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For the Love of Here is a podcast about Dalton, Georgia and life across Northwest Georgia—from local businesses and entrepreneurship to community leadership and hometown pride.
Hosts Erika Mosteller and Lauren Sneary sit down with founders, civic leaders, creatives, and neighbors from Dalton, Chatsworth, Ringgold, and Calhoun to talk about the ideas, challenges, and opportunities shaping our region.
If you care about small-town business, local culture, economic growth, and building a life where you live, this podcast is for you.
Because you don’t need a bigger city. You just need a better lens.
Produced by Here Local Media.
Ep03
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Meet Ashlea Snell
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[00:00:00]
Erika Mosteller: So today's guest is especially exciting for us. She was one of the first people that I spoke with about the magazine and then Lauren too. And she was one of the first believers in our magazine. She is a believer in Dalton. it's interesting because she has traveled the whole world. She has photographed weddings and commercial shoots all over the world. And her work has been featured in some. Publications you might have heard of, you know, people gardening, gun, evidently the New York Times coming up. [00:01:00] Pretty big stuff. Can we say that? Yeah. But we know her as an artist, a servant, someone who's quick to help, and someone who is kind of obsessed with fellow female entrepreneurs and lifting them up, which is how we connected with her in the first place. And they all chose, she and her family chose to settle here in Dalton.
And so we would love to welcome Ashlea Snell of the Snells Photography.
So thank you so much for being here. We're so glad to
Ashlea Snell: Yeah. Thank you guys so much for having me. It's such an honor to be on the podcast,
Erika Mosteller: Yeah.
How We Connected
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Erika Mosteller: So how did we
Lauren Sneary: Ashlea. Yeah, that's a good question. I got a random DM on Instagram. You know, sometimes meta works for good.
Erika Mosteller: right?
Lauren Sneary: And she asked me to meet Native
Erika Mosteller: Kitchen, which I didn't realize that you kind of have an obsession with Native
Ashlea Snell: a little bit. A little bit.
Erika Mosteller: me
Ashlea Snell: There was one time I looked at our budget at the end of the month and I had spent like $400 there
Erika Mosteller: oh
Ashlea Snell: and I was like, I need to reel it back.
Erika Mosteller: Right. This is a, this is now an influencer.
Lauren Sneary: That's
Ashlea Snell: Native Kitchen, sponsor me
Erika Mosteller: Yeah.
Ashlea Snell: please.
Erika Mosteller: We love
Ashlea Snell: We love him.
Erika Mosteller: So yeah, so we [00:02:00] met and I remember talking, I don't know about
Lauren Sneary: Being a mom and a business owner. Mm-hmm. And investing in your community and just all sorts of
cool
about you. And then that it took like a year before we actually
Erika Mosteller: started talking about the magazine and were able to work together.
So you just
Lauren Sneary: know how those random.
Erika Mosteller: DM coffee meetups are gonna. Pan
Ashlea Snell: Exactly. I literally was just trying to find some local female entrepreneurs here in Dalton. We had just moved from Chatsworth area into Dalton and I just was really wanting some awesome women friends, and so I kind of came across you guys. So, so
Moving To Dalton
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Lauren Sneary: You said you came from,
Chatsworth,
but is that kind of your Dalton origin story or is it longer than that?
Could you tell us how you got the Dalton?
Ashlea Snell: Yeah, so right at six years ago, it was in the middle of COVID and our wedding business had really started being more destination. So we were up in the Chicago, Wisconsin area for six years, and a lot of my weddings were starting to be in the Caribbean, Europe, all of.
All of those places and we wanted to move back down south to be a little closer to family. So we were kind of [00:03:00] exploring where to move to. And we actually just had a good friend that lived in Dalton. His name is Mark Carr. And we came and visited him and his precious family. And you know, we were talking to them, we were trying to.
We're in a transition period and he was like, yeah, there's a amazing private school here. And Elijah was entering into kindergarten. And so we were like, you know what, this is three hours from my family, three hours from Tyler's family. It was right in the middle, about an hour and 20 from Atlanta airport, which we are crazy Delta people.
So, and having nonstop fights pretty much all over the world that was really convenient for us. So that's really what. Took us and brought us here and we ended up finding a place in Chatsworth originally 'cause that's where Mark and his family were. And the more and more we started being here in Dalton, everything we do is in Dalton Chatsworth.
I'm sorry, not Chatsworth. Everything is in
Erika Mosteller: offense,
Ashlea Snell: no offense, Chatsworth.
I got.
Erika Mosteller: kind of, it's a little bit of a drive to live
Ashlea Snell: Yes. Everything we were doing was like in Atlanta or Chattanooga area. Nashville, Knoxville. So it was just a little bit of a [00:04:00] hole for us.
Downtown Home Life
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Ashlea Snell: And so we kind of moved into, you know, when I first moved here six years ago and when we were trying to figure out like where we wanted to live, I always was like, I wanna live off of TPPs Road or in the historic district.
And so now we've been able to when we were moving into Dalton, we found a place and we remodeled a beautiful home right off of Walnut Avenue and we love it. It is just. We sit on our back porch and we are just like, how lucky are we? Like we just, we built,
Lauren Sneary: Right. I feel like
Ashlea Snell: essentially we built it. It was, we pretty much took it down to the studs and we are just so grateful.
We've completely renovated it. It looks like people, someone just picked up a house and dropped it. You when you were like,
Lauren Sneary: we're gonna move to Dalton, you not only moved to
you moved to like heart.
Ashlea Snell: Oh, the heart,
Lauren Sneary: we're gonna do
Ashlea Snell: yes. Yeah. I love downtown. I love being able to like walk. If, I mean, not that I walk downtown, but, mm-hmm.
But
Lauren Sneary: you could
Ashlea Snell: I could, I, I dropped my car off at the car detailing place and did walk downtown.
