Conversations With #AskAsh Ashley Shuler

All this talk about communication might have you thinking– what is the true cost of poor communication?
If you’ve got that question in your head, you’re in the right place! This episode is largely my rant on how to spot and improve poor communication. 
We’ve got some hard statistics on the almost unimaginable expense to productivity and profitability that poor communication causes. Once I paint that picture for you I won’t leave you hanging– I’ve got a ton of approaches and exercises that you can implement to start improving your communication today!
In this episode, we break down…What constitutes poor communication and why it existsHow ineffective communication accounted for over $1.2 Trillion in annual losses among businesses in 2022The specific elements that make up the culture of communication in your organization and teamsStrategies you can use to develop better communication amongst your teamThe differences between internal and external communication and how to improve each
Key Quotes & Conclusions…“Leaders estimate teams lose the equivalent of an entire workday– 7.47 hours each week– to poor communication. Approximately $12,506 per employee.”“You want to begin to understand as individuals, how should we communicate?  This goes to knowing yourself as well as the other person.”“We have tools that will help us become efficient. Will you let technology help you?”“You want to be vocal, you want to discuss with one another. How are we going to communicate? How will we collaborate, what tools will we use– what is our process?”“Where do I stand in terms of how I communicate? What could be better?  What could improve? What’s going well? Evaluate what’s working and what’s not.”
Resources Mentioned:Grammarly Plug-in
Clickup
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The Sprint with #AskAsh

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Website: https://www.ashleyshuler.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyshuler/
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YouTube:a href="All this talk about communication might have you thinking– what is the true cost of poor communication? If you’ve got that question in your head, you’re in the right place! This episode is largely my rant on how to spot and improve poor communication. We’ve got some hard statistics on the almost unimaginable expense to productivity and profitability that poor communication causes. Once I paint that picture for you I won’t leave you hanging– I’ve got a ton of approaches and exercises...

Alright entrepreneurs! Well, not just entrepreneurs, but for anyone that works with clients on a daily basis, this one’s for you! 
Today we’re joined again by Qwantel Mosley, a great friend of mine who left her job to become an online business manager. For those of you thinking of going out on your own to coach, consult, freelance or anything else having to do with clients– Qwantel is your girl to help answer those inevitable first-timer questions.
So sit back and take notes as I guide us through Qwantel’s journey to becoming a successful and efficient business owner. There's a ton to learn and apply directly to your own business in this one!
In this episode, we break down…Managing client relationships in a way that's healthy for all parties involvedHow to specialize, grow your business, and provide enough value with hard ROI to justify a higher retainerThe importance of having contracts in place when managing multiple projectsHow to handle a situation where things DON'T go as planned within client work, and how bad communication is often at the root of the problemKnowing when to walk away from a project that just isn't the right fit, and how to do so professionally
Key Quotes & Conclusions…"You're on retainer; you don't want to get comfortable. It's like if you're in a relationship and stop going on dates. If you let it go stale, it will.""It's important that you know when to walk away, and understand that every project is not the best project. You have to be careful with getting caught in your feelings.""Communication is so huge in just the discovery call itself. When you start asking these deep questions and they answer them in ways that give you 'uh-oh' feelings; pay attention to your internal understanding.""There could be a thousand things, but what is the thing you feel is hindering your funds from coming through when it comes to your actual marketing? So, that's the first thing I ask whenever I ask someone to prioritize.”"If the things that you present to me within your goals tell me that you have no time to dissect all the ideas that are within your head, we probably should not be on retainer."
Connect with Qwantel:Connect with Qwantel: https://qwantellatay.com/  

Follow Qwantel on Instagram

WORK WITH ASHLEY:
Wanna Mastermind Together? 
The Sprint with #AskAsh
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 CONNECT WITH ASHLEY:
Website: https://www.ashleyshuler.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyshuler/
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Who’s still working from home? The world was forever changed when COVID forced us all out of the office and into the home office. But every company, team and manager is different when it comes to ongoing work-from-home policy.
For today’s show, I invited Juan Alvarado back on the podcast to discuss what’s really driving the decisions around working from home. We get into all the details about how work from home is working, the considerations of managers and employees, and much more.
In this episode, we break down…What Juan has seen in the day and age of “return to the office, or not?”How remote teams are built and managedThe root causes behind the “quiet quitting” trendHow to truly get to know your staff and team membersCreating and maintaining a true bond with you team remotely
Key Quotes & Conclusions…“Staff will go to work for a paycheck because it pays their bills, but they’ll stay because of the relationships that they have there.”“It’s OK to mess up. We need to make sure that we have the right people around you so that if you’re stuck, you feel comfortable enough to ask for assistance.”“Less than a third of people say that in the last 6 months they have been recognized, and for a majority of those people that have been recognized; it’s been from a co-worker”“In a world today where a lot of people get offended for every little thing, people are really careful about what they say. Sometimes when you’re too careful you’re going to screw up your message. Just come out and say what you need and what you want, but do it professionally.”“Connect with remote workers I would say 2-3 times a week, one of those times being about anything but work.”
Connect With Juan:Juan Alvarado LinkedIn
Juan’s Personal Website
WORK WITH ASHLEY:
Wanna Mastermind Together? 
The Sprint with #AskAsh: https://me.volley.app/askash

Book me to speak at your conference, mastermind, or next event:
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CONNECT WITH ASHLEY:
Website: https://www.ashleyshuler.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyshuler/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleyshuler_/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ashleyshuler

