Remotely One - A remote work podcast

Ashley Herd's Wild Remote Work Adventure: Facing a Giant! - ep. 087

• ASHLEY HERD, RICK HANEY, KALEEM CLARKSON • Season 1 • Episode 87

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Welcome to our first Not Safe For Remote Work (NSFRW) segment! Here, employees at all levels share their most outrageous moments while working remotely. Today's episode features Ashley Herd, an attorney with an impressive career history. Having worked for McKinsey and Kentucky Fried Chicken, she is currently the founder and CEO of Manager Method, a company specializing in manager training and coaching.

Ashley’s story exemplifies the challenges and surprises of remote work! In 2016, she moved from Louisville, Kentucky, to Sydney, Australia, for her husband’s job. This move required her to continue working for a U.S.-based company, adapting to a schedule that began at 4:30 AM from Tuesday through Saturday to align with U.S. business hours. Exhausting, right?

Ashley faced unique challenges in her remote work experience, including adapting to local wildlife in unexpected ways. Her adventures from this period highlight the unpredictable aspects of working from home.

Despite the challenges, the benefits of remote work are clear, particularly in terms of work-life balance for Ashley. Her experiences in Australia influenced her current work with Manager Method, where she helps managers have difficult conversations and improve their performance management skills.

To hear more about Ashley’s remote work adventures, check out her TikTok and Instagram: @ManagerMethod. There, she provides practical advice for managers in short, engaging videos, and also offers a LinkedIn Learning course titled "Daily Habits for Effective People Management." You can also check her out on the HR Besties Podcast.

Ashley’s experiences showcase the amusing and unexpected moments that come with working remotely. Tune in to hear a true testament to the human side of remote work and the unique stories that come from it!

Learn more about Ashley:

Rick:

Welcome to Remotely One's NSFRW Not Safe for Remote Work, where we invite employees at all levels to share their most outrageous moments while working remotely.

Kaleem:

Outrageous.

Rick:

a story to tell? We want to hear it. You can submit your story at remotelyone. com forward slash podcast. Today's guest is originally from Louisville, Kentucky, and is now a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. is an attorney and she has worked for McKinsey as well as. As Kentucky fried chicken. But now she is the founder and CEO of manager method and manager training coaching. There's no other words on this because my co host forgot to write the rest of the fucking sentence. Ashley Herd, come on down.

Ashley:

bring it. Let me fill in those blanks. I'm

Rick:

we were having so much fun already. Welcome to the show. We are so happy to have you. This is great.

Ashley:

very excited to be here guys.

Rick:

Set us up for what we're going to hear today. Cause I know the world is just dying to hear this story.

Ashley:

Okay, well, I'll say this, that I've learned from social media comments that I'm a bit older than some of the other video posters and accounts. And so, um, Have you ever gotten? I did have gotten the comment, you could use Botox. Um, but the internet's too kind! The internet's so kind! But you know what? I lean into that. Yeah.

Rick:

can I hit the pause button real quick? Because just about two weeks ago, I was the sweaty guy in the coffin on one of our episodes on what was it? Tick tock Colleen. So I know exactly, I know exactly what you're talking about.

Kaleem:

Sweaty guy in the coffee. Well, Ashley, just to let you know, I think you look great and beautiful and you do not need Botox. Thanks.

Ashley:

