Membership Spotlight: Deborrah Ashley, Founder of Thrivoo Marketing

Deborrah Ashley has always worked in marketing, and after 20 years in the field, Thrivoo, an integrated marketing consultancy rather than a traditional agency, is the first business she's built entirely on her own. Clients typically come to her with a specific goal in mind, whether that's launching a new initiative, winning back lost clients, or building out a project, and Deborrah steps in during the launch phase to shape messaging, positioning, and storytelling from the ground up. One current project reflects that work well: a CEO group that runs annual summits for leaders at a specific revenue point. "A lot of companies are going through this right now, their marketing is pretty outdated for how people think and react and respond, especially after the pandemic," she said. Her work with the group spans everything from messaging and events to helping seasoned CEOs tell better stories about themselves for recruiting purposes.

That shift, Deborrah says, comes down to a fundamental change in how marketing actually works. For decades, companies fed narratives to consumers rather than the other way around, often to lasting effect. She points to her time working in economic development within New York's fashion and jewelry industry, where the long-standing message was that an engagement ring should cost two and a half times a buyer's monthly salary, a rule she says has all but disappeared today. Sticking with what's worked in the past risks losing out on an entire market of buyers, she said, especially as Gen Z pushes companies to be more social and forward-facing. On the B2B side, she's noticed buy-in cycles have shifted too, with prospects now doing their research long before ever reaching out. "Your job is to plant the seeds, to share the stories, to paint the narratives while they're in the research phase," she said, describing the goal as becoming one of a small handful of options a buyer is considering, rather than getting lost in a crowded field.

Deborrah's path to founding Thrivoo wasn't a sudden pivot, marketing is the only field she's ever worked in. After years of doing similar work the same way for similar organizations, she found herself losing the fulfillment that once came with the job, and decided to build something of her own. The name Thrivoo reflects that mission directly: helping brands thrive, not just sustain themselves. She also considered simply naming the company after herself, but thought back to how invented names like Yahoo and the then-emerging Google didn't carry any inherent meaning either, and decided to write her own story instead.

Asked about her proudest work, Deborrah says it's hard to point to just one client, each one exercises a different skill set, which keeps the work from ever feeling repetitive. What she's found she loves most is being brought in as part of a bigger initiative, like an economic development program, where she can see the full picture rather than just one piece of it.

Deborrah's connection to the Downtown Partnership grew out of a similar instinct. Before going solo, she spent a decade working in the Tampa Bay area, with entrepreneurship always somewhere in the back of her mind, including time as a business consultant at the Small Business Development Center. When the pandemic hit, she found herself wanting to reconnect with her community rather than move only between work and home, which eventually led her to the Partnership. It's given her a better understanding of local decisions and the people behind them, she said.

Originally from New York, Deborrah went to school in Atlanta before relocating to the Tampa Bay area for a role with Ideal Image, whose corporate office was based here, around the same time her parents retired to Florida from New York. That timing has given her a front-row seat to how quickly the region's identity is shifting. "The story has always been, you come to Florida when you're retired or when you're over 60," she said. "Now everything's changing."

Looking ahead, Deborrah is especially excited about downtown St. Petersburg's growing skyline. Having previously lived in Atlanta, she recalls searching for a skyline when she first arrived in the Tampa Bay area and finding none. She sees downtown St. Pete becoming one of the cities with the most beautiful skylines, pointing to the waterfront as a major part of that potential, and often finding herself comparing St. Pete's trajectory to Atlanta's own transformation. She's also excited about the possibility of innovation hubs and incubators taking root downtown, which she believes could draw new companies and talent to the area, along with the city's fast-growing food and art scenes. A self-described foodie working her way toward visiting every Michelin five-star restaurant she can, Deborrah says downtown's restaurant scene keeps outpacing her ability to keep up with it, in the best way.