SPEAKER_07 1:45

Welcome to another episode of the Hilltop Globe Podcast. Today we had the pleasure of speaking with the inspiring Ashley Wright, an entrepreneur based in Charlotte, North Carolina, who specializes in the art of journaling. Ashley is a creative force behind Strokes of Freedom and the Right Circle. A community dedicated to helping individuals find clarity and healing through journaling and connection. With over 20 years of experience, what the how did that happen? Ashley has crafted workshops that encourage deep self-reflection and foster personal growth with a supportive and opening open environment. She skillfully combines journaling with conversational coaching, supporting individuals on their journey of self-discovery and personal development. By providing an open, intentional and non-judgmental space, Ashley has helped over 300 individuals gain profound awareness of their self-beliefs and the possibilities available to them. Ashley makes the makes the community the journey to healing and emotional wellness both fun and effective. Through the art of writing, she helps individuals uncover hidden thoughts, encourages honesty with oneself, and teaches the importance of extending grace. She emphasizes that grace is typically the missing element in self-growth because many are preoccupied with comparing themselves to others. Preach. Stay tuned as we dive into the art of writing. Excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent. It's very nice to meet you. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_03 3:12

I'm awesome. I'm so glad to be here. This is the video. So beautiful. Um, but I'm I'm amazing. I'm well rested. My mind is is geared up, feel open today. But yeah, I'm doing pretty good.

SPEAKER_07 3:22

Awesome, awesome. Well, I just have to say this. I know I I'm in reading your biography. I was just looking at it. 20 over tw over 20 years of experience.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

You know, I say that and I'm like, I know I don't look a day over 25 today. Where do you ate? I am almost four decades in.

SPEAKER_07 3:39

Shut the front door. Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

And I'll open it back up again. Um, but yes, over 25 years. And that's more so my own like personal experience with journaling, of course. But from the time I was probably, I mean, very young, like maybe middle school or so, of just like going to the pages, journaling, you know, writing, doing all the things. Um, so that collective experience paired with training that I received later in life, I'm like, yeah, get all 20 years of it. You're right. It counts.

SPEAKER_07 4:04

It's it gets you to the place where you are today. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, without those experiences, you wouldn't be the same person. Well, we always like to start off each episode with some background context. Um, because of course some of who you are. Can you tell us a little bit more about your upbringing, where you come from, siblings, et cetera, so we can get a little bit of who are you?

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Yeah, so who am I? Yes, of course. So I am Ashley Rochelle Wright. I'm from Dillon, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

PD in the house.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Um, yeah, I'm one of six. Well, technically one of eight total, but yeah, one of six in terms of household-wise. Um, and very much a classic, like middle child, wherever that can fall amongst the six. I know, right? Middle child. Oh, yeah, listen, we gotta advocate for it. Um, but yeah, very, very classic middle child, but um always have been uh me, like very bubbly, very, you know, personable, uh lots of attitude, lots of sass. Um, but yeah, I love people. I love serving. I love pizza with pineapples.

SPEAKER_09 5:06

Oh, she got pizza with pineapple person.

SPEAKER_07 5:09

We had this discussion at work this week. There's a pizza with pineapple person right over here. Mighty pizza pineapple.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

I love it. Last night I had pizza with pears on it. That was a little different. Yeah, it was very different. Pears and a little goat cheese. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_07 5:23

Actually, probably ever had work. I've had pizza with cherries.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Oh, I haven't had that.

SPEAKER_07 5:27

That was interesting. It wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Would you get it again? Is the question?

SPEAKER_07 5:32

Probably not, but it was very quality made. I felt bad because my wife, she wanted some pizza. I don't eat pork. And this pizza location is really good. It's in Columbia. I won't say the name. But they only had pork options outside of the cherry pie.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Oh, oh, I had to. So you had to. You had to put cherry you were left with no choice. No choice. But it was good.

SPEAKER_07 5:52

It wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Oh, that means you like experimenting, yeah, exploring. Yeah. Um, but yeah, that's me in a nutshell. I love um adventure. I'm just a very curious person. I was very much that that little girl who got like, oh, she's so inquisitive, but she talks a little too much. On her report card. I'm a Libra. Libra. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so I was very much like that child. But um, yeah, also on the flip side of that, so to speak, I'm also very like reserved and to myself. Like I'm a thinker, very much of an introvert. Like I yeah, I'm very much of an introvert, very much um yeah, to me, because I like me. Contemplative? Oh, honey, yes. Very contemplative. You're talking about somebody's journal. Yeah. Questioning everything. Honey, from the rooter to the tutor. Okay. That's good though. Well, and I think because again, it leads to that curiosity. So my biggest thing has been I'm fine with being curious, but let me not be super suspicious, right? Like it's fine to investigate, but not to the point where you're trying to find the thing that's wrong, right? Or the thing that's missing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 6:52

That's a good way to put it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

So it's like training my brain to do more of that. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:57

So talk about your journey into journaling. How did that come about?

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Um, so with the household of being one of six, there's there's not a lot of attention and space that's that's carved out for you.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Um, and of course, over the years I learned that, you know, and we all probably have heard it, like our parents do the best they can, like with what they have at the time. So I've reached a phase in life, and I'll tie that into my response to your question, where I realized it's great for me to know who my mother was as a per who she is as a person and not as my mother, right? So once I opened my brain up to that of like, you know, she was a mom starting at 18, and then, you know, a child kind of every year, every other year after that, I'm like, who was she those 18 years before she became a mother? That's just one part of who she is. And I think that when I really let myself sit into that, more of like that grace for her came about. And so I realized like if if she didn't have it, she couldn't give it. So when I think about emotionally being like very underdeveloped, you know, into like my 20s, a lot of that stemmed from not having those conversations at home of like, oh, how are you?

SPEAKER_06 7:59

Yeah, how was your day?

