“If you want a long career, it will constantly be changing” : As I shared above, my career began singing and acting. While it was incredible and magical to be on Broadway, energetically, I was supposed to continue evolving past what I knew to be my childhood dream. I am a mountain climber, not literally, but within my artistic career and identity. Half of the things I have achieved have come out of pure curiousity, remaining present in the moment and following through for the greater good. It’s been exciting, at times exhausting, even in seasons disappointing but also incredibly rewarding. And the way I have continued to climb is by switching course when it’s needed. It’s incredible how the leaps of faith or new paths continue to inform your experience from your past and future journeys.
Books have the power to shape, influence, and change our lives. Why is that so? What goes into a book that can shape lives? To address this we are interviewing people who can share a story about a book that changed their life, and why. As a part of our series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ashley Kate Adams.
Ashley Kate Adams is a Broadway actress, award-winning film / music producer and #1 Best-Selling Author. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Music & Entertainment at The University of Memphis where she recently completed her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies focusing in Creativity, Summa Cum Laude. Her second book, #BYOP: Be Your Own Producer: Leveraging Loss and Grief as Fuel for Productivity, releases September 23rd, 2025 everywhere books are sold.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory” and how you grew up?
I originally grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, in a musical theatre household. I am one of four professional performers in my immediate family of five, so there was always something exciting and theatrical going on! I really enjoyed Louisville, it was a wonderful place to be raised with a large exposure to the arts and it was a steady precursor to Cincinnati, where I attended college, and then New York City, where I spent the first half of my career. I was grateful to have solid stepping stones!
Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers a bit about the work you are doing?
I am currently the Visiting Professor of “Music and Entertainment” at the University of Memphis-Lambuth in Jackson, TN! I have the honor of working with young people everyday and molding them for a well-rounded career in entertainment. Most recently, I completed my master’s degree alongside teaching full time and wrote my second book in my creativity series, #BYOP: Be Your Own Producer: Leveraging Loss and Grief as Fuel for Productivity, which will release September 23rd.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
The ability to pivot, utilize discernernment and practice consistency.
In order to be successful long-term, you have to be capable of listening to the world around you. The greater world and our immediate worlds are constantly changing, so listening to it and responding with the ways in which I can contribute has been paramount for me because it truly is always changing for me. I think it becomes very clear when its time for change when it comes to careers and in different seasons of life. If you are growing, your needs will constantly be morphing and remolding, and I think being able to recognize the need for change, although I may protest it for a while, is probably one of my strongest assets. We never outgrow the need to take inventory!
I also believe discernment is paramount to leading. Utilizing discernment is the clearest way to manage groups of people with many personalities or to get a project from A to Z. Discernment has acted as a shield for me many times, especially when I’m executing something new like building a new company or initiative. It has also helped me to eliminate challenges before they even begin. Discernment is the tool that informs when its appropriate to step on the gas, hold steady, allow something to go, or continue to observe.
Of all of my tools, I believe my ability to remain consistent and follow through is my best asset in leadership. Everyone can have great ideas, many can execute them once or even twice, but the way you make an impact or create lasting change is through consistency. Revisiting something even for an hour a day can truly stack and multiply, and if you remain committed to one idea, even in that small increment of time, you will be blown away by what you can accomplish on a larger scale with that work stacked upon itself. Work begets work. And the best part about showing up and remaining consistent is it is fully within your control!
What’s the WHY behind the work that you do? Please share a story about this if you can.
The WHY behind my work is to encourage artists to create as authentically as possible and in every way possible. Many times we are introduced to art or creating only in one lane but what this does is sometimes it traps more of our further abilities from growing. I would not have thought in a million years I would have added hyphens to my artistic identity or skillsets other than performing when I was a child or even a young adult, but by growing, changing and, adding on it has provided me a sustainable lifetime in the arts. My second why is to create a safe space so artists feel less alone navigating some of life’s hardest moments, such as loss. This is what I take on in my second book. As artists, we are sensitive beings, and many times when doing our best work, we are vessels. My WHY is to help artists clear that pathway so that we can make our most authentic work as efficiently as possible.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have recently thought a lot about this with graduating with my master’s degree at a fast-tracked pace. I would love to give a shoutout to my own professors from the College of Profesional and Liberal Studies at the University of Memphis, Dr. Gikas, Dr. Killian, and Dr. Chapell. Through their humility I am sure they will tell me I did the work myself to take on my degree in the way that I did, but the way I felt welcomed and given an open door from them into academia from my world of creativity and the arts was huge for me. In my 14-year career of creativity in NYC, I was advising, teaching, writing, and consulting alongside my performing and producing career, but I had no idea where this work landed within academia or even within the greater disciplines. Understanding that clarity and finding my home has really has helped me to celebrate myself better, my niche, my motivations, and my interests. And that will alIow me to serve others even better. I believe that is our gift as professors, to observe our students, to see them and know we are here to cheer them on as they are finding more of themselves. I am grateful that was also my experience as a student at the University of Memphis.
Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Can you please tell our readers about “The Book That Changed Your Life”? Can you share a story about how it impacted you?
I remember very clearly reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic for the first time. Her first novel, Eat, Pray, Love, rocked me to my core, so I knew I was in for a treat. What was so impactful for me was that the entire book felt like a creative call to action, and because of her warmth and inspiring tone, I answered it! I was deeply impacted by her sentiment, we all have hidden treasures within ourselves creatively, and it’s up to us to have the courage to go on the journey to find them. It unlocked my doubt, and I was able to look at my creativity in a more pedestrian and accessible way.
