From Accidental Beginnings to Intentional Healing
When Ashlee Rowland started sharing recipes on Instagram at 18, she had no plans of becoming a business owner. “I didn’t know I was creating a business,” she says. “A brand offered to pay me for a post, and I thought ‘well, that’s fun.’ What began as a casual hobby evolved into Simple Holistic, a wellness brand helping women cut through the noise of modern health culture.
Ashlee’s journey into holistic nutrition started years earlier when she moved from Alaska to Hawaii to work for a family who practiced holistic medicine. At the time, she was struggling with rheumatoid arthritis, PCOS, celiac disease, and Hashimoto’s. “Within a month, my body started to heal,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what it was yet, but I knew something was different.”
That experience transformed her understanding of health. Over time, she realized her body, and the bodies of the women she would later help, were designed to heal naturally when given the right support.
Turning a Personal Breakthrough Into a Movement
By 21, Ashlee had turned her healing journey into a business. Her flagship course, Bare Naked Hormones, was born after she overcame infertility and became pregnant despite years of being told she couldn’t have children.
“When I launched the course, 600 women enrolled in one day,” she says. “It made $60,000 on launch day, and now over 1,000 women have taken it.” The program distills what worked for her, simple, foundational steps like sunlight, grounding, whole foods, and emotional healing, into a blueprint for women who feel unheard in traditional healthcare settings.
That authenticity built trust. “Most of my clients have been dismissed by doctors,” she says. “They know I’ll actually listen. I’ll ask about things that seem irrelevant at first, like stress, trauma, or family patterns, but they always end up being part of the story.”
Life, Family, and Business Intertwined
Ashlee runs her company with the same holistic mindset she teaches. Her two sons are part of everything, from recipe testing to brand shoots, and her home life is inseparable from her work. “If my boys aren’t welcome, we don’t do it,” she says.
Still, she’s clear about boundaries. Her phone stays on airplane mode every morning until 9 a.m. and again after 5 p.m. Weekends are “sabbaticals.” “People think I’m online all the time, but they’re really seeing about 1% of my life,” she laughs. “My dream day would be to throw my phone in the ocean and never go back.”
Finding Freedom in Structure
When Simple Holistic began to grow rapidly, success brought chaos. “I didn’t even have systems in place,” she says. “No email set up, no tax plan;I’d get a notice that taxes were due in two days and panic.”
That all changed when she joined Collective.
“The biggest ‘I’m legit’ moment was when I signed up with Collective,” Ashlee says. “They took care of everything I didn’t want to be doing—payroll, taxes, compliance—so I could focus on what I’m gifted to do.”
With the financial and operational pieces handled, Ashlee could finally step fully into her role as a founder. “It helped me feel like a real business owner,” she says. “Now everything is formal, professional, and sustainable.”
A New Chapter of Growth
Today, Ashlee’s business is entering its next phase. Her new product line, natural healing patches, is projected to outgrow her decade-long nutrition practice by next year, with more than $1.2 million in revenue expected.
“It’s pivotal that I have Collective right now,” she says. “All of the growth, all of the money coming in—it’s being handled the right way. That brings me calm instead of chaos.”
Raised in a paycheck-to-paycheck household, Ashlee has also reframed her relationship with money. “I grew up hearing, ‘we can’t afford that,’” she says. “Now my husband and I teach our boys: money flows to us, we attract it by doing good work.”
For Ashlee, that shift mirrors the deeper truth she’s built her business around: healing and abundance are both natural states, if you give yourself permission to receive them.
About Collective
Collective is the first back-office platform designed for solopreneurs. We help business owners like Ashlee run their financial back-end, formation, bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes, all in one place.
Join Collective and simplify your business like Ashlee did: https://www.collective.com/
Ready to focus on what you do best while experts handle your business back-office? Learn how Collective can support your entrepreneurial journey at collective.com.
With over eight years in public accounting, Marissa has worked closely with small business owners to navigate tax strategy and compliance. At Collective, she translates complex tax concepts for self-employed individuals into clear, practical content—supporting them on their tax journey so they feel informed, confident, and empowered to make decisions for their business.