SPEAKER_03 8:01

Versus it being, did this get done? Right. And so I remember just turning to the pages very early in life because voice, I don't I don't know that I had a voice. I don't know that I understood what it meant to have a voice, you know, at that time. But journaling at that point felt like liberty. It felt like, oh, I can just here's I can say these things, right? It impacted how I started to show up in spaces because the the pages were where my conversations happened outside of the pages, I was the listener. I was a person that would, you know, I was insightful, you know, so to speak, or whatever, as my friends would say. I'm like, y'all, we're in eighth grade. What do we what do we know? But um, so growing up in that space, understanding that I was loved, knowing that I was taken care of, but also understanding there was an emotional connection that you know that was just missing. And so that's where like my journaling journey, you know, so to speak, started. And it just continued. And it wasn't a daily practice, which is one thing I talked to a lot of people about. Journaling doesn't have to happen every day for it to be effective. You just need to know that it's there when you're ready, you know, to write or when you have like, you know, that inkling. But um, but yeah, started journaling, um, dabbled a little bit with trying to do a little spoken word in there. Oh, you trying. But it wasn't, it wasn't for me. It wasn't just for me. I was like, I'm gonna let that be. Like somebody else can have that. Um, but yeah, so just started from there and then throughout, yeah, high school, college, different moments in life would bring me back to the pages more where I'm like, okay, I don't know where to where this information can go. Like, it can't live in my brain, it has to go somewhere. And so, um, specific to like my business, that came about because of a breakup. I gone to my first breakup around like 26, 27. Um, and I was like, I'm crazy. Something's happening. It's like, what do I do? Like, what's going on? Like, I literally felt like, oh my gosh, like life is over. The world is ending. Yeah, honey, just doomsday. And it's like, in retrospect, it's like, my girl.

SPEAKER_05 9:49

It's not that serious.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

It was never that serious. It was never that deep. So, but what was deep about it, so to speak, was realizing that there were parts of me that I had not yet explored in terms of insecurity-wise, or you know, how I viewed myself. And so it wasn't even about the person, it was about like that loss of identity of self and like, you know, kind of going back. And I think that's the case for a lot of breakups that people experience. And so during that time, I remember just like writing every day. I would write letters to him, I would pray, I would write letters to God, I would write letters to myself, I, you know, all the things. And I would just be crying. So much cleansing was happening during that time. And I remember one night I was on my bedroom floor and I was like just journaling. And I'm like, God, this can't be it. There has to be like something else that comes from this. It can't be me crying in the car, crying in the shower, crying in between clients, like, because I was a social worker, a therapist at the time. And I was like, something else has to give. And in that moment, it was so clear, it's like, give this back to other people. So the same way that journaling is helping you to mend and to heal and to like really, you know, um restore, and it like the same way that you're like getting your freedom from this, like give this back to other people. And I'm like, okay, cool. So that's like where I started, just offering workshops like at my church at the time, to um to like the um fifth and sixth graders, like who were there. So I'm like, give them at that age where they can realize, hey, my emotions are more than mad, glad, happy, sad, right? I can feel so many different things. So so all of that to say, yeah, starting from that space, just allowing for the practice to be the journaling practice to be there and to be available and accessible when I needed it. And then from there, um, it morphed into a whole entire business.

SPEAKER_07 11:26

I got a question because you brought this up. So you're working as an actual therapist and social worker. Where at?

SPEAKER_03 11:34

So my history, my by degree, both of my degrees are in social work. Okay. And so at some point in there, I transitioned over to more clinical work. And so I was provisionally licensed as a therapist. That was interesting because while you're in your own space and in your own thing, it's almost like anything you're talking to your clients about, you're like, oh, wait, is this me too? Is this me too? Self-diagnosis. And I'm like, ooh, I said, I can't do this.

SPEAKER_06 11:59

This is not how long is it?

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Yeah, how long is it last? It wasn't super long. I was um for that particular uh company, I think I was there for a total of five years, but four of those years were more um uh independent living for young adults who had aged out of foster care. And so a lot of just teaching them like the basics of life and you know, budgeting and how to grocery shop and yeah, lots of life skills, um, helping them plan like for their future. And so I would say maybe the the last like nine months to a year of that was when so much transition started happening for me while also starting that new job, become the lead therapist on the team and things of that nature. And so it's a combination of realizing that that's not how I wanted to approach helping people to heal, right? Um you pivot. Yeah, so yeah, so very much just let myself like say, Yeah, this is not something I want to do. Like, let me take a let me take a break. And from there I started doing um like adoptions. I did adoptions for a bit. That was also very interesting in the sense of, yeah. You did, all right, adoptions, financial social work, and I really enjoyed financial social work a lot because it let you know how people's relationship with money, how they thought about money, um, and all those different things. But yeah, so how to talk about that more.

SPEAKER_05 13:10

Yeah, I want to pick her brain on that topic.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Pick away, honey. But yeah, so did that just for a bit and then um took some time away from social work like altogether. And I was like, you know what? I am a beast at administrative, let me just like do more of that. Um, so did that honestly for the past um several years, yeah. Did that for the event planning and catering company and then transitioned into my most recent role as an admin assistant. Um, and I was there for about three and a half years doing that.

SPEAKER_05 13:37

Okay, I'm an admin assistant right now, so I'm running all the tricks in all the organizations. So that's why I went. I'm asking you like what's your assignment? So you close I'm a Virgo. Okay, okay. We got that organization, the curiosity. We find little details.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Yeah, call it. And I think it's cool.

SPEAKER_07 13:54

Mean and structured.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Oh, that's so funny. One of my young adults, yeah. Oriented. Listen, one of my young adults from years ago, I'll never forget, he said something. Um, I'm very like, hey, you can do this, let's do it. Like, what point A to point B type of thing. And so he was talking one day to my supervisor. We were all in the office. He was like, Well, what it is about Miss Ashley is it's the beauty that ropes you in. It's the beauty. Comes out. And she's like, you gotta do this, you gotta do that.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

And you gotta do this, that's real. That's what comes to my brain just like the fire patch. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 14:28

Like, all right, I thought I would Nah bruh, nah, bruh. You're about to get that woman today and get that work.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah, well, I think it it's also It's good though.

SPEAKER_07 14:36

It's a good thing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

And then you may be able to relate. I think being able to have like the like for me, it's like very much of a visionary and in the details. I know there's some people who are solely visionary and solely detailed. So I think being able to merge those things together, you know, equals success. But yeah, it definitely is a little Jekyll and high situation.

SPEAKER_07 14:56

Yeah, I like that you said that.

SPEAKER_05 14:58

Can you talk about um how has your journey to journaling, of course, the releasing of that process? How has that helped you over the years?

