I listened to this podcast the way I listen to most podcasts— while inching through Toronto traffic. My usual go-tos, NYTimes, Rich Roll, Seth Godin, took a back seat. More importantly that day, my sister Ashley, was a guest on Behind the Build, hosted by Jonathan Jacobs of Walden Homes. It was a wild listen. The conversation took me straight back through time. Ashley’s path was not clean or linear. It was curiosity mixed with some doubt, a little adventure, detours, and risk. Her mind has always been moving, always noticing, always wanting more than what was right in front of her. That part of her has always been there. Fashion wasn’t a phase, nor being different a rebellion. It's all instinct. It’s in her bones.
Listening to her talk about trips to get ice cream, school, jobs, pushing against expectations, and eventually building Ashley Botten Design, I kept thinking: yes, that’s exactly how it happened. What Jonathan does well in this conversation is give her room to sit in the in-between bits that people usually skip over when they tell success stories. For me, as her sister, it was so amazing to hear it all out loud. Some of it felt like watching an old home movie. Some of it surprised me, but not because I didn’t know it, but because I hadn’t heard her frame it this way before. It’s a conversation about paying attention to what pulls at you and having the nerve to follow it even when the route keeps changing. That’s the part that stayed with me and I am very proud of her.
nina
photography by Patrick Biller
