How Digital Marketers Can Level Up Their Business - Featuring Lauren Patterson

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Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca each week as she guides fellow business owners in taking the next step to level up their business. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!

Send us a message to join the show for free business guidance: https://pointnortheast.com/contact-us/

Sara Frasca is the founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an experienced and engaging motivational speaker, and the CEO of global business coaching firm Point NorthEast.

Transcript

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You're listening to level up your business, the podcast where we talk to hardworking business owners and leaders and help them solve real issues in real time. I'm your host, Sarah Frasca restaurant owner, keynote speaker and business coach. I've spent my career not only in corporate America, but also as an entrepreneur, carrying on my family's legacy through my restaurant. Now a business coach and consultant. I'm helping other businesses to use creative problem solving and innovative thinking to drive lasting change. Stay tuned to hear some inspiring guidance that will help you to level up your business. All right, well, happy Thursday, everyone, and welcome to another podcast, which is called level up your business. And the intention is to help folks throughout the world but everyday business, folks, how can they continue to improve and today we're welcoming Lauren Patterson from that random agency. Hi, Lauren. Hello. Great to see you. You too. You too, Lauren. And I go way back. So we'll talk about that just a minute. But it's always fun to see you and you have such a beautiful radiant smile that um, well, you do. Know, Lauren's in the Detroit area, what's the exact suburb? I live in Troy? Troy. Okay. All right. So I'm Lauren. And I go back to a consulting firm that we were both involved with many, many years ago, and both have moved on to open our own business, those but we always had that time together, which was really precious. And goodness, I met you. I know, I couldn't imagine another light box. Well, we've had a lot of fun. And I just spoke with actually another of our colleagues this morning. So it's fun to stay connected with kind of folks. So well, tell us learn a little bit about yourself and a little bit about why did you build that rating? Agency? Okay, well, thank you for having me on, I would say a little about myself, I have about, let's see, 12 years now of experience in the social media, digital marketing space, I've worked at different, you know, big ad agencies, consulting firms in the Detroit area. And then in 2020, when Sarah and I both left the previous consulting firm, I went ahead and started that random agency and honestly started as just doing a little bit of freelance to figure out what my next step might be. And then, you know, I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset. When I was in college, I started my first business, I painted shoes. So if anyone needs some shoes painted up, you know, I forgot about that hot. Yeah, hobby. That is so cool. Yes. So I hand painted, Star Wars and all kinds of, frankly, trademarks, at the time, but you know, it's fine. So, being in shoes on Etsy, and that paid all my bills in college, and it was super fun, I liked working for myself, and kind of setting my schedule and figuring out, you know, what's important to you, you know, in a working environment, so that was a little dipping my toe in, in college. And then once I started freelancing, and 2020, it sort of took off a lot of people, you know, when they found out, they're like, Hey, can can you help with this, and that quickly, sort of grew into random and starting a team and building a business. So I think it's really exciting. I think a lot of times, people assume you need to have a huge business plan and have everything planned out ahead of time, if you want to start a company. And it's not always that way. Sometimes your story looks a little different. But now we're, you know, super successful. Four years later, we have 12 people on our team, fully remote agency. So it's super fun, where we have a lot of fun with clients and each other. So yeah, I'm thankful. I mean, you've done a brilliant job. And I think it has such a fun character, the culture of the agency has come together in a way that I feel like it's a really kind of a good mix of the acumen, the personal, you know, kind of components that are important to you, and John and all the folks but it's always fun for me to watch your social media feed and look at your website, link, because I think it's a it's a brilliant representation of you, in my view. Yeah. I mean, that was something that John, my co founder and husband and I talked about a lot from the beginning of if we're going to do it, you know, take that risk to create a business, we want to make sure one, we're having fun, and we're creating a culture that maybe we wouldn't always find in, you know, at jobs we've had in the past. Or, you know, we'd like to elements of different jobs. So bringing those things we liked together. And recently, we went through an exercise actually last year creating some core values for ourself as you know, as our team as we continue to grow to make sure that we always come back to that, because I think that's something that can be difficult as you, you know, more people and trying to keep everything together. So that's been super helpful for us. Yeah. Okay, I have a question for you on that. I think I've both been a part of organizations that do and do not keep those core values front and center. And so I'm just curious, how do you continue to go back to those and ensure that they are ever present? That's a great question. I think, for