I recently went one on one with Ashley Miles, founder and CEO of Franklyn West.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. ​How did you get here? ​What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Ashley: First of all, thank you for having me. Thrilled to be here. I guess our stories all begin with childhood, right? As a southern native, I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a competitive equestrian horseback rider, in a family filled with bold business entrepreneurs, which explains my inner cowgirl spirit in business and life. I attended Ole Miss as a Journalism and Communications major and immediately dove right in. I got my start in business my sophomore year, writing for The Daily Mississippian newspaper and quickly pivoting to selling advertising across digital, print, and tv. I was instantly inspired by the fast-paced newsroom environment and meeting with local and national companies to find solutions to their business challenges was exhilarating. The whole process lit me up from day one!

During my sophomore year, I had a light bulb moment and realized if I wanted to do business on a larger scale - I needed to get to New York and dive into the mecca of media, marketing, communications, and business. Without a single connection in the city, my instinct was to march over to the local Walmart in Oxford, Mississippi, and buy ten of my favorite magazines. I went back to my dorm room and submitted my resume to all of the different folks in the mastheads of these 10 magazines – printed on actual paper and submitted via snail mail, not email – and then one person finally called me back. That person was from Teen People Magazine, and I would not let her off the phone! And guess what -  she hired me to be a summer intern! I worked relentlessly to prove my value and make an impact. The same person hired me the following summer at InStyle magazine, which then led to my first job out of college the following summer. I moved from down south Oxford, Mississippi to New York City, working for InStyle magazine as a sales assistant, and was quickly promoted in 12 months to build the Beauty business for InStyle.com. I tell that story, because I had so much grit and determination since childhood, as this young southern woman to get to New York City, and realize my dreams. Since I was a little girl, I had a deep fire in my belly to make a larger impact, dream big and have the courage to actually make big things happen. To turn things on that were bigger than me, and that’s what I did. 

I worked my way up on the corporate ladder, spending nearly 20 years building and scaling disruptor brands and helping innovative companies accelerate growth to their highest potential. I most recently helped Refinery 29 grow from seed stage into a nine-figure business in a short period of time, which was later acquired by Vice Media. Then, I joined Arianna Huffington as her Global Chief Business Officer to help build and scale Thrive Global. 

After nearly 20 years of building and scaling growth-oriented businesses, I felt this calling – a burning desire really – to make a much broader impact in the business community, a community that has given me so much throughout my career. I took my growth formula for business success that I’d developed over the past two decades – a formula that involves pairing highly-skilled experts and solutions to match on-demand business growth areas – to help companies turn things on quickly and garner future wins. 

I’m passionate about helping disruptor brands find the confidence to dream big and execute at their highest potential. That’s the story behind why I launched my new-era business growth and execution firm, Franklyn West, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. I saw an opportunity to enact change, reimagine the future of consulting, bridge the gap for the next generation of leaders to reshape how we work and offer access to top talent across a myriad of industries and skill sets to make business impact, and got right to work with our first major Fortune50 client. 

In the new, post-COVID on-demand economy, I began to see that there was an appetite among business leaders for a new model that offered immediate, direct access to leading experts across several key business categories, while at the same time, there was an incredible and untapped network of liquid talent. I was consistently hearing from many CEOs, especially Fortune 500 CEOs, that with the rise of on-demand business growth needs popping up every day, hiring full-time every single time there's something new to figure out, then having that new need shift to yet another, is not practical or sustainable. So, at Franklyn West, we set out to organize and recruit the very top talent across every major industry and skill set – all vetted and with a robustly proven track record – and assembled the Franklyn West ambassadors network, which includes a stellar list of business leaders such as Daymond John, CEO of FUBU and The Shark Group, Fran Hauser, Startup Investor, Advisor and Best Selling Author, Sandra Campos, former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg, Lydia Fenet, Best Selling Author and Christie’s Auctioneer, Liz Kaplow, CEO and Founder of Kaplow Communications, Randi Liodice, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Kaplow Communications, Dee Poku, Founder and CEO, The WIE Suite, among others. The ambassadors' network works by matching SWAT teams of experts with a company based on how their unique skill sets connect to a company’s business priorities and can accelerate results. We then “parachute-in” these skilled experts to partner in a super collaborative way, with full-time executives and employees, in order to solve challenges, and fast-track growth in key areas, all while upskilling full-time employees. One of our clients calls Franklyn West the “Swiss Army Knife solution to solving new problems.” We help build the car and teach the teams how to drive it, ultimately replacing ourselves, and of course, can stay on for maintenance. 

