Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ashleigh Henry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ashleigh, appreciate you joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

We love showing our clients how much we appreciate them, beyond the usual on and off-boarding gifts that are more or less expected by the style of clientele we serve.

At the start of our business relationship, during our initial intake session, we collect information such as birthdays, anniversaries with their significant others, anniversaries in their businesses, and overall “life stuff” that’s upcoming during the duration of our time together. We request more personalized information of their favorite gifts to receive, seeking to tailor our client experience to each individual within our consulting roster. Local, organic wine, dark chocolate, flowers of all kinds, crystals and essential oils, self-care items, and date night experiences are usually on the lists of most of our clients.

Many clients choose to work with us for 12-24 months to streamline their companies for more productivity, profit, and peace.

Since an intake session is an exciting part of the dating process in a new client relationship, most clients forget that we have taken in said dates!

Our team then adds these dates to a communal calendar; one of our team members is responsible for sending out “surprise and delight” gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, business anniversaries, and the overall “life stuff” they originally shared in our intake session.

Personalized gifts feel luxurious and stay in the minds of our clientele long after our first contract ends. We, of course, add a few branded items into the mix for habitual use such as canvas bags, pens, notebooks/notepads, and we always send out a handwritten card.

Even as an organization grows these activities can be delegated to a brand experience manager to consistently build brand loyalty and ultimately lead to brand advocacy in the future.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a business, marketing and sales virtuoso with a rich background that spans dynamic sectors such as automotive, education, higher education, hospitality, and retail. I have emerged as a leading figure in crafting legacy-minded businesses with a sense of levity and ease that isn’t often seen in board rooms. From my early days generating buzz and driving sales in a renowned shoe store, I have always had a knack for influencing customer behavior and pioneering urgent, intention-driven promotions.

My journey has seen me collaborate with illustrious brands including BMW, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Ducati, employing a deep understanding of human and sales psychology to seamlessly close deals. Beyond the realm of automotive, I have adeptly managed multi-million dollar budgets for a global clientele, spearheaded events, and led hospitality initiatives for the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. Furthermore, my expertise has been pivotal in managing a significant retail operation, overseeing a 10,000-square-foot space and a team of 30.

After ascending through various echelons of the retail, corporate, higher education, and start-up worlds, holding esteemed roles such as Marketing Strategist, Copywriter, Social Media Strategist, and Editor, I embarked on a freelance career. This transition marked the beginning of a more profound ambition: not merely to earn a living but to establish a business that embodies the ethos of durability and trend resistance, all underscored by the bold spirit of cheetah print!

Today, I stand at the helm of a transformative movement, having initially launched a now-retired social media and lead generation agency, and presently dedicating my efforts to mentoring female entrepreneurs. Through my comprehensive education, coaching, and consulting services at The Cheetah Company, I guide these entrepreneurs towards building brands that are not only timeless but are also capable of leaving a lasting legacy. My journey and commitment position me not just as a business owner, but as a beacon for those seeking to forge enduring brands and impactful careers.

We have helped hundreds of female founders re-evaluate, reposition, and renegotiate their value in the marketplace to increase peace, profit, productivity, & play in their lives and businesses. We do this by evaluating their life and business systems, team productivity, profit-generating activities, and by designing marketing and sales systems that can outlast trends and algorithmic changes.

We become an extension of our clients’ teams to be success partners towards their desired growth. This sets us a part from others in our industry consistently because of the care we bring to the table, the 10+ years of experience, and consistent interest in seeing our clients achieve their desired goals. Many of our clients have commented on how our care, communication, and consistency is a cut above the rest.

We’re most proud of the clients we’ve been able to serve since 2019; being in the room, at the table, and supporting clients that are positively shifting society forward with their craft has been and always will be a highlight of my life and legacy.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I absolutely adore this question.

Reputation management can often be an after-thought in the current business landscape because there is a wellspring of opportunity to connect with ideal clients and partnerships through social media in a speedy, and often times, hasty way.

