Ashley Gutermuth is a military spouse comedian, but it's not all laughter behind her brand. Ashley has been hit by a car, cyberbullied by trolls on socials, and learned to push past it all. Today on episode 122 of the Moments with an MEO podcast, Ashley Gutermuth is sharing how to show up consistently, and how to push past the negativity and stay on top of your goals.
On this episode, Ashley and I talk about:
Ashley Gutermuth is a New Jersey-based stand-up comedian and actor. She appeared on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jimmy Fallon where she was chosen by Jerry Seinfeld to win the ‘Seinfeld Challenge.’ In 2021, Ashley won the headliner category of the US Comedy Contest.
Ashley has performed for The World Series of Comedy, The New York Underground Comedy Festival and The North Carolina Comedy Festival. She has also appeared on shows with Chris Kattan (SNL), Steve Hytner (Seinfeld) and Michael Winslow (Police Academy, America’s Got Talent) among many others.
Ashley regularly posts on social media and her hilarious videos of her stand-up and life as the spouse of a United States Military Veteran have exploded to over 50 million views!
Check out Ashley's Platforms:
Instagram
Website
Youtube
Connect with Britt:
Instagram
Website
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
Ashley Gutermuth is a military spouse comedian, but it's not all laughter behind her brand. Ashley has been hit by a car, cyberbullied by trolls on socials, and learned to push past it all. Today on episode 122 of the Moments with an MEO podcast, Ashley Gutermuth is sharing how to show up consistently, and how to push past the negativity and stay on top of your goals.
On this episode, Ashley and I talk about:
Ashley Gutermuth is a New Jersey-based stand-up comedian and actor. She appeared on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jimmy Fallon where she was chosen by Jerry Seinfeld to win the ‘Seinfeld Challenge.’ In 2021, Ashley won the headliner category of the US Comedy Contest.
Ashley has performed for The World Series of Comedy, The New York Underground Comedy Festival and The North Carolina Comedy Festival. She has also appeared on shows with Chris Kattan (SNL), Steve Hytner (Seinfeld) and Michael Winslow (Police Academy, America’s Got Talent) among many others.
Ashley regularly posts on social media and her hilarious videos of her stand-up and life as the spouse of a United States Military Veteran have exploded to over 50 million views!
Check out Ashley's Platforms:
Instagram
Website
Youtube
Connect with Britt:
Instagram
Website
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
Ashley Gutermuth 0:00
I post on on every platform that I can I post on Pinterest, which doesn't even make that much sense for what I do. But I'm like I'm there, you will take me, because a lot of people think that it has to be perfect. And if it's not perfect, it's not going to work. However, I'll tell you, because I've got this is not trying to brag about anything, but I've got videos that have got lots of views. It's not a matter of doing that once. So a lot of people think, oh, I need to have a video that has a million views and then I'll everything will be great. Now, the two days from then you're going to want another one, and another one and another one. And then it builds like like a business.
Britt 0:42
Hello, Ashley, I am so pumped to welcome you to the moments of an MBO podcast. How are you?
Ashley Gutermuth 0:48
Thank you for having me, Brett. I'm so excited to be here. I'm doing well. Well, I'm in New Jersey, and it's a little bit colder than I would like it to be to be honest with you, but I'll live
Britt 0:58
get snow. Not
Ashley Gutermuth 1:01
this weekend. And in fact, this year hasn't been too bad. Snow wise. I don't mind the snow. I want the weather to decide what it's going to be is it going to be warm? Or is it going to be hot? Because I'm cold year round. So when it's 40 degrees outside, I'm not doing well.
Britt 1:14
You know, it's funny, my dad and his side of the family all originally resided in New Jersey. And my dad loves to call it the armpit of the country, which I'm sure you've heard before. But it's kind of just like, like, nothing ever happens. But nothing good ever happens. It's just kind of there. Like we just kind of rub deodorant on it and like move on.
Ashley Gutermuth 1:37
New Jersey is a whole experience within itself. So you know, military life, we move around, we moved to New Jersey. I loved it because like the first day that I was here, I was in a deli and it wasn't like a direct. Like, you know how normal places they will just have a line and whoever's next in line, you order your sandwich. Well, at this particular Deli in New Jersey, it was whoever yelled the loudest, got their sandwich, and I just loved it. I was so on board. When you tell somebody that you live in New Jersey, they say two things. They say, Oh, I'm sorry. Like, okay, rude.
