King Ashley Ann is a phenomenal young woman. She is a talented and award-winning wedding and event designer and owner of Ashley Ann’s Events and several other businesses. She inspires creative detail, and modern, elegant atmospheres and has made a name for herself by offering beautiful, unique, professional designs and productions. She is currently one of the most sought-after designers in the South of America! With a B.A. in Finance and M.B.A, plus years of practical experience in commerce gained from helping her grandmother farm and trade, Ashley is an outstanding businesswoman. She excels in social media lead generations, lead magnets, funnels, and return paths. She has helped over 1,250 clients of hers monetise their social media platforms and make millions of dollars. Read Ashley’s story of building businesses that thrive and be inspired to scale your business.
So, Ashley, I was wondering if you would tell us a bit about yourself. Who is King Ashley Ann?
I’ll try giving you the short story of it. I’m a woman, just like any other woman. I love my family. I love my friends, but I love meeting goals. I’ve been through a lot in my little short period of time on planet earth, but it has taught me a lot about the power that I have to be able to manifest and really create the life that I want. And I have gone through a period in my life that was really bad, I call it my bankruptcy period, and I was almost financially bankrupt. And I was in a terrible marriage. My ex-husband had issues with substance abuse, and we would get physical with one another; he’d jump on me, but I’d fight him back. And he was cheating on me all the time. And I didn’t have a lot of real friends around me. I was like bankrupt mentally, emotionally, spiritually, even financially. So, I call it my bankruptcy period. But while I was down there, I had a come-to-Jesus-moment, and I realised whatever was happening in my life had a lot to do with my choices, my actions, the things I was speaking, what I was feeding myself, and I was like, I can change my life. Like I literally can change my mind. So, I would say that as far as Ashley Ann as a person, I’m a person who is fully aware that I can dictate and build and create whatever it is that I want. I wield dominion in my life and my world. And so that’s who I would say Ashley Ann is; a girl with a goal who’s always got a plan. A girl with a goal, a girl with a plan, and someone who’s not afraid to execute it. I’m a powerful manifestor.
That’s amazing. I love how you describe yourself. Wonderful.
Well, thank you. Some people have a problem with the fact that I am a woman, and I use the title king. It offends a lot of people. Some people they really love it, and some people they’re like, you’re a woman, and you’re calling yourself a king? And I’m like, you need to learn your history, like even in Africa right now they currently have female kings. King is a title of position. More often than not, the position tends to go towards men, but there are women that fall into positions of leadership, and they’re amazing leaders. And even when we look back in the day, the female Pharaohs, they didn’t have a different name for them, they were Pharaoh. And I tell people here in the States, if Clinton would have become the President of the United States, she would still be the president. It’s the position; it’s the title. And if you go to the dictionary and you look up queen, it will tell you the position of queen is a title that holds no power. It’s simply a title used to describe the wife of a king. And I’ve got power. People love to say, hey queen, how are you doing? There’s nothing wrong with that, and a lot of that queen, regent, stuff is a westernised way of thinking. So, I appreciate that very much.
Awesome. So, Ashley, you have a bachelor’s degree in finance, and you have an MBA. What attracted you to business and finance? And how have your degrees impacted your life and your business?
