We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Stamps recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

Growth is the most important thing for me. That includes growing as an artist, business organization, and as a human. It has been my goal since the beginning. As an artist, I have been adding a new service every couple years. Covid taught me versatility in your career will make you more successful. When I began I was just a face painter and a mom, trying to find a way to take care of my children at the same time of having a career was a challenge. because of the toxic situation I was in. I needed to do more, so I added henna to my service board in year two and then added hair tinsel and glitter tattoos in years 3 & 4. Then I learned how to make some merchandise and up sale with handmade piece of bling. What really helped was when we came out of covid and I added balloon twisting to my repertoire, it made me a fulltime artist and I just dove right in! I quit everything else I was doing and have been full time for 3 and half years now.

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 fell into to the world of Face and Body art. It is something that I loved since a small child, creating my own Halloween costumes and “borrowing” makeup from my mom and grandma to create imaginative looks was always something I have done. But when I really began my journey was when I was in college perusing psychology, I struggled heavily with public speaking and decided to do my speeches in costume. Being a character back then was easier than being myself, and I was able to complete my projects with much less anxiety, it gave me confidence. And people in the class enjoyed my art and I was asked to participate in a fashion show. I got a bunch of professional photos and posted them on Facebook and people started asking me to work for their birthday parties and events. Now 14 years later, I run two of the largest networks in Colorado, have a wonderful team of entertainers and offer 16 different services in the family and adult entertainment industry spreading joy, making memories, and building confidence in others with art.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I currently am in the biggest pivot of my career. I recently had a breakup with my business partner and now I am rediscovering how to do this by myself and learning to trust what I have built. I have learned that not all humans are not your friend and that its important to listen to people when they tell you who they are. I have also learned there are so many beautiful and wonderful humans that are a great support and really do believe in building each other up!

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Initially, I was a broke single mom and I built my kit piece by piece. I started with 24 color palette and craft store brushes. Everything I made, I took half of that and invested in more and better materials. It took a good year to build my first kit the way I wanted to. You really don’t need a lot of equipment to do my job at the end of the day, we are a profession built on heart, not money,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://milehighfaceandbodyart.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milehigh_faba/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milehighfaceandbodyart
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@milehighfacepainter