Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

mashley.com ↗

I’ve spent the better part of 25 years trying to understand two things: which problems are worth solving, and what is the simplest way to solve them. That pursuit has led me to start companies, build products, teach entrepreneurship, coach hundreds of founders, and participate in four startup exits—one as a founder and three as an advisor. Along the way, I noticed a pattern. Founders are usually very good at solving problems. The trouble is that we’re often solving the wrong ones. What looks like a sales problem might really be positioning. A marketing problem might begin with not understanding the customer. An execution problem might simply be too many priorities competing for attention. I came to think of this as finding the problem under the problem. When you find it, complicated decisions get simpler, teams align, and a surprising amount of work disappears. Today I coach founders and startup teams around the world to do exactly that. Sometimes it’s a team scaling a company worth billions. Sometimes it’s one person turning what they know into a consulting business. The scale changes, but the work is remarkably similar. Find the problem worth solving. Find the simplest way through it. Then get on with the work that matters.

Going Independent Founder-Led Content Positioning Customer Discovery Founder Mindset Reputation Building Go-To-Market Founder Stories

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 15, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

How much did you really know the first time you called yourself the expert? Saeed Amidi didn't know much. On his first pitch, he says it plainly: "I honestly didn't know business, but I said to Sabola, Saudi vegetable oil... if I get it to you the same quality or better at 680, would you buy from me?" He didn't arrive an expert. He landed in Jeddah, committed to one specific problem for specific buyers, and didn't leave until he understood it. The knowing followed the commitment. Today he exports $400M of polyethylene from ExxonMobil... all from that one first trip. I keep telling coaches and consultants who are waiting on more credentials: you don't wait until you feel ready. You go deep on one problem until the market sees you as the answer. Hear Saeed tell it himself: https://youtu.be/bb9n-CnDGVA?is=ozsXzdXjyqbYgj1L Then come build your reputation next to people making the same leap — join the free Inspiring Founders community at https://inspiringfounders.com. What's the one specific problem you could go deep on, even before you feel fully ready? #GoingIndependent #IndependentConsultant #Positioning …more

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Entrepreneurship Founder Stories Going Independent Positioning Thought Leadership

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 15, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

What did you actually keep from the last program you paid to be in? For me it wasn't the degree. Years after my MBA, the thing that still pays off is a handful of relationships I made there, not any single lecture. One of them started with a guest speaker. He came in, presented, and most of the room took notes and left. I introduced myself. Then I did the part almost nobody bothers with... I stayed in touch, for years. That one relationship went on to matter more to my business than anything on the syllabus. The curriculum has a shelf life. A relationship you actually tend can compound for decades. If you're building a practice of your own, treat the people you meet now as the asset. Positioning gets you in the room; the relationships you keep are what pay you back for years. That's the work I help with. See how on my site, linked in the first comment. #IndependentConsultant #Coaching #GoingIndependent #PersonalBrand #ThoughtLeadership …more

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Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Education Going Independent Networking

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 14, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

🔥 The new Radi8 Dashboard is hot, hot, hot!! 🔥 Get your Radi8 Index and AI Visibility Score at https://www.radi8.com - and start creating content that drives pipeline. #IndependentConsultant #PersonalBrand #Positioning #ThoughtLeadership …more

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AI Search Visibility Personal Branding Product Launches

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 13, 2026 · X ·

What would you never hand to a tool? Building Radi8, the hard part wasn't teaching it to write... it was the restraint I had to give it: it won't post a date nobody vouched for. What you refuse to delegate defines you. Grab 30 min with me: https://calendly.com/foclarity/30min …more

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Future of Work AI Delegation AI Guardrails Human Judgment

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 13, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

Radi8 is better than Higgsfield!! …more

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AI Adoption

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 12, 2026 · X ·

A client asked me this week: how do I explain what I do? The fix is rarely fancier words. Name the problem you solve, and who it's for... not your process. Clarity beats clever. Want to sharpen yours? https://calendly.com/foclarity/30min …more

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Entrepreneurship Messaging Positioning

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 12, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

You think the thing holding your practice back is that you don't have enough. Enough budget. Enough network. Enough runway to survive a mistake. I've told myself that story too. Then I listened to Saeed Amidi, founder of Plug and Play. Early on, he flew to Jeddah with a borrowed suit, his father's credit card, and money for exactly one trip. No safety net. No plan to come home empty-handed. In his words: "I'm not coming back till I sell something." Having no Plan B didn't slow him down. It focused him. He stretched that one trip into 45 days and closed his first two deals. Comfort never makes you that sharp. Constraint does. Watch Saeed tell it himself here: https://youtu.be/bb9n-CnDGVA. It's the clearest case I've seen for why fewer resources can make you more resourceful, not less. What constraint have you been treating as an obstacle that might actually be your edge? #IndependentConsultant #Coaching #GoingIndependent …more

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Entrepreneurship Client Acquisition Founder Mindset Going Independent Prioritization

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 11, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

