We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashlee Stratton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashlee below.

Ashlee, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

My story from idea to execution is a long path because I am first, and foremost, a mother. I have found that for mothers, the path to entrepreneurship can look different.
Before I got married and had kids, I had a few speaking opportunities through leadership positions I held and pageants. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking. When I was in college, Dan Clark, named one of the top 10 speakers in the world came to teach a public speaking class at my University. I didn’t know who he was, but luckily my dad did and my dad told me, “When they bring these real world people onto campus, you need to take their class.” So I reluctantly signed up for Dan’s class. It was held once a week, so it was a 3 hour class on a Friday afternoon! I wasn’t thrilled. But! That class changed my life. Dan’s ability to speak to us, teach us and motivate us to action was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It cemented in my heart my desire to be a professional speaker. That is where my idea was planted: I wanted to be a professional speaker like Dan. I even told Dan, I want to do what you do! I followed him around like a puppy dog. He invited me to come to the National Speakers Association. I joined and started my first small steps on the journey to becoming a speaker. I had a few speaking jobs in college and then I got married and had kids. Things slowed way down.
Pretty soon had 4 kids under the age of 6. It was difficult for me to do anything besides be a mother, but that desire to be a professional speaker NEVER left me. I thought of my dreams almost daily. I accepted any opportunity to speak for free to continue to practice my skills. I wasn’t speaking often, but I was speaking here and there. When my youngest turned two, I decided to get serious about execution. I knew in order to be a speaker, I needed to be speaking. I remember Dan telling our class to speak for free any chance you can. So I got on my personal instagram page, pulled up my stories and told my friends and family that I was speaking! I told them if they needed a speaker for a church event on the goal setting process to call me. My body was sweating and my hands were shaking when I recorded that video. Guess what? People called! That was where the beginning of my keynote started. I gave my speech holding a handful of papers to guide me. I continued to speak for free and then I remembered that Dan told us that people will ask, “Why should I listen to you?” You have to have that credibility piece which can come through many avenues like life experience, certifications, a skillset, education etc.
I knew I wanted to increase my credibility as a speaker. I signed up for a retreat for speakers and joined a year long leadership program where I could become a “certified professional speaker”. In that group, I made many wonderful connections and got my first few paid speaking gigs from my connections in that group.
I wanted to increase my credibility even more so I started interviewing entrepreneurs on the goal setting process. I found from interviewing over 100 entrepreneurs that the most common thing that held them back from achieving their goals were self-doubt, imposter syndrome and fear of all kinds. My most recent keynote is focused on 3 steps to break through fear to achieve your goals. I have spent hours, and hours and hours speaking, researching, rehearsing and learning the craft of speaking to make my speaking dream come to pass.
Today, I don’t speak with a stack of papers anymore. I have had goals to make “checks with commas” and I’ve been able to do that through never giving up on that dream I had 15 years ago while sitting in Dan’s class. I knew I would get there and today, I’m living my dream of being a paid professional speaker. I have realized that it’s a lot of hard work to live your dreams! The dream is only realized through persistent dedication to the craft.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up performing. I think I was on a stage performing most weekends of my life from dance to pageants to show choir. I took a turn into speaking when I won a local pageant in high school. Through the pageant world, I had my very first opportunities to speak. Then I took a class from Dan Clark, one of the top 10 motivational speakers in the world. That class changed my life and cemented in my heart the desire to be a professional speaker. Since then, I have taken my love of performing and transformed it into a flair for storytelling. Today, I am an award winning motivational speaker and deliver powerful strategies that propel entrepreneurs out of fear and into their “Next-Level” goals.
As a certified speaker through Connie Sokol DTL Speakers Academy and armed with Global Leadership Training, I try not to just speak—I truly desire to inspire action. My main message, is drawn from interviewing over 100 entrepreneurs, and reveals the most common, yet unexpected hurdle that holds business leaders back—fear, and how to overcome it.
I’ve served as the guest host on the “Purpose Filled Life” podcast show. There, I connected with high-profile guests, steering conversations that left listeners inspired and ready to take action. I’ve also been honored as a top 10 finalist for the past two years in the Mountain West National Speakers Association Storytelling Competition.
Beyond speaking, I’ve made my mark as a Goal and Accountability coach, transforming lives in the health and business sectors through my innovative programs. I truly couldn’t pursue my speaking career with the never-ending support for my husband, Rob. He is my greatest supporter. I’m also a proud mother of four doing my best to raise good humans! I try to balance family life with my passion for empowering others.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I’ve known since college that I wanted to be a professional speaker. But, I got married at 20 years old and I had my first child at 21 during my last semester of college. Pretty soon I had 4 kids under the age of 6. Anyone parents reading this? It’s a little difficult to pursue big goals and have to assist 5 people in the bathroom all day. It’s a little bit time consuming.

I felt too delirious to do anything, but feed, love and cloth my children. So I set my professional speaking career on the back burner for a few years. When my youngest turned two, I felt like I could breath a little and I started speaking again. About a year after that, I decided I wanted to uplevel my speaking skills and get a speaking certification.

