The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Ashley Taylor - Founder of Femi Aura Retreats: Holistic Wellness and Transformative Love Connections
What if you could transform your quest for love into a journey of holistic wellness? In this compelling episode, we sit down with Ashley Taylor, the visionary founder of Femi Aura Retreats (FAR). Ashley shares her unique blend of aura readings, energy healing retreats, and compatibility readings that pave the way for meaningful connections. Discover the meticulous process that starts with an aura scan and involves a team of professionals, from astrologers to licensed therapists, all working together to ensure you are emotionally and mentally prepared for a relationship. Learn about the three to six-month compatibility journey that culminates in a retreat, creating a mini-honeymoon for successful matches. Ashley’s insights into the therapeutic aspects of her services reveal how addressing past traumas can build the foundation for strong, healthy relationships.
Ashley takes us through the challenges and transformations in modern relationships, shedding light on the evolving expectations of masculine and feminine roles and financial responsibilities. Drawing from her own life-changing experience, she talks about her mission to connect women with high-quality, successful, and stable men. Ashley’s approach to understanding and matching client energies through aura readings is both fascinating and effective. We also get a peek into her savvy marketing strategies that balance client privacy with online presence growth. With her powerful motto, "A journey destined to go far," Ashley inspires listeners to embrace the limitless possibilities of their personal journeys, whether through retreats, matchmaking, or relationship sessions. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that promises to support you in your quest for love and personal growth.
My name is Ashley Taylor and my company is Femi Aura Retreats FAR for short, everyone calls it FAR and we offer a plethora of services. They all are centered around wellness and love. So we offer matchmaking, energy healing retreats, aura readings all that fun stuff, compatibility readings, all that.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. Now can you go into detail into some of the main services that you provide and what those processes entail, Like the compatibility process, like what does that? Mean Like break it down for our listeners.
Speaker 1:So everything I do with FAR is about love. So everything I do with FAR is about love and one of our main focuses is matchmaking and dating with a. They want to be match made with somebody. I obviously have to get to know that client really well. So I do that through what I call an aura scan, which is basically an aura reading. So it's a scan of their energy field, which is you know.
Speaker 1:Some people are like oh, I don't know if that's for me, but it's like I have to know what your energy is to make sure you're compatible with somebody. It's not just science, it's not just you know. Do you guys like the same TV show? I have to get down to the nitty gritty. So we do a or a compatibility scan and then we also take into consideration astrology and then, on top of that, we have professionals come in like dating coaches, licensed therapists.
Speaker 1:We have professionals come in like dating coaches, licensed therapists and other intuitives to talk to these potential matches, to make sure they're a match for my client and to also make sure that they're in a great spot mentally. Are they actually ready to be in a relationship? Do they have any mental issues that could cause them to treat you poorly or abuse you or ghost you, all of these terrible first dates and terrible dating experiences and terrible app experiences. My company cuts all of that BS out so you don't have to deal with texting him and wondering if he's going to respond. I do that for you guys. I schedule all the dates, you give me the feedback. If you don't like him, you give me the feedback and then we move forward with that process. So it's not this situation where you're burdened by stress and also trying to navigate your love life at the same time.
Speaker 2:Okay, that is a lot different. I love it. And when you say it's a retreat, is it a one location, area of building? Are you guys planning like locations that you go to talk to me about that?
Speaker 1:So I scout different locations. Um, we have Dominican Republic, turks and Caicos. There's a couple other I'm honestly forgetting. There's so many. But also with our private experiences, you get to choose where you want to go with that person. So the process everyone always thinks, oh, it's just a retreat, it's only seven days. No, this is a matchmaking process. This is a compatibility process, so it's actually a three to six month process. This is a compatibility process, so it's actually, you know, a three to six month process. And then you go on the retreat. At the end, if you are successful in finding that match for you, it's basically a small honeymoon.
