Should you’re among the many hundreds of thousands of people that devour Netflix’s Promoting Sundown, you already know Emma Hernan. And if you already know Hernan, you already know about Hernan’s empanadas. 

Since becoming a member of the present, which follows the goings-on at high-end West Hollywood brokerage agency The Oppenheim Group, in season 4, 31-year-old Hernan has established herself as a fan favourite. Her empanadas, in the meantime, have grow to be a solid favourite, reliably showing alongside the Promoting Sundown star at every kind of gatherings, massive and small—together with a date in season 5. 

“The empanadas positively took off on the present, and it grew to become ‘Emma’s empanadas!’ in like, each scene,” Hernan laughs of her culinary co-stars. She’s taking our name exterior of her Los Angeles house on a barely overcast Could morning, not that she minds: “As a result of it’s sunny on a regular basis, once we get days like this it’s truly secretly oddly satisfying and comfortable,” she says.

Emma Hernan’s early entrepreneurial spirit 

The empanadas—well-known (or notorious, relying on who you ask) as they could now be, due to the present—are simply part of Hernan’s entrepreneurial imaginative and prescient, which was sparked lengthy earlier than she grew to become a Promoting Sundown solid member and Oppenheim Group agent. Rising up in Massachusetts, the daughter of a firefighter father and a stay-at-home mother, she noticed how proudly owning your personal enterprise was a pathway to monetary freedom. Her grandfather based an organization known as Yankee Dealer Seafood, which continues to be within the household immediately; Hernan has invested in and helped run the seafood operation. 

“I’ve at all times been an entrepreneur,” she says, reflecting on a childhood spent squirreling away and investing cash from babysitting gigs, an ice cream store and ultimately modeling jobs. “I at all times knew that I wished to be a CEO in the future. I knew that I wished to be to a stage of success the place I used to be going to create generational wealth, so I began at a extremely younger age.”

Hernan could have invested money and time within the household enterprise, however whilst a teenager she had aspirations past seafood. She knew that she wished to begin an organization of her personal, and so she did—a frozen-food model known as Emma Leigh & Co. 

Rising her entrepreneurial empire

However she didn’t simply begin her personal meals firm. “Lots of people will have a look at it and be like, ‘Oh, Emma’s empanadas,’ and suppose that’s one merchandise that I’ve,” she says. “However I even have an entire slew of things, and I personal not solely my firm, however my manufacturing facility—so I co-pack for all of those enormous, nationwide manufacturers on the East Coast.” 

The co-packing (contract packaging) operation has been one among a number of streams of income for Hernan. “My subsequent field to be checked off was actual property,” she says. “That was so, so, so necessary to me to begin constructing my portfolio, and the sooner the higher.” 

She acquired her actual property license, began investing in property and now she’s a star on Promoting Sundown, which simply aired its sixth season in Could. (Don’t fear: We gained’t spoil any of the drama for you right here, although when you anticipated extra dust-ups with fellow Oppenheim Group dealer Christine Quinn, you’d be proper.)

It seems like lots of work, and, nicely, it’s. She’s additionally an angel investor—did we point out that? When requested how she juggles realtor duties, showing on Promoting Sundown, operating the meals manufacturing operation and investing whereas maintaining all of the balls within the air, she jokes, “Nicely… I’ve most likely dropped a number of balls.” She’s the primary to confess: It’s quite a bit to deal with. 

“There’s some days the place, on the finish of the day, I have a look at the clock and I’m like, ‘Wow, I’ve been on my toes for 18 hours. I don’t perceive how that is attainable,’” she says. Some weeks are extra of a battle than others, and the time dedication is likely one of the causes she went forwards and backwards about doing the present within the first place.

