Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have HER Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. HER Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, handling hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career and a life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside HER Collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone.

Lauren: I couldn't have asked for a better thing to have happened, because I had never publicly failed. And it was holding me back in a way I never could have anticipated. Because once I did navigate all of that disappointment in my family and all the ramifications financially and everything otherwise, I actually then had this I can do this. I can do hard things. And that just created a different degree of everything, from authenticity to me thinking more clearly about what I cared about and how I could take care of myself, and this independence and everything that just never would have occurred if that wasn't the paradigm that I was faced with.

Erica: Now today's guest is a powerhouse. Lauren Jensen is a fellow executive, a wife, a mama, a chief sister, and she is doing all of the things to empower women.

Erica: Lauren has been with Prudential since 1996. She is an executive engagement board member for Women Empowered at Prudential, a mentor with the Women Unlimited program, and was awarded working mother of the year in 2014. Holy freaking cow. That's just the highlight reel, y'all. So without further ado, I'ma let Lauren say hello.

Erica: Lauren, thank you for being here.

Lauren: Oh my gosh. Erica, I'm so flattered, and I'm honored, and the pleasure is honestly all mine. I'm thrilled to have this conversation and hopefully pay things forward that people have shared with me over the years.

Erica: Oh, I love it. Let's just dive right in. You do so much work and are such an advocate for women. Can you kinda tell me your backstory on how you got here and what drove you to become this leader in the women's empowerment space?

Lauren: Oh, that's so kind to say, because I don't know that I would have fully identified that way, but I'm very honored to be tagged in that way. So, yeah, I haven't really disconnected that maybe as much as I should have, but I did grow up in a really middle class East Coast upbringing, but with a stay at home mom and an executive father who I would say really honored my mother's role as CEO of our household. There was a ton of equity in their relationship, and he was a father of two girls. So there was a lot of, I would say, really early and consistent sponsorship of our interests and camaraderie with both of our parents. But really, when I think about how my dad would treat us, maybe not having a son, we would watch sports with him. We did all the things that I think made us not really see certain boundaries.

Lauren: And I say that now looking back. I'm not sure at the time it was something that I really understood or appreciated, but I definitely saw that my mom was very much empowered and positioned as a decision maker. Even though she was the head of the household, she ran everything she touched. The PTO, the fundraisers, the CCD teaching. Anything that she volunteered to do, she was the leader of doing. And I think now, as I'm a parent, I realize that some of these things become very subconscious, and actions speak louder than words.

Lauren: So for me, I think it's really a pay it forward thing, which I'm sure is common with many. A pay it forward thing where I feel like I have so much gratitude as a recipient of some of these things feeling very normal to me, that it makes me want to create that space and opportunity for others, and that's probably a big contributing factor.

Erica: I love the title CEO of the household, and I feel like we need to take a minute and be like, all of you stay at home moms right now that are going back into the workforce and updating your resume, put that as your title. That'll be my call to action today.

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, we talk a lot at work actually about, like, the mom phenomenon. Because if you think about what are the characteristics that often make women so successful, the multitasking, the scheduling, the planning in advance, and the anticipating of needs of lots of constituents, be it dinner choices or sports or activities. Those are very transferable skill sets, I find, into a lot of the work that we do. And then the EQ aspect of having empathy and reading people's energy in a different way has, again, I definitely think, contributed to my differentiation in a fairly male dominated environment in financial services and technology. So I think different is good.

Lauren: Capitalize on that.

Erica: Absolutely. So you know that we talk about the hard stuff here, these sticky floors, which I define as the limiting beliefs or the toxic behaviors, toxic relationships. Maybe there's a spouse or a partner that doesn't support dreams fully, that really keep us from reaching our full potential. What has been your stickiest of floors?

Lauren: Yeah. This is such an interesting positioning of a concept, because I think it makes you think about it a little bit differently than you would just traditionally with, like, regular kind of imposter syndrome. So for me, it's so funny, because I have so many friends and colleagues and others that can speak to different trauma in their upbringing, or divorce, complicated family backgrounds and things. So as I just described, mine was fairly traditional. I didn't have some of that.

