We recently connected with Ashton Hardy and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ashton thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Way back in my elementary school days we had an instructor come in a few times and start teaching us the basics of video editing. That sparked my intrigue past just filming and I eventually started to teach myself more skills at home on the home computer. As I got older and took some more classes, I found more softwares to try and play with and just kept teaching myself. I think the biggest obstacles were being limited to school programs for a while and only having the tools they allowed. It gave me some good basics though and know where to start.

Ashton, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am 27 years old, I was born with half a heart and at a young age was inspired to start documenting my life on film since I’ve gone through so many challenges at such a young age. Through sharing my journey online on various platforms I’ve connected with and inspired many others with similar heart conditions or similar interests who may be shy to share their interests in their daily lives. Creating a safe space for people and the opportunity to connect with so many around the world is really what fuels me to keep going.

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

Back in 2019 a big YouTuber named Justine Ezarik (iJustine) and her sister put on an event with Sony called camera camp. It was a chance to go learn new skills, be around other creatives and inspire each other. Only 100 got selected to go and originally I didn’t apply, but the last day of submissions I decided to try my hand and to my surprise I was one of the selected. That will always be a highlight of my journey.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

While that’s an ongoing journey, my biggest thing is to always be authentic to who you are, because those that connect with you, will find you and stick around. But also don’t be afraid to try new things, don’t let an audience put you in a box.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashtonhardy_?igsh=MXRuMHFvaDl4Z3RtcQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ashtonhardy_?si=-8RhVeqfeBYXRBab