Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley McGinnis.
Hi Ashley, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve known I wanted to be a chef since I was 8 years old, and honestly I never really let go of that dream. I burned through several Easy-Bake Ovens as a kid, spent Saturday mornings watching Julia Child and Martha Stewart on PBS, and read cookbooks cover to cover for fun. I loved baking cookies with my mom and grandma, and anytime our neighborhood had a garage sale, I was set up out front selling homemade cookies, cupcakes, brownies, and whatever else I could come up with. Most of the time, I ended up making more money than the actual garage sale itself.
By the time I was 11, I had started cooking dinner for my family. My mom would sit down with me beforehand, go over recipes step by step, compare grocery prices, figure out what ingredients we already had on hand versus what needed to be purchased, and decide which stores had the best deals because she was a huge couponer at the time. Looking back now, I realize she was teaching me inventory management, food cost, budgeting, recipe development, quality control, and the difference between generic versus name-brand ingredients long before I even understood what those concepts meant.
When I was 15, I started my own pie business called “Eye For Pie,” which eventually expanded into cheesecakes, custom cakes, and catering desserts for family friends and events. At one point I was literally packing mini cheesecakes into lunchboxes with ice packs and selling them during lunch breaks at school. Between the cookbook reading, YouTube research, recipe testing, custom cake work, and years of teaching myself techniques at home, I was eventually able to test out of several culinary and baking classes and graduate with degrees in both Culinary Arts and Baking & Patisserie in only a year and a half.
At the same time, I was working for H-E-B, teaching culinary and baking classes for both kids and adults, and working as a server while earning my bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management at the University of Houston. I’ve always had that hustle mentality and honestly never really knew how to slow down.
As I got deeper into hospitality, I realized I eventually wanted to move beyond just cooking and learn every side of the restaurant business. That led me into restaurant management and eventually into an internship opportunity that completely changed the trajectory of my career.
Before the age of 25, I had worked and lived alone in New York City, Beverly Hills, Chicago, New Orleans, Dallas, and Houston while building my career in restaurant management for a major hospitality group. Restaurant life is not for the faint of heart, but those experiences taught me independence, adaptability, resilience, leadership, and how to thrive under pressure in fast-paced environments.
Eventually, I decided I wanted to step away from the nonstop pace of restaurant life for a little more balance and stability, which led me back to working with H-E-B for a period of time. Around that same chapter of my life, I adopted my dog Austin, who quickly became a huge part of my daily life and honestly a huge source of stability for me too. Over time, he also unexpectedly became part of my online brand after making appearances in several of my videos that people really connected with.
Eventually, my love for hospitality naturally evolved into content creation. I started sharing food and travel experiences online because I genuinely loved discovering hidden gems, documenting experiences, and connecting with people through personality-driven storytelling. What started casually eventually grew into a recognizable social media brand blending food, travel, lifestyle, and hospitality with a much more honest and unfiltered approach than traditional influencer content.
Outside of social media, I’m also deeply involved in Airbnb hosting and property management alongside my partner. At the moment, I’m balancing restaurant management, content creation, multiple Airbnb properties, partnerships, travel, and creative projects all at once. Most days are long, chaotic, and nonstop, but I genuinely love building things. I think that’s always been the common thread throughout my life — whether it was selling brownies at garage sales as a kid, building a pie business as a teenager, managing restaurants across the country, renovating properties, or growing a social media brand from scratch. I’ve always been willing to work hard, take risks, and figure things out as I go.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, and honestly I think a lot of my growth has come from learning how to navigate uncertainty, pressure, burnout, and constantly evolving industries while still continuing to move forward.
One of the biggest challenges has been balancing ambition with stability. I’ve always been someone who wants to build something bigger for myself, whether that meant moving across the country alone in my early twenties, starting businesses from scratch, renovating properties, or trying to grow a social media brand while still working full-time in hospitality. There’s a constant tension between taking risks and trying to remain financially responsible at the same time.
Content creation has also been far more challenging than most people realize. A lot of people only see the fun side — the restaurants, travel, partnerships, and videos — but behind the scenes there’s a huge amount of work, editing, planning, filming, pitching brands, managing relationships, staying creative, learning algorithms, handling criticism, and trying to remain authentic in a space that can sometimes feel oversaturated and performative. It can be mentally exhausting tying creativity to metrics and constantly feeling pressure to keep producing.
Another challenge has been learning how to balance multiple careers and responsibilities at once. Between restaurant management, Airbnb properties, renovations, content creation, travel, and maintaining personal relationships, there have been many moments where I felt stretched extremely thin. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed in every area simultaneously, which can sometimes make it difficult to slow down or celebrate progress.