Speaker 2:That is incredible. Yeah, have you had I guess you have, otherwise you would not exist, but I guess success stories and can you tell me about those Like what have, what has the journey been like for them and how they found like their true love?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. It's actually a really rewarding thing for both of us for me and for the client. But yes, I have had some really, really good experiences where people have found their love and my favorite part is the private experiences because then I can really focus on that client. But the process for them they always are really shocked because they think it's a typical matchmaking experience and it's not. You go through sessions with intuitives like myself life coaches, dating experts, therapists it's also therapy. This is healing and that's why I always say this is like wellness and it's holistic, because it's mind, body, spirit alignment. That way you can be emotionally, spiritually, mentally compatible with whoever you're dating. So it's very, very, very therapeutic.
Speaker 2:I believe so and like very I don't want to say not intrusive, but you really really dig deep into a person and really get to know them. So you have to be quite vulnerable and be open to that idea, like yes, maybe you're gonna learn a lot of stuff that you're just like oh yes, I did not know that about me or them. I didn't think they were like that, this has helped me so much. Like what? Yeah?
Speaker 1:it's, it's. It sounds like a lot, but it's like do you really want to find the love of your life, yes or no?
Speaker 1:yeah, and so you know, I don't you know, I don't want to say unfortunately, but in this day and age, like these are the things we have to know, because people aren't as honest and vulnerable over an app, over a first date. They, they all they want to do is show you their best qualities and that's completely natural. But what about the trauma that you've endured that's made you love so hard? What about the, the, the abandonment from your dad that makes you fearful to fall in love again? Like these are real topics we have to discuss. Or else your trauma and everything you've been through in the past is just going to get in the way and so many people don't understand.
Speaker 1:Trauma is the issue. Trauma is the issue. It's not you, it's not the person, it's just the trauma that they've been through and they haven't successfully navigated that. So, however they treated you, whether they ghosted you or weren't ready for a commitment, or maybe they even cheated on you that's happened to me before it's their trauma, it's just something they have not navigated. So when I navigate trauma with two people that really want to get to know each other, it becomes this intimate experience. So by the time they get to the retreat three or six months later, it's like, like I said, it's like a honeymoon, it's like you know them, it's like it's just like this beautiful. There's no, that's what it is. There's no surprises, and that's, and that's what's the beautiful thing about it is.
Speaker 1:And one last thing I'll say is that hold on, I just lost my train of thought. What was it? That doesn't mean this whole process is so you can really see somebody and really see if you can see yourself loving them. And that doesn't mean, at the end of this all that you're not going to go through trials and tribulations, because you're still going to go through things. It's part of the human experience, exactly.
Speaker 1:But the thing is is now you have a real foundation. Now you can remember what your therapist told you about why you get triggered when your boyfriend doesn't text you back. You know now. You know why. You know you have a panic attack when you don't hear from him or anything like that. So it just gives you a real foundation to work through everything, even after that. And even the couples that leave us successfully, if they have a problem, they can call me back, like. This is not a matchmaking experience where I want to hit my success rate. This is an experience where you can call me back for the rest of your life for private sessions, one-on-one sessions, another retreat, anything like that, if that's what they need.
Speaker 2:That's awesome that they have like a little hub or community that they can go to to look and find answers or get help with. So that's cool that you're not just like all right, thank you for doing this for me. See you later. You're like, you're right there.
Speaker 1:I'm right there and the team is right there the whole time.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about team. How many people do you have working?
Speaker 1:So it varies just depending on the client and depending on the size of the retreat. But it's a small team, it's about three to five people and we circulate. You know, not all of the therapists are able to go on the retreats all the time, so there's a couple of different people that circulate through throughout the company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now I want to get into your background a little bit and how you got into your industry that you currently are right now. What led you here, and how did you decide that this was what you wanted to do?
Speaker 1:I. It's kind of a weird roller coaster, but that's the spiritual journey I guess I started. Actually, I have been dancing all my life and I was actually dancing over here in Ashburn. Yeah, I was dancing over at Arthur Murray. I was doing all types. I was doing salsa cha-cha, like all the Latin dances is what I was teaching and I messed up my foot wearing heels and I went to this lady and I was like what's going on? Like this is my passion. I wanted, I want to be a dancer. What's going on? And she was like you're not meant to be a dancer. She was like you're meant to, I know, I know. And so she's like you're not meant to be a dancer, like you're meant to, I know it sounds crazy go out into the spiritual world and, you know, do energy healing and be an intuitive coach and healer. And the Aries in me was just like, oh, okay, so that's what I'm going to do. And so, for some reason, I didn't blink at all and so that's just what I started doing. And so all the girls, all the girls, all the girls, they were like we had to have a love reading.
