- Owner, BSL Studios
- Age: 26
Striking success in a dusty garage is a familiar story out west in Silicon Valley. Here in Milwaukee, young entrepreneurs are springing for cozier settings of inspiration.
Sophie Hengst, an interior design professional from Cedarburg, transitioned to social media stardom and financial success right from her dorm room.
At 19, her goal was clear: create a nationally recognized interior design company. Hengst, who recently turned 26, successfully boasts a hugely popular home decor blog, By Sophia Lee, and an interior design firm, BSL Studios.
She started blogging about interior design right from her dorm at Concordia University Wisconsin. So immersed in interior design, she literally dreamed about it.
"I would literally fall asleep at night thinking about what bed set I'm going to get and how I'm going to decorate the dorm walls," said Hengst to People in April.
Blogging her dorm decor through school, Hengst managed to generate over $20,000 a month from her website by the time she graduated. She paid her own way through college and used her own funds to build her brand, Hengst said to Milwaukee Business Journal media partner TMJ4.
She's since reinvested the money from her blog into local real estate. To date, she's restored two homes in Whitefish Bay. She sold her first home at 24 for over $1 million; she bought the property for $340,000.
Hengst knew that after taxes and other payouts, the profit from the first restoration wouldn't be mind-blowing. To her, the hope was to build a name for herself and garner attention from serious players in the industry. Hengst was careful to document her restorations for her burgeoning number of followers.
As a savvy social media engineer, Hengst has used the power of Instagram, TikTok and Youtube to hoist her brand to extraordinary heights. Her TikTok account alone boasts over 586,000 followers. Hengst uses her accounts to showcase the restoration process. Those followers have named her the "Gen Z Joanna Gaines," reflecting her self-described "traditional casual" style.
Prior to her marriage in June, she went by Sophie Zang. Her professional identifier, Sophia Lee, remains at the core of her recently established design firm.
The interior designer will likely scoop up another property this fall. Areas she's eyeing include Whitefish Bay, Cedarburg and Mequon. The young entrepreneur has also launched a line of planners called The Dailee alongside a schedule of other projects.
