So, Ashley found her own kind of solution. She cut grass, cleaned houses, folded small bills into her pocket and rode the city bus downtown.<\/p>\n
At the counter, she\u2019d slide what she had \u2014 not enough to clear the balance, but enough to turn the next envelope back to white.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want her to feel that pressure,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t need recognition. I just wanted things to be right.\u201d<\/p>\n
That instinct \u2014 quiet, steady, practical \u2014 would follow her everywhere.<\/p>\n
The early lessons<\/p>\n
The house in Port Tampa<\/a> was never quiet for long \u2014 gospel radio humming, starch and frying oil drifting from the kitchen.<\/p>\n Ashley was born at MacDill Air Force Base and raised in a tight-knit community centered around her grandmother, Billie Jean \u2014 \u201cNana\u201d to everyone \u2014 apron tied, hips swaying, singing over a pot of greens.<\/p>\n \u201cShe loves to dance,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cWhen I went pescatarian in middle school, she made a separate pot of collards just for me.\u201d<\/p>\n That kitchen was the heartbeat of the family \u2014 full of music, motion, and lessons disguised as love. The women around her didn\u2019t talk about independence; they lived it.<\/p>\n READ: Inside Mayor Jane Castor\u2019s plan to fix Tampa traffic<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMy mom used to tell me, \u2018Go to school and be somebody,\u2019\u201d Ashley said.<\/p>\n Church on Sundays added structure. \u201cIf there was a speech, I had a speech,\u201d she recalled. She learned early that service wasn\u2019t charity \u2014 it was a way of showing up.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can learn to be of service,\u201d she said, \u201cyou will never worry about money again in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n Becoming Ashley<\/p>\n By middle school, Ashley was coming into her own. She knew how to work, how to read a room \u2014 and who she was.<\/p>\n \u201cI told my mom that I was gay,\u201d she said. \u201cHer response was, \u2018I know. I was waiting on you to tell me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Her dad\u2019s reaction came in his own language of love \u2014 he pulled over his rig, bought Skittles and a Sprite, handed her an AutoTrader and said, \u201cPick a car.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside the home, it wasn\u2019t as simple. A church elder pinched her arm for wearing pants. A basketball coach made it clear she didn\u2019t belong. She walked away from the team, but not from herself.<\/p>\n Work became her refuge and her proof. She sold produce, cleaned clothes, stocked shelves and even bought vending machines.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever I was doing, I was going to do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n The lesson was never about the job itself \u2014 it was about control. When the world tries to decide who you are, showing up becomes its own declaration.<\/p>\n Choosing her next classroom<\/p>\n When high school ended, Ashley didn\u2019t want to leave Tampa. The University of South Florida <\/a>offered both challenge and proximity \u2014 a chance to grow without losing the people who raised her.<\/p>\n College wasn\u2019t an escape; it was an expansion. She soaked up lessons in management and strategy, translating the same discipline that kept her family\u2019s lights on into a language that made sense in boardrooms.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you earn your degree,\u201d she said, \u201cit means you can listen to forty different people tell you forty different ways to do something \u2014 and still get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n READ: Tampa Bay legend Derrick Brooks named COO of USF Athletics<\/a><\/p>\n USF gave her more than a credential. It gave her the vocabulary for what she already knew: leadership<\/a> is equal parts empathy and execution.<\/p>\n A conversation that changed everything<\/p>\n It started as a joke in line at Panera Bread during her senior year at USF.<\/p>\n Ashley was waiting for lunch when she struck up a conversation with a stranger \u2014 the founder of Ice Cold Air. He saw her focus and energy, handed her his number, and assumed she wouldn\u2019t call.<\/p>\n She did \u2014 exactly when she said she would.<\/p>\n \u201cHe told me, \u2018People don\u2019t do what they say they\u2019re going to do.\u2019 Within months, she was running her first shop on West Hillsborough Avenue \u2014 sweeping floors, answering phones, balancing books, learning compressors and diagnostics by printing out Ask Jeeves results and retyping them into her own manuals.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to lead somebody, you have to lead them from within,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just lead from the ivory tower.\u201d<\/p>\n Love, partnership and purpose<\/p>\n Under fluorescent lights and the hum of engines, Ashley met Adrien \u2014 a nurse who came in for an oil change and kept coming back.