us what's helpful, we have a weekly team meeting where everyone gets together. And similar to you know, I've been in your team meetings for Tresca. Before we share, you know, a little bit about happy things in our personal life, as well as professional kind of start there. But I think a big part of it is we do talk about the core values regularly, I think, a past version of myself might have thought that's a little corny, or like, oh, you know, nobody cares about that. But I do think, in a genuine way, it's helpful just to bring that up in conversation, not in a forced way. But one, for example, we talk about a lot is empathy. And that's one of the core values, we have a strong emphasis on specifically for, you know, empathy for our clients, for our clients, customers, what problems do they have that we're hoping to help them solve through various, you know, digital marketing channels, but I think it comes down to even when we're looking at an analytics report, for example, a specific example came in recently, where how can we explain not everyone, the audience of the report, not everyone understands what all of these metrics mean? because their job is to do something different, right? They don't need to be digital marketing experts. That's, that's our role. So how can we frame up the report in a way that's empathetic to you know, they might not know the definitions of everything? Or how to read a chart? Or what should the takeaway be? So how can we add those insights, you know, in a way that's helpful for them? And that's just a way of demonstrating our our core values in a very practical sense, too. That's great. That's really great. Yeah, and, okay, so you are an active owner, and you know, your business is growing. So what are the roles that you play within that random agency? That's a fun one. I feel like you can probably relate in a certain way. Somedays, I feel like, you know, you wear many hats, as a co founder, I would say, a lot of a big part of my role is to help, you know, guide the team and the company forward. So I'm focusing on today, right? How do we make sure our current clients are happy, you know, getting what they need, as well, as I work on a lot of new business now of, you know, Discovery calls with potential clients, or, you know, the new business part is a big part of my role, it's recently shifted a little bit, I know, you and I have talked about that of, you have to work on the business as well as in the business and that can be difficult at times. So I've shifted to work a bit more on the business as well, and really trusted the team to, you know, bring me in when they need extra support, or, you know, a second set of eyes on something, but, you know, thankfully, we have a really good good group of people who can take care of clients, but more of my job now is shifting into, okay, you know, we've we've started to create some goals for three 510 years, how do we break that up and start, you know, working towards that you have to start somewhere else? Three years is gonna come before? I know, and you're a working mom, too. Do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about that? Sure. Um, so my son Henry is seven months old, he was born on Halloween of last year. So that's been a really exciting and challenging in many ways. I would say one of the things that I wasn't expecting about being a mom is that it does help you. People talk a lot about like work life balance, and all of that. And once you have a child, from my experience, at least, that becomes much easier, at the end of the day to say just accept, you know, I've gotten done these things. Some of these didn't, didn't get done, because I had other things pop up in the day, you never expect, right? Your your day never goes exactly according to plan. But just being okay with that, you know, I, I tried my best today, I put my best foot forward, and it's okay, I'm gonna set it down for now and pick that up tomorrow. I think before I had a baby, that was a little harder for me, to be honest. Because I would be like, well, I could, I could work all night or, you know, I didn't always have that balance that I think makes you better at your job, frankly, to like, walk away at times. Yeah, that's a really good point. And, gosh, I mean, I think you have such a good perspective on the importance of also the mom role, right? Yeah. And if we're not attentive to that side, I mean, it's always good to kind of, you know, make sure we're delicately walking that fine balance. So that's, yeah, warn you some days that works better than others. Right, but But you try, like, No day is perfect and no, you know, but hopefully over the long run, we get it as close to perfect as we can. Yeah, yeah. And I think to the other part of it now is you get another perspective, at least for me as a working mom of, you know, what might my child think? Or see as they get older, like, am I demonstrating? This is what a positive work experience looks like? Or this is what good balance looks like, you know, as an individual, obviously, easier said than done some days. But that's just something that's been more on my mind that I didn't necessarily think about. Yeah, no, that's really great. That speaks actually back to the empathy core value, which is kind of interesting. No wonder it's a core value of your business, because you're demonstrating it every day. So yeah, well, I should also probably tell our listeners, I mean, I really, I always try to be as transparent as possible. And you are the agency of record for Treska, four point ne for the Sara frescas speaking business. And so you know, I obviously not only adore you, personally, but I trust you, and I trust your team professionally, to carry on my legacy with my restaurant business, and also kind of bringing and building my businesses forward. So I figured I would just say that out loud. So focus. Yeah. Um, okay, Lauren, let me think. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the future. You know, I think, as you dream big and look towards, you know, where does random go in the future? I mean, what, what are your aspirations? That's a great question. I was actually thinking about that this morning. And I think there are lots of possibilities. One thing I've certainly thought about is how do we sort of take what we're doing now? Because I think at least, you know, we have a good culture? And how do we share that with other people I know, even just from other women have asked me already, like, Oh, you have a business and how, you know, that's inspiring to them, which makes me feel funny. But it's wonderful. But I think I think, you know, one of the things that we've we've talked about internally is how do I continue to increase my own thought leadership, not just like, for my own credibility, per se, but also, you know, sharing what I've learned and what we've learned collectively with others. We've talked about a book, perhaps at some point, I know, you are also working on your own book. But that's something and I also was thinking a bit more recently about, you know, our model, typically, you know, most agencies, you work with clients on a retainer for projects or retainer basis. And I think, I love that. And I love working with clients for projects or longer term, whatever makes sense. But I think there's also opportunity to help people, you know, or share our knowledge and other ways. So one thing that I've just been thinking through is, how could we also expand that's maybe not the traditional way, you know, an ad agency would work, but who's to say there are no rules? Right, you could then do it however you want. So how could we provide services for you know, nonprofits, for example, who may not have be able to pay a firm? How could we provide some kind of product for that? That group? That person? That's very specific example? Yes. So I don't know if that would be, you know, an online course or something like that, but ways that we could help more people. That's just something I've been thinking about. I don't know what exactly that looks like. So yeah, any ideas? You know how much I love to brainstorm ideas. My first thought when you said that, actually, that came to my mind is that I actually have one of my my best friends from elementary school, high school, etc. And she had a cousin who had a failing kidney. And so they were not a direct match. I have a point, believe me, but it's all to say, I didn't know this, but the organ donor kind of kidney donation, and do triangles. So he was able to donate to another family who was able to donate to her family. And so it was a triangle of support. And so I was just thinking to myself, gosh, you've got a nonprofit, and there are probably corporations that want to help that nonprofit. So what if the corporation paid random to help the nonprofit? That's cool, but the thought of like, yeah, wonder if there's a triangle to be had and the corporation gets the credit or gets the credit for nonprofit, but they're paying random which in turn builds the nonprofit. Yeah, I love that idea. I mean, we've, we've talked about, um, you know, offering classes Is as well, whether that's a paid class or free classes, or workshops, things like that. I'd be curious, you know if anybody watching, if that sounds interesting to you definitely, you know, focus group here, let us know. Yeah, yeah, I think sometimes it's easy when you're in a certain lane, let's say of digital marketing, like, well, this is the way everyone does it. So, you know, we just need to only work in this way. And I think that's sort of, you're missing an opportunity, right to, to help with other people or share your gifts, like with someone else in a different way. have access to it the way you're, you know, great. I mean, I actually. Yeah, I think there's a lot of ways to give back. I know, as a small business, sometimes you have to be careful, because if you're spending all of your time helping nonprofits and not making revenue, a true revenue, put yourself in a in a bad spot. And I've done that, too, where I've said, like, of course, I'll help the school, donate 1000s of dollars of food or whatever. And then it's like, oh, dear, what have I done because we have lost in real labor and things like that. But I think that's where your idea even of how you can help be creative or to support that, because obviously, too, I want to make sure we can pay our team and the smart people who are working hard to help them. So that's a great point, right? You have to find the right balance of, of providing help at price points, that makes sense, both still equitably paying your team for their time and their work. I. But yeah, yep, that's great. Okay, tell me how else, what else do you want to do? Do you aspire to be humongous? Or great? Or, you know, great and small or? Old? Or? I don't know. So it's funny, wouldn't my very first agency job, there were 1500 people at that company. And that felt so huge, especially for your very first job, right? So many people, I don't know that I necessarily aspire to be that size. But I think if I if we were able to sort of maintain the culture, I would be open to that. I think that's the biggest, most important thing for me as well, to make sure it's a good environment, you know, not only for myself, but for for the team, are we able to help people grow and, you know, have a positive workplace, obviously, work is still work some days, you know, are not as fun as other days, it's still a job, but, you know, try to have that positive culture. And I feel like, sometimes that's such a buzzword, you know, these days is like, oh, we have a positive culture, or you see memes a lot, where people are like, Oh, that's, that, that means a pizza party to some