One Year of One Love
The Story behind @asfvision and How We Got Here
If you’re reading this chances are you’ve seen at least one video that starts with “I’m Blind” and ends with “One Love”. If you haven’t well then enjoy this rabbit hole.
Today we’re going to rewind and look at some of the highlights and milestones we achieved this past year. We will touch on where we started, getting our puppy, Anthony’s Paralympic journey, falling back in love with Skateboarding, Blind Busking Tour 2.0, getting married, growing our business and what we hope is to come. There are links and relevant pictures for each section. Feel free to skim the piece, read it all or read none. We’re so happy you’re here. Thank you to everyone for being apart of one year of One Love.
Who’s writing this? Hi my name is Kelly and I am Anthony’s wife. I film all the videos and make all the posts to our social channels while Anthony responds to comments and messages to keep the community engaged. The scripts and ideas from each video are a collaboration between the two of us. They’re in a sense our expression of our love for each other and our love for others. Anthony and I work together to spread peace, positivity and the message of one love during these strange and difficult times. If you’re here, thank you. Now let’s do this!
Putting in the Work
Every year since Anthony and I have been together we sit down sometime after New Years and write out what we are grateful for from the following year and what we hope for the year to come. In the beginning of 2021 we sat down and decided it was time to get serious about growing Anthony’s brand and ultimately our business. We started researching algorithms and social media strategies. We spent countless hours on a new app that was an audio chat room where people could join and hear others discuss certain topics. We studied most of January 2021 and tried to learn how to do the things a marketing firm would do and put them into play ourselves.
The First Short Form Video
On January 28, 2021, Anthony and I had been implementing our social media strategy in the form of daily instagram posts recapping our “Blind Busking Tour 1.0” (when I drove 10,000 miles from New Jersey to California and back playing live music in various remote locations along the way). We wanted to reach the younger generation more and thought TikTok would be a good idea. We filmed a really quick intro video where Anthony said he was blind and also listed that he was training for the Paralympics and that he liked to skate, surf and play music. We went to bed that evening and the next morning the video had received over 35,000 views. We realized the reach potential and were excited to finally have an audience. I made a joke to Anthony that if he got 10,000 followers I would buy him a puppy…
My first ever TikTok - also below if you’re “not on TikTok”
Getting Our Service Dog In Training Miss Delta Blues
Anthony hit 10,000 followers on TikTok a week later. He spent hours on his live stream pleading viewers to like, comment and share on his posts to help him get his puppy. I found a rescue in our state (shout our NJ) that brings puppies up from Mississippi once a month. I was able to find a precious little German Shepard mix who would be intelligent enough, if all went well, to train for service in the future. I did all the paper work and found out on February 10th that the puppy would be ours. I waited until Valentine’s Day and surprised Anthony with a dog collar and a letter I wrote in Braille that said his dream of getting a puppy was coming true. We picked up Miss Delta Blues Ferraro on February 21, 2021. She was our first “born”, our “baby” and for sure our new best friend.
Road to Tokyo Paralympic Journey Ends Suddenly
To make it to the Paralympics in Judo you need to have enough qualifying tournament points added up. Anthony had 2 tournaments in 2020 that were cancelled and rescheduled. During a Judo practice in early May just before he was to leave for Azerbaijan, Anthony felt a horrific tear in his groin. He was done. And just like that he could barley walk let alone fight.
Depression and heartbreak kicked in. I spent weeks trying to convince him that “everything would be OK” and “it’s not over until it’s over”. The back and forth was hard because every day it seemed Anthony would get a call that he still had a chance. Or that they were adding him for he wild card slot and he could still be selected. In the end the Road to Tokyo was cut short for Anthony but that’s not where his Paralympic journey ended (but it still sucked really really bad to not be able to go after 5 years of training). Anthony continues to train in Judo and is now on the Road to Paris 2024.
Meeting other Blind and Adaptive Skaters
As “they” say, when one door closes another door opens. This couldn’t have been more true. Another blind skater, Nick Mullins reached out to Anthony in early June. Nick lost his vision from a freak accident yet continued to skateboard. Social media made him realize there are other guys like him so why not get them all together in one place.
Nick Mullins and George Leichtweis, the owner of Modern Skate in Royal Oak, Michigan, invited 7 blind skaters and 1 adaptive skater to spend the weekend at the park during opening hours but even more cool AFTER hours. As a blind skater it can be crazy trying to find a flow or a feature in a park filled with sighted guys. Having the opportunity to learn from a group of other blind skaters in a safe and private setting was a life changing experience to say the least. Friends for life were made on this trip and the love for skateboarding was reborn once again in Anthony. He was hooked.
Playing My First Official Concert
Shortly after our return from Michigan, Anthony was invited to play a solo opening act for a concert venue in Weston, CT. For an audience of 300 people including Anne Hathaway (!), Anthony rocked it. We tried to vlog it but at the time were still getting to learn how to do this exactly.
