Here is a deep dive into my journey, ultimately living a life of courage, continuously unfolding the layers, creating a life far beyond my dreams.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enamored by vibrations, of which are now the foundations of the way in which I maneuver my life and am in exchange with you, this community and ultimately the world.
I grew up in the incredibly diverse and chill beach city of Oceanside, California. My first job experience was working at the local scrapbooking store where I sold supplies and taught classes on preserving memories in the most creative way possible. I spent my Friday nights, holding space for women, three times my age, to reminisce, reflect, bask in the joy that is their lives as they so intentionally presented it on elaborate pieces of oversized paper.
I anxiously went away to college at California State University Long Beach, riding my skateboard from class to class where after changing my major and minor over a handful of times, I studied and graduated with degrees in Africana Studies and Business Marketing. My last year of college was spent eagerly interning for the local PBS station, where I was then offered a job immediately after graduation.
For the next three years, I spent my days writing grants and hosting community engagement events around local documentaries that were created and aired, all with the mission to educate. My nights and weekends were spent pursuing my curiosity and passions of photography and personal growth / development.
I used to believe that there wasn’t space for my dreams, not me, not in this lifetime. I would see these lives and think, “Wouldn’t that be so nice if I could…,” “Oh, but I couldn’t, I’m not ________ (fill in the blank) ENOUGH,” “One day, maybe one day.” Till one day, one unforgettable day in 2012, while sitting in my cubicle on the 4th floor of a brightly lit office building, a question came into my existence, shook me up and immediately changed every aspect of my life. “Am I really living or am I simply existing?” At that point in my life, I was simply existing.
At that moment, I knew what was missing, I knew what I needed to do to truly start living - fulfill a lifelong dream, teaching and living in Africa. I applied for and got accepted to teach English on Mafia Island, Tanzania with an inspirational organization called World Teach. There, I fell in love with myself, with the expansiveness that is life, written expression and a sensationally sincere South African man, who is now my husband.
Upon completing my teaching assignment, I came back to Southern California and immediately got my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and Hatha Yoga certifications to teach around the world, something I was immensely called to do after my experience in Tanzania. This started a nearly three year journey enabling me to live and teach around the world - South Africa, Costa Rica and back in Tanzania, traveling to dozens of countries in between. The more I explored and experienced these exotic and inspirational places around the world, so too was my camera guiding my heart and encapsulating that which I was witnessing.
When returning to the States in April of 2015, I made the bold commitment, with $700 and a junky old car to my name to launch my photography business, Ashley Strong Photography. I went full in where I spent my days in my parents spare bedroom, reaching out to everyone I knew, scanning the “Book of Lists” for nonprofits who needed a photographer, building my website, connecting with other photographers and entrepreneurs, attending seminars and classes and soaking up every bit of knowledge to be both a photographer and a business owner.
Little by little, my client base started to expand, my commitment to creating an intentional business started to grow and before I knew it, I was documenting weddings around the world, inspirational entrepreneurs starting businesses of their own, families expanding and every expression of love in-between. In 2018, I incorporated as Strong Smith, Inc and started to grow my team.
By 2022, I was photographing nearly 30 weddings and additional 100 sessions per year. I had over 200 - 5 star reviews, had a waiting list for months, a team of an office assistant, photo assistant, editor and book-keeper and made over $100,000 a year. By my definition of success, at that time, I had surpassed it. As my business grew, so too did my commitment to better understand myself, this world and ultimately my admiration and longing for connection — deep, intimate, raw, safe connection. You know, when you actually pull back the layers, get vulnerability and respectfully below the surface and truly understand the heartbeat of one’s soul. At that time, mainly my soul.
I attended personal development seminars and weekend retreats. I filled journal after journal. I pulled Oracle cards daily. I made vision boards. I created and read notecards daily with my commitment to myself and my wildest dreams. I meditated. I connected with affirmations. And as I did so, what was written on these pages, glued on these vision boards, recited off my notecards - became my reality, my existence.
What was once a dream, became a reality.
What was once a vision, became a lived experience.
The pandemic shifted me and my photography business in ways I am just now being able to properly transcribe. My photography business came to a halt (as there was no way of doing photography virtually) and as a new mom with my husband in fire academy, I spent my days with my daughter strapped to my chest or back, walking, exploring, creating, coloring, marveling at the beauty that is our surroundings and world.
As the world started to integrate again, my photography business came back in more demand than ever as souls were marrying and families were growing at exceptional speeds. Even with a booming business, that voice, the same one that spoke so loudly in 2012, got even louder in 2021. Was I living or merely existing? Truth is, I started just existing again. Being the soul searcher that I am, I went back into the inquiry.
I started to search for “that very something.”
