When Necessity Breeds Invention with Ashley Black

with Ashley Black

Jan 17, 2025 · 00:43:35

Welcome to The Total Entrepreneur Mind, Body, Spirit, where we turn cutting-edge science into practical strategies for entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Dr. John Torrance, entrepreneur, Inc. 5000 honoree, and professor of entrepreneurial practice at Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management. Each episode, we dive into mental, physical, and spiritual health with expert guests offering actionable insights to help you thrive and perform at your highest level. Let's get started. Today's guest is Ashley Black. Ashley is the inventor and founder of the Fascia Blaster, with over $200 million in sales of this revolutionary tool for regenerating tissue, helping people live longer, better, and more beautiful lives. She is a 2-time number one bestselling author, 2-time Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies Award winner, American Business Association's Entrepreneur of the Year, and recipient of the Internal Business Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in Consumer Ashley lives in the Blue Zone of Costa Rica and has dedicated her career to helping others live more healthfully. Ashley, welcome to the podcast. It's really great to talk to you. How are you doing down there in Costa Rica?

Well, Jon, you know how I'm doing down here in Costa Rica. This is paradise. And, you know, I think it's really important when you Have a high, high, high energy professional life to have some sort of contrast. So Costa Rica is that contrast for me—that lower energy, more calm.

For sure, I get it. Well, why don't you start by telling us a little bit more about your company and the types of products you have? Just to to set the stage.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'm one of those quote unquote true American success stories that wasn't put together by i bankers and. people that really know how to run companies. Everything that I do and everything that I've invented came out of my own personal struggles. And I'll keep that part kind of brief, but I was born with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Hmm.

And I had very typical go-to-the-doctor parents. So imagine a childhood of spinal taps, you know, having your blood drawn. I remember like doing splits in the hallway being like, I don't need my blood taken. So really at a very early age, I kind of already had made that jump to like, you know what really makes me feel better is stretching. And I started charting my food and doing things like that as a child in the '70s, which was— they just thought I was strange. And I am. And then I was able to kind of learn how to manage the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis with a lot of the things that are normal now. Like I would do hot baths and then I would do cold plunges with ice in the bathtub, stretching, different types of training. And I was actually able to get to be a pretty high-level gymnast. I was a gymnast at my college, Auburn University, and I ended up teaching aerobics. That's what it's called. I don't know what it's called now at a fitness center there. And I just really fell in love with this whole idea that the movement can become the medicine and that the strength can override, you know, whatever bone degeneration you have. So for a little while, I was cruising on really well, had a couple of kids, and then I had some symptoms with the birth of my daughter. Just to put it in perspective, she's 25. And I went in to have a hip aspiration, which is where you have your hip drained. And I ended up getting an infection in my pelvis and my hip and my femur that literally almost killed me. Like, 93% of people who get this particular type of strain of staph die from it. It's very deadly.

Wow.

whole near-death experience, the whole tunnel situation, life, you know, flashed before your eyes, all the, all the good woo-woo stuff. And I was actually given a choice. Did I want to come back? And I was like, no, like this, this is amazing, this feeling. And I heard voices that told me that I needed to go back, that I, that I had children and that I had a purpose. and that I needed to study and research. So at the moment in time, I, you know, who knows if it was a dream or, you know, I don't know the whole science behind all of that, but that's what I heard, or that's what I remembered hearing. And so after a 4-month struggle for my life in the hospital, when I get out, you know, here I am going from being a fitness instructor to I can't even roll over. unassisted, and I had 2 small babies. So for me, it was a necessity breeds invention type of thing. And so I was putting together in my mind, okay, I've lost all of this strength. How can I build the strength? I was probably a little bit like Joseph Pilates, like trying to do stuff in a hospital bed. Bring me my bands. Bring me— and what ended up happening with that whole infection is that— I just had— I'm just going to call it limited range of motion. Like, there was just parts of my body that I could not fire, and there were particular movements that I could not get in. So that's when I was like, you know what, I really need to start understanding the soft tissue.

