Hi everyone and welcome back to the real real podcast with me and Natalie barbu in today's episode. I am interviewing someone that I have actually met so long ago in my early days of YouTube and her name is Hannah Ashton. She is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. I am obsessed with her. She's so young but so smart and driven and motivated and if you're not following her go do that right now.Is this podcast stop what you're doing? Go subscribe to her YouTube channel and go follow her on Instagram because after watching her videos and listening to her speak on her podcast or following her on Instagram, you are going to be motivated to want to do more and to be successful because that's just the type of person that she is I met Hannah at BeautyCon. Actually, I went to BeautyCon. I bought a ticket I wasn't invited this was in my very early days of YouTube. I went to BeautyCon with my friend Stephanie. Actually and we met up with Hannah, I'm pretty sure stefhon Hannah were talking about meeting up and that's how we met up. We both had bought tickets, or maybe it was me and Hannah talking. I honestly don't remember but we both were BeautyCon just attending it and we met up for brunch and it's just so funny how things have turned out and it's just so funny that that is how we met. I feel like it's so funny how everyone started out as like a beauty Guru on YouTube did I mention that Hannah is only a sophomore? College she is about to be a sophomore. She's only completed one year of college and she is so young. But yet so smart and driven for how young she is. She started her own coaching and Consulting business when she was in high school. She stopped doing that or put a pause on that. She started a podcast where she explains to people how to build a business how to start a YouTube how to be successful how to be motivated. And then she also Now is working on a planner or a workbook. Okay, and is making a product to sell and I don't I just she inspires me so much. Honestly, I wrote a little bit of like a not a script but I had some bullet points on what to talk about like I do for every podcast. I like having a list of running questions that I can go back to and ask and kind of follow a flow but with this podcast I asked maybe three questions on my list and after that I was just picking her brain because honestly I wanted to learn from her. I think she's just so driven and motivated. And yeah, she just really inspires me. I know that she's going to inspire you guys as well. She goes to Belmont University which we do talk about in the podcast and she is a studying I believe Business and Entrepreneurship, which is really up her alley. I'm really happy that she's doing that because nothing else fits her more she is a true entrepreneur we talk about her Journey on YouTube how she started making American Girl doll videos you guys American Girl dolls, which is just so funny to me and she wasn't even allowed to show her face on camera up until she started doing Beauty videos. And she started in middle school, I believe or maybe even like I think it was Middle School that she started. Anyways, we talked about that in the podcast, but it's just crazy to see her journey and it really is proof that no matter how old you are. You can start whatever you want to start you can do whatever you want to do. It's all about mindset. It's all about being driven and knowing that your age is not going to be a factor just going for it. So she could have easily said, oh I'm too young to start this coaching. - who's going to want to hire someone in high school to coach them about their life or about their career? Like I'm in 11th grade. What do I know? She could have easily said that but she knew that she had skills. She knew that she could teach people she saw what her audience and her customers wanted and she did it. She didn't let her being in high school stop her from doing that which I just think is really really incredible and super cool. I mean if she would have waited until after college she would have never had all the opportunities that she has now she hosts Live Events she plans And organizes them. She really wears a million hats because she does everything. She has not had a whole team of people doing her stuff for her and then she's the one promoting it know she is as Hands-On as Hands-On can get and I am so excited about this episode. I'm also excited to say that if you guys want to ask Hannah any questions just hop on over to the private Facebook page. She is answering any questions that you guys have. So request to join the Facebook page and there's going to be a thread on there. You can ask her and she's going to answer. I feel like it's a great way to just be a little bit more interactive with you guys. And I know after you listen to a podcast or at least after I listened to a podcast, I always want to know more. I'm like, okay. Wait, I have all these questions for you. I feel like I want to talk to you. I want to discuss it. I want to thank you. Whatever it is. You guys can undo that on the private Facebook page. So be sure to do that and it's not only for this it's not only for QA is on there. It's really for networking. So if you guys want are looking for a job if you guys are looking for friends. As if you guys are just looking to talk to someone join the Facebook group and there's going to be someone for you. I'm obsessed with it. I think it's like it's the best thing. I love it so much and before we get started I did want to thank the reviewers. So thank you guys so much for reviewing the podcast. I know that podcast reviews, you might not think to do that. You might just listen and then click on another one, but it really does help me out so much. And if you guys do enjoy this podcast, it would mean the world to me if you guys could just go on iTunes and give it a review. You and just tell me how you feel about it. Tell me what you liked. What you think who you think I should have on it? I would really love to know and I just thank you guys so much for that. It does not go unnoticed which is why I want to highlight the reviewer of the week. So the reviewer of the week is Angela bar and she says this podcast is a breath of fresh air. It's so good to find a podcast that is focused on being your own Advocate whether it's on a personal or professional level Natalie such a motivating human and the podcast is great to listen to for my morning workout. First of all, all I listen to podcasts all the time when I work out. I used to be a big music person because it would like motivate me because the energy of the music but now I'm so much more into listening to podcasts. It makes your workout go by so fast because the podcast I listened to or longer than my workout. So I'm just