Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlee Erlinger.
Hi Ashlee, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My story really started in the wedding and event industry.
For about 12 years, I owned Signed Sealed Delivered Events, where I had the absolute joy of helping couples and families create meaningful celebrations. We built an amazing team, became a recognizable name in the St. Louis wedding community, and I learned so much about business, leadership, creativity, and—most importantly—people.
But along the way, I discovered another part of the work that I really loved: mentoring other wedding professionals.
I loved helping people see what was possible for themselves, encouraging them to step into their strengths, and watching them grow their businesses and really soar. After doing that informally for several years, I created Love Lead Inspire in 2020 as a place to mentor and support wedding professionals.
What I didn’t realize at the time was just how much that work would eventually evolve.
Over the next several years, I was doing a lot of things at once. I continued running and eventually transitioned out of my wedding planning business, while also merging with Dream by Design and taking on a leadership role there. At the same time, I was continuing to coach and mentor through Love Lead Inspire.
And the more I coached, the more I noticed that the conversations were becoming so much more than business.
We were talking about perfectionism, people-pleasing, confidence, family dynamics, stress, and the pressure so many of us put on ourselves to have it all figured out.
At the same time, I was doing a lot of my own inner work—yoga, somatic healing, energy work, nervous system regulation, and inner child work. Yoga became especially important to me, and eventually I found myself not only practicing, but teaching and leading workshops.
The more I turned inward, the more I began recognizing how much of my own life had been shaped by trying to be “good enough,” doing everything perfectly, and constantly looking outside of myself for validation.
That realization began changing the direction of my work.
Love Lead Inspire had started as a way for me to mentor wedding professionals because I genuinely loved helping them grow and succeed. But as I continued coaching, while simultaneously navigating the evolution of my own businesses and career, it naturally became something broader and much more personal—a coaching practice focused on helping women come home to themselves.
Eventually, I sold my wedding planning business and later stepped away from Dream by Design, which gave me the opportunity to fully step into the work that had been evolving alongside everything else.
Today, through Love Lead Inspire and my signature offering, BYOB: Be Your Own Bestie™, I primarily work with women who are exhausted from overgiving, overthinking, and feeling like they’re never quite doing enough.
And in a funny way, I feel like I’m still doing what I’ve always done.
I used to help people create beautiful experiences in the outside world.
Then I helped other professionals build businesses they were proud of.
Now, I help women create a more loving relationship with themselves.
And honestly, that feels like the most beautiful evolution of my work.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not. I think if anything, the biggest lesson of my journey has been realizing that growth rarely looks like a straight line.
For a long time, I was really good at achieving. I could work hard, make things happen, take care of everyone, and create something beautiful out of chaos. And honestly, those qualities served me incredibly well in the event industry. But underneath that, there was also a lot of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and this belief that my worth was somehow connected to how much I could accomplish.
One of my biggest struggles was learning how to slow down and ask myself, “What do I actually want?” instead of automatically asking, “What does everyone else need from me?”
Leaving the wedding industry was also challenging because it had been such a huge part of my identity. I had built a successful business, a reputation, friendships, and a career that I genuinely loved. Letting go of something that was working on the outside—but no longer felt like where I was meant to be—required a lot of trust.
And then there was the internal work. I had to confront some pretty deeply ingrained beliefs about being enough, being worthy, and needing to earn love or approval through doing. There were definitely moments when I questioned myself and wondered if I was making the right choices.
But I’ve learned that those moments weren’t failures. They were invitations to practice the tools I now teach.
I still have moments where the old patterns show up. The difference is that now, I recognize them. I can pause, get curious, come back into my body, and choose something different.
So no, it hasn’t been a smooth road. But I don’t think I would want it to be. The bumps, the pivots, and the moments when I had to completely rethink what success meant are what ultimately brought me to the work I’m doing today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Love Lead Inspire?
At its heart, Love Lead Inspire is about helping women come home to themselves.
I work with women from all walks of life—women who may be navigating careers, businesses, motherhood, relationships, transitions, or simply trying to figure out what this next chapter of their lives is asking of them.
