Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlea Bullington.
Hi Ashlea, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Honestly, BullRose Productions started as a wedding gift.
My best friend of over 20 years was getting married, and I wanted to give her something that actually meant something — not just another item off a registry. I’d spent my whole career in production, so I offered to shoot and produce her wedding video. I knew I could put together something she’d love without spending a fortune, and I trusted my work enough to know it would be good enough for someone who meant that much to me. That single project reignited something I’d been quietly setting aside for years: production is where I belong, and it’s where I’ve always belonged.
For a few years after that, BullRose lived on the side. I’d shoot weddings — mostly for friends and people I loved — while still working full-time for other companies. I spent most of my career being the person running the show behind the scenes for someone else, pouring everything into companies and roles full of people I genuinely cared about. But eventually I hit the moment where I knew it was time to bet on me. No one was ever going to care more about my success than I would, and I was ready to find out what I could build on my own.
What was supposed to be a social media company quickly became what it was always meant to be — a full production house. I went back to my roots. Today, BullRose specializes in podcast production from concept to launch, full corporate event and conference production, media relations, PR, and social. We’ve launched over 40 podcasts, produced more than 2,500 episodes, and built ongoing partnerships with organizations like Access Intelligence and EarthX. Several of our client shows now generate over 20 million views a year.
But the part of this story I love most isn’t the numbers. It’s that I learned everything I know about leadership from my parents. My mom started her business at 21 — she was working in doctors’ offices, realized she could do it better, and went out on her own. She got pregnant with me shortly after, ended up on bed rest for six months of a high-risk pregnancy, and somehow kept her young company alive without any of the technology we have today. This was 30 years ago — no laptops, no cloud, no Zoom. Just a 21-year-old building a business and building me at the same time.
Today, that company is one of the most successful medical billing and practice management companies in the country, serving doctors all across the United States. As I write this, my dad is working from our kitchen table — he and my mom moved their home offices to make room for my Nana, who has dementia and now lives with us. That image, more than anything, captures what leadership looks like in my family. It’s never been about square footage or corner offices. It’s about doing the work, taking care of the people you love, and never letting the dollar become the thing that drives every decision.
That’s the foundation BullRose was built on. And it’s the reason I show up the same way for every client — whether they’re a first-time podcaster recording in a home office or a corporate conference with a six-figure budget. We hold the same standard of excellence across the board. We pay our freelancers what they’re actually worth. We mentor students at Texas Wesleyan University. And we treat every project like the people behind it deserve our absolute best — because they do.
I bet on me a few years ago, and that bet has changed my life. It’s allowed me to become a homeowner, build something I genuinely love, and create real opportunities for the freelancers and creatives who help bring this work to life. Watching them grow because of what we’ve built together is, honestly, the best part of all of it.
That’s the short version of how I got here. There’s a lot more story to tell — but that’s the heart of it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Honestly? No. And I think anyone who tells you starting a business is a smooth road is either lying or hasn’t actually started one.
Building anything from the ground up is hard. There are months where the work is everywhere, and months where you’re scrambling to fill the calendar. There are clients who change scope mid-project, equipment that decides to fail at the worst possible moment, and the constant balancing act of being the CEO, the producer, the editor, the strategist, the bookkeeper, and the salesperson — all in the same day. You learn to wear every hat, even the ones that don’t fit.
But the part that’s been the most interesting challenge, especially since I moved out of the wedding side of things and into podcasts, corporate events, and conference production, is being a woman in a field that’s still very much dominated by men.
I came up in this industry the long way. I played soccer at TCU. From there, I went on to be a sports reporter and anchor. I was on camera, but I was also asked to be everything else — which turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. At American Sports Network, I crewed games, engineered, ran master control when they needed someone to step in, and learned every piece of the production puzzle from the inside out. Somewhere along the way, I looked around and realized something important: women who only worked on camera tended to have short shelf lives in this industry. If I wanted to last, I had to be more than a talking head. So I took on every single task that was asked of me, and a lot that weren’t. I taught myself to be a better editor. I learned motion graphics and design. I leaned into the full meaning of that old saying — “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” I wanted to be well-rounded, not a one-trick pony. By the time I started BullRose, I had already spent years quietly proving myself in some of the most male-dominated corners of the industry.
And yet, there’s always an air of having to prove yourself again. Walking into a room and having someone double-check whether you actually know sports. Stepping onto a set and watching someone size you up to see if you can really run your own studio. Sitting at a table and feeling that subtle pause where people are quietly deciding whether you know what’s going on. Some people take that kind of thing as a slight. I take it as a challenge.
I’ve never liked being told I can’t do something. I don’t think I ever will. Tell me I can’t, and I’ll show you exactly how I can — and I’ll do it well enough that the person across the table walks away realizing they should’ve assumed I could from the beginning. That mentality has carried me through every hard moment of building this business. The tight months. The technical curveballs. The rooms where I had to earn my seat twice. All of it.
The hard parts haven’t broken me. If anything, they’ve sharpened me. Every time someone underestimated me, I added another reason to my list of why this business was always going to work. And every time the business felt like it might buckle, I remembered who raised me and what I was made of. My mom built her company while pregnant on bed rest at 21 with no technology to speak of. My dad is still working from our kitchen table today so he and my mom can take care of my Nana. Quitting was never going to be the answer.
