How Blogilates's 37-year-old CEO ignored her parents’ advice and built a pair of eight-figure empires

Fortune

Cassey Ho’s father gave her three options for her career: “Be a lawyer, doctor, or failure.” Instead, she chose to do what made her happy and built two successful businesses with it.

Transcript

00:00I have been a Taylor Swift fan since 2006.

00:03I was in the salon getting my roots dyed

00:05and my phone is on do not disturb.

00:07So I actually like have no clue

00:09that any of this is going on.

00:10I pick up, I'm like, what?

00:11I'm like getting my hair done.

00:12And he's like, you need to go check your DMs.

00:15You need to go check Slack.

00:16I'm like, what?

00:17I check and everyone is blowing me up.

00:20And they're like, Taylor Swift is wearing your skort.

00:23Oh my God, go look, go look.

00:24And I was like, what, what?

00:26And so I checked.

00:27She posted a YouTube shorts

00:29for her tortured poets like release.

00:31And she's wearing my patented pirouette skort in her video.

00:36And it was literally for 0.3 seconds.

00:38Okay, just a moment.

00:40And that moment sold out like a few hundred

00:45of that literal digital lavender skort

00:48in a matter of minutes.

00:50And then started selling out all the other pirouette skorts

00:54in every single color.

00:56That day ended up becoming our best sales day of the year

01:01and our second best highest sales day ever.

01:03Hi, I'm Cassie Ho.

01:05I am 37 and I'm the founder, CEO

01:08and head designer of Popflex and Blogilates.

01:11And these are my secrets to success.

01:13I grew up in Southern California and I have one sibling.

01:18My parents are both immigrants who came over

01:20from Vietnam in the mid seventies.

01:22My mom was a boat refugee

01:24and both of them really had to work hard

01:26to create some stability for us over here.

01:29My mom was a cake decorator and my dad was an engineer.

01:33Growing up financially, we didn't have a lot.

01:36I remember that going to McDonald's was a luxury.

01:40I did start my first business in seventh grade

01:43without even knowing what a business was.

01:45I am a super taster.

01:47I can't eat chocolate.

01:48However, I really love Halloween.

01:50As a kid, we would go trick or treating all the time.

01:52It was so much fun.

01:53And I would save all of my candy.

01:55And I remember one night I was just like

01:57mixing stuff together

01:58and like just creating this concoction out of chocolate.

02:01And then I rolled them into little balls

02:04and then brought them to school.

02:05And my friends were like, oh my gosh, this is so good.

02:06And I was like, okay, well, if you like it

02:09then maybe you'll buy it.

02:10Which then evolved into a full-on business in high school

02:14where I then had five students under me

02:16selling some of my goods to other students at the campus

02:19until we got caught by the principal

02:22and I was forced to not do that anymore.

02:24I went to Whittier College in Southern California.

02:27I actually won a full ride scholarship there.

02:29And I went to study biology

02:32in preparation for medical school.

02:35I did not want to go to medical school.

02:38I didn't want to be a doctor,

02:39but my father said that really was the only choice

02:42that I had.

02:43It was either going to be lawyer, doctor, or failure.

02:47I had told him I wanted to be a fashion designer.

02:49This is something I knew in my bones

02:51that I always wanted to do.

02:52I'm a very creative, artistic person.

02:56But when I told him I wanted to be a designer,

02:58he was like, absolutely not.

02:59And pretty much crushed my dreams.

03:01And so I said, okay, fine.

03:03I'll go to school to become a doctor

03:05and then I'll figure it out later.

03:06Because I was a very studious and obedient daughter.

03:10Fast forward to college,

03:12I was still doing Pilates, but this time in my dorm room.

03:15And then the other girls were like, what's that?

03:16Can you show me?

03:18Which then led me to think, oh, maybe I could teach this.

03:21So then I went on Craigslist

03:22and I saw that there was an opening for a Pilates instructor

03:26down the street at the local gym.

03:27The gym owner loved me.

03:29And she's like, cool, let me see your certification.

03:31And of course I'm not even certified.

03:33And she's like, oh.

03:35But then she's like, you know what?

03:36I'll pay for your certification.

03:38We'll do this together.

03:39And so that really was the beginning of my Pilates career.

03:43And I didn't rebel until I was halfway through college

03:47and realized this is actually not what I want to do

03:51with the rest of my life.

03:52I decided to drop out of organic chemistry,

03:54which was the last class I needed to take the MCAT

03:57and really just ruin my entire timeline

03:59because my parents were not listening to me.

04:01I was talking about wanting to transfer schools

04:03and like do something else.

04:04And they were like, absolutely not, you will not do that.

04:07And so when I did that, it really ruined our relationship.

04:10However, it really was my first big rebellion

04:14and it was me following my heart.

