Transcript Episode 87

Episode 87: Building Community Online and Offline with Lauren Davis

Stephanie Skryzowski: 

[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome back to 100 degrees of entrepreneurship. I am super excited to have Lauren Davis with me on the podcast today. Welcome Lauren. Thank you so much for having me. This is so much fun and I love, um, I just love everything that you do and how you break down big, scary concepts and make them simple for people.

Lauren:

So I’m so happy to be here. Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much. Well, I’m excited to chat today. I know that you have had a, like very long and winding entrepreneurial journey starting with when you were a little kid, so you don’t have to go like all the way back . Um, but tell us like what your, what your entrepreneurial journey has looked like.

Okay. I mean, I feel like I have to somehow mention when I was a little kid, because I really do think that’s when it began, but like when I got the bug, you know? Yeah. But when I was little, I started a can collecting business because I noticed that a lot of my neighbors weren’t recycling and we were going to the [00:01:00] recycling plant to bring our cans in.

So I could make, you know, like a dollar and, um, And so I thought to myself, well, what if I collected all my neighbors cans too? I could have them pay me to collect their cans. And then also I would get money from going to their cycling plant. And so I remember when I was like eight years old, kind of doing this.

Oh. And I would help the environment at the same time. Right. That was also very important to me and love it. I thought about that as a child. I remember like my dad sketching out a business plan with me on construction paper. And being like, if you did this many houses and you made around this much money per house, um, then by the end of the month, if you did this every other week, you’d have this much money.

And I was like, huh. So like, I can really take this into my own control and into my own hands and create a business from it. And the thought, I just remember the thought of that. Like, I will never forget that feeling cause it was so much magic to me. Then I grew up and my mom had, my mom [00:02:00] started a gourmet dog biscuit bakery.

So I worked in a small business as a child. Um, cuz when your family and your bus, your family has a small business, you just work there by default, right? Mm-hmm um, so middle schoolish times and then in, um, my dad was an economic developer, so he was constantly bringing us into different local businesses and showing us around the community, getting to know local business owners.

When I got older, when I was about 19, I opened a record store with my then boyfriend who became my husband. Who’s now my ex-husband. And we started a iconic record store in the Midwest, um, which I am no longer part of, but it was a big part of my journey. Um, we, we ran that for 15 years and then I also around 2010.

I was finding that a lot of local business owners were feeling just kind of down. And it was like a, you know, just around the time of the recession and, you know, just like we were kind of coming out of it, but people didn’t [00:03:00] really have a focus on buying local in the community that I was living in. And local business owners were saying like, Hey, how do we, how do we do what you were doing with your record store?

How do we. Bring more people into our store or into our business. How do we get more people to know about us? How did you do this, this and this. And so that really led me down a couple different paths. It led me down a path as a marketer. So I went back to college for marketing and then also led me down the path of.

Starting a non-for-profit for local businesses to really help them educate themselves, get to know each other, collaborate across, you know, our networks and help each other grow and learn and succeed. And that started in 2010 and that’s still going strong today with over a thousand local business owners in it, in my community.

So. That’s a local businesses, small businesses, entrepreneurs have always had a huge, special place in my heart and I can really truly boil it down to that time. When I was eight mapping up my business plan on my piece of construction paper. [00:04:00] Oh, my goodness. I love that so much. And I mean, I don’t know if you see this common thread, but what I am seeing is like community and building community, it sounds like has really been at the heart of everything that you’ve done.

And I would love to hear more about what you’re doing today. Yeah. So I, um, so now I work as a marketing consultant for a lot of, of small businesses non-for-profits too, but I really, really, um, have a great time working with speakers and trainers, people who are running webinars, people who are, um, talking from the stage and they wanna know if the people who are watching them while they’re speaking on stage are actually.

Um, going to become part of their community when they leave the stage. Are they going to engage with them while they’re on stage after they’re on stage? Are they gonna tell the organizers of the conference? Hey, this is the person that I. That like gave the best presentation of the whole conference. You [00:05:00] have to bring them back again.

So really working with speakers and trainers and, um, like whether it’s virtual or in person to talk about those concepts that help them build community. And you’re right. A comment thread through all of the things that I’ve done in my life is, is based in community because I just think it’s so important.

Um, I’m an introvert too. Let like, let this be known. I thrive. When I have alone time to like build myself back up and decompress and charge up, but can, there’s something very special about community? And if you can just think about it, like in your head right now, and anyone listening here, when was the first time you ever felt like you belonged ever.

