South Suburban Resident Leaves Six Figure Career To Become An Entrepreneur

From working for one of Chicago’s top law firms to launching her own podcast, Ashley Kirkwood (pictured) aims to help others increase their confidence and negotiate the lives that they want for themselves. Photo Credit: Jasmine Oliver
From working for one of Chicago’s top law firms to launching her own podcast, Ashley Kirkwood (pictured) aims to help others increase their confidence and negotiate the lives that they want for themselves. Photo Credit: Jasmine Oliver

South Suburban Resident Leaves Six Figure Career To Become An Entrepreneur

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

After growing up in Chicago’s south suburbs, Ashley Kirkwood went on to graduate at the

top of her class from Northwestern University’s School of Law. From there, she secured a position with one of Chicago’s top law firms and was making about $280,000 a year. She quickly learned that money isn’t everything and left her stable career to become a full-time entrepreneur. Kirkwood is now preparing to launch her very own podcast and anticipates to fully replace her former salary this year.

“I was always really good at debating, really good at speaking, I was the captain of the debate team and won a national tournament in high school,” said Kirkwood. “What the experience showed me was that I could do something that a lot of people couldn’t do which was speak and I wanted to figure out how I could make a career out of talking and debating and learning and impacting peoples’ lives and the only two careers I could think of at the time were being a talk show host or being a lawyer so my parents told me to be a lawyer because that makes more sense.”

After putting her dreams of having her own talk show on hold, Kirkwood went full throttle

into the legal field.

“I was working at this great law firm doing business litigation and working for big companies, but it wasn’t as interesting as I wanted it to be so I took it upon my self to do all

the work I needed to do, but also to do civil litigation. While there, I settled a seven circuit

appeal on behalf of an inmate who wasn’t receiving adequate nutrition meaning that the

food he was receiving was nutrition deficient and then I won a civil jury trial in Wisconsin

on behalf of an inmate who was not being treated fairly and was getting inadequate

medical treatment which is no easy feat,” said Kirkwood.

Despite her flexibility to work at a major law firm and still find ways to honor her underlying

passions, Kirkwood made the decision to leave corporate law altogether and create a career path for herself that would fulfill her dreams.

On Jan. 19, Kirkwood will be hosting the first live-taping of her brand new podcast, The

Currency of Confidence. The podcast will share insight on how women and minorities can

confidently negotiate the lives that they want for themselves and will show people how to turn their confidence into currency. The podcast will cover topics such as salary negotiation, dating confidently, pitching corporate clients and investors, and raising your confidence. There will be both interviews and solo segments where Kirkwood will share her confidence tips.

The podcast will be taped in front of a live audience and is free to attend. To RSVP and reserve your general admission seat visit www.eventbrite.com/e/live-taping-ofthe- ashley-nicole-show-the-currency-of-confidence- tickets-53215682539.

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