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.
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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.