SPEAKER_03 15:07

It has mended parts of me that um that I didn't know like were actually that that needed mending. Um, I think that once for me, journaling allowed for me to be like radically honest, like with myself, because oftentimes when we're talking to other people, we have like this, oh I gotta edit this out, oh I don't know if they're ready for this, or you know what? Yeah, you know, like we can we just kind of edit ourselves. And I found that for me, I'm most honest like when I'm journaling. And that preps me to be honest in real life, right? Because it helps me to just be more aware of what's happening internally, what conversations I'm having with myself. And so for me, it's just giving me room to, and if I cry, it's okay, we can all cry together.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

It's giving me room to like love myself from the purest lib.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

And I think that as humans, we don't we don't give ourselves that gift because we think that once I'm here, then I'm deserving. Once I'm here, then I think generally helped me to really realize like that I'm already there. I'm already enough, already loved, like already chosen, all like already. And I think that yeah, it's been so liberating and freeing to and it may sound strange, but it feels so liberating to see myself as a human. Oh human form. In human form, because maybe I don't got nobody's cape. I don't I don't have a cape. I mean maybe I do because I I've not read hard stuff. Yeah, I've got hit thrift and honey, so I probably have a cape somewhere. But yeah, it's almost like, oh wow, like a whole entire human with feelings and aspirations and you know, excitement and grief, like all combined. And I think journaling has shown me me in like the best and and sweetest of ways, um, while also just remaining curious about who I'm unbecoming, you know, as well. Um so it's been like one of the most like supportive tools over the course of these almost four decades. What's it like? Reading your journals over like surprise, surprise. It's surprising, but again, in in in sweet ways, but also um because I have to tell both sides of it, it's also alarming because you read something, it's like, oh well, I didn't know that was in me. When we're journaling, like our subconscious like starts to take over and stuff that is just like embedded there that we haven't explored that that is not you know in our conscious brain, yeah. It's like, oh wow, like that's in there. I've learned to allow for it to be that the awareness builds and that I don't force myself to take action just because I'm aware. I think that's how we get in that cycle of, oh, I gotta be better. Oh, let me let me fix this, let me go, let me go. And it's like, no, oh wait, okay, I'm now aware that I can sometimes feel angry. What do I want to do with anger? Sometimes I just want to sit with it, right? Sometimes I just want to allow it. Sometimes I want to befriend it, right? Versus resisting it and trying to make it my enemy. Like every it's it's helped me to learn that every emotion serves its um its place, and there's capacity for us to feel all of it without that being who we are, right? You know, so you can't do that.

SPEAKER_07 18:28

Explain that well. Okay, yeah, there's a reason why you do what you do. That's why we're talking to you. Yeah, that made I mean that makes fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that made so much sense. That made something very simple that is normally common.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Because we make it so complex and it's really simple.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

It doesn't have to be, yeah, it doesn't have to be complex or um or even like intimidating at all. It just gets to be, you know, overwhelming. Yeah, I think a lot I tell that's even with my clients and stuff. I'm like, y'all, when you look at a blank sheet of paper, it's all about what you're telling yourself in that moment about it. It doesn't have to be intimidating, but it's like, oh wow, like this whole page is here for me, right? You know what I mean? Like it's like I don't think about it that way. Versus it being, oh my gosh, it's blank. What do I do? What do I get by? Yeah, yeah, just like oh my gosh, like I get to do whatever I want to do with this. Like it's a whole entire page. It's a perspective. Yeah. So everything happens in our brain.

SPEAKER_05 19:21

Let me ask you this. When you're looking at your past journals, do is it a different perspective you're seeing yourself in? Like I've grown from this, I'm not at this pace anymore.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Yeah, it's both and it's like, oh wow, like this was a cycle, like this was something that I may still find myself in. Like what was going on at that time in life? So all journal entries are gonna serve as like a point of reference, right? For growth of like, oh wow, you know what? This used to really, this used to really grind my gears. And now I couldn't care less. Look at me.

SPEAKER_08 19:50

I love it. I love it. Progress.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Yeah, progress. So yeah, it helps you to it for me, yeah. When I go back, if and when I go back, it's very rare that I do, unless I'm like cleaning something and I found like a journal and I flip through. But more often than not, I think I've settled into that was for the time. And if I happen to stumble across a page, great. Um, or if I'm just curious, you know, I'll let myself go back. But it definitely shows as like a oh wow, like who was that person then? Like what conversations was she having with herself or about herself? Like, where was she in life? Um, it's kind of like um, you know, Facebook would give us like, oh, 10 years ago than that. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 20:24

It's like, oh, do you need delete? Some of them, I'll be I'll be happy when I see them like, yeah. Oh yeah. Okay, I need that today. I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

I yeah, I have very so it's similar to that to where it pops up and it's like, oh wow, like it's it helps keep record of life, right? And of memory. That's what I was about to ask you.

SPEAKER_07 20:42

If it if it feels, and I mean, you can imagine, like, you go back millennia, people were really excited about having the ability to write down their thoughts, right? Or the printing press comes along. Oh wow, now we can really write down our thoughts and keep printing them. Do you think it's similar in the sense of it's it's a record of history, but is it a record of history that you think and and mind you, it's opinionated, but do you think it's a record of history that should be looked back on regularly, or do you write it to get the cathartic reaction that you need and does it need to stay there?

SPEAKER_03 21:18

I I tell people write it on the pages and leave it there. Because what ends up happening is more so from the standpoint of if there's something I write today, say if there's a question in my brain, I may write a response to that and journal through it, but I'm gonna be left with a totally different question at the end of it. So start from there and progress forward. Again, if you're if you're revisiting the pages from a place of curiosity, um, I was telling someone the other day, she said that she uh found an old journal and something that she had written, she said, Oh, like that like is a part of my life now. This was from years ago. And she was like, I'm really afraid to go back to see what else I maybe have manifested from from way back then, from from being angry, from being hurt, like what things did I speak then that I maybe don't want now. I was like, Well, you get to give yourself the opportunity to go back from a place of curiosity to then break those agreements. If it's no longer we can take a moment.

SPEAKER_05 22:08

Wow, that was deep.

SPEAKER_07 22:10

Wait, this is why she got that experience. Yeah, so this is that was a nice way to drop that.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

The agreement from that awareness, right? So you go back and you read it and it's like, is this now what I want? I maybe love my reasons then for saying, you know, for saying X, Y, or Z, or maybe I wasn't even aware that I was choosing those reasons. But when you read it, it's like, oh, like, do I still, you know, not that anyone was like, oh, I just want to make just enough money, right? Or paycheck to paycheck. But if someone sees that and they see that now in their life, you go back inside, oh no, I want all the wealth and abundance that I'm entitled to. Right. So you yeah, so you start to be, yeah, you you replace your language. It's like, and hey, I I detached myself from this agreement that I made. I no longer want this, I no longer desire this. Here's what I want instead. And that lets you start to live into the newness of what you actually desire.

