Women Who Inspire Me: Ashley Dawn

You know that feeling, the one that’s guiding all your decisions. The one that tells you what you should be doing, or what your life is supposed to look like.

It’s deep. It’s unshakable. It’s familiar.

And how it feels right, for the most part?

You’ve spent years of your life working towards it and yet…

There’s still that whisper that says, “I’m meant for more.”

It doesn’t make sense, though. This is what you are supposed to be doing; this was the plan. You can’t change now. That means you're quitting. You’ve spent so much time getting here, and even still, there is something you can’t quite put your finger on that doesn’t feel right. 

You know you have to make a change, and saying that out loud, even thinking it, is scary. Oftentimes, the first thought we have is that it’s all or nothing. We need to radically change our lives and throw everything we’ve worked for away. When really, what we are being asked to do is follow the clues, to grab hold of the opportunities that present themselves to us and take a chance on the ones that feel aligned.

We can do it our way; there’s nothing to say we can’t keep a bit of safety and familiarity, and play around with what feels like the next right step without judgment of ourselves.

To begin to take baby steps and ask yourself, " Does this feel right for me?” instead of telling ourselves, “This is what I am supposed to do to be successful.”

If this feels familiar, this story is for you.

This is where I would like to introduce Ashley Dawn. I met Ashley through Selina Gray’s Trailblazer event, a conference for women in business that’s unlike any other business conference you’ll attend. You can’t walk away from this event without something cracking inside of you.

As Ashley and I spoke about our Trailblazer experience, we both agreed on how impactful it was to hear women stand up and share what their journey has been like. Not the curated Instagram feed of highlights, which is amazing and has a place in creating connection and belonging. But the stories you tell your best girlfriends so that they don’t have to go through those same hardships, and if they have, you create a bond that lasts way past that initial conversation. 

Here’s what more women need to hear: You’re not broken because you want something more for yourself than what you had originally thought was for you. If in the process you find that you're losing yourself, you're losing that sparkle that makes you you, it’s ok to make a change. 

Ashley is the founder of the Sparkle Entrepreneur Network, an intentional space for women to come together and make authentic in-person connections. These are not your typical networking events. This is a space where women are encouraged to sparkle. 

This is Ashley’s story.

Can you share a bit about your journey, the path that led you to where you are today, and the moment that really changed things for you?

My background is in mental health; I've been a mental health professional for going on eight years now. I'm still in the field as I grow my business. 

Growing up, my family had a very different view of what my life was supposed to be. According to them, I was supposed to be the woman who, and I have nothing against anybody who fits this profile, it's just not meant for me. I would be married to some washed-up hockey player in my small town, and I’d probably have four kids, living on a farm. 

That wasn’t the life for me. Instead, I’ve always been drawn to helping people. At 18 years old, this was the path I went on.

It wasn’t a straightforward journey, though. 

Growing up, my family was very “it's my way or the highway”. 

When I was about to leave for school, they ended up draining my bank account, a joint account at the time, leaving me with $3 to my name.

I remember thinking to myself, “How am I gonna do this?”

Up until about 2020, I had never really been a very spiritual person, but someone's always been watching my back. 

When my family had drained my account, my boss at the time had messed up the timing of my pay cheque, and I was fortunate enough to take that $300 cheque to help me get started. With the support of incredible women who helped me, I was still able to go towards my dream. I took out student loans, and all of that fun stuff, and I remember feeling so determined to make this happen for myself. 

I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and ended up meeting my university sweetheart.

I went off to Calgary and started in the mental health field. It was wild to me that I loved what I was doing. I was doing group work with teens, and I did that for a while. But there was this voice that kept saying, “You're meant for more. You're meant for more.” It just wouldn't stop talking to me. I joke around that I went through a spiritual awakening, where the universe was screaming at me, telling me that I needed to make a change. 

And I did. 

I was with my university sweetheart at that time; we had bought a house, a few years earlier, and had been together for about seven years. At that point, we were so different. To put it in perspective, think of an engineer's brain versus a mental health brain. We had very different views.

I felt that I needed to move on. I wanted a bigger life than what he wanted. We're actually still friends today, and we co-parent our Chihuahua together. It's great, I have a dog sitter whenever I need. 

But I remember feeling like we were not a romantic couple anymore; I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life, and I had bigger dreams for my life. 

Not that my ex-fiancé was controlling or anything like that, he wasn't. It's just that typically when you're in a partnership, one person usually dominates what you both do, right? 

One person tends to make the sacrifices, and the other person accepts it, kind of thing. And I chose that it would be me.  He didn't ask me to do that, but it was just for comfort's sake. It was easier to say, “We'll do what you want to do”, rather than fight or have the same conversations over and over again.

I had to ask myself, “Who do I want to be?” 

