Barbara Mighdoll (00:00:00) - Welcome, Ashley. It is so good to have you here. It's good to be here. So I have been lucky enough to know Ashley for, I think, at least five years, maybe longer. We co-lead the San Francisco chapter of a global go to market professional community together, and any time Ashley speaks, I feel like I walk away from the conversation smarter with a more strategic lens. So, Ashley, I am so thrilled you're here today to share some of your wisdom on navigating what we have to do to essentially cut through the chaos of motherhood and career. I think you were actually one of the first people to introduce the concept of professional superpowers to me. And I know you are full of superpowers at work, and I really want to pull out how you've taken those superpowers professionally and applied them to your personal life. But before we kind of dive in, I want you to share a little bit of who you are with our listeners who don't know you. What's your elevator pitch, both personally and professionally?

Ashley Grech (00:01:03) - I live in San Francisco with my husband and three sons.

Ashley Grech (00:01:07) - My kids are almost ten, seven and two. I'm a chief revenue officer at a publicly traded mid-cap company that's headquartered in the Southern hemisphere. And so that's a thing. All the travel and coordination that's required there. I've been in fintech for 20 years now, and I just actually really enjoy taking burdensome things off of people's plates. It's who I am naturally as a person, and it's really helped me sort of pick an industry but also get ahead in that industry, too.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:01:37) - I love that. So you are the chief revenue officer at zero and you're a mom to three. Little one's all boys, which is just so much energy as a boy, mom, I can only imagine what three of them are like at once. And they're nine, seven and two. So like peak energy time, can you set the stage for what your life looks like at the present moment? It's really messy.

Ashley Grech (00:01:59) - Looking a lie like it's really messy right now. They're all at different stages. Right. And so like there's three versions of everything in the house clothes, shoes, books, plates, like small, medium, large plate like it's just it's a lot right now.

Ashley Grech (00:02:17) - But you know what. Like they are happy and healthy and that's all that matters. We're finding our balance every day at like, forces me and my husband to like, really communicate well on like, all right, what's changed this week and next week. What's going to change in the in the coming month. Like how do we get in front of it? I travel a fair bit for work. I'm on a plane to the southern hemisphere or to the UK once every six weeks. Wow. And then I am typically on a plane, you know, in between that time at some point to like Denver or Toronto. So that has not been my favorite part of it. But Brian and I think a lot about what what do we need to do to make it work? It's like, what are the most important things that are necessary at every point?

Barbara Mighdoll (00:03:01) - So one of my, my core beliefs is that we as ambitious women can have it all. What having it all means that that definition, I think, varies on your season of life.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:03:11) - But we definitely cannot do it all. So like you said, you've got your partner, your husband, but who are some of the other people in your village that show up for you, and how do they support you through all of these travels? The three sets of plates, the three different schedules, all of that.

Ashley Grech (00:03:27) - First of all, that quote is spot on. You can have it all, but you can't do it all. So if you're lucky enough to be able to have it all, it generally means that you have support. And some people are like, oh, support equals money. You're like, well, not necessarily right. Support can often mean like friends, family or even like within yourself. Like letting go of certain expectations that you had of yourself that nobody cares about but you. So I'll share with you what my sort of like external support network looks like today. It starts with with a great partner I like. Is that not the most important decision career decision to write like no question.

Ashley Grech (00:04:10) - My husband is the most important partner to me on so many fronts and he supports in every way. We have a nanny really, so that someone else can be the bad guy about telling the kids to pick up the socks, someone has to tell them to do it.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:04:25) - Outsource the nagging. Yeah, but at.

Ashley Grech (00:04:28) - Least like half the nagging because I consider myself. I'm like, man, like those words are coming out of my mouth too often. But the truth is, like, they've already come out of someone else's mouth, and that's just what's necessary to raise young children. You know, we're really thoughtful around, like, automating groceries. You know, we we use, like, meal kits, ones that are, like, largely prepped, but you still have to cook them. But I read an article recently about, like, friendship and how critical that is to happiness in life and like, making a marriage work and so I. I will say I have a really good group of friends and I don't know about you, but there's definitely a period in there where you, like, you're so caught up in your own life, like your first child, your second child.

