PiBurner of the Week: Heather Lynn
Let’s celebrate our PiBurner of the week!
Heather Lynn
owner at
(@_LoBoDesigns_)
We are very excited to introduce you to Heather Lynn, our newest PiBurner!
About Heather
Today, it’s our great pleasure to share the story of Heather Lynn and to let you all in on her amazing journey in the world of lasers.
Heather is the owner of LoBo Designs and founder of the Glowcreate® Laser-Learning platform — but first and foremost, she is a wonderful Mom who lives in Philidelphia with her husband and their 4-year-old son Logan.
I’m a Mama to my 4-year-old son, Logan Robert (LoBo) and a wife who’s married to her best friend! My husband isn’t in the “laser underground” like I am, but he’s a metalworker and will soon be joining me in the self-employment world!
We often see success stories like this; when a spouse gets the entrepreneurial bug, it often spreads to their partner! And what a blessing it is to do something you love, on your own terms, and all while surrounded by your family…
Not only is she a maker, but she also shares her knowledge with a growing community of makers just like her. And she has plenty of skills and credentials to lean upon:
I am primarily an online instructor & mentor, but I am also a graphic designer and calligrapher, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Multimedia & Web Design.
The Laser Business Journey
Heather got started with her first laser thanks to a clickbait ad on Facebook back in 2019.
That’s right, I spent $5,500 on a “3D Laser Printer” that I didn’t know how to use, nor did I have any idea that it was a CO2 laser
She didn’t even know what a CO2 laser was at that time!
After receiving her Glowforge Pro in October 2019, she learned as much as possible with the limited resources that were available to her at that time.
Thankfully, she managed to team up with a few other laser users who were either learning the same things as she was or were ready and willing to show her the ropes and get her up to speed — and it wasn’t long before she started creating and selling her own unique laser designs on Etsy!
It’s uplifting to see makers help each other! There is no shortage of great people in the maker community that lift each other up and support one another.
She was doing great, but when she saw an opportunity for growth, she took it.
Around the same time that I started selling my designs, I began to have problems with my first Glowforge Pro. While working with their customer service, I started to look into upgrading to a larger, more powerful laser since I was pretty quickly outgrowing my current machine.
Again and again, we hear from makers that the Glowforge acted kinda like a “gateway laser” to a more powerful and capable machine.
In May of 2020, while she was on Glowforge replacement machine number three, she purchased a 90w Mira 9 from Aeon Laser USA.
Just a few short months later, Aeyoncé (that’s what I named my laser!) showed up at my house and I hit the ground running.
So how did she make out? Was she able to recoup her investment?
OH YES! She was able to pay off the Mira in full within six months of receiving it, thanks to her new ability to engrave custom tumblers and cut/engrave larger items at speeds she had never seen before. That’s what makes the Mira shine!
Let this be an inspiration to you if you are still on the fence.
Because of how much time the new machine was saving me, I was able to start dedicating more of my time to the Glowcreate® platform.
When Heather wanted to step up her Tumbler game, she opted to go with the PiBurn and has had so much smashing success that she recently became an affiliate of LensDigital! Her link is at the bottom of the article.
For Heather, it was about more than just her own success with the laser business. She was intimately interested in helping other makers succeed. Which by the way, is a goal we share with her!
In late 2021, she teamed up with her good friends Crystal Aguila (Riley Black Designs) and Emily Caroline (That Mom with a Laser) to start creating online laser-learning courses that would help their group members and mentees learn how to get their machines and design businesses up and running in an easier, more structured way than before — which was through texts, messaging, and group posts…
Well, it took a lot of work, thought, investment and planning. But…
In early 2022, all three of us launched our laser-learning & design courses!
It’s great to dream of your big goals. But if you don’t take the steps to get you closer, they will remain but dreams. Heather’s push toward making these goals a reality and her ability to leverage the help of her friends and has been an inspiration to others who want to follow in her footsteps.
The Laser Rotary Journey
Heather’s rotary journey mirrors her laser journey, as she’s had a chance to work with more than one!
She received a Smart Rotary with her Mira 9 back in 2020 as part of the preorder package Aeon Laser USA was offering at the time.
Shortly after she received her new laser (woo!!) and began to use the Smart Rotary.
But like in the real world, things sometimes go sideways. She had a controller issue that wound up frying the motor on her rotary. Yikes!
