FROM LEFT TO RIGHT :
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2011 : After graduating college at CSULB with degrees in Business Marketing & Africana Studies, I worked for a local non-profit PBS and started photography.
2014 : My first time in South Africa (feeding elephants here) with my then boyfriend, now husband who I met while living on Mafia Island, Tanzania.
2015 : Back on Mafia Island, Tanzania - these were the students I had taught just two years before and had the honor of volunteering back in the classroom.
2015 : After receiving my Yoga Teacher Certification in 2013 from Yoga Six, I had the honor of teaching around the world and at local studies in Southern California.
2019 : July 11th, our daughter was born after a healthy and expensive pregnancy and 24 hours of all natural labor.
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2013 : Fulfilled a life long dream of living and teaching in Africa. This is me on the remote island of Mafia Island, Tanzania.
2014 : Living and teaching English in San Jose, Costa Rica for six months while diving deeper into teaching yoga (as I had received my YTT certification earlier this year).
2015 : Our engagement photos in Cape Town, South Africa. We were in the K-1 Fiancé Visa process waiting for him to be able to come to the United States.
2017 : January 21st we got married in Oceanside, California after 3.5 years of immigrating him here from South Africa via the K-1 Fiance visa.
2021 : We bought our first home in the San Bernardino Mountains at 6,200 feet elevation.
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2013 : The first time in my life, I felt like I belonged! Teaching English to 132 Form I students at Kitomondo Secondary School on Mafia Island, Tanzania.
2015 : Living back on Mafia Island, Tanzania were together, we ran a whale shark conservation and internship camp while I did marketing for a tree house lodge.
2015 : In April, I launched my entrepreneurial journey as a photographer, under Ashley Strong Photography - which would eventually expand into Ashley Strong Smith!
2018 : We were pregnant with our daughter, Orion. This is from our announcement photo taken at our favorite beach in Laguna Beach, California.
2022 : This is US!
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Each moment, aligning me that much deeper with my truth and most aligned, courageous expression of all that it means to be me, a place where I feel like I finally, fully belong.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enamored by vibration, the frequencies that they admit and how our energetic fields deeply impact the way I which we maneuver in and of this world.
I’m continually connected to and inspired by :
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.
I immediately went into the exploration about what it meant to me, to fully live. I spent evening writing, talking to myself in the mirror, going back through old journals and reconnecting with all the things that had bought me such a deep sense of living.
Though this exploration, I discovered what I needed to do to truly start living - fulfill a lifelong dream, teaching and living in Africa. After-all, I had wanted to join the Peace Corps when I finished college, but was intimated by the 27 month commitment that was required.
I began extensive research and found a program that aligned with where I was in that very moment. I applied for and got accepted to teach English on Mafia Island, Tanzania with an inspirational organization called World Teach. It was there, that I fell in love with me - all that I was. I spent three months where my days were engulfed in teaching English to 132 Form 1 students, my afternoons exploring my village and my evenings joyfully intertwining with the local family I lived with. I tapped deeply into the expansiveness that is life, written expression and a sensationally sincere South African man, who is now my husband, most importantly my courageous self.
Upon completing my teaching assignment, I came back to Southern California and very gratefully went back to my job at PBS as they had given me a sabbatical for my time in Tanzania. Inspired by what I had just experienced, I knew that the three months in Tanzania was only he beginning of this part of my life. I enrolled in an evening course and received my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Quickly after the was completed, I attended and gratitudes from a YTT (Yoga Teacher Training) were I was now certified to teach Hatha Yoga.
Soon after receiving both my TEFL and YTT, I resigned form PBS, setting out on what would became a nearly three year journey enabling me to live and teach around the world. South Africa, Costa Rica, back to South Africa, back in Tanzania and 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.
I left South Africa, my fiancé still there (as that’s where he is from), his visa application newly submitted and eagerly returned to the States in April of 2015 where I made the bold commitment, with only $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 an entrepreneur.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enamored by vibration, the frequencies that they admit and how our energetic fields deeply impact the way I which we maneuver in and of this world.
I’m continually connected to and inspired by :
- The power of human connection and the art of being able to feel into each and every exchange and experience I am honored to call my life
- 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. We are whole by our opposite.
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.
I immediately went into the exploration about what it meant to me, to fully live. I spent evening writing, talking to myself in the mirror, going back through old journals and reconnecting with all the things that had bought me such a deep sense of living.
Though this exploration, I discovered what I needed to do to truly start living - fulfill a lifelong dream, teaching and living in Africa. After-all, I had wanted to join the Peace Corps when I finished college, but was intimated by the 27 month commitment that was required.
I began extensive research and found a program that aligned with where I was in that very moment. I applied for and got accepted to teach English on Mafia Island, Tanzania with an inspirational organization called World Teach. It was there, that I fell in love with me - all that I was. I spent three months where my days were engulfed in teaching English to 132 Form 1 students, my afternoons exploring my village and my evenings joyfully intertwining with the local family I lived with. I tapped deeply into the expansiveness that is life, written expression and a sensationally sincere South African man, who is now my husband, most importantly my courageous self.
Upon completing my teaching assignment, I came back to Southern California and very gratefully went back to my job at PBS as they had given me a sabbatical for my time in Tanzania. Inspired by what I had just experienced, I knew that the three months in Tanzania was only he beginning of this part of my life. I enrolled in an evening course and received my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Quickly after the was completed, I attended and gratitudes from a YTT (Yoga Teacher Training) were I was now certified to teach Hatha Yoga.
Soon after receiving both my TEFL and YTT, I resigned form PBS, setting out on what would became a nearly three year journey enabling me to live and teach around the world. South Africa, Costa Rica, back to South Africa, back in Tanzania and 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.
I left South Africa, my fiancé still there (as that’s where he is from), his visa application newly submitted and eagerly returned to the States in April of 2015 where I made the bold commitment, with only $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 an entrepreneur.
Soon after, my then fiancé, now husband was finally able to immigrate to the United States after nearly three years of fighting for his K-1 Fiancé Visa to be approved. We secretly got married just after his arrival (for paperwork purposes) and on January 21st, 2017 we had the incredible honor of celebrating our love and marriage with 75 of our most favorite people from all around the world. Gathered together in one space, at one time. From South Africa and New Zealand. From Canada and Australia. From Europe and all of the United States.
I eagerly attended as many personal development seminars, workshops and weekend retreats my schedule and finances would allow for. Through a committed writing practice and a deep calling to live as deeply, authentically, vulnerably, courageously as possible - I filled journal after journal, pulled Oracle cards daily, made vision boards, created and read notecards daily committing to myself and my deepest dreams. I meditated, connected with affirmations, received a number of certifications, read 100’s of books. And as I did so, the dreams that were written on those pages, glued on those vision boards, recited off my notecards - became my reality, my existence, my everyday life.
What was once a dream, became a reality.
What was once a vision, became a lived experience.
My photography client base started to expand while my husband started over in a whole new country. My commitment to creating an intentional business (and life) 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.
That same year, my husband started his journey of becoming a Firefighter and we joyfully found out we were pregnant with a little girl. After an extremely loving and healthy pregnancy our daughter, Orion came earth side on July 11th, 2019 after 24 hours of an all natural birth. Her eyes, became my why. Her laughter, became my inspiration. Her curiosity, became my compass.
By 2020, 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, create the space to be vulnerable and truly understand the heartbeat of one’s soul. At that time, my soul.
Then, the pandemic hit and shifted me and my photography business in a way that brought me back home to this self, the mother, wife, woman, entrepreneur I had grown into. My photography business came to a halt (as there was no way of doing photography virtually), our daughter was only eight months old, my husband had just started fire academy and 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, loving motherhood, my husband deeply in a career he had dreamed of, that voice, the same one that spoke so loudly in 2012, got even louder in 2021. This time, asking different questions….
First, so much is fulfilled, yet something is missing.
What is missing?
Then, an all knowing sensation that my “tool” of connection was changing, expanding, deepening.
What the meant and looked like, time would unravel.
As a family, we had started traveling to the mountains, a lot. A surprise weekend getaway booked by my husband after his first dramatic call. His birthday celebration just a month or so later. Another day trip. And another. A feeling of, “ahhh- we can breathe.” “Gosh, this feels so familiar.” “Oh, I could totally live here.”
Simultaneously, we starting getting more inquisitive and serious about buying our first home. As we researched, we kept being pulled to looking at houses in the San Bernardino Mountains. Divine connections started to happen rapidly - meeting people from the area, reconnecting with friends who had recently moved up there 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 more offers. Yet, our hearts still wanted our dream home. Two weeks later, we made another offer, and it was accepted. A month later, with a nearly two year old joyfully wobbling around, we moved into our dream home in the mountains at 6,200 feet elevation. Surrounded by trees, filled with seasons, snow all winter, blooms all Spring, heat all summer and shedding of leaves, all of fall.
Moving to these mountains was “that very something that was missing.” It opened our senses, our hearts, our minds and connected my soul, back to its heartbeat, one I truthfully hadn’t experienced since living on Mafia Island, Tanzania the first time. This move, became the foundation and muse for my “tool” of connection drastically transforming.
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 as a Firefighter Paramedic. Our daughter is now four 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. We have a little zoo with two big puppies - 1 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback and a 2 year old German Shepard + Border Collie mix and two kitties!
As for me, I feel more aligned, intentional, connected and courageous than ever before. I wake everyday in immense gratitude and awe for the incredible gift and honor that is our life. I spent my days soaking in mother nature's deepest truths, giggling with my four year old and holding my husband’s hand as tightly as possible in immense love and support.
In May of 2022, after a year of diving deeply into the exploration and callings of my heart, I rebranded to my name, Ashley Strong Smith expanding my business into a multi-passionate, multi-armed business as a Courage Coach, Photographer and Podcast Host.