Ashley Grech (00:05:10) - You know where your friendships perhaps take a they become like third, fourth, fifth priority. That has come back for me and it makes a huge difference. One example is my husband went on a much deserved trip with his friends this weekend, and so I was alone with three kids and one of my girlfriends was like, I'll pick up the oldest and take him first to his rehearsal.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:05:33) - Amazing.

Ashley Grech (00:05:34) - It was awesome. I didn't have to prep for lunch or anything. Like she just she was like, I'll just show up. I'll pick them up. That's it. It's nice and and it matters. Like anyone who thinks that they can do it alone, they're wrong.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:05:45) - Absolutely. And I think it's really good to hear that recognition that there is this kind of period in your life and you've experienced it as well. And I definitely did. I kind of called it like loneliness and motherhood, and it took me a while in deep introspection to, like, actually understand why I was feeling lonely because I was like, I've got a lot of friends, I have a lot of family.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:06:07) - But I was feeling this period of loneliness. But I I'm glad to hear that you also experienced that, and you kind of saw your way out of it as life progressed and you moved into a new season with slightly older kids.

Ashley Grech (00:06:21) - I don't think we talk about that period enough as parents and particularly as moms, and even the closest of friends will occasionally say, like, I feel off and I don't know why. So anyway, I'm just putting I'm like acknowledging that like that time is a lot of things. It's not just about prioritization. It's also about like how you feel about, I don't know, like some something's different about how the world is colored.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:06:45) - I totally agree, I that resonates a lot. One of the other things you said that really resonates, and kind of going back to the idea of superpowers, was your term of using automation in your household. And I think anybody in the work world. Right. There's like two prime topics automation in AI. Right. And so talk to me a little bit more about how you've automated or delegated things within your household.

Ashley Grech (00:07:11) - So for me personally, I will hold on to things until they break in my hands like it has to break in order for me to drop the ball. And there's a blessing in that, because then I know that when I let go, I'm like, ready to let go. And I've already made that, like conscious decision to let something go. But one of those moments was maybe when, like, Leo and Damian were three and 1 or 4 and two. I remember I saw this quote and it was meant to be funny, but I was like, what the. It's like, no one appreciates me staying up all night doing things that nobody asked for. And I was like, oh, nobody asked me to do those things. Why am I doing them? It was right around that time where it was tough for me. I had just taken on the job as the head of sales. It was a global role. I was traveling a lot. I had these two really young, beautiful children at home.

Ashley Grech (00:08:01) - We bought a house like everything on paper was like, you should be so happy, and I wasn't. And my husband was like, our kids are not going to remember that you made them lunch for school. They will remember if you are unhappy. Wow, I like I, I got really emotional about it because like, I don't want my children to remember me as being an unhappy parent. How terrible would that be if I was like, okay, something's got to change. So I started with like, I stopped from making lunch. But then that was my philosophy on like, all right, what do I hate? What is also, no one else care about things that I dislike, but other people really, really, really care about. I will keep on the table because it matters to someone. So those things are cooking. My family enjoys food that I have cooked. I don't know what it is, they just love it. And so for me it was like, okay, then I'll stop grocery shopping, essentially.

Ashley Grech (00:08:53) - Like I'm going to I'm going to like buy these meal kits and they send you like all of the ingredients, and then you assemble it and everything is delicious. I don't even really have to think about it other than to, like, set it for weeks in advance. I feel good about that. Other things are, you know, sometimes joke like, oh, wouldn't it be nice to have a wife? Like, yes.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:09:14) - Absolutely.

Ashley Grech (00:09:16) - Like remembers birthdays and, you know, buys a present and, you know, books, the playground for the next birthday party and things like that. There are a bunch of services now that if you give them access to your personal calendar, they will let you know when things are coming up. And then you can assign them. And so it's like, okay, you know, Julian's birthday's coming up in a month, and then all I have to do is say like, yes, find me a venue and they'll ask them, like, do you want a theme? I'm like, yeah.