This is where we get the chance to mention the world-class customer service from Aeon. They identified the issue and sent Heather a brand new rotary.
It was at that time, while Aeon was sending her a free replacement, that she also ordered another rotary from a different rotory company. At the time, she did not yet know about the PiBurn. After receiving her new roller, it took her a bit to learn how to use it, as it was a very different tool, but thanks to youtube tutorials, she was able to get up to speed.
She used that rotary until the beginning of 2022, when she finally decided to upgrade to a PiBurn!
The reason she upgraded was that adjusting cup sizes and leveling the other rotary was becoming a tedious and time-consuming part of her workday! We all got other things to worry about, right?!
We created the PiBurn to be extremely user-friendly. We wanted to take out all the frustration of using a rotary device and shrink the learning curve with easy adjustments, a comprehensive user manual, and an awesome support community.
I ordered a V3 one week before the V4 was announced and I was immediately intrigued in the latest and greatest PiBurn V4, because I wanted to be able to offer tutorials on the rotary and have the most up-to-date version.
Well, we are so so happy she reached out to us!
I reached out to Stan and I asked if I could hold off on the V3 and upgrade to a V4. Without hesitating, Len & Stan offered to hold my order and upgrade me to a V4, at no cost! I was beyond grateful and kind of shocked at how awesome their customer service was — I had heard about how great they were, but witnessing it firsthand was amazing. I am SO happy I upgraded and became a part of the PiBurn community.
Having a PiBurn rotary and being able to quickly adjust to different cup sizes in an instant is just one of the many reasons I love it… Pair that with the customer service I received from Len & Stan and it was a no-brainer!
And then the orders started rolling in and the results…. boy do they speak for themselves!
What inspires you?
Heather seems to always look for the positive in people and in situations and she is grateful for all the help she got along the way from other makers.
What has always inspired me is how helpful the users in the laser world were to me when I showed up in the groups as a clueless, brand-new laser owner with ALL of the questions to annoy everyone with!
The amount of time and effort other users put in for free to help me, is the reason I started the Glowcreate® platform. I’m a huge believer in paying it forward and I know how grateful I was for those users who were around to help calm me down at midnight when my laser had a crash, or when I couldn’t figure out an engrave, or when I just needed someone to vent to because I was having one of those days.
The foundation underneath Glowcreate® is so strong because of the MANY people I was able to lean on as I built it… and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Advice for makers starting out
The first and biggest piece of advice I can give to users starting out in the laser world is, don’t be afraid!
Don’t be afraid to run the job.
We couldn’t agree more. You can never succeed unless you try. Hit that Fire button!
Don’t be afraid to mess up.
We can certainly guarantee that you will mess up along the way, but never EVER let that stop you. Lean into it, use it as a fire to get you going and you will succeed.
Don’t be afraid you’re going to break something! (Breaking things is the best way to learn how to fix it! hahah)
You WILL break something and that is OK, that is expected, that is just part of the Journey. It’s a beautiful one, so enjoy it and take some risks, break some things!
Don’t be afraid to ask for help!
This is a big one. Never forget there are people like Heather out there with big hearts who will always be willing to help you with advice or just words of encouragement.
Don’t be afraid of the laser groups. (The admins in the groups built those environments for people like you to be able to join and get your questions answered!)
The very next thing you should do is join Heather’s group! It’s a must for learning the ropes of your laser: Glowcreate® Laser-Learning Group on FB
One other group we can recommend specifically for rotary help is the PiBurn Labs group where you will find a warm and welcoming environment that may inspire you to create something amazing.
Don’t be afraid of failure…
Believe you can do it, because you can!
Practice, hustle, repeat — and the rest will fall right into place!
Beautiful advice, and we hope you’ll take it!
So, what are some of Heather’s favorite projects?
Examples of favorite projects
The tumblers that Heather engraves out on her Mira 9 + PiBurn combination are undeniably beautiful. See for yourselves:
Important Links
• Check out Heather’s website: LoBo Designs
• Sign up for her YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LoBoDesigns
These stories are the real reason why Len and I are in this business. Makers like Heather inspire us, energize us to create even better products, and help us get through our toughest days – we know it’s all worth it.
Heather, thank you for creating, thank you for inspiring and sharing, and of course, thank you for being a PiBurner!!
Happy PiBurning!
Len and Stan
Laser-focused on your success!
Your story is worth sharing too! Contact Stan to become our next PiBurner!