04:16All those decisions were made

04:18because my heart was telling me to do so.

04:21As I was teaching those Pilates classes,

04:22I noticed that I was fumbling with all of my stuff,

04:25my water bottle, my shoes, my mat, my keys, my CDs,

04:28everything, and just kind of like this

04:30in like a little tote bag, it wasn't working.

04:32So I tried looking for a cute yoga bag

04:34and everything was just so like, oh,

04:36like just, you know, hemp bags, ugly colors,

04:39like just not my style.

04:41And I love everything to be super cute.

04:43I went to the downtown LA fashion district

04:45and bought some leftover fabrics,

04:47put together a super glamorous looking yoga bag

04:50like you've never seen before,

04:52made out of vegan leather with this huge bow, gold chains.

04:55I mean, it was glamorous and it fit all my stuff.

04:59I brought it to class and my students were like,

05:01what is that?

05:02I want one.

05:03And that was the beginning of solving a problem for myself

05:06that just so happened to solve problems for other people too.

05:09And that really is the basis of what I do

05:11with both Blogilates and Popflex.

05:13Today, I'm always solving problems and making it cute.

05:17So Blogilates started as a YouTube channel in 2009

05:20where I really was just uploading free workout videos

05:23for my students in real life.

05:25I was moving from LA to the East Coast

05:29for my first job in fashion.

05:31And all my students at my local 24 hour fitness in LA

05:34were like, well, who's gonna teach us pop Pilates?

05:37So that was what the format I was teaching at the time,

05:39my own format, which was Pilates to pop music,

05:42more of like a dance on the mat version of Pilates.

05:44At that time, Pilates was very slow,

05:47either no music or classical music.

05:49And mine was just kind of like, you know, very exciting.

05:51There was no one to replace me.

05:53And so I recorded a 10 minute video

05:55and I uploaded it to a website called YouTube.

05:58And I thought nothing more of it.

06:00I didn't even know how to edit.

06:01I just like chopped off the beginning and the end

06:03on Windows Movie Maker.

06:04And I was like, okay, well, here you go, you guys,

06:06click on this link if you ever miss me.

06:08Little did I know that I was gonna get more

06:10than the views of the students in that class,

06:12which was like 40.

06:14I got thousands of views and hundreds of comments

06:15from people from all over the world asking for more.

06:18They're like, oh cool, do you have an ab version of this,

06:21an arm version, a butt version?

06:22And that is what grew the Blogilates channel.

06:27It wasn't until around 2010, 2011,

06:31when I was making a Facebook post and they were asking,

06:35hey, can we get some Blogilates t-shirts?

06:37And I was like, why would you want a t-shirt

06:40with my screen name on it?

06:41Like, that's a little bit weird.

06:43But they were like, no, that's what we want.

06:45And so we had a design contest and as a community,

06:48we chose the winning design.

06:50Then I bought some blank shirts from Forever 21,

06:53screen printed them locally and put them up on Facebook

06:56and they sold out within minutes.

06:58And it was in that moment when I realized,

07:01oh, okay, Blogilates is not a screen name, it is a brand.

07:05It is something people are proud to wear

07:07and a journey that they wanna be a part of.

07:10Popflex is my performance activewear brand

07:14that honestly is now launching

07:15into more than just activewear.

07:17It's women's apparel and it fulfills

07:20that original childhood dream

07:22of wanting to become a fashion designer.

07:23So remember how we talked about in college

07:25when I was feeling that hole, that emptiness,

07:28that is fully filled with like flowers

07:31growing out of the hole.

07:32Like, I just feel so happy

07:34to be doing what I'm doing right now.

07:35Both Blogilates and Popflex as their own brands

07:38are their own eight figure businesses.

07:40It's all been bootstrapped, all my own money, no investors.

07:44Well, in the beginning I didn't even ask

07:46so I didn't get investors,

07:48but these days I don't want that

07:51because I do not want to serve the wrong audience.

07:54I don't want to serve the people

07:56who are throwing money at me

07:57so that they can get money back.

07:58I want to serve the women who are purchasing the clothes

08:02and the accessories, who are funding the business

08:05through their belief in the designs and the creations.

08:09So yeah, to this day, no investors,

08:11all bootstrapped from the very beginning.

08:13We have 26 full-time employees right now

08:15and we work with around 40 or so contractors on the daily.

08:19My secret to success is truly following my heart.

08:23I know that sounds so cliche,

08:25but I don't think it has ever led me in the wrong direction.

08:28I will also say that not being afraid of problems

08:32is also another secret to my success.

08:34I invite it, give me the criticism, give me the problems,

08:38let me get creative and let me solve it.

08:40And I think that really has made me stronger

08:43and more flexible.

08:44You have to be able to bend in the wind

08:46or you're gonna break.

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