Letting Go to Level Up: Ashley Cox on Pivoting with Purpose
What if your boldest move starts with walking away from who you used to be?
In this episode, Courtney sits down with Ashley Cox, a powerhouse leadership coach, author, and former corporate HR expert who left behind the title “HR Ashley” to rediscover what truly lights her up. From corporate burnout to founding Sprout HR and growing into a leadership mentor for women entrepreneurs, Ashley’s journey is raw, real, and deeply inspiring.
They talk about career pivots, identity crises, journaling breakthroughs, and the power of self-trust, even when the path ahead feels uncertain. For anyone feeling stuck in a version of themselves that no longer fits, this conversation offers a powerful reminder of what’s possible when you choose to rewrite the rules.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Ashley’s early leadership lessons from retail to corporate boardrooms
The culture shock of switching from Kroger to J.Crew, and what it taught her
Why burnout pushed her to walk away from corporate life
How starting a photography biz accidentally led her back to HR (with a twist!)
The mindset shifts required to leave behind a known identity
Why she shut down her consulting biz to go all in on leadership work
Practical tips for journaling through transition and rediscovering your “why”
The power of positioning coaches for untangling your inner chaos
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“That allowed you to see where the need was and to bring that alignment back within yourself.” - Courtney Turich
“What could you do every day that lights you up? That has you looking at your calendar saying hell yes?” - Courtney Turich
“Because it's already scary enough being an entrepreneur. No one’s paying you except the business you build.” - Courtney Turich
“So many of us think we need a five-year plan, but the beauty is in the chaos.” - Courtney Turich
“Ashley, that just lit me up because it’s so true in life. The unknown is where we find ourselves.” - Courtney Turich
“If I wasn’t HR Ashley… who was I? That identity was so wrapped up in my work.” - Ashley Cox
“Business years are like dog years, every year feels like seven in terms of growth.” - Ashley Cox
“You can either pay a few hundred now or tens of thousands later when it blows up.” - Ashley Cox
“You don’t have to have it all figured out. The mystery is part of the fun.” - Ashley Cox
“It’s okay. It’s safe. It’s necessary… to trust yourself.” - Ashley Cox
About Ashley
With 20 years of experience leading high-performing teams across retail and corporate giants like J.Crew and Kroger, Ashley Cox brings deep expertise in talent development, team building, and leadership strategy. She’s led teams of 1 to 400 and contributed to enterprise-level training programs for a $100B company. Now a business owner of 8+ years, Ashley understands the unique challenges leaders face—especially women forging bold paths. Through her work, she empowers women to step into their leadership potential with confidence and clarity. Ashley is the author of Transform Your Stories and host of The Impact Ripple podcast, where she shares real, relatable leadership advice to help others lead with impact, purpose, and joy.
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BLOG TRANSCRIPT
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Courtney Turich: Hey, it's your friend and host, Courtney Turich , and welcome to Bold Moves, confident Choices, the podcast where we own our path, make fearless decisions, and get real about what it takes to turn bold ideas into reality.
Today's guest is Ashley Cox, and she has led hundreds trained thousands and built teams that absolutely crush it from retail floor to boardroom doors. Ashley is a leadership force with 20 plus years of experience at brands like J.Crew. Kroger and now she's all in helping women to rewrite the rules, own their power and lead with purpose.
She's a business owner, the author of Transform Your Stories and Your Go-To Guide for Bold Leadership that actually makes moves. This is the impact ripple, where confidence gets real and results get loud. So let's get ready to make some bold moves. And Ashley, oh my gosh. Welcome so much to bold moves, confident choices.
Lead with Heart, Not Just Deadlines
Courtney Turich: How are you?
Ashley Cox: Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm doing really great. How are you?
Courtney Turich: I'm fantastic. You know. We've connected before, had an amazing conversation, and I just had to share you with the community because you have so much goodness to give to all of us.