Speaker 1:So I cause I started doing readings, I started being able to see auras and it really just fascinated me. So how do you know this stuff? And I'm like it's just your aura. It's like people always think it's like a magic trick or like this psychic thing, and you sure you can use the word psychic. But energy is energy. Anyone can read energy. You can walk into a room and feel the mood shift and so if you really fine tune that and get down into subtle energy, you know like it is expressed within their energy field is what I'm saying. So within an aura you can find anything.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I was kind of rambling, but that is how I ended up doing the love readings and women just became obsessed with it and they would keep coming back and so from there I started expanding on that and I started doing retreats. And even when I started doing those retreats, they weren't even really about romantic love or love in general. They were just wellness retreats where I was doing aura readings and basically digging into people's lives with their permission, and they were just walking away like on a high, like so healed. I mean they'll say things. Like you know, I've had this regret, pain in my stomach for years since, you know, since my mom passed or whatever the issue is, and they're like it's finally gone and I just feel so different now. So they tell me all these amazing things and anyway, from there it just evolved and I went through a breakup.
Speaker 1:And from there, after that breakup, I was like I gave everything. I'm like I had no intentions of not being with this man. And I know so many women go through this like Lord, have mercy, where they just give a man the journey of it all and the self-worth journey, um, and the journey of do you want to be a housewife? Do you want to be a girl that is still a boss and goes out into a day and then gets to have a husband when she gets home? Like what kind of girl do you want to be? What kind of relationship do you want to have?
Speaker 1:And so, after that relationship ended extremely abruptly and traumatically, I was like I got to change this. For people Like this is ridiculous, this is crazy, even for me. I'm like I've been with you for three years. I'm like how did this, how did this even happen? And you know, going back, like I do see how it happened. But for a lot of women, I want to avoid that, avoid going down a journey of three years with someone that you may feel like you gave your all and they may not have given that back to you. And just, you know, like so many women and this is including myself like we get caught up on potential. So you know, I, I I'm not going to dog my ex or anything like that. He was a good man in lots of different ways, but we just weren't compatible at the end. And, yes, yes, it's very important to understand. Um and sorry, I lost my train of thought.
Speaker 2:No, you were just saying how with your ex. Sorry, I lost my train of thought. No, you were just saying how with your ex, just because, like they were a great man, it just the compatibility it just. Maybe you feel like, hey, maybe this is more of a friend for me, but romantically, maybe this compatibility is not working for us and you have to be okay with that you do yes. I know that just because it's okay doesn't mean you have to pursue it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree with that 100%. And I know too many women who are like but I love him, like I have to make it work. And I'm like you don't, though. You don't, though, not unless you're really feeling guided to. But if you're forcing it, then you just got to stop to. But if you're forcing it, then you just got to stop. And with my relationship towards the end, we just disagreed on the masculine and feminine roles that we wanted to have within that relationship. There was just poor communication. And so he wanted me to go work. That's fine with me, that's just not the agreement we had going into it. So when I found that out, that was a shock to me after I'd already quit my job in my business. By the way, when I came into it, I had my own business. And so I'm like what's going on here? This is not what we talked about. And so now I'm at a spot where he's also, you know, kind of being a little greedy financially, and so I'm like well, I'm not working, so what? Where? Where's my money?
Speaker 2:coming from. These are things that need to be talked about.
Speaker 1:Yes, so it just got all jumbled at the end. So by the time the relationship was over, I was left with literally nothing.
Speaker 2:Literally nothing, and so we don't want to be in those situations?