listening along and then all of a sudden my workouts done, but the podcast is still going. It's great highly recommend if you guys haven't done that yet, but thank you so much for saying that you are your own Advocate. Yes. Absolutely in this podcast with Hannah is a perfect example of that. Fee is such a self motivator. She doesn't rely on other people she motivates herself. So I'm really excited to have her on and thank you so much Angela for viewing the podcast. It means so much to me and I really do read every single one and I wish I could thank you all individually. So if you guys do ever leave a review, please DM me on Instagram just at Natalie barbu or at the real real podcast and I will personally thank you. Anyways, I feel like I ramble too much and I just want to get into this podcast because it's filled with so much that you guys can learn and I feel like after This everyone's gonna want to start their own business. So I'm just going to jump right into the podcast with Hannah Ashton. Welcome to the real real podcast with Natalie. Barbu Instagram might be your highlight reel but we're here to talk about the real real. Hi everyone. I am with Hannah Ashton and we are just going to jump right into setting the record straight. The first one is you shouldn't start a business without a degree. I hope this is not true because this is my life. I am only a sophomore In college and I like to say I run my YouTube as a business and then also a few other side hustles I've started as well. Yeah. I feel like you are the queen of being productive and starting new things and being a true example of that. You don't have to have a degree or don't have to be a certain age to start your business and be successful. Well, thank you. I same to you but yeah, there's so many resources out there that I am going to college for business. It's which we'll get into but you know, I've learned so much just in high school reading books and listening to podcast. It's amazing totally second one is that college is for everyone. I don't think this is necessarily true. I love education. I believe in lifelong learning and I think you've talked about this tube. But lifelong learning doesn't mean you have to go get an associates or a bachelor's degree because honestly college is expensive and being in my first year I've kind of Realized how much of the college experience is unnecessary and you're kind of just paying for the experience, but you can do online classes. You can just have mentorship internships. I don't think you have to have a college degree to go into especially like a business career totally agree. Yeah, if you want to be a doctor lawyer, yeah, you might have to go to college but for owning a business being successful and doing just like a normal job or you don't not have to go to college. I feel like I feel like a lot of it is about what who you know Making Connections networking doing stuff on the side like not waiting to get that degree before you start working. I definitely think that that's something that a lot of people feel like colleges necessary but a lot of times it just puts people in student loan debt and then they can't pay it off and they never should have gone to college in the first place. So I definitely think that that's something that should be talked about more. Yeah. I'm actually thankful. My parents had this view on College as well. Like my mom didn't go to college. She actually went straight into her acting and singing career and then my dad just had an associate's degree. And so last my senior year they gave me the option to go to college or to not go to college. They said, you know, we know you hustle we know you're productive, you know, like if we if you don't go to college you're still gonna work and try to you know further your career and you're not just going to be a couch potato so they gave me that option. In and I decided to go to college just because I have the opportunity and I think I'm so blessed to be able to say that and be able to go to a college that I love so but I've always told myself like if I go into college and I'm just like this is a waste of money a waste of time then I'm okay with you know with stepping out of that that realm but I haven't gotten to that point yet. So yeah. Yeah. I know. I am really really thankful that my parents also they didn't push me to do any Certainly knew that if I didn't go to college I still would be successful as well. But I think it's important to have parents like that. Hmm. Yeah, it's definitely a blessing you have to have a large social media platform to start a successful business. I'm going to take a quick break to tell you guys about our sponsor you guys all know what Spotify is but on Spotify you can listen to all of your favorite artists and podcast in one place for free. So you do not need to have a premium account Spotify has a huge catalogue of podcast on every topic. Book including the one that you're listening to right now on Spotify. You can follow your favorite podcast. So you never miss an episode premium users can download episodes to listen to offline wherever you are and you can also easily share what you're listening to with your friends on Instagram. So if you're listening to this ad right now, you should take a pause and share your podcast or share my podcast I should say on your Instagram story and let other people know where to find it if you haven't done so already be sure to download the Spotify app search for the real. Podcast on Spotify or browse podcast in your library tab also, make sure to follow me. So you never miss an episode of the real real podcast. Definitely not I don't think Steve Jobs had a big following. I mean, he didn't even have social media when he started Apple. So tons of CEOs have started businesses without being an influencer having a social platform. It definitely helps and I think a lot of CEOs now, we're kind of going backwards and trying to build that animal connection through social media, but if you don't have a large social media following then you can take more of like a traditional business route if let's say the business idea you have requires a lot of money and you like I use YouTube to fund all my business projects, but you can go get investors. You can do a Kickstarter like there's a lot of options if you don't have a big following to start a business because obviously many many CEOs have done it. I know and the reason I ask this is because I talked to so many of my Friends who have these great business ideas and I always encourage them to start them and they're like, oh, well, no one's going to buy it. Like I don't have a social media following and in my head. I'm like, you don't have to like yes, of course, like you said that helped but it only helps to an