SPEAKER_05 22:55

Yeah. I like that because you're setting a new intention.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Yeah, yeah, you're setting a new intention, and then you're letting your your brain, that's where that possibility and hope comes from. Because sometimes we write from a place, yeah, we write from a place of scarcity or not enough or whatever. And it's like, oh wait, what else is possible? Yeah, right? Like what else if I really like yeah, just what else is possible? And then choosing to yeah, go from that space.

SPEAKER_07 23:16

That is that was a dope way to put it. Good Lord, you must be an interesting person to be a friend of.

SPEAKER_05 23:20

How do you um market? I guess this is like people to commit to self-care.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

Well, it's I think I make space.

unknown 23:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

My biggest thing is not like forcing people to do, but I also think that on the back end, business wise, like that hinders me some because I'm like, oh, you can come if you want. This is gonna be great. Very indirectly. But get this. Yeah, so very indirect. So that's something. A person I'm working on, right? As I've worked through more of like the worth and the value, it's almost like I believe in what I'm doing. Let me do what it takes to actually have like you know more clients and to really market the right circle in my in my business and brand. So I think it's people just knowing the space is there, it's available, it's accessible to you, and there's room for me to to change that messaging to where it really uh where visibility, me being more visible is a thing, and having those conversations with people where they just know, like, okay, like this again doesn't have to be intimidating. Like, even you know, how you read earlier. I I love like having fun, like I love laughter, I love things being joyous, and there's a way to just like blend that with the other like truths about life as well. So it's like while you're healing, while you're mending, while you're overcoming, like let's also just give like that grace because you're human and like let's make it fun. Like let's pair that with some different activities. Let's really, we don't have to have it to where you're sitting in this one place, writing this one thing, and all these emotions come up and you don't know what to do with those. Like it can be this and this, and let's just blend those together, just for healing to really be like cemented, you know, into a person's uh subconscious, into their nervous system, into their brain, all of that.

SPEAKER_07 24:56

Do you have a speaker just on the the idea of the marketing and and um membership and business part of it? Do you have a want for this business to be your primary uh focus and income bringer?

SPEAKER_03 25:13

I do, which is why I'm like, I gotta switch up the game plan. Um yeah, my full-time job actually ended last month.

SPEAKER_06 25:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Yeah, and so I'm like, all right, I'm jumping out here full time. Well, not on not for my end. The company shifted, like in terms of um the owner of the company, her son is now a pro golfer, and they've been like working at that for eight years. She's like, I just want to take the year. That's right. And I was gonna go travel a lot of work. Yeah, so she's like, uh, yeah, so he's officially in. And so of course we're all like very excited about it. It's been so long, they've been wanting this. And she's like, Yeah, I just want I'm gonna take the year. I'm just gonna travel with him wherever he goes. I'm gonna go and I'm just gonna enjoy it. I'm like, you go, girl.

SPEAKER_07 25:48

Enjoy yourself. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

So yeah, so with that, it was um, I think, yeah, now jumping into entrepreneurship or solopreneurship, knowing that hey, I want to do this full-time, have it be full-time income more than enough. Um, it's teaching me a lot about myself. Of like, okay, the full-time job was great. And then you you didn't you weren't hitting the street out of here. Like, oh, this is cool. Yeah, I'm in the streets.

SPEAKER_07 26:12

In the streets.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Podcast me, please.

SPEAKER_07 26:14

Yep, I see what you're saying. All right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

But yeah, but that is the goal, that is the desire. Um, just to, because I'm able just to see um where it's going to grow into as I grow more like into me, into that, into that business owner, right? Into that person who says, here's how I'm gonna show up. I'm gonna put in the work. And I literally did a video the other day. I'm like, it's not what's not in question anymore is whether or not I have what it takes. It's like, am I gonna do what it takes like in order for this to grow? Right? Because so much of that it becomes about us. Like, oh, I don't know if I can do it. Oh, what if it's not that great? No, it's great. It's great and great product, yeah. Yeah, it's great, and you get to let more people know that it exists.

SPEAKER_07 26:54

Do you have a tar target demographic?

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Right now, what I've seen um and and who I would desire is people who are like right in like that mid-20s to I'd say like 40 something, um, it's been primarily women, and I think women respond differently to like what I am providing. And I think women are naturally drawn in.

SPEAKER_06 27:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Um, but what I think about overall, like who has benefited, it's been men and women, but people who in all like walks of life, um, specific to the right circle. If there's people who are like new to Charlotte, or maybe they're just trying to find like that community, but like their their um personal growth is important to them, like that's like the space that they're in. Um, those are the people that I want more of because they're already on that journey, right? And it's like I get to come alongside you and support you even more in that. Again, while making sure that you are connecting with other people, you know, finding people to do you to do life with, you know, expanding your own network and community. Um, but yes, people who um are already on that journey could be currently in therapy, could be complete, you know, with therapy, but just people who want to invest in themselves because they know that like generational like healing is what flows from that.

SPEAKER_07 28:01

What about what about our thugs?

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Oh, baby, come on in.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

Have you seen that's what I like in your classes? How have you seen the impact of the journaling with them?

SPEAKER_03 28:13

One person that comes to mind, oh my gosh, it's such a great question. One person that comes to mind, he um was a friend of a friend and he would like show up at the pop-up. He's like, Yeah, I don't have emotions. I'm just like here, you know, and we'd have it at the T bar. He's like, Yeah, I don't drink tea, but I'm just here. Like, I just he was like, you know, you're cool, Ashley. I love our conversations, I'm just gonna be here. And he would journal, and he would be surprised every single time with what came up. And by the time, maybe about maybe by his third or fourth like encounter, like at the T-bar and journaling and whatnot, he's like, So I do have emotions. I do have feelings, like you've helped me uncover that. And it's almost like he was afraid to tap into that. And I think, of course, you know, with men, and you know, feel free to speak to this, there's just so much of a that's not allowed, that's not allowed. Right. That's why I said it like that. I said it like that to not allow, vulnerabilities off the table, so on and so forth. And so there's so much just like suppression, you know, that happens. And so with that, you can trick yourself into thinking I don't have emotions. For him, he realized I do have them, I don't know what to do with them.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

That was what he really needed to see.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Yeah, and so for him just to be able to explore that and just really like navigate through that and like just openly now just expresses how he's feeling and talks about that, like that is just that's awesome.