From there, I had opportunities come up for me, in what felt like all weird timing. It’s so true, how when you're ready to let go, then all of a sudden every opportunity starts to open up.

For example, I was introduced to a new role by a colleague and started loving what I did again, which I really needed.

I moved out on my own for the first time in seven years and started on the journey of finding myself. At that point, I was still in grad school, working full-time, and I was taking care of everything on my own. It was a time that I thought to myself, “Oh my god, this is so overwhelming.”

This was the first time I started questioning if finishing my degree was what I wanted, and I found that I was losing my sparkle.

I had a practicum lined up, and as I was finalizing the details, they were asking for an additional six to seven hours more than what I needed. Making it basically a part-time job on top of working full-time, while I also needed to support myself without hitting burnout.

I took some time to think about the practicum, and it really came down to making the decision that I could use those additional practicum hours to meal prep, to sleep, to do homework, all the things that I needed to do to have balance in my life, and I had to decline it. 

After that, I put myself on another pause for school. I ended up taking an extra course to stay in the program. The next time I was looking at practicums, I again had one that was pretty much all the way lined up, minus the paperwork, and the supervisor I was looking to work under decided to hire an associate instead of a student at the last minute.

I remember thinking, “Okay, I guess I'm not supposed to do my practicum right now.”

At that point in time, I had written the manuscripts to end my program, and all I had left was my practicum.

After that experience, I wanted to play a little bit in the entrepreneurial space. I thought I have so much knowledge that I could put to use, I'm going to do something part-time. Something like a coping skill sheet on Etsy or something online like that, and try to grow some type of business. 

I had actually talked to a colleague, wondering if there was something we could grow together. And they weren’t convinced, they said to me, “Well, there's already something that exists like that, so why would we want to do something like that also?” I thought to myself, “Okay, obviously that partnership wasn't meant to work out all of that”.

From there, I was trying to sell an online course called “From Stuck to Sparkling, and at the time, it wasn't working.

I was spending all this time trying to do everything right that the Internet tells you to do to become a successful entrepreneur. I'm spinning my wheels, trying to figure it out, and I didn’t know what to do about it. 

It was then that I attended Trailblazer for the first time, and it just unlocked so much. 

There’s something about Trailblazer that cracks something open in you that you're not anticipating. 

I remember I was so shy the first time I went to Trailblazer. I had only known one other person in the entire room. We had both attended another networking event, The Female Entrepreneur Community Live Calgary, and as we were headed out the door, we shared our contact information.

From there, we ended up doing a podcast together, she attended one of my events, and now she's a good friend. To see that difference of only knowing one person the first time to the sisterhood that has happened over the past year has been incredible. 

After Trailblazer, I was part of Selina’s mastermind, where over the year, we had monthly coaching calls. I remember people saying to me, “Oh my god, just look at the difference in you.” 

But then the Trailblazer community opens you up to incredible opportunities if you put yourself out there. You have this chance to build genuine connections and friendships that last a lifetime.

With the support of  Selina and the group, I was able to see that the reason my online course was not selling was that it wasn’t the right fit for me, and to find what would allow me to be successful as an entrepreneur, I had to acknowledge that I was hiding. 

I found that being in the mental health world and building my business, it’s a hard balance. There’s this fine line where you don't want your clients to find you outside of your professional role because, ethically, you're not allowed to have your clients in outside programs, and there are also boundaries around your clients knowing too much information about you.

But also because I was navigating how I wanted to show up in the world, and what that looked like, so I could be authentic and be more me. 

In one of the calls, I remember sitting there asking myself, “Do I want to finish grad school, or do I want to go full-time into being an entrepreneur?” 

I had so much fear come up around, wow, I spent all that money, poured so much time and energy, like how would that even work? 

People were asking me, “Are you crazy? You only have eight months left of school, and then you're done.” 

For me, that was eight months I could grow my business, and my heart was not in the mental health model anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love the work that I do. I love the one-on-one sessions, but from my perspective, being in it for so long, you're doing this transformative work and then sending people back into environments where they aren’t accepted for who they are, or they can’t even create change because the system's broken, or they're just not ready for what you're talking about. 

I had this big voice in my head saying, you have big visions and big dreams of the impact you want to make. You're not going to be able to do that eight hours a day, doing six sessions plus a day. 

So I asked myself, “What do I want to do instead?” 

I came across an idea with Selina and the group's support, of doing group networking events. 

I remember thinking, “This looks like so much fun! I want to do something like that.” It felt in alignment. I could use my superpowers to help women build authentic connections, while having the greater impact that I desired.

I jumped right in and started hosting free networking events. 

At the first one, only one person showed up. I was really ambitious doing a free networking event at 8 am in the far, far south of Calgary. A long drive for a lot of people, but I made an amazing connection there.