Ashley Grech (00:09:44) - And then I'm like, no. But I can.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:09:48) - Like, feel the mental load like lightning just from this service. But but okay, let's use this birthday example. I'm a very particular person. How do you let go? Like, I would easily delegate things at work because I trust in my team. But for personal decisions, sometimes it just feels harder. How did you come to terms with letting go of some of this stuff?

Ashley Grech (00:10:10) - I did a little bit of that weighing of like, is this going to matter to them? So, for example, my ten year old's birthday is going to be a big deal. The two year old's birthday is going to be in the park, and we're going to get a bunch of pizza and some cake and like, nobody cares. Literally nobody cares as long as there's pictures and the grandparents are there, that's all that matters, right? So like there is a prioritization actually even of the things that I have preferences on. Yeah. I think that comes from like you have to drop the ball.

Ashley Grech (00:10:39) - I think it's Tiffany Duffy's book. I think it's called Drop the Ball, where it's like in order to be great at some things, you just have to let go of some of the other things. And so I think for me, it's like a constant calibration of like, okay, do I care about this on a scale of 1 to 10, anyone else care about this on a scale of 1 to 10? If not, then like let's adjust our our expectations. And we do that at work too. It's like, all right, how important is this thing for me to own myself versus like, okay, if someone can get it to 80%, is that okay? And then I can get it to the last 20%. And so we do it all the time at work. I just don't think we're fair to ourselves in doing it at home. And frankly, there's so many more things actually at home.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:11:17) - Yeah. Well, like, I just want I want to pause for a second. I just want to reiterate that it's okay to let somebody else get it to 80%, and you finish the 20%.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:11:28) - That is the definition of not doing it all. I love that, I love that mentality.

Ashley Grech (00:11:33) - By the way. It sounds fancy where I'm like, oh, I have a virtual assistant. But it's not that fancy. It's like 40 bucks a month and I have so much left.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:11:44) - Of your mental load. That's amazing. I love.

Ashley Grech (00:11:46) - This. They say like, oh, 40 bucks a month and there's like 15 tasks and you're like, that's that's enough. Just a little lightweight boost. That's enough.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:11:55) - What a what a great life hack. Thank you for sharing that. I want to kind of shift gears a little bit and get into one of the reasons I admire you so much, which is that you are a woman and a mother in not only a male dominated role of sales in revenue, but also a male dominated industry of fintech. So I assume that there are probably some moments you have experienced that have been really frustrating, where you feel like potentially some of your colleagues don't truly understand kind of what's going on behind the scenes.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:12:31) - I don't think I'll ever forget, like I came back from my second maternity leave and my VP of sales was like, oh, I don't know if you're going to come back. And I could imagine that that is probably a more common attitude than not in certain fields and industries. And so can you kind of talk to me a little bit about what your experience has been like working in this industry as a woman, in a parent?

Ashley Grech (00:12:54) - Sure. I'll start with finance and I will say, you know, I was with JP Morgan for 13 years and they were very much on the earlier end of the diversity and inclusion in the workplace, particularly around female representation. And even then, most of the people that were in leadership roles had a stay at home spouse. Very few of them were women in the 1 or 2 that you could count in the senior most levels. On one hand, they typically had a stay at home partner, and so it was like, I don't have that, like, how are we going to do that? And, you know, my male peers never talked about their kids.

Ashley Grech (00:13:29) - So it's almost as if they didn't exist. They didn't really talk about their spouse. There certainly didn't seem to be any like, responsibility. It sounds unfair when I say it, but like it was how I felt at the time. I was like, how can you go to happy hour all the time? Or how come, like, you get to go golfing on the weekends, like who, who's taking care of your children? And I remember, you know, at 1.1 of my male colleagues was like, I'm going to run a triathlon. I'm like, who's looking after your kids? Yeah, I'm like, with what time? Right? So I will say it was never pernicious, but there there's lots of unconscious bias like, similar to you. I came back from my second mat leave and my systems were not active, and it's like nobody really thought anything of it. They were like, oh, well, I'm like, they knew my return date. And yet I was without systems like no Salesforce, nothing for a solid two weeks.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:14:25) - What a waste of your time and theirs. Right.