What was the moment or series of events that made you decide that you wanted to take a specific course of action based on the inspiration from the book? Can you share a story about that?
I will never forget that I was at my survival job in New York City, reading in my downtime, and there was a story in Big Magic where Elizabeth felt inspired to create something, but she did not take action on it and therefore, a colleague of hers ended up taking action on the same idea. For me, I had always wanted to write, but did not believe I was qualified to. Because of Big Magic, I realized, like Elizabeth Gilbert, I could begin writing just like I would speak to people. That is what unlocked my literal voice. I felt, maybe I didn’t feel confident enough to write, but I knew how to speak. The book also inspired me to write my first screenplay. It’s still the writing I am most proud of. I learned from Big Magic, if I didn’t get an idea down on paper and copyright it, someone else very well could! That’s how energy moves! But having the courage to do it yourself, now that’s some big magic!
Can you articulate why you think books in particular have the power to create movements, revolutions, and true change?
Books have the power to create movements and lasting change because once it is written, it is set in stone. While this can feel incredibly overwhelming when you are writing, it can also bring peace because the writing is able to be used as a reference from here on out! That is what is so powerful about writing and publishing, it then becomes always accessible in its original state and intention to others! I believe books create movements because they create a timestamp of information and as a consumer, we can only process reading in our most quiet and reflective moments. To read, one must slow down. And when we take the time to process, think, and reflect, that’s how revolutions are made.
A book has many aspects, of course. For example, you have the writing style, the narrative tense, the topic, the genre, the design, the cover, the size, etc. In your opinion, what are the main, essential ingredients needed to create a book that can change lives?
Serving your audience intentionally through a topic, I believe, helps to change lives. I learned most recently from completing my thesis, the academic companion to my second book, that it is important to understand your disciplines and the topics of research within them so that you can know what gap or niche you are filling through your own work. I believe narrative writing is the same way. “Grief and Productivity” specifically are the topics my audience continued to want to discuss from my first book, so I took all of that energy and funneled it through its own book. An idea that was a paragraph in book one became its own!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Career” and why?
- “If you want a long career, it will constantly be changing” : As I shared above, my career began singing and acting. While it was incredible and magical to be on Broadway, energetically, I was supposed to continue evolving past what I knew to be my childhood dream. I am a mountain climber, not literally, but within my artistic career and identity. Half of the things I have achieved have come out of pure curiousity, remaining present in the moment and following through for the greater good. It’s been exciting, at times exhausting, even in seasons disappointing but also incredibly rewarding. And the way I have continued to climb is by switching course when it’s needed. It’s incredible how the leaps of faith or new paths continue to inform your experience from your past and future journeys.
- “Who you are is your greatest asset and superpower.” : You should not hide who you are; in fact, you need to embrace it. You are an original, and you need to let the world meet the real you. When I first began producing in New York City blindly at the age of 23, I moved forward because it was who I was authentically. I was able to help things exist that had not yet been real before my involvement. I was ready to learn and show up in my novice. And even though I was a Broadway showtune singing ingenue, that became my way in. People have always underestimated me. It originally began as fuel; now it just promotes inner peace and a giggle. If you feel called, you belong.
- “You may not be able to control the outcome, but hard work can make a huge impact and move the needle.” : I recently learned this in my current position, expecting a black or white answer at my current University. While I did not get the promotion I was aiming for, my contract was still extended and I am still employeed doing what I love to do. If I had not worked as hard as I did, I can guarantee I would have been passed over. When my contract was extended, the main thing that was mentioned was my effort and my impact.
- “The quickest way to get the job you want is by taking a job you don’t want.” : This was my go-to mainly in NYC. Work begets work, and by being out and about in and around the industry you want to be deeper in, whether that be in the performing arts or education, that’s how you make new connections to get introduced to new opportunities. If someone is a hard worker, you can recognize those qualities whether they are waiting tables, sending emails on someone else’s behalf, or even mopping the floors. There is an art to being a good worker. Period.
- “Every sector is a relationship-based business.” : A mentor of mine shared this with me in a master class in the city, in regards to the entertainment industry but now that I have made my way into many other areas, I am seeing each business is a relationship-based business. Especially since the pandemic, people are finally valuing their time and their energy and front-facing business is neccesary with others but also within the interpersonal dynamics of a team or project. Having great relationships will help to keep you employed and alert the universe of your value, even if an opportunity falls through. Your people will have your back!
The world, of course, needs progress in many areas. What movement do you hope someone (or you!) starts next? Can you explain why that is so important?
I do not know if this is a movement within itself, but the act of doing it could create many. As a human race, we need to slow down. I can confidently say this as a recovering perfectionist and emotional overachiever. Slowing down creates such clarity, it can encourage us with new visions and more impactful ways of working with others. Our societies are struggling right now with empathy, with understanding and with time. People hide behind keyboards and “brave” words on the internet. Go out in the street. Say hello to your neighbor. Lend a helping hand. I promise it is within those interactions where we will find the answers within our own hearts and in our larger communities.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Please join me on instagram @ashleykateadams and @byop_nyc. I really stay connected with my creative community online and try to bring as many resources to my audience as possible! You can also keep up with my work on my website www.ashleykateadams.com and pre-order my forthcoming book on Barnes and Noble through September 23rd!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.
Author Ashley Kate Adams On The Book That Changed Her Life was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.