Okay, so this is really funny. I was actually pre-med when I first went to college. You know how you are when you’re young people tell you that you’re good at something, so you do it? Everyone in my family was like, oh, you’re smart, you should be a doctor. My SAT scores were really good, and they were like you should go into medicine, your scores are amazing and that type of thing. So, I was like okay, I’m going to be a pre-med and I’m going to be a doctor, and it’s going to be great. But I didn’t really have a passion for it the way my other friends that were going through the programme did; they really were loving it. I like labs, and that was it. So, you know you have your general education courses, and I had a general finance course, and I really liked it because everything I was learning in the finance course, I could take it back and apply it to my life. When I was going through my medical courses, it’s not really the same. Yes, it’s important to understand neurons and atoms and the breakdown and compilation of things, but that wasn’t something that I could use if I wanted to go buy a car or a house. And one of the steps that I learnt while we were studying, it got to income in the United States and every group in the United States since the age had an increase in income except for African American. So that really piqued my interest. I was like, wait, what’s going on? Why are we flatlining, and everyone else is thriving and making increases? And so, I took another finance course. And I started the second one, and I started learning more, and I changed my major from pre-med to finance after the second course. And that’s how I became a finance major. And then I always wanted to be a business owner; I just didn’t think it would come this early – shout out to God – He has different plans for us sometimes. I thought I would just work a corporate job until about 45-50 to get in a good amount of years, and then I’d retire and just open up my own business. At the time, I wasn’t thinking it would blow into something that I’ve been able to do now; I was thinking I’d run a little restaurant, a little bed, and breakfast. I wasn’t thinking, I want to run a multi-million-dollar company, nothing like that. Just something that would make me happy because I’ve always loved cooking. So, that’s why I was going to get my master’s degree. In my head, it was for my future. When I was getting ready to retire, then that would be the next phase of my life. So that’s how I ended up getting an MBA. And during the MBA programme I had a really amazing professor, I had two, and so what they did is, they really got us ready. And Dr. Bradley had us do this, it’s an entrepreneurship course, he had us do this extensive, like feasibility studies and competitive analysis and stuff like that. He was like, you actually have a viable business. And I was like, I do? And I was like, okay I can go for it. And I was still thinking I would just use it as a side hustle and eventually it got to the point where it wasn’t a side hustle anymore. But it made sense having the degree because I am able to understand like financial reports, I’m able to understand accounting, my attention for numbers makes it really easy for me to process certain things like ads and google analytics and things like that. And then there are definitely times when my degree comes into play as far as terminology, concepts, how to put things together, understanding customer profile, buying cycles, those sorts of types of things — and being able to look at that and put together a strategic plan for myself or my client to help them move forward.
That’s wonderful. Now, let’s talk about your wedding and event design business. You are presently a wedding and event designer, how did that come about? You went to get a degree in finance and an MBA, how did you move from that to becoming a wedding and event designer?
Okay. So, well, I’ve had the event and design production firm that is true, and I have several other companies as well. So, the event and design production firm is what I started first, and January 12th was my 13th business anniversary. I’ve always been gifted in the area of design. You know everybody has that cousin, and when they’re having a party or when somebody visits your house, they’re like, hey what do you think? Will you come shopping with me and help me put this together? That sort of type of thing. I was that cousin. Me and my mum are really gifted in design, and I was tagging along and helping her do stuff. And even as a kid, I would win a lot of art competitions some of them at the state and national levels. So as far as being creative, and being able to make things aesthetically pleasing, I’ve just been doing that my whole life. Anyway, one of my cousins, a colleague of hers, she was like oh, who designed your apartment? And she was like, my cousin did it. And she asked would I come over and help her do hers? And I was like, sure, why not? It was like my first experience design project, and some other people loved it, and someone else asked. They were having a baby shower, and they asked would I help with the baby shower? Then the next question was, how much would you charge? And I was like, I don’t know, you just pay me what you think it’s worth. I’ll help you out, you pay me what you think it’s worth, and we’ll move along that way. So that’s how I got into running an event and design production company. And once I was able to get some money, I was like whoa, if one person will pay me, then more people will pay me. That’s how all of that began. And when I was doing my feasibility studies in class, because I had an interest in event design, interior design production, and all those sorts of types of things, that’s why I created that, and at the time it was kind of like a make-believe company. But that’s why I created it, like this is the business that I want to pursue, and in doing that, I learnt that it was actually a viable option and so that’s how I got into event design and production as a business.
Wow. Well done, you. So, what is it that you love about your job, and what is it that drives you nuts about it?
