Entrepreneur Ashley Olafsen on Self-Esteem and Leadership
Ashley Olafsen never pictured herself to go in the entrepreneur route. When she was growing up, she thought she wanted to be an actress or an author, or something along those lines. “I definitely stumbled into entrepreneurship accidentally. When I was 15 years old, I became really angry that all of my friends and I were struggling so much with our self-esteem and body image. It saddened me so much, that I decided to do something. So, I ended up teaming up with 3 of my friends and we gave a workshop to a group of 8th grade girls. During the workshop, we talked openly and honestly about the experiences we were sharing. And that was supposed to be it!! One workshop, and hopefully a few girls would feel a little bit better about themselves....and this experience ended up turning into a whole career path and my first business, MOVE.”
Ashley runs two companies, MOVE and Visionaria Consulting. “Through MOVE, I run summer programs for teenage girls focusing on self-esteem and leadership. Through Visionaria, I help women turn their business ideas into realities! I also help small businesses with behind-the-scenes support such as website design, SEO, copywriting, and more.” Every day looks different for her when she is working, but today she is focusing on preparing for the launch of her first ever group coaching program. “I think I'm going to call it Idea to Impact, and I'm really excited about it. I have created a launch timeline and to do list, and will be chipping away at that. I also have 5 calls left today....my first one of the morning luckily got cancelled, so I had some time to catch up on emails. Then, since it's Friday, I'm going to go through my finances for the week and then outline my goals for next week!”
MOVE, her summer program for teenage girls focusing on self-esteem and leadership, is a five day program and she works with a staff of 20 young women. “We have a lot of fun and make some really fantastic memories. I work on MOVE for about 8 months before the summer program to prep, with my co-founder and co-director, Lexie. We manage everything from hiring, coordinating with the location we host our program at, securing liability insurance, marketing the program, creating the content and curriculum, managing guest speakers, and so much more.” Her role at MOVE is a very immersive one, "As Lexie and I handle all aspects of the program to ensure it runs smoothly.”
At Visionaria Consulting, she does a few different things. “First, I provide my clients with their requested services such as website design and SEO. Then, I do a lot of client outreach and connect with many women to see if there's an opportunity for collaboration. I also do coaching for women who are starting businesses. Finally, I manage all of the behind-the-scenes of my own business...managing invoices and updating my finances, scheduling, etc.”
To Ashley, it is very important to help other women. “I I feel such a sense of shared connection and community with the amazing women around me, and I want to do everything I can to listen, understand, and encourage the women I interact with. As a middle school girl, I always felt so undervalued and misunderstood. I felt like I wasn't being taken as seriously as I should have been, and that no one really saw how smart, creative and capable I was.” At her summer program, MOVE, they really try to give young women a space where they feel like they are taken seriously and treated with respect. “Because they should be — the girls that I work with are endlessly bright, kind, creative, and inspiring. And regardless, everyone deserves to be taken seriously and treated with respect.”
Ashley would encourage anyone who may want to take the entrepreneurial route and would tell them that they don’t need to have it all figured out. “You don't need an entire business model or even a logo designed or anything! All you need to get started is the first step...that's it. Just the first step. And then after you figure out and execute your first step, you can identify and execute your second. Rome wasn't built in a day.”