Pathways with Amber Stitt

Focus On Marketing: Humanizing Brands, A Conversation with Marketing Executive Ashley Richards

March 12, 2024 Amber Stitt
Focus On Marketing: Humanizing Brands, A Conversation with Marketing Executive Ashley Richards
Pathways with Amber Stitt
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Pathways with Amber Stitt
Focus On Marketing: Humanizing Brands, A Conversation with Marketing Executive Ashley Richards
Mar 12, 2024
Amber Stitt

🌟 In this episode of The Amber Stitt Show, host Amber Stitt sits down with Ashley Richards, a marketing executive with over 15 years of experience. The two discuss Ashley's journey in the marketing world, her passion for the creative elements of marketing, and how she carved her own path to balance motherhood and her career.

💡 Ashley sheds light on the importance of humanizing brands and personal brands in the digital space. She shares valuable insights on the impact of vulnerability and personal storytelling in connecting with an audience, and the power of social media in advocating for important causes.

🎙️ Additionally, the conversation delves into E Squared Cares, an initiative launched by Ashley's company aimed at giving back to the community through monthly partnerships with different nonprofits. Ashley provides inspiration and practical insights for business owners and individuals looking to create meaningful connections and make a positive impact.

💌 If you're looking to gain valuable marketing insights and learn about the power of personal branding and giving back to the community, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in and get ready to be inspired!

🔔 Don't forget to visit our website at www.AmberStitt.com for more information about the podcast, Amber's books, articles, and more. Thank you for listening, and remember to enjoy your journey at home and at work!

🔗 Connect with Ashley Richards and E Squared Marketing:

- Website: https://www.esquaredmarketing.com/

- Social Media: @ESquaredMarketing

- Community Outreach and Nonprofit Partners: https://www.esquaredmarketing.com/esquaredcares

Show Notes Transcript

🌟 In this episode of The Amber Stitt Show, host Amber Stitt sits down with Ashley Richards, a marketing executive with over 15 years of experience. The two discuss Ashley's journey in the marketing world, her passion for the creative elements of marketing, and how she carved her own path to balance motherhood and her career.

💡 Ashley sheds light on the importance of humanizing brands and personal brands in the digital space. She shares valuable insights on the impact of vulnerability and personal storytelling in connecting with an audience, and the power of social media in advocating for important causes.

🎙️ Additionally, the conversation delves into E Squared Cares, an initiative launched by Ashley's company aimed at giving back to the community through monthly partnerships with different nonprofits. Ashley provides inspiration and practical insights for business owners and individuals looking to create meaningful connections and make a positive impact.

💌 If you're looking to gain valuable marketing insights and learn about the power of personal branding and giving back to the community, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in and get ready to be inspired!

🔔 Don't forget to visit our website at www.AmberStitt.com for more information about the podcast, Amber's books, articles, and more. Thank you for listening, and remember to enjoy your journey at home and at work!

🔗 Connect with Ashley Richards and E Squared Marketing:

- Website: https://www.esquaredmarketing.com/

- Social Media: @ESquaredMarketing

- Community Outreach and Nonprofit Partners: https://www.esquaredmarketing.com/esquaredcares

Amber Stitt [00:00:00]:
Hello, and welcome to The Amber Stitt Show. I am your host, Amber Stitt. And today we have Ashley Richards, a marketing executive for over 15 years, a friend of mine, a business colleague, and her team, her company is one of my marketing partners. So welcome, Ashley, to the show today.

Ashley Richards [00:00:18]:
Thank you, Amber. Thanks for having me.

Amber Stitt [00:00:20]:
Been thinking about having you on for a long time. I do a lot of work with women and business owners that just need confidence on camera, how to show up. And there was a time, way back in the day, where I had a brand new business, and I met you, and you helped me break out of the shell of just, "How do you do this?" And we'll get into that in a little bit. Your company is very unique, I think, in a sense, where you have a knack to bring the aesthetic beauty, but purposeful vision between your clients, your businesses, but individuals, too. And did you always have this, Ashley? Where did the passion come from? Like, how did you know this is where you need to be at least over ten years ago?

