Ashley Ambirge is the witty and creative CEO of House of Moxie, Inc. and founder of The Middle Finger Project Blog. Through The Middle Finger Project she has helped small business owners take their first steps toward success with some encouragement, humor, and a dash of sarcasm. Recently she took time out of her busy jet setting schedule to sit down and talk to us. Here is a bit about her inspiring story.
What inspired you to start your own business?
Well, after being at my first job for a while I got a big head and realized I could do copy writing on my own so I decided to quit my job and start my own copy-writing business. I failed miserably.
So, I went back to work for an ad sales company. After I had been there for a couple years I starting getting a big head again and felt like I wanted to do more. My only purpose there was to make other people money and I wanted something more rewarding and meaningful than that. So I finally decided to quit my job again and that’s how The Middle Finger Project began and now it has grown into a million dollar online business.
Love that name, by the way. What exactly is The Middle Finger Project?
The Middle Finger Project is a place for anyone who is thinking about starting their own business or wants to live life more but are too scared to take those first steps or aren’t quite sure how to start. We serve as a community and support for everyone wanting to take those next steps.
You’re awesome at names. You also recently launched a new site called Life Hooky – what exactly is that?
I love to travel and did a lot of research on the positive effects that traveling has on a person and it truly helps people grow. Everyone kept coming to me saying they wished they could travel as much as I did, so I wanted to give people a way to do that and put their money where their mouth is.
It seems that travel is a big deal to you. How has travel impacted your life?
The other week someone asked me what it is to live a life with purpose and my response to that was to live a life ON purpose. We can get so caught up with just going with the flow that we forget to live our life and get caught up in every one else’s flow of life. With traveling you are forced to make different things a priority and get out and see things that you normally wouldn’t go and see. It truly just enhances your life a lot.
What is your end goal or your mission for all the work you do?
This is going to sound childish but there is one thing that ties everything together and that is at the end of the day I just want people to have fun! It’s not the end of the world if something doesn’t work. You can recover from that. We take life so seriously and I just want people to have some fun.
I know that you have overcome some adversity and failure; did you ever consider giving up?
No, I never thought about giving up. The first time I failed I just got pissed off. And then in the beginning when TMF wasn’t doing well I got pissed off again and realized I was done. I was done screwing around and I was going to get serious. So I decided to move to Chile and started doing things the right way. As a case study, I updated my progress week by week and made it public for people to follow. It gave me motivation because I couldn’t slack off. And I’m actually in the process of turning those weekly updates into a book to help others who are getting started see what worked and what didn’t work.
What has been the most rewarding moment in your career?
Proving it to myself. I have to prove myself every single day. There is never a day where there is not a single thing on my to-do list and everything is constantly changing. I have to keep improving and prove to myself that I can do it. Keep making your goals bigger and bigger and keep going after them.
We are looking for statement makers. What’s the one statement that you would encourage girls to live by?
Create a platform – the world is crazy and loud and competitive and you have to make yourself known.
What’s next for you and the future of TMF or Life Hooky?
Right now I’m obsessed with expanding the platform and optimizing and creating that community feel. I want TMF to be a household brand.
Ashley is making a loud statement that everyone should do what they want and have fun doing it. Because life is short and we should enjoy it while we can. What have you been holding back on doing?