This week, we chat with Ashley Stanford Cone of Bloom Communications. Like me, Ashley has had a recent career update. She has also been very public about sharing how she lives with anxiety. I so appreciated her time to discuss her career and how she lives her best life. Today, we chat about:
Ashley’s time at Bloom Communications
Finding your niche and what you love.
Our message to college students about the difference between agency and in-house
Ashley’s advice for those heading into agency life.
How Ashley balances self-care, work, and parenthood.
The importance of building trust in your teams.
How Ashley has learned how to live with anxiety.
About Ashley:
An accomplished communications professional with over 18 years of experience, Ashley is a natural storyteller and strategic thinker, always looking for a unique angle to share creative client stories. With a heart to help others, she has dedicated most of her career to the nonprofit sector, specifically focusing on healthcare and child welfare. She strives to produce outcomes for her clients that are meaningful, impactful, and exceed all expectations.
Before joining Bloom Communications, Ashley served as a Public and Community Relations Consultant for Legacy Health, supporting Randall Children’s Hospital and CARES Northwest. During her tenure, she led the organization’s editorial and social media strategy, managing brand reputation through powerful storytelling across digital, social, and traditional media channels, consulted on crisis communications, and managed strategic relationships with stakeholders, media, and community partners. Prior to working in healthcare, she spent close to seven years working in agencies serving children through international and domestic adoption, orphan care, foster care, and youth homelessness. In the early part of her career, Ashley spent time working in entertainment PR, advertising, and Real Estate marketing.
A true collaborator and client partner, Ashley values trust, accountability, and transparency in her work. By cultivating trusting client relationships, identifying relevant gaps and needs, and partnering with clients to find creative and sustainable solutions, she believes we can not only impact our communities, but also our world.
Ashley holds a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution and a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Portland State University. She is a native-born Oregonian living in Portland with her husband and two sons, and serves on the ambassador board for Children’s Cancer Association.