The Sweet Slumber Podcast: Baby-Centered Sleep

Women on Fire Episode 44- "The Most Inspiring Tips for Balancing Motherhood and Entrepreneurship" with Ashley Brock

• Meredith Brough • Season 3 • Episode 44

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In this episode of the Sweet Slumber podcast, host Meredith Brough talks with digital marketing strategist and coach Ashley Brock. They discuss Ashley's entrepreneurial journey, starting a business during pregnancy, and the importance of support systems for parents.

Ashley shares her passion for empowering small business owners in their marketing efforts and the significance of learning from those ahead in the game.  The conversation also touches on the pressures of entrepreneurship, embracing difficulties,  serving others, and maintaining a positive mindset. Ashley's daily routines, including gratitude practice and household habits are highlighted, along with her advice on seeking inspiration and learning opportunities.

Topics

  • The importance of sleep for mothers and entrepreneurs
  • Preparing for motherhood
  • Letting things be hard, embracing growth
  • How to overcome difficult obstacles
  • The power of visualization and setting specific goals for personal and professional growth
  • The pressures and stresses faced by entrepreneurs, especially regarding financial stability
  • Maintaining a positive and service-oriented mindset in entrepreneurship
  • Ashley's daily routines and household practices for maintaining enthusiasm and well-being

Find Ashley:

If you're interested in working with Meredith, click here to set up a free Sleep Intervention Call.

If you'd like to learn about the Baby-Centered Sleep Consultant Program or Mastermind set up a call with Meredith HERE.

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Keywords:
Digital marketing, coach, small business owners, leads, sales, sleep, motherhood, entrepreneurship,  support system, financial independence, empowerment, simplifying marketing, women, inspiration, attitude, guidance, investment, progress, growth, persistence, visualization, goals, gratitude, mindset, challenges, perseverance, service-oriented mindset, positivity, routines, well-being, learning opportunities, business tools.

The Baby-Centered Sleep Consultant Certification Program Launches on November 11th, 2024!

Check out the links below & add your name to our waiting list so you can join our next session.

Learn More About the Baby-Centered Sleep Consultant Certification Program HERE.

Learn about our Baby-Centered Sleep approach, methods and principles, hear from a few of our graduates, and get to know Meredith HERE.

Meredith Brough (00:00:00) - Welcome to the Sweet Slumber podcast. I'm your host, Meredith Brough. Whether you're a seasoned sleep consultant, a sleep coach, a birth world professional, or a mother aspiring to enter this fulfilling field of sleep expertise, you're in the right place. I'm here to teach you my baby centered solutions so you can help exhausted, struggling parents reclaim their sleep and help children thrive along the way. I'll teach you how to find harmony in your life and avoid burnout. Build a thriving business and become a financially independent woman. My goal is to help you fall in love with sleep coaching and never look back. Let's embark on this journey together. Her dreams are sweet and the work is rewarding. Stay tuned for a show that will transform your business and the lives of those who touch. Hello everyone, thanks for joining us today. I'm really looking forward to having a beautiful conversation with my new friend and associate, Ashley Brock. Hi, Ashley. Hello. Thanks for being here. When I heard Ashley's story, I was impressed with her drive and her accomplishments.

Meredith Brough (00:01:10) - But what stood out to me was the fact that she started her business when she found out she was six weeks pregnant. That's not what most of us would be doing. I was very impressed and wanted to find out more about her, and our first meeting was just really fun, really beautiful because she has this personality and attitude that's just everyone needs an Ashley in their life, so I'm excited to share her with you.

Ashley Brock (00:01:36) - Thank you. I am so happy to be here and I felt the same way. Just as connecting. I felt like instantly we're the same type of people and I loved it.

Meredith Brough (00:01:44) - Yeah, I'm glad that we crossed paths and that I get to share you with my listeners. So we'll talk more about that story soon. For now, I just want to share more about her. She's a digital marketing strategist and coach who specializes in helping small business owners learn how to grow their leads and sales by doing their own marketing. She's managed over 200 million on ads on behalf of her clients over the last decade.

Meredith Brough (00:02:09) - She's worked with solopreneurs, spending $5 a day on ads to fortune 500 companies, spending 100,000 per day on marketing. Wow. She knows what works and what doesn't, and now she teaches that to entrepreneurs across the world. She's a wife, mother of two sons, a toddler, and a newborn are. Her passion is in helping small business owners win. I love that she believes most business owners are great at what they do, and she teaches them how to become great at marketing. But she also knows none of that can happen when you or your kids are not sleeping well, which is why we're here today. It's a great introduction.

Ashley Brock (00:02:46) - Thank you. Yeah, sleep. Sleep is very critical to be able to do that. And I know you read it, but I everyone knows that having a toddler and a newborn, that's a lot.

Meredith Brough (00:02:55) - It is a lot of good stuff.

Ashley Brock (00:02:58) - And it's a lot going on.

Meredith Brough (00:03:00) - Yeah. So which pregnancies when you started your business? The first one.