companies. Whereas like to other companies, it's more of like, how you treat others and all of that good stuff. Right? So I think, yeah, I would be open to growing I think our for us, we've we've definitely expanded and a healthy way, as far as we've grown quite a lot year over year. So it's, it's tracking that way again, this year. But I think, you know, we we, I would love to, we started to do more outbound new business, which has been interesting, a lot, almost all of our businesses come through referral, you know, people I know, or our colleagues know, that we've worked with, you know, and that's a great way I feel like a lot of businesses, you know, receive clients. So we've just started testing different ways to for more cold outreach. So that's been an interesting challenge. I think I personally get a ton of cold emails that just, I delete, you know, so like, how do we do this in a way that feels cold outreach, or new business marketing that feels authentic to us that isn't just spamming people? Right. That's something that we're sort of trying to figure out at this point? Well, I mean, if you know that most of your business is coming through referrals, are you continuing to kind of focus on that area and cultivate conversations that will yield referrals? From the federal? Yes, yeah, that's a good point. I don't think I've done as much of that, as far as specifically kind of reaching out or, like, you know, keeping in touch with my network for that purpose. Um, but it certainly is valuable. And that's people trust people, and they hire the people that they trust and feel that they can, you know, be a steward for their business. Agree. So I think that makes a lot of sense. It's a great, you know, great advice to say, we know, we sort of win in this area. How can we lean into that a little further, right? Because I feel a little bit like, maybe there's some folks even from your former world that don't know what you're doing now. And they be a client. And so it's just that and actually, I'll say this to you and to others out there, and I have the same insecurity right? I mean, there's a woman actually, that I'm going to reach out to in the next couple of days that worked for me at General Mills and I adore her. We have gone in the last 15 years in totally different directions. I have not stayed in contact with her, which is my fault. I mean, I just, but I'm going to call her and I'm gonna say, I have missed you. And I'm sorry, it's been so many years, but what are you up to? Yeah. And I have a sincere like, just from a friendship perspective. But I think we can all do that out the fear of like, oh, gosh, there's the shaming that we put ourselves through of like, I haven't called her and I haven't. I mean, Emily Post and all her rules went out the window long ago, right? I mean, I feel a little bit like if everyone can just give themselves a moment of like, Oh, who cares? If I'm reaching out and it's like, hey, you know, whoever, I just wanted to say, Hi, I'm, I own my own agency. Now. If you ever need anything, please let me know if you know, anybody that's, you know, needing a job. There's that connection that the people who you are friends with or connected with in the past than it was amicable are not going to, in my opinion, they're not going to judge you, you know, unless salesy but anyway. So that would be a recommendation is called people up, make sure they know what you're doing now. Yeah, that's a good point. And we've started to really amp up our own marketing, that's not something you know, it's the old saying, like the cobblers son wears shoes, or whatever, you know, however, it goes. I mean, I think at first, we were so focused on client work. We were certainly posting but I think now we're sort of making that shift to okay, how do we continue to demonstrate our chops and make sure people know who we are, and that we're out there loud and proud. So I'm excited about some of those things to come as well, just so keep an eye out. But I think I love that advice just of reaching out to people genuinely, because there's a ton of people who I didn't maybe keep in contact with that. I follow them closely, like, what they're posting what they're doing. And I think sometimes I give the advice to other people you know, about posting on LinkedIn, or just sharing updates. They'll feel intimidated about that. And sometimes I'm like, but I don't always take my own advice, you know, posting, like, oh, people don't care. And you're like, yes, they do. You know, they do want to see what you're up to. Yeah. So yeah, I think some of this is take my own advice, perhaps. There you go. You've also done a couple of really interesting things. So you mentioned a book earlier, but I didn't want to talk about your children's book at all. Oh, sure. Yes. So by the way, yay. beyond my reach, but Okay, keep going. So, yes, so our team helps that we wrote a children's book called Internet safety, Sammy. And this was a completely inspired by AI. So we use chat, GBT and prompt engineering to help us write a book. And this was actually what we call one of our random labs project. So we have our own Slack channel called random labs, where we just come up with, you know, other ideas to help us practice refining our skills, provide something with the world, maybe it's not directly related to a specific client, but it's something we could do and share. So that's where the idea came about. We used AI for all the illustrations as well. So it was super fun kind of collaborative effort from the team. But that was really exciting and the the first foray as well into self publishing a book so that was not something I'd done before but now it's something we could easily help you know, any client do so that right that's like new skills that you just do for yourself sometimes that you can then share with other people but Internet safety 70 