Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Lauren Berger: Get Your Life Together | Career | E92

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

Meet the Career Queen! In this week’s episode, we are talking with Lauren Berger, CEO and founder of both Intern Queen and Career Queen as well as author of the book, Get It Together. Lauren has helped over 6 million people be connected to internships and jobs to ultimately help them find their dream career. In this episode, we’ll talk about Lauren’s beginnings as an intern herself, why she started Intern Queen, and how she created momentum for the site. We’ll also discuss key, easy insights on how to stay organized, time management advice, and the mindset of Method Over Mood.  Sponsored by Podbean. Podbean is podcast hosting platform with all the features you need to start a podcast, promote your podcast, and monetize your podcast. For 1 month of free hosting visit: www.podbean.com/YAP Social Media:    Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com   Timestamps:   02:56 - All About Lauren 04:27 - Lauren’s Internship Experience 08:12 - Where Lauren Focused Her Internships 10:52- Transitioning from Intern to Full Time 14:39 - How Lauren Started Intern Queen’s Momentum 22:57 - Importance of Self-Love 26:22 - How to Sort Out Priorities 35:05 - Ways That Lauren Stays Organized 34:22 - Advice on Time Management 37:53 - Learning Self-Discipline 42:00 - Method Over Mood 45:36 - How to Deal with Rejection 50:12 - Lauren’s Secret to Profiting in Life   Mentioned in the Episode:   Lauren’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenberger Lauren’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/internqueen/ Intern Queen Website: https://www.internqueen.com/ Career Queen Website: https://www.careerqueen.com/

You're listening to Yap, Young and Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halitaha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession, or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast. And that's on purpose.

I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of ex-FBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and best-selling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, how to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here at Young and, profiting podcast. This week on Yap, I'm chatting with Lauren Berger, CEO and founder of both the intern queen.com and career queen.com, as well as the author of three books, including her latest release, Get It Together. Lauren has helped over six million people be connected to internships and jobs to ultimately help them find their dream career. She's spoken at over 200 universities,

leadership conferences, and entrepreneurship events. And her YouTube channel boasts over a one 2.2 million views and Lauren's career advice has been featured on the Today Show, CNBC, Entrepreneur, Glamour, and more. Lauren not only delivers unique career advice to her audience, but she also has a marketing agency that helps leading brands activate brand ambassadors and establish a presence with both college students and young professionals worldwide. Her current roster of clients includes Michael Coors, Kuregg, Whole Foods, Estée Lauder, and over 30 other major brands. In this episode, we'll talk about Lawrence's beginnings as an intern herself, why she started

intern queen, and how she created momentum for the site. We'll also discuss key easy insights on how to stay organized, her time management advice, and getting into the mindset of method over mood. Hey, Lauren, welcome to Young Impropping Podcast. Thanks for having me. I think this is going to be a great conversation because I think my listeners are really interested in the stuff that you have to say. So to briefly introduce you to my audience, you are the founder of internqueen.com and careerqueen.com. You've written three books. You've spoken at over 50 conferences, and you had 15 internships during your college career. So very interesting career journey. You know, you're a young entrepreneur. And one of the things that everybody asks in a job interview,

one of the first questions that people get is, so tell me about yourself. So I figured that would be a great way to kick off the interview. Tell me about yourself. Absolutely. I think that's a great, great transition there. So, like you said, I'm Lauren Berger. I'm the CEO and founder of internqueen.com and careerqueen.com, which are two websites that are totally free for young people to go to and get great internship and career advice. I also started our IQ agency or intern queen agency, which is a full-service college marketing agency where we specialize in connecting brands with Gen Z. So my life is college students and recent grads all day, every day. And I've really made my living in my career helping people get from where they are to where they want to be

and really excited to be here with you guys on the podcast today. Very cool. So like I mentioned earlier, you had 15 internships during your college career based on the research my team gave me. Correct me if I'm... Absolutely. So I did 15 internships when I was in college. I always have to follow that up with no one needs 15 internships. I definitely recommend college students getting one to two internships under their belt before they graduate. But for me, I was really addicted to these experiences and they really helped me navigate what I did want to do after college and also figure out what I did not want to do. Yeah. And so when you were in these internships, your goal wasn't really to get a job. Like you obviously only spent a few months. months there and then moved on to the next thing. So were you doing like a fall, spring, summer internship? How did you pack so many internships throughout your college career? Exactly. I was doing internships in the fall, spring and summer. Sometimes I was doubling and tripling them up. One summer, for example, I was going to school in Florida, but I flew out to