So no, it hasn’t been smooth. But I wouldn’t trade a single hard day for an easier road. The struggle is what’s made BullRose what it is.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What I’m Most Proud Of, Brand-Wise
I’m proudest of the reputation BullRose has built in just a few short years — that we’ve become one of the first calls in the DFW Metroplex when someone wants to start a podcast, that we’ve expanded into the conference space with every client walking away genuinely happy, and that our work has been recognized with two W3 Awards, with mentions in D Magazine and the Dallas Morning News, and with my name being added to the Women’s World Network and Marquis Who’s Who.
But the brand achievement that means the most to me has nothing to do with awards. It’s the fact that this business has allowed me to pay my freelancers what they’re truly worth. Production is hard, skilled work, and the people who do it deserve to be paid like the experts they are. I lived through being undervalued in this industry, and I refused to build my business on that same broken model. If BullRose grows, the people who help build it grow with me. That’s the brand I’m building.
What I Want Readers to Know
I want readers to know that BullRose Productions isn’t just a vendor — we’re a partner. We don’t see clients in tiers. We don’t half-show-up for the small projects and pour everything into the big ones. We pour everything in, every time. Whether you’re a first-time podcaster who has no idea where to start, a small business owner trying to find your voice, or a corporate team planning a major conference, we treat your story like it’s our own.
And if you’re someone who’s been told the production world is hard to break into, or that you don’t fit the mold of what a media company looks like — I’d tell you what I tell myself every time someone underestimates me: take it as a challenge. Build the thing anyway. The world is more than ready for what you have to say. We’d be honored to help you say it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Luck, to me, has almost always shown up in the form of people.
I’ve been incredibly lucky in this business — not because the work has come easily, but because I’ve been surrounded by people who believed in me before I’d fully figured out how to believe in myself. People who saw what I could do, took a chance on me when I had nothing to point to but my word, and then turned around and recommended me to their own networks without me ever having to ask.
There are three clients in particular who I’ll always credit with making BullRose what it is, because they were the ones who said yes when I needed it most.
The first was Emily Jones, who has been my mentor since college and one of the most consistent forces of good in my life. Any time I was down on my luck through the years, she was there — whether that meant letting me babysit her kids when I needed extra income or offering to be a reference for me when I needed someone in my corner. So when I was getting BullRose off the ground and the stress of “who in the world is actually going to hire me?” felt overwhelming, Emily was the first call I made. Instead of advice, she handed me a job — $100 a week to run social for her podcast, The Mom Game. That small offer turned into producing the show, building out her studio, and shaped the exact model I run today. She didn’t just give me a client; she gave me a blueprint. And honestly, she’s been giving me blueprints for as long as I’ve known her.
The second was Texas Wesleyan Football. They had been a client at the company I left, and they made it clear they wanted to keep working with me. They became my very first retainer client. In the first week — when I had almost nothing in the bank — they told me I needed to figure out how to produce a livestream radio show. I had no idea how to do it. So I figured it out. Joe Prud’homme, and now Fran Johnson, took a leap of faith on me that I’ll never forget. What started as social media work has grown into something much bigger over the years, and I owe them an enormous amount for the trust they extended early on.
The third was Paul Pennington, who I was introduced to through Mark Stone — a friend I made during a difficult chapter of my career. Paul didn’t blink twice. He gave me work, kept giving me work, and let me stretch creatively in ways I never expected. Property tax shows, music videos, social content for his business — he has been one of the most consistently supportive people in my career.
Beyond those first three, I’ve been blessed with a long list of friends, peers, and clients who have championed me, recommended me, and quietly opened doors I didn’t even know existed. Some of them passed my name along to PR firms, magazines, and media companies in my earliest days, and that kind of word-of-mouth support is something money can’t buy. I won’t list every name — we’d be here all day — but if you’re one of those people, you know who you are, and you know how grateful I am.
I also have to mention GameDay, the production company where I spent five formative years of my career. They took an enormous chance on me, and they’re the reason an air of excellence is permanently ingrained in my psyche — every standard I hold today was shaped in that building. And the way I ended up there is the closest I’ve ever come to believing in fate. I had just lost a job. The moment I walked out of that office for the last time, my phone rang. It was GameDay, asking if I wanted to come home and help them build their social media. Some opportunities don’t feel like luck. They feel like something larger than that. I eventually moved on from GameDay to another company, and it was after that next chapter that I made the leap to start BullRose — but the foundation GameDay built in me is something I carry into every project, every client, and every decision I make to this day.
And today, I’m equally lucky to work alongside two incredible partners who consistently bring their craft, their excellence, and their friendship to every project we tackle together. Nathan Blaze of Blaze Brothers Films and Ivan Zuniga, owner of DSI Productions, both run their own companies — and yet they always make space to be part of mine. That kind of generosity, in an industry where collaboration can be hard to come by, is something I’ll never take for granted.
So when people ask me about luck, my honest answer is this: I’ve worked hard for every inch of this business. But I’d be lying if I said I got here on my own. The people who took a chance on me — who recommended me, hired me, mentored me, and stood beside me when this was just an idea — are the reason BullRose exists. Without them, I’d probably have gone back to working for someone else a long time ago.
That’s not luck I take for granted. That’s luck I try to pay forward every single day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://BullRoseProductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abullington0/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashlea-bullington-22a55051/