Like it could be when you are a child, it could be when you’re a grown up, but that feeling of belonging where you feel like, okay, all, all these people are wildly different than me, but we all share this common thread and we all share this common goal and we’re we’re, we can all help each [00:06:00] other and we don’t have to do this alone.

That’s what community is for me. And so if you can think about the time that. First felt like you belonged and belonging is way different than fitting in. Right? Belonging is, um, like fitting in is externally based. It’s like molding yourself to how you want others to view you in business, how you want the outside perception to view you in some way it’s temporary.

But having an sense of belonging is an internal need. It’s right in the middle of, uh, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Mm. It wants to say, like, I am here, I’m accepted. I’m safe to be who I am in this space with others. I desire to build connections here and to build something bigger than myself. And speaking from a stage, being in a room full of people is such a great example.

Um, because so many people in the room feel like they simultaneously don’t belong and they feel like they belong. So if you can be the person to draw that community together and find that common thread, then you can really do something special and impactful. [00:07:00] Yeah. Oh my gosh. That’s so beautiful. I’ve never really thought about that difference between fitting in and, um, and belonging that’s yeah, there is such a difference there.

That’s really interesting. Um, so the, so has, how has speaking, like been a part of your business? I know you’ve done a lot of it. What has that, what has that looked like? How have you gotten started doing that and how has it like changed the trajectory of your work? Well, first of all, I love speaking. And if you would’ve asked me that.

Lauren: Even like six years ago or eight years ago, I would’ve said I’m a horrible public speaker. I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t know how to build a talk, um, myself, but that’s, but it was never true because in 2010 I started. Speaking to 40 to 50 local business owners every single month, um, with my non-for-profit, I had to stand up in front of them and I was like 22 when I first started that.[00:08:00] 

And I was like, why on earth are they looking to me as their leader? I have no idea what they’re doing. And I have no idea what. what I think I’m doing, but that’s like that imposter syndrome, you know, because I had had a lifetime of local business experience at that point. And so if we always, we’re always telling ourselves, we don’t know as much as we think we know.

Right. So even at that time, I was like, I don’t know as much as I think I know, but I did. And then get a couple years later getting on more stages. I was like, oh, I don’t know if I can be a public speaker. This terrifies me. Like I’m talking. I would get on stage. And at first my eyeballs would just black out.

Like I couldn’t see anyone in the audience for a second. And then I, my brain would come back to and I’d be like, okay, I’m gonna do this. Right. And it was so scary for me at first. And then. Um, one day I learned that, and this has been talked about a million times. So hopefully that you, this is not the like hundredth time.

You’ve heard this, but I know it changed my life when I heard it. So I’m gonna say it again, [00:09:00] but fear is the same, um, emotion in your body as excitement. And so I started doing this practice whenever I’d go to speak on a stage and I’d go into the bathroom and I would. first of all, try to change that fear into excitement for myself.

I’d be like, instead of being like, oh my God, I’m so nervous. I’m so scared. I would say, oh, I’m so excited. I get to go out and do this on stage. Now I’m gonna kill it. And then I would tell him, I would imagine how it felt. At the end of my presentation, how it would feel to have people say, I just loved that story.

You told I was so impacted when you told me this, these three things really made a difference to me in my business. I can’t wait to go implement them. I just imagined people saying that at the end of the presentation. And I was like, okay, I know my points. I know exactly what I wanna say. I know that this is helpful.

This is coming straight from my heart. I know this is gonna be helpful for people. And I just started doing it. And honestly, [00:10:00] The more, I leaned into fear over and over and over again from of that fear of speaking on stage and that fear of, you know, belonging or not fitting in that, that fear of like what people might think of me on stage or what people might think of the way I dressed or, you know, those like kind of insecure.

Thoughts that people are probably not thinking about at all. I realized that when I was on stage, I could be a representation of other people like me. So I could be a person that looks that looks like me. I could be a person that’s from the Midwest, or like, not from a coastal city or something like that.

I could be a short five foot, one. Um, you know, person up on stage, not like a super tall, you know, beautiful supermodel, which is fine to be too, but the, I was just a representation of other me MES out there when I was on stage. And I was just like, If I can be this for other people, and if I can make other people feel like they [00:11:00] have a chance at doing this kind of stuff too, then I’m gonna do it.

And so I just kept practicing and practicing and practicing, leaning into fear whenever possible and changing it into excitement. And that’s what I’ve done for my whole life. All of my businesses, everything that I’ve, um, created and crafted over the years has been a product of leaning into fear. Mm, that’s so powerful.

