Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Ashley Hartle Of Infuse Hospitality On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Kelly Reeves

Channel your humble confidence: When we’re faced with inescapable microaggressions in a business setting, there are two paths you can travel: frustration (and rightfully so), or humble confidence. I’ve always found the humble confidence route to be more fruitful throughout my 20+ years in this industry.

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ashley Hartle.

Ashley Hartle, CEO of Infuse Hospitality, has a wealth of experience from her tenure as Senior National Account Executive at Starbucks spanning over three years, over 5 years with Compass Group in food service management and over 20 years of experience in various roles with Hallmark Cards. With a background rooted in the food and beverage industry, she’s demonstrated her leadership prowess in both corporate and entrepreneurial settings. Beyond the boardroom, Ashley had a ten-year venture as a gym owner showcasing her dedication to both business and personal wellness.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

My career journey started at the early age of 14 when I was hired on as a dishwasher and worked in all positions in the restaurant industry until I was 23. From then,, I moved to a serving position and that’s how I made my spending money, but more importantly where I got the bug for hospitality. Although I appreciated my serving days, I knew I wanted to do more. My dad, AKA my hero, was in business, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps.

I always envisioned picking a great company to grow old with, so when I got offered a position in sales at Hallmark I jumped at the chance! In the time I worked with Hallmark, I had several promotions and the position allowed me to work for an amazing private company while being able to create my family while managing my work/life balance. After 20 years with Hallmark, I moved to Starbucks for almost three years and then to Compass Group for five years. Compass Group is where I really gained the most relevant experience in food service management.

Last year, I joined Infuse Hospitality as CEO because I wanted to work for a company that had an inclusive, all-hands-on-deck company culture. This company is leading a new sector of the hospitality business with personalized, food and beverage solutions for the places where we live, work, and gather.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?

1. Humble confidence
2. Authenticity
3. Transparency

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

Always lead with humble confidence. Don’t have the attitude that you’ve had to fight for everything you’ve earned in your career because you will quickly lose respect. I’m also a firm believer in being your authentic self. Never try to be someone you’re not! Authenticity is at the core of our design concepts at Infuse — and that is reflected in our team members and leadership.

Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?”

1. Channel your humble confidence: When we’re faced with inescapable microaggressions in a business setting, there are two paths you can travel: frustration (and rightfully so), or humble confidence. I’ve always found the humble confidence route to be more fruitful throughout my 20+ years in this industry.
2. Identify what your “why” is: For the next generation of leaders, never let someone undermine your confidence in who you are and the knowledge, skills, and abilities you possess. Those rich qualities don’t change based on someone’s perception of you. Always remember your “why” and that will motivate you through all the biases, stereotypes, and misconceptions thrown at you as a leader. Ask yourself: what motivates me to get up in the morning? My why are my boys.
3. Change the course of the gender bias train: Sponsorship and mentorship are huge catalysts for uplifting women into the next level of their career. The reason I am where I am today is because someone stuck their neck out for me. It may sound simple, but it’s not always easy or welcomed, especially in a room full of men. If you are in the position to make leadership decisions, return the favor and look out for the women in the sea of men to uplift, mentor and support.
4. Don’t focus on hierarchies: It doesn’t matter if someone sees me as the CEO or a server. At the end of the day, titles are not important, which encompasses my leadership philosophy. Today, I will be the last person in the room to tell you my title, because it should not define who I am, and it shouldn’t define any other individual either. In any business, the collective focus should be moving the needle and how to maximize each team members’ contribution. No task should be “beneath” anyone to accomplish.
5. Break the stereotypes of a “leader”: I have two incredible boys who are in college studying business and are surrounded by male professors, mentors and students. My boys have had a front row seat to seeing their mom be equally positioned and successful as men in the room, which has shaped their perspectives on how a leader looks and behaves. My son was in a leadership class last year and the students were asked to define a CEO’s characteristics. Students in the class used words like “male,” “strong,” and “forceful.” He raised his hand and disputed: “I disagree with all of these. Being a CEO doesn’t mean that you have to be X,Y and Z. My mom is a CEO and I’ve watched what she has accomplished and she completely defies everything up there on the board.” It makes me happy to know my kids have internalized this simple, yet rare perspective on leadership. Continue to break those stereotypes within your family and friend circles.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

A little bit but not as nearly as much as it needs to. These industries, especially hospitality, are still majorly under male leadership and women still need to work 10 times as hard to get to these positions. Although it is shifting, it’s incredibly too slow and we need to empower women more. Leadership should always be a people and talent play, not a “gender play.”

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.