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If you are seeking new ways to increase your ROI on marketing with your commerce platform, or you may be an entrepreneur who wants to grow your team and be more efficient with your online business.
Talk Commerce with Brent W. Peterson draws stories from merchants, marketers, and entrepreneurs who share their experiences in the trenches to help you learn what works and what may not in your business.
Keep up with the current news on commerce platforms, marketing trends, and what is new in the entrepreneurial world. Episodes drop every Tuesday with the occasional bonus episodes.
You can check out our daily blog post and signup for our newsletter here https://talk-commerce.com
Brent Peterson (00:01.73)
Welcome to this episode of Talk Commerce. Today I have Ashley Marshall. She is the CFO of Tier Level Digital Marketing. I got all that right and it's not a Shelley, which I am not going to imprint in my head. Ashley, go ahead, do a much better introduction for yourself. Tell us your day -to -day role and one of your passions in life.
Ashlie Marshall (00:21.055)
Sure. Well, as you stated already, I am the CFO of Terrible Digital Marketing. We also have a sister company that operates under the same LLC umbrella, which is a screen printing embroidery print shop out in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I also am the CFO of that company as well. So simultaneously running both at the same time, both fall under the marketing merchandising umbrella. So it works well together. Passion in life.
I'm sure most CFOs would say their passion life or numbers. definitely not mine. My family is definitely my passion. everything I do inside work and outside work is always geared towards providing for my family. And that could be anything from financial to experience to, time creating time in my life.
for my family is a huge priority. So my family is definitely my passion and they're a lot of fun too.
Brent Peterson (01:25.142)
Yeah, families are great. I'm running my first marathon with my or my son is running his first marathon with me this year. I did one with my daughter last year. our family, well, at least my wife and I are passionate about running. I can't say my kids are, but they kind of come along. And I like to say, yeah, at six years old, it's going to be a really fun event for my son.
Ashlie Marshall (01:41.101)
Yeah, that's so exciting!
Ashlie Marshall (01:49.047)
If I hadn't spoken to you before this moment, I might have taken you seriously.
Brent Peterson (01:53.358)
It's amazing how many people do take me seriously on that one. anyways, let's so all right before we before we dive into that you have volunteer to be part of and that wasn't the free joke. I'm gonna tell you a joke. All you have to do is give me a rating one through five. So here we go. When algebra teachers retire, how do they deal with the aftermath?
Ashlie Marshall (02:03.515)
Okay.
Ashlie Marshall (02:07.322)
Got it.
Ashlie Marshall (02:15.227)
I'm not quite sure.
Brent Peterson (02:17.952)
It's the aftermath. Algebra teachers. I'm sorry. Yeah, it wasn't very good.
Ashlie Marshall (02:23.267)
give that one a four you said one to five right I would give that one a four
Brent Peterson (02:25.612)
Yeah, really one. Okay, I gotta do one more. Actually, can I do sort of it's not off color, but it's sort of potty humor. No, I won't do that one. All right. If you eat too much tin foil. no, I forgot it already. Nevermind. Okay, what happens when you eat too much aluminum foil? You sheet metal.
Ashlie Marshall (02:31.515)
Okay.
Ashlie Marshall (02:36.443)
okay with that?
Brent Peterson (02:53.506)
Yeah, I know. I screwed it up. I apologize. We better be ready to keep going.
Ashlie Marshall (03:00.259)
give that one a three. That one was funny. If you would have gotten it right the first time, it would have been funnier. It would have landed well.
Brent Peterson (03:04.8)
It would have been, I know. Sorry. Okay, let's go. Let's talk about, let's talk about, let's talk about, you have a podcast and it's C -suite chicks, the C -suite chicks, sorry. It's not as opposed to the Dixie chicks, which is they're just, are they just the chicks now? Yeah, I mean, yeah. So anyways, tell us a little bit about your podcast.
Ashlie Marshall (03:16.133)
Mm -hmm.
Ashlie Marshall (03:21.103)
You're
Correct.
I have no idea. I don't follow them.
