Ashlan Glasizer-Anderson is the founder and CEO of AshbeanPDX Marketing, a fractional marketing firm that helps mission-driven businesses and non-profits with their marketing needs. Ashlan is also the co-host and producer of Take the Leap Podcast. In this episode, Ashlan and Zhou talk about how marketing can be non sell-sy, the everything-is-urgent trend and how that is unnecessary, helping value-driven organizations, reading (book riot), and the abundance mindset.
Follow and work with Ashlan:
Website: https://www.ashbeanpdx.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashbeanpdxmktg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashbeanpdxmktg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ashbeanpdxmktg/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ashbeanpdxmktg
Book Riot:
https://bookriot.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hello everyone, welcome to The Intersection, a podcast program
about intersectionality, intersectional identity, and
intersectional journeys. Both professional and personal
journeys and as we all know, they are very interconnected.
And today is June 20. It is a summer solstice in the
(00:36):
Northern hemisphere and June is a very intersectional month.
As we mentioned in previous episodes, it is Pride Month.
As we all know, it is also Immigrant Heritage Month, as
well as PTSD Awareness Month andMen's Mental Health Awareness
Month and when and yesterday we celebrated Juneteenth and then
(01:00):
we also had Father's Day and of course, today's summer solstice.
So June is a very rich, colorfuland intersectional month.
And I'm hoping, you know, folks out there are celebrating and
taking care of each other. And today I have the pleasure
and honor to welcome a peer and a friend and a colleague.
(01:21):
Her name is Ashlyn Glazier Anderson and Ashlyn is the
founder and CEO of Ashby PDX, which is a marketing firm.
And Ashlyn actually right now isbased out in Vegas.
And we connected via, I think, American Marketing Association
(01:43):
PDX chapter a few years ago and we reconnected recently and I
just realized, oh, I want you tobe my guest.
So here she is. Welcome, Ashlyn.
Thanks for having me, Joe. I appreciate it.
Yeah, I think we met in Kovid. Yes, like, yeah.
In COVID, so it's been so long. But yeah, it was via Zoom.
(02:09):
Like I think a Zoom coffee chat or something like that, which is
awesome. Yeah, I bring my, I think my
brain just entirely like filtered out COVID.
Oh. Totally.
Yeah. Well, I mean, there's also
people that I realize that I know from like the COVID times
because like online and virtual stuff just got going that I'm
like, I realized I was like, I actually have never been in like
(02:31):
physical like space with them. So I think that's also always
like very, very strange because I do have a lot of folks that I,
that I keep in touch with like in other parts of the country
that I'm like, are we ever goingto see each other?
Or it's really, it's really fun when we do finally get an
opportunity to like meet up as well.
Yeah, yeah. It feels like the whole kind of
(02:53):
network or social, our social life has entirely changed
because of the pandemic. And I mean, we did hang out when
you were in Portland and then you moved in Vegas.
So I would love to invite you toshare your journey, you know, as
a professional marketer and right now you are the, I think
(03:14):
it's been quite some time since you started running Ash Bean.
So maybe share your journey a little bit with us.
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I was telling somebody
this the other day. My journey in marketing actually
started in high school. So I took marketing.
I had run out of electives to take in high school.
And so the marketing folks who were in the marketing class, we
(03:39):
got to run the student store. So like we got to be in there
like during like breaks and stuff like selling candy bars
and like sodas and stuff like that.
So that was really, really fun to be a part of that.
And then we also had an opportunity like to always go to
basketball games there. There was a lot of like
(04:01):
opportunities to like just be out of school by being in that
group. So that was the that was the
general appeal of it. But I really also loved it
because I feel like because I started learning about marketing
so young, it's just it's like a natural part of my brain.
So I've grown up thinking about it.
And when it became time to choose a major in College in a
(04:24):
direction, I actually really liked psychology and I really
liked marketing. And then I looked into like,
what the career paths and opportunities were.
And I was like, I can still do alot of psychology stuff in
marketing because it's like the study of human behavior and what
makes us buy things and like what, you know, what appeals to
certain folks. So that was really, really fun
to be a part of that. And then I went to yeah, studied
(04:47):
it in college, didn't go to gradschool till much later.
And everybody always is like, oh, you got an MBA?
And I was like, I don't, I have a master's in strategic
communications because I went toPortland State and their program
was designed kind of aligned similar to an MBA.
So you took like management courses, you took finance and
(05:08):
accounting and all these different things.
So my, my counselor there was just like, hey, you would
basically be redoing your 400 levels at 500 levels.
Like it doesn't really make sense for you to come back and
do an MBA. So it took me 10 years to figure
it out, but I ended up going to U of O in their Stratcom
(05:29):
program, which was really fun. So I worked, I guess right out
of college, I worked for what I consider a more traditional
advertising agency. I started as a front desk
receptionist. I learned how to answer a six
line phone system and transfer calls.
(05:50):
And like, you know, it'd be thatperson that had her hands in a
lot of different projects 'causeI just kind of became like a
support person to all the different teams.
I was there for about four years, but there was no upward
mobility there, so I didn't really have like a job to step
into. I survived the 2008, you know,
(06:12):
the crash of 2008 we had. They had gone through some
downsizing and I survived. And then I ended up moving on to
work at Fred Meyer Jewelers in their marketing department.
So supporting their team as a assistant, I eventually switched
over to being on their e-commerce team where I helped
(06:37):
lead their vendor onboarding program.
So if you if you buy things online, like many well known
retailers do this, they have programs where the vendor or the
manufacturer that creates the product actually ships direct to
the customer. So my job was to onboard our
(06:57):
vendors, teach them how to send things so that the customer
would have no idea this was coming from, you know, a jeweler
in New York as opposed to the distribution center in Portland.
So I did that for total about six years.
And then I also was running intothe same issue.
I was not moving, moving up. I was not giving, being given
(07:18):
promotional opportunities, even though along the way I was
collecting unpaid labour. So I was part of the cultural
council and I was part of the communications like council and
all these different things. But because of my capacity to do
more than just, you know, what Iwas hired to do.
And I was around that time that I met, it's actually through a
(07:40):
Max list event that there were folks who were tabling from the
University of Oregon and just raving about the their masters
program. And that's how I decided to go
in that direction. And somewhere in the background
of all of this, I was volunteering at the American
Marketing Association. I had been volunteering with
(08:02):
another nonprofit that was near and dear to my heart, Buddy's
360, that has since closed down.But I, I loved the work that
nonprofits did. So about two months before I
graduated with my masters, I gotan opportunity to work for
friends with the children's national office doing their
digital marketing. And that was kind of my foray
(08:24):
into more purpose driven, mission driven work.
And actually I skipped over it. I did have a stint and about a
year and a half, a little bit over a year and a half stint
with a digital marketing agency where I learned all about Google
ads. I had never had experience with
them before. It was all completely learned on
(08:46):
the job, learned about other forms of kind of digital
marketing as well. And then when this position
internally at Friends of the Children came up, it was it was
nice to be able to do it in house instead of kind of
advising clients on the outside as an account manager.
So I was there. And then after a couple of
(09:08):
years, honestly, I wasn't makingthe salary that I wanted.
And so I got an opportunity to start Ashbeam PDX marketing as a
side gig, as a side hustle, doing something for a friend's
mom. And then I formed an LLC, a
business LLC to do that. And then after that project
(09:28):
wrapped up, I started doing market research calls and asking
different people that I assumed were in my like the target
audience that I would want to work with questions just to
understand, like, what were their needs in the marketing
space? Like what do they pay people to
actually do this stuff? You know, what are the, what are
the words and terms that they'resaying that that I can like look
(09:52):
for and listen for And out of one of those market research
calls. At the end of it, the person I
had interviewed was like, hey, do you want to do this for us?
And I was like, completely shocked I didn't have an answer
for that. And then she's like, you can
think about it, but like, this is the kind of support that we
need. And that was my first client and
she is still with me till this day.
(10:12):
So 4 1/2 years later, yeah, we still work together and it's
been history ever since. So I did, I did end up switching
jobs at some point. I I worked in another nonprofit
as their digital marketing manager for about 7 months.
But from the time I started my business to the time that it had
grown big enough to basically replace my, my income at this
(10:36):
job, it took me 15 months to focus, focus and getting clients
and figuring out my work flows to do that.
And so in May of 2022 is when I,I say, I really stepped full
time into working as a marketing, a fractional
(10:56):
marketing person for a bunch of different organizations.
And I love the work that I do. It's been, that's been one of
the greatest things about this is being able to choose, choose
who you work with and also beingable to make a greater impact
with more organizations. So yeah, so I worked agency in
house, agency in house and now started my own agency so I can
(11:19):
work on it. A lot of different projects with
a lot of very cool people. That's a fast, like a fantastic
and fascinating and awesome kindof back story.