Lauren: But what I think that creates, and I know you've touched on this in many conversations, is it creates this expectation of perfection. Right? Like, if you haven't overcome obstacles or hard things, you may have a real limiting belief, which I will truly tell you that I did, around how to deal with failure, or catastrophizing what that experience would be like. So a super significant unlocking moment for me. And I have to say, I mean, even my close friends and family would describe me as a bit of an accidental executive.

Lauren: I went to college anticipating that I would follow a similar path to the blueprint I saw. So I went to college to find an executive husband so I could stay home and be the CEO of my household. So the fact that I actually am the earner and the breadwinner, since I have my children, and the only income in our household, is very unexpected. And how that ultimately played out is, I did exactly that. I went to college, and I was very focused on being with another person that could really supply security for me.

Lauren: And that lifestyle that I was looking for, I never even thought at all, actually, about what I needed to do to invest in myself to be independent or take care of myself. I was very codependent and very focused on that as my outcome. So fast forward, I did happen to have a great internship and a great corporate opportunity. But, again, I thought I was there shopping for my husband, not trying to figure out how to move and shake and navigate my career. And so when I did ultimately find a husband, it was actually in the very, very early days of match.com. I might be, like, number five or something of the original users of that site.

Lauren: It was great for about a year, but, honestly, it ultimately ended up not working out. And it was because the person that I chose was someone who had a very high level career in the military and turned out to really struggle with the way that we had to move around, definitely was not creating safety and security for me. And, ultimately, there were some speculation around homosexuality. So if you wanna get into real talk, that's where it is. And I had to show up in front of my friends and family, who, I kind of already articulated, had a pretty traditional backstory, and epically fail, like, right out of the gate.

Lauren: And people are often like, well, were you 18? Were you 20? I was like, no. I was 29 years old. Like, if you think about blueprint for perfection, technically should have known better, should have figured this out, especially for someone who was trying to major in finding the right partner.

Lauren: The interesting thing about how all of that played out for me is that it actually became the springboard. Because my situation in that first marriage was so bad that I threw myself into work as a distraction and a reason to not be home, and I recognized and unlocked sponsorship and support and things that I didn't anticipate. And so when ultimately, within about a year and a half of having gotten married with many colleagues at my wedding and everything else, I had to go and change my name back. By the way, I've never changed my name again now in my career, because that was so traumatic to do that and have that be such a big part of my identity. I couldn't have asked for a better thing to have happened, because I had never publicly failed.

Lauren: And it was holding me back in a way I never could have anticipated. Because once I did navigate all of that disappointment in my family and all the ramifications financially and everything otherwise, I actually then had this, now I'm a survivor. I can do this. I can do hard things. And that just created a different degree of everything, from authenticity to me thinking more clearly about what I cared about, and how I could take care of myself, and this independence and everything that just never would have occurred if that wasn't a paradigm that I was faced with.

Lauren: So, really, what I thought was a very defining moment became really the unblocking of my future path.

Erica: Hey there, listeners. If you have ever felt like you're stuck in a place, held back by self doubt, perfectionism, or that pesky inner critic, you're not alone. We all face those sticky floors that keep us from reaching the heights we dream of. But guess what? It's time to shatter those limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors to uncover infinite possibilities.

Erica: My book, Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, is your ultimate guide to smashing through barriers, overcoming limiting beliefs, and stepping into your full potential. This book has been endorsed by none other than the great Mel Robbins, best selling author and motivational powerhouse. It's also been featured in Success Magazine, so you know it's packed with insights that work. Inside, you'll find real life sticky floor stories, practical strategies to help you handle your own sticky floor moments, and a whole lot of inspiration to keep you climbing. This isn't just a book.