Unknown Speaker 2:10
The second thing they say is what Exit Do you live on?
Ashley Gutermuth 2:14
What is this? We I don't know, I've lived from both ends of the country. Nobody has ever wanted to know, 30 miles from where I live. I don't know what exits?
Britt 2:25
Well, I want to read your bio, because you are New Jersey based. But you are a stand up comedian and actor and our listeners are so pumped to hear this episode. I posted on Instagram yesterday that you were going to be interviewed today. And literally I got an overwhelming ly number of calls and just saying oh my gosh, okay, I need to know about her Roombas. So we're gonna get to that. But you actually appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. And you were chosen by Jerry Seinfeld to win the Seinfeld challenge, which is really, really cool. I actually it's on your website. So I got to watch that. Thank you for putting that there. And you're hilarious, and I loved it. And that's actually how I found you is from a video online. And that just led to you know, this rabbit hole. But in 2021, you won the headliner category of the US Comedy Contest, which is awesome. You've also performed for the World Series of comedy, The New York underground Comedy Festival and the North Carolina Comedy Festival. You've appeared on shows with Chris Catan Steve Hytner and Michael Winslow, among many others, and you regularly post hilarious content. I see you on Instagram. But I think the original video I saw was off Facebook real, believe it or not. And you've gotten over 50 million views, you've completely exploded. And you're not just a comedian, you're also a avid runner of over seven years, which is really really cool, and a Roomba fanatic and I am so excited to welcome you here today and chat about your life as a military spouse and veteran wife. So let's get into it. What is your story? How did you meet your spouse? How did you become the military spouse and the veteran spouse that you are
Ashley Gutermuth 4:13
gonna see I've been described a lot of times as, like a robot with feelings. But that's not completely accurate. I don't have a whole ton of feelings and I'm not good at expressing them at all. Like I am, I am bad at I'm like, my husband will laugh and he'll just be like, well, yep, I guess you don't. You just don't feel. But he knows me. He knows like I've always been that way. I'm more like to the point about things. So my husband and I, we've been together for a few years. And he's in the Air Force. He's in the Air Force Reserve, but he's a full time reservists. So goes to work every day in the uniform kind of deal. And he grew up in Pittsburgh. I grew up in Pittsburgh. We met there through friends. So my husband is older than I am. He's 20 years older than I am, which is a large part of my comedy as well. Trying to make all that work. You know, a lot of my jokes are having an older husband type jokes and the way that that all shakes out. It's funny because you know, you have that dynamic is usually the woman is younger, the guy's older, and then I got painted as like a gold digger or somebody that just out for money, or something like that. So my joke is you don't see many gold diggers with a high and tight, you know, is that really what we saw in the magazines? But yeah, we got along and we're, he's my definitely my best friend. So I wouldn't I wouldn't be much without him.
Britt 5:37
That is awesome. You know, I want to dig into like, where you come up with your jokes, because I'm sure a lot of them are like personal stories or the lovely spouse pages, I'm sure gives you lots of content ideas. But I like that you say that, you know, your husband goes uniform everyday because I've actually never met somebody that does what my husband does. So my husband is also part of the art program. And so he you know, yeah, goes to work every day in uniform has to do drills, you know, all that fun stuff. But like, technically, he's a civilian, like, it's on my side of the year. But
Ashley Gutermuth 6:10
like everyone listened to Britain trying to explain what this is. And art is an Air Reserve technician. And it is a mess of trying to figure out am I on orders to take my fitness as I'm still in my uniform every day. And I go and I follow the same rules. And I'm in charge of these people. And I work for these people. And it's all the same on the weekends when they have to do their drill weekend. But it means that they work. And they only get three weekends a month. They don't you know? Yeah, it's intense. My husband's been in for like, almost 30 years. I like the amount of work that that takes. He hasn't had a full month of weekends in 30 years. I'm just like, how, how, how was this happen? So it's amazing how hard they work people and the art program is so small that they they kind of get pushed around, you know, they don't get the same things. And that same type of recognition, which is something we talked about military spouses and, and trying to find jobs, people in the art program will still move we move every two years, the shortest we've been in a place is nine months. So it's, it's that sort of, we're still moving from base to base. And that really has affected a lot of my friends who are also in that art program, when they go to like their nurses and they go to get a license and then move to another place and they can't get their license renewed, they can't work, or they're a teacher and they have to they have to get licensed in that state to teach. A lot of the laws are changing now for active duty, but then they leave out the art program, which just leaves them sort of high and dry. So I would like to get more notice to things like that so that we can include more people, you know, so they can work if they want to.