Emma Hernan’s recommendation for younger ladies

However showing on Promoting Sundown has additionally been extraordinarily rewarding, she says, and really a lot price it. “I didn’t come from quite a bit, so I created the life that I’ve just about all by myself,” she says. Whereas it’s daunting to seem on a present watched by so many individuals who will virtually actually choose and kind opinions about you, she feels that the true Hernan—real, hardworking, sincere, an excellent buddy—shines by, even within the midst of all of the drama. And as a self-made businesswoman and actuality TV star, she typically will get messages from individuals—lots of them younger ladies themselves—who’ve been impressed by her story on the present. 

Typically, they’re asking for recommendation, which Hernan is very happy to supply. “A giant piece of recommendation is, no matter your ardour is, exit and put all the pieces into it,” she says. For her, it was empanadas, one among many issues she grew up cooking alongside her grandmother—“my greatest buddy in your complete world,” Hernan says.

Most of the messages she fields are from ladies who simply don’t know the place or find out how to begin, and Hernan’s suggestions is easy: simply begin! “I really feel like lots of people are afraid to take that first step, and that’s my largest factor,” she says.

Should you’re feeling caught, Hernan additionally advises getting out of your head and switching up no matter surroundings you’re in. Go to a brand new espresso store or park and simply sit and brainstorm in a brand new house. “Write all the pieces down—I’m a author, so for me, after I began my enterprise, I wrote all the pieces down,” she provides. “I had an enormous pocket book.” 

Emma Hernan on honoring commitments…

Typically talking, she’s a visible, artistic individual: “Even this yr, I made a imaginative and prescient board! It seems like, oh, you’re in highschool, making a imaginative and prescient board—no, I made a imaginative and prescient board this yr,” she laughs. “Chrishell came visiting to my home, and we made imaginative and prescient boards collectively.” 

One factor you gained’t catch Hernan doing? Bailing on the individuals she likes to make her profession aspirations a actuality. With a schedule as busy as hers typically is—suppose 1 a.m. bedtimes after lengthy days of labor—it may be tempting to have a look at your social calendar and push plans again, rescheduling the dinners and drinks with associates and prioritizing the enterprise facet of issues. However that isn’t the Hernan method. 

“I’m not a rescheduler,” she says. “I’m a make-it-happen kind of lady, and I believe it’s so necessary… as a result of it’s so good to have robust relationships in your life.” Hernan continues to be extremely shut along with her mother and father, too. “In the event that they’re not right here visiting—which, they actually have been each simply right here visiting—I’m on the cellphone with every one among them most likely thrice a day in between all of my busy calls,” she chuckles. 

…and discovering stability in life

After all, even formidable multihyphenates have to take a while to unwind. For Hernan, that usually appears like unplugging for a bit to take a hike along with her canines. This yr, she additionally began fostering kittens—two tiny orange male cats and one grey lady. Later this afternoon, in between showings and enterprise conferences, she’s squeezing in time to take the trio to the vet. 

Sure, it’s one other factor to do, on high of all the pieces else. However it additionally feels therapeutic for her, and giving again on this method is one thing that makes her glad. 

​​“Take time for your self,” she says, in one other little bit of knowledge for would-be entrepreneurs, “no matter meaning.”

Above all else, Hernan says it’s necessary to not be discouraged by setbacks, that are an inevitability for any enterprise proprietor, particularly somebody who’s simply getting began on their entrepreneurial journey. She urges of us who’re simply beginning out to count on there to be challenges, and to push previous them. 

She’s a born go-getter who thrives on being busy, loves the work and is deeply pushed by constructing generational wealth for herself and for her household. So, you already know, don’t beat your self up when you’re not an actual property agent/entrepreneur/actuality TV star/angel investor by the point you’re in your early thirties. 

“I wouldn’t be sitting out right here on the cellphone with you—listening to the birds chirp and these cutie kittens—if I wasn’t a hustler and I didn’t work so onerous to get the place I’m immediately,” Hernan says. 

Photograph by Jason Kent

Cassel is a Minneapolis-based author and editor, a co-owner of Racket MN, and a VHS collector.