Why You’re Exhausted from Chasing Happiness: Ann Lesley Smith’s Creative Journey

Finding God's like a great thing. It gives you a lot of lift in your life, you know, a lot of light and creates, I think, opportunities that you can't do on your own in your own humanness, you know, although we do all try to do that, but I learned to depend on God like solidly, like not just for fun, like it was my survival. Today we sit down with Ann Leslie Smith, a remarkable woman whose life journey spans an extraordinary range of roles, from a dental hygienist to model, singer, songwriter, radio host, philanthropist, and prison chaplain. She's known for her deep faith, her love of horses, through which envisions world peace. In this conversation, Ann shares the lessons she's learned from major successes and challenges, the impact of her work in media and philanthropy, and her unique perspective on life and faith. This is Bay Area Innovators, and I'm your host, Steve Vispas. And welcome to Bay Area Innovators. Thank you. Great to be here. Fantastic to have you here. So you kind of had an amazing career, an amazing path. You grew up in Sonoma County, which makes you kind of local for us here. And then you went from being a dental hygienist to a model to a songwriter. Tell us about what sparked those ideas, those careers in the beginning. Yeah. Well, Sonoma County is a great place to grow up because it could be rural or close to the city, you know, close to San Francisco. But yeah, so it was going from a dental hygienist, which is a, you know, kind of like a organized type of career, you know, everything's figured out more or less. And there's highly educated and, you know, you pass all the tests. And to be doing that, and then, but the whole time I did that, I was always thinking in the back of my mind, you know, I should be singing, I should be doing something else, you know, something inside of me was always driving me. It was like this little small voice inside of me just saying, you know, but what's hard is it's hard to leave a career or a job, you know, that is financially solid and trying something that isn't, you know, something creative. Sometimes when you start creative endeavors, there's not a guarantee of how you're going to make money. So I kind of went for it. And I knew that the creative side of me was bigger than that academic side. And I said, well, I want to try it. So I always was singing. I made like my first guitar, for example, when I was three years old, I had my mom gave me a shoebox or four or something like that. And I strung rubber bands through and I was going doing DJing. So there's always this component of music with me that was sort of inherent. You know, so then, I don't know, I learned to play guitar by myself. I had a little book and it showed all the chords. And then I started writing songs about how I felt, you know, and expressing myself that way. And yeah, so that's how the music part of it. And then you moved to radio. You had your own show, Ann Leslie. Ann Leslie Live, yeah. And what would you say you learned the most about connecting with people through the show? Well, I learned a lot about making use of the time that I was on the air and what could make the most impact and what could make the most impact by changing people's lives. And I dealt a lot with the issue of like listening to your intuition, you know, that still small voice inside of you that a lot of people like to ignore. So I did a lot of talking about that because that actually is a compass inside of you. And I thought it was connecting with people on that level, getting them kind of stirred up and thinking, oh, it's OK to listen to that voice, you know, to your gut feeling. You know, that was kind of fun. And people, I think, were starting to listen to that inner compass and it actually changed their lives. And listen to that more than some kind of standard way of doing things. Yeah, or ignoring that completely and saying, oh, no, that's just something else, you know. But it truly is your compass. It truly knows you. You know, it knows the things that you're geared for and probably should be doing in your life. But sometimes, you know, it's a little bit illogical to listen to those voices. It's always somewhat illogical. You know, it doesn't follow the rules of logic. So I think when, especially when we get into creative endeavors, that it's more of an illogical thing because, you know, it defies, well, you know, how are you going to be making your regular paycheck? You know, when you're writing songs and painting and things like that, you know, how are you going to pay the rent? You know, there's always a battle. So speaking of that, you had a lot of ups and downs. And can you walk us through some of the ways you came out of some of the harder times that you had to go through? And I look at it as, you know, ups and downs. I call it like different rooms in your life that you discover, you know, like, say, my first marriage, I married into the family that started the railroad, you know, and that was a big, you know, California railroad. No, Transcontinental. Wow. You know, and their family, you know, was, drove the Golden Spike, you know, at