Building a business while raising children requires more than just balancing schedules. It demands a fundamental shift in how leaders approach both family and professional responsibilities. Ashley Boudet has discovered that motherhood and entrepreneurship share striking similarities, particularly when it comes to creating environments where people can thrive. After leaving a nine-year corporate career to launch her own companies, she is proving that the skills learned in parenting translate directly into building exceptional workplace cultures.
Raising Children to Break Rules
Boudet isn’t raising typical kids, and that’s exactly the point. “I’m very focused on raising my children, especially my daughter. I’m a woman, she’s a woman, she will be a woman. And being very independent and sort of pushing boundaries, I think that’s very important as a parent,” she explains. Her approach goes against conventional wisdom about following rules and staying in line.
The school system particularly concerns her. “I question the school system all the time because I believe that the school system was designed to create nine to five employees,” Boudet says. She’s determined to counter that influence at home. “Just because you’re not on pace, just because this girl doesn’t approve of you, none of that stuff matters. It’s more about what do you want, finding your way and doing that with what you want, not with what other people want or expect of you.”
Translating Parenting Into Leadership
The skills transfer was immediate once she started her own companies. “Being a parent and then looking from the business and professional perspective of creating a culture, it’s the same. You have to have patience. You’re building a team, just as you build your family,” she notes. But unlike many business owners, Boudet actively fights against traditional corporate structures. She regularly calls her attorneys with one request: “I don’t want to do the same as every other person. I want to be different. I want to break this employee mindset mold that we have created in the workplace.” Her employees don’t worry about running out of PTO when life happens. They don’t stress about money. “Those things are stressful and distract the employee from the focus of building and creating something that changes the world,” she explains.
After nine years with one company, running 60% of their revenue stream, Boudet learned what not to do as a leader. When she decided to leave, “everything that I did there just lacked value after I decided I wanted to leave.” The experience was eye-opening but became her blueprint for how not to treat employees. Now, her philosophy is completely different. “If someone came to me and said, I just feel that I have this passion of doing X, Y and Z and I really want to go off and try it on my own, I should be their biggest cheerleader.” She believes companies shouldn’t be structured to fall apart when someone leaves to chase their dreams.
Discovering Purpose Through Risk
Being out on her own for just over a year has been transformative. “It feels as though it’s been 15 years, but it’s only been one year,” Boudet laughs. The adjustment period was intense, but she’s found her rhythm. “I really feel that this is my purpose. I was born to do this.” Her approach to opportunities reflects her parenting philosophy – don’t be afraid to break things. “One of my big flaws as an employee was I was not afraid of breaking something. I was not afraid of making a change, and I was not afraid of failing and having to get up and do it better,” she admits. “But that as an employee cost companies money. As an entrepreneur and a business owner now, it is my greatest asset.”
She has thrown out the concept of work-life balance entirely. “My entire world is now integrated together and I feel that my kids know about what I’m doing. We talk about it at dinner, and they’re interested.” Family vacations include tours of water treatment plants. Business discussions happen naturally around the dinner table. “It’s not as though it’s Friday afternoon clocking out, and now I get to go do the things I really want to do. That’s over,” she says. With her husband as her biggest cheerleader and her kids genuinely interested in what she’s building, Boudet has created something rare – a life where professional passion enhances rather than competes with family priorities. This integration isn’t just working for her family. It’s creating the kind of company culture that attracts people who want more than just a paycheck. And for her daughter watching from the sidelines, it’s showing what’s possible when you refuse to accept limitations others try to place on you.
Follow Ashley Boudet on LinkedIn to learn how parenting values can transform modern leadership.