Los Angeles for the summer to intern, and I took on two internships. And then I realized that I had, I was doing like a Monday, Wednesday, and a Tuesday, Thursday internship. And then MTV came along and said, well, we have an opportunity for you to intern with us Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to do something with what was MTV Radio at the time. So I said, great, sign me up. I think that internships now, some of that, I mean, the internships at my company at Intern Queen are still part-time internships. They require 12 to 15 hours a week and they're paid. But a lot of companies, because so many companies have switched from unpaid to paid internship programs, a lot of companies are requiring longer hours than they used to. So whereas, you know, 10 plus years ago, it made sense

to do three internships because no one was requiring that much time. Nowadays, it probably wouldn't be as practical as it was back then. Yeah, I was just going to ask you, were you getting paid for these internships or really, was it just free work? You just wanted the experience. I mean, I really wanted the experience. That's why I was there. I was always working a part-time job while I navigated my internships in school. But most of the internships that are paid now were not paid when I was in school. So kudos to all of the students that are getting paid now. I think that's wonderful. But I was really doing it for the experience. Totally. And that's a point that I want to call out for my listeners. Sometimes it's not about the money. Sometimes it's about the experience. As many of you

know, I worked at Hot 97 a radio station for free for three years, three whole years as an intern, And so, and I worked almost like 30 hours a week sometimes. And that's probably highly illegal now. But at the time, it was normal. It was normal for people to work for free. You know, even at Young and Profiting Podcasts, typically work for free for a few months. And then they get paid. Like there's still a certain amount of time that I expect people to work for free because I feel like it weeds people out in terms of who's really motivated, who's there to learn, who's who really wants it versus who kind of just wants like a check, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it is. interesting. Again, a lot of the companies that I used to intern for that were unpaid are no paid. I think there's a lot more just oversight in general. But I always tell a student, if you're choosing between a paid and an unpaid opportunity, like you said, it's not a question of the paycheck. You're going to get the paycheck. And if you can't get it there, you'll get it somewhere else. But it's, you know, what does your gut say? Is this experience going to help you figure out

and essentially save you time and get you a bigger paycheck down the line? And if the answer is yes, then it might be worth your time. You have to evaluate that. But if the answer is no, then you can say no and that's okay. I think that sometimes at intern queen, I spend a lot of time telling people to say yes to opportunities, because if you don't say yes, a lot of these magical moments won't happen. And then conversely, I spend a lot of time telling people to say no because while you do want to say yes to the right opportunities with so much noise and distraction and events and all the things going on, you do have to be really selective in terms of how you spend your time. So it's really a matter of thinking, okay, is this a yes opportunity or is this a no opportunity? Because we do all have to

guard our time because it's time is the most valuable thing we have. So it is this sort of like precious balance that we're all working between our, or not working, a precious balance that we're all walking between our yeses and our nose. I totally agree. So in terms of these 15 internships, were they all very different or were they all in media? Was it something that you did and able to know what you wanted to do in life and how you wanted to spend your time? So I did most of my internships around either media, marketing, entertainment, PR, and journalism. I would say those were kind of like the five things that I was really interested in.

And I think they're all sort of connected in one way or another. If you have a PR job, you have to be a great writer. If you have to meet, you know, a media job usually requires a knowledge of PR skills. So they all kind of feed into one another. But each internship that I got was in those fields and sort of taught me a little bit more about that specific industry. And I would do some internships and think, like, yes, that's it. That's what I want to do. And then I would do some internships and say, while that was a great learning experience, that's not for me.

And I used all of these learnings about myself and what I like to do and what I didn't like to do to kind of sculpt myself as a businesswoman. And I still use so many of the skills I learned as an intern. today as an entrepreneur. Yeah, you probably got so many different skills and experiences. And we always talk about skill stacking on this podcast, meaning learn a little bit of everything and put them all together and you have unique value. You don't have to be the best, you know, marketer or the best PR person, but you have like just enough to be dangerous.

