Hey! I’m Ashley!

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A southern belle from Houston, TX. I uprooted and moved to NYC at the age of 18 to pursue a career in Acting and found myself few years later living abroad and living a life I never would of dreamed of as business owner. 

 

I always knew I wanted to influence and change the world just by exploring and sharing my soul searching human experiences, whether that had been through Acting, public speaking or just being a public figure. It was just catching whatever vehicle that came first. 

I always believed my dreams were reality, I just needed to find the path to get to them. The hunger for exploration and adventure always guided me. My tenacity for curiosity and knowledge has push me to this plateau I am at now and here is how if happened.

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Winter 2011

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I moved to NYC to pursue my career in Acting. I studied at an 2 year extensive Conservatory Arts School that focused on Acting, Singing and Dancing. 

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Spring 2012

 

I graduated and started my venture in the audition world as trained entertainer and my first Broadway Debut at NYC townhall. During that time I became the first from my immediate family to get a passport and take a 4 day cruise exploring parts of the Caribbean and South America. My life had forever changed, I was bit by the traveling bug. How I could live on planet that I never seen before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That following year I transferred to The New School to pursue my Bachelor of Fine Arts and took another trip to Bahamas, I was amazed. I knew the career I chose would lead me to travel the world and meet people all over, but it really made me think, did I need this career of becoming untouchable puppet to explore and experience other cultures or could I do it on my own?

 

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Over the 5 years I continued to pursue my career, books shows and I immersed myself in the cultural fusion NYC had to offer. I lived and explored every borough from Manhattan to Harlem, Queens and finally Brooklyn, Soaking up the warm stew of the melting the pot but something still felt Iike it was missing. I still felt restless. 

 

Fall 2018

 

I booked my longest vacation I ever had in my entire life. I spent a week on Cruise exploring all the Virgin Islands on organized tours with group of friends and spent the second week with a native Puerto Rican who was my colleague who I hold very closely to my heart. She gave me a full local experience of the Island, and this is when my travel perspective changed. I stayed in her parents home that she has now had taken over, we hiked through the rain forest, explored private beaches and local foods, even danced in the rain. This is when I realized the only experience I wanted in traveling was local, not commercialized. The exposure of another culture and being force to adapt and experience another walk of life, expanded my mind and widen my perspective 

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3 years passed i traveled around booking Staged shows across America. I even had my first Radio debut in Houston, TX for leading role in a play. 

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January 2020

 

I moved to Jersey for the year and tried suburban living, commuting to the city to a Part Time Office Manager job at an Chiropractor office in between gigs. I wasn’t happy. I hated Jersey but also was miserable with the hustle and bustle of NYC life and auditioning. 

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I made the decision that year the I wanted to use my influence and travel. I took 4 day trip in March to Cancun Mexico with my childhood friend, and started my influencer journey there. I planned outfits and places for photo shoots, things I wanted to convey to encourage people to travel. And the journey began, i came back from my trip with one thing on my mind, where was I to go to next and how to continue this lifestyle. I worked hard and researched on places I wanted to go, things I wanted to see. I chose my next few destinations, Brazil, Europe and Africa. The following year, I worked and plan. I prayed God to allow things fall through if it was his plan, I prayed for liked minded people and courage. I met new friend, who was well traveled, had the same interest in places I wanted to go and became my travel buddy. 

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May 2020

 

May I found a sublease in Brooklyn that I took over for time being, to get out of that funk of Jersey. 

 

Little did I know the world had different plans for me that year. The pandemic vastly took over our lives and daily routines, and put everything on pause. The world became a jail cell, food was of shortage, knowledge was controlled and I was on my wits end. I was released from my part time job and Broadway closed. The distressed thought came to mind…did I wait to late to travel? Did I loose my opportunity to see the rest world? Then it came to me, if the whole world was experiencing the same thing, maybe I could experience it in a different place and a different environment. I started researching what countries were open at the time and who had their borders open. Mexico was on of them. I had been following an influencer Pyliciabenn for some time who was a Houston native, entrepreneur and traveler. I remembered she had been sponsored to come this magical city in Mexico that had the most exquisite architecture and beautiful nature surroundings. Case numbers went down in some areas and up in others, but things were slowly starting to normalize in certain states. My plan begin, I was going to go to Tulum, Mexico. My new best friend and travel buddy decided to come as well. I scoped plane tickets and enjoyed the back and forth of $30 flight deals to hometown Houston from NYC. I found a flight to Mexico in July and booked it. 

