New Jersey supremacy, all day every day. For those who know, summer in Jersey doesn’t end with the calendar. But still, here we are, closing the season. (IYKYK. If you don’t, reply and I’ll explain.)

🎶 Newsletter Sounds: a few tracks that carried me through August. Listen here while you read.

One word for August? Trust.
Trusting God with the steps I can’t see.
Trusting myself to execute the vision I hold.
Trusting my people to show up with belief, love, and care.

August started with birthday celebrations (shout out to being a 7/31 baby). Once the candles were blown out, it was time to lock in.

My friend Tish hosted an event with Fabrik called From Cringe to Community: Showing Up Online with Purpose. Supporting friends is always an easy yes, and Tish is a fabulous human being. Even though I had already climbed “cringe mountain” back in March, this event showed me there was still a hesitation in showing up fully online. Which is kind of wild because when I was in corporate, being vocal, straightforward, and passionate was never an issue. On my own it somehow felt harder. I have my theories.

So I made myself a promise to build that muscle. That meant really putting my perspective out there, unfiltered, for everyone to see. I also kicked off a 30-day content challenge, posting 4–5 times a week on Threads and LinkedIn. I am two weeks in and already seeing concrete results: more followers, more invites for meetups both IRL and online, and honestly just feeling more natural showing up on the internet. Big win.

I refused to leave August without getting the F3 event schedule together and resuming programming. We are 90% there, still ironing out what Tech Weeks will look like both locally and cross country. You can check out the current schedule here: F3 Events.

August also brought our biggest turnout yet for the monthly breakfast series. Fifty (50!!!) people in the room, all looking to give and receive support as they raise capital. Before my summer break, I used worksheets to anchor the conversations and make sure people were intentional. Since I am still largely a team of one, I knew I did not have the bandwidth to create something at that level of detail.

So I went back to the basics. There are endless ways to make an event meaningful and I do not always need a worksheet to do that. Instead, I set one main question for the group to workshop: What is one big question about your raise or feedback you have gotten that you are stuck on? Each person had two minutes to share context, one minute where others asked clarifying questions, and two minutes of feedback.

I built this structure after feedback from an early attendee who had a great time but felt like she gave more than she got. This format makes sure every founder walks away with support they can act on and a chance to contribute to others. Worksheets might come back in the future, but for now, this is the model we are running with.

Another highlight was announcing that F3 is a proud partner for the 8th Annual Sistas In Sales Summit. SiS is a global force redefining sales leadership for women of color, and I am so grateful that Chantel George and her team see fractional talent as part of that conversation.

The piece we are leading is the Reverse Pitch Competition sponsored by ADP. This is where the script gets flipped. Founders will be pitching seasoned sales and GTM leaders on why they should choose them. It is a chance to attract high-caliber talent on terms that actually work for your stage and your needs, whether that is short-term firepower or a longer-term partnership.

Even if you do not walk away with a match, you will leave with live, candid feedback from experts who hear pitches every single day. That kind of perspective sharpens your story for investors, partners, and customers.

Founders, we need you. There is still time to apply. If you have questions, reply to this email. If you know you want in, apply HERE.

The last update of the month, but definitely not the least: the name change. The practitioner side of my business is officially moving from Ashley Grace Consultancy to Startup Baddie. Honestly, I thought this change was still months away, but I felt the push from God to stop waiting. The support from the community, both online and in person, was incredible. I could not have asked for a better response.

The why behind it is simple. This summer reminded me that I was not put on this path to be anything other than myself. I tell founders all the time to know their differentiator and show up clearly in it, yet I was hesitating to do the same. The truth is I have never had a problem being vocal when it mattered, whether that was in corporate, with family and friends, or even strangers. I was not going to let societal expectations or conditioning keep me from being me.

Who I am is someone who loves building businesses and loves doing it with responsibility, excellence, personality, and humanity. That is the energy of Startup Baddie. It now houses everything I do — consulting, fractional work, content, and community building — for founders, medium-sized companies, and brands.

The fall is shaping up to be productive and exciting.

What got you here won’t get you there.

All my life I’ve never been afraid to be the first, to go after what I wanted even if it meant going alone. That fearlessness is what got me here today and why I’m not sitting in a corporate job. Entrepreneurship has been humbling and deeply spiritual. It has required me to be honest not just with myself, but with others.