I mean, the fact that you workedat all kinds of organizations
basically allowed you to developall kinds of skills and now you
(11:41):
are the boss basically. And I do want to mention it
sounded like the fact that everytime you left a job because you
were not being appreciated enough.
Yeah, yeah. And I wasn't getting fulfillment
from them, yes. Yeah, that's kind of like
(12:03):
there's always this story, I think for like a lot of
entrepreneurs is because they don't feel fulfilled at that
job, they are not paid enough, the unpaid labor and emotional
burden, etcetera, etcetera, eventually forced them to look
to a different direction. I think that's really
(12:24):
interesting because you know, itfeels like every time there's a
roadblock, it's an opportunity. It is very frustrating that
oftentimes the roadblock is women professionals not being
appreciated. Yes, yes, yes.
Or it happens after you decide to leave.
(12:47):
So you hear from folks like there was one, I, I, you know, I
did an exit interview with one and they were like, oh, we were
going to promote you. We were waiting until after you
graduated. And I was like, why didn't you
tell me? And also, should I believe you
that, you know, like, because itsounds like you want me to stay
and I don't want to stay. You're not planning on staying,
(13:11):
you know, and there's only been one job that I did negotiate
like a start date 'cause I did want to fit, like I, I really
wanted to finish up a project and I was just like, yeah, they
need 3 weeks also for anybody who, for anybody who's switching
jobs, I have never done it whereI take like the week off or two
weeks off. Take the break between the jobs.
(13:32):
They'll still have it waiting for you.
I and, and anybody who's hiring,let people have a break because
they have a break. They need, they need that mental
space to disconnect from what they were doing before in order
to do well when they come into your, your space.
But that's such a great advice. And I mean, I'm guessing that's
(13:55):
like lessons learned from your previous experience.
And it's like a great is so important.
It's kind of like a reset. Like before we start something
new, we need a reset. And I feel people are still not
used to it in the US. It's like we have to, we have to
keep the ball rolling. Yes, yes.
(14:18):
In reality, most things are not an emergency.
Most things are not a life, lifeand death situation.
Like, yeah, I just it's been a while.
It's been a few weeks now, but Ijust watched that show on HBO
Max, The Pit, which is like all about Oh my God, have you
watched it? OK, yes.
I love that show. Very intense, yeah.
Makes me so anxious I cannot stop.
(14:39):
Yes, exactly. I mean, I think we I think we
stopped. I think we stopped at the last
three hours like and I was like,I got to go to bed because I got
to go to bed and we'll finish like the rest of it in the
morning. But it's like because I think
it's like 15 episodes. So I watched that show for 12
basically just like 12 hours straight.
Wow. And for folks who don't know,
you should put it on your to watch list.
(15:01):
It's an ER like it's every hour of the ER, every episode is one
hour. And it's shows like that that
give me perspective. Like nothing I do in marketing
is that, you know, it's serious,but it's not that level of
severity with a few exceptions. If your website is down, you
know, like if, if there are things that are impacting your
(15:23):
ability to like sell your products or services or some
things, you know, broken that that was my fault, I will work
on fixing it for you. If it was something you broke or
if it was, you know, like there's been times where like
people didn't pay their freakingwebsite bill, you know, like
they're hosting bill. I was like, yeah, that's on you,
you know? I mean, I'm not gonna put down
(15:45):
my credit card number. Exactly, Exactly.
Yeah, yeah. I hear you 100%.
I think we, our society has these like kind of made-up idea
of what is urgent and when we don't have a boundary, kind of
like keeping us away from rushing into everything, then
(16:08):
everything becomes an urgency. Yeah, yeah.
So I that's a good reminder. Also, we create our fake
urgency. Like I, I have gotten used to,
you know, a lot of times when you're an entrepreneur, A
solopreneur, you get to make your own deadlines on a lot of
things. And so I think being gentle with
(16:29):
yourself, like, be like, is thisthe date that somebody really
asked for? Or is this the dumb date that I
was like, I thought I would feelgreat and I would just get all
this stuff done. You know, honestly, most people
are OK. You know, if you just explain,
if you talk through or, you know, like you and I just
chatted this morning, like, where's that project at?
(16:49):
Yeah, it's, you know, and, and nobody's angry or upset about
it. You just be real and have a
conversation about it. And it's not, it doesn't need to
be. I think a lot of times we get in
our head like, Oh my gosh, they're going to hate me or
they're going to be mad. And it's just like they just
want a status update. And you know, if you share what
(17:11):
was going on, it's totally OK. Yeah, I feel often times the
sense of urgency is also createdby the lack of transparency.
Like if you just have a word or two, just say, hey, where are we
at? And if people just need some
clarity, give them the clarity. Or just say, in fact, can we
(17:33):
have more time? Like so, oftentimes problems can
be addressed in one or two questions.
Yeah. And I think, you know, like you
are, you will major in strategiccommunications.
I feel like you probably have a lot of tools in your department
(17:53):
to address those kind of like this is urgent.
But is it like, yeah, yes, yes. I want to go back to, you know,
during the time when you were working with Friends of the
Children, which is a purpose andmission driven or nonprofit
organization. And when you talk about being
(18:15):
independent and fractional marketing expert, how do you
practice the purpose and missiondriven kind of value in your
work? Because as we all know, in
conventionally marketing works for capitalism.
(18:35):
It it drives sales, it drives revenue, it drives desires and
needs and wants, even though oftentimes those desires and
needs and wants are again made-up.
So as a marketing person over the last 4-5 years, how have you
been practicing the purpose and mission driven value?
(18:56):
Yeah, most of my clients are actually nonprofits or they're
folks who are heart centered. They have purpose driven brands.
So you actually she was on the podcast earlier.
Danielle Dinkleman is a client of mine from ACW Coaching.
I, I try to as best as possible align with entrepreneurs who are
(19:21):
serving a higher good or they'rejust not, how do I describe it?
They're not doing bad things, you know, like they're not
trying to take advantage of the,the consumers.
You know, they're not trying to shame or blame folks.
Like I, I think in my head, I have a, have a really sweet
(19:42):
client who is based out of Texas.
She has a spice blend. So she has it is, I can't ever
remember. It's like garlic, turmeric,
oregano, thyme. It might be thyme.
I can't ever remember. All the spices are with it and
it was bad on me. But she has these chili chili
(20:06):
pepper salts basically so that she's got Hatch jalapeno,
Chipotle, habanero, cayenne and the Carolina Reaper.
And she does. Markets in Texas because she's
based out of Texas and then she sells online and then she sells
in like like stores like she, she'll often be picked up with
(20:27):
places that want like gift gift able items.
So that's how she's selling all across the country.
But you know, we made the strategic decision not to sell
on Amazon because she was just like, I really don't want to
support Amazon. And she, she sent me a thing the
other day where she was just like, Hey, should we, you know,
(20:48):
should we do this? Because that, that is one thing
that I, that I do with a lot of my clients is they'll run
business decisions by me. And I'm, you know, and I'll
remind them like we already, youknow, we already made this
decision earlier. So it was, it was a somebody who
was reselling her salts on Amazon was like, Hey, I don't
want to do this anymore. Do you want to take over the
account? And she she's like, should we do
(21:09):
it? And I was like, no, we already
said we didn't want to sell on Amazon.
So unless that's changed in yourmind, you know, then no.
And she's like, Oh my gosh, that's right.
We we did make that decision, you know, earlier this year.
But yeah, so I can also be that kind of sounding board for my
clients of like you have stated this as a value and not, not in
like a, you know, in a negative way or like, hey, what are you
(21:33):
doing kind of way? Like just being like, hey, just
just a gentle reminder, you know, we decided not to do this,
but I, I respect you if you havechanged your mind and and I'm
here, you know, to support whatever direction you you
decide to take. So yeah, that is something that
I do with a lot of my clients. And then I'm not afraid.
(21:53):
I am so not afraid to fire people when it doesn't feel
aligned. So I had a former client who
spoke very negatively about the clients she was wanting to serve
in just like a way that felt super, super icky.
And I was like, yeah, we're done.
I basically, I invoked my 30 daypolicy and I was like, we're
done at the end of this month. And she tried to convince me to
(22:15):
like change my mind or she, you know, she asked what it was and,
and I was trying to, you know, just be like neutral to
Switzerland. And I shared the feedback.
I was like, these were the things that that you said that
were super problematic. And then she tried to play.
She has a mental health challenge.
She's bipolar and she blamed it on that.
(22:36):
And I was like, didn't really feel like a man.
Like it didn't really feel like that.
And you can't blame it on your diversity.
So yeah, so I definitely also listen for those things because
I just, I don't if things start to feel icky or don't feel
right, I I didn't go into business to deal to do that kind
of thing. So to.
(22:59):
That's, that's awesome. I think it's so it's important.
And it's also really hard to hold those values, especially
when there's a lot going on. It's easy to get distracted or
sometimes confused and you'll probably ask your question like
yourself questions like I do that.