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.
I truly believe that all of us belong so deeply and we deserve so fully. The more you shine your light, you give others permission to do the same. The more you share YOU with this world, the more it gives another woman the courage to do the same. Ultimately connecting and uplifting the vibration of us all.
I exist, because you exist.
I belong, because you belong.
When you rise, I rise.
When you shine, I shine.
When you live courageously, I live courageously.
We are all in this together.
I eagerly attended as many personal development seminars, workshops and weekend retreats my schedule and finances would allow for. Through a committed writing practice and a deep calling to live as deeply, authentically, vulnerably, courageously as possible - I filled journal after journal, pulled Oracle cards daily, made vision boards, created and read notecards daily committing to myself and my deepest dreams. I meditated, connected with affirmations, received a number of certifications, read 100’s of books. And as I did so, the dreams that were written on those pages, glued on those vision boards, recited off my notecards - became my reality, my existence, my everyday life.
What was once a dream, became a reality.
What was once a vision, became a lived experience.
My photography client base started to expand while my husband started over in a whole new country. My commitment to creating an intentional business (and life) 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.
That same year, my husband started his journey of becoming a Firefighter and we joyfully found out we were pregnant with a little girl. After an extremely loving and healthy pregnancy our daughter, Orion came earth side on July 11th, 2019 after 24 hours of an all natural birth. Her eyes, became my why. Her laughter, became my inspiration. Her curiosity, became my compass.
By 2020, 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, create the space to be vulnerable and truly understand the heartbeat of one’s soul. At that time, my soul.
Then, the pandemic hit and shifted me and my photography business in a way that brought me back home to this self, the mother, wife, woman, entrepreneur I had grown into. My photography business came to a halt (as there was no way of doing photography virtually), our daughter was only eight months old, my husband had just started fire academy and 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, loving motherhood, my husband deeply in a career he had dreamed of, that voice, the same one that spoke so loudly in 2012, got even louder in 2021. This time, asking different questions….
First, so much is fulfilled, yet something is missing.
What is missing?
Then, an all knowing sensation that my “tool” of connection was changing, expanding, deepening.
What the meant and looked like, time would unravel.
As a family, we had started traveling to the mountains, a lot. A surprise weekend getaway booked by my husband after his first dramatic call. His birthday celebration just a month or so later. Another day trip. And another. A feeling of, “ahhh- we can breathe.” “Gosh, this feels so familiar.” “Oh, I could totally live here.”
Simultaneously, we starting getting more inquisitive and serious about buying our first home. As we researched, we kept being pulled to looking at houses in the San Bernardino Mountains. Divine connections started to happen rapidly - meeting people from the area, reconnecting with friends who had recently moved up there 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 more offers. Yet, our hearts still wanted our dream home. Two weeks later, we made another offer, and it was accepted. A month later, with a nearly two year old joyfully wobbling around, we moved into our dream home in the mountains at 6,200 feet elevation. Surrounded by trees, filled with seasons, snow all winter, blooms all Spring, heat all summer and shedding of leaves, all of fall.
Moving to these mountains was “that very something that was missing.” It opened our senses, our hearts, our minds and connected my soul, back to its heartbeat, one I truthfully hadn’t experienced since living on Mafia Island, Tanzania the first time. This move, became the foundation and muse for my “tool” of connection drastically transforming.
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 as a Firefighter Paramedic. Our daughter is now four 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. We have a little zoo with two big puppies - 1 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback and a 2 year old German Shepard + Border Collie mix and two kitties!
As for me, I feel more aligned, intentional, connected and courageous than ever before. I wake everyday in immense gratitude and awe for the incredible gift and honor that is our life. I spent my days soaking in mother nature's deepest truths, giggling with my four year old and holding my husband’s hand as tightly as possible in immense love and support.
In May of 2022, after a year of diving deeply into the exploration and callings of my heart, I rebranded to my name, Ashley Strong Smith expanding my business into a multi-passionate, multi-armed business as a Courage Coach, Photographer and Podcast Host.
- I hold space through Courage Coaching : 1:1 customizable coaching, The Living Courageously Blueprint (12 chapter guide + 140 page companion book), 3-Hour Intensive, Connecting to your Heart in the Mountains (in person retreat) and monthly workshops.
- I hold space for Photography : documenting lives' most expansive moments - engagements + weddings, lifestyle and families!
- In October of 2022, I launched The Living Courageously Podcast, creating a community of women connecting around and through the lens of COURAGE. Ultimately choosing courage over fear and creating their dream lives.
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.
I truly believe that all of us belong so deeply and we deserve so fully. The more you shine your light, you give others permission to do the same. The more you share YOU with this world, the more it gives another woman the courage to do the same. Ultimately connecting and uplifting the vibration of us all.
I exist, because you exist.
I belong, because you belong.
When you rise, I rise.
When you shine, I shine.
When you live courageously, I live courageously.
We are all in this together.
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