Introduction
Ever wondered how to make money on Shopify and build a brand that truly connects with its audience? In this Q&A, we dive into the inspiring journey of Lisa Lin, the founder of Hey Mama. Lisa transformed a simple idea into a booming e-commerce business, now generating over $40,000 a month. Discover the strategies, challenges, and key decisions that led to her incredible success in the competitive supplement market.
Founder Success Story QnA
Tell me a bit about you and your business.
I’m in the wholesale supplement space. It’s a family business; my parents opened a business 20 years ago, and me and my brother recently took over the business probably three years ago. It’s been, I guess, like a job. It’s not very exciting to us. This is the first time we did something that’s actually we feel passionate about, so it’s very exciting, very different sort of feeling to just working a day-to-day sort of job and just earning income.
What exactly is it that you do and what’s the business that you run?
We just launched a protein supplements brand called Hey Mama. We provide lactation protein smoothies to new moms who are just starting their breastfeeding journey. We provide superfoods, proteins, and the lactation aspects all in one.
What inspired you to create the Hey Mama brand?
It started off with my sister-in-law giving birth about a year ago. I was over her house and was just looking at all the cookies she had on the counter. I was like, “How many cookies are you eating a day?” She’s like, “Oh, maybe about four to five.” I was just blown away. I was looking at the nutrients inside these cookies, like, “I hope they’re working because you’re eating a lot of sugar and calories.” She’s like, “Ah, there’s nothing else on the market.” I went online and looked up the healthy options and couldn’t find any in Australia. The only brand I could find was in America and shipping was like $80. I was like, “No way, there’s gotta be something here. We’re gonna do something about this,” because I’m pretty sure my sister-in-law’s not the only one who’s taking these cookies and wants an alternative solution.
Have you always been interested in the health and fitness space?
I guess so. It started with my parents getting into supplements. I do go to the gym a lot and have friends who are in the fitness space, so I sort of fell into it. I do talk to our suppliers, and sometimes they talk about trends and stuff like that.
From actually creating your brand, was your sister your inspiration, but did she help with any of the exact products that you ended up launching?
No, she didn’t. I would just ask questions, just trying to get a feel of what her actual problems and issues are. Everything else was probably just online, the program, and talking to focus groups on Facebook and stuff.
Did you end up starting your business with just the one product or did you go guns blazing and start with many?
Oh no, no way. Because I’ve never done a business from scratch before, so I started with one product, a lactation smoothie. I only did one flavor as well. I just wanted to keep the risks minimum because I have never done anything like this before.
Tell me a little bit more about your lactation smoothie, how did that come about?
The lactation protein came about from looking at the American brand I mentioned. I wanted to replicate something similar to what they had over there. I bought a sample and looked at the ingredient list and talked to some formulators and lactation consultants. It was a bit of a journey in the beginning. We covered our ingredient list, and I wanted to be sure that it’s safe, so I went on Upwork for freelancers and found a lactation consultant to double-check the formulation to make sure it’s safe and she would approve as a lactation consultant. Once I got the green light from her, it was just the process of talking to manufacturers and formulators and trying to negotiate with them on a very small MOQ (minimum order quantity) because I’m starting off, I have no idea if it’s going to work or not.
Because you come from the supplement space, you knew there were hurdles like FDA regulations. Did you come across the same hurdles when formulating your smoothie?
Yes, I did. That’s why it took a little bit longer. We’re in vitamins, so I’ve never done anything in terms of powder before. I did have to talk to food consultants and technicians to see if the same rules apply for powders compared to vitamins. It’s actually not as hard as vitamins, which was really good for me, so we launched a lot faster than I expected. COVID helped because a lot of manufacturers had a lot of spare time to help me out.
How did you go with your manufacturing process?
I talked to a manufacturing company in the past but didn’t order from them recently, so I had their contacts. I did contact other suppliers from Google, just basically kept on googling and calling. One manufacturer would say, “Oh, we don’t have the capacity to take your order, but maybe try this manufacturing company instead.”
What did you end up settling on for your manufacturing process, packaging, and branding?
I got a lot of inspiration from major mama brands in the states because I love their packaging. My brother, who’s also my business partner, can do design, so he was putting things together. We found a local Australian supplier because, as Greta says, don’t go to China straight away because you never know if it’s going to be good quality. We got the design and got a local supplier and ordered about 100 boxes to try it out and send it to moms to see their feedback. Once we got the “wow, it’s amazing,” we knew this is good, we can scale. So we went to Alibaba and found a supplier who could do a much larger scale at a reasonable price.
How did you find your focus groups, and did they really help propel your business?