Promontory Point, Utah to join the, you know, the East and the West together. No, we're talking Transcontinental So that was an interesting room to be in. And of course, when you enter, like I'm talking about different rooms in your life, they're going to bring highs and lows, because none of us are equipped to deal with, with what the unknown is in those kinds of situations. Now, in that situation, it looked like all was perfect, you know, and I had everything in the world. But, you know, behind closed doors, it's always a different story, you know, and there's there's a lot of unknowns, and, and things that you're unaware of, and you learn, you know, it's like, okay, that room was about this. And you either go back and do it again, or try something else, you know, but how did I get out of that? It's, I think, the perspective that I have learning, seeing it as a learning situation helps, you know, helps kind of any of the thoughts that you had, I was a failure or something like that. I didn't do well in that situation. You know, I was deficient at that. I think that when you adopt a different perspective as to a situation that didn't turn out the way you thought it would, I think it really helps level, you know, instead of driving you crazy. Does that make sense? Yeah, you just keep going, basically. Yeah. Well, you just see it a different perspective. So you don't end up coming down on yourself like, oh, I am a failure, like a lot of people do, and they start drinking or something like that, you know, I failed in that I'm such a failure, you know, believe in yourself and move on. Well, consider it a huge learning experience, you know, one that you wouldn't choose on your own. Some of probably the some of the situations that that happened to me at that time, I wouldn't choose those situations at all, you know, but, but they do happen. And then you have to have faith to say that there is a tomorrow to all this. Speaking of faith, can you tell us about faith and the importance that faith played in your life or plays in your life? Well, I was raised, you know, believing in God. And did I believe in God, you know, the way I believe now? No. God was sort of there, you know, and sort of, you know, kind of a thing growing up. But when you go through some, some tough roads, you, you have to turn to something that isn't moving, you know, something that's stable. And that's where I that's where I found God at the end of my rainbow at the end of my dreams that didn't come true. And, and that's where I found God. But looking back on it, it's kind of interesting, because how finding God's like a great thing, it gives you a lot of lift in your life, you know, a lot of light and creates, I think, opportunities that you can't do on your own in your own humanness. You know, although we do all try to do that. But I know that I learned to depend on God, like, solidly, like, not just for fun, like, it was my survival. And that's what it came to, you know, I had no other road to choose from. But, but that, you know, and I thought, okay, well, that didn't work. And that was my dream that I had in my life. And when you see something like crashing down, and I honestly said to myself, that didn't work. And then I found the scripture in the Bible, what was it, it said, something like, if you turn to me, you know, I will make things happen in your life or something like that. That's just a, an easy way of saying what the scripture was. But I said, you know what, God's not a liar. So I'm gonna try that. So I went and found, seek first the kingdom of God, and all things will be given to you after that. And I'm like, wow, that's, that's quite a scripture, isn't it? Wow, you know, to someone who, you know, had the dreams come true, come crashing down, it's like, that sounds pretty good. And I'm gonna try it. So I started engaging in, in what his kingdom would be, you know, and trying to find out what that meant, you know, and it's been, it's been an experience, and I'm still finding out and it's fabulous, you know, what would you say to your definition of success and materialism for that matter? Well, that's changed over the years, of course, today, I would say that success is just being content with whatever situations are put in front of you. Because success, I think in a lot of people's minds means happiness, at the end of the day, you want to be happy. The problem with that is, is that happiness depends on happenings. And when the happenings dissolve, where are you, you know, then you're not successful. Oh, that's, that's, you're setting yourself up for trouble right there. But when you're content, you can kind of slide through, sail through calmly, you know, the ups and the downs. Content. Yeah, you want to be content. We just did an episode yesterday regarding AI and how AI promises this ideal world, where you don't have to do anything, you don't have any, well, supposedly, you can do things, but you don't have to work, you don't have to do the things that you would have to do, and studies how this is actually damaging to people, because people like to have a purpose, something that they have to be doing something. If you have nothing to do, you