Many of the women I work with are recovering perfectionists or people-pleasers, or they’ve simply spent so much time taking care of everyone else that they’ve lost touch with themselves. And you don’t have to have a business, a big goal, or a particular title to belong here. Being a stay-at-home mom is one of the hardest jobs there is, and the work of learning to honor yourself, trust yourself, and make empowered choices is just as valuable there as it is anywhere else.
At the heart of it, I work with women who are ready to stop living solely from expectation and start creating a life that feels intentional, authentic, and truly their own.
The Love Lead Inspire coaching experience is designed to help women build a completely different relationship with themselves. We work on things like self-worth, boundaries, perfectionism, people-pleasing, nervous system regulation, and learning to trust your own voice again.
We uncover what has been buried or hidden—old beliefs, patterns, stories, and parts of ourselves we may have abandoned along the way. We bring those things into the light, get curious about them, and decide what still belongs in the next version of our lives.
Yoga has also become an important part of my work. What started as something I was almost afraid to step into became such a powerful part of my own healing that I eventually began teaching and leading workshops. For me, yoga isn’t separate from my coaching work—it’s another pathway back to ourselves.
What sets my work apart is that I’m not interested in simply telling women to “think positive” or become a better, more productive version of themselves. I want to help them stop believing they have to become someone else in order to be worthy.
There’s a lot of depth to the work I do. I draw from coaching, somatic practices, yoga, nervous system regulation, energy work, and my own lived experience. But I also bring the practical side of being a longtime entrepreneur, business owner, leader, and recovering perfectionist.
I think that combination is really important because this work isn’t happening in a vacuum. My clients have businesses, families, relationships, careers, responsibilities, and very full lives. We’re figuring out how to feel safe, grounded, worthy, and connected to ourselves while actually living those lives.
Brand-wise, I’m probably most proud that Love Lead Inspire has been allowed to evolve from business cheerleader to soul cheerleader. I started it as a platform for educating and mentoring wedding professionals, and I gave myself permission to let it become something completely different as I changed.
That, to me, is part of the brand itself: you are allowed to evolve.
You are allowed to outgrow a version of yourself. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to want something different. And you don’t have to wait until you have everything figured out to take the next step.
If someone remembers one thing about Love Lead Inspire, I hope it’s this:
You don’t need to become someone new to be worthy of the life you want.
You get to come home to who you already are—and then build from there.
What matters most to you?
People. Without question, people matter most to me.
And Love Lead Inspire isn’t just the name of my business. It’s a mission. It’s how I want my clients to feel and, ultimately, how I want them to live: to Love. To Lead. To Inspire.
I genuinely believe that every person deserves the opportunity to live a life that feels meaningful, aligned, and authentically their own—not one built around expectations, fear, or who they think they’re supposed to be.
What lights me up is watching someone remember who they are underneath all the noise. When a woman starts making intentional, empowered choices that truly support herself, everything begins to shift. She communicates differently. She sets healthier boundaries. She shows up differently in her relationships, her work, her family, and her community.
That’s the ripple effect I care about.
I believe we have so much more influence than we realize. When we learn to trust ourselves, honor our needs, and make choices from a place of self-worth rather than guilt or fear, it doesn’t just change our own lives. It changes the way we love, lead, work, parent, partner, create, and serve.
My mom was a life coach, and from a very young age, she taught me about the power of service, presence, and self-inquiry. I’ve carried those lessons with me throughout my entire life, and they’ve shaped so much of how I see this work.
For me, this work has never really been about helping women become someone new. It’s about helping them come home to themselves—to remember who they are, what they want, and what is possible when they stop abandoning themselves in order to make everyone else comfortable.
And ultimately, I want women to live their dreams on purpose.
Not someone else’s dream. Not the life they think they should want. Not a life built by default because they’re busy checking boxes and meeting expectations.
Their dream. Their life. Their choices. On purpose.
Because I believe that when one person chooses to live intentionally and on purpose, that choice creates a ripple. It touches their family, their relationships, their work, their community—and ultimately, the world around them.
That’s what matters most to me: people living their best lives, by design rather than by default, and knowing that their choices have the power to create something bigger than themselves.
That’s Love Lead Inspire to me.
To Love. To Lead. To Inspire.
Live Your Dream. Do It On Purpose.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ashleeerlinger.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/love_lead_inspire/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loveleadinspirecoach
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashlee-erlinger