As processes were going, I was on Facebook in these female groups, like-minded groups, and the Start & Scale group. It was basically asking them, “What do you think about our product? Would you want to try it?” I sent out about 100 samples to 100 moms. Once they tried it, they came back and said, “Where can I buy this? Can I buy it now?” I was like, “Okay, now we have something going here.” Using these focus groups was mainly to get the confidence that yes, this is a product that is desirable for that market.
Do you want to tell whoever’s listening a little bit about what your branding looks like?
The main thing of Hey Mama is having these affirmations and motivational quotes. Motherhood’s a journey and life changing. I identified that having a good product is important, but it’s also about how your product makes the person feel when they receive it. No matter how great your product is, if they don’t have a strong connection to it, there’s no point. I spent a lot of time researching popular brands who are killing it; they’re all about branding. They understand their target market’s emotions.
How did you land upon such a persona for your brand?
I was looking at the market, and everybody has the same sort of look and feel. It’s nice, but there’s no pop of color. I was looking at my personality; I prefer to be a little bit more real and a bit more fun. Motherhood is hard, and sometimes you need a bit of a laugh and a motivational kick. With the colors, I wanted it to be bright and different. We chose pink and blue because we wanted to be a bit neutral.
You also have a really fun tone of voice. Were there any brands in particular that inspired you?
Yes, Frank Body definitely. I fell in love with Frank Body years ago and promised myself if I was to create a brand, it has to have a cheeky, fun persona. When creating the brand voice, I wanted Hey Mama to be like a person. If Hey Mama was a person, what would she sound like? I wanted her to be like a best friend, a friend who you could talk to and who could give you advice because she’s been there and has your back. So our tagline is “We’ve got you.”
You also chuck in little incentives like your celebrity lollipops. What gave you that idea?
I think it was just a thing, like Frank Body. They did some random promos when they launched a new product. I was thinking maybe we could do something like that, but something a little bit cheekier and something that moms might find different. I bought other products in our space to see their unboxing experience, and everybody was throwing candy in it, but it was pretty standard candy. I was thinking, let’s make it fun. That’s what Hey Mama is all about, putting a smile on your face. I don’t think anyone would be opposed to eating a lollipop with Zac Efron’s face on it.
I also noticed there were little samples of some other products. Is that something you add to every box?
Yes, I do. We sprinkle in little samples to see customer feedback. When we were launching the brand, we gave a lot of samples away, and the feedback was that it gave moms the confidence to trust that Hey Mama isn’t just about making money; they actually want you to try it first. So for any new products we want to test out, we just give it away. If people don’t like it, at least you have real feedback from your consumer.
Have you found that with those samples, you are obtaining a high volume of feedback? Would you recommend others try this method?
Yes, definitely. If it’s feasible for you and you’re able to do it, I highly recommend giving away samples first before committing to a large volume order. Sometimes you’re not sure if your product is actually desirable or not.
Talk me through how you actually designed your website.
I was lucky. A friend recommended a designer, and it was a designer that Greta actually used in the past. It was a process because the first couple of concepts weren’t hitting the branding on point. We had to give him ideas and mood boards so he could get an idea that we’re all about fun, pops of color. We realized having stylish photos is also important. With the photographer, I was lucky enough because I found her on those Facebook groups. She was a freelancer looking for extra work. I highly recommend people going to Facebook groups and just talking to people.
Was getting the photos right always front of mind for you?
Yes, but there was a bit of hesitation because it was pretty expensive, and I only had a limited budget. But I knew that photos make a difference. When you’re asking focus groups on Facebook, you have to give people an idea of what your brand’s all about, and a picture is worth a thousand words. The investment of a couple hundred dollars to get really good photos was worth it. With the website, our first website wasn’t that great because creating a very nice website is a lot of money. When we first launched for our pre-launch, we did it on Shopify with a standard template. At first, I was cringing, but I was like, “Doesn’t matter, we have people who want to buy it. Let’s just get some cash flow first, and once we have enough cash, we can invest into a good designer.” My advice is don’t go all in straight away.
Walk me through how you actually got your first customer.
Starting off, with the first focus groups, I asked them if they liked it or not. We had a list of people saying, “I want to buy it.” I would collect their email and put it on a list and contact them in a month or two’s time whenever we were about to launch. Another process was word of mouth. I would DM all these ladies, asking them if they loved our product, and we were happy to give their friends or family members free samples. Another thing was definitely influencers. Thank God for Start & Scale because influencer marketing was a bit of a hesitation for me. Greta made it very easy with all those templates and pre-written messages that I could just copy, paste, and send to like a hundred of them and see who comes back.
Talk me through the process with influencers. Were you reaching out to micro-influencers or did you have a budget for larger ones?