Sammy, I should say is about Sammy, who is learning just different skills for navigating the internet is directed for young children, obviously, of you know, a lot of the things we know as adults, but maybe honestly sometimes can forget about what you click on and what information and who, who you see online, I think as a parent now myself, it is you look at a job, your job in a different way of just there are some things online that you don't necessarily aren't necessarily healthy, I think for young kids. So this can at least help teach some of like Internet safety practices and a fun easy way that's age appropriate, you know, for a little while, maybe five years old. But yeah, that was very a fun project. And I would love to do more of that. We got a lot of good feedback, you know, from people about that. So it's really cute. I love it. Um, by the way, we'll put a link in the show notes so that people can buy the book because I think it's available online yet. Yeah, Amazon. Okay, what about have you started to announce your other new endeavor that you are building this summer? Okay, okay. I didn't want to tell too much. ahead. Okay. Yeah, so we actually launched The website on Monday, so very excited, I will we can share that as well. It's an event called speaker. And it's it's not I would say that the quick version to explain it is it's a conference for keynote speakers. But it's really more than just a conference, it's an opportunity to film a brand new sizzle reel. And we have our production team is amazing that we're working with at the events in New York. And the production team has worked on Netflix specials and Ted Talks. And if you want somebody to make you look good, they are going to do it. And they're super nice people. So excited to work there. Diamond grade media is the name of our production partners. So at the event, it's a weekend long event, Friday through Sunday, you'll come you'll get some coaching from the director to help you you know, film your sizzle reel, you get 20 minutes on stage, we'll have a live audience. And you know, it's a great opportunity. If you've not kind of gone through this experience before we're here we work with a lot of keynote speakers. I'm Sarah, you're, you're one of them. But it can be difficult to put together a reel if you depending on not all of your clients have great video or it doesn't their stage doesn't look good. Or you might not want that in a you know, a show reel experience. So this is a way that you can get really awesome high quality footage on the stage and the reactions of people. And then there's also marketing, you get new headshots. And then there's workshops and sessions throughout the weekend to teach you okay, you have all these new collateral for your business, what do you do with it? How can you, you know, use that to your advantage? We'll have Bureau representation there, so you can network with other speakers and Bureau people to help guide you further in your career. It's obviously you know, the keynote world is very competitive. So what do you need to do, from a paper click standpoint, a content standpoint, really helping you market yourself a bit better. So I'm very excited, Sara is going to come and be a part of the event. Very excited. Yeah, I will be there. I'm so excited. And you've done such a brilliant job, one of the real and for those people listening on the keynote front, it's this catch 22 You really can't get a gig of paid speaking engagement until you have a video. But you can't really get a video until you have a paid speaking engagement. And so this is the opportunity for someone to practice their craft to get up on a stage to deliver their keynote and then the production studio makes it into a video that then will be able to be used to sell for the future. And I mean, you've solved a really big problem in the industry. And so I'm really grateful and proud of you. And I think people are going to really benefit from this so that they can kick off either a revamp of their speaking business or they can kick start it and so very excited. Yeah, I think it'll be, you know, really cool. And it's September 27. That weekend, if anyone's interested, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn. But yeah, the goal really is for you to leave, refreshed and sort of energized in your career path as far as keynote speaking, and obviously, we're a resource to anyone you know, who has questions, but I love what you said, kind of about the catch 22 You need that reel and it's hard to get so and it's expensive to do on your own if you just wanted to make that work and to hire people in the audience and all the people. So the the point of the event is to make it accessible and fun and knowledgeable. You know, we've learned a lot at the event and network with other people. So yeah, very excited. Really great, Lauren, and I'm so excited to be part of it. Any other things that you're launching, I mean, goodness sakes, any other things that you want to tell our listeners or think things that are coming up. Um, I'm trying to think I think the biggest thing right now that our team is working on as Speaker, we would love this is our inaugural event. So the first one, obviously, of its kind in New York in September, but we'd love to make it a series if people you know, enjoy it, there's 28 spots. So it's limited of how many but our our goal or our hope is that there's more than 28 people interested so we will do it again or fairly regularly to make it easy for you to update those assets. So that's that's kind of an exciting thing to potentially take it as a multi event. Sort of experience so in different cities as well to make it easy for people to attend from that the travel perspective. So that's the biggest thing on our plates as far as newness. I guess the other thing I could mention, for myself, I was recently accepted to the