Ashlie Marshall (03:33.315)
Yeah. So the two companies that I am the CFO of, our CEO, her and I have been working together for the last, gosh, going on six years now to build these companies. And they're still very much startups and we have faced countless challenges in our roles that we're in now and in the roles that we held previously for these companies. And
I started listening to podcasts a couple years ago and the person that put me onto it, she had said that she listened to them for helpful tips on how to manage her sales department. So I kind of started investigating podcasts. I found a couple that really struck a chord with me in terms of they talked about leadership, they talked about business growth, they talked about smart financial decisions, things like that. And I started listening and over the course of the last five or six years, I have felt like,
All the things I listen to people talk about in their podcast, the ones I gravitate to the most are the ones who say, I went through this, this is how I handled it, this is how I feel I could have done it better, or this is what I truly learned from it, and just talk about their experience and be very open and be very genuine to who they are. And I enjoy those the most. And my counterpart, the CEO, has also enjoyed those types of podcasts for her the most.
I finally convinced her to do a podcast with me because with all of the challenges that we have been through, I can guarantee you there's a million other people going through the same things that we faced. And if we share our story and what we experienced and how we handled it and what we learned from it and how we lead today because of those things, because of those situations, it can help somebody. And so my main goal with our podcast is
to give useful information to people who are either in a role like ours, aspiring to have a role like ours, or maybe they've been in that role and they hated it and they didn't know why and would like to make their way back. I don't know, but I do know that our story can help people and that's our goal is to share our story and hopefully drop some little nuggets of wisdom along the way.
Brent Peterson (05:55.298)
Yeah, that's awesome. So I'm in a group called Entrepreneurs' Organization and there is an EO Houston, I know. the whole art, in Entrepreneurs' Organization, it's EONetwork .org and it's all volunteers, so it's not like I'm getting a commission for saying that. it is about your personal experience sharing. We're not allowed to sell anything to anybody. So it is non -solicitation. And you share in your small groups,
Ashlie Marshall (06:02.142)
Mm
Ashlie Marshall (06:11.151)
Yeah.
Ashlie Marshall (06:17.104)
Mm -hmm.
Brent Peterson (06:23.852)
through your experience. We say you shouldn't should on people. So I think that what you're saying sounds very familiar to me in the sense that you're sharing your experiences and through that people can learn from your experience and hopefully apply it to something in their life. And especially in my group, none of us are in the same industry. We all have to be in a different industry so we're not competing against each other.
Ashlie Marshall (06:47.087)
Mm
Brent Peterson (06:51.308)
And we're sharing experiences about our businesses that help everybody else in the group learn more about what they could do in their business if they applied what we learned. you know, as an entrepreneur, I understand there are things and, you know, the judicial thing is, I can't make payroll this week. What am I going to do? And you can't tell that to your best friend because like, they just get a paycheck. And how, if you're getting a paycheck, you don't understand.
Ashlie Marshall (07:03.482)
Yeah.
Brent Peterson (07:19.116)
the stress that an entrepreneur may go into with not being able to make payroll or not being able to pay, whatever the thing is, there's all kinds of stresses that I'm not going to say normal people because I think everybody's somewhat normal except for people like me, but that they don't understand some of the issues that an entrepreneur has as a business owner.
Ashlie Marshall (07:42.139)
Agreed. No, that sounds very intriguing to be a part of a group like that. it is so wise to be in a room full of people who have faced challenges, whether they are similar or not similar to your own. There's so much to learn from that. Just sitting in the room, even if you were just an observer or a fly on the wall, there's so much to learn from that type of situation. that's, I'm...
Very excited for you that you're a part of that.
Brent Peterson (08:13.614)
So in your podcast, tell us some of your favorite experiences that you've had or some of your favorite guests, should say, that you've had that have sort of helped you with your business career or helped you learn more about the industry.