Ashley Brock (00:03:06) - It was it was the second one.

Meredith Brough (00:03:07) - Second one. So you already knew how crazy it was going to be when you did that?

Ashley Brock (00:03:10) - I sure did. So yeah, I think that was the the craziest part is, you know, we have a toddler and I found out I was pregnant. And I think the thing when I came to my husband and he was like, oh, my, I was like, hey, now's the time, I'm going to do this. And he was like, but you have four months of fully paid leave. Why don't you just wait till after we have the baby and maybe you jump in then? And I told him, I really, I really, truly felt like there's there's always going to be a reason not to jump in and get started on a new business. And he's a business owner, too. So he was like, if not, if you truly feel, now's the time, let's do it. And and we.

Meredith Brough (00:03:46) - Did. Good guy. First of all, they so supportive. But man, you are an adventurous one.

Meredith Brough (00:03:52) - You're very courageous.

Ashley Brock (00:03:54) - I thank you I it took I think it took seeing other women and other friends and family that I had doing it. And I was like, I was sitting there, why can't this be me? Why can't I be able to take what I have in my heart and put it out there? And so I jumped in. It was scary. But I mean, everything that I think can be rewarding is going to feel a little bit scary at the beginning., so we did it. And yes, the spouse thing. I think no matter what, whether it's a friend or a spouse, you have to have someone in your corner cheering for you. I know that you've got to be your biggest advocate too, but man, it's hard to do it alone. Which is why having a community or a friend or someone that's your cheerleader makes such a big difference.

Meredith Brough (00:04:36) - Yeah, no, I can relate to that because my husband thought my business was a hobby when I started. You didn't get it, but I told my dad and my dad always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Meredith Brough (00:04:46) - So he was really excited. And that was that was really fun. And then my husband came around and I do.

Ashley Brock (00:04:51) - I got him around.

Meredith Brough (00:04:53) - Yeah. And then he helped me. So it didn't take long.

Ashley Brock (00:04:56) - Yeah. Well, you had your dad from the beginning. I mean, you had someone in your corner. It was like, Meredith, you can do this. Yeah, and that feels really good.

Meredith Brough (00:05:04) - It does. I agree, we absolutely need that. And sometimes it's your clients. The clients are like, wow, this is incredible. And they become your biggest fan. And the more you have of that, that's really empowering too.

Ashley Brock (00:05:15) - You know what? That's so true. My client, she works with me today, but five years ago she came to when I was teaching at General Assembly., it's a they teach across the world different topics. It's experts that teach what they do., this woman came to me. Her name was Carla. And after the lesson, she came up to me, and she was like, Ashley, I want to meet with you one on one.

Ashley Brock (00:05:37) - And I was like, well, I don't do that. I just teach class. And she's like, just, let's have a meeting, I'll pay you for your time. And I was like.

Meredith Brough (00:05:43) - Well.

Ashley Brock (00:05:44) - Okay. And Carla, after our meeting, she had ran a few ads. We had talked about strategy and and she looked at me and she said, Ashley, you should you should teach other people how to do this. And at the time I was like, that's so sweet. Oh, thank you. Like, that's so nice. And then I moved on and I never did that again., and then over time had Carla in the back of my head. And as I would meet with more people, they would say, wow, small business owners, they don't realize what they mean. You don't know what you don't know, right? And so they were like, you need to share this. And finally, like you said, a client tells you and then you finally start to believe it.

Ashley Brock (00:06:22) - It just took me five years.

Meredith Brough (00:06:24) - Yeah. Hey. That's okay. It came right. You came around right?

Ashley Brock (00:06:28) - Eventually. And she was older and wiser. And honestly, I should have listened to her from the beginning. But yeah, now I look at it and I'm like, Carla is the reason that I that this that I'm here today. Honestly.

Meredith Brough (00:06:39) - I have one client who's like that. For me, she's been the person who's like, you need to write a book. I told her I wanted to give a Ted talk. Oh my gosh. And she got really excited and was telling me what to talk about. And and I have her voice in my head all the time, too. Isn't that fun? What it.

Ashley Brock (00:06:54) - Is. It's someone that sees something in you and says, you can do this, help the world. And initially, I mean, we've got to believe that we can do it ourselves, and it takes maybe a week for some people, a month for others, five years for others.

Ashley Brock (00:07:07) - But eventually we come around.

Meredith Brough (00:07:08) - Yeah. And we're gonna talk about all this more. I'm super excited to spend a little bit more time on each of these little topics that have been popping up. It's like a little intro,? So when we first met, you were so excited to talk to me about sleep, which I thought was so cool. I was like, look at you, my new best friend. Love it. So what? What what are you? What part of sleep are you interested in? What's your experience with sleep and how does that affect you in your work?.

Ashley Brock (00:07:36) - There's so many things that pop up. The first one is, I think until I had kids, I didn't realize how important sleep was. And then I was prompted to realize just how important it was, especially at the beginning when they truly do need to eat so often you realize you must be awake.