It was definitely more micro-influencers. We were trying to give products to micro-influencers under about 5,000 followers because I knew at that range they’re more willing to do a product-for-post. I did want to try it out by paying some influencers over 10,000 to see if I would get a better result. I tried about five, and it wasn’t that amazing compared to the micros. I’d rather have about 20 micro-influencers than five paid ones. Over time, I have tried more paid influencers just to see because you should always be testing. A lot of people say influencer marketing doesn’t work, but they have to realize it’s more about the compounding effect. It’s all about getting your brand out there, not so much about sales to begin with.
What really stood out for the Start & Scale course compared to anything else?
I’ve never tried any other ecom courses. The reason why I went with Start & Scale is probably because it’s easy to implement. Having the modules and key points explained to you in each module and having actions to take after each one really helped. Other courses are pretty long, like an hour or whatever, and I don’t have the focus to go through such long courses.
How did you actually come about your first sale, and how did it feel?
It was definitely amazing. The first day, I remember it was from a lady I was talking to in the Facebook group. She said she loved it so much that she would come back and buy it. I was a bit… people say that, but I don’t know if they actually mean it. When she did come back and I recognized the name, I had to screenshot. I was like, “Wow, that’s our first sale, and this is someone I talked to two months ago and she loves our product.” The feeling was amazing.
What results did you achieve in your pre-launch?
It wasn’t as amazing as I hoped for, but it was good. We didn’t reach $1,000. I had a target of $1,000 for the pre-launch. When I hit $950, I was just a bit off, and that was a bit demotivating. But I was looking through the Start & Scale group chats, and other people were saying the same thing: sometimes it’s not about getting amazing sales straight away; you’re in this for the long game. That gave me the confidence and motivation to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully do better for our launch, and that’s what happened.
Do you want to talk me through your success since you’ve actually launched?
With the actual official launch, I would say we five times the amount, so like $5,000. I was blown away. Then things started snowballing over time after that. Recently, this last month, we’re doing over $40,000 in sales in one month. That’s something I would have never imagined back when we were barely making a thousand dollars. It goes to show that it’s all about giving things time and constantly putting effort in and tweaking. Just don’t give up.
What do you think contributed to that massive spike? Was it releasing new products or just persistence?
I would say it was releasing new products, new flavors, and having a little bit more of a structure and a system in place. In the beginning, we had influencer marketing, but I didn’t really have a system in place for following up or keeping track. After the launch, during the Christmas period, it was downtime where I could relax and go into what worked and what didn’t and how we can systemize everything. Then we also started doing Facebook ads last month, and that really helped. We knew we needed to work on it, but doing email campaigns and Facebook ads was all too overwhelming at first. We wanted to focus on influencer marketing first, then we started looking into Facebook ads, and that took us to another level.
Have you been using user-generated content and that influencer content to scale your ads?
Yes, definitely. That’s what we’re doing. Greta mentioned in the course that the best piece of content is your UGC and your IGC because they’re authentic; it’s something you can’t really create. We did try to do branded content ads with really nice, pretty pictures, but it didn’t really hit home. Our consumer didn’t connect with it. What really connected was having another mom that they could relate to, talking about their problems and how Hey Mama changed their breastfeeding journey. That’s all through UGC and IGC. It’s really important that people work on their influencer marketing because that’s where you get these creatives.
What would be some advice that you would give to those that might want to start dabbling in Facebook ads?
One of the reasons we didn’t dabble with it in the beginning was you had to give it a set budget, like $20-$30 a day. That was a hesitation. I had to change my mindset. In the beginning, you have to think of it like, “I’m going to put $30 a day in for two or three weeks, and I’m not going to see a return from it, but at least I can see the results and I can improve over time.” People need to understand that $20 a day is just for learning how Facebook works. Over time, you will get better. You have to take the first step. Don’t expect to put $30 in and get a return straight away.
You’ve created how many other products now?
We have about four in the works, all coming out this year. We have another product coming up next month, and we’re having an email marketing campaign around it. Our target is to have a new product every month for the next four months and see what works. With these new product launches, we set it up where it’s just a limited edition because I don’t know if it’s going to work or not. Having a small batch creates excitement and hype, and for me, it’s also less risk.
Are you finding that the limited edition pieces are really working? Is that something you’ll continue to do?
We’re keeping it as a promo product to create hype. My first approach was to give a 25% or 20% discount on launch day. But giving someone a 20% discount works out to maybe $6, and it’s not going to excite people. But if you create a limited edition mug to go with the new product that they can’t buy anywhere else, it creates excitement. If you work out the numbers, it’s actually cheaper than giving a 20% discount outright, and they cherish that freebie more than you giving someone $20 off.
Do you think you’ll stay an e-commerce store, or are you hoping to do some wholesaling?
We definitely want to look into wholesale and export. Listening to Greta, you’ll reach a certain stage with e-comm where you need to look into other aspects like wholesale and export to reach new audiences. But if you’re starting off, definitely start with e-com because you get to talk to the consumer directly and work out what’s working before going to wholesale. With wholesale, you don’t get paid straight away, which is another thing if cash flow is an issue.
