Episode 320: How to Use Google + Meta Ads to Grow Your Local Studio with Paid Ads Expert Ashley Brock

Episode Transcript
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Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Str (00:51):
Hey there, everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Female Empowered Podcast.
I am your host, Christa Gurka,and if you're listening to this
in real time, happy New Year.
It is January, 2026, which iscrazy and I am so, so, so
excited to kick off.
This, I think this is the fourthseason, maybe the fifth season

(01:12):
of female Empowered with a oneamazing human.
Ashley Brock with the Paid AdsAcademy, win with paid ads.
Ads with Ashley.
She's had a couple different,business names, but she is
amazing and I'm so grateful foryou taking the time.
I know how busy you are and I'mso grateful for you taking the
time to come chat with me and myaudience today.

(01:34):
So welcome Ashley to thepodcast.

Ashley Brock | Paid Ads A (01:37):
Thank you.
I'm so excited.

Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strat (01:39):
I am so excited.
I am gonna read her.
It's, it's a very, humble bio.
And then I'm gonna let you kindof

Ashley Brock | Paid Ads Ac (01:46):
Love

Christa Gurka | Fit Biz St (01:47):
wash it up a little bit because I
think you're, you have a lotmore to offer here, but

Ashley Brock | Paid Ads Aca (01:52):
it.

Christa Gurka | Fit B (01:53):
Ashley's, slogan is Making it rain, being
rainmakers, so she teaches herclients how to make it rain in
their business.
Being the founder of the PaidAds Academy and author of the
number one Amazon bestsellingbook, how to Win with Paid Ads
after Managing$200 million inAds.
Been for over a decade andadvising and working directly
with CMOs of Fortune 500 brand.

(02:14):
She built a nearly eight figurecompany in under three years.
And we are gonna talk about that'cause that's absolutely
amazing.
Hitting a$1 million day andbuilding a thriving team of 12.
I'm also gonna ask you aboutyour team'cause they really are
amazing, helping entrepreneursbe findable, scale profitably
and be known for more.
And I am part of her group.
I'm in her mastermind and I canjust say.

(02:39):
It's just been an incredibleexperience.
So I want you to know what agreat program it is.
And I don't say that lightly.
I've been in a lot of programsand, I, if I'm gonna spend money
on something, I want to get theservice back and it's just been
phenomenal.
can you, I'd love to just askyou your, your into ads, right?

(02:59):
And marketing in, in general,and then how you went from.
to deciding you were gonna startyour own business.

Yeah.
first of all, Christa, I have totell you, I'll never forget when
you, because I think you, youbought from an ad, you landed in
the challenge, and then after ityou were like, I just have to
say the whole machine of thisthing was good.
And I love her already.
because she sees What I see whenI look at things is I don't
just.
See what's right in front of me.
I see the big picture.
And of course, this person isobviously immensely successful

(03:29):
because they, they step, stepback and look at the whole
operation, which is why you'reso good and I've grown your
business so well.
I just, I'll never forget thatcomment in voice memo.
I was like, she saw it and it,it meant a lot to me.

And it does mean a lot.
I will say that, touchpoint andI know what goes into making
that happen.
it doesn't just happen.

No, it doesn't.

Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Stra (03:51):
It doesn't just happen.
again, if this is, and this iswhat she's doing behind the
scenes, what she does, frontfacing must just be that much
more incredible.
So

That was the goal.
That is the goal.
And I know that, and I say thisall the time, I know we're not
perfect, but we do choose to bethe best on purpose and for a
purpose.
And it's for just like you, formore people to find you.
But it, it takes feedback.
And anyway, feedback is actuallyprobably where this whole thing
started.
you asked, and it was, I went tothe career fair at the
University of Georgia.

(04:21):
I actually had a degree inbroadcast journalism, and my
husband and I were like, we needjobs.
Let's go to the career fair.
we go to the career fair.
I met with some differentbusinesses and it ended up the,
the one that I connected themost with.
And I remember going back toKyle, I was like, this is not me
being on camera at News Channelnine.
'cause I interned at a newsstation and, and I was like at
an a, b, C station.

(04:42):
I was like, I'm gonna get a jobthere.
And I was like, I just met withthis person and she was so great
and it's advertising, but shelikes me.
And I was like, I really likedher.
on day one.
I graduated college and then thenext day, I already had my job
lined up.
It was by college and thenstarted, I started at a, at a
marketing agency and then wentfrom, and that was a lot of

(05:04):
small businesses, and then Iwent from that one to the next
one.
I called the, the girl thathelped me get the job.
The one that hired me, she movedagencies and then she took me
with her.
I call her my fairy job mother

I

Ashley Brock | Paid Ads (05:16):
because she took me from there to there.
I went from small businesses andmaybe they're spending a couple
thousand a month to medium sizedbusinesses.
Maybe they're sending fivefigures a month, ultimately to a
large agency where my clientswere spending six figures a day.
I had multimillion dollarbudgets every month.
And I think what.
I loved the most out of gettingfrom there to there was doing

(05:38):
ads on all the differentplatforms.
I love the strategy of when doyou do Google versus when do you
do meta versus when do you doTikTok?
I guess to wrap it all up, I, I,I ascended, loved it so much.
Got to work with these hugecompanies.
But before and after work I wasteaching at a place called
General Assembly and I wasteaching at.
I was going to, and then, andthen I had people that found me

(05:58):
there and they were like, canyou teach me private?
then I'm teaching peopleprivately ads before work, going
to work, and then driving afterwork to go teach ads.
And that was a whole 10 yearthing.
that ultimately I got to a timewhere I was pregnant with my
second and I was I'm workingprobably 60, 70 hours a week.
I'm exhausted.
I can't leave my desk.
Even though I love my job.
These clients are paying myagency six figures.