Meredith Brough (00:07:52) - Yeah.

Ashley Brock (00:07:53) - Then I think what was most interesting to me about sleep is learning just how your brain works and how children's brains work with sleep.

Ashley Brock (00:08:00) - And obviously there's different temperaments, but it was very interesting just understanding their needs because like, I love science and data, so just getting some of that and getting that education was really, really nice for me. And so I think I've realized that I cannot be the best mom, I can't be the best business owner, I can't be the best wife if I am not rested because I can. I can tell a difference. So me trying to dedicate sleep for myself and me just investing in caring and sleep for my children and just learning how important routine is for them. It was just such an education because I had no I have no siblings. I, I don't know about babies. I didn't until I became a mom. And then sleep became the most important thing for me. So I was like, hey, sleep. I could talk about that all day.

Meredith Brough (00:08:45) - Yeah, one of my ideas is to really try to drive. So I drive at home to pregnant women that this is something we think about before we have the baby.

Meredith Brough (00:08:55) - But it's funny how if you don't have the pain point, you just not quite aware, right? Because before you had your first child, you're probably like, oh, it'll be fine.

Ashley Brock (00:09:05) - It was week two and we were about to we were sitting at the dining room table and I was like, I had my hands.

Meredith Brough (00:09:11) - On my head.

Ashley Brock (00:09:12) - And my husband, we had just laid my son down, and we hear him cry again and we're like, we looked at it, we did the slow head turn and we were like, oh my goodness, we're going to die. We how are we going to get sleep? I immediately googled and then I purchased a course because I would pay anything. And looking back, she doesn't realize it. No matter who it is, I would have paid $10,000 to know that I could truly 20,000 to know that I had something that could help me. And you are 100% right. That thought before having birth, I had not thought about you don't know what you don't know.

Meredith Brough (00:09:46) - I know, but man, the thing that matters is if you could prepare ahead, it wouldn't freak you out so much. Number one. But two, you could really spend more time looking for the right fit for you as a mother, which I find is a really common problem. A lot of people are, you know, they'll find someone that's popular, they go to them, they're really disappointed. They do something. It doesn't work. It makes them feel terrible. Yeah. So I think that's why I wish that I could help parents understand or, you know, pre parents understand that this this would be so much better. But hey I'm glad that it worked out for you. You were able to get a pretty decent sleep early on with both your kids. Is that the case?

Ashley Brock (00:10:27) - Yeah, I feel like they must be similar in some way with their their sleeping habits because it has been very similar. And I know that's not the case across the board, but for us the kind of same system worked really well.

Meredith Brough (00:10:39) - Yay. That's good. No. And and I had a lot of luck with my kids too. I was really shocked as I started my business and started discovering a lot of the challenges that are out there, but that's a totally different topic that I don't want to go off on too much., so should we talk about your story now? Let's let's backtrack a little bit. Yeah. Inspired you at six weeks pregnant. Was it what you were sharing earlier about, like, there's no better time? What are your thoughts?

Ashley Brock (00:11:06) - What inspired me with someone else? I read a book and, you know, there's all these figures, right? And half the people love them. Half the people don't. You can always find, you know, the good and the bad and everything. I had someone that I just felt like was a woman in business who was doing, doing the thing and being successful and being a mom. And I have always been a little bit. I've wanted to have both, like I've always wanted to be successful in business, but I've also wanted to make sure I could prioritize time with my kids.

Ashley Brock (00:11:37) - Once I had them and I saw someone doing it well, and I read her book and I listen to her podcast, and I was like. This can be me. She. One day she had me get out of pen and paper. She doesn't know this because she was just on the podcast, but she was like, get out a piece of paper. And she said to write down who you could be, who you want to be in ten years and start becoming that person today. And I, I wrote it all down and it's crazy. Over time, you start to watch that happen. But my story was just I saw someone else do it. I felt like I had something in my heart. And to be completely honest, I don't share this too often. I had something in my life. In my personal life happened that was very scary and. It. It prompted me to want to be able to stand on my own two feet if I ever had to. And so I wanted to make sure I could take care of me and my family if I needed to just meet.

Ashley Brock (00:12:32) - You know, so the things are in a great place now, but it was just a scary moment for me and I was like, I can do this. And now I have a reason and a motivation to.

Speaker 3 (00:12:41) - Well, it's such a.

Meredith Brough (00:12:41) - It's such a cool thing to hear your story. Now, after reading your bio and seeing how far you've come, I just oh my gosh, you've accomplished such great things. So tell us a little bit more about your work before we go much further.

Ashley Brock (00:12:55) - Yeah, I mean, I basically I saw a need where small business owners, they're exceptional at what they do and they spend a lot of time and energy posting organically, which is so important. But there is a faster way with marketing when you do it the right way. And so I wanted to make it so that small business owners, instead of having to outsource their marketing, they could, in less than 30 minutes a day over eight weeks, learn everything they want to know Google ads, YouTube ads, TikTok ads, meta ads, email SEO, Google reviews, their Google Business profile, all of the things that I've done every day, all day for ten years, I packaged into a way for them to learn so that they can have that empowerment of I can grab my business on my own.

