Episode One – Hannah Ashton
By Katlin Tara
Welcome back to the blog and our first recap in writing of the first Prickly Pear Pod episode! In this episode, Prickly Pear Coffee Co. founder Annika Baylis grabs coffee with Hannah Ashton, a local YouTuber and small business owner, to chat all things entrepreneurial! First and foremost, Hannah’s go-to coffee order: a whole milk latte with a seasonal syrup, this one blackberry – yum!
Hannah’s start in social media, which ultimately led to her career launch, began at 12 years old with a YouTube channel about American Girl dolls. Since then her passions developed into that of beauty, lifestyle, and entrepreneurship as she continued making YouTube videos about daily routines and college life at Belmont University. Starting her stationery business, Dream Daily, as a college freshman, she wanted to create a product that helped her audience through school as well. This led to the Dream Achieve workbook, a six-month undated weekly planner for students to help manage other aspects in life including business, content creation, and personal development skills.
Working on this business throughout college while also running her YouTube page and majoring in entrepreneurship, she graduated in 2022 and is now in year 5 of Dream Daily. Designs for these notebooks come from the inspiration of her day-to-day along with what her customers need to help manage and guide their days. She keeps it chic and minimal with a professional look – something she hadn’t seen much of during her time in school.
These days, Hannah is a one-woman show, managing YouTube and Dream Daily by splitting her days in half to prioritize work for each business. Her videos now focus on lifestyle day-the-life vlogs and monthly reset goals as she finds a good work-life balance. Like many of us, she says that she often asks herself if she’s doing enough, as she lives with the uncertainty of working for yourself and as she calls it the “high highs and the low lows” of running a business. Even so, the advice she give to her younger self and to those listening in is to keep making the next right step. There are so many decisions to make, prioritize prayer in all decisions, it will lead to where you’re meant to be.
While we’re faced with so much pressure so young, she reminds us that good things take time. In 5 years, Hannah hopes to have a small team and to create even more products that help people through different life stages. With Dream Daily at the forefront, she’ll continue with social media for that personal connection and community.
To those interested in small business, she says to seek advice from people a few steps ahead, find a mentor, and build a community of accountability. “Be willing to learn and don’t be afraid to fail,” she says, “but keep pushing forward if you know it’s what needs to happen, and eventually it will work out.” As the conversation wraps up, Hannah reflects on the reminder that this is where God wants her, that she’s meant to be doing this. While the feelings of fear or comparison may come, she leaves us with the advice to keep going.
Check out her YouTube channel for even more guidance and a look into the daily life of a small business entrepreneur, and shop her workbooks to help plan out your own day-to-day at shopdreamdaily.com.
