Category: Careers

Case Study: Ashley Smith Part Two

Case Study: Ashley Smith Part Two

Do you think peers can succeed as Entrepreneurs with their own businesses and why?

I believe everybody can manage their own businesses and be successful at it including my peers in recovery. Managing our own businesses will help us juggle wellness and work schedules better. Also, because we are capable and competent to enhance work performance. It’s better to work harder for ourselves making money based on something we love, are skilled at and can manifest.

Currently, I’m working as an independent contractor and peer counselor (certified peer specialist). I work with individuals who have a diagnosis and encourage them to tackle health and personal goals. I’m able to create my own work routine and avoid being micro-managed.

In fact, I start my day with self-care practices. I get ready, worship and listen to motivational speakers to boost my energy. I dive into my work in the afternoon. Then rest. Return to work for a couple of more hours in the evening. Afterwards, I shut down my workday and regroup in order to do it again the next day. Having control over my time throughout the day allows me to incorporate self-care and aim to find a balance between work and personal plans.

As entrepreneurs we can properly dictate our work schedules, recovery and lives. Working helps build skills which can boost self-confidence. Peers would be successful at entrepreneurship because we will master a skill that we created and control the work day. Permitting time to include wellness habits. That way we can maintain our wellbeing and strive for ongoing success.

What specific habits and skills should a peer utilize to earn an income on their own?

To be a great entrepreneur we must uphold a strong mindset. Valuing determination, self-motivation and have a thick skin. We must be able to accept “no” and keep going despite setbacks. Therefore, we must master the skill of resiliency.

Being self-aware and holding a wellness routine helps me press forward through my work days. Specifically, I use various productivity tools. I keep an agenda and organize my thoughts early on in the day.

I manage my wellbeing and work progress by keeping a “realistic journal.” Aside from the typical Things to Do List. In the realistic journal I record accomplished tasks. Opposed to be overwhelmed by my long Things to Do List. The realistic journal motivates me to keep striving to complete duties. It’s a confidence-booster. Also, a record that we can refer back to. I might note I’ve responded to certain emails, printed documents in preparation for review and took a walk – those activities among others helps me stay productive, focused and well.

I’ve coined the term that you can Be Your Own Boss even if you work for another company not your own. What can you tell peers from your own experience as a paid Peer Specialist about how to survive and protect your mental and physical health when you work for and with others?

Finding balance between wellness demands and work is still something I’m working on. However, I’ve improved at it over time, and you can too. Here are some tips you might consider practicing in the workplace.

Sometimes I take a quick walk to transition from one task to another. In the past, I’ve done that in the parking lot of my employer. Other times I’ve journaled. Get to work a little earlier and journal prior to the start of your work shift. That way we can regain clarity to proceed with different assignments. Also, I’ve had office accountability partners. Checking in with them helps because it can be therapeutic for oneself to reflect on emotional concerns and daily wellness goals.

Identifying stressors before they become significant obstacles is key to overcoming daily challenges. Knowing when to pause, take a moment to digest your day and reset can increase productivity. You can reset within a small amount of time. For example, taking a brisk 10 minute walk on your break, journaling before starting work or on lunch. Sitting in meditation or prayer at your desk for a moment at work can help reset and recharge energy and focus. Develop self-motivation skills. I do this with affirmations and listening to motivational speakers daily. By taking care of our needs throughout the day we can be more efficient at work and feel good about it.

Case Study: Ashley Smith

Case Study: Ashley Smith

Altruistic and Ambitious Advocate

In this blog I’m going to feature Case Studies of peers living in recovery who are role models for forging our own path in life and succeeding at a career. Our first Case Study will be in 3 parts to cover the full story.

In 2008  Author Advocate Ashley Smith started her anonymous Overcoming Schizophrenia blog. Since then she’s used her real name to blog and publish 7 books. I met her at a film screening for a video on recovery that she was featured in.

Ashley studied business in college before her breakdown. Altruistic while ambitious she’s not afraid to share her story to give peers a shot of confidence to pursue our own goals unabashedly.