just, you know, you're going to end up in a not very good situation. Yeah. How did you get involved in philanthropy? I got involved by seeing other people do it, you know, and then I was always sort of altruistic. And mean, what that means to me is that when you give to people, and you see how happy they are, you know, or content, that is a joy to yourself. It's like an added bonus, you know, something inside of you just goes, yes, you know. And so that's a really great feeling. You know, that's like one of the best feelings in the world. And a lot of people don't associate, you know, giving, because they think more giving is like a grudge, you know, it's something that you have to do, and the government, like, if you have a charity, you have to give so much percent of what, you know, and they begrudgingly give, you know, and it's like, no, you're supposed to give with a cheerful heart, you know. And I know the more you have, it's harder to write those bigger checks out. But I think that what comes after that is just incredible. Well, let's talk a little bit about your estate. We were there over the weekend. And let's talk about the Hollywood Gate. So we'll be running a clip that we did a couple of days ago at Anne's estate in central California about the Hollywood Gate. We're here in northern California in Escalon at Anne Leslie Smith Ranch. OK, so tell me, what are we looking at? What is this gate all about? This is a piece of history here. This is what we call the Hollywood Gate. And what it was, was it was the main entrance gate for Fox Studios down in L.A., probably the late 1800s, early 1900s. And here it is here. And it's very significant. It's all European hand hammered. And the tulip design at the top is interesting. I studied that. That is significant because the artists that the iron workers that work on this had their, I guess, levels of status. Now, if you had an artisan that could do the tulip pattern, that meant that you were pretty wealthy. You know, it was a status symbol. So this one has the tulips on it, of course. And this was representing the studio at the time. Was representing the wealth of the studio. So many a movie star has passed through this, probably Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, all the movie stars, Frank Sinatra, all of them. Everybody has passed through these gates right here. That's awesome. It's so great to be in front of history and experiencing it. So it's a great story. You know, amazing gate. Your estate looks awesome. Tell us more about what do you do there? You know, how did you get that built? It's an amazing place that you have. Yeah, thank you. It's pretty unique. And the thing is, I came from Marin County, which is completely opposite of where I'm at. And that was a little bit of a transition that I wasn't used to at first. But then I grew to just love it, you know, and just and then it just kind of took over the beauty of it, you know, the natural, the authenticity of it. You know, it's it's just the days are so beautiful there. And being a part of nature and just hearing the birds saying it's just it's just it's just a great place, you know. And I like seeing the mountains, you know, I don't have to get to go to Tahoe to see the snow. I could stand in my... We could see the snow from... Yeah, my kitchen window, you know, and look out and see the snow-capped mountains and not have to drive to Tahoe. You know, I love that. But well, we did a clip in your backyard, so we'll use another clip to show you the state inside in the backyard. Well, we happen to be in the year of the horse, according to the Chinese calendar, the zodiac and the fire horse, which is once every 60 years, I think. So it's pretty rare. Yeah. And I know you have a deep interest in horses and some amazing horses, Arabian horses. So I want to start with how did you become interested in horses? What what drove you to have such an amazing passion? Well, a friend of mine had Arabian horses. And of course, I went up to her house and we rode the horses. And then I ended up my first horse is an Arabian horse. And I noticed that they I like them because they're really beautiful and they have really big eyes and they relate to you, you know, and they kind of look at you with these eyes and and relate through those eyes. And I thought this is really nice. Some other horses have kind of a blank look, but these horses were just like right there, you know, to relate. You can always talk to them. Yeah, almost if they could talk, they would. You know, they they try. Trust me. But they're just they're just really special. And I don't know, there were just a lot of activities based around the horses. And a lot of people have horses when they spend a lot of time with just the horse, you know, like a friend, you know, just relating like that. They're they're great at that. I mean, I could go on and on. We don't have time to go to all the things of the horse. But the Arabian horses are like fire horses, too. They're they're highly spirited and they're endurance horses. And and just I think generally they're just really pretty, just beautiful horses. You know, their structure, their conformation. Yeah. Well, again, we