What I love about my job is the creative side and being able to manifest. Everything that I do, I can manifest things. So when you think about the fact that you meet a client and you take their ideas, and their thoughts and some of them don’t even have fully formalised ideas about what they want for the special event. And then to turn it into a room and hundreds of thousands of people are standing inside of it, enjoying that event or those festivities, that is so much fun for me. It’s such a rush, it’s amazing, and it’s very labour intensive but I love creating like all of the fantasy world and atmospheres and cool stuff, lighting and linens and room patterns and when one of my clients walks into the room, and they’re blown away, or they fall into tears, you know, something that they’re going to remember forever, and I know I built it with my hands, it came out of my brain, it took months of work, we put all of the logistics together and executed it, that is the part that I love — and knowing that I’m able to help people commemorate memorable things in their life. On the social side, I get a lot of weddings; we do a lot of baby showers. I am becoming known for my over-the-top baby showers. And what’s so special about the showers, a lot of the clients that come to me, those women have tried everything, lots of infertility issues and so for them to have that baby and be welcoming the baby into their life, it is a big deal for them and their family. So that, knowing that you’re helping people walk into a new chapter of their life, that is so happy, that brings me a lot of joy. Same things with my brides, when they’re getting married and knowing that I’m helping them alleviate their stress and they can really just focus on the marriage and each other, and celebrating with their friends and family, those are my favourite part. What I don’t like, but it is a necessary evil, and people are probably going to be surprised; I don’t like dealing with the vendors. Not all of them, I have some really fabulous vendors, and you can tell because those are the same kind of people, you’ll see me work with, year after year, after year. I have some really amazing vendors. And we’ll joke when we all get together like we’re the dream team like we wish we could do every single event together. But you’d always have some people who want to do partial work, but they want to receive full pay. And I’m like, no, we’re not with that today. It’s my job to protect the best interest of my client. And it’s not that I like confrontation. I really don’t like it, but I’m not afraid of it either. So, I will do what I need to do to get things done for my client. And so just managing all of the people and the personalities and when people do work that is not up to standard and because sometimes, they charge me for full planning and full coordination, it is our job to fix what someone else messed up. So, that’s my least favourite part.
Yes. That can be frustrating, but as you said, a necessary evil. Ashley, as a young child, did you have any idea that you would be doing the work you’re currently doing? And what experiences in your childhood if any prepared you for what you’re doing now?
I had no idea that this is what I would be doing as a child. I knew that I wanted to be successful. I knew that I would be a businesswoman. I did know that when I was a child, I didn’t know what business it was. You know how they write things in your yearbook at high school? A lot of my classmates saw something in me, and they were like, I know that you’re going to be a boss, and you’ll be running some company. I can see you as a CEO. So, I knew that I would be doing something in business, but I wasn’t just quite sure what. And when I was a child, I didn’t even realise that the career path that I’m in was an option. Now when you think about it, 42% of the job that will happen in the next decade, they’re not even created yet. So, when I look back as far as being a child, there are definitely clues as to what I’d be doing because I was always teaching or instructing. I was reading and learning stuff; I always wanted to play restaurant so I would make these little elaborate meals like out of the mud and stuff like that. Then when I got older, I always wanted to make stuff pretty. I was always drawing and doing arty party stuff, and my mum would let me, she never stopped my creative flow. I was always rearranging the furniture in my bedroom and in the house. We were always crafting stuff. So, as far as doing something that involves creativity and making things beautiful, definitely that’s always been there. And as far as the work ethic, because I grew up in the country on the farm, and we had a garden, and I would garden with my grandma, and we would have to till and plough, hoe, and can, and wash, and prep. And I would go with my grandma when she was old, to the market and sell. So as far as understanding the process of hard work, and sales and commerce, and stuff like that, that has been in me for as long as I can remember.
So, you were very well prepared.
Yes, I was. I didn’t know that I was, but I was as far endurance, and consistency, to outrun my competitors, for sure, for sure. Yeah.
As a wedding and event designer, what is the most impressive thing you know how to do and what makes your design stand out from others doing similar work?