Erica: It's your road map to success, confidence, and freedom. Grab your copy of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors today at www.ericaandersonrooney.com. Whether you're in the boardroom, the classroom, or just starting out, this book is for you, because no one, and I mean no one, deserves to stay stuck, no one deserves to feel small, and you have glass ceilings to shatter. Let's do this. That resonates with me, because my grandmother always used to pull me aside and whisper in my ear, like, make sure you're studying in the law library, because that's where all the lawyers go, and get in there.

Erica: Get that MRS degree. You know? So it makes me chuckle now, but that was very much the world we lived in. It was like you went to college to find a partner to support you, not so you could get the education.

Lauren: I'm always kind of embarrassed to say that.

Erica: No. No. No. I mean, this is, and I did go study in the law library. I was like, that's great advice. Let me do that. I don't know who these other schmucks are in the regular general library.

Lauren: That's right. Yeah. You are a woman on a mission. I get it.

Erica: It was a little fun. Note, that didn't work out for me. I didn't marry a lawyer. But here we are. I love that story about how it becomes the springboard for you to just throw yourself into work and be as successful as you are.

Erica: But now you're a mom. How many kids do you have?

Lauren: Yeah. So I have two kids. I have a daughter who's 11 and a son who is seven. And I have to say, again, it's so funny, because I was saying recently, I'm not sure if I identify as a mom. Like, I am a mom and I'm a good mom, but when I think about the hierarchy of how I identify, that isn't the number one thing.

Lauren: So even when my kids' friends call me missus so and so, I'm like, who is that person? Because I just identify again as Lauren Jensen, executive, all these things. So it's just a funny dynamic. And I have to say, seeing this next generation and my daughter and how she shows up in the world, just to give you a very quick story. I have a very senior male colleague, and when I brought my daughter to work, which I do, because I like the kids to know where I am and who I'm with and all those things and be a part of it, he had said to her, oh, maybe someday you'd like to be my chief of staff.

Lauren: And she just looked at him and said, or maybe you'd like to be mine. Eight years old.

Erica: That is funny.

Lauren: But you know what? It's just in her DNA. Like, she sees a lot of equity between my husband and I. He's been home with them since she was born, because the way that our careers were at that time, it was definitely a no brainer economically. And so she doesn't see the world anywhere near the way that I saw the world.

Lauren: And similar story, my little guy, my son, Connor, sees a sticker on my dashboard that says the future is female. And I'm like, oh my god. Epic mom fail. He's a young white boy. The future is female.

Lauren: And I'm apologetically saying, like, don't worry. There's a spot for you. We're good. And he looked at me, knowing me, knowing my mother, and knowing his sister. And he's like, yeah.

Lauren: No. I think that's probably right, mom. That seems to be the way it goes. Like, y'all are the boss, and it's your world, and we're just living in it. So a very, very different experience.

Erica: It is. I do think that they're gonna grow up so much differently than we have. You know? And I heard it on a different podcast one time. Somebody stated that, like, we're all just recovering from our childhood traumas.

Erica: Whatever those traumas are. Right? And they're not even necessarily traumas. It could be growing up in a wonderful household like yours, but you grew up in a very certain way. And our kids are gonna be going to therapy for growing up with us just doing the best we can.

Erica: Your son's gonna be 30 in therapy being like, my mom had a sticker about female is the future, and I was, you know, always behind the girls.

Lauren: That's it. You're so right. And I had a girlfriend that used to say, yeah, it's my god given right to mess up my children the same way my parents messed me up. And it's true. It's just the cycle.

Erica: You know, at the end of the day, we're doing the best we can, and that's all there is. So you said you don't necessarily identify as a mom. If someone came to you and said, who is Lauren, what would be your top three?

Lauren: I think they would say that I am a multiplier of positivity, capable, and supportive, and really empathetic, which I think is a great quality, but not if it becomes a limiting dynamic where people start to believe they're not able to do things themselves.

Erica: I saw a view on accountability one time, and it said hold your people capable, not accountable. And I loved that, and I tried to start implementing that with my children, because the I can't do that is so easy to fly out of their mouth. And it's like, well, you can, and this is how we're gonna do it. And maybe you've never done it before, but, and you said this earlier, we can do hard things here.

Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. I know there's, like, wildly popular, you know, Brene Brown and Glennon Doyle. I'm a big follower of a lot of those, early on when I felt like I was trying to latch on to something that felt like it resonated with me, but I was being sent to many corporate training classes. And I'm like, this isn't really the life helping that I need.

Lauren: And those are the types of things that resonated with me the most, because they seemed practical and also acknowledging of just the realities of our life and how things go, versus creating a utopia that doesn't really exist in perfect world scenarios.

Erica: Absolutely. Absolutely. So one of the questions that I have, because I love to hear this from other executive moms, is how did you balance that while being a mom with these two small kids, climbing the ladder? They're at the age where they're kind of pre COVID, so you were going into the office. Like, how did that look for you?

Lauren: Yeah. So, again, this is one of the situations where maybe my do over that I talked about with that first failed marriage really served my future well also. Because once I came out of that and then became a lot more clear that, actually, I was independent and I did care about my career and things, I ended up attracting someone who was very supportive. In fact, he was originally a coworker, because when you become a workaholic, then the only place you can meet someone is at work. So that's sort of how that ultimately played out.

Lauren: And because at the time, I was really in an international role, which has since changed, I was traveling internationally at least once a month, constantly. The only way for that to really work, and it started with a dog, as it does, and then it becomes the children after, was really to ask for help, which, again, was definitely not in my previous DNA. Like, I was the helper, not the one asking for help. But then you find, if you can get the right vibe in that situation, which I feel lucky that I did, especially sometimes I think men do want help and they want direction. So that was something that we really found a good communication around, and then I just had to let certain things go.

Lauren: I tell the story all the time of when I had the epiphany, for my daughter's first birthday, that I let him plan the birthday party because I was not home. And then when you do that and you relinquish control but then try to micromanage it, like, disaster. Right? Terrible dynamic. So I did show up after an overnight flight, and there was, like, a luau, cute, with a pig on a rotisserie spigot.

Lauren: And there's a one year old screaming because a farm animal is technically rotating, and he's like, yeah, it's a pig roast. Isn't that amazing? And you're like, I mean, probably not what I would've done, but, like, yes, honey. Amazing.

Lauren: So I think it's picking your battles and relinquishing control to someone where you can be like, okay, good is good enough. There was a party. Check the box. They're one year olds. What are you gonna do? And so I really credit, again, learning. This continuous learning, whether it's learning skills at work or learning more about yourself and what your values and motives are and what you care about, and really being deliberate about that, which I didn't obviously do enough of the first time. But then when I got a second chance, I'm like, this is a better dynamic for me and my family.

Lauren: So how I've managed it is the village. Right? I outsource as much as I possibly can. I probably throw money at things I shouldn't, but I do, and that's a trade off choice as a result. And I think that what I have seen is that in doing that, because I think there's a lot of people that feel like they want to be the one to provide whatever it is, the coaching or the math homework or the things that just feel like core parenting, very basic things.

Lauren: I have mechanisms for a lot of those things, because maybe my husband doesn't prefer to do those specific things. And, honestly, my children love interacting and learning from other people as a result. So they gravitate to whoever's best at a given thing, tool, skill set, and then they thrive, because they've been receiving better expertise than I certainly could provide in sixth grade math.

Erica: So that's letting it go, because that has been a hard pill for me as an executive working mom to swallow. And I will never forget that one time I asked my husband to take my daughter to swim class. And, again, I'm a little type A sometimes. I'm like, you gotta leave the house at this time to get there at this time so she can be in the lane by this time. So, of course, I'm already stressed out because he's not sticking to my timeline.

Erica: You know, casually strolling out of the house. Just thinking, she's gonna be late. And he sends me a picture when they are finally at swim, and she's sitting in her swim lane. And she's got her little bikini top on completely backwards.