Forbes Business Council. So I'll, I'm going to start writing some content that will be featured on forbes.com. So I'm excited about that. Just you know, increased opportunity for myself and visibility for the agency and sharing some of the knowledge within you A group. So that's wonderful, very proud of you. And I'm not proud. So thank you. Yeah, it's really great. Yeah, you've helped so many people to launch their speaking career to build their brand, whether it's a personal brand, you know, like mine, the Sarah Franklin brand, or Dr. Lynn Dooley, definitely, I got the name wrong. But there's so many folks and you have, you know, kind of a knack for understanding the important things that differentiate someone to help build the strategy. So that's really great. You've also done a really good job of kind of building your team. And so I just have to kind of a nod and a gracious, thank you to the people that, you know, I think have brought my businesses to life. You know, I, I always have said that, Alison, is like, directly connected, like she has her like, you know, chart, or iPhone chargers, like, right in my head, we are like, right on the same page. But you've had this knack of matching people with a similar culture of similar philosophy. It's a hard thing as a business owner, to give your brand to an agency and a Yeah, run with it, right? Because it's like, gosh, are they going to say the right thing? Are they going to do the right thing? And for us, and I'm talking about Tresco, right at this very moment, you know, the service the the kind of love and support and serve mentality that we have, it has to have the right person on the marketing side to be able to bring this to life. And then from the point Northeast side and the Sarah Frasca side. I mean, it's just been tremendous. Especially as a female leader, I have wanted it to be, you know, really impactful for other women, I want to be, you know, welcoming enough. So again, you've done such a beautiful job. I think there are women out there who tear other women down. Yeah, I think that you are one of the good ones, where it's like you are one of the women who only props other women up. And so I just Yeah, yeah. Yep. I think it's been really fun and really great. So, yeah, I think one of the things that can be hard at first, when you start a new business, or there's moments where you may feel like, oh, there are other companies or other people who do marketing or who offer similar services, or are my competitors, and I think, at least for me, I try to ground myself in like, there's plenty of opportunity for everyone, like sort of that abundance mindset, obviously, everyone has their days are like, oh, you know, get down on yourself or whatnot. But I think coming from that place has only resulted in, you know, more opportunities for myself and my team. And I think when it comes to our team, and how we've built we've been, I've been certainly very intentional with like, who we interview and you know, what the wanting to preserve our culture, which is certainly, you know, easier said than done. Alison's amazing, I call her my, my OG. She's our very first intern. So she's been the longest here the longest, I love her. So, she's, she's great. And we try to, you know, when we work with clients to find clients, who are a good culture fit with us, right? Because every, you know, I think what you're, I'm very inspired by how you run Treska and like your businesses as well, I think that aligns very well with like, how we, you know, try to run our teams with, you know, empathy and sincerity and all that good stuff. And I, I think to one other, I guess, reflection based on what you said is with, with the personal brands, or people as brands, we're lucky we get to work with a lot of clients who we, you know, help ghost write content for them or represent their own personal brand. And that's something we take really seriously because I do understand, you know, that it can feel scary for some people to like, let go of the reins sometimes or focus on other areas of their business. And let us like, let us run with this. So we really try to build up that trust that like, hey, we, you know, we won't let you down. As far as you know, sharing content or working, speaking on your behalf. So I think it's important to find someone who's a good fit for you from the client piece, who will also take it as seriously you know, as you so that's just my thought on that. Well, and I have always again, you know, this goes back to yours at General Mills, the partners that you bring in and build a trusting relationship with that are underneath the tent with you or whatever the analogy is. So they understand intimately the business in and out and that gosh, we may make a mistake and they may make a mistake, but all of it is with the kind of end goal in mind. And that is you know, again And for my businesses a little bit different, but serving and providing a product that either tastes good or helps businesses, depending on which one we're talking about. So yeah, I think your team has done a done a wonderful job. And we have so much fun. Emily Ryan, Allison, I mean, we just really have a great time with your team. They're good people so well, um, any other tidbits that I can help you with either brainstorming in the moment or things you're hoping for, maybe there's somebody out there that can help that's listening, or I guess I'm trying to think through I know, for speaker, we just launched our website this week. We you know, we work with lots of keynote speakers, but any thoughts you have of helping raise awareness? Obviously, the keynote speaking space is super busy. There's, you know, people. Any thoughts about that? I mean, do the Bureau's know that you're doing it? Yeah. So we've started some of that outreach to let them know, inviting them to attend. And I think that's super