spend time with you at the Jack Tone Ranch with Amir, your horse. And again, let's play a clip of what we have done over the weekend at Jack Tone Ranch. Oh, there he is. There he is in his national costume. Wow. The Arabian costume. That's Amir Fajur Salam. So tell us now, what what is he doing? Is it just part of his exercise or his? Well, he's showing off how he prances and he's got that. Fajur was a great prancer and Fajur was he knew how to how to show he had a personality. They still have a lot of spirit. So they're not like a dead horse. They're very spirited. Yes. And he knows what's going on. He'll show you like when you clap. Yes. They're very noble. He's got that big diamond on his forehead. Yes. He he's only 18 months old right now, but he knows what to do, especially with that costume on. Yeah. Now, what are your plans with Amir? What are you going to do with him? He's two years old or almost two years old. Are you going to teach him stuff or what? What's going to happen? He's got quite a destiny because of the fact that he has this really rare, unique bloodline that I couldn't ignore when when I found out about his bloodline, there was no way that I could just say, oh, that's nice and just leave it there. He has a 5000 year old pure Arabian thread back to the original desert born horse, you know, Arabian horse that is the thread is pure. There's there's not any other horse breed in that line. So when you look at Amir, you're looking at something that's 5000 years old. I think that's amazing. I mean, there's not too many things in the world that I mean, 500 years is a long time, but 5000 years old. That's how long that breed has been. It's the oldest breed in the world, but that's how long it's been kept a seal, what they call the Arabs called a seal, A.S.I.L. meaning pure. And, you know, there's been such guardrails kept on that breed to keep it pure like that. And so Amir is is from not only a purebred line, but one that was his progeny is just was one of the most famous Arabian horses, I think, in the world. And he's a direct descendant of Fajur, which is probably the most famous horse in U.S. history. Again, we want to play a clip because this was pretty amazing. We saw the museum at the Jacktown Ranch, and here's a clip. Take a look. This is all Fajurs. Look at this. And there's a whole other one, too. It's even bigger. Can you believe this? I mean, unbelievable on the time that goes on and on. This is one of his announcements that this is all his. It was all about Fajur back then. He was 16 in that picture. Look at that. He was reserve national champion at 16. These are the ribbons that he won from different shows, and there's a ton of them here. They go on and on and back real far. Quite a showcase. Yeah, there's just so much in here. You'd have to spend about three weeks in here looking at each little thing. And it's fun to walk in here when Kathleen Tonehammer is here because she sharply recalls all this. She has such a crystalline mind that she can remember it like it was yesterday. That picture there is of our foaling stall, like Anne was telling you. That's where Amir was born. And so that is Saki. She was the leading dam of champions of the breed. And then that's all the grandkids up there looking to see the new foal. My children are there and my sister's children. And then that's Fajur looking from his stall. Now, you've been talking about bringing peace to the world through Amir, through a horse. Can you can you tell us more about that? Yeah, in a nutshell, if we go way back, you know, to 5,000 years ago, when there was a man and this is in the Bible, but it's also historic. So it's not just religious and spiritual. It's historic as well. There was a man, Abraham, who was pretty close with God back then. He walked with God and was obedient to God. They call him Father Abraham. But he also fathered the Christians, the Muslims and the Jewish nations. So but his first son was his name was Ishmael. But what had happened is that the strange part of the stories is that Abraham and his wife, who were both Hebrew, were getting up in years, almost 100 years old, God had promised them that they would have children and descendants beyond the sands of the seas. And that's like a lot. And here they were in there approaching their hundreds and they're like, we have no children now. So what happened is Sarah, his wife, got an idea. We're going to humanly make this happen ourselves. And so she says, OK, Abraham, you can get together with my Egyptian slave and or servant, we should say. I'm sorry. And he did. And so that was their first son that was that was born by Hagar. She conceived and had a son. They named him Ishmael. So Ishmael is the progenitor of the Arab nation. So the story is, is that Ishmael later on in his life had they say the angel Gabriel came down and wanted to give him a horse. And so he gave him the Arabian horse, the same color as a mirror, in fact. And that's kind of the thing. But but also where the peace part comes in is that God had said to to Ishmael and his mother that he would that God would always provide for them and would make them a great nation and protect them and bless them