Lauren: I was like, are you kidding me?

Erica: And I just had that epiphany moment of, like, you gotta let it go, Erica. She's at swim. She looks like she's having a good time.

Lauren: Laugh a lot. Yeah.

Erica: Thank god she's only three, and she doesn't know what's going on here. You know? But I love that picture, because it's just one of my favorites for remembering that when you do reach out and ask for help, you have to then detach a bit and let that person help in the way that they can do it.

Erica: And if that means putting a bikini on backwards and showing up fifteen minutes late, that's what it means.

Lauren: Absolutely. And it just reminds me, because I spent a big part of, I would say, the first half of my career so far in a technology financial services environment, very male driven. I would say I always am a little bit of a corporate anthropologist, like, watching and trying to understand. I've always been the kind of person where I've been around people who are older, had different experiences.

Lauren: If I respect you, I don't need to learn things the hard way. If you tell me your life will not be good if your infant sleeps in your bed, and I respect you,

Erica: I'ma believe it.

Lauren: I don't need to learn these things the hard way. I'm willing to take advice from wise people who've gone before me that I respect, and implement it. And I think I had a friend, and I was lucky, when my daughter was about three as well, who highlighted, she's like, look. My kids are older, and I can tell you they had crazy hair on crazy hair day and silly socks on silly sock day. And then they went to college and met all the scrappy kids who had to do without that, who had to do for themselves, and my kids got their lunch eaten because they were used to being provided for and coddled and meeting all these expectations effortlessly.

Lauren: And then they met the kids who came up through the school of hard knocks.

Erica: Mhmm.

Lauren: And they were, like, hustlers, and they were kicking butt. And that helped me release the pressure valve a little bit on the perfection excellence expectation, because then I realized I actually might be giving my kids a disservice by providing all of that, if they can't cope in the real world with disappointment or when things don't go their way. So that gave me a lot of peace at that time, when it felt like I just couldn't do anything right.

Lauren: And I think you are taught, when you work in a corporate environment, about excellence and winning and exceeding expectations and all this language. So, of course, you start applying that to every aspect of your life, and it's not sustainable.

Erica: No. I love that, because I've got an almost eight year old and an almost five year old. And I do feel, being today is Saint Patrick's Day also, like, I've gotta do all the things all the time. Right? So when my kids left for school, someone gave me the idea that I could destroy their room because the leprechaun came.

Erica: I actually had a little bit of fun just tearing it all apart. But earlier in the week, I remember being like, oh, I've gotta buy all this and do this, and all these other parents are doing x, y, and z. And I never did, because I got busy, and I forgot. And that's what we do. And so I just trashed their rooms instead.

Erica: But that is a really great piece of advice. And, yeah, it gives me a lot of peace too, that it doesn't have to be that perfect, air quote, childhood for them to then have an amazing experience in life.

Lauren: And you can be more torn by, feeling love is actually being there when disappointment occurs and helping them just understand that that's also normal and that's also life. And, I mean, that happens obviously when you don't win a game or maybe you don't get the grade that you want. But I think there's these more social ways where we're saying we're not a good mom or we're not a good worker if we don't do these certain things. And, honestly, I would say the same. I see so many parallels between parenting and leading at work now, and that really helps me, because it's the same thing.

Lauren: Like, sometimes the project gets funded at work. Sometimes a new leader comes in and direction changes. If you have a bunch of people who've always had the perfect silly hair and silly socks and they can't handle change, you're dead in the water at work or at home. So I really, that's helped me a lot, so I love sharing that if it helps.

Erica: I'm gonna switch gears on you here, because this just popped into my mind. But, and to give you a little background, like, I'm a working mom. I work from home. I live in suburbia. So I've got a lot of CEOs of the household around me, let's just say.

Erica: Which is great, because, again, you said it takes a village. When these kids are out of school, I send them to other people's houses. They can't come here because mommy's working. But it does make it harder for me sometimes to cultivate female friendships who are doing the same thing, because they wanna get together on Tuesday at lunch or they wanna play tennis on Thursdays.