I think the most impressive thing that I know how to do is listen to my clients. I can actually build like centre pieces, florals arrangements, entryways, and stuff like that. So, I definitely have a competitive advantage there because a lot of designers or producers they have to outsource to other florists, they have to outsource to other people, and we don’t have to do that. So, it saves my clients money because we don’t have a mark-up working with someone who is outside of the Ashley Ann camp. So that definitely is there. But I think overall, just my ability to listen and create really unique experiences that are all about my client, but doing it in a way that other people feel welcome, and it kind of tells a story of the people and who they are, and creating like feelings that people leave with, if that makes sense. A lot of people think that an event is all about some tablecloth and flowers and that’s all you need. And it’s really a lot more than that. Just thinking about the order, and the flow, and timing of things, and how you welcome and greet people, and their first impressions of the room, or the drinks that they’re having, or the food that’s there, the conversation, how they’re able to connect with other people, and really having people leave with a feeling of maybe warmth, or feeling loved, or the feeling of, I’m part of the highlight tonight, or whatever it is that we’re trying to create.
So, speaking about impressions, when you design an event or a wedding venue, what impression would you like to make on those who hired you and those attending the event?
Wow! And it’s more than what I thought it would be. I want my clients to see every single penny that they’ve spent and feel like it was worth it and feel on top of the world when they’re there at the event. I want it to be one of the happiest days of their lives, one of the happiest memories that they ever can have. And as far as the guests, I want their guests to be impressed. I strive for their guests to be talking about whatever that event or function was that they went to, for them to be talking about it for years, how beautiful it was, how amazing the food was, how great the music was, how much fun they had. I want people to be talking about it for years, and years, and years.
Wonderful. Now, let’s talk about Allure. So, you have a training programme, Allure, where you train people to become wedding and event designers. When and how did this begin? Why did you choose to train others? And would you say that the training programme has achieved the purpose for which you created it?
Absolutely. I think it has. I started doing Allure, maybe five years ago. And basically, what would happen is, my colleague or even other planners or designers, I would always get a lot of questions from them whenever I would go out to other events. Some contacted me through my social media pages. And everyone was always like, how are you getting these clients? And the next question, how are you getting them to agree to these budgets for these types of events? I’ve been trying, and it is really difficult not getting consistency coming through the door. Or, I have the skill set, and no one is able to see what I can do because I can’t get a client with the budget for that sort of type of thing. I had already started business consulting maybe like three and half or four years before that, so I was like, hmm, I can put together specific training just for event professionals because there really are a lot on a local level. So that’s how I started Allure. And I really started going through the questions, and the challenges that people were having and I was like, okay, let’s address these and work on these in this four-day period. And a lot of people, because I am gifted in design, a lot of people, planners and aspiring designers that want to come and learn like how do you build these huge arrangements? What’s going on with your patterns and colour themes? How do you put together a wall? How do I put flowers in the ceiling? How do I get a cascade down a vase? Just things that people didn’t know and I had been doing it for maybe like seven years I think at that point and you know you pick up stuff along the way. So, I started creating the Allure camp, and I definitely think it’s achieved what it was supposed to do because I have many clients that have gone through the programme and now know how to price their products. They know how to have sale calls. They know how to qualify their leads, and they know how to generate leads with their Facebook and Instagram accounts, which is really important. So, I save a lot of people thousands of dollars right from the beginning because now they don’t have to spend that kind of money doing like traditional advertising. And then teaching them how to create other revenue streams outside of their businesses. And a lot of them, they’ll post on Facebook, or they’ll send me stuff on Instagram like, hey girl, I booked my client. I made more money this year than I have in the past five or six years. Sometimes they’re like, I just closed a contract and this one contract is bigger than the last three that I’ve done or the last four that I’ve done. So, that’s really exciting for me; to know that I’m helping people do what they love and be able to do it in a better way.
Wow! You are a phenomenal woman.
Oh, you’re very kind. You’re very, very kind. Thank you.
Let’s talk a bit more about you training people to master and monetise their social media platforms. Please tell us more about this and how and why you started it.