Mm-hmm.

And so flash forward a few months, I was getting better, and I was like, if I really want to understand how to create symmetry in my body and to be able to move again and be able to strengthen again, like, I want to see it. And so I went and took a dissection course. I kind of snuck my way in. I won't tell you which chiropractic college, but just registered like I was a student.

Mm-hmm.

And when they cut the body open, it's literally, I'm going to just say fasciarama. And of your viewers who may not know what fascia is, it's basically everything that's not our trillions of cells. It's Everything around it that keeps it all in place. And it's kind of like the white stuff inside of the body. And I knew the minute I saw that, that there was this incredible lack of knowledge about what that system of the body did. They were in the dissection course, they were going to actually clean it off so that we could see the body.

Wow.

And it's like, clean it off? It is the body. That is it. Yeah. Just the way my mind works, I was like, God didn't make it for no reason. And so I had a voracious appetite to learn about fascia. And this is 20-something years ago, so it was definitely— it was not Googled but about 3 times by the entire world in a month, let's put it that way. And now we're up into the millions. Yeah. So I began to study it. How does it work? Where does it connect? How can that help me to be a normal person and be athletic again and out of pain. And so that really led to me kind of learning how to manipulate the body in a different way.

Mm-hmm.

And then that led to me treating professional athletes for about 10 years. And then that led to me starting to work in Hollywood and flying around on, you know, private jets and being brought in on these special cases that no one else could fix. And then that led to me saying, you know, this is really sad that the rich and famous get this when— what about the Ashleys out there? You know, what about my parents? What about my friends? You know, they all need this type of care. And that led to me inventing the Fascia Blaster tools, which is now my current business. And I can flash forward on that really quickly. That literally, we, we did $300,000 one year, we did $1 million the next, and then we did $40 million the next. And it is not because I'm a genius marketer. It is because this is a huge need in human health and the tools actually deliver. So, you know, this has been my business now. We're just rounding officially out 11 years, been helping millions ever since. But to break it down in the most simple way, I'm a consumer products goods company, direct to consumer. And we're at a little over $200 million in Wow.

That is such an amazing story. Like just, you know, your whole story of health issues and, you know, necessity breeding invention. And then just the, I mean, it's more than exponential growth what you described. That's really incredible. So how, like, so during those times, I mean, first of all, that's, that's an entrepreneur's dream, or at least they think it's a dream.

I was going to say, let's unpack that.

That's what everybody kind of imagines. So how do you, how do you stay focused? How do you keep it together mentally, physically, spiritually while you're doing all that? Because that's gotta add a lot of stress in all 3 fronts to your life when you go through that kind of growth.

Oh man. You know, even though I was in Hollywood and I really saw fame up close, like I remember I was in the, the food trailer during the filming of Wolf of Wall Street, and Leonardo DiCaprio was one of my clients, and they were shaking the food truck. You know, going, is he in there? You know, and when we stepped out there, like, is that his food? You know, so I really saw, you know, how difficult any level of notoriety can be. But when it's you, it's different, you know?

Mm-hmm.

So along with this obviously became a large social media following and some successful books and book tours and people around the corners. You know, and so that's something where you have to really protect your energy. You know, I don't feel like 100% of every single day I'm public Ashley, like available to be what, you know, my— I'm going to call them fans, you know, think I need to be. So there's a lot that goes into really preserving that energy when I'm not, quote unquote, out in public. And So a lot of that was moving to Costa Rica. But I also feel like I faced something that I don't want to say only a few, but when I talk to other people who have actually faced suppression, that is a whole nother ballgame too. So you can imagine with my tools that there's people all over the internet talking about how they've come off their medications and they don't have to go to the doctor as much as they used to. And so around 2017, We stepped into a hornet's nest by mistake, and it led to, oh God, class action lawsuits, hate groups, like controlled echo chamber messaging of like, oh, people are injured, you know? So I've had to deal with all of that.

And is that because like you were, you were basically taking profit from drug companies, right?

