We are so excited to have Ashlee Walstad on the podcast!
Ashlee is a Senior Recruiter at Celarity. When you see her results, it’s immediately apparent that this isn’t her first rodeo.
While she wasn’t born in a barn, growing up on a hobby farm in Orono, MN, she was definitely raised in one. After a childhood spent showing Quarter Horses and caring for sheep, goats, pigs, cats, dogs, ducks, and rabbits, it seemed almost inconceivable that this little filly would become a desk jockey.
After high school, she attended North Dakota State University and worked for a grocery store chain where she worked hard and received many promotions.
Ashlee found herself working in HR and recruiting. When she moved back to Minnesota she worked for Jefferson Lines, where she met Dina. With a desire to try agency recruiting, she moved to a staffing firm as a Technical Recruiter.
Ashlee was named the top permanent placement biller in 2020. In 2021, Ashlee joined the Celarity team, where she recruits marketing professionals for clients.
If you would like to know this amazing human, reach out!
Resources:
LinkedIn
Transcript
John Simon Sr. 00:06
Music. Welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon Sr. 00:16
Our guest today is Ashley wildstadt. Ashley is a senior recruiter for celerity, a boutique staffing firm in Minneapolis. Ashley, welcome to our podcast. Hi.
Ashlee Walstad 00:27
Thanks for having me.
John Simon Sr. 00:28
Why don't you take a few minutes and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. Maybe you know where you were raised, where you live now, and maybe what you do in your spare time.
Ashlee Walstad 00:38
Oh, cool. Okay, sounds good. So I have about probably going on like eight ish, maybe nine. Hard to count years of experience in recruiting total. I came from the internal recruiting world, and now find myself in what I wanted to do, which is agency recruiting for clients and companies, specifically in the marketing, creative and digital space. I'm from Orono, Minnesota, small town, west suburbs. I grew up on a hobby farm where I showed horses. You know, woke up before school to feed all the animals, and then went to school in North Dakota, in Fargo. That is kind of where I got my first job in recruiting as well for a large, like, kind of grocery store chain, almost similar to a LUNs and buyerlies, but worked my way up from cashier just doing cashier work in college, getting, like, I think, five total promotions, all the way into HR. So that's kind of how I how I found myself in recruiting and loved it, and have been in ever since
Dina Simon 01:45
and Orono. So that's where the hobby farm was, yep, in
Ashlee Walstad 01:49
Orono with 16 acres, like four or five horses, goats, a pig, a miniature pig, chickens. So
John Simon Sr. 01:57
I'm going to assume a hobby farm is like a family owned little farm that you that you have,
Ashlee Walstad 02:03
yeah, yeah, no. Like, you know, we didn't produce and sell any, you know, products or anything. It's just for fun, right? So everything we did was for fun. My mom would take me to horse shows every weekend. We'd load my horse up into a horse trailer and truck, and she'd drive a drive me all over the Minnesota, and that was how we spent our weekends, really
Dina Simon 02:24
nice. And Orono, John will when you're here next, maybe we'll take you out there, because it's now. Orono isn't that far out, right? It's just a suburb that's out that way. And you must have seen so much change then, from it being like a farming community to be an up and coming kind of thriving community. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 02:41
I went to Orono Senior High School as well. So, you know, I grew up on a dirt road. You know, I was like, 12 years old, taking a four wheeler out on dirt roads, and, you know, doing whatever I wanted. And I still go back to Orono, there's some restaurants and things that are great there, and it's definitely grown but it's still got that same kind of feel. I'd love to, you know, someday go back and have a hobby farm in Orono. So definitely a
John Simon Sr. 03:08
life goal. Nice. Well, it sounds like it was a lot of fun growing up, yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 03:13
a ton of fun. And I had a ton of friends that would love to come over jump on a horse. We had a pool, you know, jump in the pool. This is kind of like a big playground for kids.
Dina Simon 03:22
And then Ashley, you have a brother, yep, one brother,
Ashlee Walstad 03:27
one younger brother. He's in the legal field. He works downtown. He's a musician. You know, it's his passion. I tried to play a bass guitar, actually, with him growing up, he really wanted to do, like a family band. He's like, I'm gonna buy baits guitar. We're gonna have a brother sister band. And I tried, and I took about, I don't know, 10 lessons, and I was like, I just I hate it. Yep,
John Simon Sr. 03:54
you learn very quickly.
Ashlee Walstad 03:56
Yep, you do not for me.
John Simon Sr. 03:58
So what do you do in your spare time?
Ashlee Walstad 04:00
I love Walks. I love nature hiking. My wife and I are actually going to Sedona soon for a hiking trip. Just I love hiking outdoors. Kind of a nerd as well. Video games, Legos, definitely a nerd at heart. And fast cars, yeah, and fast cars too. I'm a huge fan of cars. I love to rent sports cars, kind of like my if I land a big placement, like, I'm gonna rent a sports car for the day and drive around in Aston Martin.
John Simon Sr. 04:31
Okay, so I understand that you met Dina when you were working at Jefferson lights. Why don't you talk a little bit about that? And you know how you two work together?
