We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashlee Berghoff and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Ashlee, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
I started my business so I could have more control over the interplay between my work and all of the other aspects of my life. I knew it would never magically become easy, but I wanted the autonomy to make those decisions for myself.
A year and a half after starting my business, I had my first daughter, and I now have two very young children. Before becoming a parent, I thought that we would be able to find a balance that worked for us and keep that balance going for years at a time. How naïve was I? Our needs as a family change on a monthly basis, so I’ve learned how to adapt my business regularly to fit my energy levels and our family rhythms.
Each time we go through a transition of some kind, I re-evaluate what rhythm will work best for us in the new season. Right now, I work between 15 and 20 hours each week. We don’t have family in town, so we have several layers of paid childcare options, and my husband works four ten-hour shifts so I can have a full work day on Fridays. My call blocks fit into distraction-free windows, and I also have blocks set aside for deep work where calls cannot be scheduled. My quality of life takes a nosedive anytime I try to work while I’m on kid duty, so I actively avoid working when either child is home and awake.
I am grateful for the privilege to design my work this way. I love my work, and I love being present for my children the majority of each day. I do both things imperfectly, but most weeks, I can look back and feel good about how both things have fit into my world.
I’ve accepted that it’s impossible to fully eradicate a sense of tension between the time I want to dedicate to my business and the time it takes to fulfill my other responsibilities and enjoy my life. I’m finite. Designing my work and life is a gift, but the greatest source of peace for me has been remembering that I will miss out on many things in life no matter what. Taking a leadership role with my own time requires saying no to good things, adjusting my standards, and planning my weeks in advance so I don’t walk into each day with an impossible list of things to do.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My team and I at A Squared are on a mission to buy back time for entrepreneurs. Many business owners started their businesses for freedom and end up with less of it. I’ve met brilliant entrepreneurs who haven’t taken a vacation in years. It’s easy to think that freedom’s on the other side of some perfect offer or revenue goal, but it doesn’t work that way. I believe that with the right systems and team, entrepreneurial freedom is possible for anyone. So that’s what we do – we build custom systems and hire the best virtual assistants in the country for our clients.
I stared out as an independent business manager – essentially a high-end virtual assistant – in 2017. My clients would come to me with problems and I would magically fix them. Over time, I got too expensive and wanted to do something else, so I started to specialize in process improvement and find virtual assistants for my clients. It was a long, winding road, and I’m still iterating!
Building a business is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I thought the hardest work would be around building new skillsets, and that has been difficult for sure, but the personal development took me by surprise. I have grown in so many ways as a person, and it’s been painful. I’ve had to face up to unhealthy ideas of success, fears of visibility, and a scarcity mindset, to start. How I think about sales, and money, and my own personality and limitations have had to shift. It’s been the best tool I’ve found for personal growth. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but it’s messy, and there’s no ‘arriving’ at some perfect utopia.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Day one: A road trip down to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, with a hike through the Garden of the Gods in the afternoon. This zoo blew me away.
Day two: Walking around downtown Denver. We’d explore RiNo, eat at Steubens, and definitely go to the Green Russell in the evening. I adore that speakeasy.
Day three: A concert at Red Rocks. I don’t even really care who the artist would be – if they’re there, it will be a good time.
Day four and five: A couple of days in the mountains – maybe an overnight in Vail if we want to spend allll our money.
Is this stereotypical stuff? Maybe. But I do love this place.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’m struggling to dedicate my shoutout to only one person or organization. I wouldn’t be a business owner at all without the support and encouragement of dozens of people who have invested in me and believed I could do this. But someone who comes to mind as a powerful force right now is my coach, Alex Kuhn. Alex is a cheerleader, but he also doesn’t pull punches, and he has been the one to finally shove me out of my comfort zone and into bigger possibilities for the business. Sometimes, we all need someone to show us when we’re selling ourselves short or avoiding our best next step due to fear. Alex has been where I want to go, and he’s not going to give up on me until I reach my goals. I couldn’t be more grateful!
Website: https://asquaredonline.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleeberghoff/