We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

In my opinion, to be successful, you must first have to have a solid foundation. My foundation is God. My success wouldn’t be possible without God. Second, you need to have a positive mindset and always see the opportunity. As a business owner, you will fail, you will make mistakes, and you will have times when things don’t go your way. When these things happen, you can’t begin speaking negative or become emotional, you have to understand that everything happens for a reason. You may not be ready or maybe it’s something you have to learn. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes or the thing that didn’t go your way. Third, always be willing to learn. Have an open mind ready to learn because you don’t know everything. I surround myself with a team that has different skill sets and they are experts in their fields. I want my team to know more than I do. Because of this, I’m always learning, they’re always teaching me something new. This dynamic helps my business to grow and I’m able to implement new ideas.
Lastly, you need a good support system. My family supports me in many different ways. Some people may disagree with me on this one, but I truly couldn’t have been able to chase my dreams if I didn’t have my family’s support.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began my career at Radioshack in 2005 selling cell phones. I quickly became fascinated with sales and management. In 2007, I began working at Sprint and became a manager shortly after. This really sparked something in me and I knew I wanted to stay in management. I realized I was able to connect with people and help them connect with the resources they needed for their problems. At the time, my supervisor saw it to and decided to be my mentor. She taught me a lot about business, negotiations, building relationships, and networking. The most important thing she taught me was understanding my numbers. I wanted to learn more and become an expert in my field, so I decided to earn my Bachelor’s in Business Management. In 2016, I decided to start my business. At first, my business was focused on marketing, however, I realized my gift was connecting; so I decided to change my business to a business development agency. I can help businesses with so much more than marketing. One of my colleagues (Amber Epperson, owner of The Scented Vine) helped me to realize, I’m an ecosystem builder. I am able to take a system level view of the innovation and entrepreneurial assets of your business, connect them, and fill in the gaps where necessary in order to help your business grow and thrive.

In a nutshell, that’s exactly what I do! I come to work everyday to help small business owners solve four problems, achieve their vision, optimize performance and productivity, and increase revenue. I’m obsessively passionate about what I do and have made it my mission to provide the best solutions while building impactful relationships.

Any advice for managing a team?

The most important advice I can give when managing a team is communicate. Your team is your backbone, they help you make money. Whenever there is an issue, you need to be able to communicate with your team. Your team members shouldn’t feel like they can’t come to you. Three things I follow when managing my team, first, communicate. Keep the lines of communication open. Debate is healthy, but make sure everyone is respectful. Second, be kind. It’s the basics, treat people how you want to be treated. Karma is real. Don’t mistreat your team, this type of action can backfire and cause tension. Lastly, work with a high level of integrity. As a result, your team will respect you and be happy to go above and beyond for your company. You have to create the type of culture you want in your company.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had to pivot a few times in business. Especially, when I first started. More recently, when Covid hit. Some businesses didn’t survive, but for Exceptional Services, we found the opportunity in the storm. Many businesses didn’t know how to pivot or what to do and we were able to help some businesses stay alive.

When Covid first hit, I must admit, I didn’t have a plan that was adequate to those circumstances. We have to think quickly and keep a positive mindset. The moment doubt set in, your chances of coming out of storm decreases. We understood that they’re are four reasons people buy from a business, to survive, entertainment, to be educated, and for convenience. We just had to determine which category we fell in. People were trying to survive and we were here to rescue them. We introduced more services and resources to help businesses in need.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.exceptionalservicesagency.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exceptionalservicesagency/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exceptionalservices/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exceptional-services-agency/?viewAsMember=true

Image Credits
ALEXANDER LE’JO https://bio.site/shotbyalexanderlejo Instagram: @shotbyalexanderlejo