Meet Ashlye Fleming

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ashlye Fleming. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ashlye, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

I have found in my life that there is a deep unsettling from doing something you aren’t meant to do. When I was younger and following a more traditional corporate path, this would eat away at me. I started to take some risks, and I found that with each one- whether or not it worked out in my favor, my confidence, self-esteem and resilience grew. There was a feeling of truly following my heart and being authentic that helped me overcome so much internal and external doubt.

I got married for the first time when I was very young- barely 23, living in Arizona, just about to start business school. Everything felt wrong. My life, my location, my husband, working toward something that would lead me in a direction career-wise that felt like a prison sentence. Once I obtained my MBA, I made the horribly hard decision to end that relationship and move to San Francisco to search for greener pastures. I was unemployed and scared and it was the middle of the recession, so I started working for peanuts in the marketing department of Benefit Cosmetics. I felt such a sense of freedom with the move though. I knew that it was the real me who had broken free of what most would have called a great life. No one understood it, everyone doubted me, but I felt a huge weight lifted off. I felt stronger and more confident immediately. Life started to turn into lots of little risks. Saying “no’ when I didn’t want to go out with someone. Being direct. Learning how to manage employees by saying the scary things. Asking for raises. Doing my first cold plunge. I continued to put myself into uncomfortable situations, and continued to get rewarded in the form of inner peace.

I made my second very hard decision years later to exit the corporate world years later and pursue opening my first BODYROK in a small town in northern California. Once again, the people in my world seemed to question this. Everyone was skeptical that it could succeed, especially since I was opening in such a non-populated area. But once again, making this decision turned out to be the most rewarding career move I ever made. BODYROK has been a huge success, and I am so proud of my staff and what they’ve accomplished. But I feel most grateful for what it has done for me on the inside. I have learned over the years that fortune really does reward the bold. When you feel brave enough to jump, and you land, even if you are beat up, you know that you can do it again. And there is no fortune better than that in my opinion.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Patience- this is incredibly important when starting a business. As soon as you take the leap you want everything to happen so quickly and the reality is that it always takes so much more time than you think it will, and when you rush it, the results won’t be as good. I continue to work on this when looking for locations!

Learn the art of letting go. I find one of the most challenging parts of running a business is managing staff. You will never be the perfect manager to every single staff member, and some staff members won’t work out for one reason or another. Sometimes this is really difficult and letting hard feelings go serves me well.

Sales. Sales will be your number one skill no matter what industry you’re in or what business you’ve started. To be good at selling, you need to find a way to relate to people, not push them.

I would say the best resources for improving the above would be reading business books, meditating, and creating work life balance so that your stress doesn’t get the better of you.

What is currently your biggest challenge?

At the moment I would say our biggest challenge is (and has been) our rapid growth. We opened our first 3 studios all within 12 months of each other, and the 4th one a year later. Our team went from 8 to 70 in just 2 years and it’s been hard to continuously try to restructure and redefine roles within the organization. It requires hiring a few really amazing leaders and constantly reassessing. Also, even with new hires we have learned to be transparent about the startup like nature of the company and explain that we all wear a lot of hats and the “rules” and jobs will constantly be in flux until we reach our final studio goal and start to settle in and mature.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bodyrok.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodyroknashville/?hl=en

Image Credits

Mackenzie LaRoe