Ashley Richards [00:00:59]:
Gosh, it's pushing way longer than that. But now I'm aging myself, so we're just going to stick with those numbers.

Amber Stitt [00:01:05]:
Wisdom!

Ashley Richards [00:01:07]:
I've always had a love for marketing. Ever since I was young. I was always curious about the message behind a brand, or why they chose that color, or what does that slogan mean? Because that's what you remember, right? And so I've always loved it. And so right out of high school, I found myself in marketing positions and just finding a love for the creative elements of it. And so that's really how I fell into it. And I worked my way through the corporate ladder, if you will, and I ended up the director of marketing for a large chain of physical therapy offices. I loved it.

Amber Stitt [00:01:41]:
Okay.

Ashley Richards [00:01:41]:
I was married, and I had my firstborn. I had my daughter, Ellie. And so I was also in this crossroads of... And, you know, nine years ago, it was very much, are you going to be a stay at home mom, or are you going to be a working mom? I felt like there was no really road in between. It was like, you got to pick one. Are you going to put her in daycare, or are you going to stay home? And I really struggled with this. And then soon thereafter, I got pregnant with my son. His name is Eli.

Ashley Richards [00:02:06]:
And so I've got two babies in diapers, and I'm like, okay, now if I do childcare, it's just going to be outrageously expensive. What do I do? But I felt strongly, Amber, I wanted to do both. And I know that resonates with you, right? Like, I want to be a mom. And I wanted to be in business because I love it so much. And so I carved my own little road, and I started working from home. And it was weird.

Amber Stitt [00:02:30]:
I mean, this was before covid. This was when people were, like, starting YouTube channels and starting to do more on social. But it wasn't like, I mean, a lot of people were not setting up their shop the way you did. But you said, I'm just going to do it. I love that.

Ashley Richards [00:02:43]:
And, you know, my husband's my biggest fan, and he's like, "Let's do this." And so my first clients were friends of mine that just needed help with marketing. And I'm like, I can do it. This will be great. And so it was such a beautiful synergy. I just felt like I had three babies, right? I have this business and these two kiddos in diapers.

Amber Stitt [00:03:01]:
Oh, your husband? No.

Ashley Richards [00:03:03]:
Oh, yeah, no...

Amber Stitt [00:03:04]:
No, he's good.

Ashley Richards [00:03:05]:
Yeah. He's like a half a child.

Amber Stitt [00:03:08]:
Yeah.

Ashley Richards [00:03:08]:
And so it was amazing. And so it just evolved from there. And I started growing and getting more clients, and I found myself needing more help. And I was in this great community of moms, and I found a few of them that have marketing backgrounds that are like, "Hey, I'd love to come work with you, but I want to work from home, too. I've got littles. Are you okay with that?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I don't see a problem with that. I'm working from home. You could probably do it."

Ashley Richards [00:03:29]:
And so E Squared Marketing was born, so it was named after both my kids. And so it's been...

Amber Stitt [00:03:35]:
Oh, you know what? I never knew that!

Ashley Richards [00:03:36]:
Yeah, they're the reason why I started it.

Amber Stitt [00:03:40]:
Well, thanks for sharing that. I know that we can feel guilty about choosing work, and we only get to do this motherhood thing once, or twice, or there's a duration of time that they're with us, so taking that leap... And then I think sometimes when people are employees and they go through this transition, you're gathering experience, seeing what you love to do. You understand when you're building your team, what the others that work with you, for you, are facing. And it's a nice way to say, "I've been there. I've been the support role," and everyone's just... They're on the same page, essentially.

Amber Stitt [00:04:09]:
I love that. And we talk about focusing on talents and really building that out. And so I feel like you are doing what you love, and I know that you keep adding little... I call it Pathways of Peak Performance now on the podcast, but you're taking different lanes. And I always like to encourage people. Once you do that one thing, the main thing, then you have your niche, but then you have these little pathways that can pop out. And that's where I've seen you have a lot of fun, and I think it's encouraging. And we'll talk about community a little bit more.