It’s been quite an amazing journey! I’ve always been an entrepreneurial builder and scaler within disruptor companies, but now, at Franklyn West, we can extend that formula of success to a larger portfolio of companies tapping into leading experts. It’s been so thrilling and fulfilling to see the results.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?

Ashley: I believe modern leaders of the future lead with Courage, Curiosity, and Connection - the three C’s. The three C’s encompass all of the fundamentals required for building a winning vision and action plan to execute. To be a brave leader who makes a tangible impact, you must have the courage to set a very bold picture of the future, and lead not only internally, but externally, and then fearlessly express and execute that vision. The most successful leaders really stretch the thinking of their teams and themselves to their highest potential. So that's why I would say courage is number one. Courage is also moving forward and moving on when things aren't going well. When change needs to happen –do you have the courage to examine things, pivot, and lead others as you undertake a new approach? If you want to play big, be in business, and be a bold and effective leader, courage is incredibly important. 

The second quality is curiosity. It’s paramount to not approach leadership in an authoritarian manner, but rather, with continuous curiosity. Truly effective leadership involves curiosity about problems as they arise. It means being curious with your team – it doesn't matter the level or area of expertise – it's about being open and curious to learning and being okay with not knowing everything. Effective leaders are curious to lean into their key strength areas, as an individual and as a leader, and know to bring in experts to supplement areas of weakness. Finally, effective leaders are curious about what they don’t know and lean in and learn from the pool of talent they surround themselves with. Ultimately, great leaders ARE their surroundings. 

The third “c” and hallmark of an effective leader is connection. To me, great leaders put others first and take the time and effort to connect. Connection is an art form and the most effective leaders connect with others in a masterful and genuine way. Whether interacting with internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, clients, or the board of directors, taking the time to clearly understand others’ objectives and communicate to each audience specific to their needs is key to aligning priorities and leading successfully.

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Ashley: Successful leaders of the future are focused on continuous growth and development of themselves, their teams and their customers. The “always on” growth and development mentality is key to a sustainable and dynamic career. Again, it’s going back to being curious and okay with not knowing everything. You have to be a perpetual student to stay at the forefront of innovation. There’s always something new to learn whether it's about your business, or how to be a more effective leader. A transformative tool that I strongly advise my Fortune500 leaders to leverage is polling. Consistently poll or survey your customers and employees on their experiences and areas to improve. In order to uplevel leadership, or really any skill for that matter, it's about taking a proactive and continual approach to learn, both personally and professionally. I think we’ve got to focus on taking these reflective steps every day to get better and improve over time. Over time, the small and large improvements we make every day build into transformational steps forward 3-5 years from now. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders? 

Ashley: My first tip is to set a clear and bold picture and winning action plan for the future. What do you want the next three to five years to look like? What does that look like for the short term? 

I find that many leaders and companies are shooting from the hip to solve the tactical problems that pop up every day, versus getting ahead with a big, bold vision of the future. The process of imagining that bold picture of where they're going for the long and short term is crucial. In fact, we have a methodology for this at Franklyn West called the Pivotal Power Agenda (PPA), which is focused on aligning cross-departmental leaders upfront to accelerate growth planning in 3-4 weeks versus the standard 3-4 month process. Then, we co-execute the plan to hit goals and succeed in the market faster than ever before. 

