Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashton Charlebois.
Hi Ashton, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I moved to Texas from Florida when I was eleven years old. I didn’t have many friends in my earlier years of school until around seventh grade when I realized I enjoyed making people laugh a lot. I would sit and think about funny things to say at school to make my friends and other people laugh. I started to watch a lot of YouTube and think about ideas for videos; I didn’t know what kind of videos I wanted to make; I just knew I wanted to make people laugh. This was the year 2013, and Vine was super popular; everyone wanted to watch short clips and laugh based on their context. I saw that these videos were grabbing more and more attention, and me being thirteen at the time, I wanted to hop on the trend as well. My Vines never took off, and I had to move school starting my eighth-grade year. It was hard being a middle schooler who didn’t know anyone during their last year of middle school, but I continued to do what I loved, and that was making people laugh. Moving to this school was a blessing and a curse for me; it was a small-town country high school, and they didn’t offer any of the programs I was going to be in at my other school, like choir or theatre. This forced me to get creative and kind of entertain myself at school, and I took an Audio/Visual class they offered and learned a lot more behind the scenes about making content. I made a lot of friends that year and went off to high school. The high school didn’t offer me that much either with the lack of programs that interested me; I continued to make content on Vine and film YouTube videos with my friends. I would draw in class a lot and come up with ideas for a cartoon I wanted to make, and didn’t focus on school as much. I started to grow a dislike for school and only wanted to make content that would make people laugh. I didn’t take school seriously and my grades slipped a lot from doing so. During my junior year, the app “Musicall.ly” Baca me super popular, and yet again, I tried to hop on that and didn’t really get far with it. In my senior year, I moved high schools back into the district I originally moved from and tried to take it as seriously as possible. I felt like my time was running out, and I had no real backup plan for what I was supposed to do after high school was over. After I graduated, I didn’t go off to college and had to get a job. My first job was at a Subway nearby my house, where I would walk every day. Three months into working there, the Subway has to close down due to an issue with the owner, and I started working at Starbucks. Musical.ly had then changed into the app we all know as “TikTok,” but TikTok has a much more different vibe than Musical.ly; it was more like Vine, where you could post short clips, and they had the potential to go viral. I started to post funny/relatable content about working there, and some of my videos started to go viral! I was gaining followers and making people laugh. I continued to keep posting and gain more and more traction. I’m at the point where I want to keep posting more content but want to switch it up here and there. Building an audience that sticks around for all of what you have to offer has been my biggest challenge, but I’m hoping that someday, I will have a bigger platform and get to entertain mass amounts of people.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It was definitely not a smooth road, and posting videos sometimes can get you in trouble. I have to be careful about what I post online and what could potentially get me in trouble or other people around me in trouble.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a shift supervisor at Starbucks, which is where my job technically is. I lead a team of baristas into success and help manage the store. Connecting with customers is a fun part of my job, and I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and promoting up the ladder. When I go home, my passion goes into my TikTok videos. I post about work mostly, but sometimes other funny things. I’m proud of continuing to create and not letting myself get discouraged when a video doesn’t do as well.
What does success mean to you?
I define success as being able to fully say that you are satisfied with yourself and your performance.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashtoncharleboisentertainment
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/itsashtonboi
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2jeOoRTg64yKvUbdZ2n5fg
- Other: www.tiktok.com/@ashtoncharlebois