extent like it might help like change your marketing strategy, but really other the most successful people in the world most of them did this from scratch so it definitely is possible and I always try to encourage people not to let that stop them from starting a business or doing what they love because I feel like nowadays social media such a huge presence that we feel like if we don't have one then oh, we're not successful but it's so not true for sure and something are I remind my friends to is getting a follower to like a photo is way different than getting a follower to pull out their wallet and actually pay for a product or service, you know, following someone subscribing watching YouTube. It's amazing and it's free. So it's easy to build up a following on that. But business is a different aspect. So like even with me like some products, I've put it out just haven't done. Well, even though I do have an amazing following an amazing community that I love but that's just business. I realized okay, that's not what the market needs right now. So it's not going to work. So now I have my followers know that's so true. I'm so glad you said that followers does not translate to getting them to purchase a product. It's hard to balance what to put on social media and what to keep private. I don't know if it's hard to balance Maybe. He for YouTubers who are bigger it's harder to balance that because people want to know more about their lives for me. Like I said, I had I love the size of my following because the things I put out there they they support me and they love but I've never had followers like Peak too far into my personal life or demand things of me that I don't want to share. I know we were just talking about this before the we started recording but I've always tried to keep a lot of relationships in my life more on the private side, and that's just a personal. Spect or personal thing I've done for myself, but no I think as a YouTuber you can really decide what you put on and off camera, especially if you're editing your own content. Yeah. No, I agree. It's really easy to think that oh, we don't have we don't keep anything private and I was actually having this conversation the other day how people always tell me that. Oh, you put your whole life on the internet like nothing is private, but I am really selective with what I choose to show not that I Keep lots of things secret but there are things that I don't want the whole entire world seeing and there's some people that don't have a social media following I guess or not following but they don't do social media as their job is what I should say, like just people from colleagues of mine or people that I know in real life and they have a fenced out where they share literally like so much of their lives on their that I'm like, wow, I can't believe you're putting this on the internet. So I feel like a lot of times. It's actually kind of the opposite ear. I never thought about That's what my friends will egg me on to like have a fencer or something and I'm like, okay first off. I already have like an Instagram that's honestly hard for me to run like I have to remind myself to post and then I don't need another one. And yeah, it's like no I can I put out what I want and like you said like it's not like we're keeping secrets. It's just guarding our hearts as well. And I mean, yeah, it's just keeping ourselves safe as well totally and you change a lot in college. Hmm. I've only been through one year and honestly, I thought I would change more but this year went by so quickly that I really don't know the core of me feels the same which I guess is a good thing like my core values my core self. I went through a lot of new experiences like living on my own but I honestly thought like living on my own would feel so much different but I just got into my routine that I would have when I was home with my parents and I would forget that I was living without them. Like, I don't know. How did you feel in college you feel like college? Angel, I felt like college changed me a lot by about the living part. I completely agree with you. I didn't really get homesick. I thought that I would get really homesick and miss my mom like cooking dinners or doing laundry or whatever and don't get me wrong. I do miss my family, but I adjusted to college very easily. I thought that I would have a crisis of adjusting or it would be much more difficult than it was for me. But for me, it was actually Very very very easy to adjust to college and kind of like you said, I just got into her routine and I don't know went by really quickly. But in terms of I guess as a person I do feel like I've just matured a lot. I feel like college just put you through situations that you wouldn't have gone through in high school and you're dealing with them alone. So it does change you as a person and that way again, my core is the same but I definitely feel like I have matured a lot which is a good thing. I don't want to be the same person. I was when I was 18 at 83 so yeah, that's I think that's what changes but it does it's not necessarily negative. I feel like change is negative a lot of times. But in this case, I do think it's a positive change. Yeah. I know I can totally see that. I do think my like perspectives on topics and you know, just meeting so many different new people I go to Belmont and so I was surprised by how many people were like not from the south because it's in Nashville, Tennessee, so I got to meet so many people from you know, North east and west coast and so I that was just an experience. I can Meeting those people I think definitely changed my perspective on a lot of things this first year, but I'm excited to see how I grow in the next three years. Yeah. I know. I'm excited for you to I can't wait to watch you and your videos keep up with you and your life and so now we can get into the podcast. So I just wanted to tell the viewers a little bit about yourself. Let them let them get to know Hannah Ashton. So if you want Tell them a little bit about you. Okay? So this also I guess get started with my YouTube journey. I started making YouTube videos when I was 10 years old which sounds shocking but it was really just for fun. And I I love coming home and watching girls with their American Girl dolls. That was like, the genre I was interested in was American Girl dolls. And so I would come home from school and like watch the Youtube videos and they would just make me feel so Happy and like I was a part of a bigger Community than just my small middle school or Elementary School. And so when I was 10, I asked my parents if I can just start doing some like doll hairstyles and stop motions on my webcam, and I'm really thankful that they said yes because that's kind