And so it's just amazing, like local to everything, an easy hop, skip, and a jump away from the interstate. [00:05:00] So we love it. Yeah. I don't think I need that. Your,
Erika Mosteller: story, that it was our proximity to like major airports, but also small town feel, which we've heard. That makes sense. Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: that story from other people, so that's cool that
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: resonating with. Multiple families that it's
Lauren Sneary: so
That you get to.
travel the globe and still call Dalton home. I
Ashlea Snell: Yeah,
Lauren Sneary: such
disparate experiences. I guess it makes you maybe value that small time, small town, slower pace a little bit more when you get to get back.
Ashlea Snell: Oh yeah. It is really funny because every time we like go on a trip, we have, I would say a larger following. And it's so funny because I'm like, I'm gonna be the influencer now and then like I come back home and I'm like, okay, bye.
I'm gonna crawl in my hole and have my three beautiful children and like, yeah. So, it is.
Erika Mosteller: love when y'all travel
Ashlea Snell: Oh yeah.
Hawaii Drone Drama
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Erika Mosteller: the, like y'all went to Hawaii
Ashlea Snell: Mm-hmm.
Erika Mosteller: there was some little video. So Tyler, her husband's a
Ashlea Snell: Mm-hmm.
Erika Mosteller: beautiful work, but there was a
Lauren Sneary: But there was a a, I guess it was a drone of y'all, like on a,
Erika Mosteller: a kayak in the ocean.
Lauren Sneary: yeah, I showed it to you.
Erika Mosteller: kids and they were [00:06:00] like, let's go there.
Ashlea Snell: You guys wanna hear a funny story about that drone?
Erika Mosteller: of course.
Ashlea Snell: This is wild. So I'm like, we're getting ready for the day. We were about to go do the road at Tejana. We were in Maui, and Tyler just ended up getting like the newest drone.
It's like the Mavic four Pro. It's like, awesome, blah, blah, blah.
Lauren Sneary: is how we got some of our beautiful cover
Ashlea Snell: Yes, yes. Ashlea got to do that. But so we were in Hawaii and Tyler's like excited to get some like awesome shots. There's like an island, you've probably seen the photo off in the distance. Probably like, I think he said like a couple miles out from where we were.
I'm getting ready. The kids are just watching a movie while we're prepping for the day. I tyler's out on the balcony and I see him like Pac and he is grabbing his heart and I was like. And the world is like, what's, is he having a heart attack? So I walk out there and I was like, what's wrong? He's like, I'm gonna lose it.
It's just a drone. It's just a drone. It's just a drone. And I was like, what, what, what are you, whatcha talking about? And he was like, the shot that I wanted to get my, my drone. And it's like his. [00:07:00] Little controllers, like critically low, critically low landing. Now he's like over the ocean.
Lauren Sneary: no,
Ashlea Snell: Oh yeah. And this is a $5,000 drone.
And the issue is you can't get them imported right now. Like he got the last one the GI was selling because of Yeah, there's a whole thing of a thing
Lauren Sneary: I
Ashlea Snell: that people,
Lauren Sneary: himself off the cliff. He's like,
Ashlea Snell: it's
Lauren Sneary: a turn. Right.
Ashlea Snell: literally, he was like full on panic heart, like it was wild. So I was, I just walked away. I started praying. I was like, Lord, just bring it back, bring it back.
Bring it back. So.
Lauren Sneary: If y'all name your
Ashlea Snell: No, I call him, I have a little one and I call her Droney, little droney, but Tyler's is, he's a man's man. So, but he, it like came in hot and heavy. I don't know how it came up in there, but it made it back and it literally landed while it was Tyler's like cruising it in. He landed it and he, I was like, you need to walk away.
Lauren Sneary: yeah.
Ashlea Snell: And I was like,
Lauren Sneary: Take a walk.
Ashlea Snell: need to, but what happened was he got so far out and then the wind picked up. And so it was like fighting to come back over the [00:08:00] ocean. So he was having to fly it down in its whale season. So he's like flying so low to the ocean, speeding it back, but the wind's pushing like humpback whales about to come up and knock it over.
So he is just like,
Erika Mosteller: things. I know,
Ashlea Snell: just like drone thing. So yeah. That's beautiful shot. Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: I did not know the stress behind that
Ashlea Snell: there was a lot of.
Erika Mosteller: peace to my
Ashlea Snell: Yes, we got the drone. Everything's fine. All is well.
Lauren Sneary: plug, if you
Ashlea Snell: see that
Lauren Sneary: photo.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: you on
Ashlea Snell: Yes.
Lauren Sneary: handle be?
Ashlea Snell: us on Instagram. It is the Snells underscore because there is a sweet family. If you're listening and you have this Instagram tag, I have tried to pay them to buy the Instagram.
Lauren Sneary: so funny.
Ashlea Snell: I have found the guy on Instagram, I found him on Facebook. I've like messaged him. He owns the Snells
Lauren Sneary: the
Ashlea Snell: and I am like,
on, he's got like 20 followers so everybody will report him. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding.
Erika Mosteller: We can, we can. We don't condone [00:09:00] that. Yeah, we don't, we're not supporting that. I'm just kidding.
Ashlea Snell: I'll send you all a dollar. Just kidding. But
Dalton Magazine Vision
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Erika Mosteller: you love Dalton. When we got together to talk about the magazine and we were just brainstorming about
Lauren Sneary: some like really cool fresh visuals and like what was kind of trending in a way that was approachable and not.
Erika Mosteller: not it, it
Lauren Sneary: Artistic, but it wasn't like so artistic.
Erika Mosteller: that people
Lauren Sneary: Relate to it. Yeah. And I just remember you, we were in Gar house,
Erika Mosteller: house, which
Lauren Sneary: We just loved
Erika Mosteller: all of the coffee
Ashlea Snell: all of them.
