You know when you sit across from someone and you can just feel their passion? Their zest. Their inspiration. Their ease. Their fire. Even if you yourself weren’t too sure if magic was real, you knew that they did, which helped you to believe that you could find it for yourself.
As I sat and sipped my coffee, I was reminded of the ‘just go for it’ feeling you get when it’s Friday, or a time where you feel like you owe it to yourself to let loose, have fun and to do exactly what you love to do. They lived differently. You could see it in their beaming eyes. They don’t wait for the weekend. They don’t wait for things to be perfect or for others to give them permission to follow their passions. They commit to a life filled with purpose, excitement and adventure, now.
Meet Hanna and Ash, founders of Axel& Ash.
Their adventure began with each of them writing down their bucket lists and sharing them with each other. They never made it through the entire list because they stopped on a particular item that would change their paths; they both wrote down ‘start a business’. They then went on to create Wanderlust and Bucket List journals, stocked in bookstores and boutiques all around the world, that inspires you to live life to the fullest and capture all the incredible moments along the way. Hanna and Ash are filled with knowledge about self-publishing, getting your product into dream stores and living a life where you don’t wait to live out your bucket list, because it’s meant to be lived now.
We’re delighted to have them as speakers at the first #RadLivin event in Sydney on the 20th of Feb and wanted you to get aquatinted a little early, wherever you are in the world.
Introducing Hanna and Ash…
Where are you in the world?
Right now we are sitting at a rooftop in LA, loving life as we have just finished a two month road trip across the country to launch our books here (and tick off a bunch of bucket list items! 🙂 )
How do you follow your bliss?
This is what our whole business is about – to follow your heart, live your dreams and chase what truly makes you happy. We started our business by following our guts. We only knew each other for five months prior, yet the idea of starting a business together seemed so right. Everything inside our body was saying yes, go for it! We all have these wonderful feelings of excitement and when we do get them, we need to just follow them and listen to our instincts.
Following our hearts, bliss and dreams just somewhat comes so naturally but throughout life, and especially during our business, we realised that for many people it doesn’t. There are so many people out there full of dreams that they gave up on already (without always realising themselves.) This happens simply because they just don’t dare to take the step to get out of their everyday safe life. We understand it is scary to step outside of your comfort zone and to go chase those dreams, but we find it even more frightening to get to the age of 80 and realise we lived a whole life where we didn’t chase those dreams at all and did nothing in order to make them come true! We only live once and there is nothing more fulfilling for your body, mind and soul than going out there chasing and living your dreams! Whether successful or not (not everyone can marry Brad Pitt) we promise that it’ll be a fun adventurous ride!
When did the inspiration for Wanderlust first come about?
In 2012, after reading a book called 100 Things by Sebastian Terry, we decided to share our bucketlists with each other. One late summer night, we made some coconut drinks and sat down on Ash’s balcony to read through our lists. It was so much fun. A must do with a good friend! It was a long night of laughter and fun and despite having over 100 items each, we only got to #32 when we realised we both had ‘Start a business’ & ‘Start a business with a friend’ on our lists. We were both like, ‘Let’s do something together’! We were bouncing ideas and I (Axel) had an idea to do this type of travel journal for years. When suggesting it to Ash whose biggest passions are writing and travel, she loved it! From that moment, we made a pinky promise there and then that we were both in and would see it through.
Our goal was to create a travel journal that was completely different from anything else out there. We wanted it to be full of inspiration, beautiful photography, quirky prompts and surprises on every page to really capture all those moments, adventures, feelings and explorations of travelling that are otherwise easily forgotten. Something that was stylish and you wanted to keep for years to come, and fills you with wanderlust by just opening the cover. And so ‘Swept away by Wanderlust’ was born… Continue Reading…