of what started all this but fast forward four years. I've just kept with it and I still do it today. So my content has changed from American Girl doll hair styles to it. Now. I upload weekly videos about Lifestyle like my college transition. I'm also studying entrepreneurship and I got into entrepreneurship probably like junior year of college. It's Junior High School mainly, but I've always kind of had an entrepreneurship Spirit entrepreneurial spirit. And then so I make videos about like business and kind of what I've learned and trying to start my own businesses and then also just productivity time management all of that fun stuff and then as I mentioned I go to school at Belmont University. Varsity which is in Nashville, Tennessee. It's a it's like a semi small private college and there I am majoring in entrepreneurship and I met a double major of marketing this year. So yeah, that's a quick about me you are so productive and so motivated especially for only having done your first year of college. I think it's insane. You said how you got started on YouTube was American Girl doll videos, which I think is so funny. I still All them I have eight. I think I think I've ate dolls Oh My Gosh. See that's something great that I think is awesome that our parents were not one of those people that were very scared of the internet and didn't let us go on the internet because if not, we would not be where we are today. Like I'm glad that my parents were trusted me and obviously watch out with what I was doing, but they were very accepting and open minded about having me start on the internet when the internet was not really as big as it is today true. Ooh, yeah for the first three or four years I couldn't show my face in the videos, but then I mean I was so young. I didn't really need to but then like when I was getting into later in middle school, I started the whole beauty Beauty Trend and so I was like Mom I need to show my face so I can show them how I use like my Revlon lipstick or whatever. I didn't know anything about makeup, but definitely thankful. They let me start. Yeah. I know it's so important to have parents that allow their kids to express their creativity. Do you think that your YouTube channel has Is helped you start your business. I know that you say that you post a lot of productive logs and business minded videos, but do you think that your YouTube kind of helped start it or did it help you become more entrepreneurship or do you think that you are always like that? Um, I would say I was always entrepreneurial just because my dad's an entrepreneur and just so I would watch him growing up. He's always like run our family off of his income. He's a generated from his business and he His story is just so inspiring and he really started just from very little and built an amazing successful life. But so even when I was before I started doing YouTube like or maybe early stages of you to look around 12. I would make doll like hair clips and bracelets and my friend and I actually started an Etsy store. We had like, maybe two sales which is actually I think pretty good, but maybe they were like my Grandma's friends or someone but so I started Having this love for just creating something and sharing it and then having people receive it or seeing the positive impact or you know, seeing a sale come in like it was just so cool to me that anyone can do that from literally anywhere. I was 12 with a webcam and and I was able to do that. So over the years. It's definitely YouTube has kind of created me to the person I am today like I grew up on YouTube I grew up sharing, you know my journey and sharing my interests and my My passions and so my first business besides YouTube because I did start making money from YouTube early high school, but my first business was actually doing some YouTube Consulting around my junior year of high school and having a social media following allowed me to meet one of my favorite mentors. I mentioned her in like every podcast I go on but her name is Lauren Taylor and so I was a part of her team for the letter magazine and we're still friends today. Like she's actually going to be on my Chicago panel event coming up in in June June 22nd. So I'm so excited to have her there but she brought me on her social media team and then after about a year of working for her magazine, she wanted to start a YouTube channel. So I was one of the main YouTubers on the team and so I kind of helped show her what I did like how to create cool thumbnails what thumbnail to pick for a certain video how to title and she mentioned to me Hannah like you're really good at teaching the skill. Because you've done it for so long. I could really see you doing this in college or after college and I thought about it more and I'm like that is so cool. I would absolutely love to just help women start their YouTube channels and help them find the passion that I found so young and so actually over that was in October and then over my winter break junior year of high school. I just played around on wix.com and created a website. They have like a booking section or part you can add to your website. So I added that in and then in January so soon in January. I just thought okay. I'm going to put this out to my following and we'll see like how it does. So the day after my junior year winter formal. I made a video announcing that I was going to do some like one-on-one coaching for people who wanted to start YouTube channels, and it did really it did really well. Like I got first few clients in the following weeks and they were just like one time 60-minute calls and I got to Talked to so many of my viewers which was amazing. And other cool thing was I thought it was going to be mostly girls my age who were buying these packages, but I actually had a lot of clients that were in their late 20s and older into their 30s 40s. So it was cool just to talk to such a diverse group of women about all their different passions and how they want to share that on their YouTube channel. And so I kept with that for about a year and a half and then my senior year of high school. I joined the young entrepreneur What is it called young entrepreneurs Academy, which is like an after-school program all across America. So if you're in middle school or high school, you can actually join this as well. See if they have one in your area. So I joined that program and I through that program. I learned way more insights about business. Like I actually put a business plan together. I learned more marketing techniques. I learned you know, what a SWOT analysis is and so then I actually launched a six-week course. Course because I didn't want to just have one on one coaching calls with these women anymore. I wanted to take them from