Erika Mosteller: But we were in Gar house and I remember you just talking about Dalton and how excited
Lauren Sneary: and all these ideas, you had content. Mm-hmm. And when we,
Erika Mosteller: we Ash
Lauren Sneary: Ashlea was the one who brought our cover photo,
Erika Mosteller: Dreams to Life. When I went to
Lauren Sneary: told you about my vision for the first one, and second my group.
Erika Mosteller: you were just like, yeah, let's make it
Lauren Sneary: And I just love that about you. I feel like all three of us are like, yeah, let's do it. Let's make it happen.
Starting Photography Business
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Lauren Sneary: So I wanted to hear about how you decided to get into entrepreneurship, because I feel like you started really young.
Erika Mosteller: young,
Lauren Sneary: Like right out of college.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah. So I was in [00:10:00] college, Tyler and I had just gotten married and crazy enough we got our tax refund back and I was working at Chick-fil-A, I was a manager at three different Chick-fil-A's done marketing for them. And I loved my experience working for Chick-fil-A, but I. It was, I was to the point where I wanted to start my own business.
My dad had started a business in Greenville, South Carolina, and it is a thriving amazing trade business and I always had that mentality in me. But then really after, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears with the marketing at Chick-fil-A. I was just like, okay, I want to do something different. And when we got our tax refund back, thankfully we didn't have any debt and Tyler's like, well, what do you wanna do?
I was like, I wanna start a photography business. And so it was our senior year in college and we were living in Knoxville, Tennessee at the time, and I picked up a camera, one of my really good friends in South Carolina, she had started a business a couple years prior. She told us what to do, she mentored me that first year.
And truly the business just took off. We ended up moving up. Up to Wisconsin. And within that first year, I had 32 weddings on the books. And it was wild. I [00:11:00] look back and I was just like, I had ended up getting in with a local bridal shop. It was their daughter that was getting married, and they hired me because of a friend of a friend knew me.
And that's really how my business just kicked off. And I, I love it.
Lauren Sneary: since.
Ashlea Snell: And I am so grateful. I love weddings. I love corporate work. I very sparingly do family sessions. It's more like a boutique style and I only take a handful a year. But absolutely love the storytelling behind brands and, just absolutely love capturing wedding days.
And I love what I do. My, my mother-in-law was in town is in town currently, and she told me yesterday, she's like, do you like what you do? And I was like, I love it. I absolutely love it. With like everything in me, there's not a day that I like walk around and I'm like, I'm so mad that I
Lauren Sneary: yeah.
Ashlea Snell: am doing this.
Like,
Lauren Sneary: is
Ashlea Snell: I love it.
Lauren Sneary: I mean,
Erika Mosteller: that
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: just, you have a really, I
Lauren Sneary: Your artist eye,
Erika Mosteller: And so I think you bring that to
Lauren Sneary: the work that you do.
Erika Mosteller: and it's,
Lauren Sneary: I feel like Lauren and I potentially resonate this just as creative, but it's [00:12:00] like just having something different
Erika Mosteller: in these
Lauren Sneary: challenges
Erika Mosteller: these new projects and
Lauren Sneary: this new
Erika Mosteller: spark where you can be like, Ooh, yeah, we could do
Lauren Sneary: mm-hmm.
Erika Mosteller: you get a new story to
Lauren Sneary: It's just fine.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: I just love.
Lauren Sneary: Getting to participate in that process.
Erika Mosteller: with you. That's been really fun with the
Ashlea Snell: It is awesome.
Lauren Sneary: is just so, I mean, having such a high quality artistic viewpoint in the photography, in the magazine,
Differentiates it from other stuff that's out there and not, not just in Dalton, but generally speaking, it's a part of the storytelling that sometimes gets overlooked in, in the kind of more written formats and it, it's just so elevating. So thank you for that.
Ashlea Snell: You guys are amazing.
Erika Mosteller: We
Ashlea Snell: I appreciate it.
Erika Mosteller: actually had a client recently tell me when we have our one year, which is coming up.
Lauren Sneary: That's crazy. Officially we
Ashlea Snell: will. Isn't it crazy?
Erika Mosteller: for a year in May, but our first issue was in September of 2025.
Lauren Sneary: got a little.
Erika Mosteller: for that. But he
Lauren Sneary: oh, you know what you should do a gallery showing of all of color.
Erika Mosteller: covers.
Lauren Sneary: he was like, they're [00:13:00] really art. They're art.
Yeah. And I was like, oh, that's,
Erika Mosteller: Ashlea. Which I know
Ashlea Snell: I.
Erika Mosteller: you know, we have a vision and you just nail it every
Ashlea Snell: Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: so
Ashlea Snell: I appreciate that. Yeah, and it, it was really fun. I had a wedding last year, and it was at the Hunter Museum, and when you walked in, their engagement session, images were just like boom, boom, boom, just like lining up in the art gallery. And for the fir I was literally just like, oh. This is amazing.
Like we actually, all the magazines that we were in, a lot of these magazines, we have 'em in our office framed like the Garden Gun Magazine. We were in a couple of other Atlanta Bride and, you know, all those things. We have 'em hanging in our office and it is just, it's, it's surreal. It really is surreal.
Erika Mosteller: I love it.
Favorite Destinations
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Erika Mosteller: Okay, so you've been kind of, if y'all wanna check out her website and have a little wanderlust, you
Lauren Sneary: just do that.
Erika Mosteller: because she's traveled all over the world. But
Lauren Sneary: Tell me your favorite destination weddings that you have.
Erika Mosteller: captured.
Lauren Sneary: Oh, good one.
Ashlea Snell: Oh man. Well, we were in Tuscany two years ago, and that was so beautiful. It ended up raining a lot of the time but then [00:14:00] we were able to go afterwards and, and do Rome and just we, whenever we go overseas, we try to like, put some time in before or afterwards.