Okay. So, this is one of those things where you listen, and you look at what you’re doing then you kind of have a moment like, hey, I can get paid for this. Whatever you do on a regular basis, please understand that there are hundreds of thousands of people that are not doing that, and they would like to know how to do it, or they would like someone to do it for them. Therefore, you find that niche and you fill it. I just wanted to get that out of the way. I was doing everything they taught me to do in my programmes, I was a mass marketer, and I think a lot of us are taught that way. You are just supposed to be everywhere, every billboard, every radio station, every television station, you get in there, I’m on the buggies inside of the grocery store, and all kinds of conferences and conventions and expos and all of this kind of stuff. And I was doing it, but there wasn’t consistent return. I wasn’t getting consistent contracts and so what happened is, I made a post on Facebook, nothing major happened, I didn’t even get ten likes. I made another post, and still, nothing major happened, I barely got over ten likes. Then someone popped into my inbox. She said, hey, I see your work, you’ve done a lot of weddings; do you do birthday parties also? And I was like, of course. And then her budget was better than a lot of the clients that I had, and that’s when the light bulb went off in my head. I was like, there’s something to this. You know I hadn’t spent any money, but I was able to book a client and close the contract, so that sparked the desire for me to learn more about social media marketing. And at the time, everyone was still doing like the teleconferences, we weren’t live streaming and had video chats and all of that back then. And all these guys, they were email marketers, and they had these huge lists, and I got discouraged. I’m like, I am never going to get a hundred thousand people on a list. But something in me was like, just try with who you already have. Out of a teeny tiny list, I sent out an email, made a little over seventeen thousand dollars, and I was like, holy crap. Was this a flux? I was like, let me try it again. And I tried it again, and it worked, and I tried it the third time, and it worked. And I said, okay, it was not a flux, but let me see if what I know works for other people. So, I called up a few people, a few clients. Because I was already consulting by then, I had a lot of my colleagues coming and asking me questions, and one of my colleagues actually had a business coach, and she was paying $5000 a month to this business coach, but she kept asking me stuff and finally one day I was like, why are you asking me stuff, why are you calling me, you have a business coach you’re paying $5000 a month, call your coach. And she was like, everything you tell me worked, and that’s when I realised that I could consult. So that’s how I got into consulting. I wasn’t quite focused on social media monetisation at that point, but I was doing regular business, branding, and helping people create products, you know pricing, sales training, things like that. So anyway, back to the social side. So, I called up a few people. I was like, hey, I think I’ve figured out something, I need you all to try it, follow exactly what I tell you to do. Every single person, all five of them, started making $10,000, $8,000, $20,000. I said holy crap, I know something, and I know a different way to do it than other people do. So, after that, I really just kept working and developing, learning more about my Facebook ads and experimenting. There’s very simple mistakes I made, one time I lost like over $3500 in one day running a Facebook ad. There was another time when I lost like $3500 in a week trying to learn Google ads, and they were like $7.60 a click. Just ridiculous stuff. But I learnt, and I was able to take a lot from watching and observing and figuring out what works and start to create different strategies and stuff till my clients started winning. But that’s how I got into social media monetisation ad. It really was like, okay this is a thing, and it is a great tool, and if I can teach people how to use it, if I can get them to understand it, a lot of my clients are going to start to experience a lot of success in their business and thanks to the internet, you no longer are confounded to people who are inside of your geographical area.
Yes. So now let us talk about the results because I saw some testimonials on your website that were really mind-blowing. So, tell us about some of the results that you’ve helped your clients achieve.