Ashlie Marshall (08:30.895)
Yeah, our podcast is still pretty new. So we haven't ventured into having guests yet, but we are getting there. But honestly, walking through what we've chosen to talk about per episode on a topic, you know, each topic that we kind of sit down and plan out strategically, okay, what do we want it? What's the focus of this topic? How do we want to attack it? And walking through situations we've already been through, her and I have both learned a lot.
just from doing that, just from saying, this is what happened. These are the facts and here's how we handled it. And then looking at it in retrospect, learning from that, you you do it on your own when you sit in your thought all day long, but when you sit and you do it with somebody else and there's a back and forth conversation going on and you're trying to gauge what's beneficial to share and what's maybe irrelevant to as a part of the story, right? And walking through all of those pieces.
You learn a lot and then you, it begins to change how you're working currently today. And so I've definitely had a couple of those like aha moments, man, we maybe shouldn't have done that. Or if we would have known this piece here that we didn't know when we made that decision, we might've made a different decision. And so it helps us to learn what's relevant information to give our team as a leader.
and what is better to hold close to the vest to protect your team or to lead them better without placing undue burdens on them. Like you said, if you receive a paycheck, you don't really understand what it's like to be concerned that you might not be able to make that payroll. And me sitting in that seat for the last two years has definitely given me different perspective, but it's also given me this sense of wanting to protect.
the people that don't need to stress about that. I need them to stress about the projects and the clients and providing service to the clients. I will stress about the payroll. That's my responsibility. So just in our conversations on our podcast, I've learned a lot and we've only been doing it for about six months. So it's been an interesting journey and I'm actually really excited to see how it continues to evolve over time.
Brent Peterson (10:54.508)
Yeah, it's kind of like a two -person public brainstorming session, but I guess you can edit it out,
Ashlie Marshall (10:58.299)
Yes, that's perfect explanation.
Brent Peterson (11:02.798)
In the green room, we talked a little bit about success and how to define that. And we talked about happiness and then how to define that. What is your view on success?
Ashlie Marshall (11:08.752)
Yeah.
Ashlie Marshall (11:15.765)
My personal view on success is knowing that my family is taken care of. Knowing that me and my husband have provided a safe environment for our children to sleep, eat, and thrive. Those... If I am successfully providing that, that doesn't mean I'm giving my kids everything they want. I say no a lot. I could say no a whole lot more. But, you know, I tend to be the sucker to give them what they want. But...
only when they earn it. for me, knowing that I have provided that for my family, and me and my husband have worked together to do that, and my children are thriving and they're happy, and I feel as though I'm continuing to thrive and develop personally, professionally, that is a successful day, week, month, year for me. That's not for everybody.
I know a good amount of people that the number of dollars in their bank account is how they define success. The type of things that they own is their type of success. Some people very close to me, it's what they're able to give to other people. That's how they define their happiness. So I've been successful because I've been able to give these people what they needed or what they wanted. And so in order for you to know what that is for you,
You have to truly know what you want in life. You know, do you want all of the things? Do you want the expensive fancy sports car or are you happy knowing that you have built a life for your family and you're building an environment for your kids to grow and become functional members of society? And all kids are going to have some sort of parental...
anger towards their parents, my mom didn't do this, my dad did that, and you know, it sucked. Well, suck it up. That's kind of what made you who you are. You know, and there are other situations where, you know, home life wasn't the best. So you have to decide what is it that makes you happy and what you want to look back on as your achievement in life. And when you know what those things are and you know who you want to be as a person in the world,
Ashlie Marshall (13:41.359)
It will help you to define what makes you happy and what success is to you. But you have to know those things before you can define it.
Brent Peterson (13:51.18)
Yeah, that's good. I think too it is evolving. And I know that when I was younger, success meant something different to me than it does now. And now I have a grandchild, success for me is different again. And there's a different level of spoiling your kids for me than there is for my daughter, right?
Ashlie Marshall (13:59.321)
Yep.
Ashlie Marshall (14:12.379)
Yes, and your role is completely different and your enjoyment is completely different. You know, with your kids, it's very different than with grandkids. I don't have grandkids, but I, my children are grandkids. And so I have gotten to witness that shift, you know, in my own parents and in my husband's parents as well. And there've been great conversations. You know, what makes you happy today isn't going to what makes you happy 10 years from now.
