Studio Talk 5・Ashley Brown
“Build strategically, ethically, and legally. When you put integrity and people at the heart of your business, you’ll always win.”
I just love highlighting entrepreneurs who I first meet as my students and who then become friends. Ashley has built an amazing design studio and is a wonderful example of infusing your business and life with all of YOU. Her energy is infectious and her style impeccable. Can’t wait to see where she takes herself and her business in the years to come. Thanks for this awesome interview, Ashley!
Ashley [she/her], an award-winning actor turned designer, is a sucker for spontaneous adventure, challenging the status quo, and problem-solving with an obsessive, “Don’t F*ck With Cats” level of investigative skill. She's always stood by her convictions in her personal life for as long as she can remember, but at the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey, never thought to apply a value-based approach to her professional life until she worked with a coach who taught her how to look for the signs and put a name to her values. That changed everything. After experiencing the ups and downs of searching, reflecting, doing, failing, questioning herself for leaving her performing career, and accidentally stumbling into design, Ashley finally had that magical AHA moment.
She followed the breadcrumbs to Atlanta, GA, and to a new dream career in web and brand design. The sparks flew; being a problem-solver at heart, it was clear that this was what she was missing. Ashley stopped compromising and spreading herself thin. She started leaning into her strengths and values, and that magic just described above - yeah, that came by working in her zone of genius. Through her work as a Squarespace and brand designer, Ashley encourages her clients - scrappy, creative, big-hearted visionaries like you and me, to do the same.
1) What is your professional background and how did you get into Squarespace web design?
I come from a performing background. I went to NYU Tisch for drama, with a concentration in musical theatre. I started acting professionally when I was 8 years old. I’ve always LOVED expressing myself artistically, and it’s the best and most powerful way I know how to express myself. Honestly, I should’ve known I would get into design at some point, because when I was little, I had an obsession with drawing and would carry around colored pencils, pastels, and markers at all times. My pre-school teacher even called my mom about it, because I was super detailed and observant when drawing. Once I discovered performing, I switched my focus to that and kind of left the visual arts behind, thinking I couldn’t really do both.
Fast forward to 2017, I was having great momentum in my acting career, but something was feeling off. I told my agent that I needed to step away from performing for a bit to figure out who Ashley was, as a human, not just a performer. And discover myself, I did. It took a while - I went through a lot of mindset shifts, a lot of deep internal discussion and exploration, a lot of soul searching, but I came out on the other side. I was working with a man as his assistant, and even though we had an agreement to continue our professional relationship through my move across the country (from California to Georgia), he abruptly ghosted me. I had just figured out how to put together a website for a product he wanted to launch, and a few people told me I had something there. So, I followed the web design breadcrumbs and found myself starting to get clients part-time who needed Squarespace websites.
I was thrilled that I had found a creative outlet that allowed me to express myself again, though I was a bit worried about what people from my performing world would think. As I became more skilled and educated in web design and Squarespace, those concerns dissipated more and more, until I was really able to step into my own and feel proud of the creative problem solver I had become through my web and brand design work.
2) What was your safety net (e.g. a partner, another job, savings etc.) when you first started out and how did that help you?
When I got started, I was still working several other jobs. I did have the good fortune of sharing expenses with my fiancé, so I was never quite on my own. It was definitely still stressful at times, though. I was always working a lot in addition to designing websites. With my actor mentality, I was always able to magically find work, whether it was being a brand ambassador, a front desk associate at a boutique fitness studio, or nanny.
To be honest, I’m the type of person who thrives when I’m doing work I love; so if I think back on all of the other jobs I had, I think they might have actually hindered my growth. Once I went full-time, I kept saying to myself, ‘I wish I had done this sooner!’ It’s worth mentioning that my belief in myself wasn’t quite there back then though, so in actuality, I think I am exactly where I’m supposed to be, and everything happened the way it did for a reason.
3) How many websites did you design during your first year and how did your clients find you? Please share three sites you designed during that time.
I think I designed 3 or 4 websites in my first year. Not all of them are actually live right now, just due to life and things changing over time.
I found my first clients by posting on my personal Facebook page. I told my network that I was embarking on a new journey as a designer, and a lot of people reached out to me. That taught me a very important lesson to start with my inner network first.
4) Do you have a niche market, or a speciality, or are you more of a generalist?
My work is clean and minimal and errs on the structural side. I LOVE injecting fun and creativity into sites, while also keeping things functional and user-friendly. I don’t serve a particular industry, though I tend to work with service-based businesses that are very much impact-driven visionaries. My zone of genius is in visual design and copy, so I offer both of these things to my clients.
Recently, I changed how I offer my services to be more aligned with my personal values and it has been a game changer. I offer my design work on a much faster timeline than I did before. Design Days allow me to connect with more amazing clients than ever, and I’m consequently calling in the exact clients that I always dreamed of working with. It’s something special.
5) What are your five top tips for starting your own business?
Belief in yourself/what you have to offer overrides everything else in business. With strong self-belief, everything else will fall into place.
Push through the imperfection and embrace the suck. With practice and constant refinement, you’ll inevitably get better.
Experiment with different solutions (CRM, website platform, bookkeeping app etc), but don’t feel like you need to do what everyone else is doing. Do your due diligence and decide what you need based on what your needs are.
Tap into your network first. The people in your network are a valuable resource, so treat them nicely, show them you care and know when to ask them for help on your journey.
Build strategically, ethically, and legally. When you put integrity and people at the heart of your business, you’ll always win.
