"Don’t think too much, just do it" with Haiyan Dong

Photo Credit: Cheryl Lam

She grew up from a lower class in China. Her life was forever changed when she came to the United States with 85 dollars. She successfully built a company as an immigrant through constant self-learning, now she is starting another one. Life is a big adventure, she is always exploring more.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I was born and grew up in Hubei, China. People always ask me, is it close to Beijing or Shanghai? It's in the middle of China, not close to any big cities. I was the first person that went to college in my whole family.  I came to the United States for school in 2012, because I received a full scholarship from the University of Oklahoma to be a graduate student at OU. I didn’t understand spoken English when I first arrived in Oklahoma, but I managed to become a teaching assistant and successfully graduated with a master degree in Chemistry.  I came to the United States with a half-full suitcase, and 100 dollar cash. After graduating from OU I saved up a couple thousand dollars from my scholarship.  Then I moved to California with my husband to start my own business.

What inspired you to start your business?

Growing up my parents had a small business. So I knew I would have my own business one day. Back in 2015, I couldn’t find a good job with my degree in California. My husband was working with a fragrance company back then and he said to me that I should start selling terpene flavors to vape companies online. So I learned to build a website by watching youtube videos and started the business right away. After the website was built, I started promoting it on forums, and someone said the wording on the website looks like a high schooler's writing. I felt really excited because someone thought my writing was as good as a high schooler. We started from our apartment, when people called us, I answered the phone call as  the customer service girl. If they were having a website issue, I would become the tech department, always switching hats. Over the years, we have grown into bigger commercial buildings, but I still enjoy wearing different hats. We’ve been wholesaling terpenes for 6 years. Last year we decided to launch a B2C brand called BOOM focusing on hemp derived products, drinks, tinctures, vapes, gummies etc. 

Where is your business based?

We are based in Orange County, California, our clients are all over the world. We have several different joint ventures and partnerships with other companies as well.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I built a website and set up a business email and phone number. Filed paperwork to the state of California. These were the first steps. Everything is on google if you want to know how to start a business. 

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Many people are aware of hemp products. What we do differently is that we try to bring people social and fun experiences with our boom products.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

I had two biggest challenges in life. One was when I was 18 trying to pass the entrance exam for college in China. The competition was insanely high with over 10 million applicants in the same year. Our school started at 6:30 am, and finished at 10pm everyday. When I went home I had to study for another 2 hours. So I had less than 6 hours of sleep everyday in my senior year. We had Sunday mornings off. No holidays or weekends. In winter time, we didn’t have a heater, the room temperature would be about 30 degrees F, and my legs would be cold all day and all night. I knew I had to pass the exam otherwise I would stay in poverty and end up working at a clothing factory and making $300 every month for the rest of my life. So I passed the exam. What was driving me was simply desperation. It was the biggest stress I ever had in my life. I couldn’t eat anything and stopped my menstrual cycle. I weighed about 90 lbs (I’m 5’5’’), my mom would call me a walking skeleton. I still have night-mares of not getting into a good college up till today. 

Another challenge I had when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018. I had surgery before I was diagnosed and recovered very quickly.  My doctors told me to take anti-cancer medicine for 5 years. I didn’t take the medicine because I didn’t want to compromise my quality of life. But I was living in fear of getting cancer again for a very long time. For about two years I would question myself about the meaning of work and life. It was painful because that was the first time I felt death was close to me and I wasn't as capable as I wanted to be. In the end, having breast cancer actually helped me to adapt to a healthier lifestyle and pushed me towards more inner exploration. I still have a 30% chance of getting breast cancer again. But I think I will deal with it when that happens. 

Looking back, I think the fastest growth comes from pain. And pain gives depth to our lives. 

How do you stay focused?

I’ve always been very focused when it comes to work. I made my career goal for my 40s and 50s when I was 25. I think the reason I am focused is because I enjoy complicated experiences, like building a company and self growing. I enjoy getting out of my comfort zone to feel alive.  I think a human can achieve anything with willpower and knowledge. When it comes to life, I am very spontaneous. If I want to go somewhere I can just start driving immediately. Can’t fly easily these days because of Covid, lol. 

I don’t have kids yet, so that helps me to stay focused. Lol.  I learnt time management from a management book by Peter Drucker a few years ago. It is very simple, you write down what you did in a day and how much time you spent on these activities. Then you optimize your time spent on different activities. Time management is a great tool to keep yourself organized and focused. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Better product, better pricing and excellent customer service. We have a 100% customer retention rate. We only hire intelligent people. We have high standards with our products and business operations.  We also have a very diverse company culture, making us inclusive and balanced. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Word of mouth. We have good products, people love our products so they give us good reviews and refer other people. We believe good products should market themselves. 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Don’t think too much, just do it. If there are things to be done, do it, if you don’t know how to do it, learn. If you believe you can then you can. At some point you will break yourself into pieces and question yourself in pain, but you will always put these pieces together and then become a stronger person. 

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite book so far is Sapiens by Yuval Harari. It combines knowledge from history, science, philosophy, religions  and is described in a very unconventional way. It is politically and emotionally neutral, so it can sound a little cynical to some readers, but I really enjoyed it. 

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Google. I google everything. I started my business by googling how to make a website,  then I googled how to hire, how to build a team, how to build a brand etc. 

Who is your business role model? Why?

Elon Musk, When I have problems at work, I always say: if Elon Musk can send rockets to Mars, why can’t we fix this small issue. 

How do you balance work and life?

Don’t separate them. I used to try to separate them, if I get an email on Saturday, I force myself to reply on Monday, but I realized it doesn’t work for me because I would think about it on Sunday and keep reminding myself to reply on Monday. So now I just respond immediately to simple emails whenever I see them. Work hard and play hard, so they can be balanced. 

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Sleep and eat. I sleep 9 hours everyday. I’m a big foodie, food makes me happy. I also drink boom, our CBD and delta-8 drinks, they are great for relaxing our body and mind. My coworkers enjoy delta-8 vapes to decompress, but I only like edibles and I don’t vape. 

What do you have planned for the next six months?

Grow Boom into a multi-million revenue brand. 

How can our readers connect with you?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/haiyan-d-0bab5318a