Ashley Cox: Oh, thank you so much for saying that. It's, uh, like, like minds seem to find each other, I think, in this world. Isn't
Courtney Turich: that they say like-minded individuals all congregate to each other. So Ashley, let's jump into learning a little bit more about you.
Ashley Cox: Yeah, I'm happy to share. Um, as you mentioned, I've been in leadership and management of people and teams for 20 plus years, and you know, I've led teams that span demographics that span, um, age ranges, that span, experience levels, uh, you know, the new hire all the way to the seasoned senior executive.
And I think that there's, there's always that commonality is that, everyone just wants to be seen. And, and I think that one of the core components of the work that's so important to me is not losing our humanity in the work that we're doing. That yes, we have businesses to run. Yes, we have goals to meet. Yes, we have revenue and milestones and projects, and check and check and check and check the boxes. But at the end of the day. We're all people trying to do our best in this world. And I think that when we lose focus of that, that's where the real challenges and the problems start to begin. And so I love helping leaders get back to the core of their own humanity.
What are their values? What are their unique leadership qualities and characteristics? Characteristics and styles? And how do we pull that forward so that we can, you know, lead without losing our sanity or our humanity?
Courtney Turich: Which is so easy for leaders to do, right?
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: There's pressure, there's stress.
Ashley Cox: Yes.
Courtney Turich: Um, you have deadlines to meet, goals to hit, and in that moment it's really easy, even as a leader myself, to sometimes forget who we are at the core.
Ashley Cox: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Ashley Cox: Yeah. We can get overwhelmed with the to-do lists and the responsibilities and, you know, I've, I've had that on my plate. For many years, you're trying to juggle all of the things you're trying to juggle, making money, and also making sure that people have the tools and resources that they need, that they have the training, that they, um, feel supported and that you're also doing things that are moving the business forward and, and making a difference and making an impact.
And so it's a lot of responsibility. It's a huge weight and it can feel really overwhelming. Um, but when we really get down to the core of what we do. Are doing. It's we're taking care of people. And at the end of the day, if we can walk away and say, I did. Everything I could to make sure my team felt seen and validated and respected.
They're gonna return that, and they're gonna return that with loyalty, with fierce innovation, with creativity, with the proactive, um, initiative taking that you wanna see from your team. But when people aren't supported in the ways that they need to be supported as human beings, um, then they're gonna, they're not gonna be able to fulfill the things that, that they need to be doing and that you need for them and want for them to do.
Leading Through Mistakes and Humility
Courtney Turich: Yeah, spot on. Um, you know, I have to share this because it happened to me yesterday and during a team meeting and you brought something to the surface. You know, I have a lot of exterior, um, things, external things happening in my life right now, and during a internal team call, I got a little, um, I will say I was not showing my best self with one of my team members, and I walked away from that meeting realizing that I impacted a culture.
I impacted, uh, an environment where people should be able to freaks. Speak freely with that open communication for collaboration, I immediately got off that call and called that individual to apologize. Hmm. And at the end of the day, I then followed up with an email to the team apologizing for my behavior, because that's not the culture we wanna set.
It's not the tone we want to set. And I needed to set an example through myself.
Ashley Cox: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And thank you for leading with humility, because I think that's one of the core traits that is the hardest one to overcome is eating our ego.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Ashley Cox: And the one that's absolutely necessary for creating psychologically safe work. places, which is where everything else beautiful and exciting and robust comes from because when people don't feel safe expressing their concerns, sharing their ideas, um, bringing issues to your, to your table, um. Then they shut down and they either quiet quit or they for real quit. And I love that you just embrace that you, you recognize that the self-awareness there is so beautiful, um, and that you took action on it. Because that's, that's the difference too, is we can be aware of these things and say, wow, I was a real jerk in that meeting. And then not do anything about it. And that's what perpetuates that, that environment that we don't want. So thank you for leading by example, Courtney. I love that.