Yeah. I don't, I don't know who it was. You know, there's some things that definitely let me know that I was on the wrong playing field.

Mm-hmm.

Like, for instance, one of the lawsuits, uh, was represented by Rusty Harden, you know, and for people who don't know Rusty Harden, maybe they saw the Anna Nicole Smith where she was like, fuck you, Rusty. He is a, you know, and he was on the opposing side. So I was like, well, whoever's on the other side of this, has, you know, extremely deep pockets. But I feel like, you know, if you're going to go into a disruptive industry, it's better off to kind of know that this type of thing happens. And I don't even think it's really personal or as big a deal as it feels. I think it's probably just a small team of maybe lawyers in a back room that they're like, okay, we're seeing too much of our marketplace going here and like go out there and rabble-rouse a little bit. You know, it's just, it's kind of part of our culture, this delete culture. But I can tell you, I've had a lot of people come to me and be like, how did you get through it? You know? And I think it's, you know, for me, this was never a business. It was a mission. This is a mission in my life. And so whether or not my business was taken away from me, the mission would not stop. So I think you have to be so solid in knowing who you are and what it is that you were put on this planet to do, that whether it's high or low, your, your self-projection is neutral at all times, right?

Mm-hmm.

And so that is kind of the way that, that I dealt with all of that. And I, I kind of came out of the public eye for a little bit, which I think it's good to do that every once in a while.

Yeah, no, I think you're right. When you, when you have an innovation or a disruption, you're gonna create some waves and attract some attention. Not all of it wanted, right? So—

That's right. That's right. And you also have to be one of those people that doesn't read every comment. You know, you can't, you can't get overly involved in social media because at the end of the day, no matter how perfect of a person you are or how genuine your message is, you know, there's just going to be people that want to, you know, see you torn down. And I don't even entertain that for a second. I know for me, being who I am and what I'm trying to do, and now I'm trying to exit the business and actually do more for the science side of it.

Mm-hmm.

You know, for me, I need 100% of my full energy and effort to be super high vibrational. So I love the topic of this podcast because I mean, I really think that's the key. I think the key is to separate your character that you play in your business on a daily basis from who you truly are. And not only who you truly are, but then who's the observer of that soul.

Yeah.

And, you know, those things always remain intact. You know, sometimes I look and I'm like, ooh, that Ashley, man, she is having a wild-ass day today. But I know that that's only one facet of my being.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Are you comfortable talking a little bit about your near-death experience and how that changed your outlook on, on business and life?

Totally. I mean, I think if you talk to anyone that has a near-death experience, you know, for me, I was only about 30 when it happened, and I just remember being like, damn, we don't get a do-over.

Hmm.

So that was kind of what I took away from it. And, you know, when you, you aren't going to get a plan B or you're not gonna get a second try, it makes you much more focused on what your plan A is. And also, I think anyone else that's ever had a near-death experience, it's like you really do learn how life is the present moment only.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, you know, and I really try to live my day in and day out life, not too much in the future, not too much in the past, but just like, okay, today I'm good. I slept good. Like, I'm talking to cool people today. I'm going surfing today, you know, and, and try to, try to live there because at the end of the day, you know, the pressures and stresses of running a, you know, multi-hundred dollar business is it. It is a lot. And I, I don't sit there and think about the future too much other than just, you know, obviously making plans and trying to stick to the plans and everything. But as far as like futurizing or awfulizing or like worrying about things that happened in the past, like, I just don't, I don't think that's healthy for anyone.

No, of course not, because there's really nothing you can do with it or for it. Maybe, maybe you learn from it. Right. But yeah, dwelling on it is, is counterproductive. Right. So what are some, what are some practices you employ? Like what's, what are your go-to practices or strategies when, you know, you just need to reset or gain some balance in your life?

