Was there like an intuitive ping or was there some moment that's like, this isn't my path anymore? What was that feeling for you?

I think since starting my career in design, I felt like there was a gap and like the corporate world was just not set up for working parents, working moms.

And at the time, I had a boyfriend.

We weren't married yet.

We didn't have any kids, but I always wanted that flexibility to be able to work on my own schedule and be there for my kids because the reality is growing up, my parents, they both worked a lot and we were kind of shipped to grandma and grandpa's every day before and after school.

And that's like the reality for a lot of people, right? Whether that's, you daycare, whatever.

But with both my parents still working and no sight to retire anytime soon, that would not be an option.

I'm like, I'm curious, was there like a sign in it or was there this like holy shit moment or something you manifested that came through that? Or was it just like trusting yourself?

And did you always operate as an agency, or how did it kind of get started for you?

So I actually started very differently to what we are now.

So my roots are I grew up in branding and graphic design.

My dad owns an advertising studio, and I worked there for a couple years, bounced around a couple other corporate jobs working at like larger agencies and big household name brands.

But then I was kind of hitting burnout, where I wanted to get off of the computer, and I was always freelancing, like branding and websites on the side, and business cards, smaller projects.

But I kind of started my business accidentally learning calligraphy, and that kind of launched me into teaching typography at Humber College, which is a college in Toronto, um, which also led me into offering luxury wedding stationery.

At one point, we had a 100-year-old letter press printer in our garage.

Mm-hmm.

What did your business look like, and what did it feel to run? Because I feel like you have been through exactly what you take your clients through, and I wanna get that before picture and get the essence and the feelings in there too.

Yeah.

So before, two years ago, I, I mean, I started growing my team very early on with subcontractors, and they still work with me today, and they're great, and I love them, and we've added a few more on.

And I've really been shifting into this creative director role, which has been really fun to do.

But it wasn't always that way, it was very much take on what I could.

I went through a s- a good chunk of time just doing a lot of VIP days, and burning out, and not bringing on the proper support, or pricing my s- myself and my services profitably.

In fact, after I had my son, my first baby, planned for a month mat leave, and I ended up taking three because I was like, "I don't know what I'm doing, like, a new mom here." And my bookkeeper was actually like, "Ashley, you are 98% not profitable.

Like, how do you specifically use The Art of Becoming and Soul, and how has that, like, been different, and what about it is supporting you, and why are you using it? What do you go to it for? There's a lot of questions there, but I just wanna understand from your perspective, like, when you're coming to Soul, what is it for and what are you getting out of those experiences?