Natalie Franke
Did you know that 72% of independent business owners didn’t know that they were going to become entrepreneurs when they started their career, they had no intent in doing that, but as we often find our paths are rarely linear. Today on the podcast, I have the honor of speaking with Ashley Menzies Babatunde and undergrad from Stanford, who then went on to Harvard Law School. And now is a podcaster of the no straight path podcast, a career coach, a storyteller and an extraordinary entrepreneur. Ashley explores the human stories behind success. And in today’s episode, we’re not only going to look at her story on her road to success, but the learning she has had from her highly successful podcast. Let’s get into the episode. Hey, everyone, this is your host, Natalie Frank, and you’re listening to the independent business podcast, more people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So on this show, I sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs and creators to break down the science of self made success so that you can achieve victory.
Natalie Franke
Ashley, thank you so much for joining me.
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Natalie. I’m just excited.
Natalie Franke
Before we even hopped on, we just started hitting it off about your podcast, and I’m a huge fan recent episodes that you have launched, I was telling you like, just hit me right in the soul right in the heart as an achiever, and we’re gonna get into all of that your career success where you are today. But I want to backtrack a little bit and ask you how you got here? What was the entry to your career journey? How did it start? And what inspired you to share more about the fact that the path of success is rarely linear?
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Absolutely. So I think we actually need to start from my childhood. So you can just get to know me a little bit. But I was born in tents. I always say this. I was born an overachiever, I had very supportive parents and family. But they weren’t really pushing me it was very much me, I would color outside of the lines and cry where my cousins would move to the next activity, unbothered. I wrote letters about my ambitions. I wrote when I was 10 years old, that I wanted to go to Stanford, that I wanted to go to Harvard Law School. And then I wanted to be a lawyer, amongst other things about how I loved fashion and pasta, which is true to this day. But I achieved all of those things. And for much of my life, I thought that the path was linear. I had worked hard, I seen positive results. So as long as I worked hard, and there were bumps and twists and turns, but I always thought as long as I work hard, I will see positive results. And it will look the way that I thought it would look because it happened like that for much for much of my life. And I had my first big roadblock setback with the California bar exam. And that really shook me, because it was the first time I had failed anything. And I really started to feel like I was a failure, I internalized it. And that was really challenging. And I had to decouple who I am as a human from the work that I do from my accomplishments from my achievements, went through a whole self discovery process during that time. And I remember just feeling really lonely. Because no one was talking about this, especially in these overachieving spaces. No one’s really talking about the doubts and the setbacks and the failures, and all of the humanity behind it. We’re just seeing the shiny things. And so I thought, okay, when I pass this, I’m going to share my story. And so that’s what I did. I put it out initially in a blog post. And it resonated with a lot of people. And then I thought, okay, I love podcasting. One day, I’m going to put out a podcast about this. And so ultimately, I did put out a podcast about it. About four years later, I became an attorney. So as you know, life happens, it’s very challenging to do anything outside of practicing law. But I decided to release the podcast on my mother’s birthday to honor her memory. It was something that she really was just so excited about. I think it’s also just a reflection of who she was an is as a person to me because she was like a speaker and an inspiring woman encouraged her. So I really did it, too, as a passion project, and as a grief project. And then ultimately, it turned into something much larger and very quickly, which I can delve deeper into.
Natalie Franke
I absolutely love that journey. And I love how you have honored not only yourself but your mom in the process of that blood to double click into some of the challenges, you know, you mentioned not passing the bar exam the first time around. And that being a revolutionary moment for you kind of shaking things up and forcing you to have some of these tough conversations with yourself. Are there other moments along your career journey that you found to be challenging? I’m even curious, like stepping into this entrepreneurial space of like podcasting and coaching. And that is terrifying in its own right. So I’d love to know some of the challenges and some of the friction that maybe you came up against and how you overcame it.