Amber Stitt [00:04:37]:
But you've been able to do a lot in the last decade where you're just moving and shaking, and you get to go do fun things all the time with people you care about.

Ashley Richards [00:04:46]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think the big thing is just you can't be content where you're at. It's been an amazing journey, but I'm always grabbing for what's next or what can I do differently, or where can I grow, where can I learn? How can I build this community around me? Exactly what you hit on, because those are all elements. I mean, we've had team members come to us and say, "Hey, can we do this type of project?" And I'm like, "We've never done it, but let's look at it." There's beauty in that of just not being content. And as an entrepreneur, you really can't be. You got to be moving and shaking often because that's where the growth is.

Amber Stitt [00:05:18]:
Was there anything that you did...? We talk about focusing on money. I think a lot of times we can get money smart, not like with financial background degrees. You have to be so sophisticated. I think when you understand money, how to scale, you're building a team. Was there anything that you did to kind of protect yourself and your business while you were growing? Any takeaways for the audience to say, this worked for me, or this didn't work for me as you were growing and building?

Ashley Richards [00:05:42]:
Yeah. So one thing I did was I bought life insurance. No one wants to talk about...

Amber Stitt [00:05:47]:
I didn't pay you to say that!

Ashley Richards [00:05:49]:
I know, but it's true, Amber. No one wants to talk about death. But I'm an income that my husband would need if something were to happen to me. So that was one of the first things I did, was it would be hard to replace me as far as what I do at home and what I do in business. But that financial help would be huge. So that was number one. Two, was just learning and understanding the financials of how to run a business. So I'm in an organization called EO Entrepreneurs Organization and in the accelerator program.

Ashley Richards [00:06:18]:
It's like little baby businesses are in there. One of the first things they teach you is how to analyze and run your profit loss. That was new to me. What does this mean? What does it look like? And then we would break out into small groups, and we would actually share our financials. And that sounds really scary, but this is a very confidential place, and so I would hand out copies of my PNL and these other business owners put holes in it. Hey, what does this mean? Hey, what are you doing here? And then they would give me feedback, and I would take them all back. And then I'd shred them. And then the next meeting, someone else would bring their financials.

Ashley Richards [00:06:52]:
All different types of businesses. At first, it was really uncomfortable, but I get so much value. We still do that to this day. I get so much value from them and their perspective of what should financials look like. Or, "Hey, I recommend this," or, "Hey, we're doing this, and it's working really well." So that was really big for me, is just educating yourself on what do these numbers mean? What does this look like? And then setting those targets. So we do budgets every year. Okay, what did our numbers look like this year? Where can we change things for next year? And that didn't come natural to me. I'm a creative.

Ashley Richards [00:07:25]:
I'm not a numbers person. That was where I spent a lot of my time in my early years of being a business owner, is, how does this work? I knew I was making some money, but I couldn't tell you what, or how, or how much. I was like, "Is that important?" And obviously, as I scaled, I've learned that it's very important.

Amber Stitt [00:07:42]:
I think that's really where there's a mentorship that was happening, where you're trusting people to see it. And in WIFS, Women in Insurance & Financial Services, when I first was talking with national and now in the Phoenix Chapter, you start talking about money, and why are we not talking about money? Why is it forbidden? And it's one of those things that, especially for women, we feel almost arrogant if we're in that camaraderie, in that group, that special place. But I've had to learn that it is important to let others know in certain circumstances what's going on, because you can be motivating and you might be mentoring somebody else and kind of that give and take, but really understanding money and taxes, game changer, that gives you so much control over your life where you can be allocating resources. So even in the business, then you could pull it back to your own personal life, too. Feels pretty good when some of that basic stuff that they never teach us in school and, you know, our kids are not learning that either. It's like the first thing, let's make sure that they understand.

