Key Facts

• Time at Holafly: 2 Years
• Current role: Customer Service Team Leader
• Started as: Customer Support Specialist, Asia-Pacific (APAC) region

Lisa’s story starts far from home. For five to six years, she lived in the United Kingdom, studying fashion design and picturing a future built around sketches, fabrics, and exhibitions. Today, she’s back on the other side of the world in Malaysia, leading a customer service team across time zones as one of Holafly’s Customer Service Team Leaders.

The path between those two points wasn’t one she mapped out in advance. It took a change of plans she didn’t choose, a job she almost didn’t get, and a team that grew from two people to more than two hundred in just a couple of years. What carried her through it was a mix of openness, hard work, and a habit she still lives by: “listen first, then speak.”

Leaving fashion behind, and saying yes to something new

Lisa loved her years in the UK, and after graduating she hoped to stay a little longer. But with Brexit, the post-study work visa was no longer an option. So she packed up and headed back to Malaysia, ready to figure out her next chapter.

Back home, the fashion scene was much smaller than the one she’d left behind in the UK. But design wasn’t the only thing she’d fallen for abroad: she also discovered how much she enjoyed being surrounded by people from different cultures.

When a friend mentioned a remote customer service opening at Holafly, Lisa gave it a chance. “I said, why not? I’m still young, let’s give it a try,” she remembers. What started as an open-minded yes turned into the career she’s been building ever since.

Her start at Holafly came with a twist. “This is going to be a good story,” she says with a laugh. After her first round of interviews, she was told she hadn’t been selected. Then the hiring manager asked to meet one more candidate, and Lisa was called back. She was confirmed right after that final interview. “That’s how it turned around.”

Growing alongside a team

When Lisa joined Holafly in 2024 as a Customer Support Specialist, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) team was just her and one other colleague. Between the two of them, they split the clock: her teammate covered Europe and part of the Americas, while Lisa took the rest of the Americas and Asia.

Many processes were still being built, so there wasn’t a strict manual to follow: they figured things out as they went, learning from every case, and leaning on each other along the way.

“There was no blame, no complaints,” she says. “We just loved it so much.”

That team didn’t stay small for long: APAC grew from two people to around 17 or 19. When the regions merged into a single global team, it passed 100 people, and today it’s more than 200. Lisa grew right alongside it, moving from Support Specialist to Advocate, then Coordinator for APAC, and finally into her current role as Customer Service Team Leader.

Through every stage, one thing stayed the same for her: the people. “Everyone is so sweet, so helpful, so friendly,” she says. “It would be rare to come across someone who isn’t.”

From a messy studio to a tidy desk

On the surface, fashion design and customer service couldn’t be more different. Art, as Lisa describes it, is wild and open, while customer service runs on structure, systems, and organization.

Still, her creative side shows up in how she works. Lisa believes the imagination she developed as a designer helps her see situations from a wider angle, starting with a lesson every advisor eventually learns: a customer’s frustration is rarely personal. “If you open your mind a little wider about how you see a situation,” she says, “you realize it’s never actually about you.”

Moving between those two worlds changed her. “You know how people picture an artist’s room as messy?” she says. “Mine is super clean, super tidy now.” She sees that change as part of becoming a better version of herself, without losing the creative side she still carries.

That mix of structure and an open mind also shapes how she leads her team. Instead of judging people quickly, she gives them space to speak, to react, and to show what they’re capable of. For Lisa, leading means looking past first impressions and seeing the talent and potential in each person. “The patience you give them,” she says, “often turns into a completely different story than what you expected.”

Hard work, and the art of listening first

Asked what helped her grow, Lisa starts with something she admits sounds simple. “Hard work really does pay off,” she says. “Without the effort, you can’t count on luck.”

The most important lesson for her comes from a saying she grew up with in Chinese: observe before you speak. In a room full of experienced people, she believes the instinct to jump in and prove yourself can work against you. “Listen first, observe, and only then speak,” she says. “When you take a little time, you see a better picture, and then you act.”

It’s a principle that became even more meaningful when she first stepped into a team leader role. Lisa describes herself as someone who loves talking and sharing, and in those early days she was still finding the right balance between that and her new responsibilities.

Some of the best advice she received came from her husband, who had more years of work experience at the time: as a leader, part of the job is knowing when to step back and let others speak. “For the good of the team, sometimes it’s just better to listen,” she says.

Learning to lead by making room for others

Lisa credits much of her growth to the managers she’s worked with. Her first one, who brought more than 30 years of industry experience, left a lasting mark. “He was willing to share, and he taught me how to see people and how to guide people,” she says.

She also admires a more recent manager, someone younger than her who grew into a leadership role quickly. Working alongside her, Lisa saw firsthand what made her a great fit for the job. “She’s super hardworking,” Lisa says. “When it’s work, we talk seriously. Outside of that, we talk like friends.”

From all of them, Lisa learned something she now passes on to her own team. “They gave me the space to speak” she says. That sense of support is what gave her the confidence to keep growing, and it’s the same space she now gives the team she leads.

A career that made room for life’s big decisions

In her first years at Holafly, Lisa describes herself as “a fighter.” Everything was new, there was room to grow, and she wanted to make the most of it: she worked hard for a bigger role, learned from every department she could, and connected with as many people as possible across the company. “It was really all about work,” she says, “and I enjoyed it so much.”

As she moved forward in her career, so did the rest of her life. She recently got married, and her days now include more time with her husband and Sophie, a Labrador who just turned one.

Working from home is what gave Lisa the confidence to adopt her. “A puppy is a commitment, almost like a small baby,” she says. Today, Sophie joins them for coffee at cafés and even goes swimming.

Lisa’s creative side hasn’t gone anywhere either. Whenever she travels, she visits at least one fashion exhibition. “That’s how I keep my passion alive,” she says. For her, growing at Holafly never meant putting the rest of her life aside. The stability she found along the way is what gave her the confidence to take important steps outside of work too.

The thread that ties it all together: the people

If Lisa could go back to her first day at Holafly, she wouldn’t change the path. “I’m happy with what I’ve become,” she says. But she’d give her younger self one piece of advice: be a little braver. “Don’t limit yourself,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to explore or to speak up.”

It’s advice that feels easier to follow today, thanks to the people around her. Working with colleagues from all over the world, almost entirely online, Lisa has found a place where everyone is welcomed the same way. “People accept you the same way they treat their own people,” she says. “That’s very rare.”

In a way, her journey brought her back to what she loved from the very beginning. It started far from home, in a country where she fell in love with being surrounded by different cultures. Today, from home in Malaysia, she gets to be part of one every day.

Growth is easier when the people around you make room for it. If that sounds like the kind of place you’re looking for, check out our open roles on the Careers Page.