exciting. We're also working on we're going to have a keynote speaker at the event, a celebrity keynote speaker. So we're finalizing who that might be depending on who's available. So that'll be exciting. We think that can be a draw as well. Oh, cool, huh. But yeah, I think one of the things that we're learning about, I guess, as this is our first in person event we've ever thrown, so lots of new things to learn. But as far as you know, what the onsite collateral like, where do we want to put signs? And how many do we do we want to do? And all of that? I know, obviously, you have a ton of marketing materials for the restaurant, and, you know, posters and all that kind of stuff. But if there's any ideas you have around, around that, I'm certainly welcome both. Well, I mean, yeah, I think, you know, the, the advice that I would have for you there is that sometimes it's the sizzle that sells the steak. And so I would say it may seem like a splurge to have lots of whether it's balloon arches, or Yeah, balloons actually are one of my favorites. I would tell folks in my General Mills days, I mean, $100, you can have this massive balloon, whatever. And it's so dramatic, but in so little, so it's like, do the balloons. Yeah, um, and so I think, you know, sometimes it looks more impressive, it feels more impressive. It feels more professional, or when there is that type of signage with the branding and the directional. So the other thing I would say is that if you can have the empathy, which I know you do, to think through all of the moments in the day, or the days of what is a person going to be thinking, are they tired at this point, do they need to eat whatever it is, you want to kind of get ahead of their needs? Yeah. And then I'm sure you'll do this, because again, you're so empathetic, but it's sort of that like, all encompassing. You're moving them through the day, through the agenda through the process, you're accommodating, you know, most you'll never accommodate all, but most of the needs and you know, having things in the background that if someone needs support, like you know, a physician or a dentist or I'm making all this up, but they're they're traveling in, they're not familiar with the area. So what is it that they might need? Are there extra toothbrushes or, you know, it's a really it's kind of a funny, because you are helping them to be ready for a very public showing? Yes, yeah. And they Yeah, so, um, I think you know, kind of, I would, I would describe it as greasing the skids of all the things that could go wrong in the moment. One of the things that I do when I'm actually going on the road to do my speaking is I bring what I again, dumb name, but I call it my bridesmaid kit. Basically, like every single thing you could ever possibly need, right? It has band aids, and it has safety pins, and it has a little thing of thread. It has scissors, it has tape glue in there. I mean, it's like think through anything you might be needing in the moment because you never know when you're going to need duct tape. And you never know when you're going to need a pair of scissors. And yeah, so I'm I'm curious. That's brings up a question for me to ask you, actually. So when you were first starting out in keynote speaking, I mean, I call you a pro. Now you know, you you book a lot of events and you're kind of seasoned to it now. But when you're first starting out, is there anything from either a marketing perspective or a branding perspective that you wish someone maybe told you sooner that Maybe it could be something we can help teach or pass along, you know, at the event in the in the workshops. Yeah, I mean, I really let me think about that for a minute. I have a maybe a couple of responses. I mean, the first one is, you know, finding a gracious mentor, I think is a really important component. I mean, this is, you know, just like any other oral education is taught in a way where the person who is teaching you or guiding you or correcting you, or, I mean, everything that they say, helps to influence everything you do from there on. Yeah. And so, you know, I've had good coaches, and I've had bad coaches, I've had coaches where they have said, Oh, no, you can use what I've told you. And so I always think back to like, and this is just what pops into my mind in the moment is like, if I went to a professional baseball team, and I was a pitcher, and someone taught me how to pitch, I'm never going to pitch in a different like that peer learning follows me through my career no matter what team I go to. So I sort of think that pairing people with a mentor that says, I have no, I have nothing to you, you can't take it back. I'm only here to help serve and to give knowledge and to you take it and run with it. Yeah, everything I've taught you is now for you to discern is this valuable or not valuable. And there's, and so I would say having a gracious mentor, I think that's my first tip. Second tip is that anything that can go wrong someday will. So being ready for that is an incredibly important component. So I talked about the brides. When I do my road traveling, I always bring with a couple of other things. And so I always bring extra batteries for a clicker, I'm assuming that the place that I go to will have a clicker, but if they don't have a slide, advancing clicker, I've brought my own. Plus, I've brought my own batteries, I usually travel with almost every chord you could possibly imagine, including some that I haven't seen since like the 80s. I mean. So, you know, I think kind of being prepared. I've had the audio visuals not work. I've had the video play, but no sound. And so I've had to learn how to talk through that. And so again, if you can help speakers, and this is having the empathy of what could go wrong, and let's have them be ready for it. I think that's really important. And even emotional of like, at whatever the because I've had a keynote where the hotel's fire alarm started going off. There's nothing we could do the hotel said, No problem, there's not really a fire. So now, now we know we're safe. And we don't have to evacuate. But I'm up on the stage, giving a keynote. What I had to do was to tell the story, and then stop for the beeping, and then tell the story again, and then yeah, can throw you off if you weren't ready to pivot. Right. Totally. So going with the flow. