070: Finding Your Fire: Why Personal Growth Must Come First

What happens when life takes an unexpected turn and suddenly you're a 20-year-old single mother needing to create a stable future? For Ashley, it became the catalyst that launched her remarkable journey from the factory floor to VP of Human Resources.

Ashley's story defies conventional career trajectories. Growing up in a blue-collar family where college wasn't necessarily the expectation, she found herself working in the same hot dog factory as her mother—hired by the same HR professional who had brought her mother on board nearly two decades earlier. But ambition burned within her: "I wanted to explore what my full capabilities were." That desire, combined with the responsibility of raising a child, pushed her to discover her passion for human resources through a chance encounter at a staffing agency.

Twenty years later, Ashley has transformed her organization by implementing the Seven Healthy Habits across six companies under a holding company structure. Her approach centers on a powerful principle: self-improvement must precede relationship improvement. "Build a relationship with yourself and then go build better relationships with the people you live with and work with," she explains. This philosophy has created a common leadership language from the executive level down to supervisors, fundamentally changing how teams communicate and collaborate.

Ashley's educational journey mirrors her professional one—persistently pushing boundaries. After completing her undergraduate degree, she earned a Master's in Leadership, began teaching at the university level, and then pursued an MBA to expand her capabilities further. Her mantra? "We don't fail, we learn." This resilience defines both her personal philosophy and the leadership principles she now instills in others. Listen now to discover how embracing unexpected paths and focusing on continuous self-improvement can transform not just a career, but an entire organization.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing The Seven Healthy Habits
• 1:27 Implementing Habits Across Companies
• 3:46 Ashley's Unexpected Career Journey
• 7:36 From Single Mom to HR Professional
• 10:15 The Pursuit of Higher Education

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

But really just introducing. You know, small things like just planning and communicating and preparation, and it really focuses on self-improvement before you can improve relationships. So it's really, you know, build a relationship with yourself and then go build better relationships with the people you live with and work with A whole new discipline.

Speaker 2: 0:26

And for me it was, it was a whole new discipline of putting that like as a priority.

Speaker 1: 0:32

I'd never done that before, so like it's like retraining your brain.

Speaker 2: 0:36

Yeah, and that in itself could be a challenge, right, I mean? And then you have you have a family and with that family, then you have those influences right around you, right, and that can be a challenge in itself.

Speaker 1: 0:50

Yeah, and not everybody wants to eat mom's healthy recipes, right?

Speaker 2: 0:53

Sure sure.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Another one of mom's healthy recipes.

Speaker 2: 0:56

No, we went to pizza and breadsticks and all the things that go with that, not the healthy stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:03

So you touched on this, these uh, seven healthy habits and bringing into your workplace. Um, you're in the manufacturing industry as far as the industry you're serving and your employer, but you are on the the human resource side of things, correct, correct, yes, and that's where you've built your career yes, yes, so I this is.

Speaker 1: 1:27

This is my 20th year in human resources congratulations, that's a nice round number yeah that's awesome, um, and you introduced this to.

Speaker 2: 1:39

You're able to introduce these habits to a team and teach them on that, um, the management team yeah, so we are one, one of six companies under a holding company.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Okay, so, um, what was really awesome is I shared this idea with our board of directors and they were so open and they're like let's do it. Uh, we had the opportunity to bring leaders from all six companies through multiple groups and small courses and introduce it, you know, company wide. So it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Yeah, that's fantastic and the feedback you get from the team.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Yeah. So it's really helping build a common leadership language, right. So when we, when we started at the executive level, it's like if we can't do it from the top, right, we got to start there. We got to start there and build the stability. So we were fortunate enough to be able to have a consultant from Franklin Covey come in and lead some of those classes and lead some of those classes and then the last two I have done solely working down to, like the supervisory level or engineering those strong individual contributor levels as well, but really just introducing small things like just planning and communicating and preparation, and it really focuses on self-improvement before you can improve relationships. So it's really, you know, build a relationship with yourself and then go build better relationships with the people you live with and work with.

Speaker 2: 3:19

Love it. I know myself I'm working on me, right. I mean, I have to work on me before I can work on anything and help those around me. So I can really appreciate that and understand where you're going with that and how you're making that work, um, for you, but in helping others, make that work for them. Uh, you talked about 20 years. That's a that's a long time so, but you went from zero to 20. What influenced your career journey? What got you started? Right, yeah?