Well, I think the thing that most entrepreneurs will tell you is like, I mean, you really could work 24 hours a day and never get it done. Right. So I think one of the first things that I did was make a commitment to having a hardcore stop. And for me, I'm an early riser. I have so much energy in the morning. So I said, okay, I'm gonna work from 6 AM to noon nonstop, you know. And I have people who bring me my shakes and green juice and everything I need to like get through it. And then noon is, is my stop. And normally at noon, I'll have some lunch and I'll either take a nap or I'll just lay down and try to reset. And then I have literally my whole day and my whole evening to myself. And I know people are gonna be like, what? How do you get it all done? But I, I think once you, it's like, how long does it take you to clean your house? Well, it takes 30 hours unless you tell some, somebody's coming over in 30 minutes and then it takes 30 minutes. So I think—

That's right.

Putting that like leash on myself, right?

Yeah.

I think that's a big piece of it. And then, you know, I even wrote a whole book about this. It's a woman's business book called Be: From Passion and Purpose to Products and Prosperity. But at the end of the day, when you have such a strong mission and you want a social life and you wanna be there for your kids and you wanna be able to surf and you wanna be able to exercise, take care of your body, take care of your spirit, do the fun stuff like there is in Costa Rica, sound journeys, all those kind of things. The first thing that you have to do is realize that you don't have room in your life for Any bullshit. None. So I don't have people in my life that bring me bullshit. I don't have things in my life that bring me bullshit. I do not entertain other people's drama. You know, I, in my book I call it the delete, you know, the great delete. So like, what do you do when you really examine your schedule and go, okay, what can I just totally stop doing?

Mm-hmm.

So I think that was a big first step for me. And then I think at the end of the day, you know, my business is high resonance. I'm a high resonance person. I'm trying to attract high resonance people to be my customers. And I think, you know, you just have to be aware of things that are high resonance. You know, your food is high resonance. You know, getting in the sunlight is high resonance. Listening to positive music or classical music instead of negative things. Like, I don't watch movies that have violence. You know, I can imagine like a total normal person is like, my God.

Yeah.

This seems so extreme. But it's been a peeling back over the years and being like, how can I make myself so high vibrational that I'm untouchable? And it really is, it's literally every single aspect of your life, looking at it and going, is this something that brings me high resonance? Or is this something that detracts from my energy?

Yeah, that's, it's a great point that you peel it back slowly over time, right? Because you, if you tried to do it all at once, it might not might not work out, and you might not be ready for it anyway, right? So, so that's right. You learn about something that could benefit you, you try it on, see how it feels. It feels pretty good. You keep doing it, maybe try something different, right? So, so the more you're into these types of things, the more they just show up in your life, and the more—

That's right. And the more you hang around people who are into these types of things, you know, we share the common bond of being able to spend time down here in Costa Rica. And it's not Costa Rica. I mean, that's a piece of it, but it's just the, you know, the people here tend to be more connected with nature, and the expats that come here tend to be into meditation and yoga. And, you know, surfers are a whole nother breed. That's been a really positive thing in my life, you know. And then the food here is organic. It kind of happens naturally. But yeah, I feel like this has been a 30-year project to get here. And there's so many more things that I want to do, which is part of why I'm looking for an exit this summer. It's because I want to develop more parts of me and I want to be curious again. There is a point, not every entrepreneur gets there, but there is a point where the entrepreneur goes, I've done everything that I think I'm good at, and now it's time for somebody else to take the business and run with it. And I'm at that point. I feel like I brought all the Ashley special sauce, and now it needs something that you can find, you know, on every corner, like people who are experts in retail and global expansion. And, you know, so.

Yeah, I mean, that, that's the entrepreneur's dilemma, right? And, and it's really, it's really wise of you to recognize that, hey, I've, I've good, I've, brought it about as far as I can or as I want to. And you're in a great position where you can, you know, benefit from all the hard work you've put in. And you're also in a good position because you've been prioritizing your mental, physical, and spiritual health so that you can enjoy everything you've done instead of, you know, dealing with chronic conditions or being overworked and overstressed and not being able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

No, it's so true because, you know, I think from being a sick child and then being completely debilitated in my 30s, I understand that if this physical vehicle does not work, I'm not going to have the quality of life that I want. So I take every training session very seriously. Like, I have the craziest backyard with like my sauna, my cold plunge, my hot tub, my weights, my bands, my hanging thing, my trampoline, my hyperbaric oxygen chamber, you know. And, and I love doing all of that stuff.