SPEAKER_07 29:29

That's awesome. Well, your job, yeah, we got these people, you got you're doing your job.

SPEAKER_05 29:34

Your journaling process, I'm sorry, going back a question, but your journaling process, what's what is it like? Do you like set candles, uh, aromatherapy? What's what's your mood?

SPEAKER_03 29:45

It depends. If I am in like the thick of it and I'm like, whoo, baby. I've told people before I will write on a napkin. I don't care if I'm yeah, honey, because it's gotta release, yeah. It's like it's here, and the brain can get so fixated. So I'm like, I'll do that. I may record like a video or a voice note, but just something that helps me to start processing because you can start to feel it in your body depending on what it is, and that can be joy, right? I can be so overjoyed. I'm like, oh my gosh, I just gotta get this out. Yeah, because the pages are for the great feelings too, right? And not just the not so great.

SPEAKER_07 30:14

Oh, that maybe that was that made me happy. The pages are for the great feelings as well.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

Yeah, like there's space for all of those. But for me, if if I'm intentional, yeah, I'll get like a candle. Um, sometimes I'll have a little bit of music playing in the background, just depending on like the mood. But um, even with this, I'm doing a journaling challenge this year where I'm journaling every single day for the whole entire year. I don't know why I didn't just choose January. I was like, oh, okay, we're 53 days in now. So I guess I'll keep going. But yeah, so sometimes I'm super intentional about it. I'm always intentional about it, but in terms of like setting like a space, um, I do encourage my clients to make sure that if I'm in session with them, that there's no distraction. So for me, it's like, you know, there's there's not people running around and all these other things happening. I'm able just to say, hey, here's my time for me, which is how I want people to look at journaling. Like this is you making time for yourself, you know, like just spending time with you, being curious about you. Um, but in other times I may just grab my journal, sit on the couch. I may be in the car, like in between something, and just, you know, grab my journal and write.

SPEAKER_07 31:12

But um Do you carry a journal with you throughout the day?

SPEAKER_03 31:15

Um, it depends. If I'm gonna be like bebopping around a lot, um, and since I know I'm doing this challenge, I'm like, okay, cool. I may have time, like, yeah, just sit and write um and all of that. Um, but no, but normally there's some sort of I started taking notes in my phone as well. There's just certain things I want to jot down that I maybe want to explore later, or if there's a question that comes to my brain or a prompt that comes to my head, then I'll jot those types of things down throughout the day for sure.

SPEAKER_05 31:38

Walking around with a tape recorder.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

Yeah, that's what we talk about. What do we talk about?

SPEAKER_07 31:42

What do we talk about from my idea? I told her it gets to come out and get it out. I gotta do it. I can't do it with my phone. I was we were talking about this, the fact that it's nice to have items or tools that do just what they do for that one task because it allows you to separate yourself from other things because this phone thing is dangerous because it's too many different things.

SPEAKER_05 32:05

Everything on the app, app, app. What was I doing here? I'm not even doing it in real life. I'm looking at my phone.

SPEAKER_07 32:13

What am I doing? I'm doing something I needed to do. But yeah, that's what we were teasing about the idea of getting uh what's the name? Swalker and tape report to collect ideas, um, thoughts, and et cetera, to get it off your your chest, right? So you can have it and not have to worry about did I miss that? Is it still holding on to it?

SPEAKER_03 32:29

Yeah, trying to remember it. Yeah, there's nothing worse than like getting like what feels in that moment like a very brilliant, brilliant idea, and it's like, oh yeah, this is it.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

Gone.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Gone.

SPEAKER_05 32:39

The more you release, do you feel yourself becoming more of your higher self?

SPEAKER_03 32:43

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Because I think the and even too, like I talked to I used to talk to my clients a lot about like recognize, honor, release. Being able to recognize here was life, here's what I experienced, here's either what happened to me, what happened around me, here's blah, blah, blah. Honor that for what it offered you in life, honor it for what it took away from your life. Like just honor that thing versus having resistance to it and then release. And it's at that point, it's almost like uh, oh, there's room for more, you know, all of those things because then you're not weighed down. I used to tell this story about um there was an apartment that I lived in years ago, and I was going home to Dylan for the weekend, and I had a bag for my shoes, I had a bag for this, like all these different bags, and I had to take the trash out as well. So I go, I'm, you know, running downstairs from the third floor, just tired, exhausted, like all this different stuff. Get to the car, toss the trash out, I'm I'm heading out. So I'm like, okay, cool. Like I need to grab like my chapstick from my purse. And I go reaching back, purse is nowhere to be found. The most important bag is at the apartment. So I go back to the apartment. As I'm coming up the stairs, I'm like, oh, I feel lighter. Like this feels good because I'm not like in that hustle and bustle of all the bags. And instantly in that moment, it was just like the most important thing you forgot, but you had all these other bags, stuff that wouldn't have mattered. I didn't have my chapstick, didn't have my debit card, didn't have my phone, you know, my wallet, any of that stuff. And so in that moment, it was like, what does it look like to, through the art of like journaling, to say, hey, here's this bag that I have, this bag of life. Let me take out the stuff that I don't need, right? Because then again, I'm not weighed down, so I can continue to, you know, to elevate emotionally and spiritually and mentally in like all these different ways because I don't have this other stuff that's weighing me down. The journey is lighter after that. You know? Yeah, I can just flow just gliding on through life, honey.

SPEAKER_07 34:26

Man, the way you are conceptualizing these ideas is amazing.

SPEAKER_05 34:30

That kind of goes into our next question about grace. Like, how do you define grace? Whoo, honey.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

Grace to me, and when I think about it from my own spiritual lens, like just unmerited like favor, but also just the the mercy of grace as well, I think is tied into that to where it's just uh having expectations of self and then saying it's okay if those expectations are not met. You know what I mean? Like, and I think sometimes our expectations of self and of others are just like made up, you know, so extreme because who? You know, like what? Okay, you know, and we're all guilty of it, you know, to an extent, but we have like this whole oh, you know, for people, oh, by 30 I need to be here. Society wants us to do. You know, I just started this business and it should be doing a million dollars tomorrow.

SPEAKER_08 35:22

Tomorrow. And I want my money back.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

Give it, give it back. Yeah, I've invested. Yeah. So yeah, so it's like, so for me, it's like that grace of how I oftentimes say it to my clients like if I wouldn't talk to my best friend, my closest, dearest friend in a certain way, then I'm not gonna say that to myself, right? So if someone's running late for an event, oh honey, it's fine, just get here safely. Like, you're all right, we'll wait for you. But when it's us, oh my god, I can't believe I'm late. I'm the worst person ever. Okay, calm down. Dramatic.