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. We were talking about, you know, as far as the workshops go to actually have a guest speaker come in. He comes from the Gosh, my, it's escaping me right now. The, the comedy that's like, gosh, Second City, yes. But where were you just sort of go off of nothing. Like an ad lib, like? Good looking on the words, but you know, what I mean, a comedian to come in to help say, you know, in those moments where, okay, you're, you're great at delivering your speech in the perfect scenario, but you're very, you're not always gonna get the perfect scenario. So whether it's a speech or I know a lot of speakers do consulting or workshops or you know, complementary services. So what do you do if you notice, like, the audience is kind of glazing over and you know, not really participating? And you're great at this or I've seen you do it, like reengaging people but to have a comedian come in, not from a how do you be funny, but how do you sort of comedians are great at this, like bringing people back in. So that that being almost like a workshop of sorts of like teaching you how to do that. I love that. I mean, honestly, even the fact that neither of us can think of the word. I still can't come up with that after this podcast. Like, oh, but what I was gonna say is there's a humility for both of us of like, oh, boy, we right We can't think the darn word. But that makes us more human. And if I'm translating this to a keynote, it's what I call the Mentos. You remember the Mentos commercial where the lady breaks or high heel? Yeah. And then she just breaks the other heel. And she's like, nevermind, I've got this. What's the type of thing that if you're comfortable enough with yourself, it's like, oh, gosh, I may screw up a million different things. But like, that makes you more human. And so if you I mean, you're gracious enough for or I'm grateful for you to say that I do this? Well, I really don't have a lot of like, I don't really care if I have a mess up, right? Because my ultimate goal is to help people and maybe helping them is explaining how real my life is right? Like, I'm not perfect, I'm never going to be perfect. And so I have screw ups just like everybody else. But I still have fun. And I make fun of myself. And I'm still kind of, you know, carry on and continue to have a point and whatever else. So I think that you know that that is one of the things that I think makes a good teacher, a good coach, a good speaker, or a good manager is just the ability to kind of like, oh, well, I can't think of this thing. But oh, well, you got the point. Right. Yeah. Yeah, so I think I think having a comedian that can kind of bring that home will be great. And that poor comedian is going to have to help us with the word again. But I remember it's improv. That's the word I was. Good work. Okay. Oh, my gosh, that's so funny. Yeah, I mean, hey, you have to improvisation comes to life at all points. Like, personally, professionally, but a very apropos moment for yes. That's cute. Well, Lauren, you've done such a brilliant job of building a business from scratch, thank you for bringing together your experience from all sorts of big, small, good times and bad. And I think, you know, you've done such a beautiful job of building a team of having humility of bringing that empathy. And I really appreciate all that you've done for me and my businesses, I look forward to many years, you know, partnering together, in my, in my last moment, I mean, I would just say, you know, if there's any way, or any, anything you come across, that you feel like people that need help, and especially young women, and you know, that that need help, I mean, let's collaborate together to continue to try to kind of push them, you know, up into the world to bring them to the forefront of, you know, whatever it is that they need to learn. And that goes for you, your team and anybody you come across. So, absolutely, yeah. And same here. If there's anyone that you meet that, I mean, women are awesome luminary women are amazing. And I feel like we bring a lot to the table. So I'm proud that we're, you know, women owned women led company. And I think that there's so much opportunity to help other you know, like, bring up the next the next person. So I'd love to do that. It's our duty. Yeah, I agree. All right, good. Well, thank you for being on the show. And we'll put everything we talked about in the show notes so people can find you. And they can be a part of speaker if that's something that's of interest to them. I will be thrilled to be in New York with you very soon. Come September. And other than that, have a great day. Good luck with Henry. Thank you. You too. Have good luck with all your kiddos. Thank you, Lauren. All right. Well, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, everybody for listening. If you're out there and you need marketing help Laurens your girl but if you need any other help, I'm very happy to help so everyone have a great day. Good luck leveling up your business. Hi, I thanks so much for tuning into this episode of level up your business with me, Sarah Frasca. If you have a problem in your business that's keeping you up at night. Please join us in a future episode so we can help get you unstuck. Just clicking the link in the show notes and send us a message. Please remember, stay innovative friends