Wow.

You know, but then you also mentioned the other side of that, which is, you know, kind of that spiritual fortitude, you know, and I've studied all kinds of philosophies, even though I was raised Christian. But I think that that is so, so, so important, like learning those basic spiritual concepts of, you know, that, that we're a soul.

Mm-hmm.

And we're having a human experience and being able to separate your, your soul and your soul's purpose with your human experience and the human experience, uh, purpose.

Yeah, I've heard it described like, you know, we're just in the movie, right? So like, if you, if you were to watch a movie, you know, pick a movie and, and say you pick a villain, like that, you know that the person playing the role of the villain isn't actually the villain, right? So like, you look at your own life and, you know, like, hey, yes, I'm playing this role, but I'm actually bigger than this and more than that. Is that kind of the way you feel or the way you understand it?

Yeah, it feels exactly like a movie or a video game. And it's like, oh, those characters have to do those things. And that's part of our lessons. But I always feel like whatever actually the human experience has to go through is really to teach the soul a lesson. You know, when you can look at things that way, it just makes it quicker. You know, like when Let's just say bad shit happens, right? So bad shit happens when you're 20. You know, you're like, oh my God, that happened. And I feel this way and they did, you know, and there's all this stuff around it where now if bad stuff happened, it's like, well, I better learn that lesson quick.

Right.

You know, and you learn that your emotions don't need to be a part of it at all. I'll give you the best example. I've been in an extended, uh, really beautiful love relationship with my partner for 5 years. And in just the last couple of months, we just maturely decided that our paths were going in, in different directions and decided to separate, you know, and be friends. And I think, you know, everybody is like, oh my God, are you okay? Are you, you know, are you bored? Can we come over? You know, all this and that. And it's like, no, I, I like— I'm— I'm truly, truly good because it was, it was aligned with my soul.

Yeah.

You know, and I'm just grateful for the lessons. I'm grateful for the support while we walked the path together. And I'm super optimistic about what's next. And I feel like, you know, God had to clear some things out of my life for where I'm going next. And when you can understand life at that level, it, it really does make it beautiful instead of stressful.

Yeah, it does require you to back up and have a higher perspective though, right? You can't come to those conclusions when you're in the weeds and looking at it from the ground level, right? You have to— you need perspective.

Yeah, you need perspective, and you need to, you know, I think a lot of people feel something And then they're like, okay, this is what it is. You know, a feeling is just that. It's, it's a feeling, you know, and all feelings are temporary, you know.

So true. I say that all the time. Yeah. Everything is temporary. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I, I had a, a yoga instructor just explain kind of life and it's, it's great for a surfer. But what she said is that, you know, at the surface, You know, you might get a small wave or you may get a 20-foot wave, you know, and it might have a giant washing machine and you can see it coming and then you know it's coming and then it's on top of you. But the key is to be able to dive so deep that you don't feel what's on the surface. And what she meant by that was like, you know, dive deep within your heart, within your soul, you know, and know that like your heart and your soul is still good.

Yeah.

Even though there may be a massive wave, you know, know, rolling over you at the moment. So I always try to remember that when the things come, because they do. I mean, to think, if anybody looks at my life, and I do have a lot of people be like, oh, well, if I woke up in paradise, I would be happy. It's like, no, no, no, honey. Like, every single day.

Right.

I literally just had a phone call where I'm talking to my own staff, and I said, this is the biggest waste of an hour and a half of my life today. Like, what are, what are we doing? So it's not that the waves do not come. I just am not gonna have that affect, you know, the rest of the day. That was a moment. It was a moment and a decision needed to be made, and we made it and, and we moved on. I think it's, you know, when people, you know, swirl around in the emotion and it's like, feel the emotion, but just know that it's like the wave too. It's, it's coming and it's going.

