People Passion Portraits - with Lola the founder

In this series, we embark on a journey to explore the unique and inspiring stories of our valued customers. We delve into what they do, what fuels their passions, and how our products seamlessly weave into the fabric of their daily experiences.Get ready to meet the individuals who make our products come alive and discover the extraordinary ways in which our pieces touch hearts, enhance lives, and empower dreams. I can’t wait to see the stories our customers weave. & of course, we are starting with Lola the founder.

Okay Lola, what advice would you give to aspiring Christian entrepreneurs who are looking to integrate their faith into their business ventures?

This is probably cliche, but remember to keep God first. There are certain points when you just get into a cycle of just - doing the work you need to do to get sales and push forward. That might not include God in it, but you must remember the reason for your why. Why you have some type of Christian business or why you want God to be involved, always remember your why.

Do you have any books, podcasts, or resources related to entrepreneurship or faith that you recommend and have found particularly influential in your life?

I love podcasts. Some podcasts that have been a great influence are business and marketing podcasts, I don’t have any that is related to faith. I don’t think there’s a lot of business podcasts that are related to faith. Blessed and Bossed up is one of my favorite podcasts and we’ve sponsored one of the episodes actually.

You got married about a month ago. We saw the updates on your personal Instagram profile and via your emails to your BAB community. How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance while running a business, your 9-5, married life and staying committed to your Christian beliefs?

I don’t, I’m not going to lie and say I do, I don’t. I don’t know who really does, I think it takes a long time before people figure out how to maintain everything. I was already not maintaining everything and then now I’ve added marriage into the mix, so it’s going to be a lot of work but, God is my Sustainer. Only thing I can say is this - If you are doing multiple things at the same time, be very practical. I have one other business apart from BAB and I have a charity. I put both of those on indefinite pause as of now. I just couldn’t do it and I think that can go towards deciding if you want to maintain a healthy balance. I was spreading myself too thin. So putting things on pause when you know that you can’t do them and coming back to it later, that’s what I did. I said I wanted to focus on BAB for the rest of this year and then by God’s Grace I can pick those other things back up. Time blocking and creating a schedule and sticking to it also helps but because of the nature of my work, I travel so much sometimes it’s hard to stick to a schedule.

In addition to your business and faith, what are some of your personal passions and interests that contribute to your well-rounded perspective?

I don’t know if you’d call them passions but I like listening to podcasts. I like listening to business related podcasts. I like watching documentaries sometimes although, I have to be in the mood to watch those. I also enjoy going to museums. I love all the different perspectives that it gives. 

Who has been the most influential person in your life, both personally and professionally, and what lessons have you learned from them?

Honestly, Alex has been the most influential person in my life as of now. Personally, with BAB, Sorolingo, the NGO, my 9-5, all these different things - I can say him and my boss. She has had a positive influence on me and I’ve learnt a lot from her.

Many businesses face dilemmas where profit and ethics may conflict. Can you share your approach to resolving such dilemmas while staying true to your faith?

You need money to make things shake in this world. I’m not saying that if you don’t have money you can’t make things shake but money helps multiply the shaking that you want to do right? So if I want my business to remain sustainable, I have to set prices that are going to make a profit, in order for the business to make money, in order for me to pay contractors or pay employees if need be. If we stayed at the same price we were selling when we first started, we definitely wouldn’t be around today probably. We wouldn’t be able to afford it, and you know  how things are going in the world the cost of things are rising as well so you have to be smart about your money, you have to raise prices if you need to.

There’s other ways that I try to be “ethical”. If I see that somebody complains about something, we try to solve the issue with their product. We just don’t leave them hanging.Some companies have this culture of owing their employees or contractors money and I don’t like that. I think it’s bad behavior and I try not to do that. I try to pay them, the people who work with me, pay them on time and pay them what they ask for. So yeah, I try to be ethical in everything that we do. But to say that to be a Christian means that we should basically be giving our products away for free or at a lower price then you’re not serious. Okay I’m just kidding! But yeah.

Okay Lola, thank you so much for your time and insights. I am sure members of the BAB community would have picked up one or two interesting insights from these.

Love and Light.