Her Story
About Ashley
Laura Graham is an author and marketer specializing in marketing, publishing, and book writing. With seven years in the industry, she began her publishing career in 2017 with her first book, Shoes to Fill, written as an outlet during her mother's breast cancer battle. Her second book, Empty Burdens, is held at the University of Miami. After initially training for the police academy in forensics and cold cases, she changed paths and is now pursuing an MBA in marketing at Keiser University. Laura maintains her brand through organic content creation while avoiding AI-generated materials and values honesty and transparency in her marketing work. She leads by example, implementing the messages from her books in her own life. Laura attributes her success to her mother, who raised her as a single mom and modeled handling challenges with grace, honesty, integrity, courage, and authenticity. She advises young women in the industry to believe in their work and stand by it. In her free time, she volunteers at Friends of Strays animal shelter.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ashley
01What do you attribute your success to?
My success comes from my mother who raised me as a single mom. She taught me how to handle challenges with grace, honesty, integrity, courage and staying true to yourself through the many difficulties she faced.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
When you feel rushed, slow down, because the more you rush, the more mistakes you're gonna make. When you feel overwhelmed, just slow down, and it will calm you down and the people around you.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Believe in your work. No one else will until somebody does. Stand by it because nobody else will until somebody does, and once that one person does you're good, but until then it can be really hard.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Opportunities include focusing on grassroots efforts like local partnerships with businesses and local bookstores which are underrated. Challenges include dealing with mass-produced AI generated materials that aren't written by real people.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty and transparency are extremely important especially in marketing to avoid selling false images. Also leading by example by carrying the words of my books into my own life and not fraudulently writing about something while leading a different life.
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