like start to end with their YouTube channels or start to launch. And so I launched that and then I did that for a few months and I decided to stop doing consulting as I started getting into college just because the time commitment and setting up the calls. I had a roommate and it was hard to find time. You know, I knew it would be it would be hard to find time to have to myself in the room and I didn't Take that much time away from my roommate to have these one-on-one calls. So I stopped coaching last summer. And now I'm just moving forward with a bunch of other things. That is so amazing. I seriously I'm so impressed by your story especially because like I was saying before the podcast started, I I want to go into coaching and Consulting and that's something that I'm really interested in and just to see that you've done that in high school even is crazy because one thing that scares me is oh I'm so Young people won't take me seriously, but that obviously is not the case as you're a prime example and like I mean, I would have gotten consulted or coached by you like, you know so much and being young has nothing to do with it. So, I think that's really really really cool. Thank you. I definitely did struggle with the fear of you know, people looking down on me and being like well, why is she coaching like obviously, like I said, I love my following I love the community I have but I'm definitely not in the top tier of will you tubers and so I was kind of like why are people going to come to me when I don't even have you know, half a million subscribers like and I'm only 18 are people really going to give me their money and you know, I wanted to charge a price that I believed was good for the market good for myself, but and coaching and Consulting and courses aren't cheap in the any realm like in any business needs to go into like coaching is one of the higher paid services and so it was hard to you know ask This money and I actually did sales calls. I did have a business coach to kind of help me through the setup of this and she had me do sales calls. So when someone reached out to me through Instagram or something, they wanted to learn more I set up a call at them. I talked with them one on one just like this told them the price and that was really hard. But I'm glad I did it because it really just showed me to like own up to your worth and know and charge your worth no matter your age. That's amazing. Yeah. I am trying to kind of figure out how much I would charge for services what exactly Would provide and I'm actually reading this book called children or I don't know if you've read it. But I've heard of it. I haven't read it. You should read it. I feel like she's speaking directly to people like us you definitely definitely should read it but she talks about setting up your prices and how for women especially it's definitely hard to do that because we don't talk about that often. It's a very taboo subject money and pricing and a lot of times we feel guilty because we might be charging too much but we really do need to charge exactly what we're worth and that is a difficult conversation sometimes and people are going to say, oh you're too expensive. I can't afford you, but you really do have to stick with what you know that you are worth exactly so good and how did you learn how to set up a course or set up a website? Is this all self-taught? Yeah. It's completely self-taught. So the young entrepreneurs Academy showed me like the basic outline of setting up a business, but the actual course content and Figuring out what platform to use all of that. I just Googled that's kind of what I do with all of my projects like this exciting new launch I have coming up and when I started doing in-person events, I literally just Google and YouTube or search in the podcast app, like how to hire a speaker how to set up a course on using Google drive or using a different platform and then just really like immersing myself in the content and sitting there and watching videos and Listening to podcast with business coaches and yeah just diving straight in and Googling the little things too. Like obviously you can Google how to set up a course, but it kind of gets easier to to piece together when you're first looking up how to make a coarse graphic and then how to outline a course how to do such and such and then piecing it together yourself instead of looking to one website to give you all the information and do you have any specific websites or specific resources? To have been your favorite. Um, honestly, I created my like course just through using Google Drive and I would put together slide shows for like when I was on the talk and then I would do like videos through there. There are other platforms teachable is one that I actually created a course that like didn't have the coaching aspect that people could go through on their own time. So a lot of people use teachable but that is actually one of the products that didn't really do well. With my following and so I created that Course and there was honestly like no sales and I was like, okay people don't want this if they I guess if they want to they'd pay more to just have the accountability of like me talking to them then have like a cheaper option but not have the conversation aspect. So that's so interesting. It definitely helps to learn your audience and see what they like and don't like and there's nothing wrong with putting out something and it not doing well because you're learning about your audience. So I feel like people get so scared. About failed businesses are failed products. But in reality you learn a lot about who your target market is for sure. Yes, and so tell us about your Live Events. I've heard so much about them and I really want to go to one one day. So I'm definitely going to be keeping up with you with that. But I'd love to hear more about that and how you got started with that. Yes. I'd love to have you at 1:00. So February of 2018. I spoke at my first conference about you, too. It was from a company at the time called Blah gets and it was in Arizona. So like it was the whole shebang I flew out. I got up on a stage twice in one day and taught to like and spoke in front of 40 to 50 people and it was just such a surreal experience. I loved it. I got such an adrenaline high like I love speaking. I love public speaking' like this talking about things I love and so on the plane ride back from that trip with my mom. I was thinking to myself. Okay, like what if I did an event in my home? Pound like what would this look? Like? I just put it on the notes of my phone all the things I would think about like, who would I have speak? Who would I have cater? Where would it be at? What would the ticket price be? This is me just