Britt 7:49
Absolutely, yeah, when my husband switched from active to this art program in April 2020, like, of all times, you know, trying to go from Oh, like my husband's active duty, like that was so easy to explain, but trying to explain that, like, no, he's civilian today, but tomorrow, he'll be active, and then he might TDY but like three days before he TDY he'll get told that the reservists don't have a place there anymore. And so, like, you know, it's like it's almost worse than active because with active like, at least you know the military is gonna mess with you. So I really resonate with that. It's
Ashley Gutermuth 8:27
it's intense, isn't it trying to end like when you go to PCs, trying to figure out all those rules and where you place within the you know, hiring the movers and everything like that. We live on base, we almost always live on bases and people are like, Oh, I didn't know reservists could live on but yeah, you can so that's great.
Britt 8:44
Yeah, so I would love to know Have you always wanted to be a comedian? Were you always funny or did you just like were you just blessed with this magical gift recently like what's what's your comedian story?
Ashley Gutermuth 8:57
Yes. Always wanted to be a comedian. Definitely always always making jokes. When I grew up, I my parents had to drive a long way to work and I would go to work with them. They both fix helicopters. I would drive with them from like 345 years old and listen to comedy tapes on their our ride to work. And that's what I would always do. I put being funny at the very top of the needs pyramid. Because that's like the most important thing to me. Being able to make jokes about things that are difficult. I was watching David's Harris's masterclass. So David Tutera is fantastic writer. He said, I feel bad for people that have bad things happen to them but don't don't write or do comedy or anything like that. Because then it's just a bad thing that's happened to you. You can't talk about it and make it make something good out of it. So yeah, I've definitely always loved comedy. I've always been a ham. Any chance to be in a play or when I was older? I went I was like 17 I was too young to join Toastmasters but he's just sneak into the Toastmasters Club and do comedy bits until they pulled me aside and they're like, actually, we need to start following the book. And I was like, now I have no interest in this. So I'm gonna go, actually. So always loved it.
Britt 10:12
That is awesome. So I know with being a comedian, I mean, you literally have to show up, like, you have no other option, no one else can help you. No one else can show up on stage for you. You can't outsource your standup routine, you know, there's a lot of showing up and getting out there. And I feel like a lot of small business owners struggle with showing up with getting out there with putting their face out there with going face to camera. And there's got to be a level of confidence that you have where showing up on camera, making videos being funny, isn't as much of a burden as someone who's extremely uncomfortable being the center of attention for a moment. But let's talk about showing up like, it hasn't always been easy. What's been like the hardest thing for you when it comes to showing up and getting yourself out there.