I am grateful for the life I’ve built up to this point, and I recognize it’s time for a shift. What will get me to everything God has in store is not just boldness, it is community. That means letting people in more. It means giving people the chance to both disappoint me and surprise me. It means not being afraid to ask for support when I need it, especially since I’ve always been the one others lean on. The truth is, I am deserving of support too.

For me right now, the practice is discernment — knowing when to sit with something on my own and when to bring others in for guidance, processing, or simply to hold space.

And why share this in a newsletter for founders and builders?

Because if building a business were as simple as plugging numbers into a formula, everyone would do it. The truth is, entrepreneurship demands more. It demands mindset. It demands good mental health practices. It demands stamina. It demands that we unlearn old ways of being and step into the version of ourselves we know we can be, even if we haven’t been there yet.

Lately I’ve been daydreaming about what it would look like to have a B2B Haus at SXSW.

Picture it: a space where content creators come together not just to record, but to host events, spark conversations, and create mini activations with startups and bigger brands alike. A true hub where creativity and business collide.

That’s all I’ve got for now — I’ll circle back once the mood board is complete.

This month was less about books and more about podcasts and articles that fed me in different ways. Here are a few that stood out:

“I Should Be Smarter By Now” is Issa Rae’s new essay collection, and I came across an article recapping one of her stories that really stuck with me. She shared how an impulsive move almost cost her everything. She invested every dollar she had into producing three pilots that never got picked up. On paper, that could have looked like failure. But that risk eventually led to the success of Color Creative, her management and production company with her partner.

The reminder for me: sometimes the step that looks like failure is actually what redirects you toward the momentum or information you need.

Fun fact — my mom is the one who sent me this piece. Her takeaway to me: “The saying that anything worth having you have to fight for is true. Don’t give up.”

While approving attendees for the 8/26 F3 event, I noticed something wild: a few signups came through with the UTM source “chatgptcom.” At first, I thought people had literally discovered me through ChatGPT, which blew my mind. After digging in, I realized it actually comes from people using ChatGPT to draft copy and then pasting links — the parameter just sticks.

Even though it wasn’t exactly what I thought, it pushed me to dig deeper into how GenAI is shaping discoverability. Lenny Rachitsky did an episode of Lenny’s Podcast with Brian Balfour of Reforge that broke down why ChatGPT could become the next big growth channel and how leadership should be thinking about it (and preparing their workforce for it).

The takeaway: New distribution channels don’t always come around super often, and it’ll be critical to get in on the ground floor. It’s a bit early to understand how to take advantage of it fully, so being aware is a start. What is important to do is accept AI is already shifting how people find, share, and connect with our work.

I also carved out time to listen to McKinsey’s How Strategy Champions Win. As someone who left corporate partly because I felt big business had abandoned fundamentals, this resonated. Diversified companies can sometimes get away with careless or ego-driven strategy. Startups cannot. Fundamentals matter.

For me, fundamentals mean really knowing:

From there, you can articulate the bigger picture:

This podcast defined strategy, showed how to test if yours holds up, and reminded me how much the human and social side of business impacts execution. That last point is why I weave mental concepts into my work — because whether it’s AI or strategy, people and their complexities will always reign supreme if left unchecked.

Here are two resources I found helpful:

Clarity on bringing F3 online
We’re close. What became clear is that the caliber of events I already put on is the differentiator — the value is there, and it can be packaged within a membership model. We’re also testing platforms (Chatbcc is a serious contender) and brainstorming how to facilitate higher-quality introductions. Long term, I’m thinking about hands-on learning opportunities that move people forward as they build their businesses.

Consistent content
We kicked off the 30-day challenge, and it’s working. Calls are already being scheduled based on what I’m putting out there, so we’re moving in the right direction.

West Coast partners for Tech Week
Still in progress, but moving forward!

Whether you’re looking for a thought partner, a fresh perspective, or someone to help you get unstuck, here’s how I currently support folks:

If something here speaks to you (or someone you know), I’d love to hear from you.

If you made it this far, thank you. Hit reply and let me know what landed — or what you want more of next time. I’d love to hear from you.

Grateful you’re here. Talk soon.

xx,
Ashley
Startup Baddie