And so that's always, I think my favorite part about traveling is being able to go with Tyler and exploring, we, we've been so many places. I think we've been over 14 countries
just for personal and business and it's just, it's so much fun. So I love Europe. I just was in Africa for personal business mentorship, but more personal travels and that was incredible.
It wasn't a wedding, but just to be able to see all the textures and kind of have like fresh ideas of like. You know, just art and imagery in general. I love the Caribbean. We've shot a lot of weddings in the Caribbean. Our heart was like,
Lauren Sneary: I know,
Ashlea Snell: yeah, our heart was really devastated whenever the Jamaica got hit with the hurricane.
'cause we have, I think we've done over 12 weddings in Jamaica. We called it our second home. 'cause there has been a time, like, we have literally been there so many times.
Um,
Lauren Sneary: Have so many
Ashlea Snell: I know. And it's, I have to renew it [00:15:00] next year.
And I'm like, I don't know what to, I'm gonna frame it or something. I'm gonna do something like that.
Erika Mosteller: so fun.
Ashlea Snell: But yeah, I think I love Italy. Italy is probably hands down one of my favorite places. But then I also love the Caribbean 'cause I'm a beach girly, so.
Erika Mosteller: it. I am feeling really small town right now. Just become a wedding photographer
Ashlea Snell: Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: West destination
Ashlea Snell: I know
Lauren Sneary: I should. I should.
Ashlea Snell: you would not, Ima you can't imagine the amount of people that become babysitters once they find out they're like.
Lauren Sneary: Oh, that's a good entry point for sure.
Erika Mosteller: Do you need me to watch your kids while you
Ashlea Snell: Yeah. For real?
Erika Mosteller: Okay, but you always come back to
Ashlea Snell: Mm-hmm.
Erika Mosteller: guess let's, let's. it
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: to Dalton, but but yeah.
Why Dalton Feels Like Home
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Erika Mosteller: Tell me what you love
Lauren Sneary: Living here, because y'all could have lived anywhere.
Erika Mosteller: really,
Lauren Sneary: you chose to live here, so what do you love about it?
Erika Mosteller: about living here?
Ashlea Snell: Yeah, and it's really crazy 'cause like I said, we still do work in some pretty major cities around, but ultimately Dalton is that small town. We have built just such a beautiful community. Our kids go to Christian Heritage and we absolutely love the community [00:16:00] that that brings.
A lot of the friends that I've met you guys and just like. On a day-to-day basis, I feel like I probably see one person that I know just walking around all the time.
Lauren Sneary: That's
Ashlea Snell: really love that. I feel like our kids are just like, you know, planted and rooted here and I think that's a really beautiful thing.
Lauren Sneary: you have such good kids too.
Ashlea Snell: I'm so grateful we have just. We are so lucky. Like we tell 'em all the time. We're like, people would actually like, really die to have kids like you guys. They're just precious. Yeah, just amazing. I'm so grateful. Like really precious kiddos, but
Erika Mosteller: it to your kids? I dunno if I, grateful is a
Lauren Sneary: hard one.
Erika Mosteller: I am grateful,
Ashlea Snell: times,
Lauren Sneary: Your age is two and five
Erika Mosteller: right
Ashlea Snell: I was gonna say, that's a hard,
Lauren Sneary: in
Ashlea Snell: I know I always say like three to right now, Elijah's 10, but Oh.
Erika Mosteller: Yeah.
Ashlea Snell: Love it. Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: sweet. I just
Lauren Sneary: love it.
Erika Mosteller: donuts to my kid's school for his birthday and it was like,
Lauren Sneary: You know, they just,
Erika Mosteller: they're walk up and give you a big hug and they're not embarrassed. Yeah,
Lauren Sneary: fun.
Erika Mosteller: Love
Ashlea Snell: I know.
Yeah.
Dalton Food Favorites
---
Ashlea Snell: But I love the food [00:17:00] here in Dalton, like, oh gosh. Yeah,
Lauren Sneary: say enough about it. I
Ashlea Snell: I know. And so the coffee is perfect here. And I, I know this sounds weird in Chattanooga, like there's a really a lot of good coffee chefs, and I'm not, it's, there's not any that I'm like, I wanna go back to, you know.
I'm saying on a daily basis, I want to go drive to Chattanooga, but I would
Lauren Sneary: for Dalton Supremacy. Like it's,
Ashlea Snell: if I could eat at like Native Kitchen, the El McQuay right up here. Ugh, listen,
Erika Mosteller: it.
Ashlea Snell: hands down,
Erika Mosteller: que, I just started getting that. I told you about that. You
Ashlea Snell: listen.
Erika Mosteller: okay, I'm gonna get 'em. And you were right. They're so good.
Ashlea Snell: And then table 43. I just had that for the first time, man. No, but funny enough, Tyler, my Tyler said This actually looks like a real salad. And I was like, as opposed, I'm thinking to myself, I don't
Erika Mosteller: A bake
Ashlea Snell: a fake salad, but he made like a real farmer's looking salad, right?
Erika Mosteller: No, I did get, okay. I get what he's saying.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: which one it was, but it was like bib lettuce and radishes and like they looked
Lauren Sneary: They were beautiful.[00:18:00]
Erika Mosteller: picked off
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: and it was so good. It had this really light like lemony dressing on it.
Are
Lauren Sneary: we all really hungry? Should
Erika Mosteller: maybe, I don't
Ashlea Snell: You guys wanna go? I'll eat after this. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Choices. Yes. There really are so many choices I feel like. Yeah. We actually, the other day when we were trying to figure out where we were going, we just, all of us put in two different restaurants and then we all picked out of which one we were not going to.
And then the last one was where we ended up going. So it was really fun. 'cause we always are like, yeah, no, and my kids always wanna go to Chili's.
Erika Mosteller: Oh yeah. And you're like, let's go local. Man. That's
Ashlea Snell: I literally, I'm like, guys, I love.
