The Saturday Sit-Down #50: Better with Beale

Hey friends! Hope your weekend is kicking off nicely. 🙂 I appreciate you heading over this way today and checking out who’s being featured. Meet Ashley! She is so well-rounded and writes content that I believe will appeal to so many people. As always, I hope you’ll read through each of her questions below and then pick some of her content on her site to pour through. She’s extremely relatable, approachable, and kind.

Have a great weekend!

In three sentences or less, tell us a bit about who you are.

My name is Ashley and my blog is called Better with Beale. I am a working mom of two kiddos, married to my husband of almost fourteen years, living in the fabulous city of Memphis, Tennessee. We love spending time exploring our city, renovating our 1930’s home, spending time as a family, being involved in our church and expanding our community.

When and why did you originally start your blog and how has it changed and evolved since you first got started?

Betterwithbeale.com launched last April, so April 2018 will be the one year anniversary. I was responsible for our email newsletter at work (my full-time job) and there was a big push to increase organic content, so I had an opportunity to interview small businesses, develop fun tips for small businesses and put together unique resources.

I stopped working in that area of our business after a promotion and I missed it so much! After considering it for years, I finally decided to take the step to make it happen.

What are the topics your readers seem to enjoy the most on your blog?

I wanted to give a bit of vision to working parents and parents seeking adoption (we are on the road to adoption) to experience what other people in their same scenario may be faced with, but I didn’t want the blog to contain only topics about me and my family so I presented readers with reviews of places we’ve enjoyed and also interviews with people I find interesting or inspire me. So far, the most read content has been random days I document that our family experiences (trips to the park, our weekends, etc.) along with the interviews I’ve posted portraying all the fun people I’ve had an opportunity to meet along the way.

Tell us about Memphis! What do you love about living there?

I’m so glad you asked! I was born in Memphis, but I didn’t grow up here. We moved back for my work. I think this has given us the opportunity to experience Memphis with fresh eyes. This precious city has diversity, it’s economical, it’s not as congested as some larger cities can be, but it offers the amenities that a larger city might, such as an NBA basketball team, museums, several theatres, tons of local parks and plenty of kids activities. One of our favorite parts of our city is Shelby Farms- it is one of the twenty largest urban parks in the United States. Also, the food is the best- Memphis offers more than just BBQ!

Beale is a street in Memphis which is where the blog Better with Beale was born from.

I know you have two young children. What are their names, what do they like to do, etc.?

Right now these kids are so much fun!

Graham is 4 and he loves puzzles, putting things together, and overall being comfy- he can always get on board with a soft blanket, a bath bomb in his bath or a warm cup of hot chocolate! He also loves to count everything- we always say he needs to manage our money when he gets older as our accountant.

Haddie is 2 and she loves to do anything Graham is doing. She’s very social and she’s always striking up a conversation with someone in the store at check-out or pretty much anywhere else in public. She introduces herself and then introduces all of her family. She is the most social one in our family and is forcing all of us to get out of our shell. She is into her baby dolls and she has a Toy Story obsession right now, just like her older brother.

Do you have any tips for fitting blogging in as a working mom?

If you want to start a blog- do it! For so long I was worried about everything being perfect, but I was comparing my blog to blogs that are full-time blogger sites and ones that had been around for a long time, so I never made the jump to just start.

Having dedicated brainstorm time works well for me and I’m always using the notes section of my phone to jot down ideas or excerpts that I want to include.

Finally, I had to remember that anyone at work could visit my site. That was originally hard for me to get over, and although I’m a little less stressed about it, I’m always conscious that something that I write could be read by anyone at any level at my company.

What kind of work do you do? What do you enjoy the most about it?

I work for the FedEx Corporate offices in Marketing. Right now I’m responsible for product development which requires me to cross over from the customer side to some of the IT specifics which is fun for me and always changing. I get to solve real business problems and I enjoy that.

Our culture in our company is really the best part of working at FedEx- I genuinely enjoy the people I work with. Career growth is encouraged and it’s accepted for employees to move around the company to different positions which makes a 14-year a little more adventurous. I started out at the company stacking packages at a station in Birmingham, Alabama and I’m really proud of that.

I know you have lived in several places throughout the last few years. What’s been your favorite place and why?

I can’t say I have a favorite. Every place we’ve ever lived fit the stage of our life and marriage. South Florida was a great place for us to grow as a couple without kids. Memphis is a better place for us to live in this busy stage of life with kids and growing careers. And when I was younger, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara were a part of my young adult life shaping my growth as a person. My husband and I have always been very intentional about where we’ve chosen to live and we both laid out our desires (on a map) and kind of planned with the goal to be in Memphis so it’s really worked out.

Where should brand new readers start on your site?

Readers can find a summary about me and the blog here.

One of my favorite posts was about our visit with my father-in-law when he came to town. This post talks about the adoption journey we’ve just started. And this post really sums up our weekends.

Where can we follow you on social media?

I post a bit more on Instagram and I use Instagram stories.

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/betterwithbeale901
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/betterwithbeale

And just for fun…

Sonic or McDonalds? Neither, Chic Fil A instead, but we don’t eat much fast food. 🙂

Rather unload the dishwasher or put away clothes? Unload the dishwasher

Frequent weekend trips or one big weeklong trip? One big weeklong trip. Preferably a road trip up the coast of California with a stop in Big Sur.

Rather watch cable TV or Netflix? Netflix, but I do love some This is Us

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Thank you so much, Ashley!

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Is this your first time to Whimsical September? Welcome!

Hello! I’m Erica, the blogger behind Whimsical September. I created the “The Saturday Sit-Down” series in January 2017 as a way to give back to the blogging community and link readers with new bloggers whom they may share similar interests with. Click here to discover more bloggers that have been featured on “The Saturday Sit-Down”. I promise you – there’s some GREAT ones!

Want to be featured in this series?

I have openings starting in the spring of 2018 and would love to feature you! Please fill out the form below and I’ll be in touch with you. It’s totally free and a fun way to bring new sets of eyes to your blog. <3

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