Cuz I feel like from the outside, when we look at someone like you and we see pictures on Instagram of you up on this big stage, you’re like, oh my gosh, she must just like be so confident and just like, know exactly what she’s. Doing, and I wish I could be like her, but I, I, you know, I love that there’s been the opportunity for you to lean into it cuz not every like step of everyone’s journey is super comfortable.

Um, but it’s, I think it’s really important that you sort of recognized, okay, this is scary and, and that’s okay. And I’m going to like, I’m gonna lean into it, like you said, because I think that. You know, it is really scary thinking [00:12:00] about speaking on stage for a lot of people. How has, um, how has speaking and leaning into that fear?

How has that changed your, your business and changed your life? Huh? Um, well, first of all, it’s that cheesy saying that says, you know, you have a hundred percent success rate of. Going through hard situations so far in your life, right? Yes. yes. I love that. I was like, literally just telling myself that last week.

Well, I’ve survived all of like the hard stuff to date, so I can probably survive this too. Yeah. Love that. yeah. So it’s changed my life and my business a lot because, um, I, well, Hmm. Because even just in the last year with, um, my life changing a little bit in the personal sense, I’ve had to do a lot of things.

That I didn’t like I never planned for, right. Like I [00:13:00] never planned to, um, uproot where I live or, you know, get divorced from my husband or like not have a record store anymore. I never planned for those things. And they were kind of like part of my, they felt part like a little bit part of my identity in some ways.

And so I’ve had to really lean into this thought of, um, of. Realizing that. So, oh, here, let me put it this way. Um, when you are making decisions and for your business, a lot of times you’ll decide with what you’re scared of. Right. You’ll decide based on like the route that feels, oh, maybe less scary or maybe the route that feels like a little bit safer.

And in sometimes, sometimes in places, that’s the best thing for you to do is to choose safety. Um, For me, what hap, what I’ve [00:14:00] noticed is that I had a hard time when I was in an emotional place of my life or an uprooting place of my life, or a very shifting time of my life as a business owner. And this has not just happened this last year, but anytime there was a big shift in business.

So anytime when I started the nonprofit, when I started my business, um, and then especially this year, it’s become ever so much more clear to me is that when. Making a decision. I have a hard time say thinking about what I want. Like what it’s, it’s hard for me to say, like, this is, yes, this is what I want and move forward on it because I have so many, like things just as every business owner does so many things that are just kind of rooted in, well, if I do this, then maybe this would happen.

And if I do this, then maybe this would happen. I’m not sure. Should I move? And I think a lot of business owners, like a lot of there’s, you know, lots of different type of business owners, some of ’em move faster with decisions. Some of ’em move, um, differently with how they, how they choose where they wanna go.

So I [00:15:00] had a hard time asking myself, what do I want? And a brilliant friend of mine, Katrina. Kevin said a ask me once, how do you wanna feel at the end of this? Like, what do you, how do you wanna feel. At so and so amount of time. And so now I at practice this thought of when I’m leaning into like a, kind of a situation where fears might get the best of me about which way I should go.

And I can’t ask myself what I want. I ask myself when I get to this destination, how do I wanna feel? And if I know how I wanna feel when I get there, The decision becomes way more easy and it doesn’t have to be about what I want. It has to be about how I wanna feel later on. And that has been like a guiding star for me as I’ve moved through this year.

And as I move through new challenging situations, as I com keep growing my business and making it more successful as I meet new people as I go to a conference or a networking event, I ask myself all the time, how do I wanna. At the [00:16:00] end of this, do I wanna feel like I went deep with one person? Do I need to feel connected to the whole room?

Probably not. It’s all about how I wanna feel at the end of the day. And if I know how I wanna feel, then I know what choice to make. I know which direction to go. Oh, my gosh. I really like that. I’m definitely gonna borrow that because sometimes it’s like, yeah, what do I want? We don’t know, like you, you can want multiple things at once or you’re like, I don’t want any of that.

I don’t know. Like it’s, there’s just, you get under like, You know, analysis paralysis and so totally so easy to do. And no one is immune from analysis paralysis. You can be the most bad assist business owner who makes every decision and is great at decision problem solving. And you can still not know which choice to take or which road to go down and that’s okay.

And you can also back up, if you go down the wrong path, you can back up and go down the other. . Yeah. Yeah, because I mean, we [00:17:00] can like pros and con list ourselves to death, like trying to make a decision. But if you, but I feel like the one thing that we don’t often factor in is like, how do we wanna feel at the end of it?

