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"Explore The Wild West Of Rancer Hats With Hope Benton Of Hippie Ranch Creations"

Hope Benton is the owner of Hippie Ranch Creations, who makes her living by drawing pretty designs on rancher hats. Hope talks about her life and her business, which has gained a lot of attention on TikTok recently. She reveals how her passion for western fashion has enabled her to make a living by customizing and designing rancher hats. Hope discusses the current trends in Western fashion, and how fun it is to get to know cowgirls! She also shares her experiences of running her own business and the difficulties that come with it.

Overall, the podcast highlighted Hope’s passion for Western fashion and her success in the industry. The speaker recently got into creating art on rancher hats in October and has been in business for a little over a year. She started their business to be a stay at home mom and started off painting on canvases. They then moved to t-shirts, but found it to be a gamble, so they wanted to marry her love of the western lifestyle with art and came up with drawing on rancher hats. In the past year they have sold around 350 hats, with 300 of them being hand drawn and designed. That is almost one a day since October. In this conversation, the speaker is discussing their journey of becoming a successful Western fashion influencer. They have been doing this since October and have created two hats a day for six months. They have gained most of their business from TikTok and other social media platforms. Hippie Ranch Creations has events coming up in Arkansas, such as the Marshall Gate Plantation Mother's Day event and the Clinton Chuck Wagon Races labor day weekend. They also have an upcoming event in Nashville, the Women in AG event. See all her events at the bottom of the page here : https://hippieranchcreations.com/

When asked who her dream collaboration would be, Hope mentioned Laney Wilson and Tanya Tucker. Hope also emphasizes the importance of staying true to yourself and treating people with respect. Hope & Ashley advise not to sell products to people, but rather create relationships with them and let them follow your journey. Hope is a stay-at-home mama who sells custom hats.

She advises others to use storytelling to sell their products, as it is an effective approach. Her big dream is to open a warehouse and store, while still being able to stay at home with her children. Production challenges come from the length of time it takes to burn each hat, but she has seen success in selling out within three minutes of releasing her hats online.
On average, her hats range from $30-$500




0:01:19
Interview with Rancher Hat Artist: Exploring the Western Lifestyle and Artistic Expression



0:08:47
Conversation with Hope Benton : Discussing Business Plans and Production Challenges


0:10:46
Hopes that Tanya Tucker will want one of her hats!



"I have these two really big events coming up in August and September. My big dream is to build a warehouse and start slowly by doing probably private parties and maybe venture into wholesale just a little bit and get into hat shaping. Just open up a big store and still continue to be a stay at home mama. So I guess wherever business kind of leads me with that. I've got plans for six months from now and I've got plans maybe a year from now too, but things 360 real quick in a small business. So hopefully one day I can open up a storefront." Hope Benton - Hippie Ranch Creations


"There is room in the small business community for everyone. There is room in the Western world for everyone. I think not selling products, just talking to people and treating people like people instead of customers, and just being yourself. My huge thing all my life has always been old, old country music. I'm George Jones, Tammy Wynett. I mean, Tanya Tucker, the old, old people. And you just stay true to who you are. And then eventually your customers will come and they will follow your journey and listen to the stories that you have to tell. And you'll find your little group of people or customers, they will come to you. So don't sell a product to people. Just tell stories and have fun with it and then say, oh, by the way, I sell X, Y and Z." Hope Benton - Hippie Ranch Creations


"Well, my first viral viral video was Replying Back to the Holler Annie from the, you know, the band the Pistol Annie's. I did a Pistol Annie inspired hat, and she commented that she loved it. And then I made a video replying Back to her comment, and then I started talking about how I love The Pistol Annie's and old country music and Marty Stewart. And it wasn't super viral, but over 700,000 views is pretty big for me." Hope Benton - Hippie Ranch Creations


"Well, when I first started my business last January, I actually had a pre me baby. We'll just go back to that. So I started a business to be a stay at home mom and stay at home with him. And I started painting on canvases. I've always loved flowers. And then I got into T shirts, and T shirts are just so up and down. It's such a gamble to be a t shirt business. And the beginning of last October, I thought, well, how can I take the Western lifestyle that I like and then also being an artist and marry those two together? And then I guess I started drawing on rancher hats, and here I am." Hope Benton - Hippie Ranch Creations