Speaker 1:No, not at all. So after that, and so after that, I decided I was like we need to, I need to get women, I need to give women access to high quality, high value, successful, ambitious men that want commitment. And I was just I started to think I'm like, how am I going to get into this, this club of men? Where do they? Where are they? Do they even exist? You know, and I know they exist in my heart, I know they exist, but it's something you have to tap into. So I started tapping into that. Um, for girls all over the world, Um, and that's what I do.
Speaker 1:So when I am talking to men, naturally there has become an income requirement because I've noticed, just naturally, that the men with higher income, they just have their lives together and I need them to have their lives together. So I don't match these women with people who are going to destroy or cause chaos in their lives. So, do they have a stable job? Do they have an income where they could support you, if you want it to be a stay-at-home mom? Do they want a stay-at-home mom? Do they want a housewife? Do they want a boss bitch that is a badass at work and a freak in the sheets and what do they want?
Speaker 1:And so, anyway, long story short, I started matching women with high quality, successful men. So all of these men are amazing in their careers and they're amazing in their real lives. And what what women don't understand is that these men are also doing what we're doing. We're going. Are they out there? Where are the good men they're going? Where are the good women? Where are the women who don't care about my money? Where are the women who, you know, want to have kids and settle down and don't care about Instagram likes? They wonder where these women are too. So it's a beautiful kind of fairy tale and story where I can combine yes, I combine those two worlds and give them access to each other. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to go back to when you said when you do readings, is that aura readings or card readings?
Speaker 1:Aura.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. And explain to me how that process is? How do you read it? Is it with like a photo? Tell me about that process.
Speaker 1:Yes, so it's a couple of different ways. I usually do it with a photo, so if it's a new client, I'll have them send me a selfie and from there I'll be able to see their aura, and those different aura colors will tell me different things about their personality and people. You know, are auras real? Are they real? It's just energy, just energy and color. That's it. It's just energy, that's it. It's not the fancy. So that's how they go.
Speaker 1:And so from there I'll write down everything I pick up. It's usually about three to five pages. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, I go through it. I got to get down to the nitty gritty and then I go through it with the client. You know. I say, hey, these are the things that I was picking up, accurate, yes, no, how do you feel?
Speaker 1:So all of these little things that I'm hitting, whether it was something happened to you when you were 15 or you just broke up with your ex or anything, what really gets the client is they go, how did you know? And what they really enjoy is that you knew, without them having to explain, like people just want to feel seen at the end of the day. So when I show them, hey, I just met you. I just saw a photo of you, and this is what your energy showed me. It makes them really, really trust me in their love life. They're like finally, it didn't take me three sessions to explain to you why I have all this trauma and why I'm messed up or why I'm looking for love, and so that's how those aura processes go. And so if I do that for my client, I'm going to do the same thing for the person I match them with, and then I'm going to say are their auras compatible?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And as far as marketing goes, when you're getting your services out there in the word for potential new clients, what do you like to showcase online or what do you like to do to get your name out there? Are you an avid social media user? Youtube, tiktok?
Speaker 1:I am not on YouTube and TikTok yet. These are all things I'm going to expand to at some point. I am just so freaking busy, but I am on Instagram, and even on Instagram I think I'm a bit private and that's something I'm working on.
Speaker 2:Finding that balance.
Speaker 1:Finding that balance of what to show and what not to show. And also tons of my clients, because of their careers, are extremely, extremely private and they're concerned about their um, their privacy. They don't, you know, they don't want to be seen or want people to know um, all the time. So, uh, I tend to keep my page just very private because of that. And, yeah, I, I I do wish I could show more behind the scenes of what my clients go through, but I also have to respect their privacy.
Speaker 2:That makes sense, especially for your industry Like yeah, all that out there.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's fair. Um, where do you see your business and yourself in the next five years? Like any room for expansions, maybe taking on more employees in the next five years.