Oh gosh. I help clients do a lot of stuff. There’s one young lady that I work with, when we started working together she was at zero dollars, she was still working on her full-time job, and within the eighteen months of working together, we were able to do five figure, and she was able to quit her job, purchase a house, and take care of herself. Then within that next nine months of working with one another, she’s started earning six figures now. The Six-Figure Chic, a lot of people, follow her on Instagram, she’s one of my clients as well. We’ve been able to scale her business to tremendous rates. So, she just had her first six-figure; the first hundred-thousand-dollar month for her was like in December, and she had already been doing $50,000 on Instagram several months in a row. Then we were able to get her to achieve another consecutive $100,000 months. So, to be sure it will be a million dollars or just over a million dollars this year alone from her social media and digital product. The Finance Chic is another client of mine, a lot of them when they started with me, zero-dollar business in the beginning and now they’re doing thousands of dollars a month consistently through their social media pages. But I’ve been able to help a little bit over 1250 people utilise Facebook through ads and retargeted campaigns averaging around $25000 and $45000 a month. My clients on Facebook are doing between $75,000 and $125000 a month for live streaming. In about three years, I’ve been able to help over 350 people monetise their live streams platform. They average between $8,000 and $12,000 a month. And live streaming is unique because it has the fastest turnaround. So, if you’ll be consistent you literally between four to six weeks could be making a few thousand dollars every single month, legitimate money and if you stick with it, a lot of my clients within three or four months they are doing ten or fifteen thousand dollars a month from their live stream. And in Instagram land, I’ve helped a hundred of people over there too. My average is between four and six thousand a month for them. And I have fifteen clients right now that do $50,000 plus just from Instagram. And they’re really unique because that’s the only platform that they use. Then on LinkedIn, my clients are averaging between seventeen and twenty-eight thousand dollars a month. That’s where I have like a lot of small business owners and creative entrepreneurs, like authors, speakers, stuff like that. And we’re able to leverage LinkedIn to help them garner and gain what opportunities are available and get themselves out there and get booked. So yeah, I love it. I love it.
That’s amazing. Do you work with anyone? You’ve got all this training and courses you’ve created. If someone wants to get on a course, or someone wants to come alongside and work with you, what do you require?
So, a lot of times, I’ll assess my client, and I’ll see what level they’re at. Group training is always the most economic, but for example, Kingdom Essential for 2019 starts in a couple of days, and we just finished enrolment. It’s a twelve-week course, and it’s a foundational course, so it introduces a lot of terminology, concepts, a lot of tools, software, apps, how to put them together, building your backend systems, building out your funnels, things like that. And so, if you’re unfamiliar with monetising your social media, even if you’ve been in business and you’re killing it in the brick and mortar world, but you don’t know what to do when you get over to the social media world when it comes to marketing and conversion. So, I have all kinds of group programmes throughout the year. I have Insta Coin Academy. I have a live stream academy, things like that. Then there’s normally an option inside of the academy to work alongside me. Those are normally elite options, and we have bi-weekly check-ins and homework and assignment, and I do audits on websites, and landing pages, social media pages, bios, things like that. And then I have digital products that are available all year long. So if you need help creating content and that’s your weak spot, I may have like a $57 course on that. I try and create stuff for everybody, depending on where you are right now. We have a fifteen-part video series builder bundle, and you get all fifteen videos and a bonus video, and it’s only a hundred and twenty-seven bucks. If you don’t know what to post on Facebook and Instagram, we have posting cycles, and they’re only seven dollars, and they work. People tell me, Oh, my God, I’m getting engagement, I’m getting followers. So, there’s several different ways to work alongside with me, and if you want to work one-on-one, to have me directly consulting and building your business, we’re always going to do an assessment first, so I can see where you are in your business currently and can see what your goals are. And we can map out a realistic path to them and how long it will be before you begin to process a monetisation. And you may already be in monetisation so it may just be a scaling issue for you or something like that. I have clients create products, put together their systems, who their target audiences are, learn how to run Facebook ads, all those sorts of types of things.
Wonderful. How can people contact you if they’d like to know more about you and what you do?
I’m very easy to find on social media. I’m @King Ashley Ann on Facebook and Instagram. Come and give me a follow, come in on a post. I go live consistently, at least three days a week I am live, doing business training and updates. I’m around. It’s pretty easy to get a hold of me. I’m not hard to find. I’m very active on social media, and even though I have a team, I’m still on all my social media pages every single day.