So when you factor that in, I would imagine I need to like, think, start doing this, but I feel like the decision probably becomes like crystal clear, like it’s yeah. It just, it’s crazy how much doing that exercise with myself whenever I. , I don’t know what to do in this particular situation, asking myself, how do I wanna feel?

Always helps me decide it. It’s like a north. I love that. Well, thanks to your friend for sharing it with you. Yeah. And for sharing with us and, um, trickle down everyone listening. So that message will spread far and wide. Um, Ugh. I love that. That’s so good. Um, so tell me, like, I know you’ve done a lot of work around social media marketing mm-hmm um, and.

Again, like I just see that sort of playing into this big picture [00:18:00] of your, your entrepreneurial journey around building community, um, is social media work, like sort of like consulting or the marketing side of things? Is that something you still do in your business or are you really focusing mostly on speakers now?

Yeah. So a lot of the work that I do with people who are speakers or consultants, Yeah, a lot of it boils down to some of the free tools they have to work with and some of the, but one of the best places to engage still, one of the best places to tell your story, to connect with people organically is on social media.

So I work a lot with people on social media and not just on like the hacks and the tricks of social media, but how to actually build engagement, build community around your platforms. Have people who are showing up there for you day in and day out and actually connecting with you, not just, um, not just, you know, to get the likes or to get the, to get the shares or whatever, but to actually go deeper with them.

So, yeah, I spend a ton of time on [00:19:00] social media because it is a number. It’s the number one free tool we have. To actually connect with people and people are on their phones so much. They’re on their phones all the time. Looking at TikTok, looking at reels, looking at Instagram, um, looking at Facebook, there is, um, for as many people who, as that say, I’m gonna leave Facebook this year.

I’m gonna leave this social media platform. There’s tons more people who are joining it right at the same time. So, um, it is the best place to tell your story. Absolutely. Yeah, I love that. And it seems like, um, the work that you do around social media is just very like organic and authentic. And I like how you just said, like, I’m not about like the tips and the tricks and the hacks.

It’s more about like, how can we use this as a tool to tell our story? Um, so how, how can we, so if I’m like, okay, well, yes, I definitely wanna tell my story and I definitely want to like. Build community. I’m thinking specifically Instagram, cuz that’s where [00:20:00] I spend the most time. That’s my like, um, platform of choice, um, growing, I mean, I would assume like growing your following is part of that as well.

Yeah. So like where, where do I get started if I’m like, okay, I’ve got, you know, a, a number of followers. I wanna go deeper. I wanna build more of a community of like. Loyal engaged friends on social media. Where, where do I start? What do I do? So Instagram’s algorithm favors in interest in relationships. It, it prioritizes relationships.

So many things. So, um, right now it’s also prioritizing short form video on a technical standpoint. Mm-hmm so reels are becoming more important as far as content creation, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that you can be creating so much content. You can be creating the best content that lives out there.

And if you are not building relationships with people, then no one is ever going to see it. Mm-hmm so the idea behind the FA the, what I would, what I say [00:21:00] is take a deep breath and know that you, if you already have a couple followers, like if you have 60 followers or a hundred followers or 500 followers, You already have a great baseline to build relationships with those people.

There’s probably a reason that those people follow you, right? There’s like something in there that makes them wanna follow you. So I would definitely do a little audience audit for yourself, so understand their demographics. Which are like their age, gender income, their household size, like what kind of household?

They are single person, a married, married people, um, understand their geographic location. So if you’re, especially if you’re a local business, your geographic location is key. So like city, state, country, community, you’re like region things that are specific to your region climate even can play a role in.

um, and if you’re national, then your audience is a lot different than if you’re a local business. [00:22:00] Um, if you’re, if you’re, then you wanna look into the psychographics. So demographics and geographics are generally talked about pretty often, especially when you’re understanding your audience, but we really wanna know about the psychographics of your audience.

So there value system, what do they believe to be true? What are their interests? What are they interested in when they’re not looking at Instagram for business reason? What are their lifestyle choices? What are their activities, their habits, the opinions they hold, their personality traits even. Um, and then behavioral aspects too.

Like how loyal to are they to other, um, content creators like you or other businesses like yours? How, what are their patterns of past engagement? A business like yours or with you as a content creator or with other people like you as a content creator, getting to know all of those things and doing a little audit for yourself.