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Absolutely. So so many challenges. So just to give you a bit more context, once I put out the podcast teaser, I was invited to join hub spots Podcast Network. So that happened three weeks after I put it out. And I was thinking, Okay, this is my mom, this is divine timing. Yes. I was literally just working at my law firm. And I remember getting the call a friend of mine had sent the teaser to the team there. And I had to google creator, I had to google accelerator as okay, what is this? This seems interesting and initially said, No, because I thought it would be challenging to kind of balance the work that was required for the program and the work I was doing as an attorney, also planning my wedding at the time. But then I thought about what my mom would say, I thought about pouring into my passions for storytelling and doing the work that is aligned with who I am. And then I said, Okay, I’ve got to do it. So I said, Yes. And so quickly, what happened were initial challenges, because when you start something as a passion project, and then it quickly turns into a business where they’re giving me funding, and they are giving me marketing support. And they’re using a new language that I don’t understand, I don’t have a marketing background, I didn’t even work on a case related to marketing, because sometimes that’s how I’m able to know about different business industries based on my legal practice. And so I had to learn the new language, I had to understand what I was trying to do, because initially, they were asking me, What is your brand? So that was also a challenge? I don’t know, I just want to tell a story. You know, and now I’ve been able to have more clarity around that. But I had to do a lot of work to figure out okay, what am I actually trying to do with this brand? How do I want to grow it sustainably? How do I want to feel like I went through this entire process, trying to figure out how I want to do this work. And that was really hard, because my mindset, it wasn’t a business mindset going in. And so I had to change my mindset, and kind of separate some of the internal passion work that I wanted to do from the business work and figure out systems and create them so that I can optimize the processes to actually succeed and achieve my goals.
Natalie Franke
We see this all the time. In our community. I mean, a lot of business owners in general, you know, I mentioned most don’t get into their career thinking they’re even going to own a business in the first place. It sounds like even you, you’re on this professional track to become a lawyer. And this whole side of the world maybe wasn’t even on your radar. But yet, you know, life takes us in directions that we never could have imagined. And amongst business owners, a lot of times they’re not getting into this to run a business, they’re getting into this because they have a passion, right, they have a talent, they have something they want to say something they want to do that actually is is much larger even than the concept of making money. And yet, you still have to develop those tools in those skills such that you can do the thing that you’re passionate about, it sounds like you, you know, kind of went on that journey yourself from I’m going to do this podcast to getting picked up by I mean, arguably, the top network in the marketing business space at the moment like HubSpot is phenomenal. And then from there realizing Okay, well wait, I am an entrepreneur, I have started a business. What were some of the learnings that you had in that process, that mindset shift from, you know, attorney to creator, before you knew what that word meant to? Okay, now, this is a business to even looking into your future and the aspirations that you have, you know, going forward, what what were some of those milestones? What were some of those kind of steps along the way that helps you to make that mindset shift? I think a lot of us are, are in that boat from time to time where we need to progress.
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Yeah, I think that the first the mindset shift was it kind of came externally, because I did have pressure to grow, because I was in an accelerator program. So that was the first thing so I really quickly had to figure out how do I grow? And that came from just me having lots of conversations with people like you trying to figure out how do you actually increase downloads, how do you actually mark it? And so I took some classes. I had a lot of conversations, HubSpot was really helpful in helping me clarify that which was really, really great. And then I had some challenges, you know, thinking about it from a lawyer’s perspective. I’m thinking Okay, what else do I need to do to kind of put Take this business. First I need to start it need to actually get the LLC. So I should probably do that. So I went along that journey. And then I looked at trademarks, thankfully, I had a good friend of mine who’s in the business reached out to me and say, Ashley, I just saw this trademark application for no straight path is that you? And I said, Oh, no, it’s not me. And this is three weeks in because I hadn’t, I didn’t think it was going to be a business. So I went down the journey of getting the trademark, which had some legal challenges that that can be another podcast episode, but kind of understanding that whole legal process. And so I think one of the biggest milestones was me really just stepping in to My voice and into my purpose, and really setting goals when it comes to building out the skills that I wanted to build. So one thing that I decided to do is that I wanted