I think it's a constant evolving situation and perspective. Everything changes your perspective. Every experience, every challenge, every job well done, all those things change your perspective. So you're absolutely right. It's an evolving thing.
Brent Peterson (15:01.59)
How do you then connect that to tier level digital marketing? For your clients, you help them define what success is? Because I think in marketing, the biggest mistake that people often make is they don't measure what they're doing. So they don't really know what success means in marketing. And I came from a development background. And one thing that we always did, or I shouldn't say always,
One thing I strive for us to always do was define what is success out of this. We make success criteria out of a user story.
Ashlie Marshall (15:39.673)
Yeah, excellent point. How do we work with our clients in terms of that? We're very different than a lot of digital marketing companies. We build strong relationships with our clients because we are essentially an extension of their boots on the ground marketing team. The way that they operate, the way that they grow their...
not their online presence, but their community, their local presence, right? And how they become a member of their community is very important to how their business thrives, grows, operates. So we constantly have that conversation with our clients. One, this is the time of year where we're having strategic conversations with them for next year. Where are we at with the goals that we set for this year? Have we met them?
Where are your numbers? What are they looking like? Are you on points to make your numbers? Are you not? Where do you feel the mark was missed? We go through those difficult conversations with the owners of the businesses that we provide services for. And we are constantly pushing the envelope on the marketing side as much as we can in terms of making sure that your online presence matches what your boots on the ground marketing is doing, matches.
The message your company is putting in the community matches the culture that you have in your company. All of those things are very relevant to your marketing. And it's going to always be the make or break of whether your marketing is working or not. And then on the other side, how do you know it's working? How do you know that what we're doing in conjunction with what you're doing inside your company is providing growth? Well, you have to measure it.
You have to look at the analytics that matter and you have to track certain things on the company side in order to know if what the marketing team is doing is bringing results. It's called ROI. It's basic business 101, right? If what you're investing in to grow your company is actually creating a return for that investment. We have those difficult conversations constantly. We don't just have them once a year.
Ashlie Marshall (17:59.119)
We're constantly talking about, this was your goal for the year, but how do we break that down into small achievable parts month by month throughout the year? This is what we're gonna do. This is what we feel is gonna help you get there. How can we work together to make sure these goals are achieved, right? Because it's not just what we're doing. We don't just sign up our clients and say, okay, we're gonna work on your online. Bye, see you later. That doesn't work. That has been proven not to work. And so we take a very different approach.
We take a very hands -on, white -glove, building relationship type of approach and we talk through those, what do want to achieve? you want to go from 5 million to 12 million? Okay, well, let's talk through how you're going to do that. I mean, there's very specific strategies to the clients that we have and the types of businesses that they run. Some businesses can go from 5 million to 12 million in a year if they focus on the right things. Some, that's just not achievable. It's not...
an attainable goal for them to set given the industry that they're in, right? So everything is specific to their industry, the type of people that are running the company, the type of culture that they have set in their company, how they're involved in their community. All of those things are different moving pieces that we pull into the conversation and make sure we discuss because usually by the end of that conversation, what they thought was their goal turns around, okay, maybe that's not my goal.
Maybe this over here is my goal for my company and okay, I see how those parts all fall into the right place and this is how we're gonna achieve it. So sometimes those conversations go really well and the clients are very grateful. Sometimes they get a little heated and that's okay because you gotta have the hard conversations in order to have the fun on the other side.
Brent Peterson (19:46.062)
Yeah, there's so much to unpack there. when you, so my experience with having, know, working with somebody that wanted to go say from five to 12 million, there's so many pieces that are involved in that. And especially if you have a service business, like you can often pay to get to 12 million. But do you have the team to produce what you said you're going to deliver? Right. I think there's so many things that
Ashlie Marshall (19:57.455)
Mm -hmm.
Ashlie Marshall (20:06.789)
Mm -hmm.
Brent Peterson (20:15.086)
If you don't take a holistic approach to the entire piece that you miss a lot of that. even are you, how would you, how are you going to get there? Do you want to do it organically? How are you going to get it organically? How much traffic do you need to be able to get the number of leads, blah, blah, blah. So I mean, there's all those like thinking through it logically. A lot of times maybe visionary entrepreneurs, they see the number and they say, yes, 12 million. That's what we're going to do. And then they're like, let's go. Yay.