(06:21):
A month.
What if I could just make aquarter of that a month?
I decided to start my own thing.

Christa Gurka | Fit Biz (06:27):
That's amazing.
I love listening to

Yeah.
It was wild.
Mm-hmm.

By the way, I could totally see you
being on TV as a broadcastertoo, though.
I could see you sitting in a

Oh, thank you.

Yes.
I could

Thank you reporting.
That's why I always sayreporting live.
It's like, it's like a,

Oh, that's

that because it was like a tie in to
like Ashley with me, with themicrophone being like, reporting
live from News Channel nine inChattanooga.
People like, why does she saythat?
And I'm like, because I was areporter.

Christa Gurka | Fit Biz S (06:54):
Yeah,

anyway, it's a whole thing.

Reese Witherspoon in the morning show.
You

That's, that's why I, I, she's my
doppelganger, even though Ithink she's cooler than me.
But

Christa Gurka | Fit Bi (07:03):
totally.

yeah,

about if she's

bucket list to meet her for sure.

Yeah.
let's get right into ads then.
And I, you kind of

Let's do it.

you like the whole thing about.
Google versus Meta versusYouTube.
I believe most of my audience ismostly familiar with Google and
Meta.
I think they kind of know

Yep.

other things out there like TikTok ads
and YouTube ads, and maybePinterest ads.
But it's one of those thingswhere they're like, I don't
really have the bandwidth tolearn that right now.
So

Mm-hmm.

of my listeners are also local
brick and mortar service spaces,service businesses.
Thank you.
In your experience, and I, Iknow what your strategy is, but
would you like to explain whatyour strategy is in terms of
local brick and mortar serviceproviders?

Yeah, if it was, if, if I was, if
someone said, Ashley, you have30 days to get 20 new clients in
my local service space, brickand mortar business, I would
say, great, we can do it.
And we would start with GoogleAds.
Because those people are alreadysearching for you.
They're already looking for aPilates studio or a yoga studio,
or a chiropractic studio or apellet floor studio.
they're, they're already lookingfor a therapist or, or somewhere

(08:12):
to go.
They're raising their hand andmost often on Google, if you
think about this, this bigfunnel, there's people that are
symptom aware.
Then there's people that areaware that those symptoms are a
result of a problem.
Then there's people that areaware that they have a problem
that they need a solution for,and then there's people that are

(08:34):
aware of your specific solutionon Google.
People are typically problemaware or solution aware.
I'm, I'm searching for thesolution of a physical
therapist.
they already know they want it.
You don't even have to sell'emthat they need one.
They already know.
And so they're just raisingtheir hand searching.
So being findable on Google forthat is the most lowest of every

(08:54):
dollar anybody could spend.
They could tell you, I want somewallpaper in the studio.
I need a new chair.
It's like, what you really needis to make sure that people will
sit in the chair and see thewallpaper.
you need to be findable onGoogle.
And then the strategy is, isonce you're, once they've been
to your website.
Once they've checked you out orthey've seen your Google
business profile, or havethey've gone to your Instagram
because you were, you werefound, they saw your website and

(09:15):
then explored beyond that, thenyou just needed to be top of
mind.
Because one of the things thatwe probably know is when I'm
searching or Chris is searchingon Google for something, most
common behavior is when I, let'suse a, let's use a yoga studio
as an example.
If I'm searching yoga studionear me, I'm like, oh look,
there's four.
I'm Googling and I'm like, whohas the best reviews?

(09:36):
Okay, they've got a knock, aknock in the, but I'm like,
okay, you've got Gold Star forme.
And then I'm like, oh, but thisone's closer.
And they also have good reviews.
Okay, this got a knock for me.
And then I see another one andI, and I click on their websites
and I'm like, okay, your websitelooks like it was updated in
1983.
That's no a Love 1983.
It's just that the websiteshouldn't be that.
This one, there's no reviews.
And I, I only see one type ofperson here.

(09:57):
I don't know if this is a didiverse group.
Maybe it's young, old.
And then this one, I'm like,your website looks really good.
I wonder where your Instagramlooks like.
And I scroll to the bottom.
I click on the Instagram, andthen I'm like, oh my gosh.
Look at how cute the studio is.
It looks so clean and nice.
Oh, I love that.
And it's right by the shoppingarea.
Maybe I could shop after.
And then I'm like, okay, thisone's got my preference.

(10:17):
But then what happens is studionumber one can't stop getting
back in front of me and I seethem over and over and over and
then they've got an incentiveand then I saw something else.
I didn't realize, even thoughtheir website was bad, at least
there's this other testimonialsand other people, it's like the
person ultimately, even though Iactually probably would've
picked studio number three, it'slike studio number one won't

(10:39):
stop following me around theinternet and they look really
nice.
Let me just give that one a try.
Because it's the law offamiliarity.
What we're more familiar with,we move towards, and so that's
the opportunity is be find a onGoogle and then stay top of mind
on meta.