to really work on my public speaking. And so I had opportunities, I started to actually pitch myself. And I started to go and speak at different events and get on more podcasts and talk about my story and share my story. And I thought that was really incredible. I got to one of my first interviews, I got to be on Jenna Kutcher show and talk a lot about my journey. And so I think those milestones are really helpful because it showed me what I can do in this space, even though I’m new to this space, because it’s important to kind of look at your smaller accomplishments and help you to move forward because it can be overwhelming when you’re, you feel like you’re an expert in one space, but then you’re in a new space, and then you feel like a baby again. And so it helps me kind of build those muscles. And I think that another thing that’s been really successful is just starting to really build community, some of those milestones when you’re having those days that are hard, because I think building a business is obviously challenging, being a creator is challenging. I was surprised at how hard it is, especially when you love something, and how you can burn out. And so having community and having people reach out and talk about how this story resonated with them, or this story resonated like that has been such great fuel for me because it reminds me of my why and my purpose, and why am I actually doing this? I’m trying to make other people feel less alone in their journey. But simultaneously, I’m kind of feeling alone on this journey sometimes. So what can I do to better step into my purpose, and that’s build community. And so I’ve definitely seen some success with that as well. And that was a big milestone, and even having friends reach out and people who are part of the community too. Can you host this zoom to chat about burnout? Can you host the zoom to talk about podcasting and building community? And so people start to come to you, and recognize your strengths. And it feels pretty amazing.
Natalie Franke
That’s incredible. I think so many business owners, though, don’t even take that next step to get started pitch themselves, try something new launch the podcast, because there’s this thought that, you know, frankly, it’s a lie that a lot of us believe, which is like if I can’t do it perfectly, I shouldn’t do it. If I don’t know everything about a subject. I shouldn’t pursue it. And yet, I’m curious to know from you, do you think there are any advantages to sort of leaping before you’re ready and learning as you go? Which, you know, you sort of you sort of did you truly like took a leap of faith and sort of pursuing a path that you weren’t on before? Is there a benefit to doing that? Are there advantages? Does it give you a different perspective?
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Yes, no, absolutely. I feel so grateful that I did not know much going into this industry, because if you start to look at the stats, if you start to look at you know, it is a lower barrier for entry compared to my legal degree as an example. And it’s a very different kind of path when you’re going into the entrepreneurial space, if you look at those numbers, and if you are really informed about the industry, it can scare you. Right, right. And so it’s really important to be or it’s nice that I was a little naive and didn’t know everything. Because I was able to take that competence and just try it and not put too much pressure on myself. Right. I started this not thinking I wanted to build this big brand. Now I want to and now I’m doing it. But initially, that was that wasn’t my mindset. And I think that was very helpful. And even meeting big creators in the space, the entrepreneurs in the space, I didn’t really know that they were that big. So I was just myself. And then I looked them I was like, oh wait, this is the person they’re having me talk to and, and things of that nature. So I think it’s very good to just try and to see what happens and to follow your interest and to be curious, because you just never know where that will lead you. And then you don’t have all the self doubt you don’t have all of the inner anxiety going on because you actually just don’t even know as much about the industry to even worry about it, which I think is helpful.
Natalie Franke
Having the courage to leap before you’re ready does come with the benefits of even being Ignite, I love it like I completely have been in that place so many times in my own journey. And I’ve said, You know, oftentimes we have to discover it for ourselves, we almost have to build our success on a foundation of our failures and our learnings, right? When we reframe that concept, I want to share some quick stats that align with exactly what you just said, I think hold a lot of people back from going after either starting the business or once they’re in the business, scaling it hiring their first employee, right, launching a new program 74% of employed adults who are not business owners sight that fear of failure is why they won’t start a business. And I do think that fear kills more businesses than then failure does at the end of the day. It’s as if you know, incredible entrepreneurs don’t even leap, they don’t even take that chance to put their heart and soul into the world to monetize their passion, oftentimes, because of that fear. Have you experienced that fear? Even now? Is it something that you feel like, you know, you’ve learned how to overcome throughout your journey? Because those are some pretty big leaps. And I can imagine if you didn’t do it, without the fear, it certainly was there. So how did you overcome it? How did you navigate it?