From Bagging Groceries to Boardroom Influence
Courtney Turich: Well, thank, thank you. And I mean, it just felt like a teachable moment. Yeah. For our audience here, but also for my team in the moment. Yeah. You know, Ashley, something when we spoke previously that was a wow moment for me was, I believe it was Kroger, you started on the ground floor at Kroger and then found your way into the boardroom. Yeah. Can you share more about that? Because I mean, that's where dreams lie.
Ashley Cox: Yeah. Yeah. I really, truly thought I was gonna be a Kroger retiree. I started when I was 19, I was in college. A friend had said, Hey, this is a great job. They, they're great at working with your schedule. So I became a bagger and I pushed carts in the West Virginia, snow uphill both ways. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is true. Our parking lot had this weird sort of dip in the middle of it, and so you had to push 'em over the hump and then. Back up another hump to get them into the store. Um, and so at that point I had had conversations with my manager and he was like.
Have you ever thought of going into management with Kroger? And I was like, I never even thought about Kroger until I came here. Okay, let's just be honest. And so I said, tell me more. Because I was in the management program at the time, and so he told me about the program and how great it had been for him and he was a lifelong Kroger employee.
And I was like, that sounds really cool. Let's do it. And so he trained me in every facet of the store. Kenny Henry, um, he passed away a few years ago, sadly, but I will never forget him in the start that he gave me with this company. And it was an incredible journey. I worked as an hourly employee and then I, um, got to work in some department head capacities, and then I went into store management, and then I went into human resources and.
I got many, many wonderful opportunities all across the company to be able to, um, work on really big juicy training programs and, and to deliver training to the C-Suite executives so that they could decide, do we wanna implement this, do we not? And Kroger was such a proponent, such an advocate for training their people and training every level, not just the senior executive levels, but the, the new baggers on the front end, the new cashiers, the departments.
Um, and I just, I really grew up in that culture and, and spent about almost 12 years with Kroger. Um, and then my husband's job took us away and, and there were no opportunities. And that's when I, I landed at J.Crew. Um, but I really, truly thought that I was going to stay there. Um, but. When I went to J-Crew, that had to be one of the biggest growth periods aside from starting my own business, um, that I had experienced in my, in my corporate career.
Because even though I had moved departments, I had moved stores, I had moved divisions, I had worked across the country. It still was within the context of one company. And when I went to a new company. Wow. Eyes wide open. I had no idea what I was missing out on. Understanding that not every company functions like this. Not every company has the same values, the same priorities. Um, so that was a really explosive growth moment for me.
Courtney Turich: Wow, I could only imagine, Ashley. And when you say it was an explosive growth moment for you, in what capacity?
Ashley Cox: Uh, it really challenged me to think outside of, of the Kroger bubble that I had been in, that, um, you know, there were different types of work that were being done in different companies.
And so that the, the training and the philosophies that I had become so accustomed to at Kroger didn't fit. It was like trying to whack a square peg into a round hole. And so I had to, you know, really kind of open my mind to what other training, um, tools and methodologies, and how could I work with a group of people that had vastly different roles than the ones that I had had worked with.
Previously because at J.Crew I worked on the manufacturing and the customer call center side. And at Kroger I had worked primarily with the retail side. And so it was a very different environment, very different needs, very different demands. Um, the manufacturing environment specifically was, you know, like that.
Sort of rote behavior that you've, you've gotta do the same tasks over and over and over, and how do you keep people motivated, right? It's very different than a department where tasks are changing daily, sometimes hourly. Um, and so it really pushed me out of my comfort zone and, and allowed me to grow in new ways by creating new thinking patterns and observing different behaviors and, and being able to be adaptable and flexible.
When HR Met the Wild West: Ashley’s Leap Into the Unknown
Courtney Turich: So speaking about pushing boundaries and going outside your comfort zone, Ashley.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: What would you say was that big, bold, pivotal moment in your life that took you personally or professionally to the next level?
Ashley Cox: It has to be when I started my own business, I don't even, I didn't even know anything about having a business.