Speaker 1:Like any room for expansions maybe taking on more employees In the next five years. Yeah, I'm always expanding. I feel like I'm expanding every week. It's just in my energy. It's like my business is called FAR for a reason. Like we're going FAR, we're going big baby, you know. So in five years, I would hope that I would hope to continue to have an overflow of clients. I hope to really just raise the vibration and romantic love honestly. So in five years, I want holistic dating, incorporating wellness in dating, incorporating more matchmaking in dating. I want that to take the world by storm. So I want that to be normal within five years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's shoot for that, let's try to get that.
Speaker 1:Let's shoot for that yeah.
Speaker 2:And since I have you here, are there maybe other topics or something else that maybe that you want to share with our listeners that I didn't get to touch on, that you're really wanting to talk about?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, to add to all of that romantic love, we have other retreat offerings that are for elite men. So these are for those, this pocket of successful elite men that I match all my clients with. It's for them. It's a men's retreat pretty much, so they meet up with other elite men and they work on themselves and they work on their finances, they work on their personal lives, they work on who they are as husbands and partners. So that's really amazing. And we do the same thing for women as well. So we have wellness retreats for women where we teach them how to love and we teach them what they deserve.
Speaker 1:There are so many women who don't even know what they deserve and I want to bring, I want to shed light on that, because they deserve everything, they deserve the world, and I always tell my clients when I'm asking them what they want, there's no limit. You know, anything is possible. Everything and anything exists. If you really believe that, yeah, and so if you, if you've cleared those limits from your mind, your match could literally, literally be Prince Charming, like.
Speaker 2:So it's just crazy, like so easy, but I know there's a process to it, but it's a huge it is.
Speaker 1:It's a it's a huge, huge process and it does. It does sound easy, but it also doesn't. But it's just about being open, like it's just about having an open heart. Like if you just go into this with an open heart and ready to learn about yourself and learn about somebody new, like what can go wrong? It's like it's either you're going to not work on your trauma and your life is gonna be a cycle.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be a cycle of you know traumatic things change that, yeah grow, yes, exactly guided into the right path and direction and have that guidance like kind of folder hands exactly crazy exactly so offer and that's what you do. You help those people who are struggling, who don't know how to get their stuff together and maybe want to have their stuff together yes and just find that right soulmate partner, love of their life and understand that there are ups and downs yes that's always going to be the human part of it, but we just got to work through them yeah, 100 and um.
Speaker 1:One last thing I want to touch on that's really important, actually is that this experience is free for women, so they don't get charged to be matchmade, they don't get charged to go on yachts, they don't get charged to be flown to the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 1:Everything is free. Women can step back and really be in their feminine energy, and the men can step forward and be the true masculines that they want to be and be the providers and the protectors and the whatever it is that they want to be or that my client's looking for. And so by doing that, I literally take off all the stress from women. I mean, there are moms who they tell me it'll cost me $400 just to even get free time to go on a date because they have kids. Yes, and so it's just crazy. So, making this free, I'm making this accessible to any type of girl all over the world. If you're a high quality woman, you can be involved in this process and literally meet a man. That is amazing, like, amazing, amazing, amazing. So that's the last thing I wanted to touch on.
Speaker 2:No, thank you so much. I'm going to ask you one last question, and it's going to be about maybe do you have a motto or a mantra that you like to live your life by that inspires you? Maybe you could share that with our listeners, just as a piece of inspiration for them as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just my logo. I guess my tag for my business, which is a journey destined to go far, awaits so that I even get the chills just saying it. It's just, it means so much to me and like that's literally what my business is about. Like it doesn't matter if you came for a retreat, it doesn't matter if you came to get match made, it doesn't matter if you came for a retreat, it doesn't matter if you came to get match made, it doesn't matter if you came just for a session to see if you and your boyfriend are really compatible. A journey destined to go far. Like there are no limits to your journey, your journey is limitless, like we can go anywhere, we can do anything, you can do anything, and so that is what I live my life by. It's just a journey destined to go far.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate your time and you coming here and sharing all this new and exciting information. Thank you, and people out there who are looking to find their love and need help with that. You had a nice retreat. Hit her up.
Speaker 1:Yes, hit me up.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the name of your company.
Speaker 1:FAR Femioraretreatscom thank you so much thank you, thank you guys, for having me. I appreciate it.