Ashly Hughes (Go Savvy Social)

Ashly Hughes is the owner of Go Savvy Social, a consulting firm that bridges the gap between marketing, sales, and operations to help service-based businesses dominate their market and grow organically. 

A proud Minnesotan, Hughes grew up in Isanti, lives in Zimmerman, and has an office in Princeton.

Today, she and I are seated in an Osseo coffee shop, the avocado on Hughes’s bread is subpar, but that’s the only thing at the table that is lacking in intrigue.

I first met the friendly, vivacious, and intelligent Hughes at an event hosted by CBC owner Josh John, where Hughes routinely challenged other business owners at our roundtable to think more critically.

Yet, this courage and competence took time to develop, as Hughes insists she wasn’t always a wordsmith capable of elevating businesses into the next stratosphere. 

“I have been through stages of personality,” she says in between sips of an unnamed caffeinated beverage. 

“I have always been bubbly, but I also went to school for law-enforcement.”

Of note:

Hughes was already halfway done with college before she graduated high school, and then she attended the greatest academic institution in Minnesota, St. Cloud State University.

Armed with a degree in criminal justice, upon meeting Hughes, it’s hard to envision that this young woman could have been a police officer or a mall cop at MOA. 

“That’s where my masculine energy comes from,” she says with a laugh. 

Post-college, Hughes didn’t roll into becoming Paul Blart, her talents too vast to be contained to solving another Rainforest Café caper, so she got into sales, and she thrived, at least numerically. 

“I’ve definitely been told that I need to take it down a notch. No giggling, and just be straightforward,” she notes, and I can feel the femininity being suppressed as she utters these words.

“But over the years, I found that I just want to be who I am, and the right people will want to do business with me.”

Having grown up with a father who also worked in sales, when the roadblocks of others threatened to stifle her ambitions, Hughes simply pivoted, and thus, the creation of the aforementioned Go Savvy Social, a firm that both triggers and electrifies businesses by asking decision makers to ask better questions, and consequently take bolder steps to generate additional revenue.  

For context, Go Savvy Social was initially an events company, but two years before COVID arrived, Hughes wisely began to transition toward the digital landscape.

“When COVID happened, all of my events went away. I tried to go back to it after COVID, but I found out what I truly wanted to do was provide an opportunity for businesses to be marketed and seen in different lights,” she explains, which meant Go Savvy Social needed to enhance their offering to clients.

So they did, and now they provide a full-scale overview of where companies are at, and where they could go.  

“We are analyzing everything from the website, to the digital platforms, to the sales team, to what you’re doing in the community,” says Hughes, who then compiles and streamlines all that data so that a unified and company-wide SOP can be implemented.

“A lot of businesses are not looking at the full scope,” Hughes claims. 

“When we [Go Savvy Social] do that, we are building a foundation, and that doesn’t take three months or six months. Sometimes it takes a year, and sometimes we find things along the way that warrant additional attention, and so we will go and address that.”

In that sense, let’s be clear:

Hiring Go Savvy Social is not a cure-all for fledgling businesses mired in mediocrity.

Instead, partnering with Hughes and her team is a more long-term strategy, and companies in industries like plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and roofing are all willing to make this investment in order to escape the doldrums that currently hinder them. 

“We also serve a podcast and a gun club, so even though we have established ourselves as home service experts because we can serve that market really well, we also are uniquely equipped to handle other industries as well,” she shares. 

Adds Hughes:

“If a business is willing to allow us to conduct a thorough investigation into how they operate, and really dig into their organization, then they will end up with a revamped operation that can be implemented into the organization, and then also sustained long-term.”

Looking ahead, Go Savvy Social is expanding their reach, online, and by touching grass. 

In 2026, they will be moving into a new office space that is replete with a podcast room and a myriad of other accoutrements. 

For her part, the humble and playful Hughes isn’t trying to become a titan of the marketing and consulting industry. 

At least, not yet. 

“I’m just here for the ride,” she says, her positivity radiating, in a way that is certain to attract more of her ideal clients in the coming years. QS

**

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