Ashley Gutermuth 11:04
I don't know about the hardest thing. You know, the the social media stuff is a lot of work. So I guess start thinking about it as work if you start to think about yourself as your own manager. And if you were your own employee, how much crap would you take from you before you fired you, if you can do that loop in your head. That's just sort of how I tried to think of myself, like, if I wouldn't put up with me sleeping in, ends up being weird. It's a lot of work, it is hours every day. Now a lot of it I enjoy because I get to interact with a ton of really nice people, you know, learn about them and see the different struggles, like the struggles that I have learned about people on submarines, I just had never even considered it anymore. Like today, I learned today that there's a specific smell that some mariners come back with, from deployments that it like that it's very, it's something that they pump into the submarine and it's on, it just just goes into their clothes. And that becomes like comforting to their families because they're like, oh, it means they're home. Because they're gone so much, you have no contact with them. So being out there, I guess I've just crossed over the line of I will be everywhere, I will be constant, I've you know, I post on on every platform that I can I posted on Pinterest, which doesn't even make that much sense for what I do. But I'm like I'm there, you will take me, because a lot of people think that it has to be perfect. And if it's not perfect, it's not going to work. However, I'll tell you, because I've got this is not trying to brag about anything, but I've got videos that have got lots of views, it's not a matter of doing that once. So a lot of people think, oh, I need to have a video that has a million views, and then everything will be great. Now, the two days from then you're gonna want another one, and another one and another one. And then it builds like, like a business. So you have like one of my videos that took me maybe five minutes to make has 13 million views, okay, and a lot of hateful comments on it. You have to bear in mind for that that will come anything over half a million, you're gonna get a lot of people that have horrific things to say. So just, I guess be ready for that. And know that a lot of them are just, you don't need to respect their opinion at all. But also don't get into fights my go to is to say I love you. And then people do end up apologizing, which is very strange. But definitely show up, you want to show your face, it's the only face you have. Unless you're running from the law, put it out there. People want to see you, you can't create a more unique thing than what you already are. It's the build up of your whole life and experiences. And the thing is, it takes a while of throwing things at the wall, there's a lot of my comedian friends of will ask me what they should do. And I say, just keep pumping stuff out there. Just keep doing it do if the most you can do is you know, a couple times a week, do that and then try to build up more because the more you push out, the sooner you will get to where you need to be. And to be comfortable. Like there's a lot of things that I might not have been comfortable with, you know, at first, like just trying to figure out okay, how is so I post twice a day to post videos twice a day, which is a lot of work of trying to figure out what the heck silly advice am I going to give to people on a daily basis. But when I first started that I was like, Oh, I probably should only post every other day that otherwise would be too much. And then people will unfollow me because they're like, oh, this person is in my business all the time. And then I realized how much you have to be in people's business. Like you really do have to constantly show up if this is something that you really want to do. You have to keep pushing yourself out there and like I get comments, especially on Tik Tok though, it'll be like, oh, this person just lives on my for you page and I'm like, Yes I do. Because I will post a lot. And the key is just to make it short, you know, and you have to be enjoying it but The more you can put yourself out there and to do things that are a little bit controversial, because the more if you can make some people upset or store, stir some emotions, they will share it, you know, maybe in a negative way, but that will get shared and then that will push you up a lot of the things with social media, you're just talking to Instagram robots. You know, the algorithm isn't a person doling things out. So it's important to just keep pushing. Unfortunately, I probably will, at some point, have a breakdown. So she pushed it to push. Fortunately, it's all stuff I really liked. So that's good. But
Britt 15:36
so I know recently to this recording, at least, and we're recording mid April, that you recently made a bunch of Grumpy Old Men upset on a different platform. And so you shared the video on Instagram and you were like, Let's see if we can make even more people. I will be the first person to say that when it comes to hard things when it comes to being uncomfortable. My first instinct is to laugh or to make fun of it. My I'll share a high school embarrassing story, my dad caught me and my boyfriend at the time in a pullout along the side of the road on his way to work. And he decided to stop and to talk to us. And I literally just could not stop laughing. I was just dying. Laughing like snorting, crying, face was read couldn't breathe. I was just dying, laughing. So that's my go to as I just like to laugh. But there's got to be like some comments that probably don't feel so good to read. Or you know, if you get so many of them in a day or so many in a time. Like, how do you like I know you said that you? You just comment I love you. And that's great, because it's just putting out that positive energy. But like, Are there ever hard days when it comes to putting yourself out there? And how do you how do you handle that?