So I set a goal to increase my credibility as a speaker and get a speaking certification along with some more training. I went to a speakers retreat and signed up for a year long leadership group and speaking certification through Connie Sokol Speaking Academy. The speaking certification itself was several weeks long. I was finally in the midst of my professional speaking certification, I was on the path that I had waited for for over 12 years. I was thrilled.
During the certification, I went on a trip to a popular lake destination in Utah: lake powell with my sister and her family.

I came home from that trip, having never left the water and never quit rocking. But it wasn’t like just after you get off a ship and it’s a little weird. It was like my head was banging around on a stormy ship 24/7.

I’d lay my head down to sleep at night and my head would be rocking so bad, I couldn’t sleep.
For the first time in my life, I started experiencing insomnia. I was pulling all-nighters and could not sleep because of the waves in my head. The combinations of lack of sleep and dizziness caused a terrible brain fog set in. I started forgetting my groceries at the store. I was mortified when I would be talking to Neighbors I had lived by for years, and I couldn’t remember their names. I started running into walls because of the dizziness.

Sometimes I was so dizzy, I was bedridden. I remember one specific day I baked some zucchini bread and it took so much brain power to stay up straight that I had to lay on the couch for 2 hours to recover. I felt like I was falling a part.

I was so convinced there must be water in my inner ear! My plan was to go to and ear nose and throat specialist to identify the water that was trapped in my inner ear and they could just give me some drops to dry it out, and the dizziness would go away. I went to the ear doctor he said, “Your ears are fine. Your motion, 24/7 constant rocking and dizziness, brain fog and fatigue, it’s all neurological.”
I didn’t believe him, so I went to another doctor. He said the same thing.
I sobbed on the drive home from that doctor. I was desperate to get better, but my brain power was slipping away from me. I called my husband on the way home and said, “Why is it my brain I’m struggling with, why can’t it be my arm or leg?” I could deal with that, but I can’t lose my brain power, I need it to function!
My husband taught me a mini-life lesson in this moment. After listening and validating me for sometime, he then said with so much love, “In our suffering, we have sympathy. How are we ever to have empathy for others if we ourselves, don’t know what it’s like?” My heart softened and I knew he was right. On my way home, I saw an extremely obese man walking with a limp and my heart just went to the floor for him. I wondered what his story was and how I could be more tender towards him or someone else.

During this time, if you remember, I was in the midst of the end of my speaking certification and leadership group, we would do zoom calls every week, but staring at a computer screen would send me into a fit of vertigo.

I had to tell my trainer that I could not keep on with the certification. I had to stop coming to the weekly zoom meetings and take care of my health.
I cried again. After so long of waiting to pursue my speaking goals, I was now stopping.

I continued seeking medical care.

After MRI’s, CT scans, multiple doctors, blood work, I found a brain treatment clinic. I spent thousands of dollars on their treatment and I remember the last day of treatment when the secretary told me, “You’re all done! Your treatment is complete!” and I walked out of there feeling hollow. I wasn’t better. The treatment didn’t work. I was still dizzy all the time! And no doctor could find anything wrong with me.
A friend recommended a book to me called “Rock Steady” healing vertigo and tinnitus through neuroplasticity. That book changed my life with vertigo. I bought her online course and I was listening to it while I was in another doctors office. In the course, the presenter said, “tonight when you go to sleep, instead of fighting the vertigo, just allow it to be in your body.” I was like “what? allow it to be there?”
All I had done at this point was try to fight it, or get rid of it, but I thought, “Ok i’ll try it.” that night when I went to bed, I felt the usually banging of my head when I layed down, but for the first time, I didn’t resist it. I just allowed the waves and feelings of up and down and all around to be there. I remember distinctly feeling extra dizzy doing this, but over and over again I just let allowed the vertigo to be there. And within about 10 minutes, I fell asleep for the first time in months.

I learned a powerful lesson that day. When we fight stress, fear or anxiety, we are telling our brains it’s important and we must give this feeling a lot of attention. We must repeat this feeling.
But when we allow stress, anxiety, or even mistakes to be a part of our story, it makes it so much easier for our brains to pause, relax , to accept what-is and get back to taking action where we want in our lives.

This was the beginning of my healing vertigo journey so I could continue to pursue my goals as a professional speaker. I learned to “allow” all sorts of things I couldn’t control to just be there, and instead, I focused on how I wanted to feel: confident, pursuing my goals and peaceful. As I focused on these things, my vertigo started to slip into the background of my life. I was able to heal from my vertigo, finish my speaker training and pursue my goal of becoming a professional speaker.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I’ve been told when I take marketing classes that social media is everything. So far, that hasn’t been the case for me. My speaking business is VERY much relationship driven. I’ve hosted two years of networking events myself and have been hired for events just from the relationships I have built from those networking events. My speaking friends have recommended me for speaking gigs. Speaking coaches have recommended me for speaking gigs. Masterminds that I have joined and developed relationships have led to speaking opportunities. The major part of me getting new clients has come when I build relationships. When people know me and trust me, they hire me. I’m sure social media could play a bigger role in my business if I spent more time there, but for me, the most effective current strategy for me is building relationships.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ashleestratton.com
• Instagram: @realashleestratton
• Facebook: Ashlee and Co.
• Linkedin: Ashlee Stratton