Inspired by her own experience, Ashley Fitzgerald strives to help others find the same balance, peace and connection from unplugging and unwinding.
A health issue earlier this year led the Clarks Summit native to step away from technology and into the water.
“For two hours a day, my husband and I were swimming, and obviously you’re not taking your phone in the pool,” Fitzgerald said. “I realized, by unplugging, how much more balanced I felt, how much more peaceful I felt, and how much more connected I felt.”
Fitzgerald’s new business — The Hobbiest, an adult, phone-free skills club set to open at 129 N. Main St. in Pittston next month — will help people find more purpose by gaining new skills in a variety of topics including knitting, calligraphy, meditation and home repair.
“You can go and learn all the things our grandparents used to know, and we don’t really know anymore, and develop new passions you can do in your spare time instead of scrolling on TikTok,” she said.
A look at the inside of the property at 129 N. Main St. in Pittston which will serve as the home of The Hobbiest – phone-free skills club for adults. (Courtesy Luzerne County Association of Realtors)
Each course runs four sessions, once a week, for two hours each time. The costs for the initial six courses range from $99 to $150.
The curriculum will change each month as it’s designed to grow with the community, Fitzgerald said.
“We’re focused on helping people who never tried something before (advance) to intermediate,” she said. “The whole goal is for everyone to get personalized instruction and improve in a way that is financially viable. Everything I’m doing is trying to get more power back to the individual — how they spend their time and the connection they have with their community.”
Looking forward, Fitzgerald aims to introduce classes to cater to a variety of audiences, including basic car repair and survival skills.
“We want to make sure we’re creating curriculum that speaks to everyone in the community,” she said. “Going into 2027, we want to be able to create experiences outside the four walls.”
To cultivate a space where deep thoughts and personal connections can flourish, The Hobbiest won’t resemble a typical social setting in today’s exceedingly high-tech world.
“There’s no electronics, no food, no alcohol — nothing to distract you,” Fitzgerald said. “When you actually go back to that clarity, and that solace, you very quickly realize that is so much more enjoyable than what you’re doing online. Maybe the first time people go, they’ll be like, ‘this is crazy, I don’t have my phone.’ But, by the second week, they’re going to be running to get inside.”
Another part of the impetus for the new business developed through conversations between Fitzgerald, 37, and some of her longtime pals.
“A lot of my friends are new moms and living in towns they didn’t grow up in,” she said. “I’ve been hearing, over and over again, from people feeling burnt out, feeling like it’s really difficult to meet new people, and just kind of suffocating living 24/7 in the digital world. I’m not trying to go back to the past where everything was analog, I’m just trying to help people rebalance their presence and maintain a more balanced future.”
The Abington Heights graduate drew upon more than a decade of experience developing data systems when crafting business plans for The Hobbiest.
“We started floating it around and the overall reaction was really positive,” Fitzgerald said. “We decided to move forward with it and the community has really leaned into the concept. My expertise comes in at the back end — the operational efficiency. This wouldn’t have been possible three of four years ago or without my background. I would have needed to borrow money and hire marketers and website developers to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Fitzgerald credits her time working on the brand and content strategy team at Goldman Sachs for laying the foundation for launching her own marketing technology solution, DeliverAI, last September, as well as The Hobbiest.
“(At Goldman Sachs) I built out the technology infrastructure and brand new novel solutions that improved the way we were able to track and optimize our communication,” she said. “Over time, I started developing this niche: solving the unsolvable is kind of what I do. Because of my background, I’m able to build and launch a lot of things very quickly. I use my expertise to create systems that are extraordinarily operationally efficient. Once I build them, they’re self-sustaining and I can move from one thing to the next.”
While Fitzgerald — who currently lives in the San Francisco area — landed on Pittston to establish the first location for a skills club due to the eagerness of the community and other personal factors, she hopes to expand the business model to other areas should the initiative gain traction.
“We are using Scranton and Northeastern Pennsylvania as the incubator for these ideas,” she said. “The innovation is going to happen in this region because I know the people, I grew up here, my family’s been here for literally hundreds of years. But the second I can prove it works, I will be heading to middle and small communities like Cleveland, Ohio, and (other) places very similar to Northeastern Pennsylvania because our focus is trying to rejuvenate the American town, the American city, and bring the community back together.”
As Fitzgerald competes against brands like TikTok, Facebook and Apple for consumers’ attention, she hopes they choose to unwind and socialize instead of seeking social media stimulation.
“I need to have people choosing me once a week and saying, ‘I’m going there, I’m going to unplug, I’m going to connect, I’m going to empower myself, and I’m going to enrich myself and fall in love with the offline world,’” she said. “People are making money based on your attention … so they’re going to design systems that are meant to capture your attention. The overall vision is really two things: empowerment and enrichment. If you have someone who wants to spend less time online, you have to give people something to do instead. We’re coming up with ideas, we’re soliciting ideas from the community, and people are basically voting on it.”
Pittston Mayor Mike Lombardo feels The Hobbiest will bring a unique, needed outlet to the city’s business landscape.
“I think the key to a strong, successful, thriving and perpetuating Main Street is having a good balance and dynamic in terms of the makeup, and who’s there,” he said. “I think the more diversified in terms of what you offer, the better off you are in terms of sustainability and longevity, and it certainly isn’t a stretch to call it congruent with our makers model that we have downtown in terms of the art, the galleries and the studios.”
Lombardo believes Fitzgerald’s mission to bring others together through interactive activities will make a positive difference in the community.
“There’s nothing more important in terms of the growth of a human being than the interaction with other human beings,” he said. “For me, as a psychologist, that’s something really personal. I think there’s a place in the world for virtual, I just don’t think it should dominate.”
Instead of focusing on the downfalls of technology, Fitzgerald intends to harness the positive aspects of modern advancements to transform someone’s day from ordinary to extraordinary.
“It’s all aimed at how we can leverage technology not to exploit people, not to exploit regions, but to empower them and up the standard of day-to-day living,” she said. “You should be enriching your soul, your mind, and your body, and just because you live in a region like NEPA, and not New York City, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have access to those things. I’m trying to make sure the type of life I had growing up is attainable for everybody and they can live a life of their dreams.”