Ashley Gutermuth 16:57
I'm never upset when somebody posts something that is negative. For the most part. It's usually all the same stuff, which is boring. I want something interesting. Don't just call me a man. Don't call me an ant or tell me no man, whatever wants to date me Don't say any of that. Because a million other guys have already said that to me, say something inventive, and then that will get my attention. I love that kind of stuff. Even if it's towards me, I don't care if it's kind of funny, who cares? I can play with it. My anger is only ever towards myself with my own responses. So if I and I don't ever get like super negative, but if I write back something that is arguing back with them, I'll delete it because I'm like, What are you doing? This is there's literally no point to this. I used to do that earlier on when I had less engagement because I would leave, somebody would leave a comment and it would be somebody not liking me. And I would have them I would write back and then they would write back and then and then that gives me more comments. And that pushes me up. I don't do that so much anymore, because I have a lot of nice people that comment so I can filter out the other ones. More recently, I had somebody that did some internet sleuthing and found my husband's military bio, and also found pictures for me from years ago, when we were at Dover Air Force Base. Now the problem was they they took these links, and then they posted them on all of these videos on Reddit. And I don't even think they had any military affiliation. I think they just lived near a military base. But they posted all of these links. Now the problem with that was one it if you're posting his military biography, you're telling a lot of people where I live, which I am okay with if I'm controlling, but I don't really like it when people are just randomly putting out which which base it is, you know, if I've said it five. Second thing, they posted a photo where I looked the coolest I've ever looked in my life. I'm on an American Ninja Warriors contest. I'm swinging from a bar, I look amazing. I said post this photo everywhere. But the only thing that bothered me about it was somebody that was going and Googling and then trying to like slam me first. And then they also said your husband's never been active duty. How dare you make fun of the military? And I was like, Are you like, are you serious? You're discounting a whole massive swath of the military. I mean, my husband deployed during the pandemic for seven months. If he isn't in the military, I don't know where he went.
Britt 19:20
Well, my husband told me when he came, like the day after he told me he was deployed to Afghanistan. He was like, well, maybe I'm deploying, but maybe I'm just visiting my second family. And like, I'll come back in seven months, and they'll think I'm on deployment. And like, it'll be great. It'll just go back and forth. And I'll just have two families and I'm alright with that. I could use a break.
Ashley Gutermuth 19:41
You know, it's nice. It's funny, I asked military spouses what they like about when their spouse is deployed, and a lot of them are like, I like to just kind of be alone for a bit and I can eat whatever I want. And I can, somebody made a cool tent for it in their living room. And I was like, that's awesome. It's sort of there's like aspects of being single and And then there's also having this unit and as long as you can stay together and like each other, and be, you have to be independent, I think to be a military spouse, even if you're not at first you learn how to be
Britt 20:13
100%. Yeah. So where do you come up with your, your content,
Ashley Gutermuth 20:18
just everything I write every day. So I write down whatever, by say something funny, just in passing, you know, I'll write that down. I'll put that in my phone. You know, I'll sit down, I'll actually try to think about actual situations that have happened. And then try to make them funny, or just everything, anything, anything and everything that I can get my grips on. If somebody else says something funny, then you go, Oh, that could that could be good. And in this place, or this, as long as they're not another comedian, because then they could use it. Then you got to do the comedian dance. Can I use that? Yeah, you can use all right.
Britt 20:51
So I did reach out on Instagram and asked her followers, you know, do you have any questions for Ashley because obviously, she's amazing. I've been promoting a lot of your videos, a lot of my followers have started following you and have been sharing your videos been having like an Ashley party over on new altitudes. Overwhelmingly, people want to know about your Roombas so let's jump into that real quick. I know that you love Roombas and running, I feel like they're two of your love languages. So let's start with Roombas though, like where did the obsessions start? Like what what is it about the Roombas
Ashley Gutermuth 21:30