Lauren Sneary: it, is it the screen on the table? That's why my
Ashlea Snell: You don't even do that.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah. I'm like, no,
Ashlea Snell: It's the honey Chipotle chicken crispers.
Lauren Sneary: I mean,
Ashlea Snell: mean, it's really good.
be honest though.
Lauren Sneary: Okay.
Old Text Tease
---
Lauren Sneary: I know we have a lot more questions.
It's true. But I did, I found,
The first text
message you ever sent me about Ashlea. Of
Erika Mosteller: course you did.
Lauren Sneary: And I
Erika Mosteller: never
Ashlea Snell: I,
Erika Mosteller: out her message. Okay.
Lauren Sneary: Okay. We don't have to take it that direction, but she is
Ashlea Snell: I don't ever clean him out either, so [00:19:00] I get it.
Lauren Sneary: That's all right. You know, it opposites work well together. It's true.
Is what we've discovered.
Ashlea Snell: If they do
Brand Photos Memories
---
Lauren Sneary: Okay, so the first message that she sent me was, I just
with Ashlea Snell OMG
amazing
So
she's got,
the vision,
the Pohto potential. She wants to do our brand.
photos.
Ashlea Snell: Aw, that's, I love that
so much. And those are some of my favorite brand photos that we have done to date. We had so much fun. I cannot wait to redo some more. Yeah, it was great.
Lauren Sneary: she made me and Erica lay on the floor really close together.
Erika Mosteller: We were kind of just getting to know each other too. It was, it was a bonding
Ashlea Snell: I was like, alright, touch each other's faces. No, I'm just kidding. I didn't do that. I didn't do that.
Erika Mosteller: I did have somebody it was a, a student at UGA and I'm an alum, and
Lauren Sneary: He was like,
Erika Mosteller: let's follow each other on LinkedIn. I met him at a UGA event
Lauren Sneary: like, sure.
Erika Mosteller: And I
Lauren Sneary: I, that
Erika Mosteller: picture of
Lauren Sneary: upside down. He goes
Erika Mosteller: you're
Lauren Sneary: upside down.
Erika Mosteller: in this picture.
Ashlea Snell: Photographer stinks. Okay.
Erika Mosteller: it's cool, right.
Ashlea Snell: He's like, that photographer stinks.
Erika Mosteller: Like the framing kind of [00:20:00] off. I know. It was great.
Ashlea Snell: art.
Erika Mosteller: Art, it's, it's
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: Okay,
Art And Community Investment
---
Lauren Sneary: so art, I'm, this is a, this is a segue here.
Mm-hmm.
is an investment and speaking of investment, how do you like to invest your time or your resources back into your community?
Foster Care Advocacy
---
Ashlea Snell: I love this question because I am very, very passionate about supporting kids in foster care. So, for the past three years I've been working as a casa, which is a Court Appointed Advocate for Whitfield County. And that is an incredible, incredible program that I love volunteering with.
Lauren Sneary: It's called casa,
Ashlea Snell: It's called CASA Court.
Lauren Sneary: looking for more
Ashlea Snell: They really are. So essentially it is people in the community that come and volunteer locally to pretty much be a mentor, but then also be an advocate for these kids in foster care. So a lot of people for me, I am very, very passionate about like helping people if they cannot be a foster parent, like, how else can you help?
And because obviously not all of us can be foster parents, but I sit there and I just wanna like. Grab people's shoulders and shake them and say, there is so many more ways [00:21:00] to serve these kids. So we actually just got re-certified recently and so we're taking respite kids currently. And so it's been we're, I'm putting a pause on Casa and kind of help being able to take in kids as needed for respite for the foster parents in the local area.
But I'm very.
Lauren Sneary: in the
Ashlea Snell: Period. Yeah, so I think that right now we, I believe that we have, last time I was talking to somebody, there's over 150 kids in Whitfield County and it usually stays around probably like 80 to a hundred and Murray County. Now obviously that like fluctuates weekly, I feel like. And so a lot of kids, since there's not enough foster homes or even having to move them to Savannah separate sibling groups,
that's really heartbreaking. Obviously that's like, a very big need. But, you know, I think there are so many ways to rally around these kids. Supporting foster parents by just bringing a meal once a week or once a month, getting together with these foster parents to just encourage them, like writing letters to them.
A lot of kids, they do backpack [00:22:00] drives. A lot of these kids come into care with. Absolutely nothing. And so I know that CASA helps or family support council specifically. They do like backpack drives or like luggage drives so that these kids can actually have something,
Lauren Sneary: carrying like a
a trash bag of their belongings
Ashlea Snell: So there's a lot of ways to get involved in that and that's kind of what I really love to spend. My extra, I don't like to say extra time 'cause I feel like none of us have extra time. I feel like everybody,
Lauren Sneary: about.
Ashlea Snell: to be intentional. Yeah. I could be a lot more intentional, but it's just one of those things that I'm really passionate about, so.
Erika Mosteller: Okay, so if people wanna find out more about casa, where do they do that? If we have
Ashlea Snell: Yeah, if you just look up family support Counsel or CASA Court appointed special advocate in Woodville County and then Tracy Harmon is the contact for that and
is very precious, but she helps, kinda bring people in and they train it. It's a couple week training, couple weeks worth of training.
You go through trauma training and all that stuff just to be able to figure out how to advocate for these kids. But it's a beautiful thing. My [00:23:00] child was thankfully, actually able to be reunited, the one that I was working a case with for two and a half years, and that was a really beautiful thing.
So it's just really, yeah, there's a big need, but I
Erika Mosteller: And
Ashlea Snell: to do it.
Erika Mosteller: work.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: you for sharing that. Thank you for doing
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: That's cool. yeah,
Lauren Sneary: So, man, I don't even know. Like I know it's
not
the
craziest dad, right?
Erika Mosteller: man.