It's like, should I really do that?
Or is that the right thing to do?
And then I feel when those questions come up, you go back
(23:22):
to your value system. It's like, is that aligned with
my value? Is it worth it?
So I so thank you for sharing. You know, the way you kind of
holding your ground and setting boundaries and even firing
clients sometimes. Yeah, yeah.
It takes cost. Yeah, when I, you know, we live
(23:45):
in a capitalist society like we don't, we don't have an option
to not like I wish we did. And so I try, you know, in
subtle ways. I mean, I just spoke to somebody
the other day, there is a thing in that we use in nonprofits
called a gift acceptance policy.So we can, we can decide where
(24:07):
we take money from and where we don't.
So, you know, I've worked with some nonprofits that are like,
yeah, we could take money from that foundation, but they're
anti LGBTQ. So we're choosing not to like
your $10,000 could really help. However, it's harmful, you know,
you're also giving, you know, $50,000 over here to, to like
(24:28):
basically dismantle policy that is protecting folks who identify
as LGBTQ plus like, so I feel the same.
Like I have, you know, my own personal money acceptance policy
for my business. What feels good and what feels
bad. And, and I, I know I come from a
huge place of privilege that I had built my business enough to
(24:50):
do that. But I do also feel like it eats
away at you. You know, like if you're one of
those people that has the, the tickle in the back of your head
of like every single time you'regoing to be questioning
yourself. And that just puts puts so much
like emotional and mental labor on you that just save yourself
from the get go and know like have that mindset of abundance
(25:14):
that more will come in. Yes, I love that.
Can you share more about your practice of mindset?
Mindset of abundance. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think
everything happens for a reason.Like right before we hopped on I
I shared that I had a major, major client that closed at the
end of last month. I loved them.
(25:36):
I am still, I'm still in touch with their founder.
I'm still supporting their supporting their website from
afar, their their legacy websitefrom afar.
And you know, I was scared when when I knew like I had a long
lead time to know that I was going to be sickly be losing
(25:58):
that income, but I set myself upto gain more.
So, you know, having sales conversations with folks.
I just recently rejoined an in person networking group here in
Vegas and went went to a event last night, which maybe had some
leads involved. I've got to follow up with them
because sometimes when people come to your booth, they say
(26:21):
they want to work with you. But the follow through is, you
know, where, where it comes through.
But you know, just believing that there are things that you
can do to get yourself out thereand just like sitting and crying
inside and being like, Oh my God, where am I going to get
money from? Like, I think I was sharing with
another person the other day, I have a file in my e-mail that's
(26:43):
my kudos file. So anytime I feel bad and I'm
like, Oh my God, what am I doing?
I, you know, like I fucked up. Oh, can I swear on this podcast?
Yes, you can. I, I, you know what?
I think like I fucked up and I, you know, did something like
that. I go to that file and I look at
all the all the people who are like, no, you did a great job
and wonderful job and just like to to do the pep talk because,
(27:07):
yeah, I think it can be very lonely being a solopreneur.
Yeah. And.
Like thinking. All your negative, you know, all
the negative thoughts that come up and just those subtle
reminders that like you have been very successful, you have
done very good things and I am Ido a lot of time tracking.
(27:30):
So I have AI have a dashboard that is just a Google sheet
where I actually I mean, I tracktime as well as I can like in 15
minute chunks or I track like meetings that I had on the
calendar and things like that because I like to look back and
see what I did during the month.Like we launched a website, we
made this e-mail welcome series.Like I think, you know,
(27:53):
day-to-day we can forget we forget what we did.
Like, yes, you know, we forget what we ate for breakfast
yesterday, or if or if we ate ifwe had breakfast.
You. Know which we don't get to that
level of of tracking, but you know, so that you can look back
on it. And really we because we move so
(28:14):
fast in this country just in general and move on to the next
thing. We don't take enough time to
celebrate what has already happened and what has been
really good in our lives as well.
I love that. And I really, really appreciate
the kudos file idea and I might have to steal that.
(28:36):
And I feel maybe some listeners out there will want to try as
well. I feel we are really good at
cheerleading other people, but. Not good.
At saying to ourselves, you are doing great, you are doing the
best you can and you've done great things like you said, and
we don't celebrate enough and and it's a it's a real it's a
(29:01):
real challenge for us collectively to celebrate
because we. Always.
It feels like we tend to justify.
A reason? To do good things but need a
reason to do fun things? Yeah.
What if we just do fun things for the sake of doing fun
(29:22):
things? Exactly.
Exactly. Yeah, Like I've taken up, well,
I've taken up reading, which I have been trying to do this for
years. So Book Riot, I think they
started in 2015. So it's been 10 years since I've
been following this. They have what is called their
Read Harder challenge. So they give you 24 tasks to do
(29:44):
every year to read harder. And I've been really enjoying it
because I've been reading books that I wouldn't normally pick
up. So I'm like looking over to the
side because I'm looking at the ones that I have read this year.
Like one was like a horror, likea horror novel.
I have never read like I love horror movies.
(30:05):
I have never read like a like a true like horror suspense novel
or another one was like it was really good.
She basically did like every other chapter was what would
would have happened in her life.She got like in a terrible car
accident and then the other one like she didn't.
And so like I was just, I'd, I read it so fast because I was
(30:27):
like, I have to know, like what happened, you know, on both
sides. And because I do think that we
as humans think about that a lot.
Like what if we made the other decision?
What if we took the other fork in the road like and then you?
Realize it's. Just it's in the past, like we
made we made a decisive decisionand this is the the, the path
(30:48):
that we're that we're taking. But yeah, so they're, they're
things like, you know, write, read a new book that came up or
that a BIPOC author wrote this year.
Read an LGBTQ like sci-fi. I think it was I ended up
reading an LGBTQ sci-fi novel. I just finished the House Maid,
(31:10):
which is like a suspense, like athriller suspense 1.
I, I started on the plane ride, my last plane ride back from
Portland. And I was only 60 pages and I
read the rest of like the 300 pages in like a single sitting
because it was like that. It was that good.
And then I'm reading Serge Tankian.
(31:32):
He's the lead singer of System of a down.
I'm reading his like memoir, auto memoir slash autobiography,
which is like something I would have never picked up.
It was like, I think this particular task it's for is like
read something by like a musician, a movie, like about a
movie, TV show or like musician that you like as well.
(31:53):
So shout out to goodreads.com because I basically swiped a
bunch of ideas from what other people were planning on reading.
But yeah, my goal is I think I'mdone with five out of the 24.
So by the end of this year to get all the 24.
That's so cool. And you mentioned already this,
(32:15):
this kind of movement is called Book Riot.
Book Riot Yeah, it's a. Website they do every year they
put out their read harder challenge.
So if I get if I finish this onebefore the end of the year, I
might go back to like last year's and and grab some ideas
from it. I'll make sure to add.
(32:36):
Their website to the notes as well.
It sounds like a way for to encourage people to be more
curious, to explore things that you are unfamiliar with.
I think it's a really excellent challenge for our both like
intellectual and also emotional intelligence.
Yeah. Yeah.
I also, I mean, I feel like thatis something that's important as
(32:58):
an entrepreneur and a solopreneur is to be like
learning all the time. So I think, you know, you
describe it early on, like I hadbeen, I have, I have been in a
lot of industries and learned todo a lot of different things.
And honestly, like the marketingthat I learned back in high
school is very different than what we do today.
Like e-commerce wasn't what it was, what it is now.
(33:21):
You know, we don't consume information the same way.
Social media. I mean, Facebook didn't exist
when I was in high school. It didn't come out till I was in
college. And I remember resisting getting
on Facebook until I think my June, my junior or maybe with
senior year, I was like, what isthis?
I was like, I don't, you know, Ididn't have an Internet phone.
(33:42):
So I was like, you have to be ona computer.
And I didn't have a laptop either.
So I was like, you have to be ata computer.
So I have to go to the library or like in the computer lab to
like, contact you and like call my phone.
I didn't have text messages backthen.
And I mean, that's that's yeah, kids do stay.
Still be like what kind of life do you live 1.
(34:05):
That didn't involve my phone people, you know.
Yeah. Yeah, I know.
I think. Things evolve and change very
quickly. And the fact that, you know,
this year you are taking on BookRiot challenges, I think that's
a really good way to take care of yourself, take care of your
mind, of your heart. And I see, you know, on the
(34:26):
screen you have a lot of books in your room.
And I have maybe 10. Yeah.
I I have supported Powell's Bookstore in Portland a lot.
Most of these are from there andwere used.
Yeah, they have a well house. Sale in July.
(34:47):
I know I. Know I'm so jealous.
I feel like everybody should go if you have a book.
Title that you are interested in.
Let me know because I signed up.Oh, you did I?