brainstorming on a plane on the notes in my phone little did. I know how much effort actually goes into planning an event. Even if it was just for my event had about 40 40 people which isn't huge but it's a good amount and it was a lot so then over my last summer over last summer I was As planning this event. I've done a video about it in a podcast about it because there were a lot of highs and lows. I it was really hard. It was really hard summer because just a lot of Doubt crept in like actually selling tickets and then getting sponsors and just worried set in because I was really doing this all on my own like I have my mom to bounce ideas off of and things like that, but I didn't hire an event planner. I was doing all the sponsorship calls trying to get sponsors myself or emailing organizing everything out of my Pocket like the budget and everything. So it was very stressful. But then it was August 2nd. I believe is the day of the event it flew by the actual event. I loved it. It was great meeting. So many people I had so many friends actually show up and support me and it was I'm so thankful for that and I got to meet a lot of women as well. I even had some viewers like who would watch my videos or who had done a coaching call with me like drive from Atlanta and Florida. So that was super cool to be able to me. Eat them in my hometown of Knoxville. And yeah, I just it was exhausting. It was one of the most exhausting things I've ever done but it was also so rewarding and so that was in August and then actually a woman Jennifer Boland she reached out to me after that event and she said Hannah I'm from Chicago. I want to get into event planning in my business. Would you want to co-host an event with me next summer? And I said that would be amazing because having a co-host and having someone to You know split the work with you like that is what I need because I love planning. I love all aspects of business. I love emailing everything but having someone to kind of take half of that load off would be ideal. And so this past year while I've been in school, we've been planning Chicago creates, which is happening June 22nd. I don't know if it's passed by the time this episode goes up, but it is for bloggers vloggers instagrammers. Anyone wanting to uplevel their influence and our main, Topic is going to be being an influencer outside of LA because I know when I started YouTube really young like I knew I thought I had to live in LA. I had to go to you know, fit him art school and live all the way over there to have a successful Channel, but especially now in 2019 you can live anywhere and still have an amazing market and I have an amazing community. So that's going to be our main topic but it's going to be a three-hour event and with two Acres of panel and then you know food goodie bags Raffles the whole shebang so I'm really excited for it. But also freaking out because it's coming up so quickly and there's still a lot to do. Wow. I can't wait to see it to see it and to hear about it and it just sounds so incredible and I totally agree with you about living in LA because I try to lie for a summer because I thought that oh Allah is where you make it that's where your channel is going to grow. That's where you meet a bunch of people. And it is true that you meet a lot of people in the industry, but I don't really think that's beneficial. It helps making friends I guess but in terms of growing your Channel, I didn't notice any growth really being in LA versus being in North Carolina. And honestly, I realized that light was not for me. I didn't like being in that environment all the time and being constantly surrounded by people. Who do the same thing as you is actually kind of depressing at least for me. I like having a Diverse group of people around me where we can share each other's stories and life experiences and we're not all doing the exact same thing. I felt it was a little bit more competitive and I don't know. I just I like having a diverse group of people versus people that do the exact same thing as you so I completely understand how some people might think that you need to move to LA. But I'm so glad that you guys are shedding light that you don't actually have to yeah, and that makes so much sense because Being in Tennessee, like Tennessee is usually not known as make natural very artsy and creative but like East Tennessee where I'm from doing YouTube is not a big thing really at all. So it's kind of like being a big fish in a small pond, which is really nice and I get to like you said have so many friends like really I'm trying to think none of ya. None of my friends like at school or where I live do YouTube as well. So it's kind of like a unique thing is part of my part of my personality part of How they know me, but then when I do want to connect with like with you or with people who do the same thing as me and like have that fun aspect I can travel or talk through podcasts. And so you kind of get the best of both worlds totally and your live event. You really are holding or doing every single aspect of it. So you're the coordinator your the event planner. You're the person in charge of sponsorships the marketing person. That's insane that you are holding all the hats you're wearing all the hats. Yes it Is and again that's just like the entrepreneur and me loves it and hates it at the same time. So that's why I love having Jen my co-host be able to take some of the responsibility off, but we're all doing we're both doing all of the things. So it's not like we said, okay Hannah, you're just marketing and Jan you're just sponsorships like we're doing it all together. But yeah, I've I've been trying to come up with new marketing ideas to get ticket sales rolling and cold emailing Brands and Chicago. I've actually never been to Mago so this is also where Jen helps because I yeah, I'm really excited to go visit there. But I'm just instagramming like Chicago brunch Chicago juice bars and trying to find sponsors that we think resonate with our brand but it's a lot but I find it so rewarding and I just I love it. Yeah. I know. I love that. That's that's definitely one way to find sponsors. I feel like so many people feel like oh like to find sponsors for something or to make connections with companies. You have to previously know. Oh them or you have to have worked with them. Literally. It's just a Google search away. I always I've done that with my store. I just Google or I go on Instagram and I see who other wholesale companies are following and that's why I find other wholesalers like it's not I don't have any previous connection to them. It's just using your resources and just honestly being bold and doing that like you're saying you're emailing these companies and trying to get