Ashlee Walstad 04:40
Yeah, I got a job. I moved back from Fargo to be back home, and I got a job at Jefferson lines in HR as a recruiter, and then doing some HR work as well. She wasn't there yet, but on the first like year, she ended up, you know, being like a leadership consultant, right? Dina, yeah, yeah. I did. Yep, yep. And I was struggling because I, you know, my, the leader that I had at that point wasn't super strong. We were kind of butting heads a little bit. And, you know, I went to Dena, and I was like, you know, I could use her help navigating this. And she quickly kind of became my leader there, and was great. And we worked together for what, four years ish, yeah,
Dina Simon 05:21
I think about four years. And what I love so much about Ashley, like we just connected very early on. We have a lot of similarities, but we have differences. And John was asking me, you know, age wise, so I turned 53 and I think you're gonna turn 32 this year. Yeah. So I kind of always joke saying, oh my gosh, I could be old enough to be your mother if I started. Yeah, right. Even with our age difference, there's always been so much respect. Like, you've never made me feel like a stupid older person that don't know how to do something, and I've had to come to you to say, hey, like, I don't know how to do this, whether it be technology, or will you go research this for me, or if you had to point out, like, Hey, do you know that? That you know what you might have just said right now, like, you know, from a mainstream today, like, that's doesn't, that doesn't work, but with a tremendous amount of just love and respect, and we've had so much fun working together. And I just, I've just treasured that, that relationship from an age perspective, and you know how we've been able to collaborate and do some really fun stuff together.
John Simon Sr. 06:25
Dina did say one thing to me. She says, You're wicked smart and a lot of fun to be with, and a great human being. So that's a pretty tall order, right there?
Ashlee Walstad 06:35
Yeah, I've always, like gravitated towards, you know, building relationships and friendships with with leaders, oftentimes in a generation above me, I've always loved talking to leaders in general, about their jobs, about their life. I've just always loved out why I've gravitated towards placing a lot of leadership roles in my past few jobs, but I feel it more easy to build, you know, relationships and connections with leaders. So definitely gravitated towards Gina, with her strong leadership skills, lots to learn from
Dina Simon 07:09
well, and that's where to like as a recruiter. Then so John when she was working with me at Jefferson line, so she knew what it was to be an in house recruiter, because she was doing that. And then it was like, Hey, I might want to do agency recruiting one day. So she did go for, you know, what was it made about a year and a half that you were working for the other staffing firm before you went to celerity,
Ashlee Walstad 07:31
yeah, about a year and a half, you know, I left Jefferson alliance for an agency recruiting job that was more in the like manufacturing engineering, it space, yeah, about a year and a half there, and then Dina called me. Was like, we were just chatting, you know, catching up. And I was kind of telling her about my current job and not being super satisfied with it just wasn't as fun, you know, with those kind of engineering roles a little bit tougher. And she's like, Well, what do you think about celerity? And connected me with the owner, one of the owners there, and hit it off,
Dina Simon 08:03
yeah, and you were also being recruited by others. And I said, No, no, no, if you're going to, if you're going to jump ship, you definitely need to talk to John or Robert and look at celerity, because I know it would be an amazing culture fit for you.
Ashlee Walstad 08:17
Exactly.
John Simon Sr. 08:18
I say, you know, I read in your bio that in 2020, you were the top permanent placement person at the farm, and you had been there that long at that point. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 08:29
that was the other job, prior to celerity. And then I moved on to celerity, and our perm business, like boomed, really. When I started, I read a ton more perm business. And yes, it was a big part of that, of of placing those, those folks there,
Dina Simon 08:44
as you do some contract as well, where it's So John, they'll do, like, long term contract positions. So somebody might, actually might place somebody who's out Abbott or something for a year or two. So there's some long term placements, but actually, just even a guess, like a best quarter for you. I mean, you probably had, like, at least 10, eight to 10 placements, yeah, I
Ashlee Walstad 09:05
would say, So, yep, yeah.
Dina Simon 09:06
So by eight to 10 placements, John and a quarter would be a good quarter, yep. And the
John Simon Sr. 09:11
great part about it is you said they're permanent, and I'm sure as time goes by, you keep in touch with those people, in case they get promoted and they need to replace them, or they want to move along to somewhere else? Also, you're constantly building that relationship? Yep,
Ashlee Walstad 09:27
exactly. I actually placed a VP of Marketing, like, probably six months ago or so for a client here, and we actually are working on a job for that
Dina Simon 09:37
person now. Nice. Nice and their team. Nice their team. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 09:42
so does come full circle. It's nice to like exactly like you said, it, it, you just get to build those relationships, you know, a little bit longer, and they're, they are permanent. We do quite a bit of contract placement, still more long term contracts, mostly with Fortune, 1000 type. Clients like Dina mentioned, but those pertinent clients are again, mostly with those small to mid sized businesses. And then we work with a ton of advertising agencies too.
John Simon Sr. 10:09
That's the difference between, you know, you're into the relationship business, as opposed to a transaction business. Yep, totally
Ashlee Walstad 10:16
100% a relationship business. It's, you know. You never know when that that person is going to come full circle, even if you don't have something for them right now, there's a great chance you could have it soon. Yeah, it's definitely a lot of relationship building. That's exactly what we're
Dina Simon 10:34
focused on. And I told John that if there was a unicorn position out there, and if somebody gave it to you, you would find the unicorn that you're known for that
Ashlee Walstad 10:44
actually love that. I love the tough ones, the tough longer surges. You know, where it takes a bit of time, little bit more thinking on how you're going to approach the search, which is why, again, I gravitate towards more of those, like executive level ones, a bit bit more difficult to find and find that exact right fit. But, yeah, I love those, those unicorn roles. A lot of times people call them purple squirrel missions in the recruiting industry.