Did I signed? Up for and sent sent some book
titles to me. See if I can find them.
OK. Oh, I love that, Joe.
Thank you so much. Yeah, of course.
Yeah, usually I. Mean the last time I was in
(35:09):
Portland I was actually marryingmy best friend to her now wife
who got her like fiance visa andall, all in tax.
So but yeah, I decided to just chill out and spend.
I think I spent like 3 hours in Powell's just like wandering
(35:29):
around reading the backs of books and like that's like a
happy place for me. And then I had to remember I
have to like I think I got oh gosh, I did not count that.
But I think I came home with like 6 books, which is pretty
good for me. That is really good.
Because I had to fit it in. My backpack because I only
packed a backpack. You throw out some clothes.
(35:53):
I think I left some of my stuff that I knew I wouldn't need.
Yeah, exactly like. That I don't need, but I'm going
to pack my books. That is lovely.
I think in today's world we don't.
We don't. Reading a book to me is a signal
of slowing down and it's something I'm going to try to do
(36:16):
this summer as well as I slow down a little bit.
I mean you mentioned my auto reply.
Today. I'm slowing down so.
So I want to also talk about, since we are talking about
reading a book and not always having this made-up urgency, I
(36:39):
want to invite you to perhaps lightly touch on your
perspective of using technology and AI, helping with marketing,
Exogen and communications. I didn't have that on my mind,
but now I feel like perhaps that's a good place to just
slightly mention it. Yeah, I have started, I have
(37:04):
started using AI to help with like writing copy, writing
social posts. And I think the key here is I do
have the paid version of ChatGPT.
And I'm actually one of my to do's is I, I did buy into an AI
called MAGI, which is like it has multiple different AI tools
(37:26):
in it. So I actually have to just, I
have to transfer everything intothere and get out of ChatGPT.
But you get to upload documents and you get to guide it on what
it's doing. So like for the clients that
actually, I don't think there's any client who minds that I use
it, but we do talk about it before I say like basically this
is what I'm doing, but we uploadeverything.
(37:48):
So we upload like their servicesand how they talk about their
services. We can upload like transcripts
of our conversations. We upload all their past
newsletters, all their past blogposts, all the different things.
And then of course I keep that updated so that we're not like
referencing anything that we don't do anymore.
But you can load that all in there so that it has a base to
(38:11):
go off of, which also has like the brand voice of that
organization, like how they talkabout things.
And then I'll, I'll mine it for like, hey, we want to write, you
know, a blog post this month about mental health awareness,
you know, like what would you recommend based on, you know,
what you have in your, what you have uploaded to you and you can
(38:36):
talk to it and you can say, yes,I like that.
No, I don't like that. And or one way that I use it
often actually for my podcast, which is cut down time so much
is having it recommend episode titles and then do right, help
me do key takeaways basically. And so even though it spits
(38:58):
those out, I will say the one thing about that is I still need
to edit it. So it just cuts down my time of
like needing to listen for information, but I still edit it
and whatever I edit goes gets fed back into the system.
So it gets smarter every single time.
So actually for my podcast, one of the things that I'm going to
(39:20):
do is upload all of our previousseasons, like transcripts and
the and show notes. So that by the time I'm in
season 3, I can actually make iteven smarter and be like
reference our old show notes andlike spit out all, you know, all
the stuff that we need. And it's just speed up time like
just by so much to be able to dothat.
(39:44):
That's really. Good to learn, and I wonder if,
you know, we know AI is a very complex topic and it has a lot
of like ups and downs, pros and cons.
I wonder in this case if AI actually helps with addressing
the sometimes false sense of urgency.
Because it helps you kind of like freeing up your time and
(40:07):
you may have time, more time foryourself and realizing this
matter also is not that urgent. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Yeah, because it does take time
for it to like write stuff. So sometimes I just have it on
the background while I'm doing something else, you know, on the
side. But yeah, it cuts down so much
(40:27):
time and but it is something that I'm learning, I'm learning
how to do and use better becausethere's folks who have been
using it much longer than I have.
Yeah. And I.
Yeah. Oh, sorry I cut you off.
Oh no. No, I was going to say like I
bought AI tools very early on inmy business.
They sucked. It was more time than it was
(40:49):
worth, but I. Also think I.
Just didn't know the prompting system at the time so it has
come a far away from 2022 when Ifirst started using it to now.
That's really important to know.I think again, you know,
everything takes time to learn, to develop and to kind of evolve
(41:10):
over time. And you know, like as we
continue to explore AI, I'm suremore things will come up.
And one of the things is the environment, right?
Like it uses so much water and energy and it is problematic.
So I think it forces us to be more mindful when we use AI.
(41:32):
It's like, is this necessary to use AI?
Like when, like there are thingsyou absolutely do not need to
use AI, I have to say, like, people, come on.
Yeah. I I mean.
I use. Google so often, like I must say
for the for the little over a year and a half I was at the
(41:55):
agency that worked on Google ads, I got really good at
knowing what the heck to put in a Google search bar to get the
results that I wanted with the specificities.
So I think, you know, there's, there are things that you don't
need it for and then there are things that you can't need it
for. And then I also believe in like
(42:17):
offsetting. So I do, I drive a Prius that's
my and I work from home, so I hardly ever drive.
So but that's kind of like, you know, we kind of have different
ways that we offset doing, doingthat thing and, and, and
conserving energy and the environment as well.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a very intersectional
(42:38):
thing. There's no kind of like one way
or you know, the other way. There are a few things kind of
like working together and you have to look at your life
holistically to kind of like saywhat kind of choices I'm making
and what kind of decisions I'm making.
So thank you for sharing that. And as we wrap up our
(43:01):
conversation, I want to perhaps invite you to share a little bit
of just when it comes to fractional marketing, what are
the things you do and how do people find you and work with
you? Oh, thank you.
Yeah. So I I am figuring out better
(43:21):
ways to to say and share what I do.
But the, the thing that I, that I lean on the most and is that
I'd love to help people solve problems.
So sometimes they're marketing related, sometimes they're
business related, sometimes they're life, you know, related.
And although there will be timeswhere I tell people that like
(43:44):
this is a therapy problem and this is not your business friend
problem to talk through. But yeah, I, I think I really
just enjoy being able to learn people's businesses, how they're
trying to do it and what they'retrying to do and offer in the
world and what, you know, who isthe audience?
How do we reach them? How do we make sure they're the
(44:06):
right people? So, you know, early on you had
said, you know, marketing is, isthat very capitalist?
I actually believe the best marketing and sales is stuff
that doesn't feel like marketingand sales like it.
It feels informational and informative.
It doesn't feel sleazy. It doesn't feel overly
persuasive like you're being in.We're not trying to convince you
(44:27):
that you have like a problem or a pain point.
You know what it is and we're helping you find the right
solution for it. And then as far as like getting
down to brass tacks of like whatI help folks with it's websites
and search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, and then what
I am now calling like proof of life or like lights on social
(44:49):
media. So like, I'm not, I'm not the
type of person to help you become a Tiktok influencer, an
Instagram influencer. However, we can help you kind of
figure out what your Evergreen content strategy is, what you
can be sharing so that people know, like and trust you, but
not that you're just like, Oh mygosh, Ashlyn, if I have to give
(45:10):
you another video, I just, I might never make a video ever,
ever again kind of thing. And then I also do with a, with
a contractor who actually lives in Los Angeles.
I do branding, branding and design work as well.
So we're we're doing a great rebrand with a a nonprofit
organization that's renaming andcoming up with a new visual
(45:33):
identity. So really love working on those
projects as well. But yeah, you can check out my
website if you are a small business owner, ashbeampdx.com
is my website and then I am in the process of writing it.
But Ashbeam pdx.org is going to be the home of the website that
(45:54):
speaks to nonprofits. So I feel like there is a
diverse enough set of information that applies to
nonprofits but not small businesses and vice versa.
So I am actually separating my websites to be able to talk
about the services that Ioffer. Right now, they're both on
ashbyandpdx.com. And it can come sometimes be
(46:14):
confusing because you're like, is she talking to me, the
nonprofit person, or is she talking to me, the small
business person? And it's both as well, Yeah, I
mean. Your website is actually very
clear to me, but of course I'm asmall business, so I think it
makes a lot of sense to make something that's more nonprofit
(46:35):
focused. Yeah, yeah.
And then there is, I think it's under the Work with me page.
There is like a form to fill it out to just get in the queue to
have a conversation. I do a for a free 45 minute
strategy call with folks and then sometimes that ends up in
proposal. Sometimes that just ends up
(46:56):
we're not the right fit. And I can help, you know, if
there is somebody that I know inmy network that would be a
better fit or a better help, I'mhappy to make the referrals or
introductions or sometimes they just help you with clarity on a
direction to go because I've hadthat, I've had that before.
So it's a no. It's a no pressure conversation
honestly as well. Well, definitely we will include
(47:19):
your website and your contact information in the show notes.