Ashley Grech (00:14:28) - And I was like, I and then someone asked me how my vacation was and I was like.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:14:35) - I would be infuriated.

Ashley Grech (00:14:37) - I know I was like, well, you know, not washing your hair regularly is not a vacation. But thank you for asking. So anyway, it was it was difficult, but I would actually say it, it perhaps overcorrect it in a way that I could no longer be them. Right? Like the best you can hope for if you're sort of imitating someone that you're not, is to be a watered down, less successful version of them. So the only way out of that was, how do I just be myself? How do I bring the things that I know I'm great at to the forefront and just be really good, which hopefully will outweigh the difference, like the non sameness? Right, right. And that worked for me. And I did vow at that point to not hide my differences. Like I still sometimes, even today, hesitate in saying I can't do that because I have to pick up the kids.

Ashley Grech (00:15:34) - But that's changing year over year, like I will say with more certainty, like it's my responsibility. I'm going to do that or I will be offline at six. But I think the best thing you can be is yourself. Every everyone else is taken like whatever that quote is like everyone else is taken and authentically.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:15:51) - Yeah. It's like what we were talking about.

Ashley Grech (00:15:53) - Is uplift for me.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:15:54) - So after everything you've experienced, how do you think about as a leader what you can do to really shift and change company culture?

Ashley Grech (00:16:05) - I think it starts with transparency, right? Sharing that how we do things, like everyone's hoping for the book, like someone just tell me what to do. So I think the more we can be transparent around like how we're making it all work, I think that's really important. The second, and this is actually more of like an HR note, is that I do think that companies should consider benefits that support our lives more. For example, a company that I work for, we we got a care.com benefit where we would get back updates.

Ashley Grech (00:16:38) - And it was backup days for pet care, elder care and child care. And it's like, that is how you do your job. If you sort of squint around that, the other element of that is like, I can do my job well if my home is cared for.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:16:55) - So true. My husband had that same benefit at his last company, and when he left that job, I was so sad to lose that because, yeah, we had ten days of backup and you never know, like, schools are closed a lot. There's a lot of vacation days, you know, in school. And it's it comes in handy.

Ashley Grech (00:17:11) - One one last thing about creating a more accepting workplace is perhaps more surprising and less talked about. It's the prevalence of documentation culture as opposed to meeting culture. So I don't disagree. Collaboration is really important and it's what greases the wheels, no question. But I really appreciated being immersed in a doc culture because one, it forced you to write out your thoughts and it really forces very crisp articulation of an argument.

Ashley Grech (00:17:44) - But what it also did, some like ancillary side effects, is it allows people to comment with equal voice. So in a meeting, usually only the boldest, most outgoing person will command the room with their arguments, with their feedback, with ideas. But in a doc, anyone can comment. And it really equalizes the quietest voice and the loudest voice. And that is a huge difference maker, especially for women in the workplace. I saw it with my own eyes and I'm never going back. Like, it's really important to me that people have an equal voice. And I think doc culture really helps.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:18:20) - That makes so much sense, and I've never thought about that in a job search. Perspective of things to look for in a company, and I love that. I want to I want to jump back to something. Earlier you also said around your maternity leave. So I think there's so much fear and anxiety around what going on maternity leave will do to our careers. And so I'm curious, like, you went back to work and all of your systems were turned off.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:18:48) - Like, how did that make you feel? Like obviously that surprised you. Were there other things that surprised you.

Ashley Grech (00:18:57) - Didn't surprise me, I was disappointed, I was really disappointed because I wanted to feel like when I was leaving home, I was walking into a place that was really excited to receive me. Right. Like it then it's it's I hesitate to use word worth it, but like, then it makes it okay that like you're needed, you're wanted there when you return. And so I would say like as companies think about a return to work processes, they would do well to remember what someone is leaving behind and to really welcome them back. Yeah, it's nice to feel needed at work. Otherwise I wouldn't have chosen to go back right? Like, yes, you need the money too, right? But there is an element of like, how do you how do you step back into the workplace and how are you welcomed and received. And so I think about that a lot.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:19:50) - I think is really interesting.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:19:51) - Looking back at your previous experiences, like if you're going to create your own maternity leave playbook, right, to own that process, both leaving and returning, what would you advise our listeners to build?