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
I am not someone who is fearless. I always say that I’m not someone who’s fearless. But I have more fear of staying stuck and not doing things that are aligned with who I am, than actually going for it. Like, I don’t want to look at my life and say, I lived an uninspired life, that I didn’t live a life that was in alignment, that I didn’t live a life where I pursued my dreams and my passions, and that I just tapped into my gifts like that is fear. I am fearful of that. You know. And so I think I always try to go back to that, which I think is very helpful for the journey. But we’re all afraid we’re all humans. This is a hard journey. But I think if something is calling you, if something inside you is telling you to do it, you should and I’ve seen it time and time again with a guest on my podcast as well. And it’s also my own personal therapy, my own no straight path, you know, storytelling with all the different guests, they all have those same fears as well, and they still went for it. And it always led to a form of success, it may not look exactly how you think it’s gonna look, I’ve noticed that and I’ve let go of the exact picture. But I know that I’m going in the right direction. And I think that is so beautiful and wonderful. And it gives me a certain type of peace that I didn’t have before, when I was moving in spaces where I didn’t feel aligned with the work that I wanted to do.
Natalie Franke
And that’s the thing too, about getting into those rooms with like, people is a big name entrepreneurs, which I love her like I didn’t even know they were a big deal. They were they were a big deal. Like that panic moment, because I’ve been there. Oh, gosh, I’ve been there so many times, so many times. And I’m like, wait, what? Oh, but once you do get into those rooms, right? It’s you realize, like, everyone has fear, this isn’t something that just disappears, because you’ve made it it’s not something that ever really goes away. But so often in those rooms, you realize, they’re just like me, you know, like, folks at the most successful points in their career are battling these very same things. And I think just normalizing that, like sharing what you just shared. It’s so empowering. It’s so empowering. When you you know, run your show, I am so curious, you get to the heart of the stories behind success. You are a storyteller, which I love. Every time I listen to your episodes, I love getting to dive into the story. So I want to pivot a little bit now and ask you about some of those stories. So in uncovering them, you know, what have been some of your favorite learnings from the podcast, favorite stories or guests that you’ve had on the show who in their own journeys to success, you know, have have found it despite a not so linear path.
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
There are a number of stories that come to mind. But you mentioned something earlier about fear of failure. And that was something that a guest talked about. Spencer Paysinger, he is the producer of the show all American on CW I think it’s in its fifth or sixth season now. It’s on Netflix. It’s a great show. But he started as an NFL player who had no experience in television. And we’re friends from high school. And so I always ask, Am I in the show who’s inspired by me? He said, There’s parts of you. Yeah. But he shared some really interesting things. And he said he was talking about his NFL career at the time. And he was in a position that was his dream position. He had worked so hard to get there. And it gave him more responsibility, more visibility. And he just struggled so much and he realized that he was operating out of a space where he was afraid to fail, as opposed to a does desire to succeed. And yes, and it made me think about that sometimes when you’re just in a space like it’s a mindset shift, or it’s even just moving where you are, maybe you need to move to a different space. So you are excited to succeed. And I noticed that in my own legal practice, and even now in my entrepreneurial practice, that when I just move through the world, where I am excited about the journey, where I am excited to succeed, where I’m curious, and I’m interested, as opposed to having all this anxiety and fearing all the things that probably won’t even happen, you’re able to move through the journey with more peace, and likely more success. So that’s something that really, really, really stuck out to me. And another one that I love, too, is Kristen Turner, a friend of mine from law school, she talks about trusting yourself with your own life. And she’s someone who was very successful in law school, like many of us, worked really hard, did everything that they told us to do, got the big law firm offer. And she decided to turn it down, unlike most of her peers, including me, because it didn’t feel like it was an alignment. So she graduated from Harvard Law School with no job by her choice. And she said it was because she was had to trust something within her, she had to trust herself with her own light. And it just looked like a life. But it didn’t look like a life. That was hers. And I love that because it resonated with me and not at the time I took the job because I it was in alignment with what I wanted at that time. But when I made my pivot, that’s where I was, I was feeling that same thing. I was thinking, Okay, do I trust myself without my own life? And if not, how do I get there, and now I’m there. But it took some work. And I thought that was really insightful, to trusting
Natalie Franke
yourself with your own life, those moments of intuition where your gut is telling you, this isn’t meant for me, or I’m meant for more, I’m meant for something different. And having the courage to say, You know what, I trust myself enough to go after it, I trust myself enough to let go of what is known and to move forward into the unknown, because I know that I am capable, that is so profound, so powerful, in all of the interviews that you’ve done, have you seen any commonalities in the stories of you know, people pursuing success? Is there anything that when you zoom out and look at it, you know, with that kind of wide eye lens? that sticks out to you?