John Simon Sr. 11:11
So I understand today, much different than when I worked many years ago. Things like LinkedIn have really helped people to connect with each other.
Ashlee Walstad 11:21
Yeah, that's a lot of where I do my recruiting in general, especially for professional positions, you're not going to, you know, necessarily find those people on an indeed, or, you know, zip recruiter LinkedIn is definitely going to be the place. But if you're a job seeker, having a LinkedIn profile as active as possible, and, you know, showing that you're open to work, making sure your LinkedIn profile is full of keywords, having recommendations. But even beyond that, just building up your network, and, you know, putting it out there that you're looking for work, because that does get a ton of traction. It
Dina Simon 11:57
does, yeah, so Ashley, we've talked a little bit about that, you know, like your advice to somebody who might be looking at like, those pointers, right there is great. So in your early 30s, what would you tell your 20 year old self? So what would you tell somebody who's just getting started? What would be some of the advice that you might give them
Ashlee Walstad 12:15
follow what you're passionate about? You know, I think it's easy to feel, you know, stuck or, you know, especially if you're someone that likes stability, and I, I definitely find myself to be someone that loves stability, but push yourself to do what you love and and don't settle for less, especially when you're just starting out. Yes, it's important to gain that experience, but you don't want to kind of pigeonhole yourself into something that you're not wanting to do truly sounds
John Simon Sr. 12:43
like good, solid advice exactly yourself. Good, yeah,
Dina Simon 12:47
yeah. Okay. So our podcast is about life, leadership and building legacies. So we've heard a little bit about your life. Anything else you want to talk about, as far as you've got cats you guys, you bought, you bought your first house. You have a beautiful house that you guys bought. Anything else in your personal life,
Ashlee Walstad 13:06
I've been married for going on almost 10 well, not married, but we've been together for 10 years, married for almost six. That goes fast. Yeah, go super fast. I got married super young. I was only 23 which feels like, like forever ago. Whenever I tell people I was married at 23 they're like, oh my gosh, that's super young. Now it is, right. But, yeah, we've got three cats super passionate about rescuing, you know, animals, specifically cats, obviously. And yeah, I have a house in Wayzata now it's our first house. We bought it in 2020, right after the shutdown. So yeah, and, you know, ended up being the perfect time when everything was super low interest rates. So we got lucky.
Dina Simon 13:50
Yeah, yeah. And you guys have done a great job with home projects and your garden and everything. Okay, so life leadership. So we touched a little bit about, maybe on some leadership that you've had, but what else about leadership would you want to talk about?
Ashlee Walstad 14:04
Yeah, I've had a mentee for probably a couple years now at celerity, which has been super awesome. She was new to recruiting, but has certainly become one of the best recruiters at celerity, so which has been awesome to see. We've grown an awesome friendship too. It's really almost like a back and forth mentorship, where we both really gain quite a bit from it, which is what I love. So, yeah, nice,
Dina Simon 14:30
nice. Yeah.
John Simon Sr. 14:33
It's amazing. At your young age, you could be mentoring someone got into it younger than you were, whenever you got into it now look how much you're helping her out.
Ashlee Walstad 14:42
Yep, yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's just how long I've been in recruiting, and I've stuck to it. I haven't left Yep, I've just been in recruiting, which I love. That's what I've always wanted to do, and super passionate about. It's not for everybody. I always say there's lots of high highs and low lows. Are very market dependent, you know, in recruiting. So those lows can be tough to ride the wave on, and those rejected offers and job closings and just losing out on things can feel pretty rough, but those highs certainly make up for it. Of you know, finding people the perfect fit, those connections coming back around you with more jobs, just Yeah, so you kind of have to be able to ride that up and down.
Dina Simon 15:25
Yeah, exactly. So legacies, actually, to us, is not what we, you know, just leave behind, but it's what we do throughout our lives. And so building legacies. So I know you and Kate have gotten involved, certainly in some philanthropy, as far as volunteering time and engaged in in stuff. So when we talk about legacies and building legacies, what comes to mind? Oh, I'm so young,
Ashlee Walstad 15:49
I don't know about legacies yet. Man, I just I, I'm a huge person like humor and just being light hearted and funny and, you know, not taking things too seriously. And I hope you know people that I work with and like, just people that you know I'm around, can just remember things that just bring them joy or humor. We do a lot of like, again, the rescuing is huge to us. I'd love to one day own a cat rescue, like in a retirement plan sort of thing than a goal for us. But again, like a hobby farm where we can have rescue animals would be, would be great.
John Simon Sr. 16:27
I think it's great that you know what, Deana, she said, You were wicked smart, but a lot of fun to be with. And that's the that's an important part of what you do, yeah? Just have fun every day. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 16:40
I'm definitely the type of person that you know, you see what you get. I'm definitely, like an open book. I again, like you can know my whole life in just a few minutes, I'd be happy to share it. I'm definitely don't show up differently to work than I'd show up at home, with friends, with my family. So, yeah, I just have always just been me, and I love when people get to see that, and love it too. So it's worked out for me so far
John Simon Sr. 17:06
well. And I think that's important in the field that you're in, to be a genuine person,
Ashlee Walstad 17:11
Yep, exactly. Yeah. People can definitely, definitely sense that too, salesy type of personality, I think, from recruiters, and that's just, yeah, it doesn't build a lot of trust or rapport with people, and you don't get those genuine feelings about what people are thinking and their job search. So certainly, very important.