My husband's job, once again had moved us and that's when we landed in Tennessee, which is where we are currently. And I was like, I don't wanna keep having to get these corporate jobs and going through the interview process and having to learn a whole new company. What if I just did this on my own? Who was I in for a rude awakening if I thought moving from Kroger to J.Crew was a, an explosive growth moment, starting my own business was next level.
So there's the thing I, I always tell people, Courtney, I think you're gonna like this. I, I feel like business years are the same concept as like dog years. For every one year in business it's seven years of like learning, growth, experience.
Courtney Turich: Uh, couldn't agree more, especially in startup environment. You are spot on.
Ashley Cox: Yes. And, you know, and you don't even think about all the things you're going to have to learn and, and challenge yourself in. And one of the biggest things for me was fighting the, the, the mind garbage. What I like to usually call toxic stories, which is what I talk about in my book, Transform Your Stories, uh, you know, fighting the toxic stories.
Like do I have enough experience? Do I even know what I'm doing? Like I need a grownup to be in charge of me. This is, this is, I don't know, what did I do? And so a lot of that was, was really being able to overcome those toxic stories and realize that I had something valuable to offer. And at the time, when I started my business was, um, actually nine years ago this week that we're talking. So very excited…
Courtney Turich: Congratulations.
Ashley Cox: Thank you.
Courtney Turich: That's fantastic.
Ashley Cox: Thank you. Thank you. And I started my business as Sprout HR, and I offered HR consulting, and I didn't know that all these small businesses were out there and that they were existing online. I was so entrenched in the corporate world that it wasn't even a thought, like I knew mainstream. Main street shops, right?
Courtney Turich: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Cox: You had your local bakery, you had your, you know, your artisan shop. You had these little businesses, but I had no idea people were doing all of this stuff on the internet and nine years ago, I mean, think about the difference in what the internet looks like today versus nine years ago. I mean, we didn't have twitter, we didn't have TikTok. We barely had Facebook, right? Yeah. Instagram was kind of the hot new kid on the block at the time. Um, and so it, it was really an opportunity to explore what are these businesses needing?
How can I step in s and and support them? And so many of the things they were doing were just illegal. And so I was like, oh, you need me?
Courtney Turich: I believe it.
Ashley Cox: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: Just because again, you know what's kind of a startup is cowboy world.
Ashley Cox: It's totally cowboy. Wild West.
Courtney Turich: Wild west. It totally, no one knows what they're doing.
Ashley Cox: Yes. And they're all trying to learn from each other. Yes. And so when one person does it wrong and they do it really big and loud wrong, then everybody's like, oh, that must be the right way. And off we go.
Courtney Turich: Right. Of course.
Ashley Cox: So I was coming in with my lasso kind of going, whoa, come back here. Don't do that. You're gonna get in trouble. The IRS is not gonna like that. The Department of Labor is definitely gonna come to get you. And so, you know, I was one of the very first, if not the first person, specifically focused on micro businesses in the online space offering HR consulting. And I learned a lot, um, really, really quickly about how to do business. And how to talk to the people doing business, not in my corporate jargon and speak.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Ashley Cox: But in a way that they could understand and that felt approachable and, and it felt, um, like somebody cared and not like somebody was just out here trying to like, beat you over the head with a hammer.
Why Ashley Cox Walked Away From Corporate—for Good
Courtney Turich: Right. Well, I wanna take a few steps back, Ashley.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Because I mean, this is a very big, bold, confident moment in your life to go into business on your own. Your husband gets a new job, you move again. But why, what beyond that made you say, Hey, I'm gonna take this leap for myself? For me, my family.
Ashley Cox: Yeah, I was tired of corporate, I was tired of the corporate grind. Um, you know, when I worked in, in the corporate world, I mean, I was working 80 hours a week and there were a lot of days I was coming home in just ugly, ugly tears, ugly crying, you know, like tears.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Ashley Cox: Snot rolling down my face because it was, it was just always feeling like everything was on fire. Everything was a, was difficult. Everything was reactionary. Um, everything was, you know, like I said, it was a very different environment going from Kroger to J-Crew. And, and they both had pros and they both had cons.