Ashlie Marshall (20:25.088)
Mm -hmm. -hmm. In order to be... Yep.
Brent Peterson (20:45.048)
How?
Ashlie Marshall (20:45.359)
And then they have the big woohoo speech. We can do it.
Brent Peterson (20:48.59)
Right. And then suddenly, either they've made 12 million and then the team is all burnt out because there's not enough people to do it. Or you've had to hire 10 new people that don't know what they're doing because you don't have a good onboarding process. Those are, I'm assuming those are the hard decisions that you make that, or that you have to talk to them about to help them through it.
Ashlie Marshall (21:02.638)
No training.
Ashlie Marshall (21:07.555)
Yes. Yes. That is an excellent point and we do. That is why when we see, there certain things that we notice on our side of the fence when we're working with clients. If we see a high turnover rate happening with the people that we're communicating with, because we have our owners that we stay in contact with and we build relationships with them, they're always going to be there. They're always going to be the owner of the company.
We need to make sure that we communicate with them on a regular basis. But they don't always need to be the people getting us certain daily things that we need or filling in some gaps where we need on certain projects. So we have other people that we call our point of contacts. And if we see a high turnover with our POCs, that's a huge red flag to the culture of that company. Okay, then we have that conversation.
Right? We step in and we say, hey, I noticed you've been having a lot of people in this role. What's going on? Is there anything we can help with? Do want us to put up a job ad? Do you want us to look for certain, you know, quality of individual? Can we help in that area? And we have those conversations because you're absolutely right. Okay. Visionary, you want to go from five to 12. It's doable if we follow this path, but do you have the team in place to support that? Do you have the equipment that you need in order to produce that?
Do you have the ability to invest in your business insurance and make sure you can take on all that business? Because that's a lot. Not only that, we have to talk about, you know, over here you're going to need more vehicles, then you're going to need some more equipment. You want to go from five million producer to a 12 million producer. That is more than double. And that is a lot of big conversations. So yeah, all of that is really important. And we do break into those conversations. Some owners will talk to us about that. And some owners say,
Let me worry about that. And okay, we'll let you worry about it. But in nine months, when you're close to that 12 million mark because we've done our job and your team has done their job and you're screaming because you need to hire more people, but we can't get them in fast enough for you. I'm sorry now for that over there because we tried to have that conversation now. So we are very honest. We are very upfront. We're very professional, but we don't hold back in terms of when we see something, we say something.
Ashlie Marshall (23:32.091)
and nine times out of 10, it has made improvements for our client's business. Or on the flip side, that client chooses not to use us anymore because they don't like the difficult conversations. To which case, that's okay because maybe it wasn't a good fit. I'm here to grow your business. I'm not here to hold your hand. So two different things.
Brent Peterson (23:54.43)
yeah, you bring up a good point too about a service versus a product. I, I, you know, in my day to day role, I, I do, I recreate content for people and, we have a client that I thought, Hey, why don't you just make more of this stuff? Cause they wanted to sell more of this thing. And I said, well, can we just double the amount? And they said, we only have the capacity to make this amount. So.
Ashlie Marshall (23:59.119)
Mm -hmm.
Ashlie Marshall (24:12.186)
Mm -hmm.
Ashlie Marshall (24:19.834)
Yeah.
Brent Peterson (24:20.768)
At some point it's not an infinite amount of things that you can make. And if you're in a service business, you get fooled into the idea that there's an infinite amount of people you can hire to supply the task that is out there. in my previous role was as a development agency, you just think, we can just make, you can hire more developers to get the project done. you know, the analogy in the development world is if you just add more women to getting a baby,
then the baby will come out faster, right? Which is, you know, it's gonna take nine months no matter what. So, like, do you find yourself helping them understand some of those key points? And again, going back to logic, maybe from the outside, some of those things seem more evident than they are if you're in the day -to -day grind of doing that work.
Ashlie Marshall (24:54.683)
Mm -hmm.