Okay, so first of all, I some of my videos are talking about growing up with hoarders I had it's not really in my immediate family. It's a little bit but when my extended family there's some pretty extensive hoarding and you know, having to move them several times and lots and lots of stuff so I don't like that I like minimalist as much as possible. I would have one chair if it was only me that lived in my house it would just be empty, which is not probably good but yeah, so I also like to be very clean over the top clean like inconveniently clean. So I started off with I wanted a Roomba and I was a little put off with the Roombas because they have little cameras in them that map out your house. And I didn't really like that connects to your Wi Fi and you can look at little like Wi Fi maps of people's house. I don't think it's like it's not like public but it's like their example but that was like it. So I didn't want to hook it up to my Wi Fi and once I found out that you didn't have to do that. I bought I got one but I have never bought them full price. Don't tell Roombas the Roomba company, I always get them on eBay and I buy them used and refurbished or broken. So I rescue my Roombas Britt I rescue I saved them from the shelter. And sometimes people ask me if they have names and they do it's clean and clean faster. That's I don't name my Roombas they are they are my robots and they will work for me. And then I just started getting more and more so I only have one type I have a we're in the weeds we're in the Roomba weeds. The Roomba 980 is the type that I have which was a few years old, but it has carpet boost and carpet boost really is a much more powerful motor so it really sets everything up. And I'd like about the Roomba as is I can go running go and be gone for an hour 45 minutes and then come back and the Roombas have all you know clean clean the house and a lot of times Roomba will advertise that they last for two hours their battery I haven't found that to be the case I think 30 minutes to an hour maybe but they do suck up a lot of stuff in places that I wouldn't normally vacuum I used to have though I'll tell you this. You know it sounds a lot. You're like Ashley you have five Roombas that's a lot. I used to have nine vacuums in total, but I have since pared down. So I used to have a backpack vacuum that the kind that you would see housekeepers using a hotel or to clean like a warehouse and it had a 50 foot cord which if anybody's into vacuums having 50 feet you can go you can do your whole house. That's fantastic. I do like a clean house I like to have again ideally one fork one knife one spoon one cup. Why do we need more? Nobody ever comes to visit me? No. I was like I am not entertaining anybody. So I don't know why I need all this stuff. But I do like to have my many Roombas I'm considering getting the latest room but it docks itself so you it takes itself back and then empties itself which has proprietary bags which I'm wearing. I don't know if I want to rebuy bags. I actually I do no I don't I don't want to have to rebuy bags, I like I just empty it out. But so I also used to have a very big dog like he's was called a Liam burger, which is like a St Bernard. That type of size but German and just huge and for everywhere. So yeah, that kept the house from being a firm magnet but that in my I also have a professional steam cleaner that you use to detail cars that it's not like a regular rug steam cleaner, but it's much more powerful. So we've gotten in the weeds here with my cleaning
Britt 25:00
I'm obsessed. Because we have two labs very loving, very hairy, they get hair everywhere. And I have to sweep our home. There's no carpet in our home except for like the carpets we've put down. It's all tile and wood flooring. And the amount of times I have to sweep a week is insane. And we've talked about getting a Roomba, except my labs are very prey driven. And I'm very nervous that they would eat said Roomba. But you know, we've definitely talked about it. So I love that you rescue them though, right? Like, adopt don't shop, right? I also know that you run every day and you pick up litter and you post about it every day. Is that like an accountability thing for you? Like, what's the consistency piece behind running? Is it just that you enjoy it? So you do it every day? Or like is there something else there?
Ashley Gutermuth 25:56
So I have one of the longest running streaks in the world. It's like I have like 800 I used to be in the six hundreds but then a bunch of people I say like push me up the rankings. But I ran every day for over seven years. I haven't missed a day. Sometimes people say oh, what if you're sick? Yes, I ran with fevers and food poisoning all every time we move, you know, PCs move across the country gotta run in parking lots. And that's always a mess. I started out because my husband was going on a two week trip. And I thought I'm going to start running for so I was terrible running. I was doing like 1617 minute miles and wheezing. Just full on it was it was horrendous. Just terrible. And I don't like to be bad at things I wanted to be running. So I iced I was like, You know what, I'm going to run every day for two weeks. And then when my husband was back, I'm going to be skinny as a beanpole. And though he's not going to even be able to recognize me. Now of course, after two weeks, nothing happened. But I did get better at running. And then I didn't stop the litter picking came into play. Two years ago, when I was coming back from a Stand Up Show at midnight, in Seattle and a car hit me on a major highway coming from behind and was speeding hit me and spun me full 360 on the highway hit me into another car and then into a barrier. The police when the police came up to the car, he goes you should be dead, which is nice. So a bunch of people stopped, pulled me out. Got me It helped me get out of the car. And I ended up with a traumatic brain injury from it. So I have memory problems. My brain is all foggy. But I was five years into my running streak then and running three plus miles a day. They said at the hospital, they they said you have to keep moving your your muscles are going to really hurt and they're going to seize up. So you can't just go set. So I kept running. But I had to run a lot slower because they were worried I had brain fluid leaking gross, and all kinds of concussion symptoms. I lost like taste and smell for a bit thought it might