Redefining Success: Mom's Journey to CEO with Ashley DeLuca

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Welcome to Grace In the grind, the podcast where we dive deep into the

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journeys of heart centered and purpose driven leaders and entrepreneurs.

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We'll pull back the curtain to explore the stories behind success, how people

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have navigated the toughest challenges, overcome their obstacles and found

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their way through the grind to build something truly impactful, whether you're

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a Christian leader looking for guidance or an entrepreneur seeking inspiration.

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We're here to equip and encourage you.

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So let's get started, and find the grace within the grind.

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This is Grace in the Grind, and now your host, Jim Burgoon.

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Welcome to the show.

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Welcome to grace and the grind.

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this is my good friend, Ashley DeLuca.

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And we're here just kind of really talked about some stories behind the story of

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how she's gone from a time of struggle to thriving, what that looks like and the

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wisdom and how you can do that as well, she is now the CEO of George Bryant, Yeah.

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George is a good friend of the show as well.

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And so Ashley has moved into a CEO position doing that.

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we're going to let her unpack what that looks like.

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What's the life of a CEO and things like that.

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So welcome to the show, Ashley.

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Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me.

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I'm stoked to be here.

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Yeah, so, you know, we've known each other for a while and, gone through

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some really crazy times watching things up and down all over the place.

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So I want to start this off, first and foremost, just let our viewers know

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maybe some of the journey you've been on to go from where you were, where

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you started, to be where you're at.

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Yeah.

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Oh my gosh.

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So it feels so crazy to say that my journey started over six years ago.

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my very first like entrepreneurial encounter was at a Panera Bread.

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It was with my best friend, CC.

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I always used to joke that she was double the age, double the wisdom.

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And I was sitting there and I was in my.

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Early, early twenties.

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And I was explaining to her how frustrated I was with the corporate grind.

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And I was sold this dream that if you just worked up the corporate

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ladder, you would be fulfilled.

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You would be happy.

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Things would look great.

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And for me as a kind of budding web designer, I.

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Felt like I was hitting rock wall after rock wall.

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And so as I was, in this process of trying to figure out what I wanted to do

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and really how I wanted to move forward in my life because I was in college

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full time, I was working full time.

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I was doing all the quote unquote, right things.

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And I.

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Just wasn't happy.

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It just wasn't fitting.

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It just wasn't working for me.

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And so it was in that moment that she shared with me, she was like, you

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should just open up your own business.

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And I was like, what does that even look like?

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I've like always thought small businesses were brick and mortar.

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And I was like, I don't know how to bake really well.

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it come to find out I was able to start my very first, company

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blank slate media consulting.

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And I started doing Craigslist jobs, and I don't know how I wasn't kidnapped, but

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I would meet strange men up at Panera Bread to talk about their website and

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their business and what they were looking to create, and women too, of course.

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And so, We started there.

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We started just with this baby little business, just trying to figure out how

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things were going to work and pursuing this dream of becoming an entrepreneur.

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You said a couple things there that I, I really, I want to kind of dive

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into a little bit, you know, you work in a full time job, you're in

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college, you're doing all the things.

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and a lot of you and I, our listeners are same way.

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They're doing like 900 things.

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And so I guess my first question going at, let's dig into that where it

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says, at what point did you recognize.

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That you were unfulfilled and then what Now, are you finding your fulfillment?

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Like, where was the recognition point, that realization, that self awareness,

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and then what did you do about it?

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And then where are you in that journey?

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Yeah.

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So really the unfulfillment piece.

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was just a little bud.

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It was like the seed planted that day where I recognized that there

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could be so much more that I didn't have to go through the process of

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becoming somebody else's dream.

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I could create my own.

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And it was in that moment that Again, the seed was planted and it wasn't until

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probably two, three years later when I became pregnant with my son, Nick,

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and I was still doing the hustle, the grind, I was still in corporate, I was

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still going through the process of, you know, being in college full time.

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And I had this business that I was working on as well too.

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And so I was adding all of these pieces and I watched somebody else go through

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a maternity leave, like on my team.

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And I realized I didn't want that.

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Like I didn't want to just have, if I don't remember how many weeks it was.