After this first one, I asked myself, “Do I keep going, or do I give up? If only one person showed up, is this going to be worth it?”

I decided that I would learn from that first event, and I hosted three other free networking events just to see if I liked being in person enough to keep hosting them.

For myself, I'm quite introverted. I need to do something where I'm willing to leave my own house, and if I'm willing to do that, then I might be able to convince other people to come.

The events brought in more interest than I anticipated, and I found that as the events were growing, I was facing a lot of cancellations. Learning that this happens with free events because there’s less investment in showing up when it's free. I decided that for the next event, I would start charging $10 for people to come and join in. The events are held on Eventbrite, and we meet at different restaurants across Calgary, and people were signing up!

I remember thinking, “I convinced somebody that this was worth going to!” and feeling so excited by the community I was creating.

I found the women attending my events didn't want the traditional networking spaces where you pitch nonstop, and the interactions feel inauthentic. 

Not everyone who owns a business has a business degree or a business background, and I wanted to create something different.

I remember being at a networking event where I was in a wonderful, heartfelt conversation with a woman whose daughter had grown up with heart conditions, and she was explaining to me how her daughter spent so much time in the hospital that now she is struggling with mental health issues.

And a woman with her own agenda came up to us, saying how she had these stem cell patches that would fix all of her daughter's problems, and was really just pushing the sale.

My friend was sitting there, and I don't think she really had words in that moment, but the interaction just felt so inauthentic and insensitive to what my friend was going through.

I took that experience forward into my events, creating a safe space where we're not just pitching each other. If that's the energy, you show up and waste your time, because unless the other person actually genuinely needs what you're offering, nothing is going to happen.

When you go into a networking event with the intention of connecting, you actually get to know the woman behind the scenes. 

For example, if we met at one of my events, you’d find out “oh yeah, no biggie. I started my life over with $3 to my name,” and you’d get the opportunity to ask questions like “What? How did you do that?” Right? And then they're asking more questions. 

Like, what do you mean you dropped out of grad school? Tell me more about that. 

That's the part that actually inspires people and builds trust. Where you're actually a real human being. You're not just selling all your highlight reels of your life. You're talking about some of the worst moments that have led to where you are now. 

Women started really loving the space and time for connection, and I started selling out events nonstop. 

What’s something you’ve learned along the way that you wish every woman knew, or a mindset, tool, or practice that’s helped you step into your full potential?

In my journey as a solo entrepreneur, I have noticed there have been times when I'm not investing my own energy into the business as much, and events don't sell out. Or I’m trying to figure out what time of year works best to hold events. For example, in September, everyone's so busy, and it’s not the right time to hold an event right when school starts. 

But the momentum is growing. Back in April of 2025, I had 47 people in my Facebook group, the YYC Sparkle Entrepreneur Network, and by July, we hit over 150 people.

Three times the amount in just ten months, and in that time, I have also been able to triple my prices and personalize the events with gifts and surprises.

Something that has been so important in helping me grow the way I have is having a supportive community around me.

The Pink Skirt Project has been a big part of my journey. This past year, I attended the summit in Kelowna and was able to meet both Anita and Renee (the hosts) in person. As part of the Pink Skirt Project, there is something called The Pink Skirt Fund, which is a scholarship fund for female entrepreneurs who are getting started in business. 

So the scholarship meant you would get access to mentoring, a ticket to next year's event, which is now a two-day event, and 12 months in their Pink Skirt Society coaching program. 

Ballsy me was like, I'm going to see if I can get this…. and, I actually got to do an interview with Renee!

It was a 20-minute conversation. I was full of anxiety and was crying as I was sharing parts of my story. What was so powerful for me coming out of that conversation was the clarity that I knew I wanted to have a bigger impact. 

And I told her, I want to help 10,000 women in the next five years to be able to feel confident, to sparkle, just for being themselves

I also shared my involvement in crisis work and experience working with self-harm and suicide, and she reflected back to me how rare it is to look at somebody and say they genuinely help save lives.

As I was waiting to hear back about their decision on the winner of the scholarship, I decided that I'm going to be that delulu spiritual girl that I am, and I'm going to manifest it happening. In my day planner, before knowing if I was getting it, I wrote it in my calendar: “fly to Kelowna”, “Pink Skirt Project” and I highlighted it in nice pink bubbles. 

About a month later, I followed up, and she said, “Yes! We would love to offer you a spot.” It was so incredible because it was a ten-thousand-dollar coaching package that made such a difference for me. 

Between Selina's Trailblazing community and The Pink Skirt Society, that was my evidence that doing the work pays off. That's all under 10 months.

What I want you to take away from my story is not that I started with $3 to my name, but that if I can do it, so can you. 