Great.
the way that, and the way thatyou call them is prospecting is
like be findable, right?

Yep.

people,

That's right.

for the most part.
And then the being everywhere onthe internet is retargeting.

That's exactly it.

yeah, you can, you can do both, right?
You should do both actually.
Yes.
yeah.
I love that.
Okay, when you.
And I know you see a lot ofpeople's ads, and one of the
things that actually really didattract me to your program also
was you do have a ton of local,my business now technically is
online, but

Ashley Brock | Paid Ad (11:24):
Totally.

forever it was local business and my.
Clients right now are localbusiness providers.
the fact that you had so manylocal service providers in your
groups and in testimonials, thatwas also another big thing that
drew me to your program.

That's good to know.

what are some of the things that you
see, maybe mistakes when you seepeople's.
The way they've either set upthe ads or been taught to set up
the ads before.
the number one mistake.
Let's talk Google first.

Okay.

local search, what are some things you
that are really common mistakesyou see people make all the
time?

there's, there's two things for everybody
that's not an ads wizard.
The, the way that I could bucketthis for this to be super
straightforward is there's thewords

Mm-hmm.

and then there's the, the buttons.

Okay.

the words are what are the keywords?
What are the words on the ad?
What are the words on thelanding page?
Are, are the words good?
do you, are you actually showingup for the right thing?
Then there's the buttons andthere's so many buttons.
You're oops, accidentally, I'mtargeting the whole United
States.
I'm yep, that'll be why theywon't show up in your Pilates
studio.
And crap, I didn't know.
I've actually had that happen.
Someone no, it's all Pilatesstudios.
And I'm I know, but you'reshowing up in Kansas and you're,

(12:34):
and you're in California.
I'm no wonder you're gettingzero people.
that's just a button issue.

Yep.

Ashley Brock | Paid Ads Acade (12:39):
I feel it's a balance of people
and, and at the end of the day,the thing that I find so often
is people ju are just DIYing.

Mm-hmm.

let me just figure it out.
And I love the hard work andpassion that comes from somebody
who's to figure it out.
Somebody.
It's just, you can still figureit out yourself while having an
expert speed you up on that.

Yeah.
Yeah.

that I, I think people just, not,
people not realizing thedifference between yoga versus
yoga studio near me.
Those are two different keywordssomeone could be looking for.
someone's oh, what we do isyoga, they make yoga their
keyword.
And I'm for a hundred reasons.
I can tell you why.
That's a terrible idea.
It needs to be our, what is theintent of the person?

(13:20):
Because the, the thing aboutGoogle and Meta and all these
things is they'll optimizetowards the signals you give'em.
if you give them bad signals,you will get bad results.
But if you give'em good signals,you'll get good results.

mentioned

you, yeah.

to me in the call that we just had

(15:21):
this week where I asked thequestion about having all those
different conversions set up,like directions,

Ashley Brock | Paid Ads Acad (15:27):
Oh yeah.

and you made a comment

Calls.

question was Should it, should you just
optimize for one specific thingor are all of those conversions
okay.
And you said what?
What's gonna happen?
As long as those conversions aregood intent, like someone
looking for directions is a goodintent that they want to visit
you.
But if they just go to yourrandom contact page, that might
not be, and then Google is justgonna keep showing your ad to

(15:52):
people that will click and nottake an action type thing, which
which was a

That's exactly right.

Mind a mindset for me of oh yeah,
that Google will keep and meta'sthe same.
They will just keep showing yourad to the person that's gonna
take the, the action that you'retesting on.

That's right.
that's why it's you could givethem all of those signals, but
would you rather give them allof them or just some of them
that are the best intent?
And you wanna give the The thingis, is we get the option.
That's why I asked you, even atthe beginning, there was one,
one coaching call and there wereso many different keywords and I
was you could, you could show upfor all 10 of those keywords,
but what if you could just showup for the three that were the

(16:34):
most highest intent specific,you and you're I would like
that.
I'm we can do it.
We can eliminate all the othermess that someone could get
distracted by.
And I, even yesterday, my COOwas here and we had a VIP day
and she got a.
a eight figure lead from herGoogle ad while we were sitting
here.
She's this has been a fruitfulday.
And then I'm like,

day.
Great day.

she's so happy.
And it's yes, because she hasfive keywords, she has narrowed
it down to spending thousandsand thousands of dollars a month
on just five, because those arethe five that work.
And she's if they're searchingthat, they're searching for me.
That's it.
And it just takes time to getto, what do you wanna pay for?
Not everybody's gonna have fivekeywords, but sometimes you can,
depending on your budget.

I

Yeah.

really great.
the other thing, of the thingsthat I've learned from your
program is how to look at themetrics from a

Hmm.

Christa Gurka | Fi (17:21):
perspective.
really understand them.
And I would say you, you didmention oh, you know, when
someone's DIYing it, they mightknow or not know, but I've seen
people who have agencies doingtheir ads and I don't think they
have it.
up great or correct even too.
And that's, I mean, that didhappen to me at one point.

(17:43):
I was working with a, an adagency who was very reputable,
came, had worked with some veryhigh people and they had my ads
not optimized to the rightconversion either, but I didn't
know enough to.
Know the difference.