Ashley Richards [00:08:40]:
Yeah, agreed. And I think there's this big movement right now, even in healthcare about being an advocate for your own health, making your own choices like getting 2nd and 3rd opinions and you have to be leading that. And I think that needs to be the next big movement. Financially you can have all the experts in the world but you still have to know and understand what is going on in your personal finances and your business finances and make decisions based on what your goals are, what you're needing. That's the biggest thing is education and educating yourself. And I didn't know any of this, there wasn't a class, you become a business owner. I was like, "I don't know, I don't know what this means, I don't know how the breakdown is." So that's the big thing I think for me is just the education piece of it and knowing what you're getting yourself into and what's profitable.

Amber Stitt [00:09:22]:
The advocacy part, it is happening. I don't know if this is coming out of a lot of political, mass media, healthcare, and covid, but I feel like there is a movement, and back with my strategic partners that do financial planning, It's like let's just stop giving our money to X, Y and Z because let's participate in the why behind it. Are there opportunity costs that are lost if I give all my money over to these buckets just because I get a match? What if there was that business opportunity, or that real estate opportunity? There's other things to kind of mix it up but you control it and not giving everything away for the later day, that retirement time frame. Entrepreneurs know that we do have to plug in and invest in ourselves and do things today sometimes, not always just for the later. And I think you're right. There is a movement and almost like this reverse anti-herd mentality that people are like "Hey, I got to participate more." But people truly need to reflect and say, "Are you really trying to take a moment for yourself and really apply really in any category of our life." So let's switch gears onto focusing on marketing because that's step number four in my world and not because I just love marketing.

Amber Stitt [00:10:30]:
The thing I want to tap into based upon the advocacy thing you just said, it was perfect transition...What do you see...? Because you work with a lot of commercial, corporate, bigger business clients, but can you share with the audience...? I feel like personal branding, even if you're an employee and you never want to be this big business owner, why is it still important to polish up a consistent story and share that with the world?

Ashley Richards [00:10:53]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:10:54]:
And then we can go into corporate and commercial.

Ashley Richards [00:10:56]:
And I think it's honestly important for any business sector, whether it's a personal brand, or a business brand. What we're seeing a huge shift in marketing. So before, marketing was pretty niche and then digital came about and then digital, as soon as digital kind of took off and all these social platforms took off, all these brands are like, "Everybody's my audience," right? I need everybody in the world to know about my product, or my service. And that's kind of gotten a little bit crazy. And so now we're seeing it niche down. We're really big on segmentation. I would rather a big business, or even a personal brand, get the right audience than a big audience. They're very different.

Ashley Richards [00:11:30]:
Right? So where is that niche? And what people were seeing, and there's all these talks about the disconnection on digital platforms, right? And so now there's this big movement of humanization. How can we humanize a brand? How can we humanize a person? Right? Because if you ran your social very corporately, then they're not going to know who Amber is, right? They're not going to know that you're a mom. And the things that you do, and learn about your personality and things you like, and don't like. That's the content that's performing well from a business standpoint and a personal development standpoint. If I post a photo of our team doing something fun, that usually does so much better than the massive piece that we put together, that has all the amazing statistics that you need to know about marketing. No, they want to see the reel of us doing a potluck, or doing something fun. It's all about that. It's the humanization side.

Ashley Richards [00:12:16]:
And so that's super important, even for your personal development. We had a gal that applied at E Squared, and she sent us a video resume and it stood out. It was amazing, and we hired her. And honestly, that's really what stood out, is I felt like I knew her. I'm like, "Wow, you like to dance? And I know you went to U of A." And it was really cool because I just felt like it connected more for me. I learned all that from her resume. But hearing it, seeing it, and seeing a visual of it, I felt way more connected to her than just her resume.

Amber Stitt [00:12:46]:
Oh, that's interesting. I read a book where when teams were hiring a new person, they would do like a team video to the new hire a week or two in advance, and they take this list of favorite things and, like, favorite food. So they would meet the team before walking in day one, and they'd go out to dinner before the start date. Everyone can kind of hang out versus that cold experience of walking in and being like, "I hope that people like me," as an icebreaker. And especially when people don't always want to read about things, that visual, that interaction. That's really neat. A neat idea. I think also, people don't always communicate well under pressure.