You have to sparkle by being yourself first.

I know that if I were someone who was fake or not completely myself, I would never have been able to grow my community in this way. Keep in mind, I grew my community by meeting 8 to 12 women per event. That's a slower growth, but it’s built such a meaningful community. 

Don't get me wrong, society is still throwing things my way and expects me to be somebody else as I move forward in my authenticity. For me, when that happens, it's pushing back on that programming and asking who do you want to be? 

To start to find your sparkle again, the first thing is to drop all the shoulds. Of you have to be this certain type of person, and you have to live life in this certain way.

Again, I would be a farmer's wife, just having babies galore, and they would all be boys, because that's usually how that works in my family.

Instead, think about who you actually want to be, and trust that gut feeling when it comes up because it's always right. 

It's usually the first thought we have, immediately followed by fear, where our thoughts spiral into “but what would this person think?”

Or, it comes in as something that gets us excited, like, “I want to go do a networking event thing, or I want to host a workshop where I can be in front of all these women, and help them be themselves.”

When that idea and excitement come in, so too does the fear and doubt. It comes in and just starts challenging my identity to become the woman who organizes those types of events. 

That voice that inspires me to move towards my dreams is in my head is there for a reason. The one thing I learned is if you try to dial that voice back, saying to yourself, “Oh no, that’s not for me”, that's like turning the sparkle dimmer down.

It’s in figuring out what you are scared of. For example, dropping out of grad school, that was one of the scariest things that I've ever done. But guess what? It wasn't all for nothing. I have my graduate diploma in counselling. It's not that I didn't put in all that work. I still get to say I literally almost got a master's of counselling, and if people are mad at me that I didn't get it, that's their problem because I followed my dream.

I always come back to this quote, “Do you want to be the author of your story or do you want someone else to be?”

That question hits home so much because, if that 18 year old version of me did all of this work to get where I am now, I can't go back to following what everyone expects me to be, and to be someone I'm not.

I think as women, we blind ourselves to this because it’s more comfortable to fit in. I used to be the person who would say that everything's fine. When you say that to yourself enough times, at some point, you’re going to realize that you’re not fine. 

You know what you're avoiding, and the next step out of being just fine is just going for it. Dream a little bit bigger, take baby steps towards it.

I didn't jump into 300 plus women entrepreneur events right away; I built my confidence first and connected with smaller, more intentional groups. I made the decision that I'm going to connect with people on Instagram, and I'm going to connect through smaller events. 

If you don't take those smaller actions, then it just becomes a recurring thought of, “Oh, one day I'm going to do that”.

When Ashley Morton was speaking at Trailblazer, she was talking about her one day goals. How about instead of adding things to your one day goals list, and nothing happening. How do you make a plan and just get started today? 

Ask yourself, what is that baby step that you could do? 

Sometimes it's just deciding your business name, sometimes it's deciding who your ideal client is. It's writing one email and hitting send (even if it's terrifying). I remember when I was interviewing for the Pink Skirt Fund, I was terrified, but I made the decision that I was going to do it, and allowed the fear to be there, and I hit send anyways. 

We're human beings. We're going to backstep at times, and that’s to be expected, but just keep moving forward because it’s going to work out.

What events can readers look forward to in 2026, and how can they connect with you?

I have a mastermind going right now on Saturdays. We meet for about an hour, and we dive into questions like, where are you not shining in your business? How do you want to start to shine? Or, what fear is getting in the way? 

With my background being in psychology, I’m able to bring my knowledge of the stages of change and how your fears impact you, and can give you different strategies that work for you.

The clients I work with are female entrepreneurs who are ready to grow. I find that everyone is working through a current mindset that was shaped by so many other voices. I like to focus on how we rewrite our narrative, so that we are not just following what society says to do, but we are following our own voice and intuition. 

I want to help women gain that sparkle back in their eyes. You know, that sparkle in someone’s appearance when they gain their confidence back. You can see it in women when that happens, and it’s pure magic. 

One of my amazing clients has experienced such a transformation since she started attending my events. The first time she came to a networking event, I could read the anxiety on her face. My focus was to help her feel safer in this space, and in the span of a few short months, she was sharing how she’s been doing this, how she got her own office space now, and she’s been connecting with some of the top people in her industry, all in the span of five months.

That is such a powerful piece in my work. Being able to see that she is sparkling and gaining her confidence to just be herself and go do the things that are on her heart. 

She just keeps hitting milestones, and I can't even keep up.

What I love doing the most is encouraging women to keep moving forward, to keep taking those baby steps and giving women the permission to shine their brightest.

Here’s how you can connect with Ashley:

Instagram | Eventbrite | YYC Sparkle Entrepreneur Network Facebook Group

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