have been it was at the beginning of COVID and went and got tested. It wasn't that and so I was like okay, I have to run slower. I was doing like eight minute miles to run slower. What else can I do? So I started running with a stick that had a little nail in it. And a bag, which is really smart on military bases to run with something that looks like a big weapon. After a while the cops base got to Adobe. And they were like, that's just the crazy lady. This is what she does, we don't really know why. So I did that out in Seattle for a bit just didn't stop. So I started posting the litter. And then that got me into a whole different community of it's called plogging, which is the Netherlands kind of picked it up. And it's you pick up litter while running. And it's nice because it gives you like another you're not just focusing on being in pain from running and how awful that is you're doing something else and you're seeing how much litter you can get. Usually I get about a pound a day. So I've gotten over like 700 pounds of litter that I've been able to recycle or throw out and I've found driver's licenses and car keys that I've been able to return I found keys to the security forces car that was in a binder, and I called security forces the number on there and I said, Hey, I found your keys. And they had some Sergeant called me back and they were like, where did you find the keys? Were they in your house? And I was like no. What do you mean? So be able to return things like that. I'm always trying to do something else. I love to multitask, love to do things poorly, you know a lot of things at once poorly. That's my goal. But I posted about it. One because I'm vain, obviously that you can't, you can't do what I do and not be but also because it gets other people to do it. i There are a lot of other people that don't post about it, but they'll send me messages saying hey, we've got a team at work that's we're gonna go pick up trash and we've got people that have started trash streaks, and so I think that's great. So it's working, you know,
Britt 29:57
that is awesome and it almost gives it a second There's a mission to like, I'm doing this for my own health, but I'm also doing this for the planet. And I'm a huge eco friendly person. So I love that. Speaking of people who aren't posting, but they're making those improvements, and they're doing the darn thing, you do the darn thing every day. I mean, you just said that you post multiple times a day, there's a lot of hard work that goes into showing up. But I'm sure a lot of that hard work goes unnoticed. And I know other small business owners resonate with this, whether your product or service doesn't matter. There's a lot of work behind the scenes. So what is that like for you, when you're putting in all this effort, and nothing seems like the needle isn't moving.
Ashley Gutermuth 30:44
I keep going or I change, change the needle, I guess, as long as I relate everything else to running. So I have ran every day for seven years. Like we just said at the beginning, I was terrible. But running every day taught me that just continuing to keep going helps you to accomplish really anything. Now I can run pace people on their fitness says I would have died trying to do that seven years ago, there was no way full on wheezing, you just keep going. If it's something that you want to do that you have to do and that you like, what's the point of what you're doing? What do you want people to know? Like, if it's just to make money, I think that that becomes empty. If it's just to be noticed, I think that's becomes empty. But if you want to, like help people in some way, which is what I tried to do, especially on Instagram, the other platforms don't make it so easy for me. But Instagram, I'm able to like help other military spouses and give resources and things like that. So if you have that sort of side angle, which also is what I did with running, I didn't want to lose weight. Really, I wanted to be better at running. And by having that I had that side effect of I think I was at the time I was like 154, I weighed like 154 pounds. And now I'm like 129 or something like that. So the running itself did have that kind of effect. But just keep going keep pushing, is it working? Get some feedback from people that you respect. And listen to it. i It's something I do very well, in my most humble way that I could possibly say this is something I regret is I take people's advice seriously. So I if somebody gives me directions, I can follow those directions and do it. Whereas other people might get in their head about it. I just go well, let's just let's try this. The big thing is to get out of your own way, you have to get out of I actually had to get out of Ashley's way all the time, just like Brett. So we got out of Brett's way all the time, you know, because you're you get in your head about things like oh, is this funny is it's not just post it and move on? It's, you know, or do it and move on or try it? And keep going.
Britt 32:51
Yeah, I know, for me, I'm really bad at second guessing myself. I am terrible. Like, I mean, I'm really good at it. But it's terrible. And I know I'm not alone in that. So I love that idea of just like don't like quit the second guessing and just do it and move on. Like I love that imperfect action. That just again, it's just showing up. It's just being consistent. And if it didn't work, it didn't work, but just keep going. That's really great. So where can people connect with you? I know you're on all of the platforms. But where are a couple of platforms that will be linked in the show notes where we can go just to kind of hang out with you connect with you and watch how hilarious you are.