I don’t know if I was more excited that this was Anthony’s first EVER paid concert gig or the fact that I got to shake hands with Ms. Princess Diaries herself. When she told me her name was “Annie” all I could gather up the effort to say was “My middle name is Anne”. Star struck to say the least.
Blind Busking Tour 2.0
You may have head us mention Blind Busking Tour 1.0 where I drove 10,000 miles from New Jersey to California and back with Anthony while he was playing live music in various remote locations along the way. We had concert tickets for Red Rocks and decided to do another music tour. Blind Busing Tour 2.0 New Jersey to Denver and back.
This time we had Miss Delta Blues with us and got to show her so many awesome places in this country. We experimented with blogging and need to get better but it was still funny to make this video:
And we also recorded a podcast together for 1.0 and 2.0 if anyone is interested in hearing our road rambling recaps —
Getting Married!
I used to laugh at people that said their Wedding Day was the happiest day of their lives. That was until October 2, 2021 when I married Anthony Simon Ferraro and realized that it truly was the happiest day of my life. The wedding was a fairy tale from my dreams. My Mom worked so hard to give me the wedding of my dreams. She sat down with both me and Anthony so many times and confirmed everything we wanted. I have been meaning to write a piece specifically on this wedding for myself and to share details with the world but I haven’t gotten around to it yet (soon!).
We made a TikTok as usual recapping the wedding day and the sweetest journalist ever (Gabriela Miranda) from USA Today reached out because she was inspired by the fact that I chose to wear a dress with amazing tactile features. BOOM that story blew up on the news. People Magazine, NY Post, Glamour, Newsweek, CBS News, ABC, Upworthy, it felt like it was everywhere. This was the best video though and we literally were not warned that this was going to be the footage they used so… LOL live and learn:
Short of The Original Wedding TikTok video we made that went viral:
Anthony’s First Skateboarding Competition EVER
After mini-mooning on Lake Champlain and adjusting to married life, we flew to Florida for Anthony to complete in his first ever Skate competition. The Grind For Life Contest Series was having the final tournament of the year and Anthony was determined to show up and do well. Usually when we go to skate parks together I guide Anthony around and show him all the features. We only had 2 hours the day before to make a mental map and we made the most of it.
The day of the tournament was something you can’t really prepare for and you just have to send it. It was chaotic and loud music was blasting. People were zooming by Anthony and we had no idea how things were going. When they said skate, Anthony sent it. He ended up coming in 2nd for the Advanced Bowl division and 1st for the Beginner street division (we have to mention that there was only 1 other skater in the adaptive section).
After the tournament we rushed to film a random video with Rob Gronkowski. Yeah legit THE Rob Gronkowski who won like 500 Super Bowls and is legit the greatest of all time. He met up with us and filmed “I’m blind this is how I throw a football”. An epic moment in our year and lifetime to say the least. Oh how quickly the wedding day being the best day of our lives fell to second best day — JK.
Building a Business
So why are we doing all of this work? Doesn't Kelly have a full time job building bad ass software all day? Well yes but Anthony doesn’t and it’s hard to find motivating work as a blind person so he wanted to create his own business. On March 31, 2021, ASFVISION, LLC legally became a company:
So basically we do this for a few reasons:
Raise awareness that Anthony has a film for rent or sale - ‘A Shot In The Dark’ - Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play and Vimeo.
To get Anthony booked for more speaking engagements - corporations, startups, schools, classes, clubs, wrestling groups, camps, etc.
To get Anthony booked for more Music gigs
Raise awareness of Anthony’s podcast Four Bad Eyes with fellow Blind Skater, Dan The Mancina
To reach others who feel lost and desperately need to smile
What’s next?
Honestly whatever comes our way that fits our “brand” and our values could be what’s next. High level we want to do Blind Busking 3.0 sometime this summer. Anthony will continue training for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in Judo. Lots more skateboarding competitions. Finish building the recording studio in our apartment. Anthony begin releasing his own original music. Anthony and Kelly FINALLY GO ON A REAL honey moon of our dreams (if anyone wants to hook us up with a resort please do we will make lots of videos). Lots more podcasting. A digital cookbook written by Kelly and Anthony Ferraro and whatever else we think of.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
If you’re still reading this, thank you! Thank you for being here. Thank you for watching our videos. Thank you for having patience with us. Thank you for helping us learn and grow. Thank you for those who are supporting us. Thank you for anyone who has donated along the way. Thank you to anyone who rented or bought my film. Thank you to those who believe in the vision. The ASFVISION and the One Love movement. If you’re here, you’re family.
One love!
What an amazing journey this has been! I'm so proud of you both. My seatbelt is fastened and I'm ready to continue to ride with you!
One love! You’re an inspiration to us all Ant!