Yeah. Feel it, honor it, right? Let it happen. And, you know, kind of observe it and just, I guess, love it for what it is, right? I mean, when bad things happen or stressful things happen, I try to think of, okay, why is this happening for me? What can I learn from it? Like, instead of, you know, doing the woe is me thing, just kind of saying, all right, this is what's going on. How can I benefit from it? What can I learn from it? And then just accepting and loving what is and moving on. I mean, what else can you do?

I think it's that fundamental belief that the world, that the universe, the world, whatever you believe, is always conspiring in your favor because it is.

Yeah.

This year I had the perfect example. So here I am bebopping along, made it past 10 years. Oh, whoop whoop. I'm a legacy company, you know, whatever. My bank was one of those Palo Alto banks. Okay? All of a sudden I go to draw on my line of credit and it's not there for me.

Right.

And, you know, we were like in an instant cash flow lock. And I could tell you the rest of the story, but it got so bad that they had put some kind of filing on us for us to stop getting our revenue. You know, like in terms of business, it was like as bad as it could get. So that's the kind of thing that makes a business owner get cancer, right? Or high blood pressure.

Yeah.

But it was so amazing. My whole team, we were like, look, we know, we know we're on the mission. We know that our products are something people need and people want. So the real thing is intact, right? We just need to See what the lesson is, learn it quickly, be agile, be focused, and ride it out. And we did.

Yeah. I mean, because getting upset about it doesn't actually help it, right? And as a matter of fact, you can come up with better solutions when you're at peace and calm and centered a little bit, right? I mean, if you're super stressed and high-strung, you're not going to come up with the best solution. You're not going to approach it the best.

Oh, you cannot be. I mean, like, one of the most amazing spiritual concepts I've learned is detachment. You know, the whole, like, not being attached. Because, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, you think that your way is the way. And, you know, and then when something like that happens, you have to be willing to go like, well, maybe that ain't the way.

Yep.

And detach from it immediately and detach from the outcome immediately and just completely Detach and pull back like we were saying earlier, and look at the whole situation and go, okay. And even I say this among like my girlfriends, I'm always the one that they call. It's like, look, the first thing you need is water. The second is a good night's sleep. You know, the third thing you need is have somebody bring you green juice or a meal that you like that's healthy. You know, and then go get out there and stick your feet on the ground and get a little sun, and then we'll have this conversation. You know, because I think that people feel like they have to fix it, solve it right now. And like, they almost feel guilty if they're not nonstop thinking about it, you know? But the whole idea is to solve the problem from a place that it wasn't created. And in order to do that, you have to jump, you have to elevate, right?

Yeah. Because when you're focusing only on the problem, you're not gonna solve the problem because you're focusing on the problem. You're not focusing on solutions. And You know, you're not gonna be able to solve a problem when that's all you're thinking of. And you gotta think of, hey, what, what else is going on in my life today? Or, well, what can I be grateful for? What can I enjoy? The problem will still be there, but maybe I'll solve it with a clearer head. Right?

I also believe, and I even just said this on the call that I just told you about, I'm like, you know, you, you have to back so far out that maybe the solution is radical change. Which freaks people out. Yeah, nobody likes radical change. Yeah, I literally was like, what if we just increase prices on everything? Like everything across the board go up. Send everybody a message. Guess what? We're you know, and that wasn't what we ended up landing on. But it's like okay, I was trying to get everybody to get outside. Oh, we could do this little thing and we could da da da and be like okay, what is that radical change? So I also feel like if you're gonna be. an entrepreneur, one of the things that you have to really be focused on in your own personal growth is being able to risk take and, and being able to change like on a dime and be so confident in that decision. I can tell you my business wouldn't survive if I was like a risk-averse person or like couldn't handle change.