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Yes, definitely. It is the understanding of self. It is self awareness, it is understanding what lights you up, understanding what drains you, understanding what gives you peace, what feels good to you what your goals and your dreams and your aspirations are. But it comes from within understanding your weaknesses, and being able to act on it. So not only having that inner knowing and having that self awareness, but then being brave enough to actually follow it. And that can be really, really challenging to do in our society. And I think we all struggle with it. But a self awareness practice is so important. And I see it in every guest, every guest who has been successful, that is what they do. And that is something that is extremely important to me, because when you know who you are, then it feels it feels so good. It feels so good. When you’re moving into the spaces that are aligned with who you are. And you see it, you see it with all the guests,
Natalie Franke
even in roles of leadership, I find self awareness just to be so important and so critical, because it goes to war against the ego. When we have self awareness, we embrace the fact that we are imperfect, and that that’s okay, that we do have weaknesses, in fact, right? We have strengths that we double down on and in the entrepreneurial space where we say hire for those weaknesses, but having that level of self awareness where you can say, Look, I am on a journey to figure out who I am so that I can show up in the world as the best version of me and also embrace the parts of me, right, that that maybe aren’t my superpowers aren’t my weaknesses. I’d be curious to know for you in this journey that you’ve had, you know, what have been some of those moments where you become more self aware of the person that you’re becoming, or have the strengths that you have, or even have the weaknesses that you had, you know, and have in order to become, you know, a better entrepreneur?
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Absolutely. So yeah, so many. So, one thing that I’ll say is that I am such a people person, and I like to connect deeply with people. And I can take things personally, and it’s shown up in my entrepreneurial practice. And so I think it’s important that when I’m connecting with People on the podcasts that that is where the deep connection happens, and keeping you there and understanding that, but the business side of things, trying to disassociate my feelings with some of the things that come along with that. And that’s hard to do. But just even recognizing it, I think is extremely helpful. I think that managing expectations, you know, this is my show. So really being able to explain that to the different publicists and the people that might come on. And the different brands like, really defining that has been very helpful, because then sometimes conflict can come up if we haven’t really talked about the expectations. And then I can take things very personally, I’ve noticed. So that has been helpful. And when it comes to my strengths, that I feel like I’ve been able to really hone on this journey is being able to speak publicly, like I actually haven’t taken any public speaking classes or anything like that. I should, at some point to double down on the strengths and really grow there. But I think that I was able to pretty quickly, within a month of starting the podcast two months, I was on stages, and I was talking to people and I was having live conversations, and it felt really, really good. Not that I wasn’t nervous, not that I didn’t need to prep and practice. But it was something that okay, I’m on to something here. And that was really nice, because the entrepreneurial space allowed me to step into my voice in that way where I didn’t really get to do that. In my day job. Because of the level, I was a mid level associate. So I could do some of that. But it’s different when you are getting to speak on topics that you’re extremely passionate about. And where you want to inspire people and serve others, there’s just a different light that comes out of you. And so I think that I also noticed that that was my strength. And, and I guess it’s related, it’s public speaking in the lens of storytelling, because I’m always a person I want to know about you. I’m that person. I feel I don’t like leave in conversation. I want to know like, you know, you’re very Do you have kids? What are you passionate about? Wherever you travel? Dude, what are some of the things that you fear in life? What are your dreams, like, I like to have those interactions often. And now I do, which is nice. But that’s something I’ve also noticed is using story has been really great. And something I’ve been able to use throughout my entrepreneurial journey.