I.

their reports to me were oh, look at
all the impressions you got.
Look at all the clicks you got.
Look at how many people went toyour email.
But some of those people werein.
Botswana, and I'm is, that is noone's coming into Miami, Florida
from, But

No.

didn't know enough, I basically
abdicated the responsibility

Right.

enough.
And now I feel I've much betterskillset.
I can still have someone helpme, but I'm no.
Mm-hmm.
That's, that's not the strategywe want.
Nope.
These are not, these are notgood leads.
These are good leads.
Let's go more in on this one.
even with.
PE watching people that, thebiggest thing I see now, and I'd
love to hear your feedback onthis, is broad match versus

(18:47):
phrase and exact.

Yeah.

even a lot of, A lot of, even the,
the brick and mortar businesses,I know when I go in to look at
their Google ads, they're allset, their agencies or ad
persons all set them up withbroad match and from what I've
learned from you, that's notgood intent.

No.

of your picture with a little tent
inside and I'm

yes,

looking for a video of Pilates.

correct.

is there ever a time where you
would use broad

Yeah, when you've got so much money
and you're Hey, you're Hey, Iwanna expand a little bit and
let's just see if it gets goodquality.
Like when you're spending sixfigures a month.
Honestly, my accounts had broadmatch in it.
It's just for small businessowners, 90% of the time it's a
no and 10% it's a yes.
Like sometimes some long tailbroad match keywords can work.
Great.
And for those of you listeningthat're what are these match

(19:35):
types?
There's basically threedifferent signals you can give
Google of what you wanna show upfor.
And people that don't know whatthey're doing are just gonna
say, oh, these are my keywords,and you upload them.
What you don't realize is you'redoing it the wrong way.
You're not giving Google thesignals of how you wanna be
specific with that word.
That's the more broad option.
And Google is, and theirrepresentatives, they are, I'm

(19:57):
not saying anything againstGoogle.
I had great Google reps.
They were amazing.
There's different tiers ofGoogle support.
the people that are spending theabsolute most get the absolute
most experienced Google reps.
The people that are spendingbelow$50,000 a month are gonna
get, or even 10,000 or there'sa, there's a tier.
And the the goal is that Googlewants you to spend your money in
full and those account reps areincentivized to get your account

(20:19):
to spend.
And they know that it will spendwhen it's in broad match because
broad match can show up foranything and it can be really
lenient.
And that's why I had a dumpstercompany.
Actually be, showing up fortrash cans.
And I was like, you are a rolloff dumpster rental company and
because of broad match, you'reshowing up for trash cans, which
are day and night, two differentthings.
you'll spend a hundred percentof your budget and get zero

(20:39):
conversions.
I've seen agencies, and here'sthe thing about the agency side,
it's almost likewhen you thinkabout an organizational
structure, Christa andsomeone'steam, have you ever seen a
company where it's a bunch ofnew entry level people and
you're like, they're great,they're hardworking, it's
amazing, it's grown and there'sactually nobody who's been here

(21:01):
or since10 years ago to havesomebackground information.
And at a certain point.
Asads Grow grow, there becomesthis ad agency layer of all the
people that have actually neverdone the manual stuff that are
only in the new ai, let it bebroad, whatever.
And it's that's not getting asgood of results as the more
manual option, but they'veactually never even heard of it,
they definitely can't evenrecommend it.
And they're being told by theiradvisors, no, only broad smart

(21:24):
bidding.
And it's the only people thatreally know how to make it
happen are the people that havebeen around the block are in it
for long enough to be able toadvise.
I think sometimes that's whereit's like.
Man with every extra year, thepeople that have been doing it
the longest, there's fewer andfewer that are still in it.
I think that's, that can mess upthe performance when that's
someone's experience.

(21:44):
They don't even know what theydon't know to advise.

Exactly, and usually the business owner
and Iwill say, listen, most ofus are in my industry, we're
movement people we're very leftbrain people.
We're science people.
marketing is such a hugeumbrella for us.
We can understand it, butusually

You have?
Yeah.

the business that it's really hard.
It's oh my gosh, I have to learnthis new thing.
when.
It's like when our patients goto the doctor and the doctor's
like, oh yeah, you had surgery,but you're great.
You can go back.
You know?
Or you just had a baby.
Yeah.
But you can go back to runningno problem.
And you're, as a therapist,you're like, you could, but I
would not advise doing that.

Right.

when the business owner doesn't know
enough information to ask thequestion to the ads person or
the ads agency, there's no goodcommunication

Nope.
Nope, there's not.

sometimes when I'll see something
questionable, I'm not gonnaassume anything.
I would just say, Hey, would youask your ads person?
Here's question I would have forhow this is set up.
But I don't know what they arethinking on their end, but they
should have a real rational.
Answer for you

Yeah, that makes complete sense.

this reason and should show you the
money, so to speak.

Yep.

I think the point you made about
smart bidding versus manualbidding is great.
can we talk a little bit aboutthat and if you wanna explain
the difference between manual sothat our listeners might
understand the manual cost perclick versus smart bidding,
which is what I think a lot ofpeople in Google are pushing
people

Oh yeah, it's broad match and smart
bidding

Yeah.

that that's it.
And there's two ways you canpay.
bidding is just how do you pay?
Think about sitting in anauction.
It's like the auctioneer's go inabout a mile a minute and
everybody's like, Ooh,$3,$4.
that actually is what'shappening behind the scenes.
Every time you say, I wanna payfor this keyword, there's an
auction that is occurring andthere's a few ways you can pay
for that auction.