As a family, we had started traveling to the mountains, a lot. A weekend getaway here. A birthday celebration there. A day trip. A feeling of, we cannot get enough of this place, this space. At the time, we were wanting to buy our first home. As we researched, we kept being pulled to looking at houses in the mountains, the San Bernardino Mountains. We kept meeting people from the areas, reconnecting with friends who had moved up here and before we knew it, we were looking at houses with a realtor. Within a few months, we made an offer on our dream home, it was denied. We researched and looked at more. Made offers. Yet, our hearts still wanted our dream home. Two weeks later, we made another offer, it was accepted. A month later, with a nearly two year old joyfully wobbling around, we moved into our dream home in the mountains.
In May of 2021, we bought our first home at 6,200 feet elevation. Surrounded by trees. Filled with seasons. Yes, seasons in Southern California. Snow all winter. Blooms all Spring. Heat all summer. And shedding of leaves, all of fall.
Moving to these mountains was “that very something.” It opened our senses, our hearts, our minds and connected my soul, back to its heartbeat, one I hadn’t experienced since living on Mafia Island the first time. This move, has been the foundation and catalyst for all that has changed and transpired.
Since moving to this magical space, my husband became a citizen after a three year battle to get him into the United States and another four years of paperwork once he was here. He went from getting his dream job as a FireFighter for OCFA to getting promoted and going through Paramedic school to become a paramedic firefighter. Our daughter has celebrated two birthdays and is an extremely adventurous, curious, nature loving mountain girl. She goes to school three days a week and thrives on connection, community, being around people and her family.
As for me, I feel cracked open, born again, new, vulnerability connected and raw. I fell in love with myself, my life and this world in a way that I hadn’t experienced since living in Tanzania back in 2013. With this, my photography business expanded from Ashley Strong Photography to Ashley Strong Smith - Courage Coach, Photographer and Podcast Host. I offer 1:1 Courage Coaching, The Living Courageously Blueprint (group coaching program 3x per year) and 3 Hour Courage Coaching intensives. In October of 2022, I launched The Living Courageously Podcast, creating a community of women connecting around and through the lens of COURAGE.
I am in a place, a space where I wake inspired, alive, committed and connected to this dream, this vision, this calling that has become bigger than me. To create a conversation and build community through the lens of courage. Reconnecting women to the heartbeat of their souls and honoring all that comes with Courage in Action!
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for tapping into your courage, creating space for me to do the same.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enamored by vibrations, of which are now the foundations of the way in which I maneuver my life and am in exchange with you, this community and ultimately the world.
- The power of human connection and the art of being able to feel into that, so deeply.
- The knowing that this is my life, our lives and we have the gifts of creating and expanding them into anything of our choosing.
- The ebbs and flows, the peaks and valleys, the days and nights, need one another to exist in its fullness.
I grew up in the incredibly diverse and chill beach city of Oceanside, California. My first job experience was working at the local scrapbooking store where I sold supplies and taught classes on preserving memories in the most creative way possible. I spent my Friday nights, holding space for women, three times my age, to reminisce, reflect, bask in the joy that is their lives as they so intentionally presented it on elaborate pieces of oversized paper.
I anxiously went away to college at California State University Long Beach, riding my skateboard from class to class where after changing my major and minor over a handful of times, I studied and graduated with degrees in Africana Studies and Business Marketing. My last year of college was spent eagerly interning for the local PBS station, where I was then offered a job immediately after graduation.
For the next three years, I spent my days writing grants and hosting community engagement events around local documentaries that were created and aired, all with the mission to educate. My nights and weekends were spent pursuing my curiosity and passions of photography and personal growth / development.
I used to believe that there wasn’t space for my dreams, not me, not in this lifetime. I would see these lives and think, “Wouldn’t that be so nice if I could…,” “Oh, but I couldn’t, I’m not ________ (fill in the blank) ENOUGH,” “One day, maybe one day.” Till one day, one unforgettable day in 2012, while sitting in my cubicle on the 4th floor of a brightly lit office building, a question came into my existence, shook me up and immediately changed every aspect of my life. “Am I really living or am I simply existing?” At that point in my life, I was simply existing.
At that moment, I knew what was missing, I knew what I needed to do to truly start living - fulfill a lifelong dream, teaching and living in Africa. I applied for and got accepted to teach English on Mafia Island, Tanzania with an inspirational organization called World Teach. There, I fell in love with myself, with the expansiveness that is life, written expression and a sensationally sincere South African man, who is now my husband.
Upon completing my teaching assignment, I came back to Southern California and immediately got my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and Hatha Yoga certifications to teach around the world, something I was immensely called to do after my experience in Tanzania. This started a nearly three year journey enabling me to live and teach around the world - South Africa, Costa Rica and back in Tanzania, traveling to dozens of countries in between. The more I explored and experienced these exotic and inspirational places around the world, so too was my camera guiding my heart and encapsulating that which I was witnessing.
