From Corporate to Coach: My Journey (Part 1)

Hi there! I’m Ashley - a hormonal health coach, wife, dog mom, and adventure enthusiast. To those of you who are new here, let me give you a rundown of my journey to get here.

Let’s rewind back to the good old college days. My freshman year of college, I received a scholarship to play basketball at UIC. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I was good at math and always loved numbers, so I decided to major in mathematics. When I tell most people this, I usually get a blank stare accompanied with “Like, just math…?”

Basketball didn’t work out, so, with my WNBA dreams crushed, I decided to transfer to Northwestern to focus on academics. There, I was one of the very few females in the math program. I graduated with honors and ultimately went into actuarial science, working at Allstate. As you may imagine, working in insurance didn’t exactly have me jumping out of bed in the morning. I gave it a good four years before deciding it wasn’t for me.

I made the decision to go back to school and get my Masters in Integrated Marketing Communication from Northwestern, with a specialty in marketing analytics. It was much more interesting than insurance and landed me a job at a tech startup. I was making great money with nice benefits, had the flexibility to work from home a couple times a week, and worked in a trendy office with free snacks and ping pong. Pretty cool, right? Not so much…

I still felt like something was missing - I just didn’t care about the work I was doing. I was bored and disconnected, but at the same time justifying everything because I made good money and had flexibility.

When the company was purchased by a larger company and I got shifted into a role I didn’t want to be in, I quit without a plan. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I no longer wanted to be a part of the corporate machine. I took a month off and then started my own consulting business.

Things were going great! I was my own boss, I had a few clients who seemed happy, and I worked when and where I wanted. This was so wonderful especially given the fact that I had moved to Denver and was dating a photographer - I had the flexibility to go on a mid-week hike or camping trip. Oh, and I also decided to partake in yoga teacher training so I could start teaching yoga on the side! A few months into this new way of work and life, I found myself spending a majority of my time working for one major client. Long story short, I went on as an employee of that company (keeping my terms, hours, and flexibility). I was back in the startup world, but on my own terms.