And thank you so much Ashlyn forcoming and on summer Solstice
and sharing time together. This is.
My favorite time of the year. Summer is my is my favorite
season. I mean your.
Website name is very like summary to me.
I should be great. Well, thank you again and I'm
(47:45):
sure we will talk soon.
Hello everyone, welcome to The Intersection, a podcast program
about intersectionality, intersectional identity, and
intersectional journeys. Both professional and personal
journeys and as we all know, they are very interconnected.
And today is June 20. It is a summer solstice in the
(00:36):
Northern hemisphere and June is a very intersectional month.
As we mentioned in previous episodes, it is Pride Month.
As we all know, it is also Immigrant Heritage Month, as
well as PTSD Awareness Month andMen's Mental Health Awareness
Month and when and yesterday we celebrated Juneteenth and then
(01:00):
we also had Father's Day and of course, today's summer solstice.
So June is a very rich, colorfuland intersectional month.
And I'm hoping, you know, folks out there are celebrating and
taking care of each other. And today I have the pleasure
and honor to welcome a peer and a friend and a colleague.
(01:21):
Her name is Ashlyn Glazier Anderson and Ashlyn is the
founder and CEO of Ashby PDX, which is a marketing firm.
And Ashlyn actually right now isbased out in Vegas.
And we connected via, I think, American Marketing Association
(01:43):
PDX chapter a few years ago and we reconnected recently and I
just realized, oh, I want you tobe my guest.
So here she is. Welcome, Ashlyn.
Thanks for having me, Joe. I appreciate it.
Yeah, I think we met in Kovid. Yes, like, yeah.
In COVID, so it's been so long. But yeah, it was via Zoom.
(02:09):
Like I think a Zoom coffee chat or something like that, which is
awesome. Yeah, I bring my, I think my
brain just entirely like filtered out COVID.
Oh. Totally.
Yeah. Well, I mean, there's also
people that I realize that I know from like the COVID times
because like online and virtual stuff just got going that I'm
like, I realized I was like, I actually have never been in like
(02:31):
physical like space with them. So I think that's also always
like very, very strange because I do have a lot of folks that I,
that I keep in touch with like in other parts of the country
that I'm like, are we ever goingto see each other?
Or it's really, it's really fun when we do finally get an
opportunity to like meet up as well.
Yeah, yeah. It feels like the whole kind of
(02:53):
network or social, our social life has entirely changed
because of the pandemic. And I mean, we did hang out when
you were in Portland and then you moved in Vegas.
So I would love to invite you toshare your journey, you know, as
a professional marketer and right now you are the, I think
(03:14):
it's been quite some time since you started running Ash Bean.
So maybe share your journey a little bit with us.
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I was telling somebody
this the other day. My journey in marketing actually
started in high school. So I took marketing.
I had run out of electives to take in high school.
And so the marketing folks who were in the marketing class, we
(03:39):
got to run the student store. So like we got to be in there
like during like breaks and stuff like selling candy bars
and like sodas and stuff like that.
So that was really, really fun to be a part of that.
And then we also had an opportunity like to always go to
basketball games there. There was a lot of like
(04:01):
opportunities to like just be out of school by being in that
group. So that was the that was the
general appeal of it. But I really also loved it
because I feel like because I started learning about marketing
so young, it's just it's like a natural part of my brain.
So I've grown up thinking about it.
And when it became time to choose a major in College in a
(04:24):
direction, I actually really liked psychology and I really
liked marketing. And then I looked into like,
what the career paths and opportunities were.
And I was like, I can still do alot of psychology stuff in
marketing because it's like the study of human behavior and what
makes us buy things and like what, you know, what appeals to
certain folks. So that was really, really fun
to be a part of that. And then I went to yeah, studied
(04:47):
it in college, didn't go to gradschool till much later.
And everybody always is like, oh, you got an MBA?
And I was like, I don't, I have a master's in strategic
communications because I went toPortland State and their program
was designed kind of aligned similar to an MBA.
So you took like management courses, you took finance and
(05:08):
accounting and all these different things.
So my, my counselor there was just like, hey, you would
basically be redoing your 400 levels at 500 levels.
Like it doesn't really make sense for you to come back and
do an MBA. So it took me 10 years to figure
it out, but I ended up going to U of O in their Stratcom
(05:29):
program, which was really fun. So I worked, I guess right out
of college, I worked for what I consider a more traditional
advertising agency. I started as a front desk
receptionist. I learned how to answer a six
line phone system and transfer calls.
(05:50):
And like, you know, it'd be thatperson that had her hands in a
lot of different projects 'causeI just kind of became like a
support person to all the different teams.
I was there for about four years, but there was no upward
mobility there, so I didn't really have like a job to step
into. I survived the 2008, you know,
(06:12):
the crash of 2008 we had. They had gone through some
downsizing and I survived. And then I ended up moving on to
work at Fred Meyer Jewelers in their marketing department.
So supporting their team as a assistant, I eventually switched
over to being on their e-commerce team where I helped
(06:37):
lead their vendor onboarding program.
So if you if you buy things online, like many well known
retailers do this, they have programs where the vendor or the
manufacturer that creates the product actually ships direct to
the customer. So my job was to onboard our
(06:57):
vendors, teach them how to send things so that the customer
would have no idea this was coming from, you know, a jeweler
in New York as opposed to the distribution center in Portland.
So I did that for total about six years.
And then I also was running intothe same issue.
I was not moving, moving up. I was not giving, being given
(07:18):
promotional opportunities, even though along the way I was
collecting unpaid labour. So I was part of the cultural
council and I was part of the communications like council and
all these different things. But because of my capacity to do
more than just, you know, what Iwas hired to do.
And I was around that time that I met, it's actually through a
(07:40):
Max list event that there were folks who were tabling from the
University of Oregon and just raving about the their masters
program. And that's how I decided to go
in that direction. And somewhere in the background
of all of this, I was volunteering at the American
Marketing Association. I had been volunteering with
(08:02):
another nonprofit that was near and dear to my heart, Buddy's
360, that has since closed down.But I, I loved the work that
nonprofits did. So about two months before I
graduated with my masters, I gotan opportunity to work for
friends with the children's national office doing their
digital marketing. And that was kind of my foray
(08:24):
into more purpose driven, mission driven work.
And actually I skipped over it. I did have a stint and about a
year and a half, a little bit over a year and a half stint
with a digital marketing agency where I learned all about Google
ads. I had never had experience with
them before. It was all completely learned on
(08:46):
the job, learned about other forms of kind of digital
marketing as well. And then when this position
internally at Friends of the Children came up, it was it was
nice to be able to do it in house instead of kind of
advising clients on the outside as an account manager.
So I was there. And then after a couple of
(09:08):
years, honestly, I wasn't makingthe salary that I wanted.
And so I got an opportunity to start Ashbeam PDX marketing as a
side gig, as a side hustle, doing something for a friend's
mom. And then I formed an LLC, a
business LLC to do that. And then after that project
(09:28):
wrapped up, I started doing market research calls and asking
different people that I assumed were in my like the target
audience that I would want to work with questions just to
understand, like, what were their needs in the marketing
space? Like what do they pay people to
actually do this stuff? You know, what are the, what are
the words and terms that they'resaying that that I can like look
(09:52):
for and listen for And out of one of those market research
calls. At the end of it, the person I
had interviewed was like, hey, do you want to do this for us?
And I was like, completely shocked I didn't have an answer
for that. And then she's like, you can
think about it, but like, this is the kind of support that we
need. And that was my first client and
she is still with me till this day.
(10:12):
So 4 1/2 years later, yeah, we still work together and it's
been history ever since. So I did, I did end up switching
jobs at some point. I I worked in another nonprofit
as their digital marketing manager for about 7 months.
But from the time I started my business to the time that it had
grown big enough to basically replace my, my income at this
(10:36):
job, it took me 15 months to focus, focus and getting clients
and figuring out my work flows to do that.
And so in May of 2022 is when I,I say, I really stepped full
time into working as a marketing, a fractional
(10:56):
marketing person for a bunch of different organizations.
And I love the work that I do. It's been, that's been one of
the greatest things about this is being able to choose, choose
who you work with and also beingable to make a greater impact
with more organizations. So yeah, so I worked agency in
house, agency in house and now started my own agency so I can
(11:19):
work on it. A lot of different projects with
a lot of very cool people. That's a fast, like a fantastic
and fascinating and awesome kindof back story.
I mean, the fact that you workedat all kinds of organizations
basically allowed you to developall kinds of skills and now you
(11:41):
are the boss basically. And I do want to mention it
sounded like the fact that everytime you left a job because you
were not being appreciated enough.
