed my college major
.
And here's, 20 years later.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
So you know, you said the 16 year old Ashley, you
know, would have dreamt you'd beVP and HR and do these things.
What did you think you were?
What path did you think youwere going to be taking?

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Um, I knew I didn't want to just work in a factory
my whole life, which I do, justin a different capacity, because
I do love the idea of howthings work and how the world
turns Right and it takesmanufacturing to do that.
I just wanted to be something Iknow that sounds something more

(11:29):
.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, Like I just Respons't.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
I know that sounds Something more.
Yeah, like.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
More responsibility.
You know those types of things.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
You didn't want to just pack your hot dogs.
whatever role you might've been,you wanted to yeah more
challenges, and so I wanted, Iwanted to explore what my full
capabilities were, and at times,I thought I had maxed those out
.
And then, you know, I hadpeople who pushed me and put me

(11:54):
in roles that forced me to growand learn Right, because I
failure is never an option.
Right, I mean, we don't fail,we learn Right.
So it is, how do I figure outif someone trusts me to do this?
I cannot let them down.
Um, and we're going to.

(12:16):
We're going to figure it outand we're if.
If you're telling me that thisis my job, I'm going to give you
everything I got.
There's no sense in doingthings halfway.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
So would you think that?

Speaker 1 (12:28):
has has propelled me a little bit into more
opportunities to grow.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, and so do you think that's what is, I guess,
motivated you and keeps youmotivated?

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, I would say so, I am.
I am naturally a motivatedperson.
I always want to like okay, ifI got here, what's next, what's
next, what's next?
Right, I'm always setting thatnext stepping stone, um, and
figuring out how to just keepgoing.
So, yeah, I, it's that fire, Ihave a little bit of fire.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
that's like I know I can do it and I'm gonna figure
it out so, as a single mother,20 years old, you happen to walk
in the staffing agency.
They ask you if you'reinterested in working for them.
At that point you realize, hey,I kind of like doing this thing
.
And that led you on a path ofchanging your education to be

(13:21):
focused on HR.
Now I know personally that youare driven to continue on.
So you did your four years.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
I did.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
And that wasn't enough.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
No.
So then I decided to take onanother year and got my master's
of science in leadership,because I loved being able to
help people grow and influencethem to be their best versions
of themselves, so that reallytugged on me.
So after that I actuallystarted teaching undergraduate

(13:55):
courses at the university.
So then I decided well, I needto keep going again.
So in order to expand what Icould teach, I went and got my
MBA as well.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Hi, I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and CyberGuardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,

(14:33):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
Oh,
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