(23:42):
You can say, let Google decidehow much you should pay.
Let them automate it.
And if you think about why allthese agencies are doing broad
and and smart bidding andperformance Max, it is because
it is easier.
It takes more time and moreresources to train someone how
to do it a manual way.
'cause it's a skill versus do itthe easy way.

(24:03):
It's way easier to mass getsomeone to do something and
handle as many accounts aspossible at an agency when the
way that they're setting up thecampaigns is not so complicated.
Right?
there's, there's, with bidding,there's the way that you let,
let Google decide, which is aquicker, easier way.
Then there is manual.
Let me decide.
And what Google is trying to sayis, you don't have time for

(24:24):
that.
let us decide.
We'll figure it out.
It'll be great.
And honestly, I have manyaccounts that graduate from
Manual to Smart.
But what I found is manual iswhere you're saying, I wanna pay
this amount, no matter what ish.
Whereas Google could say, Hey,you wanna pay$3 a bid or$30?
Who?
Who knows?
And you're dang, I can't affordto pay$50 a click if my, what

(24:46):
I'm selling is 30.
You know what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

it's there's those two different ways
to pay.
And smart bidding works wellwhen there is data and
specifically conversions.
People that have signed up foryour class called you, whatever.
And if you don't have anyconversions and you're trying to
do smart bidding, it can't besmart and bid without data on a
conversion.
And so oftentimes, unless youstart with manual to get it to

(25:10):
figure it out, sometimes itstruggles to be able to actually
perform with smart bidding.
that's my,

it's great.

my experience.

Yeah.
And it's even, you're rightbecause even when you're trying
to change it from smart biddingto manual bidding, it says, we
do not recommend.

But yeah, it's in Big Blue, better.
It's scaring you.

yeah, exactly.
you're right.
You're not saying never usesmart bidding.
You're just saying

No.

Google can't get you to the right smart
bidding.
So

of the time there are.
There are times where I've hadsomeone turn on smart bidding
and it worked and we're like,leave it.
Great.
Good for you.
Congratulations.
It's just that is not themajority I don't teach that.
I teach what works most often.
Yeah,

have metrics on that.

that's right.

if you were looking at someone's,
again, local brick and mortarbusiness, what are the maybe two
to three metrics when you pullup your Google ad campaigns?
Right.
what are the two to three thingsyour eyes specifically are going
to right away?

Lead and cost per lead.

Lead and cost per lead.

That's it.
If there are leads coming intothat account, that's all I care
about.
If there's not, and it's zero'cause they literally haven't
gotten a single lead yet.
Then I'm just going to look atare the, are they the right
people and are they engagingwith the ad?
I'm looking at click throughrate.
If the click through rate isterrible, and I'm they're
obviously confused.
'cause if someone's searchingPilates studio and someone says,
we're, Pilates Studio Atlanta,and someone's ad says We're a

(26:33):
Pilates studio in Atlanta.
If at least five to 10% ofpeople are not clicking on the
ad, I'm something is wrong.
it's either not the rightpeople, your keywords are off.
Something's going on because ifthey're searching and what you
say is what they were searchingfor, it's gonna be relevant and
they're gonna click

Yeah.

less than 5%.

what, what's the click through rate
you like to see in Google?

Five per five to 10% or more?
less than 5%.
I mean, there are totally timeswhen it's two or 3% depending on
the industry.
Before a local service basedbusiness specifically, I really
like five at minimum.

Okay.
Great.

Yeah.
Okay.

can we transition a little bit to
you and your business, because Ithink just being a female
business owner, that's what mylisteners are.
talk a little bit about, I mean,it has been a whirlwind for you
these last two to three years.
can you give us a little bitfrom 2023 to 2025 what your

(27:32):
business has grown to?

Yeah, let's see.
I.
Left my job in December of 2022.
Yeah, December of 2022.
And I'd already been building itbehind the scenes, there was
some stuff going on already.
but I left in December of 2022,and then in May of, may of 2023,

(27:58):
I was getting pretty darnpregnant.
I think I was about eight monthspregnant.
And I decided to invest in aprogram that was$4,000.
It was actually 39 97.
And I told my husband,'cause ithad a three in front of it, that
it was only 3000.
it's funny that I can't, Iliterally lied.

I use the same math.

It's just, it's just husband meth.

Yeah.

And, I purchased that program.
It felt like the biggestinvestment of my life to pay
$4,000.
It's funny.
I could spend millions ofdollars for clients, but when,
when it was me, I was what ishappening?
panicked and then learned somesales skills, and the next
launch I had with my own ads, Ihad 20 or 30% higher conversion
rate.
I was oh my gosh.