Ashley Gutermuth 33:30
Thank you. Absolutely yeah, I do try to be everywhere I probably will be in most people's living rooms for goodness sakes if I can just I'll knock on your door and that'll be me. Yeah, Instagram and and Tik Tok and Twitter and Pinterest, Facebook, I'm at ash scooter Muth on all of those platforms. I like the name mash, but really, I have that name. Because there's one other absolute truth in the world. And she took at Ashley uterus, which is such an interesting name to tell you. There's only two of us in the whole world. And if you send her a message, she'll type back in all caps. I am not a comedian, but she loves it. She's loving it. Yeah, so I am everywhere YouTube, as well. And I'm hoping to post some more like longer form stuff on on YouTube as well.
Britt 34:13
That's awesome. And again, those will be linked in the show notes. We'll have your website so that they can watch you compete on The Tonight Show and all of that they'll they'll have all of it down there in the show notes. So if you're listening to this, go to the show notes. And all right, show notes. So I'm curious, what does success look like to you? And can you describe a time when you truly felt successful?
Ashley Gutermuth 34:36
I don't know. If I buy into the concept of success in the traditional way because I constantly want to keep going I I'm always moving my own goalposts you know, I want this and then okay, the bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. And I also don't have a lot of material wants. I like to you know, that kind of goes back to the hoarding that thing, I don't like to have a lot of stuff. I like knowledge. So like I play guitar, if I would rather be able to play amazing guitar than have a big house or a fancy car. I like things that work, keep me safe, you know, a safe car that's reasonable that I don't have to, you know, worry about payments on that kind of stuff. Success for me is doing the thing that you want to be doing all the time. Now, my advice shouldn't be taken by everybody. Because I am obsessive. I've always been obsessive, like, look at the running thing. But you know, that's an obsessive person. That's somebody that can't really let down and I don't really let down ever. I don't really understand how to relax. So I don't know what that will mean. But, so just continuing to keep going and pushing myself to the next thing. So like, maybe that's success, though. going, Okay, here's this next piece. And how do I get myself to there? All right. Okay, now we're here. All right, that's great. Let's go to the next thing. I tried to enjoy things while I have them a little bit. I don't do a great job at that. Usually, my husband will have to chime in with, you know, he'll be all like effusive and saying nice things. I'm like, Yeah, that's good. It's good. Gotta shut down. You have like, yeah, that's good. But what's the next thing? What's the next thing? Can I describe a time that I felt successful? You know, I don't know, it was probably would have to do with a time that I helped somebody because that is the bigger goal. So how can I help military members, military spouses? How can I get them connected with resources? You know, there's lots of resources, some of the issues are just getting them connected. People like things like military one source, like, you know, what military wants versus right. There's lots of especially new military spouses that have no idea. And they'll ask me for advice. And I'll say, I am not a psychologist, I shouldn't be giving you this advice. But let me direct you to some people that can give you some free advice. So being able to help others and maybe make a bigger impact that makes other people's lives a bit easier, would make me feel successful.
Britt 37:05
I love that. And my final question for you is how do you embrace being an M E to a military spouse, CEO,
Ashley Gutermuth 37:13
military spouse CEO, which is what I'm going to call myself from now on? I love it. I think that I've embraced it pretty well. A lot of my, my content is definitely military spouse based. Sometimes I'll have people that are like, Well, why is this all you do military spouse stuff? Like no, I can do all kinds of stuff. But I do think a lot of this is funny. And there's a lot of military spouses that that seem to think it's funny, too. So I tried to embrace it as much as possible. You know, I can ask for discounts like the best of them. But I think it's great. I think it's so hard. I did a Instagram video the other day about military spouses being underemployed. They are extremely underemployed, especially especially like lawyers, because they can't get licensed to pass the bar, they have to pass the bar and like every state that they're in, which is already like an extreme tends to already pass. So you have somebody that is that smart that qualified and can't work can't do the thing that they really want to do. So being able to connect people with with that, I think I think would be really great.
Britt 38:20
That's awesome. Well, Ashley, I just have to say thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day of making awesome videos to come hang out with us. I really, really appreciate it. I think a lot of people love your content, but to kind of get the backstage pass to kind of like what goes on behind the reels curtain, I guess, is really, really unique and I think resonates with a lot of our listeners. So thank you so much.
Ashley Gutermuth 38:47
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you everyone for listening. I love you, and not in a way like I say to the trolls.
Unknown Speaker 38:56
Hope you have a wonderful day. Thank
Ashley Gutermuth 38:57
you so much for having me.