Natalie Franke
And storytelling is so powerful. You know, we talk about this a lot in the independent business world as it relates to brands, or will say, you know, people don’t buy from a business they buy from a human being. And it’s the story that accompanies that person behind the business that really allows us to connect to the brand right to connect to the service or the product. Storytelling is so profound. And we’re more likely to remember something if it’s just wrapped up in a story rather than stated as a fact. So I love that, you know, not only is that a passion of yours, but then you’ve been able to draw those stories out of people that you admire, that you want to know more about, through your show. I’m curious to know, if you have any advice for the business owner listening to this, that maybe has dreamt of starting a podcast or, you know, has jumped up speaking on a stage has dreamt of putting themselves more out there and actually sharing their story, but maybe hasn’t, for whatever reason, fear, you know, not feeling like they belong, not feeling like they have a space to do so like, do you have advice for the person listening to this? who’s like, I want to be Ashley, I want to be where she is, what would you say to that person,
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
I would first say, start. And I would say that it’s so great that you even have this aspiration and that you have this dream, and you’ve identify what you want to do. And that they you want to do more, because so many people don’t even have that so many people don’t even know what they want to do. So the fact that you’ve identified someone out there and you see their story, and you want to be like them, or you want to do something similar, that’s wonderful. So pat yourself be happy about that, then let’s take some action, right, because dreaming is beautiful, but we don’t get to realize our dreams unless we do something. So it can be the good thing with starting a podcast to write is that most anyone can do it, which is nice. Like you can there’s a lower barrier for entry there are affordable options. We all deserve to have our voices heard. And if you have something to say share it. And I think you want to be surrounded next by like minded people. So you want to get some community. This is a great community, that independent business podcasters you know, this is a great community to start with, and talk to other people about how they’ve done it and get just an accountability partner, as well to kind of push yourself because there’s so many things in life that we know intellectually we should do we know we should eat healthy we know we should work out. We know we need to take XYZ step to get to reach our goals who eat Don’t do it, right, because a lot of this is hard. But if you’re doing it in community, if you’re doing it with just a partner, if you have a schedule in, you’re able to check in with one another, then you’re able to really move forward and step into your purpose and realize those dreams.
Natalie Franke
I love that all right now to the person who maybe doesn’t know what the path holds for them. Someone who, you know, isn’t certain, they’re listening to this and they’re going, Okay, I’m just glad that someone’s finally saying it that the path of success. It’s not a straight path. It’s not always linear. You know, it there are twists or turns there are setbacks and successes. It’s a bumpy, rocky road at times. And they’re listening to this and they’re going okay, I don’t know what’s out there for me. Do you have words of encouragement for someone who’s maybe in the messy middle of their journey?