Yeah, yeah. And I wasn't getting fulfillment
from them, yes. Yeah, that's kind of like
(12:03):
there's always this story, I think for like a lot of
entrepreneurs is because they don't feel fulfilled at that
job, they are not paid enough, the unpaid labor and emotional
burden, etcetera, etcetera, eventually forced them to look
to a different direction. I think that's really
(12:24):
interesting because you know, itfeels like every time there's a
roadblock, it's an opportunity. It is very frustrating that
oftentimes the roadblock is women professionals not being
appreciated. Yes, yes, yes.
Or it happens after you decide to leave.
(12:47):
So you hear from folks like there was one, I, I, you know, I
did an exit interview with one and they were like, oh, we were
going to promote you. We were waiting until after you
graduated. And I was like, why didn't you
tell me? And also, should I believe you
that, you know, like, because itsounds like you want me to stay
and I don't want to stay. You're not planning on staying,
(13:11):
you know, and there's only been one job that I did negotiate
like a start date 'cause I did want to fit, like I, I really
wanted to finish up a project and I was just like, yeah, they
need 3 weeks also for anybody who, for anybody who's switching
jobs, I have never done it whereI take like the week off or two
weeks off. Take the break between the jobs.
(13:32):
They'll still have it waiting for you.
I and, and anybody who's hiring,let people have a break because
they have a break. They need, they need that mental
space to disconnect from what they were doing before in order
to do well when they come into your, your space.
But that's such a great advice. And I mean, I'm guessing that's
(13:55):
like lessons learned from your previous experience.
And it's like a great is so important.
It's kind of like a reset. Like before we start something
new, we need a reset. And I feel people are still not
used to it in the US. It's like we have to, we have to
keep the ball rolling. Yes, yes.
(14:18):
In reality, most things are not an emergency.
Most things are not a life, lifeand death situation.
Like, yeah, I just it's been a while.
It's been a few weeks now, but Ijust watched that show on HBO
Max, The Pit, which is like all about Oh my God, have you
watched it? OK, yes.
I love that show. Very intense, yeah.
Makes me so anxious I cannot stop.
(14:39):
Yes, exactly. I mean, I think we I think we
stopped. I think we stopped at the last
three hours like and I was like,I got to go to bed because I got
to go to bed and we'll finish like the rest of it in the
morning. But it's like because I think
it's like 15 episodes. So I watched that show for 12
basically just like 12 hours straight.
Wow. And for folks who don't know,
you should put it on your to watch list.
(15:01):
It's an ER like it's every hour of the ER, every episode is one
hour. And it's shows like that that
give me perspective. Like nothing I do in marketing
is that, you know, it's serious,but it's not that level of
severity with a few exceptions. If your website is down, you
know, like if, if there are things that are impacting your
(15:23):
ability to like sell your products or services or some
things, you know, broken that that was my fault, I will work
on fixing it for you. If it was something you broke or
if it was, you know, like there's been times where like
people didn't pay their freakingwebsite bill, you know, like
they're hosting bill. I was like, yeah, that's on you,
you know? I mean, I'm not gonna put down
(15:45):
my credit card number. Exactly, Exactly.
Yeah, yeah. I hear you 100%.
I think we, our society has these like kind of made-up idea
of what is urgent and when we don't have a boundary, kind of
like keeping us away from rushing into everything, then
(16:08):
everything becomes an urgency. Yeah, yeah.
So I that's a good reminder. Also, we create our fake
urgency. Like I, I have gotten used to,
you know, a lot of times when you're an entrepreneur, A
solopreneur, you get to make your own deadlines on a lot of
things. And so I think being gentle with
(16:29):
yourself, like, be like, is thisthe date that somebody really
asked for? Or is this the dumb date that I
was like, I thought I would feelgreat and I would just get all
this stuff done. You know, honestly, most people
are OK. You know, if you just explain,
if you talk through or, you know, like you and I just
chatted this morning, like, where's that project at?
(16:49):
Yeah, it's, you know, and, and nobody's angry or upset about
it. You just be real and have a
conversation about it. And it's not, it doesn't need to
be. I think a lot of times we get in
our head like, Oh my gosh, they're going to hate me or
they're going to be mad. And it's just like they just
want a status update. And you know, if you share what
(17:11):
was going on, it's totally OK. Yeah, I feel often times the
sense of urgency is also createdby the lack of transparency.
Like if you just have a word or two, just say, hey, where are we
at? And if people just need some
clarity, give them the clarity. Or just say, in fact, can we
(17:33):
have more time? Like so, oftentimes problems can
be addressed in one or two questions.
Yeah. And I think, you know, like you
are, you will major in strategiccommunications.
I feel like you probably have a lot of tools in your department
(17:53):
to address those kind of like this is urgent.
But is it like, yeah, yes, yes. I want to go back to, you know,
during the time when you were working with Friends of the
Children, which is a purpose andmission driven or nonprofit
organization. And when you talk about being
(18:15):
independent and fractional marketing expert, how do you
practice the purpose and missiondriven kind of value in your
work? Because as we all know, in
conventionally marketing works for capitalism.
(18:35):
It it drives sales, it drives revenue, it drives desires and
needs and wants, even though oftentimes those desires and
needs and wants are again made-up.
So as a marketing person over the last 4-5 years, how have you
been practicing the purpose and mission driven value?
(18:56):
Yeah, most of my clients are actually nonprofits or they're
folks who are heart centered. They have purpose driven brands.
So you actually she was on the podcast earlier.
Danielle Dinkleman is a client of mine from ACW Coaching.
I, I try to as best as possible align with entrepreneurs who are
(19:21):
serving a higher good or they'rejust not, how do I describe it?
They're not doing bad things, you know, like they're not
trying to take advantage of the,the consumers.
You know, they're not trying to shame or blame folks.
Like I, I think in my head, I have a, have a really sweet
(19:42):
client who is based out of Texas.
She has a spice blend. So she has it is, I can't ever
remember. It's like garlic, turmeric,
oregano, thyme. It might be thyme.
I can't ever remember. All the spices are with it and
it was bad on me. But she has these chili chili
(20:06):
pepper salts basically so that she's got Hatch jalapeno,
Chipotle, habanero, cayenne and the Carolina Reaper.
And she does. Markets in Texas because she's
based out of Texas and then she sells online and then she sells
in like like stores like she, she'll often be picked up with
(20:27):
places that want like gift gift able items.
So that's how she's selling all across the country.
But you know, we made the strategic decision not to sell
on Amazon because she was just like, I really don't want to
support Amazon. And she, she sent me a thing the
other day where she was just like, Hey, should we, you know,
(20:48):
should we do this? Because that, that is one thing
that I, that I do with a lot of my clients is they'll run
business decisions by me. And I'm, you know, and I'll
remind them like we already, youknow, we already made this
decision earlier. So it was, it was a somebody who
was reselling her salts on Amazon was like, Hey, I don't
want to do this anymore. Do you want to take over the
account? And she she's like, should we do
(21:09):
it? And I was like, no, we already
said we didn't want to sell on Amazon.
So unless that's changed in yourmind, you know, then no.
And she's like, Oh my gosh, that's right.
We we did make that decision, you know, earlier this year.
But yeah, so I can also be that kind of sounding board for my
clients of like you have stated this as a value and not, not in
like a, you know, in a negative way or like, hey, what are you
(21:33):
doing kind of way? Like just being like, hey, just
just a gentle reminder, you know, we decided not to do this,
but I, I respect you if you havechanged your mind and and I'm
here, you know, to support whatever direction you you
decide to take. So yeah, that is something that
I do with a lot of my clients. And then I'm not afraid.
(21:53):
I am so not afraid to fire people when it doesn't feel
aligned. So I had a former client who
spoke very negatively about the clients she was wanting to serve
in just like a way that felt super, super icky.
And I was like, yeah, we're done.
I basically, I invoked my 30 daypolicy and I was like, we're
done at the end of this month. And she tried to convince me to
(22:15):
like change my mind or she, you know, she asked what it was and,
and I was trying to, you know, just be like neutral to
Switzerland. And I shared the feedback.
I was like, these were the things that that you said that
were super problematic. And then she tried to play.
She has a mental health challenge.
She's bipolar and she blamed it on that.
(22:36):
And I was like, didn't really feel like a man.
Like it didn't really feel like that.
And you can't blame it on your diversity.
So yeah, so I definitely also listen for those things because
I just, I don't if things start to feel icky or don't feel
right, I I didn't go into business to deal to do that kind
of thing. So to.
(22:59):
That's, that's awesome. I think it's so it's important.
And it's also really hard to hold those values, especially
when there's a lot going on. It's easy to get distracted or
sometimes confused and you'll probably ask your question like
yourself questions like I do that.
It's like, should I really do that?
Or is that the right thing to do?
And then I feel when those questions come up, you go back
(23:22):
to your value system. It's like, is that aligned with
my value? Is it worth it?
So I so thank you for sharing. You know, the way you kind of
holding your ground and setting boundaries and even firing
clients sometimes. Yeah, yeah.