(28:37):
I did the same thing but did itdifferently and just
communicated differently, and itworked.
I was like, wow, this is cool.
I started applying that in myads.
Then in December of that year,2023, I decided to invest$50,000
in a coaching program.
I did not have the money forthat, I told my husband that was
a hilarious story, y'all can getthe full story another time on
my podcast or something.
But basically I trapped him inthe, in the bathroom and was

(28:59):
like, Hey, I play, God told me Ishould spend 50,000 today.
He was like, God called.
You said what?
And I'm like, yeah, that.
I swear.
I know that sounds crazy, butanyway.
I did it the very next month.
I had my first six figure day inmy business, I was able to pay
off those credit cards and takethe weight off my anxiety, and
then I took a, whatever was leftof that money and just

(29:19):
reinvested it and hired someoneelse on the team, reinvested it
back in ads.
the business did 1.4 million in2024, and then it's 2025 and
we've done 7 million.

That's

That is insane.
and then I know that yesterdaywe planned for 2026 where we
will do 10 to 12 million is thegoal.
The goal is 10.
We're gonna go on our companytrip at 10, but I know that
we'll do 10 to 12 next yearbecause we are just getting the
right things in place.
But yeah, it's been, and theonly thing I didn't share in
that whole journey is when Imade the, when I made the$50,000

(29:54):
investment that January, I had asix figure day, well, six months
later in June of this year, wasit this year?
What is happening?
no, it was that year of 2024.
I paid six figures with thatsame person.
I bought the 4,000 from.
long story short, I paid sixfigures to invest in their
program, to work with them moreclosely.

(30:15):
Then I paid six figures to go bewith Alex or Mozy and has his
team on.
I just, I was relentless.
the reason we've done 7,000 isbecause I've invested more in
myself and the business thanever before, and, and that
includes the team.
we've grown from a team of.
One and a one and a half.
in, in our$1.4 million year, itwas me and one other person,

Okay.

two people, and then to do seven.
We added 12 that.
We're at 13 starting tomorrow oron Monday.
we'd absolutely invested in.
My growth, my skills.
I invested in four differentmasterminds.
People always tell me, well, Ican't work with you.
Be, and the same thing for youChris, when people are
considering working with you,one of the excuses, sorry, but
it's true, is they're like,well, I can't do it because I'm

(30:56):
like, you're just making upexcuses.
You can, if you wanna fight foryour excuses, you can have'em.
I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go grow.
And I just feel skills stack,they don't detract.
I'm like, oh, I'm in amastermind.
Perfect.
That's only gonna help me withthis other skill.
I've just relentlessly investedin myself in my team.
And of course we spent over halfa million dollars in ads, which
also helps.
it just, it all, there'sexpenses in the business, but we

(31:18):
also still grew very profitablyand got to help a lot more
people and actually help ourclients make millions, which is
what makes me and the team sohappy'cause we have a whole
little wind channel for that.
But yeah, that's a story I.

that is, about hockey stick growth.
That is, that's like a hockeystick.
And then on the other, like onthe other way around, it's like
a huge, I mean that's a hugeangle of hockey stick.
I'm curious to ask you, one ofthe things that I see, and I
felt it a lot in business, waswhen you start hiring people,

Yeah,

Christa Gurka | Fit (31:50):
management it's a different skillset

it is a different skillset.

Yes.
And I find, I don't know, I feelI, I get this from you too, and
just in terms of being a founderand a visionary, our.
I kind of call it the founder'sparadox sometimes, because our
brains are thinking 25 stepsahead and when we're hiring
people then we kind of have tothere's just this dichotomy.
So

Yeah,

handle, quadrupling your team in a year?

it wa, I'm gonna be honest, it was
really hard.

Mm-hmm.

It was hard on me.
It was hard on my employeenumber one, Laura Beth.
I, she and I had, she came overfor the VIP day and we were
just, ha we had a momentyesterday and we were both just
getting emotional.
'cause it has been hard to growa team and for everybody to be
okay because to grow at thatpace, you always need somebody
else, somebody's drowning allthe time.
And I refuse to hire someone whodoes not align with our core

(32:47):
values is just because we need aperson.

Hmm.

And we've hired almost one person a
month.
That's why we went from that to,'cause we hired someone at the
very end of 20, the, we had oneperson all year, but at the end
of November and December we hadtwo.
So we ended, and we were four.
So we went from four to, 12, 13.
we, I had to let one person go.
That was hard.
But it's because I, because thatperson.
It was, it, it was amisalignment with core values.

(33:12):
And it was because I, we, wewere so desperate.
We, hi.
We hired quickly instead offollowing through with our
process.
And so I was like, I'll never dothat again.
And so we've refined ourprocess, we've gotten support
for the people that we're owningso much of it because now we run
ads.
There's an application, theyhave to do a video, and now we
don't even look at anything oftheir qualifications until we

(33:34):
look at the video to see ifthey're a sane person with good
communication skills.
And so then after I've looked atthe video, then my hiring team
looks at their qualifications.
And then if their qualificationsare good, then they set up an
initial interview.
But we've, I'll tell you onething, we did not have a hiring
process.
It was Ashley, you call andLaura Beth calls and we're like,
you're in.
And now we have a legit,sophisticated, very good

(33:56):
process.
But it has been the hardestthing because as we've grown,
I've not wanted other people inmy team to drown, but I've had
to be a vision caster and belike, this isn't forever, and
I'm gonna, you're gonna be soglad that you pushed through.
Just hold on with me.
And so it's been hard, but Ihave the best team in the, I, I,
I, I don't wanna single one ofthem to go anywhere.

(34:16):
they're so good.
I'm so grateful for that, andthey've been willing to take
feedback.
Thank you.

have a great team.
I mean, I haven't met everyoneon your team, butcommunication
forme, as apersonal core valueis really important.