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
I do? I absolutely do. So I think that you should first kind of take stock and inventory inventory of your life. And think about the things that you’re interested in. Think about the things you’re curious about things that light you up. And some people say, I don’t know what lights me up. Okay. All right. Well, let’s, let’s go back and think about this. So and I’ll provide my story as an example, because I had to do it, I even being an entrepreneur, I thought, This isn’t in me, I don’t understand why I’m doing this. And then I went back to my legal career, or to law school specifically. And I forgot I was going to not even go to a law firm. And I remember I was trying to start a business. I was pitching it to Harvard. They said no, at the time, but they liked the concept moves forward with something similar. But I saw a problem with the curriculum. And I wanted to help bridge the gap between the incoming students who might have a legal background and might have parents who are in legal practice Internet, and then the international students and students who don’t have that framework. We I went into a whole pitch competition and created, you know, a pseudo business and tried to do all of that, and I completely forgot about it, you know, but I remember my husband was like, oh, no, you love that you that was your passion project for a whole year. So that was one thing that I thought, Okay, wait. I am an entrepreneur. I actually wanted to do this. When it came to storytelling, I had to look back, I had to go all the way back to college. When I quit the track team, my junior year, what did I do? Oh, I joined the school paper. What did I do with the school paper? Oh, I did feature stories. And I talked to interesting people on campus, because and then what did I do? Oh, I got an award after doing one feature story, right? You also want to see where are you getting rewarded quickly, right? Because that might be your strength. And so then I thought, okay, oh, I am a storyteller. I that’s always been in me to career coaching. Okay, oh, I mentor people. Every week, I was a legal writing advisor in law school. I was a peer mentor through the political science department in college, I was head of recruiting as a paralegal and mentored students there. At my law firm, I was head of the mentoring program. Okay, of course, I should be career coach. But when you’re sometimes inundated in your task at work, right, because we have to pay our bills, and we want to do well. And we have family commitments, and life is busy and crazy, you lose sight of what you’re called to do, and you forget everything you’ve done. So I encourage that person to get that journal out. Or get that audio. Listen, I love audio message, because I’m busy. So I’m like, let me know. And I’d like to speak. So let me just do an audio message in my whole life. And write those things down. And you’ll start to connect the dots and follow those interests in those curiosities. And it can be really, really small, especially building on the side. That’s how I’ve done it. And it can lead you down a really incredible journey.
Natalie Franke
All of that is so powerful. I also want to highlight the fact that there was a moment there where your husband came in and said, No, you did love that you, you know, that is a superpower of yours. Something just to add to your answer that’s been helpful for me is sometimes I need the people that know me best, whether it’s a partner or a friend, to also affirm or even identify those superpowers. So if you get stuck, and you’re not even sure where to begin in regards to looking back on the past, lean into it actually said to about like, sometimes it can be from others in your circle, people that love love you that know you and ask them, you know, like, what, what do you see in me? What is it that you love about me? What do you think I’m incredibly good at? And, you know, like, when you think of me, if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now, what could you see me doing? What are other careers because you can uncover a lot that way too. And I know in my own journey, I’ve had people say to me, like, you know, you sound like a therapist or psychiatrist and I was like, you know, I’ve never gotten my sister’s a psychiatrist. I was like, I’ve never imagined going down that path. But I guess running a podcast is a heck of a lot like right, bringing stories forth and having deep conversations and and just finding these these beautiful parallels between You know careers, maybe we will pursue ones that are similar strengths that we’ve had in the past that we’ve leveraged, and just asking others like, hey, what do you see in me that maybe I don’t see in myself? I think that’s a really beautiful part. And it ties into to what you’ve said about community. I have a question for you in regards to community. So you mentioned that it’s important. You also mentioned, you know, that it’s been a key catalyst for you, whether it’s like the business accelerator side of things that you’ve let lean into with, if anyone’s listening to this and hasn’t considered joining some sort of accelerator or mastermind program, highly recommend exploring it. I know that it sounds like that was beneficial for you, it’s been beneficial for so many people that I know. But amidst that type of community, a community where you know, you’re you’re surrounded by other achievers, you’re surrounded by other people, maybe even pursuing the same things that you are, it can be really easy to feel competitive to feel comparison creeping in. And I’m curious to know, like, how do you navigate that? How do you how do you find friendships and nurture them? Or how do you view competition in community altogether? I’d love to get your take on that.