That leads to my second tip, which is also included in the above PPA growth planning process, and is: identify your core values as a company and determine how to live those values internally as well as externally. Powerful results ensue when leaders align on their company’s core values, pinpoint the business’s unique strengths and then maximize those values via key strengths. The work isn’t over after identifying and aligning; it’s crucial to write these values down, map out an actionable plan, and as a team hold each other accountable for walking the walk. Give your team permission to flag when you need to course correct as a leader and set the example early on. 

My third tip is to source the best talent (whether full-time or outside experts) who align with your bold picture of the future and set of hyper-focused skills needed to get the job done successfully. At Franklyn West, we’ve taken the guesswork out of the exhaustive (and expensive) recruitment process and streamlined the search for extremely specific skill sets into what we call Scalable Expertise on Demand. This is where we work with a business to identify pain points and challenges, then match companies with our roster of world-class Business Ambassadors in Residence in order to accelerate key areas of growth for 1, 2, 3, and 4+ week externships. We help fill the gaps.  

These three tips – set a clear and bold picture for the future, identify and map out your organization’s core values as well as your core values, and recruit, rely on, and invest in the right talent and cultivate that talent– are really at the heart of what makes a well-rounded, impactful, and successful leader.  

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams? 

Ashley: For me, it all starts with that Pivotal Power Agenda (PPA) process. This is like the living breathing heart of the organization. Everything starts with the PPA process because it enables a business to bring its leaders into the fold early and truly align on all fronts. Once there’s clear communication and genuine connection amongst leadership branches, the pathway for building and managing an all-star team is already cleared. 

In order to build, manage and lead a stellar team, I can not stress enough how important it is for leaders to know their strengths and weaknesses. Take your ego and stuff it in a box. You’ve got to be candid, brutally honest with yourself. Lean on your strengths, know your areas for growth, know what you might not be the best at, and then do the scariest thing of all – admit it. In fact, be open about it. Work to fill the gaps with other experts and demonstrate to your team that when we’re playing to our strengths and align early and upfront, we will accelerate business and the team’s confidence. Be open and real. Encourage your team to be open and real and actively acknowledge how your and your team’s strengths and weaknesses all come together to complete the puzzle of business success versus one person having all the answers (because nobody does). When your team sees you being open to new ways of working and collaborating, it’s powerful leadership. They'll be more open with their strengths and gaps, and it’s so much easier to identify the problems and solutions when people are empowered to uncover and communicate issues versus hiding them. Leadership of the future consists of smart talent matching of skills to growth areas and filling in the gaps to move faster and more collaboratively. 

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing, and branding?

Ashley: In order to drive commercial AND brand growth, companies must have a strong top-down and bottom-up approach. When companies set a clear and bold picture and plan for the future and communicate cross-departmentally at all levels, they can then activate a bottoms-up approach to realizing the vision. Sales, marketing and branding are critical components to actioning the larger business vision. And to be successful from a sales and marketing perspective, companies must have an intimate understanding of their unique point-of-view that has gravity with the products and services that solve real problems for their core customers to back it up. Demonstrating the company's differentiation and repeatable nature is key to long-term sustainable growth. Finally, rapid experimentation and iteration are key to staying relevant and at the forefront of sales and marketing efforts. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Ashley: “You are your surroundings.” Surround yourself with the best people, personally and professionally, and you will learn, grow and succeed together. 

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Ashley: I’m immensely passionate about the future of work in the growing on-demand economy.  As Uber provides on-demand mobility and Netflix provides on-demand streaming, I see a real opportunity to better service brave leaders and companies of the future with on-demand liquid talent, growth tools, and technologies to help them solve new problems. I believe companies can move faster, more creatively, and capture new growth opportunities if they are open to new models and ways of working. It’s an exciting time to be in business!


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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