Ashley Brock (00:13:40) - And then when they do get to a level to outsource it, they have the confidence to have that communication and to make sure that it's being outsourced and managed on behalf of them really well. So I wanted to create something that allowed small business owners to do it on their own.

Meredith Brough (00:13:55) - Wow. Yeah. I mean, just what I read in your bio and hearing that, I think it's really generous and beautiful that you you want to do this,, simplify it and let them help themselves because a lot of people are more interested in I'm going to do this for people. I want to charge a ton of money, and they never really empower business owners. And we're not always in a place where we can spend a ton of money on support, you know? So I just think it's really, really cool.

Ashley Brock (00:14:26) - Yeah. Well thank you. I feel like you need to get in front of the right people. And when you know how to do it yourself, there's just a feeling of of just. I don't have to stress about where where my where my growth is coming from.

Ashley Brock (00:14:36) - And I, I've worked with fortune 500 companies, but I went from that to a small business owner because I got to see the Meredith's win the Meredith send me a screenshot that says, I just got a client on this $4 click that's, you know, that's much money, $3,000. It's crazy. But it can happen. Yeah. And I just I saw that too often and I was like, I want to work with the Meredith and the small business owners and women and moms of the world because they can do this. And it's fun. It's actually fun to do your own marketing when it works.

Meredith Brough (00:15:05) - Well. You know, my mind is just spinning like, oh, I need to have you come in and talk to my students. And I'm so excited. All right. Well, because I know you have this amazing outlook and attitude, I just can't wait to pick your brain on more of what's underneath all this ambition. So you told me before, you have this great passion for sleep, and you know that it's an important part of,, your success story.

Meredith Brough (00:15:34) - But you know what? Honestly, I'm just way more interested in other things, so we're not going to talk about that.

Ashley Brock (00:15:39) - Oh, I love it.

Meredith Brough (00:15:40) - Unless you want to, but I just you have you have some beliefs,, that I want to make sure we get to target here. One of them that we talked about before is. Well, and you brought it up earlier, too, is believing you can do it. Where does that come from for you?.

Ashley Brock (00:15:56) - It. I feel like every everything in my life I've been taught this. I've been taught this. Always find someone that's not one step ahead of you, but that's a couple steps ahead of you. And so I've always searched for women that have a skill or have a business, or have a mindset that I feel like isn't just better than what I'm doing, but it's a couple steps better, I was told once, she said, if you want to know how to become a mom of two, talk to a mom of four.

Ashley Brock (00:16:23) - And that was such good advice because you know what I'm saying it don't talk to a mom if they talk to mom before, because there are a couple steps ahead. And so I, I've had people that are a couple steps ahead that I've listened to consistently, and I invested in a program because I truly believe and I think you probably feel similarly when you offer a program that teaches and helps people, I feel like you should be learning in a program that teaches and helps you because you're the business owner and how can the business grow if you don't. And so although I sell a program, I invested in one, and that's where I learned and kind of had that motivation that in marketing, in business, people don't buy what they need. They actually buy what they want. So there has to be a belief that not only they need marketing, but they want it and they want it to work, and they believe that they can do it. And that's anything. So I think that that's where some of that came from is seeing other people do it, and then learning about how they think about their success.

Ashley Brock (00:17:24) - So learning from other people.

Meredith Brough (00:17:27) - Yeah, I love that. All right. And what's this amazing outlook you have about letting things be hard.

Ashley Brock (00:17:34) - Oh my goodness gracious. I could go on and on about this. I even heard something yesterday that just further. Farmed this let it be hard and that once that one phrase changed my life. So if you're listening right now, I feel like that it could change your life too. And it's that reminder that. You have to let things be hard before you can get to the better. And the example that I heard yesterday was you don't go into the gym and get strong by just looking at the weights. You actually have to pull them up and it has to be hard. If it's not hard, you're not going to make any improvement, right? And in order for you to be strong, to get that muscle tone, you have to let it be hard on the curl up. You have to let it be hard when you are doing the squats or the lunges.

Ashley Brock (00:18:21) - And I think that we as as people were inclined to say, oh, this is hard, I need to run away. And in this ties together really well is. If you're doing something and it's not working. Just because it's not working doesn't mean it's not working on you. And a lot of people when when it's working on them and it's not working, but it's working on them, they stop doing the thing. And so they never get to make it to the other side of what happens when you're running up a hill and it's hard at the top of the hill. You do make it and it's beautiful and the view is fantastic. But I just that one thought has changed my life. It's like, hey, I'm struggling setting up this. Someone in my program said, she's like, I'm struggling. On getting the Facebook ad set up. I looked at your screenshot. It's not the same as mine. I maybe I shouldn't run Facebook ads.

Speaker 4 (00:19:11) - .