I sat across from Saeed Amidi in San Jose, a live audience in the room with us. Saeed founded Plug and Play Tech Centers. He also, almost as an aside, runs a plastics and bottled-water company that does a billion dollars a year... which he still calls his "day job." He told us about a building on University Avenue in Palo Alto. His first tenant there was Peter Thiel. His third was Andy Rubin. And in that same stretch, Larry and Sergey were building Google. He calls it the lucky building, the one that got him into PayPal. Now Plug and Play invests in about 100 startups a year. He's building an AI Center of Excellence in San Jose. He thinks the AI revolution is 10 to 20 times bigger than mobile... and still only the tip of the iceberg. But the part that stayed with me wasn't the numbers. It was when he talked about pressure as a prerequisite. And why he won't back a founder who has a Plan B. Then he closed with a line, and the whole room lit up: "You can either get a job at Google, or BUILD Google!" Full conversation with Saeed is on the Inspiring Founders Podcast. Watch it on YouTube, or listen on Spotify. #IndependentConsultant #GoingIndependent #Coaching #ThoughtLeadership …more

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Entrepreneurship Founder Mindset Founder Stories Startup Ecosystems Startup Funding

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 10, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

"What's the deal with DeepSeek... should I be worried?" DeepSeek just released another model that it says rivals the big names at a fraction of the price. So here's my plain version. There are two kinds of AI models in this fight. Let's call them Closed and Open. Closed AI says: "You can talk to my brain, but I keep the brain." You send it a question, it sends back an answer, and the model itself stays locked inside the company. (ChatGPT, Claude) Open-weight AI says: "Here's a copy of my brain. Do what you want with your copy." The model gets handed over, and you run it however you like. (DeepSeek, Llama) With closed AI, the company has more control over what the model can do. With open-weight AI, the world has more control over what the model can do. That tension isn't new. DeepSeek just makes it concrete, because it's cheap, it's close to the best models out there, and once it's downloaded, nobody can see who's running it or what for. That part deserves attention. But here's what most headlines blur together. Using DeepSeek's app and using DeepSeek's model are two different things. The app is a closed service like any other... your questions go to DeepSeek's servers. The downloadable model is different. Run it on hardware you control and your data stays with you. So if you're a consultant wondering whether to worry, the first question isn't open vs. closed. It's where your client's data goes when you hit enter. Noticing is right. Panicking isn't. What's the AI headline that's had you most unsettled lately? Drop it in the comments and I'll give you the plain version. #IndependentConsultant #AIforBusiness #DataPrivacy #Coaching …more

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Governance AI Privacy Frontier Models Open-Weight Models

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 10, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

My mom crochets hats. She calls them Mombreros. She's retired. She doesn't need the money, so every dollar of profit goes to charity. What she loves is the making and the giving. She came from Vietnam and raised five kids, always with a bit of the entrepreneur in her. Of all of us, I'm the one who caught the bug. So I posted about her hats. I put them on Facebook — three friends bought one that same day. I put them on Instagram — an old friend I hadn't heard from in years went and ordered one. I kept asking myself why it moved so fast. Here's my read: the post was honest about what it was for. It was mission-clear. And the people who aligned with that just showed up. I'm surrounded by people who want to help each other out. That's the whole thing, really. A business built on love and service, supported by people who share your ideals. Starting one is hard and slow — there's no shortcut — but doing it with purpose is what makes the time worth it. …more

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Handmade Handmade Crochet

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 9, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

People ask what the catch is on the free 30 minutes. Fair question. So here's exactly how it goes. You talk. I listen. That's most of it, honestly. Bring one specific challenge let's spend the time on that. I'll give you honest feedback, including the parts that are hard to hear, and together we find one or two concrete moves you can make this week. Why free? Because the best conversations tend to lead somewhere for both of us, and I genuinely like helping people. If it turns out you're a fit for my coaching program, we can talk about it, but that follows the conversation, it doesn't drive it. You'll get the most out of it by coming prepared: a real challenge, a clear top priority, and a willingness to act on what we land on. The people who get huge value come with something specific and go do the thing we talked about. That's it. No pitch, no catch. So here's my genuine question... if you had thirty minutes with someone who'd just listen and give you a straight read, what's the one thing you'd want to work through? Book it whenever you're ready — link in the first comment. #IndependentConsultant #Coaching #GoingIndependent #Positioning …more

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Entrepreneurship Coaching Business Free Consultation Mentorship

Michael Ashley

Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast

Sep 8, 2026 · LinkedIn ·

What happens when you actually check whether your clicks are people? I build Radi8, and it tracks link clicks, so one afternoon I went and looked under the number. Of 1,791 clicks across 177 links, 624 came from a human. The rest were bots, crawlers, preview-fetchers, the quiet machinery of the internet pinging a link so it can draw a little card. And here's the humbling part, a bot only gets counted as a bot when it politely announces itself, LinkedInBot, Googlebot, facebookexternalhit, which means the real human count sits somewhere below 624, never above it. Then it got worse for my assumptions. The channel I'd have sworn was carrying me on raw clicks turned out to be mostly sending machines, while a quieter one was sending far more actual people. I almost optimized straight toward the emptier number. Every figure on your dashboard is counting something. Make sure it's counting the thing you care about, before you spend a month acting on the wrong one. …more

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