In this episode of Beyond the Build, Shawn Johnston talks with Ashleigh Baron, founder and CEO of Freshly Pressed, about building an agency around your life instead of building your life around the agency.
Ashleigh shares how Freshly Pressed started 17 years ago in her basement in Alberta, with an eight month old baby, a bartending job, and a willingness to figure things out before she felt fully ready. The conversation gets into how reputation, high quality work, and client care helped the agency grow almost entirely through referrals, and why the way a project ends is often what clients remember most.
They also cover:
- Why building around your life requires systems, boundaries, and honest time management
- How self care, family, and business priorities can coexist when they are planned intentionally
- How leaders can support teams through difficult or uninspiring work without rescuing every problem
- What younger generations are teaching agency leaders about work, boundaries, and human needs