why I say those comments, so that people will, will, will, will hit. Oh, you don't, you don't have to. But please. Keep it coming. Um, but the internet's so kind, but I will lean into that. And I sometimes say every wrinkle is from corporate America, an experience that I bring to try to save others from some of potentially those experiences. But I lean into it. And so in that, I say I was an OG remote worker because my remote work story is from 2016 before the world had to figure out how to get all this stuff done on zoom. And so in 2016, we moved as a family from my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to Sydney, Australia. And we moved for my, my husband's job, so we moved me, husband and kids and, it was the most humbling experience of my life in the real sense. Not that I won an Oscar since because I was like, I've been this lawyer. I'll have no hopefully problem finding a job about 100 applications later. I ended up able to rejoin a prior company. But it was a U. S. Based company. And so what that meant is that I had to start working from 4 30 in the morning Tuesday through Saturday in Australia to be able to meet the needs of my U. S. Only client. And so everything I was doing was the most remote, literally the most remote of remote work. And so I got to know zoom and the like, but as 1 thing is as kind of, um, I don't know why people feel like this. Like, when you talk about not bringing your true self to work. I didn't want people to know that I lived in Australia, and obviously certain people did. It would have been really amazing if I could have portrayed it. But so, I had a 404 Atlanta area code, and I just pretended for a lot of people I lived in Atlanta. But, in remote work, I was working from my kitchen table. Because we didn't have an office. And so what I had to learn to do was that I didn't work alone. I had colleagues that were of the eight legged variety. Because the one downside in Australia, when you move there, is people say, watch out for the creatures. And where we were in Sydney, Sydney does not have the snakes that open doors. That's Queensland, that's north because it's close to the equator. But we have some frickin spiders in Sydney, Australia. And so I would be Crikey, crikey. And so I would be, so I, the first time I was on a call and I was just working from my, you know, my kitchen table with my big headphones and talking and probably had this very top on and some, some yoga pants down below. But I was talking to someone and I look, I'm like, Oh my fucking God, there in the corner is a big ass Hutsman spider. And so what that is, Is if you've ever seen him, it's a spider that's like literally as big as your hand and they will crawl, they crawl up the walls. And so I saw this massive thing, just creeping up the walls. And so I'm like, but so of course, you know, you're, I'm trying to stay on this call. I don't know why I couldn't just jump. So I'm carrying my laptop like this, like this around and walking through and then seeing and people could see in the backyard, which is like a palm tree and things like that. And the people like, I thought you lived in Atlanta. And I was like, no, I'm in Australia. Yeah. And anyway, I then started revealing myself, but I had to very quickly learn the fine art of killing the spiders and detecting what were the dangerous spiders and what are the good, good spiders, because people will tell you that huntsman spiders good because they will actually, they will, will kill. But so I learned to become A spider hunter while doing remote work and quickly learned from having my panic, roam around the kitchen face to the calm, throw a shoe at it, destroy it. And actually, knock that sucker out while managing a conference, a legal conference call all from halfway across the world.

Kaleem:

Wow. Wow.

Rick:

I almost fainted like three times just thinking about that.

Kaleem:

so, during that call, I mean, as you had the laptop, did you take a shoe off and crush it? At the same

Ashley:

Um, no, because I didn't have any shoes on because I would walk down barefoot, which now I started wearing slippers after this because I was afraid I would step on one. But also because our, we had this townhouse that didn't have as much storage, we happened to have a broom that was against, like, the corner of the wall. And so I was taking and roaming around, you know, with the laptop and had the broom and finally hit it with the broom. Of course, then I went and got a paper towel and was like, Oh, God, I'm like, I'm like cleaning it up and trying to like. You know, against, against to get the spider guts

Rick:

What was the

Ashley:

the wall.

Rick:

you, when you crushed it? What was it, what did it make a sound? And it was like, AH SHIT!

Ashley:

I mean, the sound was, it was basically me, which is like this sound. This is a scream, which is a screaming, a screaming goat. I mean, this is like basically what I sounded like.

Kaleem:

So what time is it in the U S I mean, like, so everyone's like watching you, is

Ashley:

So this was a California call. This was, this is why they were caught off guard, because this was like, the sun had just started to come up. Because sometimes they'd be calling and it'd be like, pitch dark. And often times people would be like, can I have a video? And I'd be like, let's just do phone. Because I didn't, it was like, I didn't want to be clear that it was like, still middle ish of the night. But this was California. So, you know, there's four different time differences between Sydney and the U. S. Depending on the time of year, like they adjusted different times. So, I always had a tab open on my phone to remember what time it was a different places in the U. S. And my company was, it was national, but it was like, end of the day, Australian time. And so, or U. S. Time. So it was beginning of beginning of the day. I did have a colleague in Honolulu in Hawaii. And so that was kind of lovely because. We're at times 22 hours apart, and so we're talking to be almost the same time, just two days. So I often made the joke about like, I'm living in the future. That was like, it's not as funny. I mean, it's funny like the first time. Sometimes I'm saying people be like, yeah, yeah, you made that joke last week. I'd be like, that's all I got.