I’m taken in by her choice of the purple outfit for the cover of her new book. Purple is a color that symbolizes royalty and spirituality. How fitting for a peer whose devotion to Spirit and using affirmations has helped her get ahead.

Part One:

It’s been 17 years since you first clicked publish on your first blog entry. What exactly enabled you not to quit and keep going?

My blog, Overcoming Schizophrenia, started as an online diary about my diagnosis and to recall my experiences as an advocate. Now I blog for others wholeheartedly. I aim to be a beacon of hope and offer a sense of direction and motivation to keep pressing onward.

However, it’s hard to be consistent with blogging for me but I’ve challenged myself this year (2025) to write one blog article each week. I want to continue the conversation on ways to trump the stigma of mental illness. Further assisting peers and caregivers on their paths to wellness. I’ve grown a lot in my recovery and want to share my life story. Leading others to understand and believe that a fulfilling life in recovery is possible.

What can you tell peers who have a dream or goal of their own just starting out?

Recovery is a lifestyle and your goals are attainable. Remember to take small steps until you gain momentum and are comfortable increasing your progress. Aim to develop a routine to maintain balance between self-care and your responsibilities. Self-care is essential to managing ourselves. To be our best and well to tackle work and goals full force.

Talk about the role that support plays in our lives—either through our family, friends, treatment providers, or a chosen family or others we interact with.

Having a support system is vital to staying committed to my wellbeing. My family plays significant role in my wellness. They’ve been my foundation of strength. They keep me accountable and give me the support I need to keep pressing forward.

I’ve worked with the same treatment team; my doctor for over 12 years and my therapist for over eight years. They understand my needs and are dependable during crisis.

I have a lot of peer support too. Participating in organizations such as NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and the CURESZ Foundation. NAMI allows me to partake in different leadership roles. I’ve facilitated workshops and support groups.

I encourage you to get involved in a group that you can grow with. A place outside of the home but feels like home. This type of support is challenging to find but consider your church, 12 step support groups, local NAMI affiliate, and organizations where you might volunteer to gain assistance and someone to confide in. Everybody needs support to survive and thrive in life.

Presence and Persona

I attended a Zoom talk on Presence and Persona: Leveling Up Your Personal Brand.

I cannot repeat the exact method the speaker Christina Bryan told us to use. It is her approach.

Instead I recommend you go on her website The Roadmap Coach. She is a Black businesswoman who coaches other women. I intend to pay for her coaching service in the future. As after listening to her talk I got fired up.

In my own words here I’ll tell you about how to create be and sell your personal brand for everyone of any identity. It’s simple really: who you are and what you stand for is your brand on and off the job.

Like Bryan said: “Be authentic.”

It’s imperative to “stay in your lane” and avoid going “off-brand.”

This is why I’ve pivoted on a dime to not talk about politics in my blogs again. It would detract from and dilute my message. As I think each of us has what I’ve coined the “self-power” to go after our goals regardless of the political climate.

In a coming blog entry I’ll talk about my views on capitalism. Here I’ll tell followers that you should not have to act false to yourself anywhere you go to promote your brand.

Zoom speaker Bryan told us women to: “Be your authentic self. Let you come through.”

I think Christina Bryan’s method for personal branding is better than the 5-step plan I read in a book that I might have reviewed here years ago.

Promoting yourself might not come easy. Which is why I think it pays to read what I wrote in the recent blog entries here.

You can be driven AND decent. You don’t have to be “relentless in pursuit of your goals.” If you’re tightly wound that will cause ill health.

In a future blog entry I’ll talk about setting goals.

Making an IPO

I’ve invented an approach to getting a favorable outcome in the workforce. It shouldn’t upset followers that I propose this. This is because allegedly a person forms an impression of you within 7 seconds.

All along I’ve had ideas about how to dress. I’m 59. No longer do I care what others think of me. Nor do I have any interest in trying to impress people who would hate judge fear or shame me.

In my Girl on the Left blog I wrote that I think if you’re dressed chic you can get away with being a radical on the inside.

