Meet Ashley McLemore, MA | Founder and Leadership Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley McLemore, MA and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, other than deciding to work for yourself, what else do you think played a pivotal role in your story?
Leaving my hometown played a pivotal role in my story. I grew up in Akron, Ohio and went to undergrad a quick drive away at Kent State University. I always knew that I wanted more, I wasn’t certain of what it was but I knew that it was not in Ohio. I decided to move to NYC and I spent nearly eight years there, living in almost every borough. Not only did I learn about other cultures but I experienced them first hand practically on a daily basis. While I was there, I made life-long friendships, I loved, I explored different careers, and obtained my master’s degree. I have a Master’s of Art degree in Health Education and Promotion concentrating on race, gender, and sexuality. That’s a long way to say that I’m an expert on identifying how overlapping identities, discrimination, and oppression impact health and life outcomes. Leaving my hometown contributed to my success for all of these reasons and because that’s how I found my love for training and empowering others.

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?
After falling in love with training and facilitation, it took me a while to fully embrace entrepreneurship. I signed my first consulting contract as a sole proprietor in 2015, but continued to juggle full-time employment alongside my business. It would be another five years until I took action to incorporate my business and officially begin my entrepreneurial journey. This shift inspired the name “Begin With Ashley,” representing the moment when I decided to ‘BEGIN’ and take entrepreneurship seriously. To begin, is the philosophy that I encourage my clients to embrace as well.

Begin With Ashley is a consulting and coaching company that specializes in applying intersectional equity and inclusion principles to implement leadership training using your company values. We support CEOs and other executives in becoming the leaders that they aspire to be, which helps to improve employee engagement and retention.

Begin With Ashley offers a unique perspective on leadership development focusing on empowering leaders on a personal level addressing internalized conflict to foster a more equitable company culture. We help organizations tap into their potential by creating a safe space for vulnerable conversations, supporting executives in their journey to become more impactful leaders, and implementing policies that prioritize the well-being of their teams.

We use evidence based behavior change models with our services including the Impact Leadership Training, the Equity Diagnostic VIP Day, and during one-on-one private coaching. This allows us to take leaders from avoiding their colleagues to collaboration and from passive people pleasing to leading powerful conflict resolution processes.

Begin With Ashley provides a space for leaders to grow, reconcile their internal conflict, and encourages them to overcome their biases and begin their journey toward being the leaders that they want to be.

Through this work, I demonstrate that the key to success in business lies with your integrity, tenacity, and your willingness to begin.

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.
When the bestie comes to town we’ve got to make a stop to get goodies for her to cook. Before we do that we’d pick up tea, my favorite is a London fog with lavender from Waller’s Coffee Shop in Decatur. Then stop at Yes, please: a bookhouse and carespace, up the street to get books as “payment” for her cooking of course. Then it’s time to hit the Dekalb Farmers Market before getting home to loudly play music while we catch up, chuckle and cook.

Another day we’d spend time around midtown. For food we’ve got to have the best falafel in the city from Aviva by Kameel. We’ll make our way downtown to experience a well-crafted non-alcoholic drink from Sober Social. We’d close out the night listening to live music, dancing around looking at art at The High Museum.

So many of my friends are also entrepreneurs, during the week we’d get some work done and shoot some content at The Bakery CoWork.Then grab a late lunch or early dinner from Chattahoochee Food Works nearby. To add some more dancing to the mix we’d check-out Rocksteady Atlanta on Tuesday night for Bamba music, good energy, and great Caribbean food.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Being away from my traditional family it has always been important to have people around me that felt like home. I want to give a special shoutout to my friend groups! I’ve lived in a few places across the country and I have collected deeply close friendships from every city. In order of when we met ShoutOut to; Top Notch, Mary, Ebony, Jack, Kiara, Hannah, Tossie, and Ebonee. With joy, love y’all!

Website: https://beginwithashley.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/begin.withashley/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amclemore/

Youtube: https://youtu.be/fG-K_1CWyds