greatly. And that Ishmael would have 12 princes as sons. And he did. You know, they weren't princes of palaces. They were princes of the territory of the desert, which now is, you know, as big as the constellations of the sky, you know. But so they do have that that protection. But the original blueprint blueprint and plan was for the for the Arab people was was peace and unity, not division and rivalry and and all that. Not at all. The original plan was God said, you will be taken care of. I haven't forgotten you. In fact, Ishmael's name means God hears. And I think that Amir is a representation. He's sort of of a prophetic bridge to that message that says, you know what? God is still here with you, with with the Arab nation. He's still there. He's still listening. That hasn't been rescinded, you know, versus in all the political atmospheres and the financial atmospheres and all these things that are going on, the dissensions, the wars, the disagreements. And, you know, the Arab people may not see God the way that that other people see him. But that doesn't that doesn't exclude the fact that God is still there for them. You know, that's an amazing story and how that can connect the nations in that sense and bring peace. And on your car, you have some characters, some letters. Is that Amir's name? That's Amir's name in Arabic. Yeah. Amir Fajr Salam is his name, which means Amir in Arabic means prince. And then Fajr is his famous. That means a radiant sun bursting as it comes up in the morning. And then Salam means shalom, means peace. So he's the prince of peace in the morning. Tell us about the blue outfit that he was in. What is that? Is that like? Oh, that's his. Yeah, that's his. What they call his national costume, the national Arabian costume, you know, with all the tassels and apparently the tassels all mean something. They all have significance, you know. Well, one thing that was amazing is how many awards this was from Fajr, but how many awards Fajr had in the past? And we took footage a lot of that and it was they wouldn't end. It just kept going around around the museum there. How how did that happen? And this is all out of the Jack Tone Ranch. Yeah. And, you know, the Jack Tone Ranch, very humble people. They still are. They're seven generations. I think the ranch is one hundred and seventy seven years old now. Right at the beginning of the gold rush. Yeah, right at the beginning of the gold rush. That's a long time ago. And they're still in existence and still raising those those pure Arabian bloodline, you know, off of, you know, and Fajr back then was incredible. They call them the fabulous Fajr, but he sired over, what, 800, you know, descendants himself that all were very successful, used in movies like The Black Stallion. King Mosabi was a Fajr. It goes on and on. His progeny just was all successful. National champions, King of Morocco would come and buy from and they'd send horses all over the world. Fajr's seed has spread all over. And now Amir is like a four legged messenger and witness of the original blueprint that God had intended for the Arab nations. And I think it's really timely. But yeah, Fajr was something else. He had that if people were to see that museum and see what one horse did. Yes. One horse made millions and millions of dollars back in the 60s when, you know, millions weren't even heard of, you know, but one horse doing that. That's an incredible horse. But not only in his whatever his looks, his confirmation, but it was his personality as well, because he was friendly. He was empathetic. He could sort of read your mind and he knew what to do without being told. That's that's an incredible horse that and Amir is is a lot like him, a lot like him. So that's what they are being judged on, right? It's not called walking, but how they gallop or step. Performance, yeah. Performance, how they look and how they turn and everything. How spirited they are. You know, you want to keep them spirited and raving horses are spirited, but they're also endurance horses. You know, they used them in the desert because they could ride, you know, and go for hours without water and without breaking down. Their skin is a little bit different. They have like a high twitch effect in them. Their muscles are different from other horses. They have less vertebrae in their back than most horses. They have a lot of features that are very unique to them, you know, but but basically, yeah, Amir is not going to be like a blue ribbon show horse. He's going to be more of a messenger, you know, bringing the message that is, I think, really important for peace, you know, for unity. Yeah. What advice would you give to people who are navigating public scrutiny? Well, you know, you could say that the message is the message that Amir is going to be bringing is it sounds like a good one, but it could ruffle some feathers, you know, and you have to be a good. I think that my background in journalism is is actually good for what I'm doing because I know that how to handle and and navigate through the some of the opinions that aren't going to be, you know, online with, you know, on board with what I'm saying. You could kind of say, you