To understand your audience is the first place to start. Because once you really understand, understand them, then you can start connecting with [00:23:00] them. And I always say to people, you know, if you are start with a 10 to 15 people who are always showing up for your posts or for your stories, you know how you open up your stories and you see the people who have viewed your stories and it’s, and you always see about 10 to 15 people who are there every single time and they’re paying attention.

They’re commenting back. They reply to your stories. They send you emojis. Like those people are there for a reason. So I would start there. I would start with them. But I would also ask yourself. When was the last time you spent 10 to 15 minutes or 20 to 30 minutes thoughtfully and purposefully engaging with your intended or your current audience with the audience that you are really trying to build an relationship with and, and something that you might not know is that Instagram actually.

Um, measures the depth of people’s comments. So it kind of analyzes the depth of your comments when you’re leaving comments on people’s posts. So if you’re [00:24:00] leaving something that you’re just copy pasting from one post to the next, Instagram’s gonna understand that you’re not really building a relationship or crafting a relationship with anyone, but if you spend 10 to 15 minutes, thoughtfully and purposefully engaging with someone, um, asking them good questions.

Connecting with them, like in a way that feels really organic based on what you just saw in their story, based on what is going on in their comments, the more you continue that conversation back and forth, the more that your content is gonna get put up right in front, front and center on their feeds, inside their stories.

Um, they’re gonna see your content more often. You might see their content more often as well, but the key is to build relationships and social media is just like real. Like we would not be able to go to a networking event and meet someone, hear them pitch, like have them pitch you right there, right in front of your face, then have them walk away.

You’re not gonna expect to do business with them. That’s not really how it works. [00:25:00] So we think on social media, like, oh yes, we can put out this graphic that tells people our. And then we can tell in the next slide, we can tell them about this thing that we’re offering and why isn’t anyone connecting with me?

Why I, I posted that intro post. Why isn’t anyone connecting with me further? Because you can’t really do that in real life, you know, mm-hmm you can’t um, I always tell the story. Like if you go to a networking event, And you, I kind of briefly mentioned this, but you go to a networking event and you walk up to somebody and there’s like this one type of person that shoves their business card in your face.

They do a little pitch at you, right? Your eyes just glaze over and you know, this person doesn’t care. And then after that pitch, they walk away. You’re never gonna do business with them again. Right. then the second situation is like, someone is, comes right up to you and they ask you a super engaged.

Question meant to like stir up some conversation. Right. [00:26:00] And as you’re, and you’re like, wow, that was pretty good question, I guess. And as you’re answering the question, you can see them just like looking over the top of your head. Well, at least that’s what happens to me. Cause I’m really short. They’re like looking over the top of your head at the person behind you to see who the next person is that they can talk to.

And so you already feel like, wow, my answer, isn’t interesting. I don’t, this doesn’t really matter. He’s just asking questions to ask engaging questions and he doesn’t really actually care about what I have to say. Right? Mm-hmm so you are not gonna have a warm, trusting feeling of that person. You’re not gonna feel good about them.

Probably not gonna do business with them afterwards. The third situation is you get to the networking event. You spend time getting to know someone at the event. You both have an interest in each other’s business. You’re both going back and forth with questions. You’re validating each other, both of you feel seen and heard.

Um, you’re building some trust. And then by the end of the networking event, you exchange email addresses with each other. You exchanged, uh, phone numbers or something like that. And [00:27:00] then you get home. You have an email from the person you met and they. I just really love connecting with you. Do you think we can meet up for coffee next week?

And we can kind of continue the conversation about X, Y, Z, that we were talking about and you say, yes, you set up a coffee date, you go have coffee. And then by the end of that coffee date, you might. Consider doing business with each other because you trust each other. You’re interested in what each other has to offer.

And that is how it works in real life. And that is also how it works online. But we think for some reason that we can just put content out there and everyone is gonna read every word and everyone is gonna understand exactly where we’re coming from and exactly why we started our businesses and why it’s so purposeful and impactful.

And the truth is we have to build relationships. We have to build trust just like we do in real. In order for social media to succeed and with micro videos, it’s a perfect place right now to kind of share, uh, share your inner self, share your real self with the world. And it, [00:28:00] it is, um, I would say that it’s probably scarier to put yourself on video than it is to create a, a perfectly designed post right in Canva or something like that.

But, um, but it is something to start practicing. Even if it’s not even my favorite form of content, it’s the way the world is going. Right. mm-hmm that, um, the analogy that you just walked through at the networking event is so true. And I feel like I’ve been in those situations, both in real life and yeah.