Ashley Grech (00:20:06) - One thing is to take your own job and break it out into all the jobs to be done. So we often think of our jobs as like a monolithic thing. But if you were to like, break it down into a job description, for example, like what are the components of the job description? And then think about who you can assign those respective components to one, because it's not fair to assign everything to someone else. It's impossible. But the other is like that. They won't all get done if there are sort of wholesale place somewhere. And so how do you think about dividing it and then discuss that the jobs to be done with you? I always think of actually thinking about when we hire someone too, because my team will come to me and they'll be like, we need to hire for this role, like for whatever role, like, is that a full job? Or are those like jobs to be done and where can we put them? Can we outsource them? We can get a contractor to do these these like focused specific jobs.

Ashley Grech (00:20:53) - And so the same rules apply. When you think about your own mat leave, how do you break it down and where do they go. And if you're at a company lucky enough where there's like true backup, then that's great. If not, then have a conversation with your boss about it, and then also force a conversation about prioritization. It's like, all right, if we can't do all of these things in my absence, like, what are the most important things to do? And having an opinion on it first really, really matters. Then on the personal side, I would say, sit down with your spouse and talk about the things that you really want to be true about having like a wonderful experience, not just like surviving, because I think we all joke about it. It's like sort of a cultural trope to joke about survival at that time, but like. Best case scenario. What does a wonderful leave look like? And then from that mindset, start jotting down the things that can help make that a reality.

Ashley Grech (00:21:47) - Look, when we had Julien, who's our third, that like broke the mold. Like I will fully admit, like for us, we were like, I'm not sure how we're going to do this. Like it was the ultimate reflex of like, I just can't, I can't why I was working harder than I had ever been working, ever. I had this big job at square, big global role, and I just didn't know how I was going to do it. Like I couldn't in my brain, like reorganize all the pieces. And that is my superpower. And I knew at that moment, like, because I couldn't access my innate problem solving ability around it. I was like, something's not working. At that point. When I found out I was pregnant with my third, I muscled through it for another like ten weeks or so. But then ultimately I ended up leaving. But honestly, like, what a wonderful decision because it it gave me the space to really think about, like, what do I want a leave period to look like? My husband and I were like, okay, we want to love this time.

Ashley Grech (00:22:49) - The first two times we were just trying to make it. How do we make it so that we love the first 12 weeks, let's say, of of your third child and likely your last. And so we, we really like got down to brass tacks and it was like, what's it going to take? It means that, you know, we minimize visitors for the first four weeks. Let's like actually order a meal service. They're terribly expensive. I'm not gonna lie. It was it was like. But we saw it as like a finite time. I was like, okay, for two months. We're just like, we're just going to. We're not going to cook at all. We're going to like, enjoy baby bath time. I'm going to I'm going to shower. Like, I'm going to go on walks, like all the things that you like, you try to add up and the numbers don't. They don't stack. You're like, I have to do laundry, I have to nap.

Ashley Grech (00:23:39) - I have to wash my hair, I have to cook, I have to feed the baby to like. And then the only thing that actually happens is you wind up feeding the baby.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:23:47) - Oh, yeah. Praying that somebody around you is going to notice that you literally cannot put another dish in the sink because there is no room.

Ashley Grech (00:23:54) - Exactly. So I think it was like we really prioritized the things that we wanted to take off our plates so that we could fill our cups with other things.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:24:03) - I love that, and I love that you took your first two experiences right as the catalyst to be like, we're going to make this different and we know where we cannot own those tasks. We know the bandwidth at this point. And like those investments make a huge difference. Hopefully that you were able to like, enjoy that period more than you were for for your previous. Not to mention, you also had your kids, right that you had to to think about and still manage that household component.

Ashley Grech (00:24:32) - That's a good call though, in that I also didn't want to be some like exhausted rage monster.