Ashlea Snell: a crazy story.
Lauren Sneary: Okay, great.
Wild Photo Shoot Story
---
Ashlea Snell: Transitioning
Lauren Sneary: Arch
Ashlea Snell: harsh transition. And you know, it's so funny, as soon as you said crazy story, I, I haven't thought about this in years, but there was, I was, this was another reason I don't do family sessions. People are cooking.
So I got a call and this guy was like, Hey, I've got this daughter, I wanna do like a dad and daughter photo shoot. And I was like, no prob, this is like up in Wisconsin. So he was like, I'm up in Green Bay. And I was like, okay. Didn't know who he was. I was like, Tyler, you're coming with me. I was like, you're just gonna kind of like be with me.
And so we drive an hour there and the guy kept saying, and I was like, well, there is a travel fee. And he was like, oh no, I'm gonna, it's fine. I'm gonna [00:24:00] tip you well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, it's a little weird to say that, but whatever. So I'm getting out and I'm walking up to, it looks like, like an apartment building or something in downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin.
And this guy is like running out with his daughter, like. Thrown over his shoulder and he's like, you did this, you did this. And I was like, what is going on? So I like texted Tyler and I was like, come, come back. Come back. Because he had like, he was parking me
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Ashlea Snell: he was, the fire alarm was going off in the building and he was like saying that I set the fire alarm off.
And I just looked at him and I was like, okay, if you don't wanna do this, we don't have to do this. She's like, you anything. And he's like, yelling at me. I was like, oh my gosh,
Lauren Sneary: Right.
Ashlea Snell: is, what did I just walk into? I literally was like, okay, we don't have to do this. I turned around and got back in the car and we left.
Erika Mosteller: Wait, what?
Ashlea Snell: It was the most Kuhn, it was crazy. Still to this day, Lauren, like, that's how I feel about the situation. It it was wild.
Erika Mosteller: think photographers and realtors probably have the craziest story. Some
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: human interactions.
Ashlea Snell: I,
Erika Mosteller: way to put it. You
Ashlea Snell: it was,
Erika Mosteller: colors of people
Ashlea Snell: [00:25:00] yeah. I have never, and he never called me afterwards. Nothing ever. And I never called back him back, but I was just like, it was wild. So that's, thankfully, I hate to say thankfully. We really haven't had any
Erika Mosteller: That's good.
Ashlea Snell: other crazy stories except, and that was my last family session I ever did. No.
Erika Mosteller: And that is why I
Ashlea Snell: And that is why I don't deal with that,
Erika Mosteller: Oh.
Ashlea Snell: so,
Favorite Local Finds
---
Lauren Sneary: so one
of the things
thing
every guest
is
We may have covered a little,
bit already, honestly in the food conversation,
we like to find out your favorite do thing.
And that can be something very profound. Like Amanda
Michael, I heard is
Erika Mosteller: so
Lauren Sneary: was like the sun coming up over the mountains, which is so lovely. But it can also be like, you know, the.
Sausage ball appetizer. Yes.
Table 43. Evidently, that's Lauren's new favorite. I'm sorry I can't stop talking about, I'm
Ashlea Snell: I feel like I need to go and try it out.
Erika Mosteller: I, no.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah, we'll walk over there. Yeah.
Farmers Markets And Gardening
---
Ashlea Snell: One of my favorite things in the local area is the farmer's markets. I know that here in Dalton we're like really trying to like get up and going. I love a good farmer's market. Like it's so fun because [00:26:00] we started my garden at home.
I'm a big gardener. And so, of course my husband built me like three beaut. He was like, you want a garden? Lemme build you all this stuff. So they're like gorgeous beds. Like he built a irrigation system. 'cause that's just Tyler. Like, that's, it has to be perfect or nothing.
Lauren Sneary: Perfect
Ashlea Snell: I was like, and I was like, this was, yeah.
Anyways, it was funny. So I was like, I was just gonna throw some cedar boards on there and call it a day. He's like,
Lauren Sneary: the Dalton Farmer's
Ashlea Snell: yes. Yeah.
Lauren Sneary: Ringold has an awesome one. The Rabbit Valley, isn't it
Ashlea Snell: So that's our like ultimate. Yeah. So we try to like, whenever Dalton is a little smaller or like, I think it's like every other Saturday, but then we'll hit up the Ringold one and like my kids love it.
Kids Entrepreneurship Lessons
---
Ashlea Snell: I was looking up the other day, it starts on May the second, but like Elijah's, he loves to do soap, so he's we were talking about trying to get a table this year, this summer a couple times. 'cause Allie likes to make hand sanitizer and it's so funny, she sold it to all of her friends at school. I'm already building entrepreneurs.
I love it.
Lauren Sneary: like
Ashlea Snell: Entrepreneurs. Yes. Oh, and if you ask Elijah [00:27:00] Tyler is like in Incre. He's very incredibly minded. And it's so funny 'cause he's already Elijah's investing in stocks already. And so he is just so money minded. I bought something the other day and he was like, is that on the budget?
Lauren Sneary: Oh
Ashlea Snell: I was like, no, it wasn't.
But like I had to buy your artwork from school. Like I just had to.
Erika Mosteller: Right.
Ashlea Snell: So
Lauren Sneary: that. I, I gotta work on financial education.
Ashlea Snell: got time.
Lauren Sneary: are young.
Ashlea Snell: You got time.
Lauren Sneary: like, let's go to Disney World. And I'm like, well honey, that that costs a lot of money. And and
Although we could not go out to eat right one time,
Ashlea Snell: you're like,
Lauren Sneary: just knock down one
Ashlea Snell: yeah, sure,
Erika Mosteller: are equal.
Ashlea Snell: that'll do. We'll say, yeah. Now Carter, he gets a dollar and blows it four days prior.
Erika Mosteller: you
Ashlea Snell: Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: in their personalities.