SPEAKER_05 35:48

That's the subconscious of like beating beating. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_03 35:52

So grace changes that conversation that we have with ourselves. Like, grace to me, like removes like that shame and like that guilt of being human.

SPEAKER_07 36:00

My most stifling emotions, shame.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Yeah, because like where does it come from? I don't know. Where did it come from?

SPEAKER_05 36:10

The bottom of our feet, the soles of our feet.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

I don't know. But I think we do get to.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

I think it's the ego. I think the ego brings shame because it's like, why are you doing this? But you know you can do better, you know, but you you didn't give yourself the grace in that moment.

SPEAKER_07 36:28

It's based on your self-construct, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

But even to even with that question of why are you doing this? Like, if we actually pause to say, like to give ourselves an answer.

unknown 36:37

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 36:38

Right? For anything, or even it was like, yeah, where does shame come from? Like, that's like a real question that we can all like sit with and say, okay, when was the very first time I ever felt shame?

unknown 36:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Was it when I was three and I chose to take my diaper off and run around? And somebody was like, Oh no, don't do that. Oh, wait, what do you mean? You know, like when when when does shame really seep into our brains as something that we could feel?

SPEAKER_07 36:56

I got two answers for that.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_07 36:58

If you want to share it, one was when I stole some Rollos from a grocery store. I didn't know I was stealing.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Oh, see?

SPEAKER_07 37:05

I learned that day, and there was that shame came in. And then the other was when I was at this daycare center, I was probably like three, four years old, and this little girl was coming over, she was trying to kiss on me. And I didn't know what kissing was, but the lady came and swooped in and said, No, this is bad. Tiss, tiss, tiss. And so then I got shame on that. And I was like, I ain't do nothing.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Yeah, I ain't do nothing here.

SPEAKER_07 37:26

So those are two, yeah. Yeah. That was early on.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

And that's the thing, early in life where our brains are not even fully developed until like 25, 26, all right. Think about like that three and four and that young age where someone's telling you something and no one's explaining the thing. Yes, right. So it's almost like we instantly feel the shame versus it being like, hey, here's why this isn't okay. You didn't do anything wrong.

SPEAKER_06 37:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Imagine if some of those bigger moments in life, if some if someone's first response to us was, you did nothing wrong, everything's okay, like everything's fine, let me tell you about X, Y, or Z. And I think people again don't really know how to have you know those conversations because they're not thinking about the implications of that. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 38:04

Conscious parenting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

I was asking one of my friends, this is a few a few weeks back. He was just dealing with just some job stuff and trying to figure out life and like, hey, I have this list of things I want to do and I haven't done them yet. And I'm like, if shame wasn't an option, then what? Like just think about one of the feelings or the emotions that we feel the biggest and and the most, right? If it just if it was not an option to feel that, then where what route would you take?

SPEAKER_05 38:27

That's so crazy. Because shame is just so big, it's just there. It's still there. It's just there.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

We make it bigger.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

We name another thing.

SPEAKER_05 38:35

We name another bigger biggest. When you broke it down to that, I broke it down to like earlier this week. I was like, okay, where did I mess up this week? I messed up three places. I I forgot to attend a lunch meeting. Um, I forgot to submit a homework thing for an interview, job interview, and I'm like, oh my gosh. But it's just how you think of shame. We're reprogramming too many different ways in our life. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 39:00

I even, yeah, that blew my because now I'm thinking, I'm like, darn it, I forgot to do those work queues on Tuesday. But what I don't want anybody to come to me about those work cues saying that I didn't do them.

SPEAKER_03 39:09

Well, if they do, it's like, you know what, hey, I didn't. I'll get right on that. Right. It doesn't have to be any any deeper than that, right? And I think it's once we give ourselves permission again for like that humanness and that um, I don't know. I don't know why this is coming to my brain, but when Alan Iverson was talking about like it's just practice. Like, y'all. Oh, he was right. You know, it's not a good thing. He didn't. He was like, y'all, he put some separation in that. This is the I I show up for the game. Yeah, I get to get the game. I show up, yeah. But get paid to practice, yeah. But in that, it's just like uh he even though I felt like he was maybe being dismissive about something that is, you know, integral to like, you know, to the game, it was one of those things of he chose to not feel any particular way, like, hey, there's other stuff.

SPEAKER_06 39:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

Like what about the practices that I did go to? Yeah. Right? So even in the things that we've forgotten, what did I remember this week?

SPEAKER_07 39:55

I'm gonna use that now for the rest of my life when I think about saying I'm like, I'm just instead. It's just practice. You ain't pulling me down with you.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

I show up any other time in the time that I didn't for very you know, for valid reasons if I can remember. It was just I don't make a huge deal about this thing. The same is true for every day in our lives. Like, oh, I'm running late for this. I don't have to make a big deal about it. Do I want to make a habit out of it? No, right? Yeah, but stuff happens, stuff happens, and it's okay.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

I'll see my workshop.

SPEAKER_07 40:28

I'm gonna be a workshop. Make you feel better.

SPEAKER_05 40:31

Because it's like you're just changing the way you're thinking about stuff. You don't really literally simplify how you're viewing things.

SPEAKER_03 40:37

Yeah, you have to think about what you're thinking about. Yeah. Because it's I think in that mic over there is like when I Yeah, like think about what you're thinking about, and I think adding more grace and uh even like self-compassion into that. And it was a couple of years ago, I remember reading that um one of the definitions for compassion um is suffering together, like to suffer with. And I remember instantly hearing that I'm like, okay, well, how can past Ashley suffer with present-day Ashley suffer with future Ashley? How can all of those suffer together? And not like an angst, right, and full suffering, but the vision that came to mind is like if I see someone who, you know, maybe is facing homelessness or maybe they're having a rough time, I can come in and suffer with them by providing them support or, you know, or attention, right? Eye contact, um, offering food. If there's a friend who has something going on, I can offer presents and suffer with them. It doesn't mean that I'm like right there where they are, but it means to be able to see, hey, here's this human having a very specific experience. So what does it look like to have that internally? So that's what self-compassion and even like what self-grace looks like. It's just like a every day is a brand new day. Like I'm I've never tomorrow, I've never been that person tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:49

Yeah, I get to send grace in advance of like, okay, Lord, I ain't been in tomorrow yet. Like, so it's brand new, it's a whole new experience. I don't know what to do with tomorrow. I'm here today, but I get to know that yeah, I just get to yeah, have that grace, have that compassion towards myself, and not expect 100% perfection ever. Not even all the time, just ever. Because yeah, we can be great and we can be beasts at certain things, and it doesn't mean that there won't be mishaps. It's a part of life. Man.