Erica: And I'm like, but I have a state of the nation call, or I have to travel. And who does this? You know? And so it's hard to make these meaningful relationships with other women who are moms. Have you found that to be the same case?

Lauren: Yeah. No. You're spot on. I absolutely do. And it's so funny.

Lauren: Right? Because I feel like there's this, I don't wanna say it's a misconception, but certainly there is a thought pattern that this is just becoming much more mainstream, meaning men staying home, or even different home dynamics manifesting in the exact environment that I live in. I would think that's true, but I haven't actually seen that. So as a result, you are spot on.

Lauren: A lot of these, so, and we moved seven years ago to this community from another state, and so then it was like immersion, and then you're trying to hustle to get your child in some kind of group, or how do you even navigate that when you're at work all day? So I definitely have experience. I know exactly what you're saying. What I find, and you mentioned it too, is that the moms who identify first and foremost as moms or CEOs of their household, they get a lot of confidence and identity out of helping. So I actually empower that as almost, like, part of my, you wanna help me?

Lauren: I will take your help. And I will flatter you, and I will spoil you, and I might even send you dinner, and I might even give you flowers or do things that are my love language, to just reinforce, I appreciate that. I see you, and that is something that seems to really be part of your identity, that you're gonna be there for the entire game or whatever it is. I feed into that as a source of trying to build relationships with what I can bring to the table, which is different.

Lauren: And it just is. So I've tried to just kind of know it to be true, and then I get a lot out of some very key female friendships that I have at work as a result, because we identify more similarly. And then I do other things, like, for example, especially you'll see as your kids start to get older, then they start to run into these, whether it's like a babysitter or other older kids who need internships or they need college recommendations. And then suddenly, you and I are money. That's like rock star.

Lauren: Wait a minute. Who do we call? We call Erica and Lauren in that situation. And so I feel like it ends up playing out, as long as you can wait it out a little bit.

Erica: I did not even think about that, but I am here for it, and I love it. That's awesome. I would love to ask, you know, being such a leader in women's empowerment, you're doing all of the things, mentoring and sponsoring. What are those sticky floors that you see show up the most in people who are entering the workforce?

Lauren: Yeah. Well, entering is interesting, because I feel like, similar to as I described earlier, with the amount of confidence and the lack of awareness of any type of inequity. So when I see the interns and recent college graduates, honestly, it's more like what can I learn from you, and how do you navigate even technology and the things that are just very second nature to folks in that situation? I think it's more a couple, like, I have a special place for people who are returning to the workforce. So maybe they took time off to have their family or whatever those particular circumstances are, or maybe they have a spouse or a partner who has a very big job as well. Because, again, I consider myself, like, I laughed at the working mother award. First of all, at the time, I only had one child, and I had a stay at home husband. I'm like, this isn't a broken home. I have six kids, and I'm a single mom.

Lauren: I mean, it was very flattering, but I very reluctantly accepted it, because I have a very blessed situation. So I have a special spot for those moms who are on their own possibly, who don't have some of the resources that we have, and I try to hone in on those situations and figure out, are there ways for those self limiting beliefs, which you highlighted? Are there ways that we can create some opportunities for outsourcing and villages and support and things, so that they are able to really have more balance and therefore more opportunity? Because I do believe that, at least in the environment I work in, the women are just working harder. Like, they're just not sleeping, and they're working on weekends and late nights and whenever they can squeeze some of that stuff in, to just produce volume.

Lauren: And so I have a special spot for the folks that are doing that maybe in a less conventional way, and I think it has to do with mostly the presumption that they do have to work harder, and maybe their situation just doesn't allow for that.

Erica: Yeah. Absolutely. I'm a big fan of talking about what it all, air quote, really means, because it is so different for everyone. And I identified with you talking about your first big failure and how that connects to perfectionism. That was very much me with this it all thing, because I felt like I had to constantly perform and hit all these markers, when I think you really need to sit down and define for yourself, for your family, what it all means.