Um, and online, like I’m just thinking about definitely situations where somebody comes up to you, you think they’re being like super genuine and then yeah. Their eyes are like, you can see their eyes are looking around. Yeah. And. Totally not interesting. It just makes you feel like not good. It doesn’t sometimes like, say something like really off, like out of character or something, just to see if they’re listening.

And [00:29:00] there’s been, there’s been one or two times that I’ve tried that. I think one time the person noticed, and then I got their attention back and then the second time , uh, they didn’t notice. And I was like, that’s really interest. . Wow. Yeah. I mean, that’s horrible. Come on. People don’t do this, but I feel like we all have gotten those DMS too.

Like, Hey Stephanie, what’s your biggest challenge in business this week? And then you’re like, oh, wait a second. They’re just blasting this to like a hundred different people. They don’t really care. Right. So interesting. You know, what kind of sticks out to me is that the, the method that you talked about for, you know, building, you know, building your community on social media, this is not something that happens in 30 days.

Like you don’t just like there, there’s no quick way to build a relationship period. Whether that’s. Like in real life, in your personal life, in your business life online, like there’s no quick fix. There’s no hack to build relationships. And I [00:30:00] just keep seeing this theme over and over again in my own life in business that like.

this is a long game. Like everything that we’re doing in business is a long game. At the end of the day, there may be like some hacks that can get you like quick wins, but it’s just a flash in the pan. It’s not lasting, you know, there’s, there’s nothing lasting about it. And so I just, you know, it’s, it’s easy to get discouraged and I’m talking about myself really.

Like I could get discouraged when I see other people online and it looks like. Just like things are blowing up in a good way and they’re getting all these quick wins, but, but they’re probably not quick, first of all. And yeah. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s a long game. So have you found that in, you know, in your own life and in business and, um, yeah.

Do you ever get like. Distracted or kind of down when you see other people that look like they’re moving faster than you or is it just, oh yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it’s so easy to get lost in [00:31:00] that comparative game, um, of this person is doing better. I should be doing this content and I saw something the other day.

That was interesting because I don’t really like using this word often, but I think it actually made sense was like the people that you. If you don’t know what you want to do next in your business, take a look at some of the people that you are, um, that you’re jealous of. And I was like, that’s a really interesting word to use, but you, if you take a look at the people that you are.

Like envious of their life or like envious of what’s going on. Maybe take that and be like that, that maybe that’s what I wanna do next. And kind of mu that over. The second thing I would say about that is the complete opposite. So choose which one empowers you the most? Um, the second thing I would say about that, and this is the approach that I take is to really curate who I wanna.

In my feet, um, curate who I wanna see in my social media [00:32:00] feed. So that way, even if I’m friends with someone and they’re making, making me feel a little bit like stuck in that comparison game, I might mute them for a little bit. They don’t know I’ve muted them, but I just don’t need to see, um, their content all the time or think about what I’m not doing.

Um, and then also what I would say is like, you don’t have to do anything. At the same rate as anyone else, us there’s so many people who you don’t ever see their backstory, you don’t ever see, you know, the divorce they just went through or the changing of their entire life or the, um, you know, their parent just died or you don’t see the health problems they’re going through at the same time.

And it seems like something happened for them overnight. And many times they’ve been stewing or cultivating or working on this or brainstorming it or talking it over with family members for the last 15 years. You know, there’s a lot of times that people have been putting in the work and we [00:33:00] just don’t notice it.

Um, we haven’t been able to notice it because we’ve been distracted by the things that we’re doing and the lives that we’re living and everyone has their own story. Um, so my, my method and the, the way that I go about this is to. Believe that everyone is doing their best. Um, and they’re, and everyone is succeeding in their business the best way that they know how.

And that includes myself, giving myself grace to, to like do things at my own pace. And to know that I am not the same as my best friend, who is a business, and I’m also not the same as, um, another business owner and I, I can’t expect them to ever work the way that I do. , I can’t expect myself to ever work the way they do in order to get to this, the path that we’re or get to the place that we’re going to, which has a slightly common goal, which is what makes us part of that community together.

But a couple steps that I would say is really take control over your Facebook feed or your Instagram feed, mute people. You don’t wanna see things [00:34:00] from, even if they’re your friends. It’s okay. Mm-hmm , mm-hmm, mute it for your own mental sanity. Focus on yourself. And take a break. Every one, uh, you should consume content.