It takes cost. Yeah, when I, you know, we live
(23:45):
in a capitalist society like we don't, we don't have an option
to not like I wish we did. And so I try, you know, in
subtle ways. I mean, I just spoke to somebody
the other day, there is a thing in that we use in nonprofits
called a gift acceptance policy.So we can, we can decide where
(24:07):
we take money from and where we don't.
So, you know, I've worked with some nonprofits that are like,
yeah, we could take money from that foundation, but they're
anti LGBTQ. So we're choosing not to like
your $10,000 could really help. However, it's harmful, you know,
you're also giving, you know, $50,000 over here to, to like
(24:28):
basically dismantle policy that is protecting folks who identify
as LGBTQ plus like, so I feel the same.
Like I have, you know, my own personal money acceptance policy
for my business. What feels good and what feels
bad. And, and I, I know I come from a
huge place of privilege that I had built my business enough to
(24:50):
do that. But I do also feel like it eats
away at you. You know, like if you're one of
those people that has the, the tickle in the back of your head
of like every single time you'regoing to be questioning
yourself. And that just puts puts so much
like emotional and mental labor on you that just save yourself
from the get go and know like have that mindset of abundance
(25:14):
that more will come in. Yes, I love that.
Can you share more about your practice of mindset?
Mindset of abundance. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think
everything happens for a reason.Like right before we hopped on I
I shared that I had a major, major client that closed at the
end of last month. I loved them.
(25:36):
I am still, I'm still in touch with their founder.
I'm still supporting their supporting their website from
afar, their their legacy websitefrom afar.
And you know, I was scared when when I knew like I had a long
lead time to know that I was going to be sickly be losing
(25:58):
that income, but I set myself upto gain more.
So, you know, having sales conversations with folks.
I just recently rejoined an in person networking group here in
Vegas and went went to a event last night, which maybe had some
leads involved. I've got to follow up with them
because sometimes when people come to your booth, they say
(26:21):
they want to work with you. But the follow through is, you
know, where, where it comes through.
But you know, just believing that there are things that you
can do to get yourself out thereand just like sitting and crying
inside and being like, Oh my God, where am I going to get
money from? Like, I think I was sharing with
another person the other day, I have a file in my e-mail that's
(26:43):
my kudos file. So anytime I feel bad and I'm
like, Oh my God, what am I doing?
I, you know, like I fucked up. Oh, can I swear on this podcast?
Yes, you can. I, I, you know what?
I think like I fucked up and I, you know, did something like
that. I go to that file and I look at
all the all the people who are like, no, you did a great job
and wonderful job and just like to to do the pep talk because,
(27:07):
yeah, I think it can be very lonely being a solopreneur.
Yeah. And.
Like thinking. All your negative, you know, all
the negative thoughts that come up and just those subtle
reminders that like you have been very successful, you have
done very good things and I am Ido a lot of time tracking.
(27:30):
So I have AI have a dashboard that is just a Google sheet
where I actually I mean, I tracktime as well as I can like in 15
minute chunks or I track like meetings that I had on the
calendar and things like that because I like to look back and
see what I did during the month.Like we launched a website, we
made this e-mail welcome series.Like I think, you know,
(27:53):
day-to-day we can forget we forget what we did.
Like, yes, you know, we forget what we ate for breakfast
yesterday, or if or if we ate ifwe had breakfast.
You. Know which we don't get to that
level of of tracking, but you know, so that you can look back
on it. And really we because we move so
(28:14):
fast in this country just in general and move on to the next
thing. We don't take enough time to
celebrate what has already happened and what has been
really good in our lives as well.
I love that. And I really, really appreciate
the kudos file idea and I might have to steal that.
(28:36):
And I feel maybe some listeners out there will want to try as
well. I feel we are really good at
cheerleading other people, but. Not good.
At saying to ourselves, you are doing great, you are doing the
best you can and you've done great things like you said, and
we don't celebrate enough and and it's a it's a real it's a
(29:01):
real challenge for us collectively to celebrate
because we. Always.
It feels like we tend to justify.
A reason? To do good things but need a
reason to do fun things? Yeah.
What if we just do fun things for the sake of doing fun
(29:22):
things? Exactly.
Exactly. Yeah, Like I've taken up, well,
I've taken up reading, which I have been trying to do this for
years. So Book Riot, I think they
started in 2015. So it's been 10 years since I've
been following this. They have what is called their
Read Harder challenge. So they give you 24 tasks to do
(29:44):
every year to read harder. And I've been really enjoying it
because I've been reading books that I wouldn't normally pick
up. So I'm like looking over to the
side because I'm looking at the ones that I have read this year.
Like one was like a horror, likea horror novel.
I have never read like I love horror movies.
(30:05):
I have never read like a like a true like horror suspense novel
or another one was like it was really good.
She basically did like every other chapter was what would
would have happened in her life.She got like in a terrible car
accident and then the other one like she didn't.
And so like I was just, I'd, I read it so fast because I was
(30:27):
like, I have to know, like what happened, you know, on both
sides. And because I do think that we
as humans think about that a lot.
Like what if we made the other decision?
What if we took the other fork in the road like and then you?
Realize it's. Just it's in the past, like we
made we made a decisive decisionand this is the the, the path
(30:48):
that we're that we're taking. But yeah, so they're, they're
things like, you know, write, read a new book that came up or
that a BIPOC author wrote this year.
Read an LGBTQ like sci-fi. I think it was I ended up
reading an LGBTQ sci-fi novel. I just finished the House Maid,
(31:10):
which is like a suspense, like athriller suspense 1.
I, I started on the plane ride, my last plane ride back from
Portland. And I was only 60 pages and I
read the rest of like the 300 pages in like a single sitting
because it was like that. It was that good.
And then I'm reading Serge Tankian.
(31:32):
He's the lead singer of System of a down.
I'm reading his like memoir, auto memoir slash autobiography,
which is like something I would have never picked up.
It was like, I think this particular task it's for is like
read something by like a musician, a movie, like about a
movie, TV show or like musician that you like as well.
(31:53):
So shout out to goodreads.com because I basically swiped a
bunch of ideas from what other people were planning on reading.
But yeah, my goal is I think I'mdone with five out of the 24.
So by the end of this year to get all the 24.
That's so cool. And you mentioned already this,
(32:15):
this kind of movement is called Book Riot.
Book Riot Yeah, it's a. Website they do every year they
put out their read harder challenge.
So if I get if I finish this onebefore the end of the year, I
might go back to like last year's and and grab some ideas
from it. I'll make sure to add.
(32:36):
Their website to the notes as well.
It sounds like a way for to encourage people to be more
curious, to explore things that you are unfamiliar with.
I think it's a really excellent challenge for our both like
intellectual and also emotional intelligence.
Yeah. Yeah.
I also, I mean, I feel like thatis something that's important as
(32:58):
an entrepreneur and a solopreneur is to be like
learning all the time. So I think, you know, you
describe it early on, like I hadbeen, I have, I have been in a
lot of industries and learned todo a lot of different things.
And honestly, like the marketingthat I learned back in high
school is very different than what we do today.
Like e-commerce wasn't what it was, what it is now.
(33:21):
You know, we don't consume information the same way.
Social media. I mean, Facebook didn't exist
when I was in high school. It didn't come out till I was in
college. And I remember resisting getting
on Facebook until I think my June, my junior or maybe with
senior year, I was like, what isthis?
I was like, I don't, you know, Ididn't have an Internet phone.
(33:42):
So I was like, you have to be ona computer.
And I didn't have a laptop either.
So I was like, you have to be ata computer.
So I have to go to the library or like in the computer lab to
like, contact you and like call my phone.
I didn't have text messages backthen.
And I mean, that's that's yeah, kids do stay.
Still be like what kind of life do you live 1.
(34:05):
That didn't involve my phone people, you know.
Yeah. Yeah, I know.
I think. Things evolve and change very
quickly. And the fact that, you know,
this year you are taking on BookRiot challenges, I think that's
a really good way to take care of yourself, take care of your
mind, of your heart. And I see, you know, on the
(34:26):
screen you have a lot of books in your room.
And I have maybe 10. Yeah.
I I have supported Powell's Bookstore in Portland a lot.
Most of these are from there andwere used.
Yeah, they have a well house. Sale in July.
(34:47):
I know I. Know I'm so jealous.
I feel like everybody should go if you have a book.
Title that you are interested in.
Let me know because I signed up.Oh, you did I?
Did I signed? Up for and sent sent some book
titles to me. See if I can find them.
OK. Oh, I love that, Joe.
Thank you so much. Yeah, of course.
Yeah, usually I. Mean the last time I was in
(35:09):
Portland I was actually marryingmy best friend to her now wife
who got her like fiance visa andall, all in tax.
So but yeah, I decided to just chill out and spend.