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So for the sake of conversation, let's say it was 12.

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I didn't want to just have 12 weeks maternity leave or

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eight weeks maternity leave.

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Like I wanted to be able to have both for me and my kiddo where I could

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work and go through the process of being able to be there with him.

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And so when I eventually, I left, I was just like, peace, like I'm done.

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I found a different level of fulfillment that had that seed had planted when I

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was at Panera that day that I was able to find that, like, My fulfillment

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doesn't necessarily come just from the work that I create and what I do.

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It comes from being able to be both, to be able to be a mom, to be able to be a

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business owner, to be able to prioritize my son and to be able to put him first

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and to make my schedule around him.

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And what's so interesting, and I'm sure we'll get into this.

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Is it like that?

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Conversation, me leaving and then having that seed planted was a

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complete lifesaver and being able to create the lifestyle and being able

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to create the dream that I have now.

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So that's, so I want to first and foremost, for you guys

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who are following me online, I always use hashtag wisdom mom.

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And so that's been something I've been using for years and you

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dropped a big one just a minute ago.

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And I, and I wrote it down and I, hopefully I.

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You know, say it the way you said it, but it said, I didn't

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have to be someone else's dream.

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I could be my own.

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And I was like, hashtag wisdom bomb on that one, because that

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was an actual amazing statement, actually like, Oh my gosh.

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And then you're using seed like that.

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Everything is a seed.

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And I think that's super important because I think there's a, there's

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this deception or this self, like we lie to ourselves a little bit

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that says, once I leave, everything has to be fullness of something.

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And

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there's seed.

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There's a seed like you leave and it's the small little kernel

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that pops into something big.

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So where did you find the courage to do that?

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When you said I left and I planted the seed and it saved my life.

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Where did you find that courage?

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Because I know there's a lot that are struggling with I

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want to, but I'm too afraid to.

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It's just, for me, it's always been evidence that every time I bet on myself,

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everything ends up like perfectly okay.

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And I know that a huge part of that is just trusting God's plan for me

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in my life and knowing that God is watching over me and that he's leading

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me in the direction that I need to go.

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And with that, I really Just fully trust myself and my decisions and knowing that

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those gut feelings that I have are very much so God signals for me and being

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able to pair that with knowing that God always has my back because truly, like

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I think about even just in every moment that I've done that, like the experience

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that I just shared with everybody here about leaving my corporate job and

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just going right into entrepreneurship without having the whole saving grace

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plan that I wish I would've had.

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I definitely, definitely see that as just like the very start of being able to build

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my courage to then overcome and make even bigger decisions later down the road.

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I like that.

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I love that a lot.

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And so do you ever, do you ever struggle with like self doubt

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or second guessing yourself and how did you fight through that?

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All the time, even still today, I struggle like yesterday, I struggled

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with a, like a huge feeling of uneasiness and I was second guessing.

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I was doubting and I was struggling through all of the feelings.

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And so I'm very equipped to knowing what that looks like, knowing that it comes in

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waves and it usually doesn't last long.

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what's interesting for me is that I usually will feel very

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confident in what I'm about to do.

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Like I'm very gung ho.

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I'm very like, this is it.

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Like I make up my mind and I stand for it.

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I don't waver when I make the decision.

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It usually comes.

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Like I almost have like decision fatigue or decision remorse.

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like, a couple of days later down the road, I'm like, Oh

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my gosh, what did I just do?

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when the excitement of standing in your power and your decision and knowing

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that God has your back fades and you're just like, we out here now we out here.

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Oops.

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Yeah.

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Well, Here we go.

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Well, I like that because it's like, it's almost like, well, it's too late now.

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I've already made the decision, you know, and I think that's a beautiful

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place to be in because, you know, you already made the decision and

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there's so many people out there that are struggling to make the decision.

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Like there's that, imposter syndrome, whatever label you want to put it,

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they're struggling to make the decision But you make the decision and then

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you have some struggle afterwards, but the decision's already made.

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The hardest part is over.

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That's amazing.

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I love that.

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So that brings into another line of thinking and you said it earlier.