Dina Simon 17:32
Yeah. So Ashley, I agree. Like, I think, I mean, I've just also been really fortunate to know who you are, because you let me in early on, like we kind of immediately had that really solid relationship. But consistency. What I love about you is you do show up like you're the same person. So if I talk to you today, if I talk to you a month from now, I get the same Ashley, right? Like there's just that same person. But it's been really fun to watch you again. I'm not your mom, I'm your big sister, but it's just been so much fun watching you grow in your career and thriving. And as you said, in recruiting in the industry that you're in, there's highs and lows, but you've really weathered them so well. The people that work around you and with you, you know think you are a tremendous asset to the organization, and you are super fun to work with, but again, it goes back to just that energy. And also you are wicked smart, so like, your zest for continuing to learn and research are definitely just big qualities that I love about you. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 18:34
I'm also super huge on efficiencies and processes. So streamlining processes is like my passion that I didn't know I had until Jefferson lines, when Dina was like, Whoa, you shortened our recruiting process by like over half time I was like, what? And I just just did that. You know, it's just my nature to make things a little bit quicker, a little bit more seamless. So that's definitely one of my strong suits that's helped me tremendously in recruiting and honestly, just in life
John Simon Sr. 19:07
well. And I'll get back to Greg Jackson, what he said one of our people that was on last year, if you can measure it, you can improve it, very accurate, yep. And if you can take and cut it in half like you did at Jefferson lines. That's amazing.
Ashlee Walstad 19:23
Yeah, and metrics are a huge part of recruiting, too. So it's all measured. You know, beyond the relationship building, though, of course, that can't necessarily be measured. But you know what we do is, is definitely highly measured. And you know, we meet about it pretty frequently, and it's super helpful to all of us here to kind of see, you know, what we can do better as a group and as individuals, as recruiters, too, and even in sales.
Dina Simon 19:48
Yeah. Well, Ashley, I think this podcast is going to launch on Friday, which happens to be my birthday, and so I'm super excited that you were my birthday guest, because, you know. How much I love you and adore you, and it was fun for John to get to know you better. Is there anything that you're most excited about in 2024 as we turned this New Year?
Ashlee Walstad 20:10
Boy? Well, personally, we're going to be more intentional about traveling. I'm super scared of flying. It's like one of my biggest fears is flying. But I've been like, I just need to get it over with, because I'd love to go places. And Kate, my wife, she's not seen a ton of places. She didn't grow up traveling very much, so would love to kind of continue to show her some new places, and just kind of make myself do it. And I know a lot of people struggle with anxiety, but that's definitely one of my big ones. So looking to push the limits in 2024,
Dina Simon 20:42
nice. Yeah, that's awesome. So you got Arizona, you're gonna be in Sedona right before I am. So you got Sedona? Is there anything else kind of on your radar?
Ashlee Walstad 20:50
Yeah, we're actually, so I'm half Greek, and we are going to do a family trip to start planning it to Greece. Nice. So that's gonna be a big one. We're actually learning Greek right now. Kate and I, we've been learning Greek for the past few weeks, so kind of a new kind of skill and adventure for us. When is that planned? That'll be like 2025 so, but got about a year,
Dina Simon 21:16
so you have some time to work up to a really long flight. No,
Ashlee Walstad 21:21
I've gotta take the short ones in between. Think we're gonna go to Sedona, and then we've thought about doing like Seattle or Portland, so in the summer, yeah.
Dina Simon 21:29
So John, Ashley and Kate, they go to Stillwater often. So John loves Stillwater, but they'll do like a getaway local, and do a lot in that in that area. It's one of your favorites. Ray tide, gang,
Ashlee Walstad 21:41
great food.
John Simon Sr. 21:42
Yeah, great food. And it's just a pretty little town. It is. It's
Ashlee Walstad 21:46
super cute, and they've got the hotels there, so nice. Yeah, if I could pick another city to live it would probably be Stillwater.
Dina Simon 21:54
We talk about Stillwater a little bit on the podcast. I think I might need to go back to the city of Stillwater and say, Hey, we give you a few shout outs podcast.
John Simon Sr. 22:04
I haven't heard a bad word, though. I mean, everybody that you talk to is super impressed with it and excited about going for the shopping, for just, just the people watching, and, like you said, the food and the river and just, it's just a great area, yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 22:20
the little doors, yeah, we love it. There's a local like art shop too, where local artists can kind of bring in their arts. We like to visit that kind of neat. It's just all in that one area too, which is really nice. Just walk up and down there.
Dina Simon 22:36
Yeah, exactly. Well, Ashley, we'll make sure people know how to get in touch with you. But from a recruiting standpoint, will you just do one more shout out on what types of candidates that you typically are working with? Yeah.
Ashlee Walstad 22:49
So I recruit for marketing, creative and digital folks. So you know anything from marketing project managers, digital marketing folks, graphic designers, copywriters, marketing leaders, you name it. If you're in the marketing space, we can help
Dina Simon 23:04
Yep, and not just in Minnesota, but all over the country. Yep
Ashlee Walstad 23:09
remotely, too. We definitely do a lot in Minnesota, but definitely all over the US. Nice.
Dina Simon 23:13
Well, it sure has been fun having you on the podcast. I thank you for joining us on my special birthday episode,
Ashlee Walstad 23:21
yay. I'm glad. I'm super happy you invited me and good to see you on Thursday.