Ashley Grech (00:24:39) - Yeah, with my other beautiful kids that can remember now, right. Like I just I didn't want that experience and and you know what? Like it turned out really well. It was the best year on record.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:24:52) - Okay, we I need to go deeper into this around the fact that you left your job while pregnant. And just a pause here. I remember we were at a dinner and I was pregnant. My second was born, maybe just even a couple of weeks after after your third. And so you're a mother to me. You're showing more and you're like, I'm pregnant and I'm leaving my job, like you told me both of those things at once. And I was like, what? You are making the conscious decision to leave your job while pregnant. It's usually the opposite, right? You're like, I'm definitely not leaving my job when I'm pregnant. And so talk to me about that decision. Like, how did you come to that decision and come to terms with the fact that, like, you wouldn't get that coveted maternity leave that people are normally like sticking it out for?

Ashley Grech (00:25:39) - I think even the way you said it reflected how I felt in the past two times where I was like, I just had to get through this.

Ashley Grech (00:25:48) - And I thought, man, what a way to live, where we're constantly just trying to get through our biggest milestones, our most beautiful, enriching, important legacies, and I'm just trying to get through it. I think there was an unconscious element where I, I remember finding out that I was pregnant and being simultaneously, like, happy and also just flat out, like, terrified. I was like, how am I going to do this? I already am in the biggest job I've ever been in, right? With the biggest team I've ever managed and the most responsibility overall. And so I just it was one of those moments where I was like, I can't even imagine coming back from leave into the same job. And then I gave it a week and I was like, I think something's wrong in that statement, actually. If I can't imagine coming back into this job at all again. Like I couldn't access my own superpowers. Like I have very high tolerance for chaos, and I'm really good at taking things that are hard and figuring them out.

Ashley Grech (00:26:51) - And because I couldn't, I was like, I don't think this is the job.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:26:55) - That must have taken so much. I feel like given the job you were in, in how chaotic it was, your life is a lot like, I just feel like that must have been the hardest decision to make.

Ashley Grech (00:27:07) - It was it was hard. But I think, you know, one thing that I would tell anyone is that anything is figure out. Well, and so maybe our greatest gift to ourselves is to, like, drop the expectations of what we should be doing. I should go on this leave. I should return, right? We often think like what's in front of us. And then there's the unknown. And we don't explore the unknown. But if if within the unknown, we know that everything is going to be fine, then we'll get there. I realize now it's not about like, oh, do you regret it or not? It's more like I recognize something in myself where at the time I was exhausted and I, I have vowed like, not to allow myself to get to that same point where I am incapable of making good decisions.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:27:52) - Good.

Ashley Grech (00:27:53) - That's great. I think also as parents, we feel from time to time I. I recognize it occasionally in friends when they're like, I don't feel happy or disappointed, I just don't feel anything. I'm like, just trying to get through it. And you're like, okay, there are times like that, but like, let's not make that the normal.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:28:09) - I resonate with that so much because I feel like the last few months I was in my last job, that's how I felt, and it took me a while to feel confident and comfortable even saying that out loud. And so I'm curious for you. Like, obviously you and your partner have such a good communication, but like, how did that conversation go? Were you like, I'm going to take this amount of time off? How did you set up for that financially? Like how did you work with your partner on this?

Ashley Grech (00:28:34) - Well, look, he has always been super supportive. We're not big spenders to begin with, to be honest.

Ashley Grech (00:28:39) - And we always joke that the greatest success in life is to not spend so that you can have what he calls F.U. Money, which is like, if you don't want to be at this job, you can like throw the cards on the table and be like, I'm out. And we always joked about it, but this was the only time it's ever actually you had it. Yeah. Like, all right, well, can we do this? So sure we can do it. Like it'll be fine. So we had ample savings. He was working at the time in a job that was fine. Like it wouldn't cover everything, including the mortgage, but it would. It would cover most. And so everything else would just figure it out. And we sort of gave ourselves like 6 to 8 months. And I knew that if the 6 to 8 months was was good mental milestones to figure out, like, okay, that sounds like a reasonable time. And then we cut down our nanny's hours as well.