I think I spent like 3 hours in Powell's just like wandering
(35:29):
around reading the backs of books and like that's like a
happy place for me. And then I had to remember I
have to like I think I got oh gosh, I did not count that.
But I think I came home with like 6 books, which is pretty
good for me. That is really good.
Because I had to fit it in. My backpack because I only
packed a backpack. You throw out some clothes.
(35:53):
I think I left some of my stuff that I knew I wouldn't need.
Yeah, exactly like. That I don't need, but I'm going
to pack my books. That is lovely.
I think in today's world we don't.
We don't. Reading a book to me is a signal
of slowing down and it's something I'm going to try to do
(36:16):
this summer as well as I slow down a little bit.
I mean you mentioned my auto reply.
Today. I'm slowing down so.
So I want to also talk about, since we are talking about
reading a book and not always having this made-up urgency, I
(36:39):
want to invite you to perhaps lightly touch on your
perspective of using technology and AI, helping with marketing,
Exogen and communications. I didn't have that on my mind,
but now I feel like perhaps that's a good place to just
slightly mention it. Yeah, I have started, I have
(37:04):
started using AI to help with like writing copy, writing
social posts. And I think the key here is I do
have the paid version of ChatGPT.
And I'm actually one of my to do's is I, I did buy into an AI
called MAGI, which is like it has multiple different AI tools
(37:26):
in it. So I actually have to just, I
have to transfer everything intothere and get out of ChatGPT.
But you get to upload documents and you get to guide it on what
it's doing. So like for the clients that
actually, I don't think there's any client who minds that I use
it, but we do talk about it before I say like basically this
is what I'm doing, but we uploadeverything.
(37:48):
So we upload like their servicesand how they talk about their
services. We can upload like transcripts
of our conversations. We upload all their past
newsletters, all their past blogposts, all the different things.
And then of course I keep that updated so that we're not like
referencing anything that we don't do anymore.
But you can load that all in there so that it has a base to
(38:11):
go off of, which also has like the brand voice of that
organization, like how they talkabout things.
And then I'll, I'll mine it for like, hey, we want to write, you
know, a blog post this month about mental health awareness,
you know, like what would you recommend based on, you know,
what you have in your, what you have uploaded to you and you can
(38:36):
talk to it and you can say, yes,I like that.
No, I don't like that. And or one way that I use it
often actually for my podcast, which is cut down time so much
is having it recommend episode titles and then do right, help
me do key takeaways basically. And so even though it spits
(38:58):
those out, I will say the one thing about that is I still need
to edit it. So it just cuts down my time of
like needing to listen for information, but I still edit it
and whatever I edit goes gets fed back into the system.
So it gets smarter every single time.
So actually for my podcast, one of the things that I'm going to
(39:20):
do is upload all of our previousseasons, like transcripts and
the and show notes. So that by the time I'm in
season 3, I can actually make iteven smarter and be like
reference our old show notes andlike spit out all, you know, all
the stuff that we need. And it's just speed up time like
just by so much to be able to dothat.
(39:44):
That's really. Good to learn, and I wonder if,
you know, we know AI is a very complex topic and it has a lot
of like ups and downs, pros and cons.
I wonder in this case if AI actually helps with addressing
the sometimes false sense of urgency.
Because it helps you kind of like freeing up your time and
(40:07):
you may have time, more time foryourself and realizing this
matter also is not that urgent. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Yeah, because it does take time
for it to like write stuff. So sometimes I just have it on
the background while I'm doing something else, you know, on the
side. But yeah, it cuts down so much
(40:27):
time and but it is something that I'm learning, I'm learning
how to do and use better becausethere's folks who have been
using it much longer than I have.
Yeah. And I.
Yeah. Oh, sorry I cut you off.
Oh no. No, I was going to say like I
bought AI tools very early on inmy business.
They sucked. It was more time than it was
(40:49):
worth, but I. Also think I.
Just didn't know the prompting system at the time so it has
come a far away from 2022 when Ifirst started using it to now.
That's really important to know.I think again, you know,
everything takes time to learn, to develop and to kind of evolve
(41:10):
over time. And you know, like as we
continue to explore AI, I'm suremore things will come up.
And one of the things is the environment, right?
Like it uses so much water and energy and it is problematic.
So I think it forces us to be more mindful when we use AI.
(41:32):
It's like, is this necessary to use AI?
Like when, like there are thingsyou absolutely do not need to
use AI, I have to say, like, people, come on.
Yeah. I I mean.
I use. Google so often, like I must say
for the for the little over a year and a half I was at the
(41:55):
agency that worked on Google ads, I got really good at
knowing what the heck to put in a Google search bar to get the
results that I wanted with the specificities.
So I think, you know, there's, there are things that you don't
need it for and then there are things that you can't need it
for. And then I also believe in like
(42:17):
offsetting. So I do, I drive a Prius that's
my and I work from home, so I hardly ever drive.
So but that's kind of like, you know, we kind of have different
ways that we offset doing, doingthat thing and, and, and
conserving energy and the environment as well.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a very intersectional
(42:38):
thing. There's no kind of like one way
or you know, the other way. There are a few things kind of
like working together and you have to look at your life
holistically to kind of like saywhat kind of choices I'm making
and what kind of decisions I'm making.
So thank you for sharing that. And as we wrap up our
(43:01):
conversation, I want to perhaps invite you to share a little bit
of just when it comes to fractional marketing, what are
the things you do and how do people find you and work with
you? Oh, thank you.
Yeah. So I I am figuring out better
(43:21):
ways to to say and share what I do.
But the, the thing that I, that I lean on the most and is that
I'd love to help people solve problems.
So sometimes they're marketing related, sometimes they're
business related, sometimes they're life, you know, related.
And although there will be timeswhere I tell people that like
(43:44):
this is a therapy problem and this is not your business friend
problem to talk through. But yeah, I, I think I really
just enjoy being able to learn people's businesses, how they're
trying to do it and what they'retrying to do and offer in the
world and what, you know, who isthe audience?
How do we reach them? How do we make sure they're the
(44:06):
right people? So, you know, early on you had
said, you know, marketing is, isthat very capitalist?
I actually believe the best marketing and sales is stuff
that doesn't feel like marketingand sales like it.
It feels informational and informative.
It doesn't feel sleazy. It doesn't feel overly
persuasive like you're being in.We're not trying to convince you
(44:27):
that you have like a problem or a pain point.
You know what it is and we're helping you find the right
solution for it. And then as far as like getting
down to brass tacks of like whatI help folks with it's websites
and search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, and then what
I am now calling like proof of life or like lights on social
(44:49):
media. So like, I'm not, I'm not the
type of person to help you become a Tiktok influencer, an
Instagram influencer. However, we can help you kind of
figure out what your Evergreen content strategy is, what you
can be sharing so that people know, like and trust you, but
not that you're just like, Oh mygosh, Ashlyn, if I have to give
(45:10):
you another video, I just, I might never make a video ever,
ever again kind of thing. And then I also do with a, with
a contractor who actually lives in Los Angeles.
I do branding, branding and design work as well.
So we're we're doing a great rebrand with a a nonprofit
organization that's renaming andcoming up with a new visual
(45:33):
identity. So really love working on those
projects as well. But yeah, you can check out my
website if you are a small business owner, ashbeampdx.com
is my website and then I am in the process of writing it.
But Ashbeam pdx.org is going to be the home of the website that
(45:54):
speaks to nonprofits. So I feel like there is a
diverse enough set of information that applies to
nonprofits but not small businesses and vice versa.
So I am actually separating my websites to be able to talk
about the services that Ioffer. Right now, they're both on
ashbyandpdx.com. And it can come sometimes be
(46:14):
confusing because you're like, is she talking to me, the
nonprofit person, or is she talking to me, the small
business person? And it's both as well, Yeah, I
mean. Your website is actually very
clear to me, but of course I'm asmall business, so I think it
makes a lot of sense to make something that's more nonprofit
(46:35):
focused. Yeah, yeah.
And then there is, I think it's under the Work with me page.
There is like a form to fill it out to just get in the queue to
have a conversation. I do a for a free 45 minute
strategy call with folks and then sometimes that ends up in
proposal. Sometimes that just ends up
(46:56):
we're not the right fit. And I can help, you know, if
there is somebody that I know inmy network that would be a
better fit or a better help, I'mhappy to make the referrals or
introductions or sometimes they just help you with clarity on a
direction to go because I've hadthat, I've had that before.
So it's a no. It's a no pressure conversation
honestly as well. Well, definitely we will include
(47:19):
your website and your contact information in the show notes.
And thank you so much Ashlyn forcoming and on summer Solstice
and sharing time together. This is.
My favorite time of the year. Summer is my is my favorite
season. I mean your.
Website name is very like summary to me.
I should be great. Well, thank you again and I'm
(47:45):
sure we will talk soon.
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