John Simon Sr. 23:26
Yes, nice to meet you.
Ashlee Walstad 23:28
Yeah, good to meet
Dina Simon 23:29
you too. I want to thank Ashley walstad for being on our podcast. I'm obviously a raving fan. She's one of my favorite people, and we talked a lot about her recruiting so if you are a candidate that needs to know her, hiring manager, that needs to know her, or just interested in being connected to an amazing human, I'll make sure you know how to get in touch with her. And as always, I thank my father in law, John for joining me in the podcast, and until we talk again, you
Music. Welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon Sr. 00:16
Our guest today is Ashley wildstadt. Ashley is a senior recruiter for celerity, a boutique staffing firm in Minneapolis. Ashley, welcome to our podcast. Hi.
Ashlee Walstad 00:27
Thanks for having me.
John Simon Sr. 00:28
Why don't you take a few minutes and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. Maybe you know where you were raised, where you live now, and maybe what you do in your spare time.
Ashlee Walstad 00:38
Oh, cool. Okay, sounds good. So I have about probably going on like eight ish, maybe nine. Hard to count years of experience in recruiting total. I came from the internal recruiting world, and now find myself in what I wanted to do, which is agency recruiting for clients and companies, specifically in the marketing, creative and digital space. I'm from Orono, Minnesota, small town, west suburbs. I grew up on a hobby farm where I showed horses. You know, woke up before school to feed all the animals, and then went to school in North Dakota, in Fargo. That is kind of where I got my first job in recruiting as well for a large, like, kind of grocery store chain, almost similar to a LUNs and buyerlies, but worked my way up from cashier just doing cashier work in college, getting, like, I think, five total promotions, all the way into HR. So that's kind of how I how I found myself in recruiting and loved it, and have been in ever since
Dina Simon 01:45
and Orono. So that's where the hobby farm was, yep, in
Ashlee Walstad 01:49
Orono with 16 acres, like four or five horses, goats, a pig, a miniature pig, chickens. So
John Simon Sr. 01:57
I'm going to assume a hobby farm is like a family owned little farm that you that you have,
Ashlee Walstad 02:03
yeah, yeah, no. Like, you know, we didn't produce and sell any, you know, products or anything. It's just for fun, right? So everything we did was for fun. My mom would take me to horse shows every weekend. We'd load my horse up into a horse trailer and truck, and she'd drive a drive me all over the Minnesota, and that was how we spent our weekends, really
Dina Simon 02:24
nice. And Orono, John will when you're here next, maybe we'll take you out there, because it's now. Orono isn't that far out, right? It's just a suburb that's out that way. And you must have seen so much change then, from it being like a farming community to be an up and coming kind of thriving community. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 02:41
I went to Orono Senior High School as well. So, you know, I grew up on a dirt road. You know, I was like, 12 years old, taking a four wheeler out on dirt roads, and, you know, doing whatever I wanted. And I still go back to Orono, there's some restaurants and things that are great there, and it's definitely grown but it's still got that same kind of feel. I'd love to, you know, someday go back and have a hobby farm in Orono. So definitely a
John Simon Sr. 03:08
life goal. Nice. Well, it sounds like it was a lot of fun growing up, yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 03:13
a ton of fun. And I had a ton of friends that would love to come over jump on a horse. We had a pool, you know, jump in the pool. This is kind of like a big playground for kids.
Dina Simon 03:22
And then Ashley, you have a brother, yep, one brother,
Ashlee Walstad 03:27
one younger brother. He's in the legal field. He works downtown. He's a musician. You know, it's his passion. I tried to play a bass guitar, actually, with him growing up, he really wanted to do, like a family band. He's like, I'm gonna buy baits guitar. We're gonna have a brother sister band. And I tried, and I took about, I don't know, 10 lessons, and I was like, I just I hate it. Yep,
John Simon Sr. 03:54
you learn very quickly.
Ashlee Walstad 03:56
Yep, you do not for me.
John Simon Sr. 03:58
So what do you do in your spare time?
Ashlee Walstad 04:00
I love Walks. I love nature hiking. My wife and I are actually going to Sedona soon for a hiking trip. Just I love hiking outdoors. Kind of a nerd as well. Video games, Legos, definitely a nerd at heart. And fast cars, yeah, and fast cars too. I'm a huge fan of cars. I love to rent sports cars, kind of like my if I land a big placement, like, I'm gonna rent a sports car for the day and drive around in Aston Martin.
John Simon Sr. 04:31
Okay, so I understand that you met Dina when you were working at Jefferson lights. Why don't you talk a little bit about that? And you know how you two work together?
Ashlee Walstad 04:40
Yeah, I got a job. I moved back from Fargo to be back home, and I got a job at Jefferson lines in HR as a recruiter, and then doing some HR work as well. She wasn't there yet, but on the first like year, she ended up, you know, being like a leadership consultant, right? Dina, yeah, yeah. I did. Yep, yep. And I was struggling because I, you know, my, the leader that I had at that point wasn't super strong. We were kind of butting heads a little bit. And, you know, I went to Dena, and I was like, you know, I could use her help navigating this. And she quickly kind of became my leader there, and was great. And we worked together for what, four years ish, yeah,
Dina Simon 05:21
I think about four years. And what I love so much about Ashley, like we just connected very early on. We have a lot of similarities, but we have differences. And John was asking me, you know, age wise, so I turned 53 and I think you're gonna turn 32 this year. Yeah. So I kind of always joke saying, oh my gosh, I could be old enough to be your mother if I started. Yeah, right. Even with our age difference, there's always been so much respect. Like, you've never made me feel like a stupid older person that don't know how to do something, and I've had to come to you to say, hey, like, I don't know how to do this, whether it be technology, or will you go research this for me, or if you had to point out, like, Hey, do you know that? That you know what you might have just said right now, like, you know, from a mainstream today, like, that's doesn't, that doesn't work, but with a tremendous amount of just love and respect, and we've had so much fun working together. And I just, I've just treasured that, that relationship from an age perspective, and you know how we've been able to collaborate and do some really fun stuff together.