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cause you actually said it in a way that says I get to be both

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mom, creator, you know, business owner, but that speaks to identity.

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So how is your identity fueling your, you know, your mission in life?

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And then what were some of the steps you use to create that particular

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solidness in your identity?

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So for me, being a mom drives me.

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I didn't know when I first became pregnant that, being a mom would drive my entire

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life and my entire why and all the things.

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But looking back now, I realize that becoming a mother was one of the

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greatest gifts that was ever given to me.

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I really struggled.

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Like I had a very extremely rocky and abusive marriage and

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relationship with my ex husband.

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And one of the things that always kept me going in the moments that

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I wanted to personally give up was having that little baby looking back

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up at me and I'd be like, no, like I get to choose to live for him.

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Like regardless of anything else, like I'm, I'm choosing to do this for him.

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And Nicholas is like, definitely one of my biggest anchor points and everything.

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he was like my hope.

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He was like, he's the one who got me up every morning.

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Like even still today, like when I struggle with, you know, all of the

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pieces that I'm still healing from, from that relationship, like I get up in the

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morning because he gets to go to school.

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And I know that I have a responsibility to get him up for school.

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And so even in the moments that I really struggle with my thoughts and

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I'm really down and I'm really blue and things aren't looking the greatest you

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know, cause we all struggle with that.

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Like we just wake up one day and we're just like, why do we feel this way?

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Like, this doesn't feel like me, but we're going to feel through it.

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He's the one who keeps me forward.

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And for me, I had to shed a part of my identity as well about

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being a wife, because being a wife was also something that was

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really incredibly important to me.

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And I was really proud of that.

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And I was very excited and grateful and thankful.

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And I was just like, I feel like I'm fulfilling what I feel

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like I'm being called to do.

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Like, you know, God, like, I feel specifically like

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God wanted me to be a wife.

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God wanted me to be a mother, like, and to experience all of that.

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And so when I got divorced, like I went through a really hard time

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with taking that out of my identity.

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I would have to catch myself and be like, Oh no, like I'm

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not that anymore for anybody.

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And being able to like work through that has just further anchored in for

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me, like how much I truly love being a mother and how like Nicholas is like the

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most important person in my entire life.

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And I will do anything for him.

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And so regardless of what happens, like I fully anchor into that.

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And that is just what has over consumed everything for me and filled

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in all the holes is being able to refine myself as a mother and then

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as a business owner as well, too.

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that's amazing.

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And I love how you say you fully anchored in the net.

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I think I'm going to do an episode on anchor points at some point, because

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it's, I think that's super important.

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I like this word.

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You said, you said, I shred, I shed it, my identity or that part of my identity.

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How did that work for you?

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Like, how long did that take?

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Like, how hard was that?

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It was probably one of the most difficult things that I've done.

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Easily.

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I had the decision point, right?

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Like I had the decision point of like, yeah, like this isn't working.

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Like we don't belong together.

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Like I'm leaving, I'm moving out, like all of that.

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And then there's the opposite part of that decision fatigue or that decision remorse

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of like, Oh my gosh, what did I just do?

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And I walked through that for months.

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Months of waking up every day.

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I felt like luckily I lived with my family for those six months.

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And so I was accounted for essentially, the best way to make sure that

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like, I took care of myself.

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I took care of Nick and I got up and I worked every day.

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but that first year, leading up to the point of the separation and then

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into the actual divorce was one of the hardest years of my entire life.

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I don't know if I look at my life and I look at.

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The process of like the abuse and the things that I went through as really

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really difficult and hard but I also Don't remember a lot of it like I blocked

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out a lot of that like my My brain just doesn't remember like i'll have trigger

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points where i'll remember things and be like, oh my gosh that happened to

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me But then a lot of times like I just don't remember like I blocked it all out.

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And so With my healing journey.

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Like I very vividly remember a lot of it.

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And I know that there was a lot of moments where I just, I really

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struggled with all of it and it took, and it still takes time.

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Like, I think I'm still working through a lot of pieces of it, but I would say

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definitely it was like a year long process of like working through the doubt, working

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through the remorse, working through the, Am I making the right decision?