Describe your life after doing Start & Scale. Has it completely flipped and changed?
Definitely. My friends and family are saying, “Oh my god, it’s been a year. A year ago, you weren’t really motivated to do much.” Starting this new business, Hey Mama, there’s this excitement. Every time you talk about Hey Mama, you feel so passionate. I would definitely say my life is 360. Now I’m meeting new people, new business owners in the Start & Scale time, connecting with them, having chats, having little smaller groups once a week. Having that community aspect and being friends as well has helped. Overall, it’s been amazing.
If there was other young entrepreneurs in your position, what would be the key advice that you would give to them?
Just start. But when you start, try everything, but keep it at a budget. Don’t go all in because if you’re starting out and have no experience, you don’t know if it’s going to work. If you put $5,000 into developing amazing packaging and it doesn’t work, it’s going to hurt. Try to keep your risks minimum. Actually talk to your focus group, DM them, ask them questions, and see if what you’ve done is right. The key thing is to just start. I hear a lot of my friends talk about business ideas, but they don’t do anything about it. They think it’s very complicated or they need X amount of dollars or a fancy website. You don’t.
Lisa Lin Business Stats
Lisa Lin’s brand, Hey Mama, has seen phenomenal growth by focusing on a niche market and building a strong community. From a modest pre-launch, the business has scaled to an impressive monthly revenue figure, showcasing the power of persistence and smart strategy.
- Achieved over $40,000 in monthly sales.
- Grew from a $950 pre-launch to a $5,000 official launch day.
- Started with a single product and one flavor.
- Now planning a new product launch every month.
- Successfully leveraged influencer marketing to build brand awareness.
| Milestone | Revenue (USD) |
|---|---|
| Pre-Launch Sales | $950 |
| Official Launch Day | $5,000 |
| Current Monthly Sales | $40,000+ |
Lisa Lin Method
Lisa’s success wasn’t accidental; it was the result of a methodical approach to building her brand. She focused on validating her idea, creating an authentic connection with her audience, and strategically scaling her marketing efforts.
- Idea Validation: Identified a market gap through a personal family story.
- Product Development: Kept initial investment low with one product and one flavor.
- Focus Group Testing: Sent out 100 samples to get feedback and build an early email list.
- Micro-Influencer Seeding: Gave products to micro-influencers for authentic content and reach.
- Systemize & Scale: Implemented systems and introduced Facebook ads after initial traction.
- Product Expansion: Uses limited edition drops to test new products and create hype.
Lisa Lin Tools
Lisa utilized a mix of established platforms and freelance services to build Hey Mama without a massive initial investment. Her tool stack was focused on community building, professional design, and scalable e-commerce.
- Shopify: For the e-commerce website, starting with a basic template.
- Upwork: To find a lactation consultant for product validation.
- Facebook Groups: For finding focus groups, a photographer, and market research.
- Alibaba: For scaling packaging production after initial local testing.
- Freelance Designer: To create a professional and on-brand website.
- Facebook & Instagram Ads: To scale customer acquisition after the launch phase.
Key Notes
The journey of Hey Mama is filled with valuable lessons for any aspiring entrepreneur. Lisa’s experience highlights the importance of mindset, strategy, and the courage to start small.
- Just Start: The biggest hurdle is starting. Don’t wait for perfection.
- Keep Risk Low: Start with one product, minimal inventory, and a simple website.
- Community is Key: Build a community around your brand; they are your best source of feedback and promotion.
- UGC is Gold: User-generated content is more powerful and authentic than branded ads.
- Persistence Pays Off: Success doesn’t happen overnight. Stay consistent and keep tweaking your strategy.
Get Started in Just 5 Steps
Inspired by Lisa’s story? Here’s how you can start your own e-commerce journey on the right foot, following a path that minimizes risk and maximizes learning.
- 1. Find a Real Problem: Look for a gap in the market, ideally from a personal experience or frustration.
- 2. Validate Your Idea: Talk to your target audience. Use Facebook groups to conduct surveys and offer samples.
- 3. Develop a Minimum Viable Product: Create the simplest version of your product to test the market.
- 4>Build Buzz with Micro-Influencers: Gift your product to smaller influencers in your niche for authentic reviews.
- 5. Launch and Learn: Launch with a simple Shopify store. Use feedback and data to iterate and scale with ads.
Conclusion
Lisa Lin’s story is a powerful testament to what’s possible with a clear vision, a customer-first approach, and the persistence to see it through. By focusing on solving a real problem for new moms and building a brand that truly resonates, she cracked the code on how to make money on Shopify. Her journey from a simple idea to a $40,000/month business proves that with the right strategy, you don’t need a huge budget to build a successful e-commerce empire.