John Simon Sr. 06:25
Dina did say one thing to me. She says, You're wicked smart and a lot of fun to be with, and a great human being. So that's a pretty tall order, right there?
Ashlee Walstad 06:35
Yeah, I've always, like gravitated towards, you know, building relationships and friendships with with leaders, oftentimes in a generation above me, I've always loved talking to leaders in general, about their jobs, about their life. I've just always loved out why I've gravitated towards placing a lot of leadership roles in my past few jobs, but I feel it more easy to build, you know, relationships and connections with leaders. So definitely gravitated towards Gina, with her strong leadership skills, lots to learn from
Dina Simon 07:09
well, and that's where to like as a recruiter. Then so John when she was working with me at Jefferson line, so she knew what it was to be an in house recruiter, because she was doing that. And then it was like, Hey, I might want to do agency recruiting one day. So she did go for, you know, what was it made about a year and a half that you were working for the other staffing firm before you went to celerity,
Ashlee Walstad 07:31
yeah, about a year and a half, you know, I left Jefferson alliance for an agency recruiting job that was more in the like manufacturing engineering, it space, yeah, about a year and a half there, and then Dina called me. Was like, we were just chatting, you know, catching up. And I was kind of telling her about my current job and not being super satisfied with it just wasn't as fun, you know, with those kind of engineering roles a little bit tougher. And she's like, Well, what do you think about celerity? And connected me with the owner, one of the owners there, and hit it off,
Dina Simon 08:03
yeah, and you were also being recruited by others. And I said, No, no, no, if you're going to, if you're going to jump ship, you definitely need to talk to John or Robert and look at celerity, because I know it would be an amazing culture fit for you.
Ashlee Walstad 08:17
Exactly.
John Simon Sr. 08:18
I say, you know, I read in your bio that in 2020, you were the top permanent placement person at the farm, and you had been there that long at that point. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 08:29
that was the other job, prior to celerity. And then I moved on to celerity, and our perm business, like boomed, really. When I started, I read a ton more perm business. And yes, it was a big part of that, of of placing those, those folks there,
Dina Simon 08:44
as you do some contract as well, where it's So John, they'll do, like, long term contract positions. So somebody might, actually might place somebody who's out Abbott or something for a year or two. So there's some long term placements, but actually, just even a guess, like a best quarter for you. I mean, you probably had, like, at least 10, eight to 10 placements, yeah, I
Ashlee Walstad 09:05
would say, So, yep, yeah.
Dina Simon 09:06
So by eight to 10 placements, John and a quarter would be a good quarter, yep. And the
John Simon Sr. 09:11
great part about it is you said they're permanent, and I'm sure as time goes by, you keep in touch with those people, in case they get promoted and they need to replace them, or they want to move along to somewhere else? Also, you're constantly building that relationship? Yep,
Ashlee Walstad 09:27
exactly. I actually placed a VP of Marketing, like, probably six months ago or so for a client here, and we actually are working on a job for that
Dina Simon 09:37
person now. Nice. Nice and their team. Nice their team. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 09:42
so does come full circle. It's nice to like exactly like you said, it, it, you just get to build those relationships, you know, a little bit longer, and they're, they are permanent. We do quite a bit of contract placement, still more long term contracts, mostly with Fortune, 1000 type. Clients like Dina mentioned, but those pertinent clients are again, mostly with those small to mid sized businesses. And then we work with a ton of advertising agencies too.
John Simon Sr. 10:09
That's the difference between, you know, you're into the relationship business, as opposed to a transaction business. Yep, totally
Ashlee Walstad 10:16
100% a relationship business. It's, you know. You never know when that that person is going to come full circle, even if you don't have something for them right now, there's a great chance you could have it soon. Yeah, it's definitely a lot of relationship building. That's exactly what we're
Dina Simon 10:34
focused on. And I told John that if there was a unicorn position out there, and if somebody gave it to you, you would find the unicorn that you're known for that
Ashlee Walstad 10:44
actually love that. I love the tough ones, the tough longer surges. You know, where it takes a bit of time, little bit more thinking on how you're going to approach the search, which is why, again, I gravitate towards more of those, like executive level ones, a bit bit more difficult to find and find that exact right fit. But, yeah, I love those, those unicorn roles. A lot of times people call them purple squirrel missions in the recruiting industry.
John Simon Sr. 11:11
So I understand today, much different than when I worked many years ago. Things like LinkedIn have really helped people to connect with each other.