Ashley Brock (00:19:12) - And it's just like you have a revenue target right.

Ashley Brock (00:19:15) - You want to serve more people with what you've created right. Yes. Well what you letting that be hard means you're going to love this three weeks from now. When you've done this a couple times and it's systematic and it's it becomes a habit. But yeah, I could go on and on. I think that we give up when it's hard. And I think we oftentimes give up when we're so close. But we don't know because it's hard. So we stop.

Meredith Brough (00:19:39) - Yeah. Do you have any tips for how to push through that? I mean, you just you I think your examples are really inspiring. And having someone there at the end saying keep going is going to work. That's probably the best tool, right?

Ashley Brock (00:19:54) - You know what I think? I think my advice would be expected to be hard. Yeah. The reason that we stop is because we don't expect it to be if we're like, hey, I'm going to start this business. This is going to be new and challenging, but in it's going to be tough then then we're not shocked.

Ashley Brock (00:20:10) - We're not. We're like, oh yes, that means I'm doing something right. This is hard. Oh, it's not supposed to be easy. If it was, everybody be doing it. Yeah. You know.

Meredith Brough (00:20:18) - I see a lot of people in my field who want things to go great from the beginning. And of course, we all want that, but it's actually not very common. And I remember being really surprised at the struggles because I didn't have a coach telling me, you know,, that was going to be hard and worth it. But my passion and my vision definitely carried me through. And I think those are two important things., but I had heard that five year plan was smart. You know, in five years, that's a pretty good time frame to expect things to be running well. And it really was reassuring to me just to hold out for that target. And then at five years, I was struggling and I was like, what the heck? I just used struggle.

Meredith Brough (00:21:04) - I had definitely progressed. It was a new struggle. It was it was social media changes, algorithm changes, things like that, that, you know, I've kind of learned I want to avoid now. You know what.

Ashley Brock (00:21:17) - This reminds me of? What I heard another good analogy. You're going to love this, Meredith.

Meredith Brough (00:21:22) - All right.

Ashley Brock (00:21:23) - It she said. When a tree is growing at the very beginning, the roots are under the ground and we forget that roots growing down is momentum is progress. Yeah, progress is happening and we don't see it, but movement is happening and we don't see it. Yeah. And all of a sudden in one day you start to see something come out from the ground. It's like on a day there's one day where eventually it bursts the scene and then it grows more quickly. And it's just so interesting because we can feel like we're doing everything. And you don't see it yet. Yeah, but progress is happening below the surface.

Meredith Brough (00:22:01) - Yeah, I love that. Yeah.

Meredith Brough (00:22:03) - So what has carried you through? Is it just that key in your mind? This is going to be hard. Is there anything else that's helped you keep your passion alive? Because I know you're passionate, but we all go through hard times, right.

Ashley Brock (00:22:15) - So we. Yes. And I and I, I am not immune to the hard times either. It's so funny. Sometimes we shield. You know what? Everything else that goes on underneath in those roots in that process. And so you can see from the outside you're like, oh, that looks easy. Why why is it easy? Even though we all know that that's not the case., I think what keeps me going is I know it's possible to get to where I want to be. And again, it's others going before us. But we've we all know that there is someone out there that has achieved a goal you want to achieve and ultimately, whether it's financial, whether it's just impact. At the end of the day, I believe that we were put on here to multiply.

Ashley Brock (00:22:58) - It doesn't mean actually physically making children necessarily. It could be multiplying by impacting others across the world. And so I feel like we're here to multiply. And I feel like I know I see others doing that. And I know it's possible for me. And I guess it's hard to say. Is there an exact answer? But if someone else can do it, why can't you?

Meredith Brough (00:23:21) - Yeah. Yeah. Well do you. Do you use any tools though?. Like journaling, gratitude, anything like that to help you right here. Okay.

Ashley Brock (00:23:30) - Yes, ma'am, I do, and I answer for things. I answer what I'm thankful for. And I have a rule I never put broad things like I'm thankful for my parents. I'm thankful for my children. I never do that. I, I force myself to write something specific in the last 24 hours, and that changes what this looks like. So I have four things for the last 24 hours I'm thankful for. I do what I'm learning, so it's like your mind, body and soul should be nurtured every day.

Ashley Brock (00:23:59) - So the learning piece is very important. So I put what I'm learning. I have a game day list of things I want to accomplish and then who I am, because I believe if you want to be someone, start being that person today. And so I put who I am and today I put I am interested, curious and committed. And when you start telling yourself those stories every single day, you start to become that person. Really?

Meredith Brough (00:24:24) - That's so great. Yeah. Because you talked earlier about describing what was it that you what you want to do, or was it who you want to become? Or was it both? What did what was it that you wrote out so early?

Ashley Brock (00:24:38) - Who do you need to? I think it was who you need to become., because I feel like there's some. Everybody is like, what do I need to do to be successful? And I just don't think it's that. I think it's actually. Who do you need to become to become festival? And that takes those roots growing every day for a long time.