When returning to the States in April of 2015, I made the bold commitment, with $700 and a junky old car to my name to launch my photography business, Ashley Strong Photography. I went full in where I spent my days in my parents spare bedroom, reaching out to everyone I knew, scanning the “Book of Lists” for nonprofits who needed a photographer, building my website, connecting with other photographers and entrepreneurs, attending seminars and classes and soaking up every bit of knowledge to be both a photographer and a business owner.
Little by little, my client base started to expand, my commitment to creating an intentional business started to grow and before I knew it, I was documenting weddings around the world, inspirational entrepreneurs starting businesses of their own, families expanding and every expression of love in-between. In 2018, I incorporated as Strong Smith, Inc and started to grow my team.
By 2022, I was photographing nearly 30 weddings and additional 100 sessions per year. I had over 200 - 5 star reviews, had a waiting list for months, a team of an office assistant, photo assistant, editor and book-keeper and made over $100,000 a year. By my definition of success, at that time, I had surpassed it. As my business grew, so too did my commitment to better understand myself, this world and ultimately my admiration and longing for connection — deep, intimate, raw, safe connection. You know, when you actually pull back the layers, get vulnerability and respectfully below the surface and truly understand the heartbeat of one’s soul. At that time, mainly my soul.
I attended personal development seminars and weekend retreats. I filled journal after journal. I pulled Oracle cards daily. I made vision boards. I created and read notecards daily with my commitment to myself and my wildest dreams. I meditated. I connected with affirmations. And as I did so, what was written on these pages, glued on these vision boards, recited off my notecards - became my reality, my existence.
What was once a dream, became a reality.
What was once a vision, became a lived experience.
The pandemic shifted me and my photography business in ways I am just now being able to properly transcribe. My photography business came to a halt (as there was no way of doing photography virtually) and as a new mom with my husband in fire academy, I spent my days with my daughter strapped to my chest or back, walking, exploring, creating, coloring, marveling at the beauty that is our surroundings and world.
As the world started to integrate again, my photography business came back in more demand than ever as souls were marrying and families were growing at exceptional speeds. Even with a booming business, that voice, the same one that spoke so loudly in 2012, got even louder in 2021. Was I living or merely existing? Truth is, I started just existing again. Being the soul searcher that I am, I went back into the inquiry.
I started to search for “that very something.”
As a family, we had started traveling to the mountains, a lot. A weekend getaway here. A birthday celebration there. A day trip. A feeling of, we cannot get enough of this place, this space. At the time, we were wanting to buy our first home. As we researched, we kept being pulled to looking at houses in the mountains, the San Bernardino Mountains. We kept meeting people from the areas, reconnecting with friends who had moved up here and before we knew it, we were looking at houses with a realtor. Within a few months, we made an offer on our dream home, it was denied. We researched and looked at more. Made offers. Yet, our hearts still wanted our dream home. Two weeks later, we made another offer, it was accepted. A month later, with a nearly two year old joyfully wobbling around, we moved into our dream home in the mountains.
In May of 2021, we bought our first home at 6,200 feet elevation. Surrounded by trees. Filled with seasons. Yes, seasons in Southern California. Snow all winter. Blooms all Spring. Heat all summer. And shedding of leaves, all of fall.
Moving to these mountains was “that very something.” It opened our senses, our hearts, our minds and connected my soul, back to its heartbeat, one I hadn’t experienced since living on Mafia Island the first time. This move, has been the foundation and catalyst for all that has changed and transpired.
Since moving to this magical space, my husband became a citizen after a three year battle to get him into the United States and another four years of paperwork once he was here. He went from getting his dream job as a FireFighter for OCFA to getting promoted and going through Paramedic school to become a paramedic firefighter. Our daughter has celebrated two birthdays and is an extremely adventurous, curious, nature loving mountain girl. She goes to school three days a week and thrives on connection, community, being around people and her family.
As for me, I feel cracked open, born again, new, vulnerability connected and raw. I fell in love with myself, my life and this world in a way that I hadn’t experienced since living in Tanzania back in 2013. With this, my photography business expanded from Ashley Strong Photography to Ashley Strong Smith - Courage Coach, Photographer and Podcast Host. I offer 1:1 Courage Coaching, The Living Courageously Blueprint (group coaching program 3x per year) and 3 Hour Courage Coaching intensives. In October of 2022, I launched The Living Courageously Podcast, creating a community of women connecting around and through the lens of COURAGE.
I am in a place, a space where I wake inspired, alive, committed and connected to this dream, this vision, this calling that has become bigger than me. To create a conversation and build community through the lens of courage. Reconnecting women to the heartbeat of their souls and honoring all that comes with Courage in Action!
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for tapping into your courage, creating space for me to do the same.
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