Ashlee Walstad 11:21
Yeah, that's a lot of where I do my recruiting in general, especially for professional positions, you're not going to, you know, necessarily find those people on an indeed, or, you know, zip recruiter LinkedIn is definitely going to be the place. But if you're a job seeker, having a LinkedIn profile as active as possible, and, you know, showing that you're open to work, making sure your LinkedIn profile is full of keywords, having recommendations. But even beyond that, just building up your network, and, you know, putting it out there that you're looking for work, because that does get a ton of traction. It
Dina Simon 11:57
does, yeah, so Ashley, we've talked a little bit about that, you know, like your advice to somebody who might be looking at like, those pointers, right there is great. So in your early 30s, what would you tell your 20 year old self? So what would you tell somebody who's just getting started? What would be some of the advice that you might give them
Ashlee Walstad 12:15
follow what you're passionate about? You know, I think it's easy to feel, you know, stuck or, you know, especially if you're someone that likes stability, and I, I definitely find myself to be someone that loves stability, but push yourself to do what you love and and don't settle for less, especially when you're just starting out. Yes, it's important to gain that experience, but you don't want to kind of pigeonhole yourself into something that you're not wanting to do truly sounds
John Simon Sr. 12:43
like good, solid advice exactly yourself. Good, yeah,
Dina Simon 12:47
yeah. Okay. So our podcast is about life, leadership and building legacies. So we've heard a little bit about your life. Anything else you want to talk about, as far as you've got cats you guys, you bought, you bought your first house. You have a beautiful house that you guys bought. Anything else in your personal life,
Ashlee Walstad 13:06
I've been married for going on almost 10 well, not married, but we've been together for 10 years, married for almost six. That goes fast. Yeah, go super fast. I got married super young. I was only 23 which feels like, like forever ago. Whenever I tell people I was married at 23 they're like, oh my gosh, that's super young. Now it is, right. But, yeah, we've got three cats super passionate about rescuing, you know, animals, specifically cats, obviously. And yeah, I have a house in Wayzata now it's our first house. We bought it in 2020, right after the shutdown. So yeah, and, you know, ended up being the perfect time when everything was super low interest rates. So we got lucky.
Dina Simon 13:50
Yeah, yeah. And you guys have done a great job with home projects and your garden and everything. Okay, so life leadership. So we touched a little bit about, maybe on some leadership that you've had, but what else about leadership would you want to talk about?
Ashlee Walstad 14:04
Yeah, I've had a mentee for probably a couple years now at celerity, which has been super awesome. She was new to recruiting, but has certainly become one of the best recruiters at celerity, so which has been awesome to see. We've grown an awesome friendship too. It's really almost like a back and forth mentorship, where we both really gain quite a bit from it, which is what I love. So, yeah, nice,
Dina Simon 14:30
nice. Yeah.
John Simon Sr. 14:33
It's amazing. At your young age, you could be mentoring someone got into it younger than you were, whenever you got into it now look how much you're helping her out.
Ashlee Walstad 14:42
Yep, yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's just how long I've been in recruiting, and I've stuck to it. I haven't left Yep, I've just been in recruiting, which I love. That's what I've always wanted to do, and super passionate about. It's not for everybody. I always say there's lots of high highs and low lows. Are very market dependent, you know, in recruiting. So those lows can be tough to ride the wave on, and those rejected offers and job closings and just losing out on things can feel pretty rough, but those highs certainly make up for it. Of you know, finding people the perfect fit, those connections coming back around you with more jobs, just Yeah, so you kind of have to be able to ride that up and down.
Dina Simon 15:25
Yeah, exactly. So legacies, actually, to us, is not what we, you know, just leave behind, but it's what we do throughout our lives. And so building legacies. So I know you and Kate have gotten involved, certainly in some philanthropy, as far as volunteering time and engaged in in stuff. So when we talk about legacies and building legacies, what comes to mind? Oh, I'm so young,
Ashlee Walstad 15:49
I don't know about legacies yet. Man, I just I, I'm a huge person like humor and just being light hearted and funny and, you know, not taking things too seriously. And I hope you know people that I work with and like, just people that you know I'm around, can just remember things that just bring them joy or humor. We do a lot of like, again, the rescuing is huge to us. I'd love to one day own a cat rescue, like in a retirement plan sort of thing than a goal for us. But again, like a hobby farm where we can have rescue animals would be, would be great.
John Simon Sr. 16:27
I think it's great that you know what, Deana, she said, You were wicked smart, but a lot of fun to be with. And that's the that's an important part of what you do, yeah? Just have fun every day. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 16:40
I'm definitely the type of person that you know, you see what you get. I'm definitely, like an open book. I again, like you can know my whole life in just a few minutes, I'd be happy to share it. I'm definitely don't show up differently to work than I'd show up at home, with friends, with my family. So, yeah, I just have always just been me, and I love when people get to see that, and love it too. So it's worked out for me so far
John Simon Sr. 17:06
well. And I think that's important in the field that you're in, to be a genuine person,
Ashlee Walstad 17:11
Yep, exactly. Yeah. People can definitely, definitely sense that too, salesy type of personality, I think, from recruiters, and that's just, yeah, it doesn't build a lot of trust or rapport with people, and you don't get those genuine feelings about what people are thinking and their job search. So certainly, very important.