 

I packed up my short term sublease in NYC, brought all my things to my parents home in Houston and prepared for trip. I made the decision that I wanted to stay for a month. This is longest I had ever been out of the country before, I was nervous but had a wild rage of excitement. I didn’t share with my parents I was going until the week before. My best friend had already left two weeks before, while I was packing up my NYC apartment and scoped out the land for me. I was overjoyed, and excited. The day came for my flight out and I never looked back.

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I arrived in absolute paradise. I was in disbelief how the blue the water was that met the soft sand, and how vibrant the city was. It was nothing like my Cancun trip on the resort, it was mix of locals, travelers and expats all cohabiting in one place. The locals still had a place in the town, and we were just joining their space. The town was calm because we were still in a middle of pandemic, but it attracted certain type of travelers. People who were brave enough to test their curiosity and push the limits of this covid thing. We were are all in a transitioning time in our lives, either unemployed or questioning our careers but the most beautiful and captivating quality of it all is that we were all black. There was something about this time that attracted all these like minded black individuals to this magical place. We all offered advice and knowledge to each other on questions we had on life, and there was this intense connection of everyone you encountered in Tulum. Unknowingly they would give you confirmation on something you were dealing with or questioning in life, whether it had personal, career wise or even spiritual. There was something really special and magnetic in Tulum. After my 4 weeks, I made up my mind, I was gonna stay from another month. I went home and got more of things and never moved back to the U.S. My two months became three, then six months to a year. I was officially living abroad in Paradise in a beautiful city of culture. I manifested the life I wanted. 

 

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Fall 2020

 

I started throwing events in Tulum with my best friend, due the lack of culture sounds in restaurants and clubs. Surprisingly tourism from Cancun had seeped through the cracks to Tulum and this hypnotic mystical house music was a huge thing in Tulum. This was odd to me because Tulum is the only place in the Quintana Roo that the Mayan culture is more prominent then the Mexican but how was this connected to this mystical house muscle that seem to attract rich hippie junkies that attend Coachella every year in their boho chic clothing. We wanted to take our inspiration we received from this place and change the narrative. We threw our first event as Black in Tulum, my best friend became  a founder of the group along with Nubia Young and it was an absolute success. We decided to branch away after the first event because we wanted to be able to influence everyone, not just black people.

 

It all started with our weekly event “Tribal Thursday.” Tulum was highly in need of space where travels and locals could come together and network and connect under the cultural sounds of Afrobeats and Latin music. 

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Not only did we change the music scene in Tulum and inspired other organizations to support the cause but we became one of the only organizations in Tulum to focus on  bringing cultures together and not leaving us divided.

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The most beautiful thing about traveling is the expansion of the mind when you meet people from all over the world and it’s important to seek that when traveling. And we stood strongly on this belief and it’s why we have been so successful today. We started offering joined Yacht parties with another social club from Playa Del Carmen. 

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Winter 2020

 

Our guest started asking things to do in the area, we started offering group resources and itineraries. 

 

By January 2021 we had established our business and expanded to full on Concierge business that offers an array of cultural and travel experiences, as well as occasional events 

 

Mexico changed my life. In little over a year I became an business owner living abroad in Paradise. My view on life had change and I now understood what a life of happiness and fulfillment felt like. It wasn’t wealth, or being famous that created this feeling but it was doing things things that fulfilled my soul. 

 

 

When the covid hit and Theatre’s and Broadway closed in NYC I became overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. I really had to dig down deep and revaluate my life, career and purpose. I had to touch bases with my passions and what truly made me happy. It all came down to a few things;

 

-I loved meeting and engaging with new people and bringing them light. (Hence being on stage as an actor)

-I loved emerging myself in other cultures and learning about people who were different from me (character study)

-more then anything, I loved adventure, I craved consistent change (new script)

 

This lead me to my second passion; traveling!! 

 

This brought all the things together that bring me joy in life and before I knew it I was in Mexico, living abroad and my life to the fullest.

 

My mission now is to encourage others to do the same. Choose happiness and explore the world. Live abroad and explore different walks of life . You only grow from rich experiences and you can only get that in traveling. I want to build confidence in not only women and my community in traveling but change lives. 

 

Want to join me on my journey?

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