PRSay Houston

Lessons on Leadership with Ashley Small

• Veronica V. Sopher, PRSA Member and Host

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Welcome Ashley Small, to PRSay – the podcast of the Houston PRSA Chapter.

In this episode, Ashley shares about Lessons on Leadership.

There is a unique place where PR, technology, and digital media overlap, and in that place, you’ll find Ashley Small, Founder, and CEO of Medley Inc. Ashley’s proven PR and digital marketing strategies have helped brands grow their visibility, amplify their voice and expand their reach across the world.

In 2008, when social media was newly on the rise, Ashley set out on a mission to marry traditional PR with the latest trends in technology. Since then, she has launched a boutique PR and digital marketing agency, Medley Inc., and has worked with organizations such as Major League Baseball, AT&T, The City of Houston and The Rose Houston to meet their marketing goals, specifically geared towards African American and Latino consumers.

A Google AdWords certified specialist, Ashley has been nationally recognized by Fast Company Magazine, the Canada Broadcast Network, ABC, FOX, and more as an expert in business, technology, social media, and public relations. She is an alumnus of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and Leadership Houston as well as one of Houston Business Journal’s 2018 40 under 40 leading professionals and the 2019 Greater Houston Partnership HYPE Impact Business Leader award winner. In 2021, she was named a Woman in the Fast Lane by the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

Through her work in the community, she has educated and trained more than 5,000 girls and budding entrepreneurs in the areas of technology, social media, and leadership development.

Connect with Ashley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyrsmall/

Learn more about the PRSA Houston Chapter, our events and opportunities at www.prsahouston.org.

PRSay is brought to you by Veronica V. Sopher, Public Relations.

Welcome to PRsay, the podcast of the Houston chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. On PRsay, we spotlight our talented members and get to know each other a little better. If you are a prsa Houston chapter member and don't get a chance to network as much as you'd like, or are unable to attend our in person events, here's your chance to connect with your fellow members. Hello and welcome to PR. Say, this is the official podcast for the Houston chapter of Public Relations Society of America, and I'm your host, Veronica V sopher, thrilled to be here with you again, because on PR say, we get to meet all of our members and we get to connect. The whole point of us putting this opportunity together is for us to get to know each other, build that network and be able to connect with people when we actually do get to see each other in person. So I've got a phenomenal guest with you guys. She'll be joining us here in just a second, but before I bring her on, let's take care of some housekeeping. If you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of PR, say. And if you are watching on Facebook or YouTube, drop us some comments, and Ashley and I will be sure to connect. So without further ado, let me bring on the amazing Ashley small welcome,

Ashley Small:

hi. Thank you for having me.

Veronica Sopher:

I'm so glad we're able to connect today. I don't think we've actually ever met in person, so I'm really excited about today's call.

Ashley Small:

Yeah, thank goodness for the internet.

Veronica Sopher:

That's right, absolutely. Well, Ashley, tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey into public relations. We all have that origin story of what brought us over to this side, and I'd love our viewers and our listeners to learn about that.

Ashley Small:

Yeah, it feels so long ago, but I'm grateful that I landed here. So I went to school to be a journalist. And you know, I thought I'd be out there covering stories, tracing the lead, trying to do some investigative journalism, perhaps. But as you can imagine, this was 2000 and probably like eight, nine, when I was about to graduate, and I realized the newspaper industry was declining pretty quickly, and so I started exploring other industries while in school, trying to understand what all degrees could fall under the communication umbrella. I somehow kind of stumbled upon an advanced PR course. Convinced the director of the department to let me bypass the prerequisites get into the course. And it changed my life. Changed the trajectory of my career. I did start off at the Houston Chronicle in advertising, so I landed at a newspaper, but eventually I went on to to work in PR with a combination of marrying traditional media relations with digital marketing. I

Veronica Sopher:

love it. That's fantastic. And a lot of us did have that journalism background, and it just changed throughout the years. And so I'm real interested in, you know, when you left the Chronicle, what those next steps were, and how that actually worked for you to get you to where you are. Yeah, so

Ashley Small:

I don't tell the story often, because it's so it's happened so long ago, but I was a part of the round of layoffs at the Chronicle during that year that I was there half the newspapers in the country's decline, like, just closed, shuttered. And so, you know, you could see them kind of making their way the HR department to our department. And so I knew that, you know, eventually there's a great, good likelihood that I'd be laid off, particularly considering the fact that, you know, the new folks usually the first ones to go. So while at the Chronicle, I went ahead and started kind of personal branding myself. And I launched the website and started consulting with other entities around like how to manage their social media profiles. I became very engaged civically. That was the year that Barack Obama was running for his first presidential campaign. And I'm, I don't know if you remember, but a lot of young voters, first time voters, yeah, I'm super enthusiastic. And I was one of those who was, like, recharged, fired up all those things. And through, through that election, I became very, very curious about how social media can be a powerful tool for change, and all of those different variables, led me to starting my own company. So by the time I got the call from HR to come on upstairs, luckily, I had acquired some contracts that I was pursuing on the side. That's

Veronica Sopher:

it. That's so exciting. So tell us what you're doing now, because I really want to get into this conversation of leadership with you. It's not a it's not something we've talked about a whole lot on the podcast, but it's so important for those of us who are running teams of different sizes, and even those of us who are managing solo shops. And so share with us a little bit about what you're doing now, and then let's transition into that part.

Ashley Small:

Yeah, so I own a boutique PR and digital marketing agency called Meli, Incorporated, we specifically focus on helping organizations reach diverse communities with cultural competence. So we have about, you know, 70% of our clients are nonprofits who serve very vulnerable communities, and the 30% are. Are for profit organizations and government entities. You work with a couple of districts in Houston, and we help them also serve Houston's diverse community. So ultimately, our clients want to do good in the world and make it a little better. And so in terms of leadership, you know, I've been owning the company for 13 years, and I'm 100% owner of the company, so you know, it's been, it's been many milestones and many lessons learned through the leadership journey. Yeah,

Veronica Sopher:

no, I bet. And 13 years is a long time, I would definitely say you probably have seen some really great highs and some lows, especially as the the economy and the landscape changes. What would you say is, is probably the biggest challenge in your leadership journey, as you go through running a company of the sites, especially one so dedicated to specific important work.

Ashley Small:

Yeah, so I will say that, you know, one lesson I had to learn really earlier, early on as a leader, is like, no one's going to come and save me. And so I'm looking for like, as a leader, you have to own quickly the fact that you are, if you're an entrepreneur, specifically that you are going to have to be the bookkeeper. Sometimes you are the salesperson. Most of the time, you are the HR person most of the time, and then you're the innovator who helps drive the company and drive innovation within the company. And so there was a time that I kind of resisted some of those more nuanced areas, like, I'm not a business development person, and I wouldn't want to, you know, sit down and kind of do the more micro, tedious work. And once I stopped for existing, the areas that I found brought on discomfort. Our business just grew. And so I'm so grateful for kind of learning that I also learned that, you know, it's important to remove ego. Ego cannot drive your business or drive your leadership. And so what I look at now if I find like ego kind of bubbling up, particularly if I'm frustrated or upset about maybe the way that a project is going. Instead of looking at the person or the people involved, I look at the problem. And so I think a leader's, you know, key to success is always attacking the problem. Because yes, there's a person who is in the middle of it, more than likely. But the truth is, a leader, we may not have communicated our expectations very clear, or we may not have the systems and process in place so they understand the job very well, right to you know, calm down, take a beat and look at the problem, not the people. And that's helped me build what I think is a very healthy work environment amongst me, my employees, that's

Veronica Sopher:

great. And how many team members do you have?

Ashley Small:

Yeah, so right now we are small but mighty. So there's three of us full time. I have a part time assistant and about two contractors we

Veronica Sopher:

work with. Oh, that's so exciting. And what advice would you give for someone who's contemplating taking that giant leap like you have, and what do you think they need to be thinking about right now to prepare them for what could be ahead for them.

Ashley Small:

Yeah. So I would say, if you are thinking about launching a business, any of an opportunity to partner with someone else. I would encourage that. Yeah, yeah. I don't regret doing this on my own for 13 years, but soon as I think, man, it would have been nice to have you know, started this journey with someone else. Um, so that's the first thing. And then the second thing is to be prepared to sacrifice. The first five years for me were really, really hard. Um, you know, I was not able to enjoy the fruits of my labor very much. And so, you know, in during those five years, it felt like it would be worth giving up sometimes, and I didn't. And so just know that there will be times that you feel like quitting and just don't, because it's temporary.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, that's true. That's absolutely true. And I think that sometimes we have delusions of what it will look like. I'll have more free time, I'll be able to do this. But why would you say those first five years were a little tougher. Yeah, that's