Dina Simon 17:32
Yeah. So Ashley, I agree. Like, I think, I mean, I've just also been really fortunate to know who you are, because you let me in early on, like we kind of immediately had that really solid relationship. But consistency. What I love about you is you do show up like you're the same person. So if I talk to you today, if I talk to you a month from now, I get the same Ashley, right? Like there's just that same person. But it's been really fun to watch you again. I'm not your mom, I'm your big sister, but it's just been so much fun watching you grow in your career and thriving. And as you said, in recruiting in the industry that you're in, there's highs and lows, but you've really weathered them so well. The people that work around you and with you, you know think you are a tremendous asset to the organization, and you are super fun to work with, but again, it goes back to just that energy. And also you are wicked smart, so like, your zest for continuing to learn and research are definitely just big qualities that I love about you. Yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 18:34
I'm also super huge on efficiencies and processes. So streamlining processes is like my passion that I didn't know I had until Jefferson lines, when Dina was like, Whoa, you shortened our recruiting process by like over half time I was like, what? And I just just did that. You know, it's just my nature to make things a little bit quicker, a little bit more seamless. So that's definitely one of my strong suits that's helped me tremendously in recruiting and honestly, just in life
John Simon Sr. 19:07
well. And I'll get back to Greg Jackson, what he said one of our people that was on last year, if you can measure it, you can improve it, very accurate, yep. And if you can take and cut it in half like you did at Jefferson lines. That's amazing.
Ashlee Walstad 19:23
Yeah, and metrics are a huge part of recruiting, too. So it's all measured. You know, beyond the relationship building, though, of course, that can't necessarily be measured. But you know what we do is, is definitely highly measured. And you know, we meet about it pretty frequently, and it's super helpful to all of us here to kind of see, you know, what we can do better as a group and as individuals, as recruiters, too, and even in sales.
Dina Simon 19:48
Yeah. Well, Ashley, I think this podcast is going to launch on Friday, which happens to be my birthday, and so I'm super excited that you were my birthday guest, because, you know. How much I love you and adore you, and it was fun for John to get to know you better. Is there anything that you're most excited about in 2024 as we turned this New Year?
Ashlee Walstad 20:10
Boy? Well, personally, we're going to be more intentional about traveling. I'm super scared of flying. It's like one of my biggest fears is flying. But I've been like, I just need to get it over with, because I'd love to go places. And Kate, my wife, she's not seen a ton of places. She didn't grow up traveling very much, so would love to kind of continue to show her some new places, and just kind of make myself do it. And I know a lot of people struggle with anxiety, but that's definitely one of my big ones. So looking to push the limits in 2024,
Dina Simon 20:42
nice. Yeah, that's awesome. So you got Arizona, you're gonna be in Sedona right before I am. So you got Sedona? Is there anything else kind of on your radar?
Ashlee Walstad 20:50
Yeah, we're actually, so I'm half Greek, and we are going to do a family trip to start planning it to Greece. Nice. So that's gonna be a big one. We're actually learning Greek right now. Kate and I, we've been learning Greek for the past few weeks, so kind of a new kind of skill and adventure for us. When is that planned? That'll be like 2025 so, but got about a year,
Dina Simon 21:16
so you have some time to work up to a really long flight. No,
Ashlee Walstad 21:21
I've gotta take the short ones in between. Think we're gonna go to Sedona, and then we've thought about doing like Seattle or Portland, so in the summer, yeah.
Dina Simon 21:29
So John, Ashley and Kate, they go to Stillwater often. So John loves Stillwater, but they'll do like a getaway local, and do a lot in that in that area. It's one of your favorites. Ray tide, gang,
Ashlee Walstad 21:41
great food.
John Simon Sr. 21:42
Yeah, great food. And it's just a pretty little town. It is. It's
Ashlee Walstad 21:46
super cute, and they've got the hotels there, so nice. Yeah, if I could pick another city to live it would probably be Stillwater.
Dina Simon 21:54
We talk about Stillwater a little bit on the podcast. I think I might need to go back to the city of Stillwater and say, Hey, we give you a few shout outs podcast.
John Simon Sr. 22:04
I haven't heard a bad word, though. I mean, everybody that you talk to is super impressed with it and excited about going for the shopping, for just, just the people watching, and, like you said, the food and the river and just, it's just a great area, yeah,
Ashlee Walstad 22:20
the little doors, yeah, we love it. There's a local like art shop too, where local artists can kind of bring in their arts. We like to visit that kind of neat. It's just all in that one area too, which is really nice. Just walk up and down there.
Dina Simon 22:36
Yeah, exactly. Well, Ashley, we'll make sure people know how to get in touch with you. But from a recruiting standpoint, will you just do one more shout out on what types of candidates that you typically are working with? Yeah.
Ashlee Walstad 22:49
So I recruit for marketing, creative and digital folks. So you know anything from marketing project managers, digital marketing folks, graphic designers, copywriters, marketing leaders, you name it. If you're in the marketing space, we can help
Dina Simon 23:04
Yep, and not just in Minnesota, but all over the country. Yep
Ashlee Walstad 23:09
remotely, too. We definitely do a lot in Minnesota, but definitely all over the US. Nice.
Dina Simon 23:13
Well, it sure has been fun having you on the podcast. I thank you for joining us on my special birthday episode,
Ashlee Walstad 23:21
yay. I'm glad. I'm super happy you invited me and good to see you on Thursday.
John Simon Sr. 23:26
Yes, nice to meet you.
Ashlee Walstad 23:28
Yeah, good to meet
Dina Simon 23:29
you too. I want to thank Ashley walstad for being on our podcast. I'm obviously a raving fan. She's one of my favorite people, and we talked a lot about her recruiting so if you are a candidate that needs to know her, hiring manager, that needs to know her, or just interested in being connected to an amazing human, I'll make sure you know how to get in touch with her. And as always, I thank my father in law, John for joining me in the podcast, and until we talk again, you