SPEAKER_09 42:18

Man, it made people feel better. I know you do.

SPEAKER_03 42:22

Yeah, and my biggest thing, I'm like, creating spaces where like where your humanness is allowed. Not we're not performing, right? I'm not great in the journaling. You look so much like my brother right now, it's crazy. Um, but yeah, I'm like, you know, I'm not great in the journaling. Like you get to have that conversation like with yourself. And yeah, I'm just here like to facilitate that, like to guide that because again, I think it helps you to feel differently about you and towards you versus the harshness, the critic, right? Like all of those things that naturally come up sometimes, creating like a new natural.

SPEAKER_07 42:55

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, we got a little bit of time left. We do want to hit one question before we get to the boring stuff. Um so finally, just with community, the idea of community. And of course, you created the right circle. How did it begin and what activities do you have available? And what can we expect from you in the future?

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Awesome. So the right circle started from me doing the uh pop-ups. I would do them at different venues in Charlotte, and we would do those for an hour. And what I found is that people were just like, oh, like what are y'all doing after this? Or, you know, what do you have going on this weekend? And I realized that so many people who were coming were either just browsing event bright or, you know, maybe someone mentioned it to them, but they were seeking community, like and genuine connection versus it being, oh, I can go to this event and then leave. It's like they wanted to stay. Like I'm saying 30 minutes afterwards, and we're just talking, yeah, a lot of fellowship. And I'm like, I think a lot of people um were literally like craving connection. Like loneliness is a big thing. Charlotte has, I'm sure other cities do too, where people just randomly moved here. Some didn't have a job, some didn't they didn't know a single soul, but they're like, hey, Charlotte's where I'm being pulled to, that's where I'm gonna go. And so once I was was realizing that the people who were coming were looking for connection, looking for a community, I'm like, what does it look like to have that again paired with some sort of social activity where more connection happens, where like intentional connection happens? And I'm like, oh, I can do like a membership and have people, you know, they can pay each month. I do all the planning, everything on the back end. They just get to show up and they get to have the therapeutic experience of journaling. And it was something that my boyfriend had mentioned to me. Um, he's much greater than the other one.

SPEAKER_06 44:30

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 44:33

Shout out to my bookie. But um, but yeah, so the um the he had mentioned like what is what does it look like to have a membership? And this was maybe like a little over a year ago or so, like when he first mentioned it. And I was like, Yeah, maybe I had to figure out you know the logistics of it, so on and so forth. And then as I was anticipating even the transition from like work into this being full time, I'm like, what I have more time to plan, you know, flexibility during the day and all of that. And I'm like, let's just do it now, you know. So just allowing for it to be that like an event we did in January was um uh journaling and jewelry. So the goal to bring to pair journaling with activities that people normally would not pair those with. And so we did we set like intentions for the year, we talked about different things, you know, we journaled and then we had necklaces made. I don't have mine on today, but we had necklaces engraved like at the event um with a word that we wanted to feel or experience or reflect on at the end of the year. And so the word I chose was already, and that was again already worthy, already done, already enough. And so people chose different things, but even like that was one of the events we did. Um, in March, we have um a mocktails and mindfulness event. Um, I'm not a drinker, I've never been a drinker. I'm like, some people are doing dry 2025, I don't know, but I'm like, what does it look like to have you know your mind cleanse, but also curate like three different. Mocktails and just enjoy other people, you know, that are there and all of those things. Um, doing a flourish and flow, and that's uh journaling and calligraphy. So just learning the basics calligraphy. I know that's interesting.

SPEAKER_05 45:58

I got a calligraphy box I have not available. And I was just looking at it last night because I was doing yoga and I was looking up. I was like, oh my god, I have not looked at I haven't opened the box, so that's something you don't want to do.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Until you're ready, yeah. So just giving people room to just explore like different things they've been wanting to try but haven't, but pairing that like with journaling um and again, other people being there, they get the chance to just connect to other people. Um, we just never know who you may meet. There were two women who were like both farmers in North Carolina who came to a pop-up one day, didn't know each other, but just through conversation, they realized like, oh my gosh, like we're farmers, they got the chance to connect and you know do all the different things, but we just don't know like who's gonna be like in our space. And so I think you need again, you just kind of expand your network just by going to these events and having a good time, not thinking about too much of life, you know, for for a while. But um yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_07 46:49

Now you gotta tell people your website and how they can find and reach you on the socials, yeah. Because that's what the or yeah as the young folks say, so they can come and join you and be a part of the chat. Oh, oh yeah, the chat, hut.

SPEAKER_03 47:05

Um so yes, my website is strokesoffreedom.com, like a pen stroke, strokes of freedom. Um on Instagram, that's also Strokes of Freedom, and those are the two major spaces that people can connect with me.

SPEAKER_07 47:16

Um and you can all you got a nice website, yeah, by the way. Yeah, I was out there bio.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

You can use it, you can use it. And in my I said, oh that sounds real good. Um, but yeah, so strokesofreedom.com, strokes of freedom on Instagram, um my YouTube, everything else links out from those from all those spaces. Um, newsletter for upcoming events. Um each Sunday. Yeah, every Sunday I send out a Sunday shenanigans um email, and that's just more so recapping the week, talking about like the weekend, but also sharing hey, here's something I learned or something I thought on this week. Here's some prompts based on that. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_07 47:54

And you keep a calendar.

SPEAKER_03 47:56

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 47:57

I'm liking the calendar.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

Yeah, the goal is to have the calendar at least three months out. So like next week I'll be adding uh more April, yeah, the April events um and things like that. And that'll be virtual and in-person opportunities. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 48:09

Dope. So you don't have to be in the exact space to participate.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

Not at all. Because even outside of the right circle, that's one membership that I have, but I also have Let's Write Together, and that was fully virtual. Yeah, so that was fully virtual. We meet twice a month there for now. I'll be adding more dates to that too. Because some people maybe don't want membership, they want want to just pop in. Yeah. So it's like, what does it look like to pay $20, $25, pop in, you know, write and all those things. Um do you do anything on your socials like lives or um I've been more live on TikTok. That's the space I'm still like figuring out there. Um, the plan is to do more lives on Instagram and be live on YouTube, especially with me doing like the journaling every single day. So right now, all of like I actually share like what I wrote about on YouTube. So I can read the actual journal entries and things like that. Yeah. Oh, that's a good idea. You spend a little spin on it. Yeah, so I call like a peek into my journal. Um, and at first it was gonna start like as like a once-a-week, like, oh, here's something I journaled about. Then I was like, let me just challenge myself to journal every single day, like this year, and just share it out. So you what's the YouTube? Um, Ashley Rochelle. So that's my first and middle name.