Yeah, I know. You need adaptability and resilience, right? Because things change really fast and The slower you are to react and embrace that change, the faster you're going to be done, right?

It is a huge, huge journey. And I feel like for me, particularly in the past 8 years since I've been living full-time in Costa Rica, and also that coincided with my children going to college and things like that. And when I actually had time to focus on myself, I would say that 80% of my free time goes into some sort of spiritual or physical development. That's what I enjoy, because the more you pursue that, and again, it's just one step at a time, the more you see that that's the truth. I mean, John, you and I are at the age where we know people that are in their 80s and 90s, and they would give up all their money just to surf one more time or just Yeah. To, you know, be able to have sex or whatever, you know? So, for me, when I turned 50 a few years ago, I was just like, what do I want my next 50 years to be like? And when you start to think about that plan, it's not nonstop work.

No.

Nonstop work and money is never gonna get you there.

Right, exactly. I mean, and it's great to pursue that, right? Money and wealth is a great thing to pursue, But, you know, at the— risking your own well-being and health is probably not the way to do it.

That's so true. I love that about my tools because my tools are regenerative. They actually regenerate the tissue. So I don't care what kind of mood you're in, what kind of bad crap has happened, I can go out to my sauna, Get my tools out, start calming my nervous system, you know, do something positive for myself. And it's, it's like an instant, instant change for me. It's like a non-negotiable.

Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. So if you had like one or two words of wisdom or advice to share, you know, with young entrepreneurs kind of struggling with this, you know, what they call work-life balance or the stress of trying to get a company going and focusing on themselves too. What could you tell them?

Well, the, the first thing that I would say is that I do think that a brand new business requires that hustle. So, and it may require that hustle for a couple of years. So what I would say is kind of let go of the idea of a work-life balance, maybe not be trying to pursue that girlfriend or boyfriend or have the kids or buy the house. For me, you should like go into boot camp training of your mental state, your physical state, and then just know that you're gonna be making a really hardcore commitment to getting it off the ground.

Mm-hmm.

That would be the first thing that I would say. Don't try to be all things to all people all the time.

Mm-hmm.

Give yourself a minute to like get that going. And then once you get that going, Then that's where you can peel back and go, okay, I do these 20 things. What are the things that other people could do if I spend the time to train them? You know, and that's where you really start to peel out of the business a little bit. And I think at the end of the day, whatever computer program that you use, that I call it the watering hole.

Mm-hmm.

It's like where everybody knows where to go to get the information. You know, having the right, you know, software management program to help you to be able to see your business at a glance and make those quick little moves. I think that that is huge because if you end up in the office or on the Zoom calls all day long, you can't run your business, you know?

Mm-hmm.

So I think that was another thing for me, really freeing up that time was Like not only picking the hours for me that I know that I am in highest performance in the morning, but also limiting the amount of calls. I do not take more than 3 calls per day.

So smart.

Like I've got to have that time to strategize and to think and to send that email and to come up with that idea, you know? And you can't do that if you're like nonstop ops. And, and also every time you get on a call, You are affected by the other person's energy, which is a lot of what this whole podcast has been about. So true. If you're the entrepreneur, you have to be the happiest person. You have to be the most motivated person. You set the bar, and if you're feeling pummeled, it's going to radiate, right?

Yeah, yeah, so true. Yeah, no, I've, I've actually, I've tried to stop Zooms altogether now. It's just like, give me a phone call, like, let's talk on the phone, because you know what, I I used to like phone calls. I could walk around, I could pace, I could do stuff instead of like staring into a screen and hoping I could do something besides that, right? So, yeah.

How long does it take to clean your house? You know, you schedule an hour Zoom call, you're gonna use up an hour Zoom call.

Geez Louise, I know. Yeah.

Anybody, anybody out there, you don't even have to be a woman, but my book is pretty much all about this. It is like the, brass tacks of how do you, how do you say, what is it that I want in life? And then build your business around that. You know, because I do feel like if you can be in authenticity and you can say, this is what I want, you can reverse engineer that. You know, but I think that most people can't answer that question. You know, I do a little bit of public speaking and I'll put them on the spot and I'll be like, What do you want? And they'll go, well, I think if I could— no, what do you, what do you want?