Ashlea Snell: debt.
Erika Mosteller: He's planning how he's
Lauren Sneary: gonna
Ashlea Snell: Yes,
a hundred percent. Like I actually got his money for his birthday and like put it in my drawer because I was like, he is not gonna realize.
Lauren Sneary: point in the near future, we could go to the farmer's market and
Ashlea Snell: Potentially,
Lauren Sneary: table.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah, potentially.
Lauren Sneary: name[00:28:00]
Ashlea Snell: I think Elijah's just Snell's Creations E Elijah's Creations, and then Ally's Ally's Creations. Actually, Elijah started a little Facebook group because I told him, you gotta get your word out. Yeah. He actually, it was Sweet Us Born has they just had a book fair and he, I told all the kids, I'm like, you can get one book.
He got the entrepreneurship lab book. So every day he's been going through this little entrepreneurship lab.
Lauren Sneary: Oh my gosh.
Ashlea Snell: I'm telling, I'm telling you.
Lauren Sneary: out for this
Ashlea Snell: I know he is amazingly smart.
Erika Mosteller: investors in his
Ashlea Snell: Probably so. Yeah. Tyler? No, my husband, he is like, did you say 50% of it?
Lauren Sneary: Yeah,
Ashlea Snell: like,
Erika Mosteller: love it.
Ashlea Snell: so, but Elijah yeah, he, anyways, the other day we sat down, we were having a conversation on customer service and like it gives you a scenario and it was so funny.
Erika Mosteller: Usborne books.
Ashlea Snell: love them.
are.
Erika Mosteller: these like, collections of old stories. Yeah, we have all the Usborne collections.
Ashlea Snell: I'm very thankful. Yeah. I'm very thankful that like Scholastic is not a thing and like us born [00:29:00] is. I just love it. I love 'em.
Erika Mosteller: yeah. They're great.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah. They're great. Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: I know.
Staying In Dalton
---
Lauren Sneary: Okay, so let's start.
Erika Mosteller: it back once again right before we close it
Lauren Sneary: out to, to Dalton. So.
have you, this is another question we ask everyone
and
answer, you know,
ly as you want, but we always are curious for people, especially people who have chosen to be a dolphin.
Mm-hmm.
Have you ever thought about leaving?
again?
Ashlea Snell: Yeah, it's been a conversation just, you know, just 'cause we actually do a lot of stuff in Chattanooga.
We go to church in Chattanooga and a couple of the businesses that we work with there in Chattanooga. But we love Dalton. We absolutely, it's really hard to even think about leaving. I feel like because of the fact that we've built such a beautiful community here and we love the kids at the school, the school that our kids go to, we love the connections that we have here in Dalton.
And it's just, I feel like we don't ever wanna leave because of that. I think just the community alone, so, and a lot of people, I think.
Community Building Mindset
---
Ashlea Snell: I was actually listening to a book by Mel Robbins, I think that's her name,
Lauren Sneary: Mel Robbins.
so
Ashlea Snell: she was essentially like, yeah, she's a [00:30:00] person. But she was talking about the, it's called Let Them You.
Yeah. So I was listening to that book and it was pretty much talking about like, if you don't feel like you have a community. That's honestly on you too. You know, like instead of waiting for somebody to text you and being like, Hey, you wanna go on a walk, you text them and start that community. And so that's been, like for me, I've, I've been trying to purposefully also like, Hey, why don't you come over today?
Which is also hard, you know, it's one of those harder things. Yeah. But I would encourage anybody listening to this and you're like, well, I wanna build a community here in Dalton, but like, I just dunno how, I think it would go a long way if the. The amount of people that also message me on just like photography and that type of realm.
Not even just personal realm, but the amount of people that wanna get coffee and things of that. I think I could have coffee with somebody every day of my life
and, and I'm like, I can't drink that much coffee, although I love it.
and Native Kitchen has the best decaf.
Lauren Sneary: Oh yeah. You had to go decaf. That was
Ashlea Snell: Yeah, it's a little sad, but they have the best tea cap,
Lauren Sneary: Okay, there we
Ashlea Snell: good.
So yeah, I would just encourage you, there's amazing [00:31:00] people here in Dalton. I know you guys know this, but people that are like moving into the area, get out and just try to text a mom because most of 'em are just chilling at home looking for a friend. So I saw
Erika Mosteller: other day
Lauren Sneary: somebody.
Erika Mosteller: you know, it was probably some carousel that I was looking at on Instagram, but it was like, maybe you need to be the village you're waiting for.
it's like, put yourself out there and show up and serve the people around you And it might not always pan out, You'll definitely.
have times where you're vulnerable and put yourself out there and it's not reciprocated, but but then other times you might end up finding your people.
Yeah.
Ashlea Snell: I think one of the biggest tall tale things was just a couple weeks ago when I ended up having surgery. That was pretty last minute. And some people in our church just started a meal train and Tyler said he was like, I am, I was blown away by the amount of people that just showed up. So very, very thankful for our community.
But yeah, they're here. They're here
Erika Mosteller: Yeah.
Ashlea Snell: just gotta find them.
Erika Mosteller: I
Ashlea Snell: So,
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. I love that. That's a great way to end.
Lauren Sneary: I know.
Ashlea Snell: So
Lauren Sneary: been so fun.[00:32:00]
Ashlea Snell: you guys are gonna make me cry. I know. Cut this out.
Lauren Sneary: Alright, I see the tears starting. No
Erika Mosteller: tears allowed. Oh,
Lauren Sneary: this has been so fun.
Closing Plugs And Local Love
---
Lauren Sneary: So thank you not only for doing this with us here today, of course, but for your
Partnership and your creative
thought partnership and
Be in like such a positive life here in Dalton.
and being an advocate for, for this place and these people
Erika Mosteller: I know.
Lauren Sneary: Awesome.