sponsors and it's not like you had previous connections with them. Instagram is honestly such a great search engine like it is sometimes better than Google when finding other bloggers or companies that you know have your aesthetic. It's amazing. Do you search by hashtag or what do you search by y'all do hashtags? So like when I'm on our Instagram Chicago creates Instagram, like I'll search hashtags Chicago blogger or Chicago influencer Chicago outfit ideas, and then go follow those bloggers so that they get the notification and then hopefully that'll bring them. Our Instagram and they can learn more about the event hopefully purchase a ticket. So I use that for marketing and also I'll look up. Yeah, like Chicago brunch spots Chicago hotels as a hashtag or just as like in the normal search tell us about your next business. I've been hearing a lot about that before this podcast started so I can't wait to share it with everyone. Oh my gosh. This is my baby. It is my first product. So doing coaching and Consulting podcasting. That's all like content and Space business this is a product business and I have this idea in September while curling my hair. Actually. I just vividly remember this at the time I was using two different planners one for school and then one for YouTube and business and both like both of them still didn't have everything I wanted and I was thinking to myself okay, if I had a weekly spread or daily spread, what would I want it to include if I could have so many pages in a monthly calendar. Like what would I want? It to say what would I want it to help me with and so I started like just sketching out. What I would what I would do using the methods that I've learned over the years because I'm so obsessed with self-improvement and productivity and time management like in high school probably junior year like I got down my system and it's just kept with me and that's how I'm able to balance YouTube and trying new businesses and also doing well in school because that's important to me as well and also having a social life. So I started planning this out and I just thought okay. What would it look like if you created a workbook planner at first it was just an idea for a planner but then as I began going into the designs and what I wanted from it I decided I didn't want to do a 12 month planner to start. So what I'm launching June 15th, the pre-sale starts June 15th, and then the like you'll risk be receiving the planner. Hopefully in Late July is my goal. But what it is, it's the dream achieve workbook and it is basically we a workbook to help you define your biggest dreams and then set you on your way to achieving them. So it is a six-month undated planner and each month includes amazing spreads like with everything all the content on my YouTube channel that everyone asks for is in the spread. So how to set up your morning and night routine how to set up a workout schedule your you know, if you want to plan out your meals content calendar, like all of the aspects that planning aspects that I use In a month for managing all the things is what is in these pages and then the beginning of the book is actually a goal setting section and just helping you figure out if you want to have a side hustle or if you're in school like how to set your out your priorities. So it'll guide you through long-term and short-term goals and then my thought is the planner portion. The achieved portion will guide you through achieving those goals over the next six months and then the end we have just a six-month reflection. But yeah, I am so excited too. Launch this it's going to be sold through Shopify. And uh, like I said, it's my baby and it's been many months of work and dedication and again a lot of highs and lows and I've logged a lot of the experience as well to share, but I'm really excited for this new Venture. I can't wait to purchase it. I'm definitely going to purchase it at the pre-sale the sounds amazing. Well, maybe not. I'm actually going to send you one. I think our list. Oh my gosh. Thank You wait. I cannot wait to get my hands on it and share it with everyone because this sounds incredible a lot of times. I actually want an undated planner because I just need to jot down things. I want to do or things I need to get done or I don't need necessarily day by day. I just want to write down my ideas and I want to write down steps to get it done, but I don't know exactly. Okay. When do I need to get this done by and I don't want to just pick a day on the calendar. So I think this is going to E incredible and it's going to do so. Well, I can't wait to see it. Thank you. I hope so. I'm really excited for it. I'm kind of been like a slump right now because I'm in contact with the manufacturers and there's just you know, so many roadblocks that can happen when you're working with other people and other companies should be out of country. So yeah, it's exciting but definitely like also a lot of stress but it's okay. Are you wearing are you wearing all the hats on this one or did you do? Graphic design. Did you find the manufacturer answer is yes, I taught myself in design, which is like a version of Photoshop but more for Publications. And again, just like Googling youtubing other people who have made planners through and design and figuring out the setup. I wanted it's like I would sketch out the idea first I do time like I like having a to do list, but also a I also time block every day. So I wanted to have that aspect on my weekly spread. Both aspects so that's what the planner looks like. And so I figure out what I want and then I went into InDesign. It's probably took me way too long to actually come up with the graphics and it should have if like, I would have hired a graphic designer, but that just wasn't in the budget. So I taught myself and then I taught myself like Shopify and setting that up and I did hire a photographer obviously for the photo shoot but like planning the photoshoot and my vision for it the colors finding a manufacturer like all of that. Just taught myself and figure it out through. Well, obviously all the people. I don't know if I would say taught myself but self-taught through mentors and YouTube and podcast and all the people who have done it before that's insane. That's crazy. I am yeah. Wow, I am impressed. I am so proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm yeah it's exciting and I because I've always wanted to come out with something as a YouTuber, but I didn't want to do merch or anything like that. Like I wanted to create something and I I didn't want to do a collab with another company like how you did your your clothing boutique? Like this wasn't a collab with an already established clothing brand like you did this all on your own. It's