We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ana Arriaga a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ana, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Growing up, my parents always told me one thing when it came to performance: Do your best. There was never pressure to “be the best,” just the encouragement to give it the best I’ve got. Some might see that as an invitation to slack off when no one’s paying attention, but for me making my parents proud because I accomplished something was always the ultimate reward. My mom and dad worked hard their entire lives. Everything they did was 100%, and this work ethic trickled down to my two older brothers and I. We saw a work product as a reflection of who you are, so cutting corners was just something we didn’t do. Call it Catholic guilt, or high standards, but when I’m not happy with something, I can’t present it in good faith – even if it’s passable to most. Sometimes this requires scrapping hours of work and starting over, but the end goal is to get it right.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a self-taught baker and artist, who made a hobby into my full-time gig. When I moved to Atlanta in 2020, Covid shut everything down a week after settling in, unexpectedly cutting my job prospects. After several failed attempts to get hired at a bakery, I started my own business doing what I already loved and created ghoul next door bakeshop from the bottom up – designing my own logo, website, recipes and aesthetic. I am the baker, the web technician, order taker, deliverer, photographer and social media hype person. I spent most of my previous baking venture decorating cakes, but my true dessert passion has always been cookies. It’s what I love the most and what I wanted ghoul next door bakeshop to specialize in, while still making time to design and decorate cakes on the side. My goal for ghoul next door was to capture what I felt most connected to and create a brand that spoke to who I am as a person: a little dark, a little spooky,….and yeah ok, weird. I have the artistic freedom to do what I like, and to my surprise- there’s a lot of other weirdos out there who totally get it. And I love them for it.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
Aside from having two parents who provided me with immense love and support, my two older brothers played a huge role in helping me overcome challenges and developing the skills I needed to be a strong, independent woman. They both encouraged me to go after anything I wanted fearlessly and to take each experience as a lesson to add to my tool belt. I think this is how I developed a “let’s just try it and see what happens” mindset. You could call it a leap of faith mentality, but the biggest takeaway I got from it was you’ll never know your full potential by just dreaming about what you want to accomplish. You have to take risks and work for your dreams, and this will lead you down the path that is meant for you.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.ghoulnextdoorbakeshop.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/ghoulnextdoorbakeshop
- Facebook: facebook.com/ghoulnextdoorbakeshop
Image Credits
Images taken by Ana Arriaga