Ashlea Snell: I love it.
Go Dalton.
Erika Mosteller: And y'all can find more about Ashlea and Tyler's work
Lauren Sneary: Instagram is kind of your main.
Erika Mosteller: channel, I would say, right?
Ashlea Snell: Yeah. Instagram, we don't really do TikTok,
Erika Mosteller: Yeah. Me neither. I think I'm too old for it.
Ashlea Snell: it's lame. All the Gen Zs are like me,
Erika Mosteller: I know
Ashlea Snell: but I, I actually, but I heard that pretty much your microphone is on all the time with TikTok and I'm like, I'm not doing it.
Lauren Sneary: I'm confident that it's on all
Ashlea Snell: I
Lauren Sneary: gonna say, I think it's on all the
Ashlea Snell: Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
Lauren Sneary: like a single conversation about and suddenly see an ad for It is wild.
Erika Mosteller: It
Ashlea Snell: it wild that you think it?
Lauren Sneary: sometimes it's that you
Ashlea Snell: It's there.
Lauren Sneary: Yes.
Ashlea Snell: [00:33:00] wild.
So if you just go local, they don't
Lauren Sneary: So local.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah,
Erika Mosteller: saw? You saw a sign at a bookshop, which, ugh. Somebody in Dalton, please open a bookshop. Oh,
Lauren Sneary: please.
Erika Mosteller: Can
Ashlea Snell: it'll be so fun.
Lauren Sneary: Oh, neither of you have been here long
Erika Mosteller: enough. No, but remember beehive really good bookstore beehive was the best. I know. We the one in Chattanooga crowdsource.
I'm like, maybe that's what we need to do.
Ashlea Snell: that one closed. McKay's closed down.
Erika Mosteller: McKay,
Ashlea Snell: Oh.
Erika Mosteller: Oh, what is it called? Book and
Ashlea Snell: Mm-hmm.
Erika Mosteller: over on the North Shore. But anyway,
Lauren Sneary: I saw
Erika Mosteller: sign
Lauren Sneary: outside it was like, read books. The government can't track,
Erika Mosteller: you. Incredible.
Lauren Sneary: like
Erika Mosteller: incredible.
Lauren Sneary: if you buy you right.
Erika Mosteller: Hilarious.
Ashlea Snell: funny. I love it. So that's
awesome.
Erika Mosteller: you feel like our
Lauren Sneary: Star should know about you or your business or your Dalton experience?
Ashlea Snell: No, I think if you're trying to figure out to do in Dalton, there's a lot of things to do that you can find in the magazine.
Wow. I can do that. So look it up. It was hilarious because I think I told Erica this, but a couple weeks ago Tyler's like, we were trying to figure out where we're going for dinner. He's like, I wish [00:34:00] that the magazine would just do like a list of, Tyler didn't talk that, but a, a list of. Of restaurants here in Dalton that you could like go through and check it off.
And it was like literally the food magazine, like one, and I was like, do you mean this one? And he was like, oh, they did it. And I was like.
Yes.
Dining guide on our website. Yes.
Lauren Sneary: in
Ashlea Snell: Yeah. There is so many places. So take, pick this book up, pick this awesome source. Up there's some amazing businesses in here. And I've always been, I mean, it's really crazy because Lauren, I think, I don't know if you know this, but Eric and I both grew up in South Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, the same massive town that both of us don't wanna go back to.
We love visiting. Yeah. and so. We, like my dad, since he owned a business, we were like born bred. Like, you shop local, you do local. So it is just really fun that now in Dalton, like as a business entrepreneur, it's like, no, you, you want to invest locally so that you can keep the like economy going [00:35:00] locally.
Lauren Sneary: Yeah.
Ashlea Snell: and so it's a really fun thing now, like teaching our kids like, okay, we wanna go to the farmer's market to support the farmers and you know, all this stuff. We just love it. We love it.
Erika Mosteller: imperative.
Ashlea Snell: yes. Yeah. And not enough people know about it. I feel like.
Erika Mosteller: other day from the
Lauren Sneary: Stoic
Erika Mosteller: Which is a,
Lauren Sneary: interesting.
Erika Mosteller: Business model. So I had been looking at his business model
Lauren Sneary: he was writing about how he had shifted from doing a lot of paid
Erika Mosteller: advertising
Lauren Sneary: to doing just like heavy, valuable
Erika Mosteller: content marketing.
And he said the reason he did it is 'cause he would rather pay a
Lauren Sneary: a team
Erika Mosteller: to
Lauren Sneary: create things of value.
That,
Erika Mosteller: people can
Lauren Sneary: and just spending a lot of
Erika Mosteller: on ads. But his caveat.
Lauren Sneary: was, unless it is a community centered
Erika Mosteller: publication that supports a place that I truly love and believe in.
Lauren Sneary: And then we will
Erika Mosteller: paid ads.
And I was like, what a cool,
Lauren Sneary: like just
Ashlea Snell: caveat. Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: how you're gonna spend your money and the way you're gonna build
Lauren Sneary: Mm-hmm.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah. Very intentional.
Erika Mosteller: Right.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: like we have thankfully had a lot of people in Dalton who have supported our
Lauren Sneary: Yeah, that's
Erika Mosteller: right. Been here because of that reason too.
And thank you. Interesting. I know.
Ashlea Snell: Yeah.
Erika Mosteller: our [00:36:00] advertisers,
Ashlea Snell: Yes.
Erika Mosteller: well,
Ashlea Snell: But yeah,
Erika Mosteller: being
Ashlea Snell: thank you guys so much for having me. This, I always enjoy chit chats with you guys and I know that we could sit there and talk for hours, but,
Erika Mosteller: you for sticking through to the end of this one because I feel like it's a long one. Appreciate you guys.
Ashlea Snell: oh goodness. But yeah,
problem at all. We'll talk soon.
Erika Mosteller: for being here.