We were lucky to catch up with Yaslyn Lora recently and have shared our conversation below.

Yaslyn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

My parents both migrated from the Dominican Republic. My father came to this country at the young age of 12 and my mother came to this country in her late twenties. I say that because my father is fluent in English but my mother is not. At a very early age my mother prohibited my father from speaking English in our household because she wanted me to learn Spanish. I learned my second language, English, in Kindergarten.

Every year up until the age of 15 my parents would fly me out to the Dominican Republic where I spent my summer vacations with my grandmother and family members. That’s when I began to appreciate the land and where we originated from. During my summers, I was always so eager to venture out and eat foods that we simply didn’t have access to back home. Visiting the “empanada lady” was my favorite. The smell of freshly-made, fried pastries filled to the fold with meat, veggies, eggs or cheese would hit your nose before you’ve been met by the sweetest, most comforting smile. It was confirmation that I was home. These memories, infused with my love for cooking, are what led me to start Lula’s Empanadas. As an homage for their hard work and dedication as parents our name and logo represents them. Lula is my mother’s name who taught me the foundation of cooking and the flamingo represents my father who always encouraged me to stand tall in every room I enter.

My parents taught me how to love, understand and appreciate our culture. They taught me the pertinent role it plays in our identity. Spending time with family members from different walks of life, growing up with home cooked meals everyday after school and being proud of my heritage can all be traced back to my parents. They were the catalyst to Lula’s, and little did they know the impact they would play in my business venture as an adult.

Yaslyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Yaslyn Lora, and I am a Dominican- American first generation entrepreneur from Northern New Jersey. I obtained a Master’s Degree from Temple University in Public Health in 2020. In 2019, shortly before obtaining my graduate degree, I decided to take a leap of faith in pursuing my dreams and started Lula’s Empanadas.

My love for cooking stems from my mother, who began cooking as young as the age of five. In fact, that was about how old I was when I’d sit quietly in the shadows of our quaint family kitchen to watch, as she prepared authentic Dominican meals with pure love. In our culture, tradition is what keeps families whole and alive. Food is what brings us together. I remember traveling every summer back home to the Dominican Republic. As soon as we’d touchdown, I’d be so thirsty to venture out on our island streets and go for what I’d say was ‘just a taste’ of authentic Dominican foods and flavors that we simply didn’t have access to back home. These memories, infused with my love for cooking, are what led me to start Lula’s Empanadas.

Lula’s Empanadas focuses on authentic Dominican empanadas with a twist of contemporary flavors. In our kitchen, we bridge cultures and bring people together through unique combinations of flavors, ingredients, and foods. The goal of Lula’s is to launch Lula’s Foundation in the future as a way to give back to at-risk communities. The purpose would serve to provide mentorship to youth in these communities, host positive community events, and generate outreach programs for minority children to allow them to explore culturally relevant experiences related to their identity, as well as educate them on social, domestic, and global issues.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy in growing my clientele has been exposing Lula’s directly out in various communities within New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Specifically, we’ve been part of community events, breweries, farmers markets, social events within the University of Pennsylvania, and private catering events within the Metropolitan area. As we are a tabletop establishment at the moment, and we prepare our products at a commercial kitchen, we do not have a physical location or food truck yet. By partaking in varying events and setting up our table top “mobile establishment”, we’ve been able to sell our products, freshly fried and hand delivered to our clients. As a growing business, we’ve had the privilege of directly connecting with our clients and sharing our story in person.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Absolutely, I had to learn how to unlearn in order to truly grow. Specifically, a lesson that I had to unlearn was that independent women do everything on their own, which is not true. I had to unlearn that if you want your business to succeed and keep growing you must start learning how to ask for help. My past self, thought asking for help implied weakness, but with unlearning that lesson, I realized asking for help is in fact growth. If you want to succeed in anything in life, from your smallest goal to your largest, you have to be willing to sacrifice who you are for what you can be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lulasempanadas.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lulasempanadas/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lulasempanadas/