Yes.

and integrity andmeaning doing what
you're, say, say you're going todo.

Yeah.

I can say that I fully feel when I
invested in the program youprovided the service that.
You were advertising, right?
You know,

Praise the Lord.

well, I have joined groups that know,
and paid 15, 20, 20$5,000 to bein masterminds.
And then you get in the programand you're like, we're not even
seeing the person that sold usthe Mastermind, we paid to learn
from this person, and I haven'tseen this person.
Eight months.
where are they?
What, where are we?

(35:06):
the bait and

Man.

fun, right?
I will say your team is great.
At every email that I send, aresponse back.
I'm always I'm not sure if thisis the right person, but if you
can direct me to the rightperson, this would be great.
And I know that that comes fromleading from the front.
that doesn't happen in a vacuum.
That comes from the leader.

Mm-hmm.

Even if you, the leader is hiring the
right people to work thatprocess.
That's the step.

It's true.

when, and you, with your team now, how
do you feel you have had tochange on a personal level to
interact in Team dynamics?

Hmm.

Or maybe you haven't, maybe you're
no, I was built for this.

I have had to have self-awareness.
Luckily, although I'm notperfect at it, I really am in
relationships and in lifewilling to admit when I admit
when I'm wrong.
one thing I've done is admitwhen I'm wrong to the team.
there was, there was a teamcall.
A couple weeks ago, and I, I cutoff, one of my teammates was

(36:15):
Nope, we won't be doing that,and here's why.
then I just moved on and it wasreally rude how I responded.
And on the next team call, I wasHey guys, I just wanna start off
with, publicly acknowledging noone said anything to me about
it, but I lost sleep about it.
I, there was stuff going on andthere's no excuse, but this is
not how you talk to people.
And so I was like, I'm so sorry.
Here's how I want what I meantto say instead.

(36:37):
And having extreme ownership.
I read that book, extremeOwnership.
It's so good.
But

it over here.

yeah, I love it.
It's all, it's my fault.
I'll take the, the ownership andthen, I just know that they,
what I really try to do isthey're all different.
And the ones that, that I'm moresimilar to, of course it's
easier to talk to them.
The ones that I'm a little bitdifferent'cause I need different
personalities.
I need different people on myteam.
I don't, we do not need a lot ofAshley's, we need a diverse

(37:04):
group of people.
And so I've hired thatintentionally with people that
have other gifts.
I think one thing I've had to dois be a chameleon.
okay, with this person, I talklike this with this person, I
talk like this.
And, just being willing to takefeedback.
But yeah, I, I have lovedleadership from day one.
I love being the captain of thebasketball team.
I can't, I wanted to be on tv.
I, I love leading, it's fun forme.
It's thrilling for me to pullpeople together and pull the

(37:27):
best out of them.
I'm an A on the Enneagram, I'm achallenger.
I just wanna challenge you tobring out the best version of
yourself.
And that's fun.
And I've been self-aware andconstantly been.
Trying to be a better person andleader for them too,

Yeah,

my clients will win when the team
is happy.

A thousand percent.

Yeah.

A thousand percent.
I will say learning how to be aleader was a.
Tough transition,

Yeah.

a technician to a manager to a
leader.
And I always wanted to be aleader too.
I, I was always like, I wanna bethe head of the group project.
though, more though, not becauseI'm an eight, because I'm an
Enneagram three.
I wanted to be in control of theoutcome of everything.
it was important to me that Iwas like, we need to win.

(38:15):
And, in order to guarantee that,then I need to be in control.
for

Yep.

of also getting better at being a
little more self-aware.
What I recognize, I am achameleon by nature.
again, being an Enneagram three,I'm like, I will do.
myself into whoever I need to beto be liked and be win.
But it gets exhausting.
that type of task switching isvery exhausting.
for me, I recognize that Ididn't have the best

(38:41):
communication style for

Hmm.

And I also

Yes.

hire a bunch of mini mes.
That's like the

No.

if owner can make.
I started just putting people inthat were.
I'll admit better communicatorsthan I, than I am.

Yeah,

a good communication style with
that person.
And then they would in Tarn,have a better communication
style with some other people onthe team.
Right?
Because

totally.

I don't mean to hurt people's
feelings, I really don't.
I care a very deeply aboutpeople, but I do recognize that
again, like you, I'm like, yeah,we gonna move on from that.
And I'm like, that's not nice.
It is not nice.
And I don't, that's rude.
I don't

I can say it differently.
I'm like, I know that I can.
here, here's what we're doing.
Yes.

And we're gonna move forward, but,
where do you see 2026?
Well, we're in it at, at thetime of this recording, we're
still December of 2025, but atthe airing it's gonna be 2026.
what is, what are some thingsthat you're gonna say as an
owner and a woman and a humanbeing no to in 2026?
I'd love to hear what you'regonna say no to in 2026.

I will say no to things that are
not an absolute heck yes.
I, I'm like, I, I am going tosay no to traveling to speak at
things for free

Okay.

because I am so glad I spoke at things
for free when I started.

Mm-hmm.

really am, and I recommend everybody
does now, unless there's like a,a mutual exchange, I have to
protect my time and my, likewellbeing.
I am saying no to anything onMondays and Fridays.

I love it.

