Ashley Iaconetti. Name ring a bell? Maybe you remember her as “the cryer” from Chris Soules’ season of The Bachelor.
Wait for it….
Still don’t know her?
Ring a bell?
Yep, there we go, that ought to do it.
To the point, Ashley is probably my go to person for relationship and career advice now. The catch – we’ve never met. Isn’t that weird? Long story short, almost every person who goes on The Bachelor (ever) comes out with a podcast idea ready at hand. Besides selling Fit Tea, a podcast is what keeps these people relevant. Ashley’s “The I Don’t Get It” podcast (the only one worth listening to honestly), was started a few years ago shortly after her time on Bachelor in Paradise. As most ex-contestants do, they advertise their new endeavors on their Instagram accounts, and as the Bachelor enthusiast I am, I follow these accounts.
Anyway, Ashley posted her email for fans to email future podcast ideas to and I decided to take advantage. I emailed her, but for relationship advice instead. Cause you know, who doesn’t ask a contestant on a reality show about failing at love for relationship advice? Not my strongest move, but Ashley replied in no time and for years now we email back and forth just talking about life. Believe it or not, Ashley was a SMAD major here at JMU, so not only would I rant to her about my boy problems, but she’d also enlighten me about my major and what comes after that.
Nowadays, Ashley is on The Bachelor: Winter Games, so every Tuesday and Thursday when she’s crying on our TV, my friends automatically ask me questions about her or show genuine interest in our relationship. From what I know, Ashley is one of the sweetest people I’ve had the chance to network with and I consider her more of a friend these days, I can’t wait to see where we end up years from now – let’s hope we both get better at this whole relationship thing first.