A few years ago too I thought that everyone is a work of art. We can delight the viewer. Yet even with a work of art whether the viewer likes us is subjective for each person looking at the artwork.

I’ve coined the term Making Your IPO–your Initial Persona Offering. I think every interaction you have with another person involves sales.

To get them to buy into whatever you’re selling–either you; an idea you have at work; a belief you hold–each of us should demonstrate why they should buy in and the benefit in doing this.

The second thing is to give them equity like “stock options” that are ownership in the company whose product you’re selling. A person has to want to do what you say. Again attacking your target market that you want to convert will cause those people to resist and get defensive.

The idea of making your IPO upends the idea of creating a Personal Brand. I think too that the best personal brand is a reflection of who you are and what you stand for. It’s as simple as that.

We should make our Initial Persona that we offer others our own beautiful self. Acting true to yourself is the best way to sell your own unique brand. Jazzing up our appearance is not vain or calculating. It’s a way to level up your presence. Which in the end feels good to you. Not just to the viewer.

The real thing when you’re just starting out in recovery is that the hair could be uncombed. The shoes are scuffed.

Or like I did I wore regular sized clothing when I was a Petite size. So the blazer was as big as my Grandpa’s and the sleeves were too long too.

Even with all its scandals Nike is a brand to research for understanding how it generates fierce fans of its products. Read the book which I might have reviewed in here: Emotion by Design by Greg Hoffman who worked at Nike for decades.

In the next blog entry I will talk about things I’m doing to polish my persona. It’s not bulletproof that everyone will always buy into what you’re selling. Yet like I said in that other blog dressing well helped me recover. That’s the real impact of leveraging how you look: You take joy in getting up in the morning and going out the front door.

Loving Your Job is Possible

At least three non-fiction books rail against the myth that you can find a job you love:

Work Won’t Love You Back

Do What You Love (And Other Lies)

We are All Fast Food Workers Now

In my career guide I made the distinction I want to reiterate here:

You CAN love your job even if you’re not doing what you love to do like bake cookies.

You might like to cook. That doesn’t mean you should become a chef. Maybe you’ll bake pies to take to work to share with coworkers. Or have a side business selling those pies to earn extra cash.

I happen to love my job. I didn’t have this career until I turned 35. Proving that it’s not too late to pivot start over or even begin a job for the first time.

A guy I met 15 years ago told me he decided at 55: “Enough! I want to get a job!”

Then there’s the story of the gray-haired lady in her sixties who attended library school with me. Other people were ending their lives and she decided it wasn’t over for her.

In coming blog entries I’m going to talk about workplace woes and wonders. Using a sense of humor to talk about these topics.

Again: you can love your job even if it doesn’t involve your wildest passion of what you like to do.

Outside of the workplace is where we shouldn’t skimp on doing what thrills us every day.

Gold Stars: Boon or Boondoggle

I checked the above book out of the library.

What if we took the off ramp on the high-stress mainstream highway?

What if you joined me in living life Left of the Dial?

The New Alt-American Dream is alive and well.

For those of us with the courage to veer off the beaten career path there’s joy, meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in serving others. More on this in the coming blog entry.

Right now the myth to bust:

We should stop inculcating in teenagers that they must get on the freeway to success early in life with high SAT scores and pedigrees from elite colleges.

No young person should have to know by 18 what they want to do with their life. Play and fun is warranted. Not doing community service solely to get into the right university.

In here I reviewed the book Late Bloomers about how those of us who didn’t take this “conveyor belt” ride to early achievement have traits that enable us to succeed in our older years.

Recently I read Project 333. The author of that book wrote that she spent 20 years in a marketing job. Racked up credit card debt buying clothes she never wore with tags still attached.

Courtney Carver stayed in that career because she thought the job was what she had to do to prove her worth in society and get ahead. Along the way she was diagnosed with MS–multiple sclerosis.

Too often we’re afraid to do what we really want. We succumb to chasing fame or fortune so grind away in a “money pit” job.

Or the ideal work would come with a lower salary. That’s why in my career guide Working Assets I talk about getting a second source of income while you clock in during the day at a job you like.