Ashley Grech (00:29:29) - So there were some trade offs in the mix. But I think the key point to to point out was like we were ready for it before it happened.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:29:37) - Yeah, I love that. So fast forward, you kind of went on this pause, you enjoyed your maternity leave and you ended up landing in your current role after some time. I'm so curious, and I was really excited to talk to you about this today. You talk about going to Australia, New Zealand. You have actually like brought your entire family with you for like long periods of time. And I would love to know more about this. Like, how are you doing that? Your husband's coming. All three of your kids have come with you. Like, how are you doing that? Tell me how you're doing this. Because I think a lot of people would love to find a role that, like, required them to travel, but then bring their family along with them.

Ashley Grech (00:30:22) - You know, like so many things, the first time you hear it, you're like, no, that's crazy.

Ashley Grech (00:30:28) - And then you give it a week and you're like, well, you know, maybe it's not so crazy. And then honestly, like, you know, three weeks later we're like, okay, we can do it. Like so I think the first the first step is genuinely asking yourself, like, is it crazy? Like, has anyone ever done this before? Like, is that even possible? And then then ask yourself, why do I believe that? Why do I believe it's crazy? Because the kids are in school, because my husband's working. Because we need childcare. What? Like where would we even live? We can't live in a hotel room. And then you break down each and every one of those. You're like, all right, we don't have to live in a hotel room. We're going to Airbnb, and it's going to be the same cost as the companies per diem on hotels. No problem. Actually. Check, right? Get yourself an Airbnb outside of central downtown. Whatever.

Ashley Grech (00:31:14) - Right. Get it in a suburb. And I guarantee you it's the same. It's the same. Price is a per diem. Right? And then it's like, okay, the kids are in school, so can I take them out of school? What would that entail? So we like we you know, over the course of a few weeks, my husband and I, like we went to the school. We asked them like, what would that require? What is home study look like? And then we were like, all right, it's a lot. It's. Still a lot. So what if we just did it essentially between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so they only miss four weeks of school and then they get Thanksgiving off. Right. And then we can roll it into the Christmas holidays. And then it was like, okay, what are we to do about the nanny and ask the nanny, do you want to come? And she was like, yes. So she did come with us. But we also my big kids, a Chinese tutor, Chinese tutor came three times a week like so it we like we made it work and then we legitimately lived there.

Ashley Grech (00:32:07) - Like we lived in a neighborhood where we got to know the playground. We went to the supermarket every week like it was fun. And so I would say like, everything is figure out, well, the most important thing though is to like break down the limiting beliefs in there. Like, why do I think that this is impossible?

Barbara Mighdoll (00:32:23) - Yes, I think a lot of people this is going to spark like, okay, maybe I maybe I can do this because I think a lot of us right, have kind of like this wanderlust. We want to travel still with our kids, but like, we're balancing work, right? Just can't take a month off that easily. And figuring out some ways potentially to like layer on a work trip to like extend it work somewhere else. If you work remote like these, things are possible. So I hope. I hope you've inspired a few people listening that I hope so do this.

Ashley Grech (00:32:52) - Next up, we'll probably do it over the summer so that we don't have to like worry with the homeschool.

Ashley Grech (00:32:57) - But you can find, you know, a babysitter or a nanny in another country for a month or two, or even just a few weeks. Like all of that is possible.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:33:06) - It really is. Looking back, is there like a mantra or an affirmation or a one liner you would tell yourself on your hardest of days where it felt like work, motherhood, self-identity, were were all colliding at once?

Ashley Grech (00:33:20) - The thing I tell myself on days like that is you can do hard things. You have already done hard things. That's it.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:33:28) - Simple, but so effective.

Ashley Grech (00:33:31) - It's always true. It's always been true. And as I said, like everything is figure out, well, I love it.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:33:37) - Thank you for inspiring me. And I'm sure so many of our listeners today. Ashley, what's the best way for our audience to connect with you after this episode?

Ashley Grech (00:33:46) - You can find me on LinkedIn and I look forward to keep chatting with us over time.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:33:50) - Ashley, thank you so much for being here. I think everybody is walking away with that more strategic version of themselves like I promised they would in the beginning of this episode.

Barbara Mighdoll (00:34:01) - Thank you so much.

Ashley Grech (00:34:02) - Thank you. Have a great day.