Speaker 1: 3:51

And I have thought about this and it's just crazy, honestly, to me, how I got here. If you would have said to 16-year-old Ashley that at you know, in your mid-30s, you be a vp of hr, I would not have believed you you know, I just I wouldn't have.

Speaker 1: 4:11

I had. I had great influences. I was so I didn't grow up in a family that was like very college bound, right like I grew up very blue collar. My parents worked in manufacturing, actually putting myself through college. I worked at the same hot dog factory. It was hired by the same HR lady that hired my mom 18 years before you know so, and I had the opportunity through high school. I think back about it, high school and my first couple of jobs. People saw things in me that I didn't see in myself and I was like I can't thank those people enough, right, and so I try to do that now and I have the opportunity to be in a career that lets me do that.

Speaker 2: 5:03

But it's you know there was times where I was working three jobs going to school, full time, you know and trying to just figure it out.

Speaker 1: 5:12

So I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons, because my path was never straightforward. I was taking all the dirt roads, like I made it a little bit harder than it really had to be, right, but luckily they all kind of like circle around to each other. Yeah, yeah. And then what really happened is um, surprise, hey, you're going to have a baby at 20. And so then I'm like I have to be somebody for this human Right, like I want to be a mom that my son can be proud of, know the life. That's maybe a little bit easier pathways for him than how it worked out for me. So I walked into this agency looking with my baby Okay, I was a single mom.

Speaker 1: 6:29

I ended up being a single mom at 20. So I walk in with this baby carrier and I'm looking for a job. That's in the same town as the university, and this lady looks at me and she says well, how do you feel about working here? You know, I didn't. I didn't even know what that meant, right. So I got the job and in the staffing agency and that's where my love for hr came from so this I was.

Speaker 1: 7:01

I started interviewing. You know working with companies to do their job placements, helping with job descriptions. You know managing, you know people on site at other companies learning about payroll and I was like, oh, I like this. So for the third, and final time I changed my college major. And here's, 20 years later.

Speaker 2: 7:26

So you know, you said that 16 year old Ashley knew what a dream to be VP and HR and do these things. What did you think you were? What path did you think you were going to be taking?

Speaker 1: 7:39

I knew I didn't want to just work in a factory my whole life, which I do, just in a different capacity, because I do love the idea of how things work and how the world turns Right and it takes manufacturing to do that. I just wanted to be something. I don't. I know that sounds Something more.

Speaker 2: 8:03

Yeah, like More just, you know, those types of things you didn't want to just pack your hot dogs. Whatever rolling might've been, you wanted to. Yeah, More challenges.

Speaker 1: 8:14

And so I wanted. I wanted to explore what my full capabilities were and at times I thought I had maxed those out. And then, you know, I had people who pushed me and put me in roles that forced me to grow and learn right, because I would. Failure is never an option, right? I mean, we don't fail, we learn right. Right, so it is. How do I figure out if someone trusts me to do this? I can not let them down and we're gonna figure it out.

Speaker 1: 8:51

And if you're telling me that this is my job. I'm gonna give you everything I got. There's no sense in doing things halfway, so and I think that has propelled me a little bit into more opportunities to grow.

Speaker 2: 9:06

Yeah, and so do you think that's what is, I guess, motivated you and keeps you motivated?

Speaker 1: 9:11

Yeah, I would say so. I am naturally a motivated person. I always want to be like okay, if I got here, what's next, what's next, what's next? Right, I'm always setting that next stepping stone and figuring out how to just keep going. So, yeah, it's that fire. I have a little bit of fire. That's like I know I can do it and I'm going to figure it out.

Speaker 2: 9:36

So, as a single mother, 20 years old, you happen to walk in the staffing agency. They ask you if you're interested in working for them. At that point you realize that, hey, I kind of like doing this thing, and that led you on a path of changing your education to be focused on HR. Now I know personally that you are driven to continue on. So you did your four years.

Speaker 1: 10:02

I did.

Speaker 2: 10:03

And that wasn't enough.

Speaker 1: 10:04

No. So then I decided to take on another year and got my master's of science in leadership, because I loved being able to help people grow and influence them to be their best versions of themselves, so that really tugged on me. So after that I actually started, uh, teaching undergraduate courses at the university. So then I decided I need to keep going again. So in order to expand what I could teach, I went and got my MBA as well. Hi.

Speaker 2: 10:43

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