Ashley Small:

really interesting. I think the internet makes entrepreneurship look really glamorous. This whole thing about being your own boss, set your own schedule, and I am not my own boss. I answer to my clients and my team members. I'm

Veronica Sopher:

so glad you said that. Like, why don't you say that again? So I think that's really important for people to remember, yeah, like, I

Ashley Small:

am not my own boss. I answer to my clients, my team members, my clients have deliverables and goals and annual expectations for their board members and their constituents, and I'm responsible for helping them get there. So I do answer to them when they need something we know, of course, setting boundaries, but they have specific goals, and I have to be able to work in alignment with that, and my team members need support, guidance, coaching, mentoring, direction, and so I certainly work for them. If I want my company to be successful like not, I could be negligent for my team members and my clients, and then our company would would not be in existence. So yeah, so no, I very much answered about. 20 to 30 people every single day? Yeah, I love that.

Veronica Sopher:

And that's probably, I think that's probably the biggest nugget from our conversation today, because we have a conception of what leadership looks like, and you're just going to direct work and you're going to direct strategy, but the reality is, there's a lot more accountability in the role that you're in, and I just applaud you for for the way you've done it. Ashley, how can people connect with you? How do you want them to learn more about the work that you do? It's so important, and I think you're feeling such an important space, and especially here in the Houston area, how do you want people to reach out to learn more about your business?

Ashley Small:

Yeah, so our company website is metally dash inc.com, M, E, D, L, E, y, like a hyphen, I, N, c.com, we're on socials at medley Inc, and I'm on pretty much all socials at Ashley small and so yeah, we love to connect. Love this conversation. I'm always open to share my lessons on leadership.

Veronica Sopher:

I love that, and it's so important. And I will be sure to highlight those in the show notes. Make sure that your website, is there any advice for young members who are joining our organization, who are getting their feet wet, wet? I know you've given some context about your journey, and sometimes the start isn't always what we think is going to be, but you seem to have such a really great perspective on the past and how it helped get you there. So what advice would you have for young members joining PR essay?

Ashley Small:

Yeah, I love that question, because my first internship, kind of, in this industry, I interned at a web marketing company called triple. They were, like the pioneers of SEO SEM, like back in my day, and I got that internship with the kind of like, helped me shape my expertise around digital marketing that now is about 60% of our business at medley. I got that internship because I'd attended a prsa luncheon, and the owner of the company was sitting, like, right next to me, and I'm pretty sure I just said all right to him, like, are you looking for interns? And he was like, Yeah, and it was a paid internship. It was really excellent, and it really did help shape my Well, my professional portfolio would be years to come. And so I would say the number one key is to get involved, get engaged, show up at the events, volunteer. You know, I volunteer at the luncheons, at the awards, and also to be bold and ask questions. And so you just like, I went up to that man. I said, Hey, do you need any interns? We're all there be we're all a part of organizations like prsa, because we want to connect with our peers and grow in our and grow in our careers. And so if that's the case, then you should be there too in that same space and kind of remove that barrier of fear, because, you know, we're all here wanting the same thing. So yeah, keep gold and show up.

Veronica Sopher:

I love it. That's some great advice, Ashley, thank you so much for joining us on prsa, and I look forward to meeting you in person. Yes,

Ashley Small:

likewise. Thank you for having me.

Veronica Sopher:

You bet All right, guys, make sure you You bet All right, guys, make sure you connect with Ashley. Check out her firm. The website is in the connect with Ashley. Check out her firm. The website is in the show notes. We want to learn more about what we're doing, show notes. We want to learn more about what we're doing, find opportunities to network, to collaborate, to give business find opportunities to network, to collaborate, to give business referrals. That is a huge part of your membership in the referrals. That is a huge part of your membership in the Houston chapter of prsa. And I just appreciate Ashley sharing Houston chapter of prsa. And I just appreciate Ashley sharing her stories and her background, and I hope you can connect with her stories and her background, and I hope you can connect with her as well. We're going to wrap up this episode of prsa. If her as well. We're going to wrap up this episode of prsa. If you're listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We you're listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes. If you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, drop us some comments, and we will be don't want you to miss any episodes. If you're watching on sure to circle back. Have a great one, and we'll catch you Facebook or YouTube, drop us some comments, and we will be next time sure to circle back. Have a great one, and we'll catch you next time.

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