Ashlie Marshall (25:08.574)
Mm
Ashlie Marshall (25:13.243)
For our clients, 90 % of them are service -based, not product -based. I would say 95 % of them are service -based businesses. So we haven't had to have that in -depth conversation regarding the difference between the two.
I personally have had to have that conversation with our CEO because we have two businesses. One is product based and one is service based. And just recently we had the conversation of, we've reached capacity and I think we need to invest in more equipment. And that was the ask to me because obviously I have to decide if we can afford that. And then in turn I was like, okay, if we...
If we invest in more equipment, we now have to invest in an increase in our business insurance. We have to ensure that our electrical capacity on our building can accommodate another piece of equipment. I have to make sure my building is secure. Not that it's not, but now I'm adding half a million dollars worth of equipment where there's already half a million dollars worth of equipment. And now I want to make sure that we have a proper security system. We have all the things hooked up properly. I want to double check on that.
Do we need to hire people? Do I need to hire more personnel now that we are increasing and doubling our volume? Okay, now I'm gonna add another piece of equipment. Do I need another shop hand? Do we need another intake? Do we need another admin in the office to handle the amount of jobs that are coming in and making sure that everything is structured perfectly so that my numbers come through my systems, talk to each other? I mean, all the moving parts that go along with that. we just recently had that conversation internally and
When I breached that and I was like, okay, we can talk about investing in equipment, but I need you guys to understand all the other pieces that go along with investing in more equipment. And we've already doubled our volume from last year to this year. And we did it on the equipment that we have, but now we're at a point where we're hitting a block. Like you said, your client said, that's all we can produce, right? We're at that point, this is all we can produce. And the orders are coming in and we're four to six weeks out, you know,
Ashlie Marshall (27:34.435)
saying I'm sorry we can't get your order sheet for six weeks and that's going to hinder us in terms of we're gonna lose business. We're gonna lose a lot of big jobs because we can't produce them. So you get to that point where you're like man, I don't have a choice. I either invest in this or I lose money and the investment will suck for a little bit, but then it will make up for itself.
But the only way you know that is if, like you said, you're tracking. Are you tracking it? How did we improve? What were our KPIs here? And then we added the equipment. And six months down the line, what are our KPIs now? Did we increase? That's going to tell me what my ROI is on that equipment. Also, your revenue. mean, if you're a product -based business, you'll know almost immediately if your investment has paid off.
There's a lot of moving parts to that and our clients don't face that, but we do, unfortunately.
Brent Peterson (28:37.303)
Yeah, I had a product -based business in the 90s and we would always do these sort of, it was before Black Friday was popular, but I would, we'd do these big holiday sales and we would sell things at a loss and people would say, how are you doing this? And I'd always say, we're going to sell to the loss, but make it up on volume.
Ashlie Marshall (28:44.268)
Ashlie Marshall (28:55.161)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brent Peterson (28:56.746)
That's joke. You're selling it as a product. Never mind. Sorry.
Ashlie Marshall (29:01.615)
You know what?
was trying to help you.
Brent Peterson (29:06.558)
Okay, good. Thank you. I figured it out Although you get so many people in a retail store. They're gonna buy other stuff That's the beauty of marketing,
Ashlie Marshall (29:15.685)
Yeah. man. Most days I'm happy that we are in the business of marketing for service -based businesses instead of product -based. Sometimes I feel like those lines get so blurred, so I'm glad to be on the other side of that.
Brent Peterson (29:35.866)
I want to talk a little bit about just finding the balance between your needs and self care. Tell us a little bit about that.
Ashlie Marshall (29:41.647)
Mm.
that's a challenge all the time. when I, first started working from home, I thought it was going to be a breeze. I had a two year old, I was three months pregnant and I got the opportunity to work from home for our company. And, I was like, this is going to be great. I'm going be able to take care of my kid. I'm going to be able to work on the couch. It's going be great. my God. Was I so wrong?
