All that practice came to fruition last year when the country singer-songwriter heard a song she had written on the radio for the first time. It was a song she'd written with her husband, Rollie Gaalswyk, over a bottle of red wine called "Wasting All These Tears," which was recorded by Cassadee Pope.

"He [Gaalswyk] was in the garage and had the radio on, and the song came on and he runs in the house and he's like, 'Get out here!' And so I run out into the garage and we turn it up all the way and dance around our garage. It was just a super magical moment. Really, really fun," she recalls with a big smile.

To some, it might sound strange to write a breakup song like "Wasting All These Tears" with your husband, but for Smith it's just another day at work.

"We're both writers and we both have crazy ideas and crazy lines coming," she admits. "I don't always write from, 'I have lived every word of this song.' Sometimes when you write you put on an actor hat and you can play a different character, which makes writing breakup songs with your husband a little easier."

She says that the two of them "keep doing it because we like writing with each other. Sometimes it ends in a fight," she laughs, "and sometimes it's awesome."

"Wasting All These Tears" became a platinum-selling single for Pope. But it's not the only song that has helped raise Smith's profile as a writer. Her catalog also includes songs that have been cut by such high-profile artists as Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (the GRAMMY-nominated "You Can't Make Old Friends"), Lady Antebellum ("747″), Rascal Flatts ("Let It Hurt") and even Garth Brooks ("Tacoma").