In Ask Ashley, Founder, Thoughtleader and award-winning media personality Ashley Russo sits down with leaders who bring purpose and humanity to business.
Each episode explores how people navigate uncertainty, lead with empathy, and create meaningful change in their organizations and lives. Listeners gain practical insights on resilience, leadership, and financially confident decision-making amid disruption.
This podcast is brought to you by Ask Ashley. If you’re interested in building a confident, purpose-driven wealth plan, reach out to Ashley at ashley.russo@nm.com.
Niki Madison-Woodburn: A Like Is Not the Same as a Hug
Diversity headline numbers get people in the door, but they say nothing about who gets developed, who gets useful feedback, and who moves up. Niki Madison-Woodburn, Senior Talent Management & Inclusion Program Manager at Lattice, works on the systems behind that gap, looking at the whole employee lifecycle so growth is clear and measurable. She talks with Ashley Russo about the people plus AI approach at Lattice, a quarterly storytelling activation that builds common ground across teams, managing anxiety by silencing the noise, and the company kickoff moment when a colleague told her she saw Niki light up like never before.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley
00:43 Meet Niki Madison-Woodburn
01:40 Where owning your uniqueness took root
03:05 Curiosity and the move from customer success
04:12 Priorities across your 20s, 30s and now
06:36 When the work got hard and finding the spark again
08:07 Past headline numbers to equitable systems
09:34 Looking at the whole employee lifecycle
10:12 People plus AI and solving the real problem
12:11 Building common ground through storytelling
14:17 Grounding yourself, anxiety and silencing the noise
16:04 The company kickoff moment she lit up
19:07 Helping others past their hesitation
21:22 What she would pause and what she would accelerate
23:17 Advice to her younger self
You can follow Niki Madison-Woodburn here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/niki-madison/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/niki-madison/)
Learn more about Lattice:
Website - https://lattice.com (https://lattice.com)
23 Oct 2026
Alex Anderson on Building a Kinder World, One Person at a Time
Alex Anderson launched the first AI chatbot at Pushpay and spends her days on the exact point where automation meets people asking for help. She talks with Ashley Russo about keeping human empathy in the loop when customers reach out, and why she believes no company has cracked a fully automated support experience yet. Alex is a Senior Customer Insights and Experience Specialist at Pushpay, and her route there ran through Child Protective Services, technology recruiting, and a flag football startup. She carries the oldest-sibling instinct into her work: open doors, meet people where they are, help one person at a time.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley
01:02 Meet Alex Anderson
01:27 Growing up fast as the oldest sibling
03:15 Taking her sister in the week before her wedding
05:11 Believing the best in people and paying it forward
05:50 From Child Protective Services to forensic science
07:42 The path to Pushpay and transferable skills
09:07 How Pushpay funds real world mission work
11:01 AI, human empathy, and responsible support
13:14 Designing customer experience without friction
14:35 Refocusing the women's ERG on core pillars
15:39 Supporting parents and moms at work
18:04 Change happens one person at a time
19:06 Advice to her younger self
You can follow Alex Anderson here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-anderson22/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-anderson22/)
Learn more about Pushpay:
Website - https://pushpay.com (https://pushpay.com)
16 Oct 2026
Building Community and Measuring What Matters ft. Lacey Elliot
Lacey Elliot spent a decade as a makeup artist before entering tech at 30, and she carries both worlds into her work. She is GTM Enablement & Strategy Leader at SoundHound AI, where she built out a pre-boarding customer experience team that saves a minimum of five thousand dollars a week on net new deals in North America and rolled out nearly four training courses in her first year. In this conversation with Ashley Russo she talks about a difficult divorce, learning to let herself fail, using Claude to scale her team's work, and why she still believes no robot can replace human touch.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome and introductions
01:12 Growing up as the funny youngest of three
03:15 New York, makeup artistry, and a decade of deconstruction
05:30 Marrying an artist's background with a later start in tech
07:35 Building community and creating enablement tools
10:15 Where Lacey lands on AI and human connection
12:12 We don't let ourselves get bored anymore
13:01 Measuring results, ROI, and personal satisfaction
17:04 Honesty without kindness is cruelty
18:59 What suffering taught her about empathy
20:23 Gratitude in lack and in plenty
23:20 Creating space for vulnerability on a team
24:33 One thing she would tell her child self
You can follow Lacey Elliot here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceyelliot/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceyelliot/)
Learn more about SoundHound AI:
Website - https://soundhound.com (https://soundhound.com)
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