Amber Stitt [00:13:23]:
So if they have a chance to share and then you have the conversation, it gives somebody that might not be super comfortable in that one on one experience to be able to share truly, to their core, who they are. I think the beautiful thing about what we've learned in the last five to ten years is we can receive information all different ways. It's kind of a must to do it, via reading text, video, and something into aesthetic, maybe hearing it, too. But I think that just helps people to be able to tell their story a little bit more. That's a really great idea.

Ashley Richards [00:13:51]:
Totally. And I have a good example. It actually just happened. So Stanley, right? Everybody knows Stanley brand with the cup. Yeah. Gal on TikTok. Her car caught on fire, and she had a Stanley in it. And so she took a video of her car. I don't know if you saw this, but she took a video of her car on fire and when it was out.

Ashley Richards [00:14:08]:
And she's like, she grabs her Stanley and she shakes it and there's still ice in it. And she's like. She literally said, "Stanley wasn't lying. It's built to last" and she shook it, and it still has ice water in it. And the entire car is charred. And so how Stanley responded was the best. So the CEO of Stanley, not the marketing director, not an associate, the CEO of Stanley made a response video, and he introduced himself, and he's like, "We weren't lying.

Ashley Richards [00:14:39]:
We build these products to last, you know, we're so sorry that happened to your car, but this is such a testimony for our product, and we can't thank you enough, and we're going to replace your car." And they bought her a new car.

Amber Stitt [00:14:52]:
Are you talking about Allison, that you work with?

Ashley Richards [00:14:55]:
No. I don't know who she is, but it's just a video...

Amber Stitt [00:14:58]:
Okay, regardless, it doesn't matter. This is amazing. But just taking that moment to share.

Ashley Richards [00:15:04]:
They sold so many more cups, I mean, you should have seen. There's thousands of comments, and people are like, "I didn't own a Stanley, and now I do." I'm buying because it was so authentic. It was so amazing that the CEO is like, "Hey, I'm so sorry about your car, but you're right. We do build it to last. Like, thanks for tagging us. You know, we've never done this before, but we're going to buy you a new car." And it's just the coolest thing.

Ashley Richards [00:15:23]:
So stuff like that, that's humanizing Stanley. Now I'm a Stanley fan forever. It's so cool to see the way they reacted to that.

Amber Stitt [00:15:31]:
Yeah. There's some other people that have been on my podcast that I've interviewed that have worked a lot with, and it's not like a gimmick or tactic, but it's just the emotional side versus logical. And I know you guys work really hard to have a lot of fun at work. I mean, I know one day you said, "People want to see fun. They don't want to see this dreary work experience that's supposedly out there." I don't think you know about that anymore. I mean, there's hard days, but having fun. Life's too short to not be having fun and loving what you do.

Amber Stitt [00:15:58]:
So I know that you guys really try to let people know who your team are and let them shine as well as individuals.

Ashley Richards [00:16:04]:
Absolutely. And that also helps just with recruitment naturally, right? We call FOMO vibes. We have a woman on our team, she's like, "I've been following you for years. I love what you're doing." And she's like, "That's how I heard of it." And so that's the big thing, is that you want that fear of missing out concept.

Ashley Richards [00:16:19]:
But it is important because what we do, although it's a lot of fun, it could be stressful at times. And so I try to sprinkle in some fun and some flavor to bring up the morale when we're in tight deadline season and all the things. And so that's super important. And just the relationships. Right. Your work will reflect better if you're having fun and you enjoy who you work with. And so really advocating for that is super important for us. So we try to do,

Ashley Richards [00:16:42]:
we call them "Surprise and Delight". Work perks. Right. If we can do a dinner, or do something fun, or if we get invited to some cool things. And so trying to include the team on some of those. It's super important.

Amber Stitt [00:16:53]:
I remember going to an event in Scottsdale with you guys and having dinner, and it was a very similar feeling to my women and men, the male members of WIFS Phoenix, where it's just legit everyone's on the same page of just thought leadership, like an enthusiasm in the room, and it felt really real. And that sometimes doesn't happen out and about at cocktail hour, happy hours. It's like, you guys are, I think, putting yourselves around good people, the right people. So let's talk about being in the community.

