Accept the invitation of your threshold
and unearth the life
you are here to lead.
Where you find yourself…
You have never encountered a mountain you couldn’t climb. As someone whose identity has always been tied to achievement, you are known for being out in front, on top of it all. This has served you well. But then, you crossed a threshold. Something deep inside of you has shifted—or, is shifting now. That is your invitation. And when you are ready to accept it, I am here with you.
Hi, I’m Ashlea, and I am a Threshold Guide.
I created The Threshold Project so we can meet life’s thresholds with equal parts intentionality and surrender.
For two decades, I worked at the intersection of human behavior, organizational change, and creative leadership — as Managing Director at IDEO, and as a trusted advisor to leaders at well-known global brands. From the outside, I provided steady guidance to countless organizations through their biggest ruptures.
Then I had a near-death experience while bringing my son into the world, and it unlocked a depth of change no process could design for. What I once believed I could design and control, I came to understand as something to be met, not managed. It wasn't a return to who I was — it was a deeper, richer, more trusting relationship to myself and my life. Now, through that experience, and through my listening project, 100 Stories of Transformation, I help others meet their own thresholds, and themselves.
We come to know ourselves more through our difficulties than through our accomplishments. After a threshold, there is a rare window of psychological and behavioral flexibility. Together, we meet that place and uncover what new growth is possible.
Work that harnesses the productive force of a threshold
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Whether you are approaching a threshold, or have already crossed over, I help you identify the invitation, and meet it wholeheartedly. You will leave with more trust and clarity after one session, and the opportunity to continue working together.
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Naming an organizational rupture is the most courageous step. When you are ready to go there, I am your partner—guiding your team and organization across a threshold in a way that honors the individual and shared experience. We start with a Threshold Diagnosis, identify a core working cohort, and then architect key moments to honor what has been, and allow a new story and reality to emerge.
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It is a rare leader who invests in this level of connection and preparation when things are going well. Through witnessing circles and workshops, I help teams bring their most significant life experiences into the room, and understand each other’s lives and convictions with an open heart. A team’s strength is its depth of understanding each other.
Thresholds as Invitations
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“I recognized once it was starting to peel away that I had been given an opportunity to remake myself, to reforge myself in the fire."
— Paul
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"I'm not the same person that I was [before my threshold]... You can't even understand what I've been through. [My boss] is feeling the difference in me, and it's been great to come into my own power at work."
— Erin
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"As soon as you're working in alignment towards what you should be doing, everything just gets easier... Now I know this, I can still choose to go back, but now I would be doing it empowered."
— Hannah
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"I've got a really big transformation to drive, and because of what I've been through, I'm doing it with a completely different mindset and energy than I would have ten years ago when I was erratically trying to juggle hundreds of plates."
— Heloise
Let’s connect
100 Stories of Transformation
Join the community of 100+ threshold storytellers, and contribute to our collective wisdom on threshold crossing. Threshold story sessions are an experience in being witnessed—by me, and by yourself.
The Darkness Chronicles
Reflections, tools, and stories from the threshold.
Threshold Reading
Take the first step toward understanding the invitation of your threshold. Reach out to find time to dive into the moment you are in.