You should consume learning materials, read, listen to podcasts, but every once in a while, take a break and start and rely on your brain to come up with the answers and start working on how you can creatively come up with those answers yourself. I take a content break regularly, um, where I just kind of take one month off from learning content and kind of start applying some of the things that I’ve learned and really rely on myself and what I know deep inside, I need for the sake of my own business.

Then I go back to learning as much as I can again, because I love learning. . Oh, my gosh. That’s so funny. That just is like, yeah. Coming from the, the eight year old entrepreneur, like always love learning. It just, it’s so funny. Um, because I really resonate with that. And it’s so funny how we have to like [00:35:00] force ourselves to take a break from learning.

And I’ve done that before too, because I found like there was periods of time where I found, like I was exercising in the morning at six o’clock in the morning, putting a, a business podcast. As I’m exercising mm-hmm and then going right from that more or less into my work day and then, you know, having dinner and then winding down with a business book before bed.

Yeah. And I’m like, I literally have not shut my brain off in like the last 18 hours. I need to like chill a little bit. So I did the same thing and like got back to music or like reading for pleasure. And it’s amazing what, um, You know what comes up when you do that? When you just give yourself a little break and I think the same can happen on social media.

If we really curate our feed to be like, just what we need in this moment. Mm-hmm, , um, like that’s, that’s really powerful and just, you know, for everyone listening, just remember, like you have control over what you see on your phone. Yes. You have control. Um, so you absolutely do. I love that. And I know [00:36:00] that you said that you have a similar story.

growing up when you were little, you were starting businesses too. I’d love to know more about that. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, since I was, I dunno, like little first or second grade. Yeah. Oh my gosh. This is, we used to, um, like we would do our like Jersey shore vacation and we collect a bunch of sea shells.

Mm-hmm and then paint the insides with nail Polish. Tell them as Ashray, which just like totally dates, how old I am that I was like a seven year old child telling Ash on the side of the street. But definitely did that with the lemonade stands, running like a little summer day camp for the kids in my neighborhood, like hosting, um, hosting kids, birthday parties doing like a little odd job business.

I mean, you name it. I did it as a child. I was obsessed with. Making money was running businesses like obsessed. So yeah, so my [00:37:00] parents were not entrepreneurs, so I did not have a family business, but I feel like, um, Just like you, I had always had multiple since the day I could like legally work. I had at least two jobs.

Yeah. So I don’t, I can’t remember a time where I had less than less say two jobs. Yeah. Same like I, the babysitting thing that brings back a lot of memories suits. Cause I remember I made a, I made flyers for myself to hang a bit yes. At like church or like the why with my phone number on that people could rip off, uh, yes.

And take home with them. And I took CPR classes. So I could be the best babysitter. me too. Me too. Like this, the second uter, like what is it? Like 11 years old or something? I was like, I’m taking the babysitting course. Yes, exactly. I had all the books on how to be the best babysitter and I know. Yeah.

That’s so funny. That’s funny. Yep. Yeah. I love it though. It’s just, yeah, it’s so fun. There was, I remember we used to go the library a lot as a kid and there was this book called like 101 money making activities for [00:38:00] kids or something along those lines. And I would like get that book out of the library as much as I possibly could.

I’m like, you’re gonna try all these business, every single one. Oh, wow. This is so funny. It just brings back so many memories, like all the things that I would do for a couple quarters, you know, Back then. I know, I know, like you want me to swipe your driveway? Sure. No problem. Yeah. Yeah. Fun. I used to pick up, we had two big, um, Oak trees in our front yard growing up and I, my dad used to pay me to pick up the acorns mm-hmm off the grass because they would like kill the lawnmower.

Yeah. So I would like pick up acorns out of my front yard for money. yeah. I love it. I love it. So funny. We have a lot of similarities here. We could probably go back and forth for a while. I know, I know. We definitely, we definitely do. I only hope that my daughter has my like entrepreneurial bug. I’m gonna be like that, like stage mom, but for businesses like helping free businesses.

[00:39:00] Um, okay. Before we wrap up, I would love to know. I like to ask this question a lot. What helps you disconnect from work? What do you like to do? Okay. It’s a trick answer for me. because, and this is something I was gonna bring up with your last question too. And then I, I lost track of remembering to bring that up, but, um, traveling for me also helps.

One unleashed tons of creativity for me for work mm-hmm . Um, so I end up working a lot more somehow on trips, like, or being more effective and more efficient with the work that I’m getting done and more creative when I’m traveling. So I was gonna mention also when I’m in that like comparative space or like that, you know, I, I should be better.