Meredith Brough (00:24:54) - That's such a great exercise. I really love that.

Ashley Brock (00:24:57) - Thank you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. In the book. That's what you're talking about? Yes, I. She wrote down and I wrote a whole page of who you want to be in ten years. And who do you need to become to be that person?

Meredith Brough (00:25:07) - So. So did you just try to cover every area like personally relationships, my business, what I want it to look like, that sort of thing.

Ashley Brock (00:25:15) - Yeah. And she said, be very specific. Like what do you wear? Where do you shop? What do you do with your kids on Thursday afternoons? What are your mornings look like? Where do you live? What is your kid? What is your oldest son think of you?, how is your marriage? What? What is what's the best part of your marriage like? You go detailed.

Meredith Brough (00:25:32) - Wow.

Ashley Brock (00:25:33) - And it was fun. And I cannot wait to look back at that journal, because I'm not going to look at it for ten years.

Ashley Brock (00:25:39) - I'm going to go back.

Meredith Brough (00:25:40) - And.

Ashley Brock (00:25:40) - I believe it's going to happen.

Meredith Brough (00:25:43) - Yeah, I believe it too. But we just a lot of us don't take the time to dream like that. And I love the details because then you can really picture it. Oh, it's so realistic. Right.

Ashley Brock (00:25:53) - So there's this thing,, that I heard here are a lot of things. Right. And it said when you start thinking about what if this doesn't work, your brain actually starts to think of all the things that could go wrong versus what if you asked it, what am I going to do when this goes right? Where am I going to live when this goes right? What family vacation I'm going to take my kids on with? This goes right? And so apparently, by writing down what you actually want, your brain now has a path to pursue those things because you've thought about it. If you don't think about it, your brain can't get there. I know that seems crazy, but just writing it down, your brain.

Meredith Brough (00:26:30) - Can.

Ashley Brock (00:26:31) - Start to look for ways to make that happen.

Meredith Brough (00:26:34) - Yeah, well, I had planned on talking more specifically about what's difficult about becoming an entrepreneur, because I want to be real and open with people so that we walk into these journeys with our eyes open. And I don't want to. I don't want to, you know, fake someone out. Oh, yeah, it's easy to become an entrepreneur. It's easy to become a sleep coach. But I love that you're saying, oh, come on, we can all think of those things. We can think of the risks. We can think of what we won't have. We can think of, you know, like a lack of security. Let's think more about the why we should and what we can do. And I love that because it's so much more empowering.

Ashley Brock (00:27:12) - But it is true. It's hard. It. Absolutely. There's absolutely things that you have to overcome., I think when you have your. Why, I read recently that everybody has one a person that comes to mind.

Ashley Brock (00:27:26) - , because we're more likely to serve others than serve ourselves sometimes.

Meredith Brough (00:27:29) - Yeah.

Ashley Brock (00:27:30) - That's true. As moms, as parents. If, like, we'll make everyone else happy. But we forget to take care of ourselves sometimes. Yeah., I think in business or in life, whatever it may be, if you when you have someone you're kind of doing it for. I feel like that can help. When you're down, you're like, it's not about me. It's. It's the person I love or it's the people you know you can serve. You know that you can change women's lives with a business that has to do with coaching, right? So you have them on your heart and you have them on your mind when things are hard.

Meredith Brough (00:28:02) - Yeah. Someone told me a story recently about this woman who was a sleep coach, and she was so successful. But in the back of her mind, she wasn't worried about making money. She was focused on serving. And that's something that I've adopted in the you know, I think I've always been.

Meredith Brough (00:28:21) - I've had that mindset, but I've heard more and more professionals talk about, you know, just do this for to serve people like that should be your intention. Not I'm doing this to get rich. What what is your take on that?

Ashley Brock (00:28:34) - My take on that is it couldn't be more accurate. Because if you feel desperate for money or you feel like this must happen, you can't put them first. I feel like serving others, making money as a byproduct of serving others. So I could not agree more. And I feel like that's it's when you take your hands from like, I need this, I need this to work, to let me just trust people and, and serve them. And that's when it all comes back to you. That's. I truly believe that. Yeah.

Meredith Brough (00:29:02) - I've been there where it's extremely hard not to feel desperate. Totally. I mean, and people come to me, you know, my students will tell me stories,, prospects people are thinking of taking my program will be like.

Meredith Brough (00:29:14) - My husband's not working. This is on me. Actually, I think a couple of people that starred in my program, that happened later. But,, it's super hard to get away from that type of pressure because it's real. It's in your face, and it's the stress that you're living every single day. So I get it. And I've had that type of pressure from, you know, my family needing income from me and, and maybe even like a sense of I have to prove myself. And I did this and I invested so much money and time into it, I have I have to make this work, you know, so it's really hard to, to not feel desperation. But there's such a difference in my experience in how I, I meet with people, how I present myself and how the conversation goes. Maybe I have more imposter syndrome, maybe I I'm doubting the value. Stuff like that happens when I'm desperate and I know the other people sense it. Have you can you relate to that?

