Adrian Hedden
El Rito Media
achedden@currentargus.com

Ashley Curbello joins the Carlsbad Current-Argus and Artesia Daily Press as an account executive

Ashley Curbello’s four daughters learned the challenges of owning their own business “the hard way.”

She started Hair Pixies two years ago with the four girls, making decorative hair extensions and pieces for the Carlsbad community, offering their wares at local events like the Renaissance Festival and Farmers Market.

Curbello, 38, of Carlsbad said the girls learned discipline, how to budget and sacrifice by giving up several activities time with their friends to build the business.

She also instilled in Chloe, 23; Mickeyla, 18; Brylee, 11 and six-year-old Talyah a sense of community and pride in reaching goals.

“They came in and asked me if they could open their own business and make money. We sat down and discussed what we could do to make it happen,” she recalled. “I loved the idea of them starting a business and all that it takes. They learned the hard way.”

It’s the kind of ambition Curbello also said she hopes to bring to the Carlsbad Current-Argus and Artesia Daily Press as account executive, overseeing advertising sales for El Rito Media for both newspapers.

El Rito bought the Artesia Daily Press last year and the Carlsbad Current-Argus from Gannett in June, along with the Alamogordo Daily News and Ruidoso News.

Curbello’s hiring was part of a broader effort by the company to emphasize the local print products and increase revenue through advertising and print subscription sales.

“I do like the fact that the paper is local again,” Curbello said. “I am all about local and trying to bring other businesses to town. If everyone knows that we (the newspaper) are a tool, it brings us all together.”

That’s a philosophy Curbello said she’s already embracing three weeks into the job. Her first day was Oct. 21, and Curbello already sold ads to the Madison Lee Memorial Store for its fundraiser and W.J. Auction. She said she’s working with several large clients in the community.

“I do everything personally. I go above and beyond,” she said. “Customer service is something I’m always giving out. That is a lost art.”

Curbello moved to Carlsbad in 2010 from her hometown Albuquerque and married her husband Aaron Curbello in 2016. She was a stay-at-home mom for several years, but earned her real estate license in 2018, and said she’s consistently been the top earner in her office at Century 21 Associated Professionals in Carlsbad.

She still works in the real estate business and provides housing market updates and listings for publication in both papers, but said it was the interactions with clients and helping them achieve their goals that would prove most beneficial for ad sales.

“We’re going to build a rapport with every single person,” she said. “With selling ads, you’re helping businesses market themselves and put themselves in front of other people.”

When she isn’t meeting with clients in the community, to sell newspaper ads or houses, Curbello is supporting her daughters in several activities. Talyah does ballet while Brylee swims. Mickeyla just started her own nail studio Nailed It after earning an associate’s degree and cosmetology license while Chloe works as a manager at Lowes.

She said the entire family participates in the children’s activities, which suffice as their downtime.

Still, the family does enjoy the occasional vacation. Curbello said they went on a cruise to the Bahamas last year, and “fell in love.”

“You won’t see any of us out without the majority of the others,” she said of the family. “It teaches the other kids how to be supportive.”

And just like she supports businesses in meeting their goals through advertising, the job itself is another one of Curbello’s goals that she said gives her purpose.

“I thought I’d be a stay-at-home mom forever,” she said. “When I got the knack for customer service, I felt I succeeded at something. I became my own person, not just somebody’s wife or mom.”

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 734-972-6855, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.