all yours. And it's just something so special when it's just all yeah. It's just your creativity and your brain power put into it totally. How do you how was your day today? Like what is you wake up? And what do you do? So now that I'm on summer break. My summer break is actually really just starting because I got back from A study abroad trip and then the net following we got my wisdom teeth out. So now my summer is actually starting. Let's see. I woke up at about 7:00 7:30 a.m. And I will do my devotions first thing. I love having quiet time with God and so something I've added into my devotions is also reading a chapter of a Christian book as well. Because I if I don't read first thing in the morning, like I will not make time to read my books. Later in the day. So I read a book this morning. I read Uninvited and it was great and then I go downstairs and I've been trying to get into working out because I've been slacking off the past month because I was away and then my surgery so I just went on like a 30 minute walk this morning grab some water and then I came up here and I'm recording with you now, which is amazing. I love doing this. It really fills my cup and makes me so happy and so after this I'll Go downstairs and have some breakfast and then I actually have a interview for my podcast and an hour or so. And so I'll have that and then I try to get all my work done in the summer before lunch or before like 2 p.m. Because this is what I did last summer because as I said, the event was overwhelming me and I was I could have spent all day sitting at a desk and I didn't want do that. I wanted to enjoy my summer with my friends and my boyfriend at the time so I try to stop working around 2 p.m. P.m. In the summer and then I will just enjoy enjoy the day. So it's pretty out. I'll go to the river or I'll go to a movie or hang out with my family. We're getting a pool this week, which I'm so excited for tell me something a lot of time with them in the pool with my family. So that's what my day usually looks like. My evenings are pretty chill. I love winding down with some Netflix not gonna lie like it's very unproductive, but it's what makes me really happy. So I'll watch a few episodes on Netflix and Night, and yeah, that's kind of like what my summer days look like. Well, I am impressed with how you balance everything. I think it is. So cool. And thank you so much for just being on this podcast. I can't wait for everyone to see what you're doing next and pick up your planner and your workbook and I just think it's incredible what you're doing and this fog has honestly was more informative for me than anything. I'm like trying to pick your brain because I can't believe it how much you get done. Done. Oh, well, thank you Natalie. Like I love this podcast when I saw your announcement for it. I was so excited because I'm I am picky with my podcasts like a listen to an episode and of something and if it's not like I don't know a good balance of you know, I don't know there's just podcast there's so many now that I tried to be picky with the ones that I like actually spend my time listening to because you know, it's almost an hour of your life you're giving these people so I absolutely love yours. I think it's amazing for any woman. I love how you interview your friends and teachers and engineers and people not just in the digital space. Like I listen to all them and I was so honored to be asked to be on it. Oh, well, of course, I so excited that you're on it. And I mean, I'm just like I was honored to be on yours. You were one of the first podcast I've ever been on. So thank you for and I'm so glad that we still keep in touch and I just can't wait to see what you're doing. Thank you. Same to you and what? Do you want to plug plug yourself plug everything website Instagram anything? Well, my main bread and butter is YouTube and Instagram, which is Hannah Ashton a sh t o n and then Instagram is MI SS Miss Hannah Ashton and on there, you'll find all the information and then I also have an Instagram for the workbook. It's called dream achieve workbook and you can find that all the links on my website Hannah Ashton.com and then my podcast is the Achieve podcast and that is on Spotify iTunes anywhere you listen. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on this podcast and good luck with everything. I can't wait to see what you do. Thank you Natalie. I hope that you guys enjoyed this podcast with Hannah. Like I said how motivating how inspiring she's amazing and such just like a wonderful nice human being she's such a joy to be around and I was so honored to have her on my podcast. I was actually on her podcast as well. Like a year ago or maybe even more so I'm going to have that link down below if you guys want to check it out. I'm also going to have all of her links down below her website her Instagram her YouTube her podcast. There's a lot but it's definitely worth catching up on and subscribing to everything that she does because again, like I said, if you want to be motivated you need to follow of people that are going to motivate you and she is one of those people so I loved having her on and I'm so excited for you guys to ask her questions and to just talk to her and discuss with her on the private. Facebook page, so if you haven't joined already, be sure to join because you don't want to miss that. And anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Be sure to give it five stars. If you guys liked it on iTunes, it would mean so much to me follow us on Instagram. Click on the show notes so that you can hear more about Hannah kind of put a face to the name, and I will see you guys next time. Bye guys.
Hi everyone! Welcome back to The Real Reel Podcast with Natalie Barbu. This episode I interview a true entrepreneur, Hannah Ashton. When you look at Hannah's resume, you must think she is in her late twenties or even older. She has accomplished so much and is such a hard worker in everything she does. But nope, she just completed her freshman year of college at Belmont University. Hannah began making videos early on. She always had an entrepreneurial spirit. She then decided to begin her own consulting and coaching company at only 17 years old. And it was successful! She was coaching women of all different walks of life and ages. She also has a podcast, the Dream Achieve Podcast, and she just launched her first product- the Dream Achieve Workbook. I am so excited for you to hear Hannah's story. Her website: http://hannahashton.com/ Follow Hannah: @misshannahashton Hannah's podcast: Dream Achieve Podcast: Click Here to Listen Hannah's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFwZutfqUGmN1Yc1YcROWkQ Dream Achieve Workbook: Find it Here Where can you find us? 