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Daily Inspiration: Meet Ashley Velez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Velez.

Ashley Velez

Hi Ashley, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. I dreamed of becoming a magazine editor, but those opportunities were few and far between here in Atlanta. After working six months full-time in retail, I landed an administrative assistant position at a commercial real estate firm. In 2009, I was let go and spent the next year trying to find contract and part-time work. To bolster these efforts, I started my own company, Literally Efficient, which offered Marketing and Administrative Assistant Services. In 2010, I gave birth to my first son and stayed home with him while working on freelance projects that came through Literally Efficient.

In 2012, I joined a startup digital marketing agency, advancing quickly from the entry-level account manager role to mid-level management. In 2014, after the birth of my second son, I left the agency and spent the next couple of years working as part of in-house marketing teams for companies in the healthcare and software development industries. In 2018, I shifted my career trajectory and added the co-founder title to my resume, partnering with a former boss to create a digital marketing firm that specialized in working with small businesses. I hadn’t truly enjoyed my work like that since my first agency days, and I was set on growing another agency as I’d done in the years before. Unfortunately, the spring and summer of 2020 were brutal for us, and Covid destroyed much of what we’d built. After careful consideration, I made the difficult decision to part ways and try to find a home at another agency.

Over the next few years, I was offered a few contract positions at a couple of agencies in Atlanta and closer to my home in Woodstock. Finally, last fall, I decided to take my freelance career full-time, opening up opportunities to work with small businesses as their fractional marketing strategist. I thoroughly enjoy the freedom of freelance work, which allows me to devote time to flex my writing muscles as a contributing author for local publications and serve time in community leadership positions, including the board of directors for Woodstock Arts, IN WDSTK, and Limitless Disability Services.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Goodness, no – see above for proof! But I wouldn’t change any of my experiences. Through them, I’ve built career resilience, which brings the bonus of taking the fear out of starting over. Each step was a lesson, offering perspective (and sometimes a lot) about what to shift or change for the next time.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I focus on search engine optimization, content creation (blogging, landing pages, and short-form video), and social media strategy. I do my best work partnering with small business owners to become their fractional marketing strategist. More specifically, industries like home services, restaurants, or any small business whose goal is attracting hyper-local customers.

Right now, I have the capacity to take on a handful more one-on-one clients on a recurring basis, but I’m also working on creating online courses designed to help these same small business owners tackle some of the stickier parts of SEO to help them rank better in local search. My projected release date for those is January 2024, and the courses will be open to any small business owner nationwide, not just Atlanta-specific business owners.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
It’s hard to choose a specific childhood memory. Still, my favorite memories are a collection of time spent at my grandparents’ house on Lake Norman, north of Charlotte, North Carolina. That house is where I did my very best daydreaming as a child. That house nurtured my love for flowers, birds, and beautiful things. My grandparents would marvel at the fresh bouquets of roses or camellias I would proudly present to them – freshly plucked from their garden – to display on the dinner table. My brother, cousin, and I would have great southern breakfasts consisting of bacon, eggs, grits, and biscuits, with the finest sugary cereal at night for a snack and plenty of ice cream and Oreo cookies in between. We built forts and tents and slept on the freezing concrete floor in the basement. We snapped green beans and picked tomatoes from my grandfather’s garden plot located across the street. We fished, swam, climbed trees, and ran around with the neighborhood dogs. We got splinters, bug bites, cuts, and bruises and were always doctored up with the utmost care, followed by an offering of Oreo cookies and a giant glass of milk to dunk them in.

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Image Credits

J King Images (personal photo/headshot)

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