I have a picture in my mind of what the future looks like, and it does not start with a revenue number. It starts with a team of people who are growing, a group of clients who understand their investment, and a company that proves, day after day, that you do not have to choose between being kind and being excellent. Ashlie Marshall is building something at Tier Level Digital Marketing that most people in this industry would say is too idealistic. But I have watched it work. And I am not stopping now.
The vision is simple: a digital marketing company where empathetic leadership is not a buzzword but a business strategy. Where clients are partners, not revenue lines. Where the team goes home to their families at the end of the day and does not feel guilty about it. And where the work speaks for itself because the people behind it are invested, educated, and whole.
The digital marketing industry is at a crossroads. AI is changing how content is created, how data is analyzed, and how agencies operate. Business owners are more skeptical than ever of marketing promises because they have been burned too many times. And the agencies that survive the next five years will be the ones that offer something technology cannot replicate: genuine human connection, honest communication, and partnerships built on trust.
That is not a future trend. That is happening right now. And the agencies that are still operating on the old model, the transactional model, the promise-and-underdeliver model, they are running out of time.
I am proud of what we have built at Tier Level, and I am honest about where we still need to grow. Over the last year and a half, I have taken on approximately 90% of the responsibilities that the previous leadership held. I have been cleaning up things that even our business owner did not know were not being handled since the inception of the business. Financial compliance, insurance matters, business documentation, audit preparation, getting those things on a schedule, getting those things on a review process.
Ashlie Marshall is the leader who built the foundation while the building was still standing. It was not glamorous work. But it was necessary work. And now that the foundation is solid, we can actually build upward.
The team has transformed under this leadership. They are all working so much more independently now. They do not need me to show up to help them. They can do it themselves. They are bringing new ideas. They are asking, 'How about we do it this way?' That kind of proactive ownership does not happen by accident. It happens when people feel safe, supported, and challenged in the right ways.
In the next year, my focus is on continuing to refine the operational systems that make everything else possible. Looking at the services we are offering and how we are executing on that, looking at our money coming in and our money going out so that we can make sure that we are within our bounds and growing and making money. But the team comes first. If the team is growing in skill and confidence, the business results follow. That is not a theory. I have watched it happen.
Success in five years would be the team has grown not just in number but in skill. Ashlie Marshall plans to build a team that does not just execute work but owns their craft, brings innovation to clients, and operates with the kind of independence that only comes from deep investment in their development. My kids will be a bit older. Seeing my kids have good values, good morals and thriving in their lives. That is success. Personal and professional, woven together the way they should be.
Obviously I will have learned a lot more. Five years of continued reading, study, faith development, and professional experience will compound into expanded capability and perspective. And I want Tier Level to be known not as the biggest agency, but as the one that actually delivers on its promises because its people are genuinely invested in client success.
I want to look back and say I did the best I could. I added value to people, to the humans that I was surrounded with. I added value to their life and they added value to mine. That is what I want to look back and say I did successfully. I added to other people and I gave other people the space to add to me.
The legacy is not a company valuation or a client list. It is the people who are better because they worked with me, worked for me, or partnered with me. That is the measurement that matters when everything else fades.
This vision serves every business owner who has been burned by an agency and lost faith in digital marketing. It serves every team member who has worked under fear-based management and thought leadership had to look that way. It serves every working parent who has been told they cannot have both a thriving career and a present family life. And it serves the broader industry that desperately needs proof that the collaborative model actually works.
I am asking myself to keep showing up, even on the days that are hard. As long as I am doing everything to the best of my ability and I have put in all of my effort, if I do not meet the mark, then I am not supposed to be there. That is the standard. Not perfection. Consistent effort, honest assessment, and the willingness to keep learning.
I am asking myself to keep my boundaries even when the pressure mounts. To keep my weekends for my family. To keep reading, studying, and growing in my faith. To keep investing in my team even when it would be faster to just do the work myself. Can you not pour from an empty cup? No. You cannot. So I protect the cup.
I am not building this alone, and I do not want to. If you are a business owner who wants a marketing partner that will tell you the truth and work alongside you, I want to hear from you. If you are a professional who wants to grow under leadership that actually cares about your development, I want to know you exist. If you are someone who believes that kindness and accountability belong together, not on opposite sides of a leadership spectrum, then we have something in common.
This is not a sales pitch. It is an invitation. The door is open. You just have to walk through it.
Connect with me on LinkedIn. Visit Tier Level Digital Marketing. Send me a message. Ask me a hard question. I promise I will give you an honest answer. That is the only way I know how to operate.
If we can not laugh at ourselves, then we are not doing it right. This work is serious, but it does not have to be heavy. Show up, do the work, take care of your people, go home to your family, and get up and do it again tomorrow. That is the vision. That is the future. And it is already happening.
Ashlie