Knowledge is power! But your knowledge is only as powerful as it is accessible and appropriately distributed throughout an organization. Thankfully, in this episode we are tackling the topic of knowledge management from top to bottom!
You may or may not have heard of knowledge management before, but as a concept, it’s been around for quite a while! We explore some of the more well-known and proven definitions of it and talk about the reality of how to manage knowledge within your teams and life.
This is a hefty one to cover, so notetaking is strongly encouraged! Don’t be shy– break out those notepads and journals and follow me as we dive into this transformational topic.
In this episode, we break down…What is knowledge management? We explore and evaluate different definitions from key industry players.How does knowledge management work? What does it do?The three types of knowledge– explicit, tacit, and implicit– and how to manage them each differently.The foundational components of making a knowledge management database.What a knowledge base is and how to create your own.
Key Quotes & Conclusions…“How can we make sure that we’re utilizing past projects, initiatives and programs in such a way that we can really look at the progression of it, take from the different components of it, build upon, learn from it, and create something fantastic?”“Knowledge management is about getting the right knowledge to the right person at the right time.”“People need information; it needs to be in a place in space where people can act on it and make decisions, get the work done, get back to clients, help other team members and people in their communities.”“This is not about replicating a particular person’s swag and how they’re able to go about doing this– there’s no way that you can duplicate that. But, if we’re talking about knowing just the right words to use within copy to attract and engage your audience, that is tacit knowledge.”“A knowledge base improves communication because you’re not trying to remember what needs to be said or recall information.”
Resources Mentioned:Notion
Google Sheets
ClickUp

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Let me paint this picture for you– it’s 9 AM Monday morning, and you’re scrambling to pull your calendar up to join the team's meeting to prep for the executive meeting where you’ll prepare for that big client meeting coming up next week. What fun!
Most people don’t love meetings they feel are unnecessary. There’s a variety of reasons why your teammates may feel like that, and we’re going to break them down in this episode.
The more efficient you can make your meetings by planning, executing, and including the right people, the more your team will thank you for valuing their time inside and outside of the meeting itself!
In this episode, we break down…What is a meeting to begin with? What differentiates meetings from regular conversations or interactions?The specific reasons why people hate meetings, so that we can understand and hopefully constructively change them.The different types of meetings that there are, how long they typically take, and what’s typically covered in each.How to effectively organize and execute meetings so that people feel their time is valued and the meeting itself was successful and productive.The ways that you can actually hold meetings, whether it be remote or in person.
Key Quotes & Conclusions…“Video conferences increase productivity by 89%.”“The top 5 reasons why people hate meetings: 
1. There’s no focus
2. There’s too many people in the meeting
3. People are arriving late or leaving early
4. There are no action items or next steps 
5. There are no notes being taken”
“Who is facilitating the meeting? You want to make sure that there is a time limit for each topic, so that you’re not running over, people are not getting bored, and you have the right people speaking at the right time.”“You want to leave room for creativity and questions. I think it’s really important that you leave room for people to create solutions, and also think outside the box and ask questions. How are you actually going to create an environment that facilitates creativity and questions?”“Reaching consensus doesn’t mean that everybody likes the decision. You may say at the beginning of the meeting, ‘Hey, we need to make a decision on these three things.’ That’s just getting people ready and setting their expectations.”
Resources Mentioned:SlackGoogle Meet
Google Hangouts
ClickUp
Asana
Notion
Otter.ai
WORK WITH ASHLEY:
Wanna Mastermind Together? 
The Sprint with #AskAsh: https://me.volley.app/askash

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Now that we’ve laid out some of the important pillars behind communication throughout the earlier episodes of this series– let’s get down to business! How does one actually apply these learnings to create a communications plan?
You might think creating guidelines for the way your organization and its components communicate is overkill, or may even make things awkward or inefficient. Rather than forcing unrealistic guidelines and processes on your team, to create a proper communications plan is to consider the most efficient and therefore comfortable ways of getting information to the right places at the right times.
Framed that way, it’s actually about eliminating that awkwardness and inefficiency before it arises, and adapting between what works and does not work overtime! Now you might ask yourself, “how does one go about doing that?”
In this episode, we break down…What is a communications plan? What’s included in it and why is it important?Why does my team need a communications plan? Can’t we just figure it out as we get to know each other and form a workflow? (Spoiler alert: Bad idea!) The importance of selecting communications channels and how to set specific guidelines for each.What are the benefits? What will the return on investment be from my time spent creating this plan?How does one build a communications plan? How do you craft guidelines that are easily followable for team members and relevant stakeholders?
Key Quotes & Conclusions…“Your communications plan should really be your one-stop shop for your project communication strategy. What communication channels should we use, and how should we use these channels?”“This is definitely not a PR Strategy. This is not about social media, identifying your target audience, or key messages. This is where we are documenting guidance on how we communicate with the project team on certain details and project status updates to stakeholders like our clients, customers, and contractors.”“This is about communicating the right information, to the right stakeholders, at the right time. Not everyone has to be notified of all the details. So you have to decide, depending on the scenario, who needs to be on the conference call and who doesn’t.”“All of this has three central components: the people, the process and the technology.”“Even if you’re a new team and you’re just getting to know each other– I think just putting out the do’s and dont’s of communication is great. This is a perfect opportunity because you’re just learning about each other.”
WORK WITH ASHLEY:
Wanna Mastermind Together? 
The Sprint with #AskAsh: https://me.volley.app/askash

Book me to speak at your conference, mastermind, or next event:
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 CONNECT WITH ASHLEY:
Website: https://www.ashleyshuler.com/
LinkedIn: a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyshuler/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...