Ashley Richards [00:17:20]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:17:21]:
Did you start something new that I didn't know about until recently?

Ashley Richards [00:17:24]:
We did. So we started an initiative called, "E Squared Cares," and that's exactly what we're doing, is we're giving back to the community. So, in a lot of different ways. Right. So every month, we partner with a different nonprofit. Each month? Each month, yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:17:38]:
Oh, my gosh. Okay, sorry to interrupt you.

Ashley Richards [00:17:41]:
Oh, no, you're fine. One, we did a toy drive, so we had all the kids of the team members go out and help pick out gifts that we were giving for...it's called "The Sunshine Boutique". It's for Arizona Cancer Foundation for children. And so we filled up their boutique for cancer patients and their families. So that was one. We also did one with all the kiddos.

Ashley Richards [00:18:00]:
We try to include the families, if we can. It was nurses week, and so we had all the kids write thank you cards and create little drawings, and we sent it to one of the hospitals for nurses week.

Amber Stitt [00:18:10]:
So neat.

Ashley Richards [00:18:11]:
So many different ways that you can get involved and connect. So, of course, we try to reach similar types of businesses that really are nonprofits that focus on children or women, just because that's so much of who we are. And so it's so fun. It's just such a great way to give back. We have a lot of nonprofits that are interested in having us come out and pack meals or pack bags for kids in foster care. I mean, you name it, it's been really fun, and it's such a great way for our team to get together and give back and include our families and our kids and encourage them to start giving back at a young age, too.

Amber Stitt [00:18:45]:
Yeah, I think that's important. It's giving them the opportunity to see us in action, part of our legacy, too. And that's where I know you helped me build my blog. And I was at first like, "Why am I doing this? I've got this young baby at home." But as bad as it sounds, it's like if something ever happens to me outside of hearing about me, I want her to see that I brought her into my world. But as she goes and gets older, now she can participate in more things. So I know it's a little morbid, but I think if we're doing well with our business, but even in our own homes, we're organized, and we manage our money the right way. They're going to see that, and they're seeing how we spend and how we interact, and if we can have them also see us working and helping others in the community, that's amazing.

Amber Stitt [00:19:26]:
And I know that it's sometimes hard to support one nonprofit and then go... I like how you have a monthly switch because it's tough to say, I just do St. Jude's, and then what else? You have a way to systematize it, or I guess it's organized enough that people can participate that way. Is there a way for people to then get on the mailer list to say, "I want to support the cause each month. How do I know what to do and where to go?"

Ashley Richards [00:19:51]:
Yeah. So if they follow us on social, they'll know what's coming up and who we partner with. And then on the E Squared Cares page as well, we've got all kinds of information. A lot of the inquiries come from our team, which is great. They're like, "Oh, I love this nonprofit. Can we work with them? Can we partner with them?" And that's honestly what's fed us so far as far as nonprofits. And then we shared on our social, like when we did the St. Jude's Walk, we had friends and family donating for that as well.

Ashley Richards [00:20:15]:
So we don't want to wear out our connections in our community either. So those are the best places that I think people can find out information is on our website of what we're up to and what's coming up, but we've got some really cool ones in the next couple of months that we're doing, too.

Amber Stitt [00:20:27]:
I was wanting to know, what can I go to into '24? And I've talked with you a little bit. How do we pop in, or at least if we have a chance to come see you guys in action, because you have the pulse on what's going on in the community, for sure. In the Arizona area, are there other states that you've extended out to as far as, because you don't work just in Arizona, you can take clients anywhere, is that correct?

Ashley Richards [00:20:47]:
Yes. We're in about 18 states, which is amazing because not our whole team is in Arizona. Like, we're headquartered here, a lot of us, but we have team members across the country. And so with digital and technology, we have the ability to really build those connections across really all the states. Really. That's the goal, is to try and get one client in every state. How awesome and how fun would that be? But it's all about we just want to work with brands that are really focusing on the humanization side.

Ashley Richards [00:21:11]:
That's our bread and butter, is curating the content, telling the story. It does convert to sales, it does convert to conversations, but that's really our passion and what makes us unique is that connection side.