know, your journalism experience has made you aware of both sides of the story. Yes. Because that message is going to bring both sides of the story. Trust me, it might open it. We could say it might open it up to both sides of the story, you know. So now, as you bring forward this message of peace through Amir, this may ruffle some feathers. It may get some people, you know, questioning or wrapping things up. So through your experience in journalism, how are you going to walk this path? Well, what what are you going to do? How are you going to work this out? Well, that's that's a good question, because journalism exposes you to people's both sides of the opinion. I mean, you may go in with your own opinion and then soon find out, wait a minute, people see it totally differently. So you have to learn how to navigate those waters. And and my journalism background and in media, I think has prepared me for that. It won't be shocking when people, you know, when their feathers are ruffled a little bit. But but but again, you have to have the discernment and the grace to to deal with that, you know, with that because, you know, peace is a is a is a large topic these days, you know. Yes, yes. Tell us more about the challenges you've been through and how you came out of it. Well, I could tell you the challenges were about some of the dreams I had, some of the the goals that I had that just absolutely came to an abrupt end, you know, just and that's tough for anybody. And I've had quite a few of those and I didn't see them coming, actually. So that surprise element in in an abrupt ending is really hard to deal with. How did I do it? I didn't I didn't expect too much of myself after that. You know, I didn't also I didn't call myself a loser or a failure either at all. You know, I just I just sort of I was going to say chalked it up to it being circumstances beyond my control, which it was. But then I always had an eye on the future because, you know, ending you have to have endings in order for something great to begin. So perhaps I learned a long time ago that maybe the pathway I was following wasn't the most ideal one. I mean, looking back now, I could say, yes, that's exactly what happened. And check that box. And thank God. But you don't see it that way when you're in it. And when you're in it, you're just completely, you know, you feel like the world's going on and you're not, you know, everyone else's lives is perfect and yours isn't, you know, and you can't think of yourself as a failure. You just have to think of it as the beginning. I mean, the end of something that the season is over with that season is over. There's seasons in life that season's over with. And honey, you're going to a new one now, you know, and it's going to be a little bit odd. And the transition is a little bit rough. They always were rough for me, you know, because mainly it was changing my life from one thing to another, just completely flipping, you know, and, and so just knowing that a new beginning is starting is just, that's encouraging. That's what gets you through the day, you know, and sometimes you'll have your doubts more so than others, but at the end of the day to know that, that, wow, there's, there's something else going to happen in my life that's even better than what I thought, you know, bring it on, right? Yeah. Let it crash, so to speak. You know, I'm saying that now in retrospect, but at the time I didn't feel that way, but I kind of knew, you know, there was still that little compass in me saying, no, there's something else out there for you. That's going to be great. It's going to be more attuned to how you're geared, you know? Yes. Yes. And then the final question is, you know, you've been through a lot and how, how do you navigate or what advice would you give to people who want to avoid public scrutiny in so many ways? If they want to avoid public scrutiny? Yeah. Well, that's hard to do. I think instead of taking a position of avoidance, I think it's best to realize it's going to happen and how to deal with it and how to be set, how to be anchored for that when that happens, you know, and make, because it is going to happen. You have to be a little bit immune. You have to have a little bit of a, of a tough skin. You know, if you're thin skinned, you're going to get in trouble. You know, you have to, like I say, keep your eyes straight ahead and not look at the waves, you know, or else you're going to go down. And we thank you so much for time. Any final thoughts, any advice to young people out there who maybe in some way want to follow your steps? They want to get involved. They want to help out with what you're doing. Yes. I say that first of all, number one is there's a compass inside of you. Listen to that. And that will lead you into some pretty exciting journeys. And you'll learn a lot about other people yourself and have a great time. And you may highs and lows you're going to hit, but know that that's part of the gig. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Great being here. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay.epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you. And see you next week.