From Stage to Strategy: Ashley Muench's Creative Journey to Building Scène Studios

Hey, beautiful!

Today I'm absolutely buzzing to share the story of someone who's been making her mark in the luxury marketing space while staying true to her creative roots. Meet Ashley Muench, the founder of Scène Studios—a woman who took her background in acting and singing and channeled it into building a seven-figure agency that's making waves from NYC to LA and beyond.

The Artist Meets the Entrepreneur

You know that feeling when you meet someone whose story just clicks? That's exactly what happened when I connected with Ashley. Her journey from performer to powerhouse entrepreneur isn't just inspiring—it's a masterclass in how to honor your creative essence while building something incredibly meaningful and profitable.

Ashley's based in New York City (though her work takes her everywhere from LA to Europe), and here's what I absolutely love about her approach: she never abandoned the storytelling heart that made her an artist. Instead, she transformed it into her superpower.

"My background in acting and singing is a huge part of why I've been able to build this agency," Ashley shares with the kind of authenticity that immediately makes you lean in. "Performing taught me how to tell a story that resonates- and in marketing, that's everything."

Can we just pause here for a moment? How often do we think we need to completely reinvent ourselves to succeed in business? Ashley's journey proves that our creative backgrounds aren't obstacles—they're our secret weapons.

Scène Studios wasn't born from a single lightbulb moment, but rather from a series of realizations that many of us creative entrepreneurs can relate to. Ashley was freelancing in marketing and content when she started noticing a gap that felt like it was calling her name.

"I kept seeing that brands were stuck either with agencies that didn't understand luxury storytelling or with influencer partners and channels that couldn't deliver long-term growth," she explains. "I realized there was a space for something in between—a high-touch, editorially driven growth and content agency."

This is where Ashley's story gets really juicy, sisters. She wasn't just identifying a market opportunity—she was responding to a creative calling. She saw brands with incredible vision that lacked the right growth strategy and high-caliber content to match. Sound familiar? How many of us have felt that exact same pull toward filling a gap we see in our industries?

From Survival Mode to Seven Figures

Let's get real about the beginning, because Ashley's honesty here is everything. "When I started, I was literally surviving as a postgrad in New York City—building this completely unfunded and using the business just to pay my rent month to month."

If you've ever built something from absolute scratch while trying to keep the lights on, you know this feeling intimately. But here's what I love about Ashley's perspective: she doesn't frame those early days as something to escape from, but as the foundation that shaped everything.

"Those early days taught me how to be nimble and use budget in the most effective way to scale—and that experience is exactly how I approach strategy for my clients now," she reflects. "A lot of the brands we work with are just launching, so they need that same mentality: cut through the fluff, invest in what actually matters, and produce at an extremely high quality while still driving growth."

This is pure gold, beautiful ones. Ashley turned her constraint into her competitive advantage. She learned efficiency and effectiveness not from a textbook, but from necessity—and now that wisdom serves every single client she works with.

Anyone who's built a business from the ground up knows the exhausting, exhilarating phase of being everything to everyone. Ashley lived it: "I was the strategist, the project manager, the creative director, and sometimes even the editor."

But here's where her story offers such beautiful wisdom about growth and evolution. Building a reliable, talented team became her biggest transformation. "It took time (and some trial and error), but now I have a team of specialists in ads, email, design, production, and UGC who make it possible for us to scale at the level we do."

This transition from solopreneur to team leader is where so many of us get stuck, isn't it? Ashley's experience reminds us that growth isn't just about revenue—it's about learning to trust, delegate, and create systems that amplify our vision rather than drain our energy.

What Makes Her Approach So Special

Here's where Ashley's artistic background really shines through in her business model. Scène Studios combines "the rigor of growth marketing with the aesthetics of global editorial production." They're creating high-end content that doesn't just look stunning—it performs.

Their work has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, and Vanity Fair, while simultaneously scaling brands through Meta, Pinterest, TikTok, Google, and email. It's the perfect marriage of beauty and strategy, art and analytics.

One of Ashley's favorite projects perfectly captures this approach: "We took a group of emerging brands out to Hawaii and shot all of them. It was an incredible way to create unmatched content these brands wouldn't necessarily have access to on their own, while also building connections with local artists and talent."

Every entrepreneur has those moments that feel like complete disasters at the time but end up becoming their greatest teachers. When I asked Ashley what her biggest “fail” had been, she shared something I think so many of us can relate to: underpricing a huge production project and pushing herself straight into burnout.

"That project gave me a million takeaways," she reflects. "It forced me to ask, how do I create packages that are simple, effective, and sustainable? Ones that deliver a win-win structure for everyone involved."

That experience shaped exactly how she operates today—results first, boiled down to what actually drives growth, and always presented in an elevated, editorial way. Sometimes our biggest mistakes become our most valuable business lessons, don’t they?

Leading with Creative Heart

What moves me most about Ashley's story is how she leads with her artistic heart intact. "When I'm leading my team, I draw on that creative training. It shows up in the way I direct shoots, shape strategy, and even how I present ideas to clients. I think that artistic side keeps the work from feeling transactional—it makes it feel alive."

This is everything, beautiful souls. Ashley proves that you don't have to choose between being creative and being successful in business. In fact, your creativity might be exactly what the business world needs.

Her advice for fellow creative entrepreneurs is both simple and profound: "Watch the top players and match their quality—whatever you have to do. Don't compare yourself to mediocre. Compare yourself to industry leaders and let that be your bar of excellence."

This hits different when you realize she's not talking about copying—she's talking about raising your standards to match your vision. It's about refusing to accept "good enough" when your creative soul knows what excellence looks like.

Her journey from surviving month-to-month as a postgrad to building a seven-figure agency isn't just about financial success—it's about creating a business that honors both artistic integrity and entrepreneurial ambition.

Ashley's story reminds us that our creative backgrounds aren't detours from our business journey—they're the very foundation that makes our work meaningful and distinctive. Whether you're an actor, singer, writer, designer, or any kind of creative soul thinking about entrepreneurship, remember this: your artistic training is your business advantage.

What story is your creativity calling you to tell? What gap are you uniquely positioned to fill? Sometimes the most powerful businesses are born not from pure strategy, but from an artist's eye seeing what the world needs next.

Keep creating, keep dreaming, and keep building something beautiful.

With love and creative courage, Your fellow dreamer in the entrepreneurial sisterhood

Want to connect with Ashley and see Scène Studios' incredible work? Follow along as she continues to redefine what's possible when creativity meets strategy in the most beautiful way.