We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Falzone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I grew up in an old Victorian fixer-upper in Downtown Kansas City. My sister and I were mainly raised by our father who always showed us if you work hard enough at something, you’ll be okay. This was something I strongly valued as a kid. I admired that no matter how hard of work we did, we always found a way to have fun. My sister, my dad, and I. When I was super young my dad ran a hot dog cart that sat in front of the old Kansas City Star, and it was HARD work. Enduring the elements, prepping food, Sam’s club runs every night, restocking condiments & pop coolers…..it was a job that had work to do from sun up to sun down. My dad did this every single day, while raising two girls, and never complained once. To answer the question simply, my father’s great work ethic and positive attitude no matter what was the main driving factor in my work ethic till this day. There’s also money to thank!
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
A|F SALON has made its name in Kansas City as a place that you can trust with your hair. We don’t take the praise lightly, as we highly value each and every client that walks in our doors. The Salon originally started with one chair during COVID, and has since grown to a four chair salon with an in house Make-up Artist. As a salon here to service all our clients needs, our main focus will always be our guests. If you need to talk, we are here for you. If you need to have the best head scrubbing of your life, or just a place to be you, we are here for you. The vibe at our salon rocks, the beverages are here to please, complete with complimentary snacks. To say the least we got you! Given our main focus is our clients, and our local community, we love to host events in the Firestone Event Space in our building. We’ve done First Friday Events, Charity Auctions, How-To classes in order to bring our community closer! Check out our site to keep current on what’s happening.
Currently our long term vision is to be determined, as we are constantly growing and evolving. We have a few things in the works!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
My most difficult feat as a woman in the business world has been delegating. I am extremely detail oriented, proactive, and thorough with every detail. At a certain point I realized that there is no way I can do everything alone. I would say a ton of trust came along with that too. When your business is your baby, you have to make sure others see your vision correctly. This is slightly embarrassing to admit-I had no clue what a CPA was when I first opened my business. I was super stressed about the financial aspect naturally, so confided in a friend about how they handled it. Talking business with other business owners is a must….and led to my amazing discovery of CPA’s!
The last and most crucial thing I had to learn is to be patient, think about your words, and don’t let imposter syndrome get the best of you!!
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
I wouldn’t say there is one specific thing that has been helpful. I would say it’s a conglomeration of multiple strong women of Kansas City behind me. Fortunately I am able to converse with the elite of Kansas City and it gives me an incredible backbone to build off of. When I say that, what I mean is I get to hear these super strong women stories, I get to see what they conquer, I get to hear about what they face everyday. I get to see how really amazing women function all of the time and it is really the best and most powerful aspect of my job.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.afsalonkc.com
- Instagram: @afsalonkc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/afsalonkc/
- Linkedin: @afsalonkc
- Other: tiktok: @afsalonkc
Image Credits
@amberroseimagery @ambermacken