In the next blog entry I’ll talk about a beautiful job for dreamers who want to do what they dream of.

On Liking Your Job

I’m not buying that Black and Latinx workers are forced to suffer in miserable jobs to pay bills.

I helped an African American person create a resume. They landed an interview and got a job in the field they went to school for.

This happens all the time when I help people create resumes: it’s a running joke that they’ll get a job offer after they come to me.

Burnout does not have to be the inevitable outcome in the workplace. In a future blog carnival I’ll detail methods to eliminate burnout (hint: it’s up to management to do the right things first of all).

In my book Working Assets I differentiate between doing what you love on the job and loving what you do. This has a significant implication for alleviating burnout.

To wit: If you’re a home cook you don’t have to become a chef in a high-pressure restaurant kitchen. You can bake pies and bring them to your job to share with coworkers. You can whip up pastries and sell them on the side for extra income.

How to like your job a whole lot better?

Read the Muse website newsletter articles below:

Workday Self-Care

37 Ways to Be Happier at Work

You Didn’t Cause Your Own Burnout

The New Alt-American Dream

I’ve coined the term The New Alt-American Dream to talk about a better healthier way of living and working.

I’m grateful that I used up only 9 years working in ill-fitting law and corporate office jobs in the mainstream. Luckily I didn’t waste 20 years like some people do chasing the big bucks in a career I thought I needed to have to get ahead.

By the time I was 32 I started graduate school. At 35 I was working at my job as a professional librarian.

In the coming blog carnival I’m going to write in a series of entries about The New Alt-American Dream.

After checking out over 2,500 items from the library I’ve become a Power User. I glean fresh insight and get ideas for what to write in my blogs by reading new nonfiction books every week.

To start out in the next blog entry I will assail the myth that doing what you love on a job is not possible. I will dispel that experiencing burnout on the job is inevitable.

In this blog entry too I’ll knock the chip off the shoulder of the media darling author who claims Black and Latinx workers are forced to take soul-sucking jobs to pay bills. Not so. Not at all.

As you’ll read soon The New Alt-American Dream is alive and well.

Using ChatAI for Career Discovery

A friend and I met at a coffee shop.

He told me he used ChatAI to generate a list of possible jobs he could take on.

You can use the free version of ChatAI for up to 10 queries per month.

My friend typed in his pertinent skills and the AI returned four jobs.

One job on the sheet of paper he showed me said he could be a: coffee shop barrister.

“Friend,” I said. “A barrister gives legal advice. A Barista makes coffee. Are you going to meet law clients at Starbucks for appointments.”

He chuckled. I helped him figure out that he could get paid to help people as a Cooking Coach.

I was his first customer and paid him $40 to teach me how to cook shrimp pepper salt.

The recipe was quick and easy to make. Delicious too.

You can go on www.chatai.com to create a free account.

I recommend this service for simple career discovery as the intro to a deep dive into research into the ins and outs of jobs you might like to get.

Black Business Month Books

The books listed in this blog entry should be available at any public library that is not censoring and banning the books people can read and check out with library cards:

Black Faces in High Places: 10 Strategic Actions for Black Professionals to Reach the Top & Stay There by Randal Pinkett.

Black Founder: The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider by Stacy Spikes.

Build the Damn Thing: How to Start a Successful Business if You’re Not a Rich White Guy by Kathryn Finney. (I read this book at least 2 years ago and reviewed it here.)

It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage by Arlan Hamilton.

Twice as Hard: Navigating Black Stereotypes & Creating Space for Success by Opeyemi Sofoluke.

These books are geared to acing jobs the corporate world for those of us who aspire to the C-suite.

Though I’m not a fan of thinking a corporate office job is the only one you should get I understand and respect that for other people they want to excel in a traditional workplace.

The point is that these authors promote navigating the corporate life on your own terms with skills you can learn that they give you. Linked to how they got ahead from a job like film studio gopher to CEO and from food-stamp recipient to venture capitalist.

I say to you readers: Go for It if this is what you want.