Right, right.

You want $1 million? You will have $1 million. You know, you want to work 3 hours a day and have passive income of $10,000 a month? That's what you're going to have. But you got to decide what it is that you want.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I get the same thing from a lot of people. They don't— either that or they're afraid to admit what they want, or they just don't know it, or they can't articulate it, or they feel like they're not worthy of it. Or whatever. Yeah.

Or like they feel like they're shooting too high to the stars. And, and the reality is money is energy. It's everywhere. Everybody can be as rich as they wanna be. That is kind of the easy part.

Mm-hmm. Right.

But like so many young people, they have in this mind like what it is that they think they want. You know, even talk, I have 3, I have 2 millennials and 3 Gen Zers for children. Can you imagine? They're just like, if I could just make, you know, 6 figures. But so now they are. And then they're like, oh, that wasn't it. And it's like, no, it's not. It's really more about you're chasing a feeling. You're chasing a feeling of freedom. You're chasing a feeling of authenticity, you know, and you still have these limiting beliefs back here that tell you that by the time you're 25, you need to have a house. And by the time you're 27, you need to—

Totally.

be married, and by the time you're 32, you know, that's what's playing in the background.

Yeah, because it's never out there, right? The thing you're chasing that you think is going to make you happy isn't actually the thing that makes you happy. And I see that a lot, right? Well, if, if I only, you know, if I can get an A in the class, then I can get a great job, and I get a good income, and then I'll be happy, right? Or whatever it is. If you get this, you'll be happy. But the truth is, you can just choose to be happy now and appreciate what you have, And then sit back and watch all of these amazing things happen because now you're attracting a completely different vibration, right?

That's right. You know, there's manifestation bullcrap out there, but it sounds like me and you years ago must have read The Secret, but it really is. It's just raising your energy to the level that that's the only things that are, that come to you and the things that are vibration are repelled and it doesn't take a ton of money. You know, like I actually scaled back. I had a giant 9-bedroom house and 10 acres and technically 9, but who the hell needs 9 bedrooms? And, uh, you know, I live in a, a 2-bedroom house now that one of the bedrooms is my office, but it's on the beach. I can literally see the ocean every day. And, you know, as far as the expenses, it's like 1/10 the expenses.

Right.

You know? So I think it's, you know, really wrapping your brain around that feeling that you want. Like, wake up and go, what do, what do I want every single day to look like? I wanna work for 3 hours and then I wanna have 2 hours to have lunch and have a glass of wine. I wanna go back to the office for like another 2 hours. Then I wanna be able to go to the gym. Then I wanna do, you know, I wanna be able to watch documentaries or Mm-hmm. play World of Warcraft, whatever it is, you know, because if you can figure out what your daily routine would be, you just reverse engineer it. It's so easy. So easy.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's— yeah, that's— I think that's really good wisdom, Ashley. So if people want to learn more about you or find you online, I know you're relatively easy to find, but where could they go?

The best way to really find like the formal information is just you can Google The Real Ashley Black, not the real, the real. Black, A-S-H-L-E-Y Black. You can find me on all of the social media channels, LinkedIn, and then I have a website as well. That's therealashleyblack.com. And you can find all the different ways that you can kind of engage because my brand has definitely gone from being products to like How do you suck on this lifestyle a little bit? I even do retreats down here and cleanses and executive coaching and things like that. So yeah, I would love to bring in some of your viewers into my web. Amazing. Well, that's great.

Well, Ashley, thank you so much for your time today. Really appreciate it. And yeah, hopefully I'll see you out there in the lineup one of these days.

You better.

Thank you so much for listening to the Total Entrepreneur Mind Body Spirit Podcast. If you liked what you heard or heard something interesting today, please give us a like, share a comment, or better yet, subscribe to the podcast. Thank you.