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I don't know.

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And then having to have other people remind me of why I was

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making that decision and why it was the best decision for me.

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That's amazing.

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and I'm honored to know you.

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I mean, like that's a tough thing to go through and just to see the meteoric

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rise you've come out of that, that has been, it's just been beautiful to watch.

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So I just want to honor that and recognize that.

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I wrote down five things here.

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One words basically that you said that was like really kind of a process,

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which is really fascinating to me.

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for number one was the decision, you know, when you're shredding his decision.

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that's probably the most important thing.

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Once you make the decision, everything else gets easier.

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You know, the remorse or the dealing with the shame and guilt of that

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time, the proper support and then the refocus and I wanted to write that down

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because what you said was incredibly important, not only in the area of.

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Personal mental health, but in the shifting of identities, because we

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live in a world that really is lost.

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It's mine with identity right now.

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I think that what you just said was probably some of the most important

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things that could be shared.

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So thank you for that.

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What's interesting is I don't feel like even in my current state, like,

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as I should, it's like, I feel very unequipped to being able to lead or

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guide somebody through the process, because I feel very much so a baby to it.

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Like I, I just figured it out day by day.

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Like I woke up, I drank my coffee and I said, okay, what are we going to be doing?

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But thank you for reflecting that process back to me because

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I didn't see it that way.

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I just saw it as something that I did, not something that could be repeatable.

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Oh, you're welcome.

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Absolutely.

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Can be repeatable.

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And I think there's a lot of people out there who have experienced

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what you've experienced.

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That's going to really benefit.

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From what you just said and what you did to get through it, to be where you are.

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I mean, you're a CEO of a company.

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that's incredible to come out of that abusive relationship to be a

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stellar mom, to be, running a company.

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that's some great stuff.

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And I think that it needs to be recognized more, and it goes into how

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God's working in your life and how much.

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You've been working on your identity and how it's fueling.

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I'm honored and thank you for sharing all that and being

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vulnerable enough to share that.

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So thank you so much for you as well, for coming on the show and sharing

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this incredible, incredible experience.

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How do you feel like after going through this process, after doing this?

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That you show up as a, as a leader, like, how do you feel

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like you're showing up now?

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I definitely show up completely differently than how I used to.

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I would say like three year, two year ago, Ashley was very timid, was very

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calculated and how she showed up.

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It was very scripted to only show, specific parts with specific intentions.

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You know, I would share the behind the scenes of like, Hey,

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I'm really struggling with this.

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This is what I'm going through.

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Now I'm like been being able to process it within my own self and

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within more of like a trusted circle.

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And so I feel like this process for me has definitely been

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a huge shift of confidence.

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Being able to understand and know that the power that I hold and being able to

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take that with so much, so much gratitude and honor, honestly, like being able to

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lead and to be able to guide and to be able to focus and to be able to, like,

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support George has been a One of the biggest catalysts, I would say, and part

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of helping support that decision process.

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he's one of the first people to remind me of who I am and to remind me of

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the potential and what future actually looks like in a very positive light.

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Just heart centered way and I feel like that allows for me to be able to fuel

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my impact even greater and to be able to give more to people because that's

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really what I truly desire and when I'm in a healthy state, I want to show up.

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To serve I want to give I it feels good for me to be able to Just love on

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people as opposed to like two years ago Like I didn't have anything to give I

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was showing up empty every day and so I was just giving what I could give

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and now I feel like I Have more of an overflowing bucket to be able to give

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and to serve and to love which feels So incredible and amazing to have every day.

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That's awesome So then that also begs the question is What does Ashley

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do to fill herself up regularly?

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So for me, it's really about quality time.

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Like, you know, there's like the five love languages and

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I'm like, I love all of them.

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Give me all of them.

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but I, I really truly enjoy quality time with people.

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And so I focus on making sure that I have, time.

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To just sit with Nick to be able to, focus on making marble runs with him

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or to cuddle on the couch and watch SpongeBob, whatever that may be.

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Like my biggest bucket filler is Nick.

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And then the people who come underneath of that, like within my inner circle

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to have intentional conversations to make sure that, I get to text

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them every day and to remind them how much I'm grateful for them.

