Jun 17, 2019
Leaving a cushy job at a major brand that allows you to travel internationally and lead a team in order to start a business selling products like candles and kimono robes—with you and only you to do—everything? That’s the story of Ashli Stockton, Founder of Sunday Forever, who never set out to build an empire—she was hoping to just break even.
Now she has a team, a growing following, and a successful business that’s been featured in Forbes and InStyle. There is an energy that is easily noticed upon meeting Ashli that is infectious and brings you to quickly believe how unstoppable she has been from the early days of Sunday Forever. Ashli joins Socialfly Co-founder Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about her journey to success and building her company from the ground up, along with a surprise and a brainstorm.
In this episode:
- How Ashli got her start at Victoria’s Secret’s beauty line as an entry level coordinator and worked her way up to a brand development role during her 12 years with the company
- Why getting an executive position at Victoria’s Secret wasn’t the fulfilling role she had hoped it would be, and the moment she realized she had to step away from the company
- The uneasy feeling of having your “dream job” only to dread going into work, and how that sparked the idea for Sunday Forever
- The challenges and anxieties of starting your own business after being an executive at a major brand
- The importance of planning and setting up a safety net when starting your own company and how Ashli mapped out her last year at Victoria’s Secret
- How a trip to Japan set off Ashli’s love for simple elegance, and led her to designing a robe based on a yukata, a summer kimono style
- The year and a half Ashli spent redesigning the yukata she took back from Japan to be more practical and comfortable for western style and lifestyles
- How Ashli learned from her mistakes along the way, and the $10,000 mistake she made because she didn’t believe in herself
- The impulse decision to launch Sunday Forever online, and how the first sale to someone Ashli didn’t know gave her the confidence to push on
- Building a following on social media and expanding a business from your dining room table without a large team to support you
- Ashli’s goals and mission for Sunday Forever, and why she hopes to be a source of light and inspiration in people’s daily life and for those who also experience the “Sunday Scaries”
- How Ashli used her background in beauty to better position some of Sunday Forever’s wellness products, like its more affordable candles
- The process of building a team, from interviewing interns at Starbucks to building a small team of four (plus two dogs, Ted and Wyatt)
- Ashli’s process for bringing new products into the fold, from conception to execution and putting them up for sale
- Why it’s important for Ashli to keep the magic alive with the day to day business of Sunday Forever, and why she’s okay if the company maintains smaller production and sales numbers if it means sustaining a healthy, creative, and fun working environment
- How leading by example, working hard and being passionate about the business, on top of working with a small team, keeps things moving forward positively and constructively, even when times call for some critical feedback
- Why the financial and lifestyle sacrifices Ashli has made by starting Sunday Forever have been completely worth it for the freedom to be the same person at work as she is at home
- Ashli’s plans for Sunday Forever, and why expressing gratitude and building the community around the brand is more important than putting out a lot of new products
- Plus, a 60 second brainstorm about how Ashli can build her email list and start putting out more content to incentivize sharing and grow the brand further!