Courtney Turich: Right.
Ashley Cox: And I'm a very proactive person. I like to avoid potential. Situations down the road. And so that wasn't very much in alignment with my personality in, in the last job I was in. And so I was like, there's, it's gotta be something different. And as a matter of fact, I did, I sometimes forget this. I actually had a different business before I started my HR consulting business because I literally ran all the way away from HR.
Um, I started a photography business.
Courtney Turich: Really?
Ashley Cox: Yes. Yes. So maybe this is part of my Bold Moves, you know, journey is that I literally left corporate, started a photography business. That's where I learned about all of these small online businesses. And then I closed that down and started Sprout HR eight months later. Um, because I saw that there was a need for what I could do, and I could do it in a way that felt aligned for me.
Courtney Turich: Yes.
Ashley Cox: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: That, that is a real, that's a very big moment Ashley, you shared.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Because that allowed you to see where the need was. And to, as you said, bring that alignment back within yourself.
Ashley Cox: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: Help these small businesses be seen, understood,
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Heard.
Ashley Cox: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: Because it's already scary enough, as you know, being an entrepreneur to go all in, nobody's paying you except the business you find.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Um, wow. Okay.
Ashley Cox: Yeah. Yeah. So that was my kind of like, uh, side quest, I guess we will call it. But that's where I learned so much about how do I set up a business?
What are the businesses that are out there? What kind of support and services can I offer? And so I was in Facebook groups were really big at that time. And that's where a lot of the networking was happening, right? Yeah. And so I was in the groups and I would see somebody posting something about, oh, I'm gonna hire this contractor and I'm gonna make 'em work this many hours, and they're gonna work this schedule and they're gonna do these tasks.
And I've got this job description and I'm like, I. Paige just wanted to give you a heads up, like I used to do HR in my corporate life. I'm doing product and brand photography now, but what you're saying is illegal. Don't do that because you know you're treating this person more like an employee than a contractor because you're demanding so much control over.
What hours they work, when they work, how they work, where they work, all of these things. And they'd be like, oh my gosh, I had no idea. And I'm like, yeah, you know, here's a couple of links to some resources that'll be helpful. And then people started saying, oh my God, why don't you do this for small businesses?
Clearly we need you. Um, and I was like, oh, oh, this is a need. I had no idea. But of course, small businesses need HR support, of course, they need leadership support. These aren't things that they have at their disposal. And if you've never worked in, uh, a traditional corporate type of role, if you've never had access to that level or that type of corporate work, you don't realize that there's laws, there's regulations, there's, you can do this.
You can't do that. And so it was, it was a, a natural fit for me. And to be able to do it in a way that help businesses be proactive and avoid getting into sticky situations because you could either, you know, do these things now and pay a couple of hundred dollars or, you know, a thousand dollars, or you could wait until this blows up and now it's a $10,000 problem, a $20,000 problem, maybe it shuts your business down.
Like that was the reality of the difference of let's get, let's get ahead of this. You know, here's the problem that really snowballs outta control later on, and now you need an attorney and you're litigating and you're in court and you're fighting for your business.
Letting Go of “HR Ashley”
Courtney Turich: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Ashley, I love this self-discovery journey that you went on to get to Sprout HR.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: And then you're in Sprout HR and then you pivot a little. Is that true?
Ashley Cox: I pivoted so many times, Courtney, I can't even, I probably have forgotten all of them.
Courtney Turich: Okay. Okay.
Ashley Cox: So, so, yeah. You know, there was a point in time where I was just taking on anything and everything and I was saying, okay, sure. I'll write handbooks and I'll do compensation plans and I'll create SOP documents for you. And then I started realizing I don't wanna do all of that. Those aren't the things that I enjoyed doing in the corporate world. Why would I create a JOB? For myself inside of my business. And so I started dripping away things and saying, what, where can I have the greatest impact?
