Meet Your Hosts
The People Behind the Conversations
Two women. Two perspectives. A shared curiosity about what makes us human.
From personal experiences to professional insights, we bring our questions, stories, laughter, and sometimes tears to conversations about what lies beneath the surface of everyday life.
Meet Cindy
Cindy Costley
Founder of The Underlying Answers | Creator of EBDT™ and the Architecture of Adaptation | Speaker & Educator
Cindy Costley has always been curious about the deeper connections in life—especially the ones that aren't immediately obvious.
With a background in dietetics and more than three decades of personal experience navigating complex health challenges, Cindy's journey led her to question how our experiences, emotions, beliefs, and adaptations influence the way we feel and function.
What began as a deeply personal search for answers eventually became her life's work. Today, Cindy is the creator of Electromagnetic Body Desensitization Technique (EBDT™) and the Architecture of Adaptation, a framework for exploring how our experiences shape the patterns we carry into everyday life.
As a speaker, educator, and founder of The Underlying Answers Podcast, Cindy loves connecting ideas, questioning assumptions, and exploring what might be happening beneath the surface of our experiences. She's the person who can spend hours talking about why something happens—and still have another question.
But there's much more to Cindy than her work.
She's a wife, mother, and grandmother of three wonderful grandchildren. She's deeply grateful for her husband, whom she's thanked countless times over the years for simply “letting me be me.” Through life's many challenges, that freedom to be herself has been one of the most meaningful parts of their relationship.
She loves being near the water, whether that's spending time at the lake, relaxing at the beach, or water skiing. Camping is another favorite, and she's looking forward to traveling and exploring more of the world in this new chapter of life.
Through The Underlying Answers, Cindy hopes to invite others into the kind of conversations that have shaped her own journey—conversations that encourage curiosity, make room for vulnerability, and remind us that there's often more to the story than we first realize.
Meet Ashley
Ashley Marshall, CPCC, PCC
Career & Leadership Coach | Co-host, The Underlying Answers
Ashley Marshall is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, an ICF Professional Certified Coach, and the founder of AE Marshall Associates. She helps people navigate career and life transitions, build self-trust, and make choices that reflect what matters most to them.
With a background in therapeutic recreation and experience supporting individuals, leaders, and teams, Ashley brings a thoughtful understanding of how our values, beliefs, emotions, and relationships influence the way we live and lead.
But there's another side to Ashley that you'll quickly discover.
She's endlessly curious, loves to learn, and has a contagious laugh that can bring lightness into even the most serious conversations. She believes in growth—and continually chooses it herself, even when the process is anything but easy.
Ashley has a gift for asking questions that make people think a little differently. She's willing to challenge assumptions, explore uncomfortable truths, and sit with the things that don't have easy answers. She brings warmth, honesty, humor, and a genuine willingness to be vulnerable to the conversations she shares.
As co-host of The Underlying Answers, Ashley brings those same qualities to the microphone, inviting listeners to look beneath familiar stories, explore new perspectives, and discover possibilities they may not have considered.
Guided by her values of growth, integrity, and fun, Ashley believes meaningful conversations can hold both deep reflection and a good laugh.
Ashley lives in San Luis Obispo, California, and is the mother of three boys. When she's not coaching or exploring life's bigger questions, you'll likely find her mountain biking, hiking, enjoying live music, or spending time with people she loves.
Our Friendship
Better Together
Two perspectives. One friendship. Endless curiosity.
Some friendships are built around shared interests. Ours has been built around a shared curiosity about life, people, and why we do the things we do.
Over the years, we've worked together, learned together, challenged each other, and had many wonderful conversations about the human experience.
We don't always see things the same way. In fact, that's part of what makes our friendship work.
Cindy, through her work with the Architecture of Adaptation, is naturally drawn to what happens beneath the surface, exploring how our experiences shape the internal adaptations that influence how we feel and function. Ashley, through her work as a life coach, brings a complementary perspective, exploring how our beliefs, identities, behaviors, and relationships shape the way we navigate everyday life. Together, we connect the inner and outer worlds, discovering how what happens within us influences what shows up in our lives—and how those experiences continue to shape us.
Ashley reminds Cindy that even the deepest conversations can include laughter, while Cindy reminds Ashley that it's safe to go deep, be vulnerable, and explore what's beneath the surface. Together, we challenge one another to consider connections, perspectives, and possibilities we might not have discovered on our own.
We can disagree without needing to win an argument. We can laugh until we can't finish a sentence. We can have difficult conversations, share vulnerable moments, or simply hold space when one of us needs it.
There's a lot of trust behind that kind of friendship.
And it's that same trust, curiosity, honesty, and playfulness that we bring to The Underlying Answers.
We make room for all of it—the laughter, the tears, the uncomfortable questions, the unexpected insights, and those moments when something suddenly makes sense. Some conversations will be lighthearted and fun. Others may touch something deeply personal. We welcome both, because that's what being human looks like.
We don't sit down with all the answers. We sit down willing to explore the questions, challenge what we think we know, and discover something new along the way.
Because sometimes the most meaningful discoveries happen in conversation with someone who sees the world a little differently than you do.
Come Join the Conversation
Real conversations. Unexpected connections. And yes, all the feels.
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