It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. It was well before the pandemic, so it was not a common thing. Work from home, everybody's view of work from home was like, that is just wonderful. You're so lucky. And then three months in, I was losing my mind. And my poor kid was losing his mind. And it was a challenge and it was a dance. And that time in life was really when I discovered that.
self -care is incredibly important. I've always been one to like to work out. I always like to go and do some sort of physical exercise. I love to lift weights. I love to do walks or jogs with people and not necessarily by myself. But when I started working from home, it was challenging. My husband had a job, his commute was about 45 minutes and
When he got home at end of the day, I was like, I'm leaving the house. You take the kid, I'm gone. And I just would leave and go to Target five minutes down the road for just 20 minutes and just walk. And not buy anything. I would just walk because I just wanted to be by myself. And that was when I learned that the only time I would get to myself would be first thing in the morning or after my kid went to bed.
Ashlie Marshall (31:39.589)
So I started getting up at five and I would work out in the morning by myself in the garage, nice and quiet. And if I didn't get to it in the morning that day, I would do it late in the evening. And that was the beginning of my self -care journey. And I had to, over the years, I try to find things that I enjoy doing that I can do by myself because
That's what self -care is. You have to have that quiet time where it's just you and your thoughts. No podcast, no music, no books. You have to have a time where you're just in your thoughts. And that is self -care. Having quiet time, as I tell my kids when they come home from school and they're not in a good mood. You need quiet time. Go in your room.
You can do whatever you want, no devices, you can read a book, you can play with your toys, but you're in your room and you're quiet for 20 minutes. And it has made all the difference in the world. That's their self care. That's their self time. So finding it is more of a challenge these days as my kids are busy schedules, extracurriculars, school, I have work, and other things, other responsibilities. And so it's a challenge, but...
The goal is 10 minutes a day. 10 minutes a day. My workouts, I try to keep them between 20 and 40 minutes and I do my darndest to do it first thing in the morning before my children wake up. I work out, I rinse off, I get them ready for school, I take them to school and my day starts. That is how I have found self care that works for me. That's not everybody else's self care. Find things.
you enjoy doing by yourself. And hold on to that. Even if it's twice a week, even if it's once a week, start somewhere, start small, pour into yourself because you can't pour out of an empty cup. There's nothing there. So if you're not refilling yourself with whatever brings you joy, you can't give joy to others. You can't lead other people. You can't be a parent to
Ashlie Marshall (34:04.485)
children and help them regulate their emotions that they don't know what's going on if you are incapable of regulating your emotions because you're empty. So you have to make an effort. That's how I make my effort. You gotta find what works for you.
Brent Peterson (34:18.572)
Yeah, that's good. I could say that when our kids were still at home, I did the very early morning thing. I would, of course, work instead of, I should have worked out, but I would work until they got up. And that was my quiet time. And then the other thing that I did, I think for self -care for myself anyways, after five, I did not open my computer. And one thing that happens in the development world, especially if you're having
Ashlie Marshall (34:40.402)
that's a good one.
Brent Peterson (34:46.702)
teams that are around the world is you get sucked into Slack or some other communication stool and pretty soon it's 11 o 'clock and you're still talking to somebody and they're trying to solve a problem and you're like, I should be in bed. So I would shut my computer at five and do my thing.
Ashlie Marshall (34:50.935)
Mm -hmm
Ashlie Marshall (34:58.393)
Yep, that's a really good one.
Ashlie Marshall (35:04.283)
Yeah, my previous role before I was in the role I'm in now, you know, I was client facing and our client's business is 24 -7. So there would be seven o 'clock at night, I would get a text from a client, I forgot to say this, this, this, can you make sure this is handled, know, ASAP, blah, blah. And, you know, in that role, I was like responding all the time. Like absolutely, yes, I will be on it and make a note in my notebook.
First thing in the morning, I'm making sure it's handled, you know. But as I've gotten older, that's been huge. Like, okay, I am not going to work from this time to this time. And for me right now, that is typically, not today, because I'm here with you, but typically, I leave my house at 1 .45 and I go sit in car rider line and I work in my car from my hotspot until my kids get out of school.