And what matters the most to the people that I'm serving? And, and how do I create, um, you know, these, these ecosystems where I'm like, and here's the attorney you need and here's the accountant that you need. That really rounds out. The types of services I offered. Um, but just this past year, I made the biggest pivot of all, and I cut off all of the HR consulting side of my business.
Um, and that was a really big, bold decision too, because it had been years in the making. It wasn't just a fly by night sort of decision that I was like, oh, by the way, like next week I think I'm just gonna cut off the HR side of my business and just focus on leadership development. But it had been something I had been fighting with a lot from an identity standpoint.
If I wasn't HR Ashley, which is what my clients had dubbed me, it's like HR Ashley, she's so great, da da da. And I'm like, oh yeah, I'm HR Ashley. If I wasn't HR Ashley, who was I? Who was I gonna be? And I was like, you guys gotta rename me now because I have no identity. I'm lost.
Courtney Turich: I mean, so, okay, so you bring up a great topic because many of our listeners are going through the same thing.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: They're, they're stuck in a position that doesn't identify with them anymore.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: How do you, what are the tools? Give us three ways that you can rename yourself and get back to your core to know that what you're doing every day really aligns with who you are.
Ashley Cox: Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the first things was I, I did, I spent a lot of time journaling. Um, you know, I, I think that that's one of the ways that I get to the core of what I really want.
Courtney Turich: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Cox: Um, what I really don't want, um, a lot of times I'll, I'll tell my clients and, and this is an exercise I used on myself. Tell me like the worst case scenario. If you stay, and this is my question to myself.
If you stay in this journey, in this path, what's the worst case scenario? Well, I'm already feeling burnout. I'm already so not interested in doing the work that I'm not. Putting myself out there, I'm not doing the sales activities that I used to or that I need to be doing to maintain or grow the business.
Um, so if I keep down this path, I'm not gonna have a business. Worst case scenario, I close up shop and I have to go back to corporate. And I was like, that sounds horrifying. I am totally ruined for working for anyone else ever. So it was like, this is the worst case scenario clearly. And then just asking myself, you know, what, if you could create a business.
That really highlighted your skills that made you feel excited that when you opened your calendar every day, you were like, hell yeah, this is what I wanna be doing. And so I started to kind of parse that out and, and I actually, um, so kind of the, the next point, I hired a positioning coach. 'cause I was like, I need somebody outside of my brain to listen to and kind of extract what I'm saying, what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling and, and help kind of craft this into, is this something we can, you know, really turn into another iteration of business? Or is this just one small part of a bigger idea? Is it something I need to set aside completely? I just was too wrapped up in my own, uh, mind, mind trash, my own toxic stories and so. I worked with, um, Susie Gray of Captivation House. Shout out Susie. She's brilliant. I love her.
Courtney Turich: Hi, Susie.
Ashley Cox: Yes. She's amazing. I'll have to introduce you to her. Um, but you know, she really helped just kind of listen, ask really smart questions, pull threads together and so we, we were able to pull this out of me to say, this is the work I was born to do. This is the work I've literally been doing since I was in the grocery store as an hourly employee, and I was helping guide fellow coworkers. This was the work that I was doing as a new manager, and I was coaching and training and teaching, and what our HR department saw in me as, wow, you really should be in HR because your focus on people is so strong and so magnetic.
And so it just, it really is just a part of who I've been. Ever since I was a child, you know, I'm, I'm an eldest daughter. Um, so I think a lot of that leads into my own leadership and the way that I show up in the world and, um, to be able to provide women who are leading teams and businesses with the kind of support and mentorship and, andnurturing that I didn't get when I was a young female leader.
Um. Is really what keeps me motivated. And so part of it was, you know, fighting identity. Part of it was getting, um, you know, help with a positioning coach. And then part of it was really settling into my why and my purpose and, and the impact that I get to have in this world.