Ashley Brock (00:30:07) - I can, I remember I was spending money on my own ads and I was $2,000 in and I hadn't had a sale yet, and I was having great conversations, and they were business owners who I felt like would be a great fit for the program.

Ashley Brock (00:30:22) - And I, I came to my husband and I was near tears. I was like, I do ads for everybody else. What if this doesn't work for me? And he said, what would you tell your clients? And he was like, do you feel, you know, you feel like the quality I'm like, yes, I feel like I feel like it's great conversation. That's progress. And you said I told him I would tell my clients, it takes some time, let the algorithm learn. And I had four days until my program was going to enroll and I had two students panicking. He said, double your investment, go all in, and don't let a conversation that went terrible with one person or someone who ghosted me. On one of the calls where I'm really excited. I closed those calls very well. When I can meet someone and hear their problems, and I had people ghost me. And then I had a call right after that and I was like, I can't, I couldn't carry, I couldn't carry the.

Ashley Brock (00:31:12) - Frustration and the sadness and the eagerness that I was to close one into it, or it wasn't going to work. But I have felt that before. I was so close to pausing and just saying, maybe I've made the wrong decision. But yeah, wasting $2,000 was one of the scariest feelings for me in a week.. So I. I know it, I know it can be scary, but I feel like I've learned to oftentimes I've seen it with other businesses that when it feels scary. If you're if you can have the right conversations and carry the serving servant heart to others, it can pan out.

Meredith Brough (00:31:47) - Yeah, well, I love what you said in our first meeting. You said if you believe in serve others, money follows. That's so powerful.

Ashley Brock (00:31:54) - It does. I get I there's a place of desperation, and there's a place where it's almost like you. You have to pull it together in some way and say, I believe in what I've created. I believe in the people that need this.

Ashley Brock (00:32:09) - And yeah, it'll it'll work.

Meredith Brough (00:32:11) - Yeah. And and coming from a place of they need me. Yes. I actually have to stop saying I need this job. I need this to work. I need this person to buy. That's such an easy thing to say. But we have to turn that around and help ourselves believe that they actually need us. And I think that can really help overcome the desperate,, point of view.

Ashley Brock (00:32:36) - I heard someone say that you're actually doing a disservice to the people that need you by being scared. Like there's someone whose life you can change. Like, I feel changed from learning about sleep practices and what babies need, and I. I could not imagine if I'd never found that. And I'm sure you've had this, Meredith. Someone has said, thank you. I'm so thankful for you. I. I would pay more of an abundance more because you changed their life. And by not having those conversations or by carrying that desperation, and you might miss out on truly impacting someone's life or hundreds or thousands of people's lives from what you do.

Meredith Brough (00:33:11) - Yeah, that's really beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah, I agree, I think that if if we all just have a little bit of success when we focus on that, like those stories and those changes and the excitement that we inspire, I think that that's probably a really great thing to hold on to when we feel desperate. Angry. Yeah. So what are some of the other elements in your daily routines?, some of the other tools that you use to stay so enthusiastic and upbeat because I just love I just love your, your attitude and,, the person that glows on the screen here.

Ashley Brock (00:33:53) - Thank you. I, I think I need sleep or else I'm not like this., that's just the honest truth., I do try to get outside for 30 minutes every day and move. I know people say that all the time, but I can get really sad inside seeing it be a beautiful day and be in my room if I don't get out. So I can. Even before this call.

Ashley Brock (00:34:18) - Before this call, I had seven minutes. I put a T-shirt on. I was wearing leggings anyway, and I walked out and I did seven minutes because that's the time that I had and I felt like a better person. I came in here, I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and I feel better, so I feel like getting outside. Even if you have seven minutes, that's okay., it helps my sanity. So between the daily gratitude, getting sleep, moving a little bit and. Gosh. Let's see. I think being thankful, I think I think when you when you write down what you're thankful for in the last 24 hours and you start your day with that, it's kind of hard to have a bad day because you already put in your brain. Well, those were seven things yesterday that were awesome., so I think how you start your day. Is very important. I. I do wake up before my children wake up. And I go to bed a little bit sooner.

Ashley Brock (00:35:16) - Like, it's a lot of just small habits. Oh, I did hear from my friend. She changed my life. She said A load a day.

Meredith Brough (00:35:22) - Keeps the.

Ashley Brock (00:35:23) - Mountain away. And so I always do one load of laundry every day. And I swear that's changed my life. Because it's true. When you see the mountain, it just makes you want to cry. You're like, why even start when it's that big? And that one thing. Every morning when I start my day, I take all the laundry and I do one load a day, and I swear that's a part of my happiness is knowing that I don't have a mountain laying somewhere.

Meredith Brough (00:35:46) - No, I agree, I actually used to do that until my youngest was eight and my oldest was 16, and then I made my kids start doing their own laundry. But I know it's fabulous. Now I do mine and my husband's and it's like three loads a week. I feel like I'm on vacation. Way to.