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t do anything by myself,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cAdrien\u2019s just been phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n They became partners in life and in business \u2014 Ashley the visionary, Adrien the finisher. <\/p>\n \u201cAshley can dream it up,\u201d Adrien said. \u201cI make sure we land the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n READ: Tampa to host 2029 CFP National Championship<\/a><\/p>\n Home became headquarters: laughter in the kitchen, notes on napkins, plans on the fridge. Their love wasn\u2019t separate from the business \u2014 it powered it.<\/p>\n The fall that defined the climb<\/p>\n Success came fast \u2014 until it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2013, I thought I could just flick my wrist and go into a new market where I didn\u2019t speak Spanish,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cI thought I was going to be an overnight success. I think I lost half a million bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n The silence afterward was louder than the loss. Payrolls met, phones slowed, confidence cracked. She went back to basics: documentation, process, communication \u2014 the same structure she built from her earliest lessons.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can lose $500,000 and still find your way back.\u201d<\/p>\n Building right, not fast<\/p>\n Eighteen years after that Panera conversation, Ashley and Adrien own Ice Cold Air outright. The company supports approximately 100 people and generates more than $12 million annually, with plans to grow to $35 million.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first two years it was all infrastructure,\u201d she said. \u201cNow the next 36 months are all training \u2014 100% ASE certified, all stores.\u201d<\/p>\n Her rules are simple: fix what you see, leave it better than you found it, and grow sustainably.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re strategic and we\u2019re not greedy,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want the right families, community-oriented people.\u201d<\/p>\n Even a cooling economy doesn\u2019t rattle her. \u201cLet customers save their money,\u201d she said. \u201cBring your own part \u2014 we\u2019ll put it on.\u201d<\/p>\n Leadership, for her, is teaching people how to keep working when the wind shifts.<\/p>\n Giving back what was given<\/p>\n Ashley talks about business the way some people speak about neighborhoods \u2014 a living system that works only if everyone participates.<\/p>\n She and Adrien launched the first $25,000 Black Leadership Network endowment<\/a> in their names at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cI want the most impact,\u201d she said. \u201cSomething that\u2019s going to outlast me.\u201d<\/p>\n She still remembers the brown Thanksgiving box left by Metropolitan Ministries.<\/p>\n READ: South Sarasota gets new 325-unit luxury apartment complex<\/a> At Ice Cold Air, that spirit became policy: Toys for Tots drives that fill trucks, clothing donations for schools, buckets of soda tabs for Shriners \u2014 \u201cthree wheelchairs worth so far.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of math I care about,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Legacy<\/p>\n \u201cLegacy means the kids get choices,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cMy niece and my nephew will never know what a food-stamp card looks like, if it\u2019s up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n For her, legacy isn\u2019t assets \u2014 it\u2019s access. She dreams of teaching budgeting, credit, and first-time homebuying at Hillsborough County\u2019s Skill Center.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people have economic stability, they\u2019ll show up in ways you never imagined,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we need \u2014 more people who can win.\u201d<\/p>\n READ: Tampa General expands in Citrus County with new 53-acre site<\/a><\/p>\n At her core, she\u2019s still that kid at the kitchen table, sorting envelopes, fixing what she can.<\/p>\n \u201cI know I\u2019ve been blessed,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I try to be the blessing now.\u201d<\/p>\n Her mother\u2019s words echo behind her \u2014 be somebody.<\/p>\n And she is.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as you think you know everything,\u201d she said, \u201cthat\u2019s when you mess up. Growth never ends.\u201d<\/p>\n Stay Connected<\/p>\n Sign up for TBBW\u2019s newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n
I told him, \u2018Well, I do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1-50-1000x563.png\")
Ashley Butler and her wife, Adrien, at their Tampa home \u2014 partners in life and in business, the pair lead Ice Cold Air with purpose and heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never lets me forget that I belong here,\u201d Adrien said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the best thing \u2014 losing that $500,000,\u201d she said. \u201cMoney is a tool.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1-51-1000x563.png\")
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\u201cI could never do anything for those people,\u201d she said. \u201cI just know I want to be that person now \u2014 the one who shows up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1-49-1000x563.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1-47-1000x563.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1-48-1000x563.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1-46-1000x563.png\")
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