How these Veterans went from Military Service to Social Media Influencers
Meet The Lashley’s and follow their journey from serving in the Army to becoming content creators and social media entrepreneurs.
When you think about social media influencers today, there aren’t very many of them that are willing to share intimate details about their personal lives, let alone their families. Most content creators will focus on promoting their individual brands through photos and videos that they share on various social media platforms, along with other potential media outlets. It’s not every day that you’re able to run into influencers that have centered their brand around their unique family experience and entrepreneurial lifestyle. The Lashley family has done exactly that by transitioning from veterans to sharing their personal stories and family life through the content they create.
Before they were able to find success in social media and entrepreneurship, Terry and Ayumi Lashley both served in the army starting at the age of 18 and decided to leave the military to pursue their bachelor’s degrees once they decided to pursue their higher education. Terry was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York before serving in the army for 15 years starting in 2001 and receiving a BA degree in Business with an emphasis in Supply Chain Management and Marketing. Ayumi was born in Tokyo, Japan but grew up mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada during her childhood. She served for 8 years in the Army enlisting in 2009 before departing to complete her education. Ayumi received her Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene from Clayton State University and an Associates of Science degree from Austin Peay State University.
Very early on in their journey, they encountered a variety of different obstacles to overcome to get to where they are today. At the young age of 20, Ayumi had her first child while she was still serving in the military. In such a male-dominated institution, Ayumi faced much scrutiny as she would push herself to surpass the standards of her peers. Terry’s military career would face countless obstacles as he also surpassed his peers, often assuming leadership roles that would have him placed in charge of subordinates twice his age. Add 5 deployments to multiple countries across the globe and we begin to scratch the surface of the challenges faced by Terry during his military service. For both Terry and Ayumi, the Army helped them develop the resilience and skills needed to take on their next chapters in life.
In 2018 during their senior year in college The Lashley’s stumbled upon the huge benefits of social media. It only took a few weeks of research to convince them both this was the right career field. Their journey into social media began when they started their YouTube channel together called “Lashley Life” which documents their everyday family moments with their three beautiful daughters Yuri, Zoe and Skye. Eventually, they also expanded to other social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, while centering their brand around their family values of respect, love, and expectance. Not only does their content aim to show a glimpse of their family life, but they also use their platforms to educate their audience on their experience in raising neurodivergent children and having a thriving non-toxic relationship.
Around the same time, they also decided to start an online dropshipping business for small children named Luxury Minnies, LLC, which had limited success. Despite the lack of traction that they found with this venture, they were able to gain important skills that allowed them to find success in their following projects, such as structuring a business and building a website. Although t
his was another obstacle that they faced during their journey, they were able to persevere and learn some valuable lessons from their experience to understand what it takes to be successful in their future endeavors. They decided to shift their focus to their social media brand by creating content about their life together in a family-friendly manner while showing their real-life experiences in their household.
Once their social media presence started to grow quickly, they began to work together with several different brands through brand collaborations. The main focus of these partnerships was to help create content using products from several different brands and share their knowledge with other social media influencers and content creators. In addition to their brand collaborations, Terry and Ayumi also provide one-on-one coaching for aspiring influencers and content creators from several different niches to help them step their game up. Through these individual sessions, they’re able to share their knowledge and previous experiences around building their social media brand while giving their clients access to valuable information that they didn’t have when they were first starting their social media business.
Although they were focused on building their own personal social media brand, they were still working on other businesses together simultaneously throughout the process. Eventually, they went on to venture into the real estate space and started their own real estate investment company called Luxury Lifestyle Realty, LLC. Using the experience that they gained working on their previous business projects, they were determined to find success in the short-term and long-term rental space as well. They currently own several properties as part of their real estate portfolio and will look to expand in the future.
When it comes to entrepreneurship, most people think of the potential income and financial freedom that it can help bring to their lives but not many people think about the potential impact that they can make on others through their ventures. As civilian entrepreneurs, the Lashley family has been able to create multiple streams of income for themselves while still providing resources to others to help them find the same kind of success that they’ve found growing their social media business, educating their audience on neurodiversity, and creating family-oriented content that shows their strong moral values. In some ways, their experience going all the way back to their time in the military has helped them become more than willing to work together with others that want to collaborate with them and help them become the best possible versions of themselves by sharing their expertise. This guidance is extremely valuable to those looking to enter the content creator and/or entrepreneurial space for the very first time because they’re able to learn from their past mistakes when they initially started their journey.
The Lashley’s path to get to where they are today hasn’t been easy but together they’ve been able to find success in their entrepreneurial pursuits while building a strong brand for their family along the way. With all the challenges that they faced over the years, they were able to take all their previous experiences, both good and bad, and use them to propel themselves to another level in their business life. Today, they have over a million followers on multiple different social media platforms and over 35 million monthly views combined on the content that they put out. Even though they’ve already been able to achieve many things over time, they’re just getting started and have a lot more to come in the future.
