Meet a Jane Lisa Hackman

Posted on September 29, 2010 - Filed Under Jane Dough, Meet a Jane

Lisa Hackman Freda is the owner of Sweet Grace Cake Designs www.sweetgrace.net . The confluence of Lisa’s lifetime love for the baking and culinary arts, an artistic eye developed during training at the Fashion Institute of Technology and time spent as as a hobbyist gardener all come together in her daily worklife. Sweet Grace Cake Designs pushes the latest trends, while valuing traditional designs and featuring floral beauties from the garden crafted in sugar.

After a two-decade long career on Wall Street, Lisa made a major career change launching Sweet Grace almost two years ago. “This move finally gave me the chance to exercise my artistic skills,” said Lisa. “After college graduation, I was at a crossroads – a career in fashion or finance – since I earned degrees in both from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and the State University of New York. I chose finance then, but now my choice is fashion, albeit in a different medium – sugar instead of fabric. I believe it’s vital to have passion for your chosen career. Wall Street was my passion for the first 20 years of my career and I pursued my MBA and CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst). I loved the years I spent as an equity research analyst and learned so much about working hard and professionalism, but I also have a creative side that was not flourishing. I wanted to be more in control of my schedule since Wall Street is a 24/7 type of career, so I decided to launch Sweet Grace, Cake Designs. To my surprise, I’m still working 24/7, but for my own business which makes the world of difference. My sister, Renee, has been a sought-after cake designer for the past 15 years and a great mentor to me.” www.bellamanse.com

Lisa considers the ability to set her own schedule as the greatest reward of owning her own business. “This allows me to be a mom as well as a career woman,” said Lisa. “I can stop my work to take my children to swim class or drop in at the school to be a class mom. I still work many hours, but those hours don’t need to be 9-5. It’s also wonderful to work hard to benefit myself instead of a large corporation. I’m pleased to find out that I have the vital trilogy of skills to run a successful business – the vision of an entrepreneur, the skill of an artist and the business savvy to artfully manage the day-to-day operations.”

After taking the free Which Jane Are You? assessment at www.JaneOutoftheBox.com , Lisa discovered that she is a Jane Dough. “I am pleased to find out that I’m a Jane Dough,” said Lisa. “I’m particularly pleased to hear that this Jane type is ‘five times more likely than other women entrepreneurs to grow a million dollar business’! That’s my goal. I get a mental adrenaline boost when I’m working on my business. I find it incredibly challenging, but also amazingly enjoyable to see my plans succeeding. I operate beyond my capacity, or at least my perceived capacity. I am thrilled to find that I can actually succeed at that higher level which encourages me to continue to push myself. I dreaded marketing classes when pursuing my MBA in finance. To my amazement, I’m actually very good at marketing and now enjoy it. I have found that the key to marketing is having a product that I believe in and executing savvy marketing techniques that persuade clients to come to me instead of running after clients. Then half the sale is already accomplished.”

Through her entrepreneurial journey, Lisa can relate to all of the other Jane types. “I’m an Accidental Jane since I began my business after a layoff from my Wall Street position,” reflects Lisa. “While being laid-off was extremely difficult, it was a fabulous blessing in that it opened the door for me to begin my own business which I wouldn’t otherwise have done since my Wall Street position was very profitable. I also relate to Merry Jane since I work around my family’s schedule, which means lots of late nights or early mornings to get all my work done. I also sometimes am a Go Jane Go type in that I have trouble saying no and have trouble stopping work (but this is because enjoy working and have ambition to grow quickly). However, I am creating a business model that allows me to get away when I want to in the future. I guess every new business owner shares traits with Tenacity Jane to get through the infancy stages of a business.”

Lisa has two key pieces of advice for her fellow Jane Doughs:

  1. Surround yourself with highly competent, extremely inspiring people, whether
    they are your employees or colleagues within the industry. These relationships will keep your ideas fresh and keep you energy high.
  2. Continue to learn through books, blogs, webinars and networking. Being on the leading edge of your industry is vital.

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