We were lucky to catch up with Ashlee Moss recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashlee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

First and foremost it takes you not caring what people think about you. Far too often we second-guess ourselves because we are worried about what other people will say. Success requires you to take that leap and majority of the time you’re taking that leap alone. You can’t take that leap worrying about what other people will say or do. You have to wake up every day with the mindset that you can do anything you put your mind to. It’s all about mind over matter and once you get over that you can create success.

Ashlee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So I currently work at USF as a fiscal business specialist as my 9 to 5. I feel like it’s really important to showcase that there are women and men who still have a 9 to 5 and also a side business. I host my own podcast called A Taste of Melanin and I am a lifestyle enthusiast and content creator. We started our podcast the beginning of last year and I was super nervous because this was my first time having my own platform. I have my cohost Stephaney Cook and a producer Marcus Rasmsey and with all of us putting our heads together we created something so beautiful. We created a space where we could all talk and discuss about the things we are experiencing in the dating world and in life in general. It was extremely hard to not compare our podcast to others. I had to learn to just enjoy the journey and see where this will take us. Often times I felt myself focusing on the amount of views and the amount of followers and who is engaging and who’s not engaging. I had to stop that and realize that it’s just the beginning and the more creative and authentic i get the more i will find my following. Same goes with my content creating. Every day I open up Instagram and there is someone doing the same thing I’m doing but better and I would be lying to you if I said that it doesn’t get to me. However I have to realize that we could all be doing the same thing but we are all not the same person so everyone has a different opportunity to succeed. The market is never saturated and every day you just have to decide to be better than you were yesterday. Booking brand deals and going to events and creating high-quality content is not for the weak. I just made it my mission to find my niche and it started to feel authentic and natural for me and I created that space for people to naturally engage with my content. Between building my podcast and doing my content creating I am just so happy I didn’t give up. It’s crazy because you never know who’s watching until you get that one DM that says “your content is what I look forward to seeing.” Until you get that one text message that says your podcast on colorism was exactly what I needed to hear because I’ve been struggling with that. Your decision to stay consistent and not give up is giving someone else hope that they can do the same. You don’t have to have a degree or have multiple certifications to make a difference in peoples lives. You just have to find that one thing that sets your heart on fire and wake up every day being consistent at that. You’ll start to see your brand form, you’ll start to have ideas on what business you want to start. I promise you your life will be so different and filled with purpose.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My particular goal right now is to do my podcast and content creating full time. I’m entering into a new season of my life where I’m ready to settle down and get married and have kids in the near future. I feel like being able to do those full time would jump start everything. This is a huge goal for me and it pushes me to work hard every day.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

So I met my cohost Stephaney at our previous job at a title company. When I saw her come in for her interview I knew immediately my manager needed to hire her lol it was an instant connection and I just felt her energy was genuine and pure. On her first day she was training with me and anyone who trains with me I want to get to know them personally. So I was asking her questions like “where do you live?” and “do you have a boyfriend?” and she was looking at me all crazy but this really made us become extremely close in a short period of time. My producer Marcus who I have known since middle school brought up me starting up a podcast and he said I needed to find a cohost. At the moment I had no idea who would dedicate their time into helping me with this. Stephaney and I had so many conversations about our dreams and goals we just didn’t really know how to implement them. So I thought you know what Stephaney would be perfect. I went to work the next day and asked her and it almost brought her to tears and she said yes and we have been inseparable ever since.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelifebyash
• Other: Podcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-taste-of-melanin/id1564709096 Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4qNU8gmKaiZ4dG0Ep3krIF?si=Iq6A8OriQ2KkijYolPZBPw