Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa He.
Hi Lisa, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I immigrated to the US from China when I was 6, and my folks and I had very humble beginnings. My parents gave up promising careers in China to raise their kid in the US – during a time in the 90s when America was the epitome of freedom and opportunity.
Most of my childhood was spent learning the language and culture and trying to assimilate. Growing up in the Bay Area, we had a lot of other kids of Asian decent and overall, it was a very stereotypical immigrant upbringing: strict parents, focus on academic excellence and loaded up on extracurriculars to pad the college application “resume”
Whilst navigating life as an immigrant, I stumbled across AOL free trial discs one day and accidentally found myself on the internet. I started participating in online forums and even built my own GeoCities website to sell my counterfeit KPOP bookmarks and imported Asian beauty products – I was 13 and just wanted my own money to use as I wish. As long as I got good grades and kept up my activities, my parents encouraged my little business ventures.
Fast forward to college and I graduated with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. I never stopped selling things online and had a jewelry business that was doing well. I also turned on the oven for the first time in college (growing up, we used it for storage) and discovered that baking existed and got hooked.
In 2008, there weren’t a lot of resources online yet for baking. It was the start of the blogging boom and people were just beginning to share these things via the internet. I struggled a lot with my bakes but kept going. Eventually, I made decorated cookies for a bake sale at work in 2011 and the rest is history.
I started to share my baking journey on Instagram, and people naturally gravitated toward my content and I was lucky enough to have grown an organic following, steadily over time.
For the next decade, I would concurrently develop my biotech career and baking side-hustle, leaving very little room for many human moments that many of us are supposed to experience in our 20s. I did, however, get to experience things that very few people have in that age range, including a lot of work-sponsored travel for med tech and opportunities to go on Netflix and Food Network as a result of being recognized for sharing my baked goods on Instagram and other social media. I even started a cottage bakery operation in 2015 and started to sell digital and physical products in 2017, pioneering what is now the “norm” of personal brands.
Eventually, I went all-in on my business in 2020. I scaled Borderlands Bakery, and in that process had access to thousands of baker and noticed that these cottage food operators really needed help managing their orders and workflow – and just like that, My Custom Bakes, a cottage bakery management app, was founded.
In the past few years, I’ve undergone a lot of changes that have significantly changed my view on life and work. Within two years, I’ve experienced burnout, divorce, death of a loved one, friends in distress and also tons of positive things like writing my first cookbook (Matcha Meets Macaron hits shelves Sept. 3, 2024!), meeting an incredible group of people at work I value, beautiful new relationships and a wide range of experiences through diverse people and travel. Life is a beautiful, sad and overwhelming all the same time and I got to experience so much so far, and I’m really grateful.
Today, I wear many hats and love the variety of work I get to do: make content and work on sales for the baking supplies and classes at Borderlands Bakery, steer the ship at My Custom Bakes and I also do a little biotech consulting on the side. Life is full.
When I’m not working, I’m spending time with my dog and partner, enjoying all the beauty and excitement that Orlando has to offer. More travel is definitely in my future.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not! Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. There is no guaranteed paycheck, it’s hard to disconnect and checking out is often met with fear of missing out. It’s a hard thing to balance.
We operate in an insanely fast-paced world, driven by technological advances that we could not have fathomed 25 years ago. “Competition” is at an all-time high yet it’s always possible to put your own spin on things, you just gotta get creative and continue challenging the norm, which is much easier said than done.
I’ve had many business blunders over the years: products that have completely flopped, bad decisions in relationships, allowing “noise” to disrupt my own thought process. I’ve made many financial mistakes: spent money on products and services that did not serve me and invested so much into work that I neglected myself and my relationships.
The world can be a lot, and with all the challenges people are facing everywhere, it’s easy to get caught up mentally in situations that are outside of your control. Being in a negative mind state can impact every aspect of your life, and doing a life audit and then following through with the actions necessary to create positive change can be really difficult.
During COVID we experienced all time high revenue because so many people were staying home and learning how to bake. This period also birthed an INSANE amount of super-talented creators who have had time in quarantine to hone their craft- time that they otherwise would not have had if things were “normal”. This shifted the industry in really interesting ways because now, “post” COVID, we have a new, higher bar that’s now the “standard” and it really feels like we’re all just pushing each other to be more and more creative and awesome and amazing.
And it’s really easy to get lost in that race. As a business, you’re always making choices and trying to balance money/financial health with mental sanity, your personal life and just.. being a human.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My “claim to fame” is decorated sugar cookies and I’ve been sharing my creations on Instagram since 2012. Back then, we didn’t have as many resources as we did now and much of my content was around how I learned a certain technique, where I sourced my supplies and tools and how to go about doing the same thing I did (including running my cottage food operation) and just sharing the whole process with people.
I’m really proud that I chose to pursue a traditional career path and also add on the entrepreneurship journey- it’s not something many people can say they’ve accomplished successfully and I think I’ve finally done it. With multiple companies under my belt, media appearances and a book releasing in Sept. 2024, it all feels like the massive amount of work and sacrifices were “worth it”. I’ve been able to achieve what I set out to do in a sense: to make my parents’ ginormous move across the world worth it. Because of their choices and what they gave up, I get the opportunity to be me.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Business lesson: pivot fast, and it’s ok if it’s not perfect. As soon as you see an opportunity or a shifting the market, it’s a good time to try something out. If it doesn’t work, that’s OK, you can move on to the next thing or maybe you landed on something incredible. But you have to keep moving and keep pivoting or else you’ll never get to “your thing”.
Personally: the people around you can either give you energy or drain you. audit your personal life regularly and make the hard calls ASAP. It’s really difficult. It feels bad. But your future self will thank you.
Contact Info:
- Website: borderlandsbakery.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/borderlandsbakery
- Facebook: facebook.com/borderlandsbakery
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbcvWdkTefEUkI8skLhZcfQ
Image Credits
James d’Shone Clayton Guzman
