Roses are red, violets are blue. Franchising is sweet, and so is our Employee of the Month. Congratulations to British Swim School Director of Marketing, Ashley Gundlach, on being our first employee of the month of 2020! Ashley joined the team in August 2019 and didn’t miss a beat as she fully immersed herself in the British Swim School brand. She started her role fresh into the acquisition of the business by Buzz Franchise Brands and hit the ground running!

Over the course of the last six months, she has been refining the entire marketing process and strategy, as well as engaging the corporate team and franchisees in order to improve performance and success. Read on to find out what makes Ashley such an instrumental part of the success of British Swim School. 

Get to Know Ashley

Ashley, a James Madison University graduate (Go Dukes!), lives with her husband Pat, their three boys, and three kitties (Poppy, Pepper and Pippin) in Virginia Beach. Prior to being the marketing maven at British Swim School, Ashley spent 11 years at Nexus Direct, a marketing agency in Virginia Beach. She managed a full plate of clients, developing multi-channel marketing campaigns to support their business goals. We knew she’d be a great fit given her extensive background, and she’s exceeded all of our expectations.

Why We Love Ashley

Ashley perfectly embodies the Empower and Serve core value. She is diligent in connecting with franchisees and makes sure that they are getting the support they need. She challenges them to step outside their comfort zone in the marketing space, and to set goals that are high but achievable. She is approachable, and is also a great listener!

On top of all the many day to day roles and responsibilities Ashley manages, she recently helped plan our Annual Franchisee Convention in Cancun. From organizing (and speaking at) multiple breakout sessions, to coordinating travel and transportation, to planning fun evening entertainment for everyone, she was involved in every intricacy of Convention, but always kept a positive attitude. One coworker said, "Ashley has done an amazing job prioritizing individual franchisee needs alongside high-level internal tasks. She was also a rock star planning and executing convention!"

Fun Facts About Ashley!

Now that you know just a couple of the great things about Ashley that make her Employee of the Month-worthy, read some of the things she finds not so great and other fun facts!

Do you have any strange phobias?  I get really uneasy when people walk too closely behind me up the stairs. It's a throwback from having my brother pull my feet out from under me when we were kids.

What is the worst pet you have ever had? When I was a kid we had a pair of gerbils that wouldn't stop reproducing - we'd give some away and swear we were left with the same gender, but they just kept coming....

Are you a morning or night person? I'm a parent, so I don't get to choose - I'm both. I have the ultimate parent superpower of being a light sleeper who wakes up for anything and can bounce right back to sleep again.

Who is your hero? My grandfather for sure. His attitude towards life (and ice cream and reading multiple books at once and handwritten letters) was contagious, and he had this insane ability to make anyone feel fantastic about themselves, from random people he encountered at the post office, to those closest to him. He's the reason why I take an optimistic outlook on life and my motivation for being kind to people around me. 

Name one of your favorite things about someone in your family.
My husband is the king of "foul weather gear" - what normal people refer to as raincoats. If he feels one drop of rain, the raincoats, hats and umbrellas make an instant appearance - even in the dead heat of summer. We frequently have a pile of coats with us on trips "just in case." It drives him crazy how unprepared I typically am for unanticipated rain events!

We are so thankful for all that Ashley has done to help build the marketing department for British Swim School and can’t remember what it was like without her as part of the team. Thank you Ashley, for everything you do!