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And so it's, yeah.

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It fills my bucket to give them some of love because then it just like comes

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pouring back, which is like beautiful.

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And I'm just so grateful for that kind of friendships.

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That's awesome.

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And so then like, what are you currently reading?

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So I am actually reading a book, from.

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I'm pretty sure it's from Brené Brown.

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I see the cover.

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Let me see here.

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It's really good.

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It's about shame.

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I know that's kind of like her jam.

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but it is, Oh my gosh.

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Sure.

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I think it's, it's in my bag upstairs.

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So the book is I thought it was me, but it isn't I've been a brown.

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Okay.

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Awesome.

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I like how it's, you know, it's a book about, overcoming shame, something that

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you have been dealing with in your life.

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So that's, just another piece of evidence that shows the amount of

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development you've gone through, how God has really put you through some

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fire and, developed you into the amazing leader that you are today.

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As we start winding down, the show what is something, a piece of wisdom or a piece

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of life, that you would love somebody to grab a hold of that says, this is

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something that you just absolutely need.

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Like, what would you say to people?

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I don't believe that you'll ever regret betting on yourself,

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whatever that may look like.

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I do believe in.

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Having safety plans in place, now that I've gone through the things,

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but the majority of my biggest moments didn't have a safety plan in place.

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Like I didn't know, like when I left my ex husband, I had no

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idea what I was going to do.

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Like, I had no idea where I was going to live, what was going to happen, how long

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I was going to be at my parents house, where I was going to like, nothing.

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I had no idea.

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My stuff was in boxes for six months and I would just pull

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out random things that I needed.

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And looking at my life now, like, you know, I have a

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beautiful home for Nick and I.

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It's like the perfect size.

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It's the complete opposite of what I used to have and being able to see that now.

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And to be able to create an environment that is safe and calming and really

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feels like home for both of us.

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I

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Never would have had those feelings had I not have betted on

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myself and just done the thing, made the decision, taken action.

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And so I truly believe that if you are feeling led, you feel like you're being

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called to go after something, take the leap, do the thing, I like that.

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that's powerful.

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Just bet on yourself.

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And I think the world needs more of that.

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so if people want to find you get connected to you and what

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you're doing, where would they go?

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What's going on with that?

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Yeah, definitely.

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So if you're interested in like my own personal life, all the fun things

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behind the scenes, The best place to follow me is over on Instagram.

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I'll spell out my handle.

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It's, A S H A H L E E K S.

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And then if you're interested in seeing more of the business side and all of the

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fun things that are happening there, I definitely recommend following George and

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his handle on Instagram is at it's I T.

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ITS and then George, Bryant.

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And all of that is together.

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Awesome.

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And I'll make sure that that gets all onto the show notes as well,

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guys, So make sure that if you've made it this far in the episode, make

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sure you grab a hold of those and then go support Ashley and George.

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both are incredible individuals with an incredible mission.

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And so I do appreciate you being on the show and just all the wisdom.

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And experience that you've dropped.

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I truly believe it's going to help the listeners who grab ahold of this.

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you are an amazing light and amazing individual, Ashley.

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So thank you for being on the show.

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Thank you so much for having me and giving me the space to share.

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I really appreciate you.

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Absolutely.

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And so guys, thank you for being part of the episode.

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if you liked this episode, why don't you go on to the next one?

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This has been Grace in the Grind.

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Whether you're a Christian leader looking for guidance or an entrepreneur

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seeking inspiration, it's Jim's passion to equip and encourage you.

Speaker: 00:24:55

Make sure to check out Jim's solo episodes, where he shares

Speaker: 00:24:58

practical leadership insights grounded in a biblical perspective.

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We hope you've enjoyed the show.

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If you did, make sure to like, rate, and review.

Speaker: 00:25:08

And we'll be back soon.

Speaker: 00:25:09

But in the meantime, find us on social media at Lead with Jim.

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And you can also hit the website at www.

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leadwithjim.

Speaker: 00:25:19

com.

Speaker: 00:25:20

Take care of yourself and we'll see you next time on Grace in the Grind.