Today’s Guest, Ashley Thalman shares her journey to finding her creative voice after making one of the hardest decisions in her life to leave her marriage. This talented photographer and co-owner of Ultraviolet Studios is serving up some truth and insight into what it really takes to find your voice and stand out, and newsflash: it doesn’t come with a step-by-step guide! Tune in for all the insight!

Key Takeaways:

• Newsflash: There is no formula or step-by-step guide to finding your voice.
• Art is a way to leave breadcrumbs for yourself.
• Do the hardest thing that you need to do, change the big things in your life that are holding you back, and your artistic voice will find you.
• When you’re ready to step across the threshold, it can be scary, but that’s why it’s important that men & women tell the stories of those transitions bravely.
• Being in places, existing in communities, and submitting to cultures that don’t fit us is the worst thing you can do for your creative voice.
• If you can get people to unfollow you for speaking out on your platform, you’re narrowing into belonging. We have to be okay with people rejecting us.
• Transitions are sad and hard. We don’t like change, but through the transitions you realize that what comes to the surface is real.
• Everyone has some sphere of influence. You need to be intentional about what you’re sharing, and not just curating it to “worthy” images.
• We are now looking at each other more than ever before to figure out how to do life.
• The backstories, vulnerability, and openness is what inspires people… It’s not the perfect images.
• You’re playing at a great level, and that comes at great artistic, personal, and financial risk. That’s your artistic voice.
• It’s about who you once were and who you’ll become, all coming together in this creative moment: right now. This thing that inspires you that you really can’t even see. And just being able to cross that threshold and saying: I’m going to try!

References:

• Ashley Thalman Photography
• Ultraviolet Studios
• Barry HBO Series

Xo,
D’Arcy