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Yeah, you know, that’s a great question. I haven’t felt competitive in quite some time. Just because I feel like I’ve been unpacking this, I always like to say, collaboration over competition is how I, I like to work. And I think that’s something that I’ve always kind of stuck to, even when I was younger, I it always goes back even to my track career. When I was running my race. I remember, it was high school, but you know, I was a little I was getting recruited and stuff. So reporters would come and everything and they’d ask me about different runners and their times and they’d say, you know, what do you think about this, you have so and so coming up next week, I didn’t know who so and so was, I didn’t know what their times were. And I did not care, because I was running my own race. And the thing about the 400, is you literally run your own race, because you literally stay in your same lane the entire time around the track one time and you do not need to cross lanes, you don’t need to look at anyone else, you can literally just look straight ahead, on your own path. And I think that that is something that I got from my parents kind of really instilling that in me early on, not to be competitive, but to be collaborative. And to know that it’s, it’s me, and that I can do. And I think they also just did that because I was a black girl navigating lots of institutions of privilege. And they really didn’t want me to compare myself. So I always wanted to make sure that I knew that I was different, I was unique. And I could do it. So I would say that I carried that in the creator and entrepreneurial space. And when you meet a lot of these people, especially in the cohort that I’m in right now, everyone’s like, collaborative. Everyone wants to help, which is nice. We’re all very supportive. I think the competition comes in via social media, I think I start to compare myself more. So when I’m disconnected from actual people, and I’m just looking at the squares. But when you talk to the person, like, Okay, wait, they’re human, they’re going through this. So I think it’s like, you can become more isolated when you’re just looking at the accomplishments. But when you actually get to the story, which is essentially very, that’s my podcast, then you realize, oh, we’re all navigating this together. And we all have our ups and downs. And we’re all human. But I think it can be really hard when you just look at the numbers. And that can be intimidating when people are talking about their downloads and their their deals and how much money they brought in. That part, for sure, can be challenging, but I try not to be a part of too many of those conversations. And what I try to do is learn from those conversations. So what’s so nice is I’ve been able to be around really established entrepreneurs who’ve been in the game for 10 years plus, and they will talk to me about numbers. And then I start to think about, okay, how can I get there? It’s not competition. It’s this is collaboration, they’re giving me these numbers. So I know what I need to do.
Natalie Franke
Oh, they’re just showing you what’s possible, right? It’s that idea of when you surround yourself with those successful folks. It’s not Oh, I’m not there yet. It’s Wow, look how far I can go. And I love that. I also think, you know, there’s something to be said for finding those spaces, finding those spaces where collaborative mindsets are flourishing, where people are confident, and that’s what I gathered, I mean, gosh, your parents aren’t extraordinary, really, truly do. And, obviously, you have the strong sense of confidence. And that just radiates and then empowers other people to feel confident in who they are such that collaboration can happen in that sort of space. There’s a final question that I love to ask every guest of the show and there’s no right or wrong answer. Everyone has answered it differently. That I would love to know from you, Ashley, what do you believe is the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail? So I
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
think that it’s the people who continue to move forward. They don’t give up. And they’re also intrinsically motivated by the work that they’re doing. They’re not motivated by the numbers. They’re not motivated by the influence. They’re not motivated by the awards, which are great. We want to be able to recognize our accomplishments. And I think there’s nothing wrong with it. But they are purely motivated and intrinsically motivated to do the work, whether it be to serve others, whether it’s to pursue a passion, but it comes from within, because that gives people the resilience to continue. It gives them that muscle, right because this is hard. This journey is so hard. So it really has to come from within because the outside stuff right, the outside stuff is so precarious. It’s so up and down. But that internal stuff that is permanent, and if you stick to it, then those businesses will be very successful.
Natalie Franke
I love it. Oh my gosh, okay, I’m on fire. Thank you so much for joining me today for folks who want to learn more about you and listen to your podcast where can they find you?
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Absolutely then thank you so much for having me. I’ve just had loved this conversation. So yeah, you can find me on social media on LinkedIn, Ashley Menzies Babatunde you can find me on Instagram I’m a millennial, so always on Instagram and no straight path. So in Oh underscore straight underscore path. And then also m s underscore Menzies, me NZ i e s on Instagram as well. And one day I will be active on Tik Tok. But for now, I am just trying to navigate those social media platforms. And of course, you can listen to my show on all podcasting platforms.
Natalie Franke
Amazing. Ashley, thank you so much for joining me today.
Ashley Menzies Babatunde
Thank you.
Natalie Franke
That ends our episode of The Independent Business Podcast. Everything that we’ve discussed today can be [email protected]. Head to our website for access to show notes, relevant links and all of the resources that you need to level up. And if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss our future content. Drop us a review and leave our guests some love on social. Thanks again for listening
