AI enhancement from high school
Matt and Ashley Nelson met at Lakeside High School and connected on the water as rowers in the 1990’s.
After her career in small business ownership and media sales and his career in ministry and non-profit development, they reconnected more than a year ago.
They’ve been rowing the boat together since marriage and now with their new businesses.
Ashley closed on the Bee Healthy Medical Weight Loss & Energy Clinic at 4150 Washington Road in Evans in early 2026. Shortly after, Matt began negotiating ownership of Countersync at 2014 Westside Court off the Riverwatch Parkway in West Augusta. His purchase of the business closed in August.
Because of their personalities, the Nelsons emphasize growth over comfort.
They offer each other support and sometimes a reality check to help with blind spots. Entrepreneurial spirits have run through their bodies like a rowboat takes to water.
Matt spent 20 years in church ministry, approaching his positions like a visionary businessman. “Let’s build this new ministry, let’s go in this direction, let’s try this new mission,” said Mr. Nelson. He then spent four years as the Director of Development and Fundholder Services for the Community Foundation of the CSRA.
He worked on the business side of that organization, focused on building a stronger and more vibrant community through donor partners.
Ashley spent decades flexing her small business muscles and learning how to navigate family businesses. “My parents always work together in their Stanley Steemer business.”
Mrs. Nelson still does accounting work for her parents in Augusta and has always had a full-time job and business(es)at the same time. She founded and owned “Sweet and Clean”, an eco-friendly maid service and a few other businesses (highlighted above). She’s also had a successful media sales career in Atlanta and Augusta and sold real estate for six years in the CSRA. In 2024, Ashley earned her MBA while working full-time.
Mr. Nelson inherited a successful business with experienced people working on the craftsmanship of their services and back-office support.
He’s learning the Countersync business. “I’m going to pull sheets off the truck, and we’re going to cut, and I’m going to do sanding and get dirty. Cognitively, I know how to do it, so that is going to be my next task. It’s a scary piece, but it’s also a piece I know I can do, because I’m willing to do it.”
Countersync offers various custom countertop options in the kitchen and tubs or walk-in shower services in the bathroom. He’s begun going on in-home appointments and is on a listening tour to determine if he should offer other services in the future. “Whether it is shower doors in the bathroom or faucets in the bathroom or kitchen”.
He’s also noticing most of the clients are seniors and wants to match the tastes of younger homeowners with trendy styles and grow the commercial side of the business.
Ashley’s affection for the care her staff provides to suffering clients runs deep. She was diagnosed with lymphedema more than 20 years ago. It’s a chronic and painful swelling condition. She’s learned how to balance her health with motherhood, a career, relationships, and day-to-day living. There have been surgeries, hospitalizations, setbacks, and plenty of moments when she wondered, “Why am I going through all of this?”
“Owning Bee Healthy finally gave purpose to so much of my own health journey. I realized that everything I had experienced—the fear, frustration, pain, recovery, and learning to advocate for my own health—had prepared me to help other people navigate their health journeys, too.
I know what it feels like to want answers. I know what it feels like to want to feel better in your own body and to need someone in your corner who truly cares.
Bee Healthy became my “why.” It gave purpose to some of the hardest chapters of my life and turned them into an opportunity to help other people write healthier, happier chapters of their own,” she said.
Speaking of chapters—in the last few years, Ashley wrote a 29-page inspirational e-book, “Running Free, ” which you can download here. It’s her gift of good health to ABD readers.
She’s hoping to add anti-aging services and a Grovetown location in the future. Bee Healthy provides physician-monitored weight loss programs, nutrition and fitness education, ways to safely gain energy, and more.
The Nelsons have learned empathy and how to blend business with family. Ashley’s teenagers live with them, and Matt’s children are away at college.
So, what’s the secret of the juggle?
“You need tension. You need some conflict for the benefit of growing and expanding and learning things by yourself and others. She challenges that in me. She lets me fumble through it. I think that’s the kind of love and grace you have to have in each other with life, marriage, kids, and two businesses. You gotta have that, said Matt.
“I know what I’m good at. I know what he’s good at. As long as I’m not bossing him around all day, and he’s not bossing me around, we work really well together.
Ultimately, we have to stay in our lanes. We get outside; we hike. We collaborate along walks, “ added Ashley.
Just like when they met in the 1990’s, Matt and Ashley Nelson learned how to row the boat together and push through life’s challenges.
For more information, visit www.beehealthyclinics.com and www.countersync.net