Ashley Brock (00:36:04) - Go! What a great mom tip that I'm going to implement in my life as well, when they're when they're their age.

Ashley Brock (00:36:09) - Can you start that?

Meredith Brough (00:36:10) - My youngest was eight. Of course, I had to help him. I had to be there at his side. But, you know, 5 or 6, they're already late or maybe even younger. They're putting stuff in the dryer with you and, you know, get it used to early, make it fun. We're having a folding party that's happening.. No. But I agree that that really did make a big difference for me when I started doing one load a day because you know I have five kids.

Ashley Brock (00:36:35) - That's a lot. It's a.

Meredith Brough (00:36:36) - Lot more like to load today I.

Ashley Brock (00:36:39) - Not. Yes. I could not imagine.

Meredith Brough (00:36:42) - Okay. Well thanks for sharing your daily practices., I was definitely interested in that since I asked you twice, but.

Ashley Brock (00:36:51) - I didn't give one more.

Meredith Brough (00:36:53) - You thought of one more? I had one more.

Ashley Brock (00:36:56) - One and a half more. Okay, I do my low today. I also run the dishwasher every night. I used to think that was going to cost more money, but it it did not change my water bill very much.

Meredith Brough (00:37:06) - Yeah.

Ashley Brock (00:37:07) - I do that that load. And I do have someone who once a month comes and helps me with cleaning the house because there's just I mean, you know, with five kids, there's just so much. And visual clutter creates a cortisol response. So you walk into your home and you don't feel peace because there's a lot going on that that could impact your overall well-being. And so that's something that's important to me too, is I, I ask for help when I need it and I need help.

Meredith Brough (00:37:37) - Crazy. That idea. I told my husband,, every two weeks, maybe I'll start with once a month and every two weeks.

Ashley Brock (00:37:43) - That's how I'm going to change my schedule.

Meredith Brough (00:37:45) - That's. I'm I'm gonna switch to hers and you're gonna switch to one.

Ashley Brock (00:37:48) - I would cancel Netflix and,, a food. I would cancel ten delivery services before I canceled the cleaning, because the cleaning offers me peace of mind and my ability to be happy in my home, which you can't. You can't try.

Ashley Brock (00:38:02) - I mean, for me, that's huge.

Meredith Brough (00:38:03) - Yeah, I love it. That's that's a big deal. Well, my husband suggested it to me. It was hilarious because I was like. Yeah. I'm not keeping up with the house, am I?. Well, that's okay, because it's both of our job.

Ashley Brock (00:38:18) - It's everyone's job, and you can't do it all on your own. And you're doing a lot of other great things. Changing lives. You. You can't do all of it. So I would rather work my butt off to make sure that I can get some help with that, because it's hard.

Speaker 3 (00:38:30) - Exactly.

Meredith Brough (00:38:33) - So do you have any last tips for our listeners? For my listeners?

Ashley Brock (00:38:39) - I think my biggest tip would be. No one, including me, is ever as high energy. And on top of it, 20. No one's 24 over seven. Perfect. Yeah, but find someone who encourages you and can inspire you and is in is a few steps ahead. Yeah., I really feel like finding someone to learn from in some regard, in business in some way.

Ashley Brock (00:39:05) - If they've figured something out, save your time, get encouraged, and connect with that person.

Meredith Brough (00:39:11) - That's beautiful advice and I agree. Thank you. All right. Will you tell my listeners how they can find you and what you've got going on right now?

Ashley Brock (00:39:19) - Yeah. So I have something cool. So if you're listening and you have a business and you have a website, then you need this. It's ashleybrock.com slash tools. And it's five tools that I use in my business. And one of them in particular improved my conversion rate 27%. It's a very simple tool. It'll take you ten minutes to implement. It's free. if you have a ton of visitors to your site, there is an annual plan, but it's very inexpensive. But people love getting that third party validation. It's the same reason you probably wouldn't buy anything on Amazon with zero reviews. For the most part, it's a really cool tool, but there's five in there that can help you grow your business. If you,, are a small business owner and you're interested in learning how to do your own marketing, I would love to work with you.

Ashley Brock (00:40:03) - So ashleybrock.com is where you can find just about everything. But the tools is ashleybrock.com/tools.

Meredith Brough (00:40:09) - Awesome. Perfect. I love what you're doing. And I love hearing about your success. I think you're.

Meredith Brough (00:40:20) - Thank you so much for sharing and inspiring us for sharing your wisdom. I appreciate your time.

Ashley Brock (00:40:27) - I'm so thankful. It was great. You're awesome. Meredith.

Meredith Brough (00:40:31) - And thank you to my listeners for taking time out of your busy lives to listen to the show. I can't wait to be with you again until then, I'll see you soon. Thanks for listening to the Sweet Slumber podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's show. Before you go, please leave a review and hit subscribe and have a great day!


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Meredith Brough

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