And the time that the car rider line starts moving around 3 .05, 3 .10, computer is closed and it's not opening again until my children are snoring. And that is only if I have a very pressing matter to handle. If it is not pressing, my computer doesn't open again until the next morning. So that is a great one. A lot of people don't have those boundaries. And I used to be one of them.
Brent Peterson (36:21.794)
Mm -hmm.
Brent Peterson (36:28.736)
Well, certainly that's exactly why I decided to make that because I also did not have those boundaries. you know, I think especially when my kids were younger, I made the mistake of spending too much time at work rather than spending time with my kids.
Ashlie Marshall (36:43.451)
That's interesting that you call that a mistake though. I mean, my dad is a part of the workforce, like hardcore workhorse workforce generation and he to this day should be retired and works from 7 a to 7 p at his little desk in his little office. And he never missed the important stuff. But I would say that he worked way too much.
Brent Peterson (37:11.862)
Yeah, I think a lot of kids say that to their parents. Ashley, we have a few minutes left. As it close out, I give everybody a chance to do a shameless plug. What would you like to plug today?
Ashlie Marshall (37:14.715)
I'm sure mine say that about me.
Ashlie Marshall (37:20.591)
Yeah.
Ashlie Marshall (37:26.009)
I know you prepared me for this but I really have no idea. I definitely would say if you have a service -based business, our team would love to work with you and provide digital marketing services. If you're looking for a great new line of clothing or merch for your employees or for something fun, our PrintedTheory .com can help you out.
And if you just want to listen to two chicks killing time by talking through crap they've been through, was going to guess, I'm not sure if that's allowed on your show, but just tune in to CsweetChicksPaw .com. We've got some interesting stories. We try to start off with a funny something and talk through what that is and work through how we handled it or will handle it or...
want to handle it. And you know, we like to have fun on our show. So come visit us and take a listen and stay for a while. And as far as the shameless plug, I hope that's good because...
Brent Peterson (38:36.142)
That's perfect.
Brent Peterson (38:40.27)
That is awesome. Thank you. I should have mentioned because I was, you know, when I started my podcast, I get after about six months, I got acutely aware of the people that the podcast services send you and they're bald white males. And if, a bald white male, you're not aware of, if you're not self aware that your audience is more than just men and it's more than just white men and you know, there, is,
Ashlie Marshall (39:04.495)
Mm -hmm.
Brent Peterson (39:09.07)
there's a bigger audience out there and you if you were just to take all the people that are just getting pushed at you and If you ever start getting guests, you'll you'll find out that hey that the majority like I'm gonna say 80 % of the people that I get as guest requests are men and so I think that and I am a man I you I don't want to try to fool people into thinking but I'm a man and I think that
Ashlie Marshall (39:26.758)
Mm -hmm. Mm.
Brent Peterson (39:37.526)
You have to be aware of that and that there is a responsibility to be somewhat diverse. don't want to, you I don't, feel like there's a, if, if, if I wasn't, then I would just continue to have the same kind of bland show. Cause I think a diverse perspective gives everybody a chance to have a voice.
Ashlie Marshall (39:58.585)
don't disagree with you. And in the same breath, you have to remember that it is your show. And if you want a particular type of audience, you are free to do that. And if you don't, you are free to do that too. Like you are free to make the choices that bring you the outcome that you desire. And no matter what you choose, nobody has the right to tell you to choose otherwise. So.
While I appreciate your attention to diversity, I do because that brings me to your show. I would allow you to choose to not be diverse. So you are appreciated and your insight on that topic is also appreciated and you've done a great job. You're welcome. Or as most children say, Ashley.
Brent Peterson (40:46.934)
I appreciate it. Thank you, Ashley. Or a Shelley, as I was going to say earlier.
as Shelley. Okay, there you go. That's good.
Ashlie Marshall (40:57.251)
Yes, they add an A in there where there is not. Ashley. Miss Ashley.
Brent Peterson (41:00.076)
Yeah, and I'm B -Rant.
Ashley Marshall, the CFO of tier level digital marketing. It's been such a great conversation. Thank you for being here today.
Ashlie Marshall (41:14.959)
Thank you for having me, Brent. I've enjoyed the conversation.