Amber Stitt [00:21:22]:
Well, we'll link up your website and how they can follow you. Is there anything that you would like to share as far as a takeaway? If someone were to say, "Now's not the time for me to expand on marketing, Ashley, I just can't do it." Is there anything you would say, "Just try this." Is there anything that someone just should be doing no matter what, just to create that business minded self for themselves, for the confidence level?

Ashley Richards [00:21:45]:
I think the humanization, I really encourage people to pull back the curtains and talk about who you are, and that's hard for some people, but that is where the connection is. I mean, I post constantly on my social and I have strangers come up and say, "Hey, I didn't know that about you," or, "Wow, I have a similar issue with that." So it depends on how vulnerable you're willing to get on these platforms. But if you're there, it builds so much connection. So that's the big challenge is sway away from that corporate jargon that you think you need to post. Post valuable content, for sure. But just sprinkle in a little bit of you, a little bit of who you are, a little bit of who your family is. That vulnerability goes so far on these platforms.

Ashley Richards [00:22:21]:
So I think if you test it and you taste the waters, you're going to say, "Oh, wow," right? This is where the connection is. There is true connection on social. If you're not feeling it, you're not diving deep enough.

Amber Stitt [00:22:31]:
Yeah, I think that sometimes you talked about the segmentation now and a lot of bigger, I don't know, maybe influencers are even talking about vanity metrics. And I mean, for some companies, I'm sure it's about thousands, millions of followers, but it's really that core following that's your ideal client that you want to work with, not just random people. Just to say, I got an extra like. And I think you're probably seeing that with that segmentation part you talked about. But you never know what story, that little thing that you say online might motivate somebody. And I know there's a lot of mom memes and different things out there. So it's not just about moms, because not everyone can, or wants to be a mom, but that female that vibe of like, these are the things that happen, but just even there's that fellowship. It's kind of like going to church, and you're just like, "I didn't know someone else..."

Amber Stitt [00:23:14]:
They talk about it, and you're like, "All right." It builds that, "I'm not alone in the world," if anything. It's so important.

Ashley Richards [00:23:21]:
My son has had some stomach and medical issues, and I put together a post about it, and I've had about 15 moms reach out to me about it. "Hey, what were his symptoms? Hey, do you mind talking to me about this?" It's really changed our world. And I felt the need to just talk about it, and that was a great example for me that I'm like, "Wow, I didn't know how many kids were having these similar issues." And so we're advocating for this now, and it's something that's really under diagnosed. And so that was a powerful moment for me. And I'm like, "Gosh, do I want to put this out there?" But I'm like, "I do. I want to because it's important." And just seeing how many people that we've referred to the physician that we see and kind of going down that path, it's been amazing.

Ashley Richards [00:23:58]:
And I'm like, I'm so glad I shared it, because if we can help, even my little seven year old is like, "Mom, if sharing it is going to help other kids, I want to help." And so that's the power of digital, when you're willing to get vulnerable and talk about it.

Amber Stitt [00:24:11]:
I feel like sometimes people are just negative about it. We have to be responsible with our social and our scrolling and all the things. But your kids seeing the responsible, the important side of it, that's what they should be seeing, and that's what we should be teaching.

Ashley Richards [00:24:22]:
I agree.

Amber Stitt [00:24:23]:
Well, you've made an impression on my world, and we're just going to keep going. You're still working on projects for me, and I love your team, and I appreciate you being on the show, and I can't wait to share with my network who you guys are. So if they need anything, I know that they can reach out to you. Well, awesome.

Ashley Richards [00:24:38]:
Well, thanks for having me on. It's always great to chat with you.

Amber Stitt [00:24:40]:
Anyways, good to see you, and I'll see you soon.

Ashley Richards [00:24:43]:
All right, sounds great.

Amber Stitt [00:24:44]:
Okay, thanks, Ashley. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of The Amber Stitt Show. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, and more, please visit me at: www.AmberStitt.com. Until next week, enjoy your journey at home, and at work. Thank you for listening!