I'm only, I'm only, I'm going to use
those, like I'm working thosedays.
However, it's like on my time.
And I'm taking care of me.
I'm saying no to getting lessthan, seven and a half hours of
sleep.
I'm just gonna say no to morethings so that I can take care
of myself, make it worth whenI'm traveling.
because I mean, you, you, it'sjust a, it's the people pleaser

(40:46):
in me that wants everybody to behappy and doesn't want to say
no.

Mm-hmm.

someone was like, Hey, can you pack up
and just fly over here for free?
I'm like, I can't do thatanymore.
Um.
yeah, it's really justopportunities and my schedule, I
said, yes to things I, there's away that I truly believe that
there's a way all of us canbuild this schedule that
actually makes us happy.
It's just Do you have the, the,the power to say no to an

(41:13):
opportunity?
To be like, I'm so sorry I can'tdo that date, but I can only do
this date.
Can we make that work?
And what's so funny is I was toohesitant to tell people could we
do this date instead?
And 95% of the time, absolutely.
And I'm like, my God, I was justtoo scared to even com.
but could we do it like that?
So I'm just saying no to thingsthat could cause me physical
harm and burnout or losing timewith my family on the weekends

(41:36):
because I just know that you, Ican have better balance in 2026
than I did in 2025.

Yes.
I love it.
I love it.
I believe all of us pay withtime or money, and at

Yeah.

of our.
Career or journey or whatever.
We usually have more time thanmoney, so we're gonna

Not,

the things and we're gonna say yes
to all the things.
I was just telling someone whenI first opened Pilates in the
Grove, they were like, do youwanna teach at Lululemon?
Yes.
Would you teach a class atAthleta?
Yes.

yes.

teach outside at the park?
Yes.
Would you come do this race?
Absolutely.
And now I have more money thantime,

Right.

now I'm like.
I would love to.
I'm not gonna be able to makethat happen.
I can refer you to somebody orit, here's my fee.
At

Yeah.

right.

Yes.

I think it's okay.
I do think as women sometimes,somebody gave me a book in
college that said it was called,when I Say No, I feel Guilty.
And that book has changed thetrajectory of my life.
Just being able to say no to cercertain things.
we should always also be goodkind people.
And there are sometimes thingswe don't want to do, but it's
the right thing to do.
Right?

(42:41):
But in business.
You only have the, the more yousay no to allows the more
opportunities that are heck yes.
To come into your life and

It leaves space for it.
It does.
No, I love that.

Well, I'm excited to see what 2026 has
in store.
let's tell people where they canfind you.
your, Instagram handle I thinkis just at ads with Ashley.

That's me.

Yep.
We're gonna link it in the shownotes and you have a challenge
coming up at the end of thismonth, can you tell, we're gonna
link the challenge in the shownotes too, so people can join
up.
By the way, this is how I foundAshley and I.
It was so phenomenal.
I was done.
I'm joining.
Good.
And I will tell, I'll be veryhonest.
I, when I joined the challenge,I had zero interest in joining

(43:27):
the Mastermind.
I really was Don't think now I'mgonna join the challenge.
I'm curious to hear what itsaid.
But I had zero interest and thechallenge was so good that I was
this is a no-brainer.
in five days you completelytransformed me from, I have zero
interest to dropping fivefigures on a mastermind.
tell, tell our listeners aboutthe challenge.
I think everyone should sign upfor this.

Thank you, Christa.
I'm so glad you did.
I really am.
that's what I want everybody toknow for your business, for
anybody business listening.
When you are great at what youdo, and you can communicate that
well, people will want to cometo your place.
there's a lot of yoga studios,there's a lot of other places.
There's a lot of people thatcould teach ads.
They'll only want to work withyou.
Because you're you.
And I just, that makes me sohappy.

(44:10):
yes, the challenge, it's fivedays is incredible.
It's life changing, in myopinion.
I had my life changed by by thatother investment because I was
in a five day challenge.
I'm like, these, justexperiencing and learning from
other people has changed mylife.
yes, the challenge is below.
It's the win with paid adschallenge.
And we'll link, it's like paidads coaching.com/challenge.
Yep.

We, we'll link it in the show notes
below.
It really is a very good.
again, even if you were like me,you're like, I have no desire to
sign up for a marketing, do thechallenge.
I'm just gonna tell you sheteaches so much in those five
days that you will learnsomething each and every day in
the challenge that you had neverheard before.
I'm telling you, I've been doingmarketing for a long time and I

(44:49):
was like, I have never heardthis before.
and I, we both believe.
Putting yourself in the roomwith different business owners
is a, an integral part to yourgrowth as a female business
owner.
As a male business owner, I justreally, really believe that

(45:09):
putting yourself in the roomwith different entrepreneurs is.
Life changing in, in terms of abusiness.
And so it's been a really greatexperience for me to be part of
your program and I do thank youso much for taking the time to
speak to my audience today.

I loved it so much.
I really am I've loved workingwith you and you're so smart
too.
for all of you listening, I knowyou know it.
'cause if you're listening, youalready know.
Chris is amazing, but she'svery, very smart and she's
successful for a reason, and sheloves helping people do that,
and it's really cool to watch.
yeah, I'm so thankful.
Yeah, it was great.

you too.
All right, everyone.
Until next time.
Bye for now my friends.

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