I should be doing more. I should be doing this and that. I, I, I usually book a trip because changing my environment. Snaps me right out of it. And I’m not sure what it is. I don’t, that could be something different for everyone that could mean just going to a coffee shop, to [00:40:00] work instead of working at your desk.

Mm-hmm . Um, and so it, it really like that could mean going and sitting out in your yard and working today instead of working in your basement. Mm-hmm so like, it can be anything, but just being committed to it and, and remembering that that is that you’re doing that for you, you know, you’re doing it for yourself.

Um, so. To answer your question. Traveling helps me decompress. It really helps my like nervous system. Just kind of relax and, and like change states and like helps it kind of just like, Hmm. Let’s think of some new creative ideas here. Um, whenever I get to be. By the water or whenever I get to be surrounded by trees or mountains, or, um, spend time with other creative people, you know, chatting over a glass of wine at dinner, that kind of stuff really helps me decompress.

It really helps me, like, just kind of remember and have perspective on, [00:41:00] on where I started and how far I’ve come. And, um, all of, all of the creative, all of the creative ideas for me start to flow during those moments. Mm-hmm , that’s beautiful. I, I feel the same way. And I love that. You said, even if it’s like, literally just working in your backyard or sitting in your backyard, just a different environment.

I do that often because it’s like, I can’t travel all the time, but, um, if I can just go to a new, you know, go to a new coffee shop, sit and work for my backyard. Like, it’s amazing what that, like little shift does. That’s really, that’s powerful. It is the, the shift. And I will say also. Just like something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is every time I have had a big shift in my life happening, like where I feel closer to myself than I ever have felt, you know, where I, I feel like closer to what I know I want and desire.

And like, I get to remember who, who I have been my whole life, if [00:42:00] that makes any sense, like knowing like what inspires me, knowing what makes me feel. Great and like motivated to work. And, and like when I have those yes. Moments in business and whenever things like that happen in anyone’s life, like whenever that big shift starts happening and you’re like, yes, this is it.

Just be aware that like, things that are not in flowing in that same way, that aren’t. Feeling that energy with you, and then feeling like that great energy with you, they’ll start to E they’ll start to either resist you or they’ll fall away, um, be, and that sometimes scares people and it keeps them back into their, it like reigns them back in from that big shift.

And from those big moments, it’ll, it’ll make you feel like maybe I’m doing this wrong because these people who were this thing that I’ve had in my whole life, You know, it’s not really liking this. Um, or, you know, maybe it’s, it’s like that kind of like the, [00:43:00] just like the energy that you’re having, that you’re building this beautiful thing can sometimes be poked at, by some of the things in your life that say like, no, you shouldn’t be doing this.

And sometimes that can be yourself. You can be saying that to yourself. Like, who do you think you are? You know, mm-hmm mm-hmm but also I’ll say that when you make those big shifts in your life, Building something amazing. And you’re really getting in touch with yourself. And you, you feel like you’re knowing yourself deeper and better than you ever have before.

You’ll also notice with the things that are falling away, other people and other things are, are stepping up to the plate and they are meaning you where you are and they’re going to be encouraging, and they’re gonna be so happy to see you succeed. And so happy to see you grow and learn and become the brightest, most beautiful version of yourself and just pay attention to those people too.

And let them let them speak louder than the things that are kind of falling away. that would be my final thought. [00:44:00] Ugh. I love that. I feel like I’m gonna need to go back and listen to this episode. Cause there’s a lot, I wanna there’s a lot. I wanna write down. So, um, oh my gosh, Lauren, thank you so much.

Thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing all of your wisdom with us and, um, all about your journey and where can our listeners find you? Where is the best place to find you? I’d love to connect on Instagram. That’s where I hang out the. It’s nobody else touches my Instagram. No one on my team touches it.

So it’s like, if you message me on Instagram, you’re really getting me where I’ll be friends in real life and that’s at Al Davis creative. Um, and then I think I’ll also leave you with a link that has over a hundred different prompts to help you create content for your personal brand online. Oh, my gosh.

Amazing. Yes. We will link that in the show notes so everybody can grab that. That would be perfect. Amazing. Um, yeah. I feel like we all want to post, we all wanna connect on there, but sometimes it’s like, wait, what, what do I say? Don’t [00:45:00] even know where to start. So gotta be super, super helpful. Um, awesome.

All right. Well, Lauren, thank you so much. Thanks for your time. Thanks for sharing all your wisdom. This was so much fun. Thank you for having me and I’ll come back. Yay.