We aimed to build a strong online presence, as well, by establishing a website, creating a platform on the platforms our ideal clients are on, and being a beacon of light and education for female founders through our blog space, podcast, and email list.

However, before I established our marketing homes and presence, I engaged with the network I already had and leveraged an old-school way of closing business: a simple brochure of my expertise, background, and offerings.

Developing expertise and credibility with the network that already trusted me allowed for our first roster of clients to be filled in less than 5 months. With an initial 6 month runway to meet our roster goal, I was more than pleased!

Understanding our market and audiences was semi-derived from initial market research and identification of our target audience, but being brutally honest as we like to be at The Cheetah Company, I wanted to play around within several markets to experiment with our best segments.

We worked within a variety of industries at the beginning of our brand such as technology, financial technology, real estate, network marketing, holistic health, events for female founders, podcast agencies, life and mindset coaches. We landed on our favorite segment to work with and in a lot of ways it was less about the industries and more about the values, beliefs, and approaches our ideal clientele had to risk-taking, entrepreneurship, life and leisure.

We, of course, delivered exceptional value, received referrals, retained clients, and leveraged our testimonials and case studies to reinforce the possibilities that existed for our potential clients after working with us.

The key to all of the above, though, has been building a strong sense of community throughout our marketing presence. The amount of followers we have is relatively low for where we are in business — in revenue, team size, product suite, and the like — but we have a deep sense of knowing in our communities. We know them, they intimately know us, and that consistently bridges the gaps between their goals and ours.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I personally really enjoy stories of self-funded businesses and love hearing about how entrepreneurs have self-funded and then used their business as the “bank” to start other businesses.

And that’s my story, too.

After a particularly harrowing work day, working as a Marketing Strategist for a startup, I sat in my sunroom office on the second floor of my apartment building with holy rage building in my gut.

The way we were treating customers like cannon fodder to grow the startup’s bottom line, without taking care of the customers as the sales team promised we would throughout a variety of departments, influenced me to feel a sense of injustice that started like an itch and grew to a rash all over my mind, body, and spirit.

My husband returned home from work that day and I was still in the sunroom office, tears stuck on my face, and I wasn’t speaking much. A true rarity for a bubbly, talkative 50/50 introvert/extrovert that loves to hear about every morsel of my husband’s day.

He asked me what was going on and I pulled him to the couch, took a deep breath in through my nose and out of my mouth to settle my chaotic nervous system, and said “I think I need to quit my job for my mental and physical health, and I want to start a marketing agency of my own after a week or so of a break to catch my breath.”

We discussed it.

We planned.

By the end of the evening I had a rough business plan, a 6 month runway of support from him and our finances, and I began building the business the next day after a 10 hour day at the startup job.

Our social media and lead generation agency was born from holy rage and a knowing that I wanted to serve clients with the respect, care, and support they deserved (and were paying for).

I quit the position at the startup just 2 months later after landing a few initial clients alongside the client I had been working with for a while through freelance projects for her business creating marketing and sales assets alongside her.

The initial capital came from our diligence in creating financial security for ourselves; regularly having an emergency fund, 4-6 months of pay if one of us were to lose (or in this case, choose to quit) our jobs, while still being able to pay our bills and add to retirement funds. We weren’t in debt and had a lot of space to play.

This led us to starting my husband’s venture of an app development company and we leveraged cash from our work to buy our first home in Asheville, North Carolina with intention from the beginning to transition it into a short-term rental property to serve Asheville’s every-growing tourism!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecheetahcompany.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecheetahcompany
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecheetahcompany
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighchenry/
• Other: Listen in bi-weekly to Your Conversation Pit, The Podcast, wherever you stream your podcasts. Find past episodes and extensive blogs of the episodes here: https://thecheetahcompany.com/podcast

Image Credits

https://corryfrazierphotography.com/