Rick:

Right.

Kaleem:

waiting. I was waiting for my time to say, well, what would Marty McFly do? And you just beat me to the joke. You just beat me to the

Ashley:

beat you, because I beat the shit out of that joke, and so I will, but I'm happy to bring it up any, any, any time, that's, that is literally all, all that I

Kaleem:

Whatever, Ashley, you, you need to get Botox, whatever.

Ashley:

do, you know what, you're right, you're right, you're right,

Rick:

Tell your friend that it's 22 hours in the past to write you a letter, and do not open that letter for another 48 hours. And just write, you need Botox.

Ashley:

Exactly. That's it. And I'd be like, I wish I knew that. I wish I knew. But it was what, I mean, literally, you'd be like, that's the one, the only negative. It's also very expensive. But aside from that, like, I'd see them when I was working or you'd be lying in bed and you'd like, think you see something. And as opposed to here where my kids, I'm like, no, no, no, that's, that's just, that's nothing. It's just, there's, there's no, there's no monsters. There were, there would be spiders in the corner of your ceiling, like crawling. And that was just a very normal occurrence. So.

Kaleem:

Wow. Ashley, thank you so much for the story. Before you go, tell us a little bit about what you're doing with your organization now and, and how you help companies.

Ashley:

Yeah, so I use my experience having been a lawyer and a general counsel and I've moved into HR and I found that from working at McKinsey to a KFC, so many of the conversation I'd have with managers were very similar of how do I have a difficult conversation or how do I have a performance conversation? How do you do these things? It was really common issues. And so just a couple of years ago, I started it literally to that, to help managers have difficult conversations. Better to have the conversation and to have them in a way that it's heard and to help employees and actually support their performance because it matters living in Australia, greatly influence that the way that they work is so much healthier. I think from a work dynamic often and so I've taken that. And so now I have training. So I do manager trainings. I do social media content in 59 seconds or less on TikTok and Instagram under manager method. And I have a LinkedIn learning course. That's just about an hour called daily habits for effective people management. If you ever want content more than 59 seconds. And so that's, that's what I do now is basically take my career And use that to distill into hopefully simple practical lessons when I'm not killing spiders.

Kaleem:

listen, check out Ashley's, you have a tick tock as well. Tick

Ashley:

I do. I'm tiktok man at manager method everywhere.

Kaleem:

She has over 50, 000 followers on Insta. Her videos are hilarious. She's been very modest. We have a rock star in the building.

Rick:

And despite what one asshole on the internet says, she does not need Botox. Okay?

Kaleem:

she does not, nor does she need

Ashley:

God, I love you. Oh,

Kaleem:

does not need

Ashley:

Thank you. Thank you. I mean, sometimes

Kaleem:

Sometimes.

Ashley:

we can all use we can all use a little help sometimes.

Rick:

I think we all need a little bit right now, that's for sure.

Ashley:

Yeah, this is my mug. Other lawyers, me, this, my,

Kaleem:

is great. That is great.

Ashley:

okay. Thank you so much, guys. It's such a pleasure. I love hearing these stories, so I am happy to contribute mine, which is probably the most S F R W than, than you'll have, but I like to listen to them all.

Rick:

Good.

Kaleem:

Well,

Rick:

Well, one of these days, being so close, we'll have to get together around a bucket of chicken.

Ashley:

I will always have some extra crispy, I mean, I welcome it every single time. I'm still a massive fan of KFC having worked there and still eating it. That is the true testament. Those that have worked in food service will know that's the ultimate bellwether way. You'll eat it and I will absolutely do.

Rick:

Wow, you're not only a customer, but you're also their lawyer.

Ashley:

I it's right.

Kaleem:

That's great.

Rick:

Thank you so much, Ashley, for joining us and for the rest of you. Thanks for tuning in. You know, where to go, go to remotely one. com forward slash podcast. If you want to submit a story, we're all ears. We want to hear it. See you next time.

Kaleem:

see you next time. Thanks. Peace.

People on this episode

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Kaleem Clarkson

Co-host
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Rick Haney

Co-host