Erica: If having it all means someone stays home and they pack the little cookie cutter lunchbox with cucumbers in the shapes of hearts and rainbows, right, go for it. For me, it all means my kid is fed and it's a Lunchable. Every single week, it's a Lunchable.

Lauren: Yeah. And they are probably the, you know, all those kids wanna switch with your kids.

Erica: Probably do. And I will tell you, I did pull the CEO of the neighborhood one time, and I volunteered as a lunch mom at school one day. And I went in, and I did see all those little bento boxes, and I brought my kid a bag of Chick-fil-A because that's all I could do at that time.

Lauren: And then they were all jealous. Yeah. That's, see, I know. I do have to say, every once in a while, I do one of those kind of things too. I'm like, oh, we'll get even here, and talk about first world problems, but I was just like, we'll show you.

Erica: I'm annoyed now. We are all in it. Exactly. Well, Lauren, my favorite question for asking all of my podcast guests is, if you could go back in time to the Lauren on the hunt for the MRS degree, the Lauren chasing perfection in her career, all of the things, all of the sticky floors, what is one piece of advice that you would give her today?

Lauren: Oh, so many things. But, you know what? It's so interesting, because I've always said that the way that I came up through the ranks, through my career, was I was a bit of an underdog. Nobody saw me coming. So I wasn't really intimidating, and I was invited to the table because I was extremely likable.

Lauren: And I would say that's part of my style today. I would say, instead of trying to neutralize that special unicorn thing, to capitalize on it, to literally exploit the hell out of it, because it's the thing that is making people gravitate to you or support you or need you, reach out to you, whatever. And I was always trying to downplay any of those scenarios just to be, like, really seen but not heard, sort of thing. And so, again, more recently, but I would literally say only in the last five to seven years have I really harnessed the fact that having authenticity, being vulnerable, and talking about all the things that don't work is actually what gravitates people to you, because they can lower the bar then for themselves. And I would just say, capitalize on those special and unique qualities that tend to be the things, I think, at least in women, that we're trying to downplay or neutralize. I would exploit the hell out of them.

Erica: I love it. And I'm gonna ask you one last question, because I think you're gonna have a great answer. What should working women today start doing and stop doing?

Lauren: Oh, I think they need to start, you know, we use a lot of memes and things to support each other, little quotes and all that stuff, but we're not actually doing them. We're reading them, and we're sending them to each other, and we're posting them on social media. And we're like, yes, queen. That's me. And actually, literally do them, whatever it is.

Lauren: The yoga retreat with your girlfriend, the Mother's Day tea blow off, because Mother's Day should actually be what you want it to be, not what everyone thinks it should be, because it's certainly not eating in a restaurant with young children. I think it's actualizing the things that you're daydreaming about. That's where people need to start, because life is literally short. And what I think they need to stop doing, and again, this has just worked for me, I think people need to stop spending so much energy, especially negative energy, on things they cannot control and change. And I think that's just symptomatic of the post COVID type of situation that we're in.

Lauren: So much negativity, so much lack of control, and I think people need to stop putting a lot of mental energy in the space of things that they can't change, because there's so much power in the things where you can add value and where your magic does live, that I just think that's an inefficiency, and people need to let themselves off the hook there.

Erica: And that's the whole premise of sticky floors. Those are the things we can control. So I absolutely love it. Lauren, thank you so much for being here. I loved chatting with you.

Erica: It was amazing.

Lauren: Oh, so fun. Yeah. It's the best way to end the week, so I loved it. Thank you for all the great questions.

Erica: Hey there. Before you dash off to the next episode, hold up one minute, because I've got a great freebie for you. I had been on the hunt for the perfect success planner so I could track everything that I needed to, and I could never find one. The daily planners were too tedious, and the monthly planners were too long. So I created the just right size planner.

Erica: It is one week long. It helps me focus in on what's important while achieving my daily goals. It's free for you. The link is in the show notes.