SPEAKER_07 49:12

You said Ashley Michelle.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

Rochelle, R-I-C-H.

SPEAKER_07 49:16

Got a black mama. Go ahead. My fault. Yeah, that's what we do with them names. Just make sure I ain't losing my mind. All right, I got it. I'm on there.

SPEAKER_05 49:26

I'm tickle.

SPEAKER_07 49:28

But um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:30

Um how do you find balance with everything going on?

SPEAKER_03 49:34

I think I stopped seeking balance. Um, it's more of like a where's like the harmony? Where's the where's the the flow of things, right? Because I think that with even scales, right? With the balance, it's like, oh, if this is here, this has to be here. And it can make you feel like that in all the ways. It can make you feel like that emotionally or mentally, where it's like one or the other. And I just did a writing about this the other day where I found myself, I struggle in the middle to where it's like it's either this or it's that. And it's like, how can I just be in the middle?

SPEAKER_05 50:02

So I think harmony puts me in the middle, and it allows me to grace, harmony and grace.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

Harmony and grace, like it puts me in the middle to just kind of look ebb and flow, right? Just like find my rhythm, you know, and just move from there versus trying to real life balance things out.

SPEAKER_05 50:16

It gets to be chaotic, yeah, especially with everything going on.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

Yeah, so I even business wise, jumping out into like solopreneurship. I think my mindset was cool, okay. Every day I'm gonna do this and that. No, no, no. I'm off on Wednesdays, my admin day is on Fridays, I'm done at 12. And I just admin days. Yeah, you have to blocking those things off. But yeah, so I think it's um, yeah, understanding again, coming back to the humanness of it. I am one person, I can do a lot, but I can't do everything. Right? And and I can't do everything every day. And some and some days I do work on Wednesdays because I'm like, okay, cool. This I I feel like working, but maybe I'll still take Thursday off. So it's like kind of playing it by ear and giving myself permission to be on some days, to be off some days, and to not make a deal about it. It's a process, this I said, honey, it's a process because next week might be the oh Lord, I didn't know she flowed. I mean, I'm just flowing, but there's room for it all.

SPEAKER_07 51:08

Excellent. Well, before we leave, what did you bring with you?

SPEAKER_03 51:12

Oh, okay. So I published a question book. I wanted to ask y'all a question. Okay. So go ahead, ask this question. So it operates kind of like a game, but yeah, I have these like on my website and all that stuff too. But during COVID, I'm like, people don't know who they don't know how we were stuck in the house, not stuck. You know, we're living with people and all those things. We have roommates or partners or whatever. And um, I'm like, people don't really know how those around them think. Yeah, right. We can know what they're into and what they like, but how do they think? And so sat down over the course of like a couple of weeks and like mapped out 300 questions. I'm a question queen. I love questions. Questions are how we learn, right? We get information. So how much is the book? Like it's $15.

SPEAKER_08 51:48

I'm gonna have to buy it.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

It's $15, but the um, but I organize or design it like a game as well. So you can I'll flip through it and y'all will tell me to stop. I don't you can choose whoever's gonna tell me to stop, and then I'll uh so yeah, so we'll flip through. If the first question is one that doesn't make that we don't want to answer, we can edit that part out. Okay. All right, and stop. Okay, left or right, right. Uh one, two, three, or four.

SPEAKER_06 52:14

Three.

SPEAKER_03 52:15

Oh, okay. How familiar are you with the term colorism? I don't know nothing about that. Oh, teasing.

SPEAKER_07 52:22

I'm lying, I'm lying like a mofo. I'm pretty familiar with that.

SPEAKER_03 52:28

Okay. So with that, the goal was for it to be that it would just like open up this more conversation. Some are more lighthearted questions.

SPEAKER_07 52:34

Um that'll been deep right there. We've been crying.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Yeah. You can do a whole podcast with that book. Yeah. Well, the thing is, I have my own podcast that I completely stopped doing, and I told myself now that I have more time, I'll jump into it. But um What's the name? Hey Honey, the Hey Honey Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

I know you like saying Hey Honey.

SPEAKER_07 52:51

She playing about it.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

Yeah, so we'll have to check you out. Yeah. So I'll um, but yeah. So I think it's this was where can they purchase?

SPEAKER_07 52:59

Yeah, right on my website.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

Um strokes of freedom.com slash store. Um that leads there, it's available in English and in Spanish. Um, I love the Spanish language, not clean in Spanish, but I had it translated and whatnot. Um, but just to open up conversations, conversations can lead so many different ways with just a single question. Um, a friend of mine loves saying that uh he was one of the first people to get the book, and he one of the questions is um, I think purple or yellow, or yellow or purple. I can't remember how I phrased it. And he was like, that just took their family on like a two-hour conversation. And he found out so much about his grandmother, like, oh, why was yellow the color? And it tied to this story, and it talked about this phase of her life and all of that. So just having those moments and memories with people where it's like all because of one question, you get to just really learn how someone thinks, where they are, you know, uh habits that they may have. Um, but yeah, just helps us to stay curious.

SPEAKER_07 53:48

Awesome. Well, it's been a pleasure. Yes, we greatly appreciate you. We'd love to have you back.

SPEAKER_05 53:53

Absolutely, yeah. We'll love to be on your podcast.

SPEAKER_07 53:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:57

If you need help with your podcast, let us know. And I probably will.

SPEAKER_07 54:02

Well, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up for the Hill Top Club Podcast. DJing what?

SPEAKER_05 54:07

Tamaya.

SPEAKER_07 54:08

What and our esteemed guest, Ashley. We really appreciate you this morning. Made us feel good, man.

SPEAKER_00 54:13

Awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 54:15

Make sure you tell somebody next to you down the street, around the corner, wherever they at, that you love them and that you appreciate them. And until next time, this is the Hilltop Club Podcast. Signing out. Peace.