I’ve also had to learn that not everyone will understand your vision while you’re building it. Pursuing unconventional paths can sometimes feel isolating, especially when you’re investing time, energy, and money into long-term goals that other people may not fully see yet. Learning to trust myself and continue moving forward anyway has probably been one of the hardest — but most important — lessons.
At the same time, I think those challenges are what shaped me the most. They forced me to become adaptable, resourceful, independent, and comfortable figuring things out in real time. I’ve learned that growth usually happens during the uncomfortable seasons — the moments where you feel overwhelmed, uncertain, or stretched thin but keep showing up anyway.
I still don’t have everything perfectly figured out, but I think one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that success is rarely linear. A lot of the opportunities I’m most proud of came from taking chances on myself before I felt fully ready.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Creatively, my work sits at the intersection of hospitality, storytelling, food, travel, and digital media. What I do now is heavily personality-driven and experience-focused, but it’s rooted in years of hands-on hospitality experience behind the scenes.
A lot of my content centers around discovering restaurants, bars, hotels, events, and destinations and sharing them in a way that feels more immersive, entertaining, and honest than traditional influencer content. I’ve always been drawn to experiences that feel memorable — whether that’s an incredible meal, a hidden cocktail bar, a beautifully designed space, or a destination that surprises people — and I love finding creative ways to capture and communicate that feeling online.
Because of my background in culinary arts and restaurant management, I think I naturally approach content differently than someone who simply visits places for aesthetic purposes. I understand the operational side, the hospitality side, the service side, the food cost side, the pressure behind the scenes, and the amount of work that goes into creating a great guest experience. That perspective gives me a genuine appreciation for the businesses and people I feature.
Over time, content creation evolved from a hobby into a recognizable personal brand and creative outlet. My audience connected with the fact that my content felt more unfiltered, personality-driven, and conversational. I never wanted things to feel overly polished or scripted — I wanted people to feel like they were discovering places alongside me rather than being “sold” something.
At the same time, I’m balancing multiple worlds simultaneously. I still work in hospitality while also managing content creation, partnerships, social media strategy, travel, and Airbnb properties alongside my boyfriend Sterling, who handles much of the renovation and property management side of the business. Because of that, my life is constantly moving between creative work, hospitality, entrepreneurship, and real-world operational problem solving.
What I love most is that no two days really look the same. One day I might be managing a restaurant shift, the next I’m filming travel content, working with a brand, helping prepare a property for guests, editing videos late at night, or brainstorming creative concepts for future projects. It can be chaotic at times, but I genuinely enjoy building something that combines creativity, hospitality, business, and storytelling all together.
What does success mean to you?
Success has changed a lot for me over the years.
When I was younger, I probably viewed success more traditionally — career titles, financial stability, recognition, or “making it” in some visible way. But the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized success is really about building a life that feels fulfilling, sustainable, and aligned with who you actually are.
For me, success means having freedom. Freedom to create, freedom to travel, freedom to pursue opportunities that excite me, and freedom to build a life that doesn’t feel confined to one lane. It means creating multiple streams of income, building long-term stability, and working toward a future where I have more control over my time and quality of life.
I also define success by growth. I’m someone who genuinely enjoys learning, evolving, improving, and challenging myself creatively and professionally. Whether that’s growing a business, learning a new skill, building partnerships, renovating properties, improving my content, or stepping outside of my comfort zone, I feel most successful when I know I’m progressing and creating momentum.
At the same time, I think success is deeply tied to authenticity. I’ve never wanted to build something that looked successful from the outside while feeling disconnected from myself internally. Especially in social media and creative industries, it can be easy to chase trends, validation, or appearances. For me, success means being able to create things I’m genuinely proud of while still maintaining my personality, humor, creativity, and individuality along the way.
And honestly, I think success is also being able to look back at your life and know you fully participated in it. Some of my favorite moments have come from taking risks, moving across the country alone in my twenties, building businesses from scratch, traveling, creating experiences, meeting people, and saying yes to opportunities that scared me a little.
At the end of the day, success for me is not just about money or recognition — it’s about building a life that feels meaningful, exciting, creatively fulfilling, and stable enough to continue growing for years to come.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://FAFO.energy
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_forkaroundfindout?igsh=MTVxbjcwZXdwcXpmbA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@forkaroundfindout?si=fi34yarb5t7Ek3fw
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@_forkaroundfindout?_r=1&_t=ZT-96N5AiSbnTh