Courtney Turich: Wow, that is such great advice. And I mean, a whole another topic in itself. You know, women in business there, and it can be easy to have an identity crisis, right?
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Because we're still a minority in many ways, um, and trying to fit in with the black suits.
Ashley Cox: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: It's, it's easy to fall in that trap.
Ashley Cox: Yeah, for sure.
You Don’t Have to Have It All Figured Out
Courtney Turich: Ashley, you know, looking back at your career, your life, everything you've achieved, what would you tell your 18-year-old self today?
Ashley Cox: You don't have to have it all figured out and you get to explore as many opportunities as you want, and I think that's what I continue to keep learning and, and believing myself. I don't have to know. What's gonna happen in five years or 10 years, or 20 years down the road? Actually, the, the mystery of it is part of the fun of the journey, um, that you get to say yes to things that fill you with joy. You get to say no to things that you're not interested in and not excited about, and you don't have to have it all mapped out. And my 18-year-old self was like so stressed over, I've gotta have this kind of job and I've gotta make it to this by this age, and I have to be VP of the thing by 25 years old and it just was a lot of of self-imposed pressure, and what I've discovered is that the beauty really is in the journey and in the exploration of who I am and who I'm becoming.
Courtney Turich: Ashley, that just slipped me up and because it's so true in life, so many of us, and I can attest to what you just said, we think we have to have this plan in place.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: You graduate high school, wherever it might be, college, you think your life must go in this journey. Yeah. But the beauty is in the unknown.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: It's in the twist, the turns, the chaos.
Ashley Cox: Yes. Yes.
Courtney Turich: And that's when we find our true self and what really lights us up.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It really is true. It really is true, and it's life does not go the way you ever plan or think that it is going to go. And so the more that you can relinquish control, the more joy you can find in the journey along the way.
Courtney Turich: Reflecting on our conversation, Ashley, I'm walking away with, you know, taking time for yourself to journal, to really write down what is the worst thing that could happen to you. If you take this big, bold move next, is it. What could you do every day that lights you up? You get up and you're ready to look at your calendar. You could stay up all night because it excites you that much. And hiring a positioning coach, which I've never heard of and I've love
Ashley Cox: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: Because. I am one of those people who have so many ideas that having someone extract it from me would be super beneficial, so.
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Positioning Coach Susie, Hi, And knowing back to that why, right?
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Again, what lights you up is part of that process of identifying what is that why within yourself?
Ashley Cox: Mm-hmm.
Courtney Turich: Yeah. So as we wrap up, Ashley, what do you wanna leave everyone with today?
Ashley Cox: That's such a big question. So many things. I think the one thing is that it's okay. It's safe, it's necessary to trust yourself.
Courtney Turich: Yeah. Ugh. Ashley, you are such a joy and I am so honored that you have come into my life and that we have built this connection. Um, I can't wait to meet you in person, which I know will happen soon. And thank you so much on being on bold moves, confident choices with us today.
Ashley Cox: Thank you so much, Courtney. I loved this conversation and I hope somebody that's listening feels seen. They feel inspired. I hope everyone's able to take away something that just makes them feel like, Hey, it's okay. Um, we all go on this journey. We all have identity crises at some point. Um, but it's always who are we becoming and that it is safe to trust yourself.
Courtney Turich: I love that. And Ashley, I almost forgot, where can people find you?
Ashley Cox: Oh yeah. I'm Ashley cox.co. Everywhere you go. If you wanna learn about my book, if you wanna listen to the podcast, if you want to, um, learn more about the Empowered Leader experience, which is the program that I have for women business owners, um, who have a team, but no time, um, that is where you can find everything.
So that's our website, Facebook, Instagram. LinkedIn is a little bit different. It's Ashley in Cox, um, but I'm sure we'll have everything linked in the show notes below. But Ashley cox.co. Everywhere you go, that's where you can find me.
Courtney Turich: You got it. Ashley, thank you again for being here. To everyone in my audience, go be bold, be confident and be you. Thanks.