So I think that's great. I like that just enough to be dangerous. That's great. Yeah, that reminds me another piece of advice I give people along those same lines is you don't have to be the best person in the room, right? You just have to be the best fit for the job. And the best candidate versus the best fit for the position are sometimes two different things. I've interviewed people who are like the best candidate in the land, right? But frequently, with those people, I'm like, why are you interviewing for this position? Like, you clearly have

achieved all the great things. Like, is this really what you want to spend your time doing every day? Like, did you read the job description? So don't worry about. the person that sits next to you that's had the 15 internships, like focus on the job description or the internship description. And if you have relevant experiences that correlate to what that company is looking for, don't get caught up in the, am I the best person in the world? Yeah, totally. I think that's great advice. So let's talk about your first job. So after college, you landed your first job. And it was actually a very strict environment, so much so that you had to ask to go to the bathroom. It was that strict intercourse. It was that strict.

terms of your time. Yeah. So at the time, did you realize that you were in such a strict environment? I mean, you had other work experiences. So I think you might have known, right, that it was unusual maybe to have to ask to go to the bathroom, right? And then did that trigger you to want to be an entrepreneur because you felt so kind of trapped in that job? So I think that I'd had all these internships, but as an intern, I think, you know, yes, you learn a lot of different skills. But I think as an intern, especially when you're not working full-time hours, you know, you're there and then you're not there, and then you're there, and then you're not there. So you're not necessarily being treated like a full-time employee would be. So when I made that transition into a full-time employee, I don't think I,

I think I was moving so quickly, to be honest, that I don't know that I knew what to expect. I don't, I was like, yeah, I'm going to be an assistant. But like, I don't know that I really took the time to think about, like, what that means. I was in a situation where the person that was training me had sort of already started their next thing. So I was kind of trained on the fly. And I'm sure that I, you know, had the fake it till you make it mentality. And so I was pretending that I understood on the fly when I really didn't. So looking back, the advice that I would give to people that are starting new jobs is like, A, write everything down, even the stuff that you think you're going to remember, write it down, like ask a lot of questions. And then if you feel like

you're not adequately trained for your position, you know, ask for more training because it's easier to get the learnings then than like three months in, realize that you don't know how to do certain things, right? And at that point, like, your boss doesn't even know what you don't know. So you really have to be vocal at the beginning. But again, it's hard. I always say, you don't know what you don't know. So you can think you're great and then realize, uh-oh, I might not know what I'm doing here. And that was definitely the situation that I was in. I was at a talent agency. And everybody around me was really passionate about reading movies, scripts and then determining what talent should play those roles, right?

Like, who should be the leading lady in the script? And that's a very cool thing. I have a lot of respect for everybody in that industry. But I, at the end of the day, realized that I didn't want to go home on the weekends and at night and read movie scripts and think about who the best person to play the roles would be. Like, I wasn't connected to that in my heart. And so I remember feeling really jealous of my coworkers because they were really passionate

about what they were doing. and they would like beg for more scripts to read over the weekend. And I couldn't relate to what they wanted more of, but what I was jealous of was their passion for their work. And I remember thinking, I want to be passionate about my work. And I want to want to move up in my career. But I, so I wanted something that I could connect with. And the thing that was always in the back of my head was this intern queen idea

that I had senior year of college. And so after a lot of self-doubt and confusion and talking to people that did not understand, you know, I finally sort of had that entrepreneurial gut feeling that if I don't do something now, I'm never going to do it. And I ended up quitting and starting my own business. That's amazing. Kudos to you for being an entrepreneur so young in life. You know, I'm just now, I was an entrepreneur right out of college like you.

I started a blog site for three years. It was really popular. We almost got a show on MTV. We did more like hosting parties. Yeah, it was really crazy. Had a lot of ups and downs. And we were like the sorority of hip hop and had a very big hip hop site and very popular in the New York, you know, tri-state area. But I shut it down because I couldn't monetize it.

So I'm curious to know you built these websites. Essentially your business is based around these websites that you have, internqueen.com, careerqueen.com. And being kind of like an engine, a search engine, for internship opportunities, from what I understand. Did you learn how to create websites, like on your own? Did you go to YouTube school? Like, what'd you do to really get up to speed in terms of launching this business? So what you said is probably the biggest misconception, which I'll tell you more about intern queens. So when I, I totally agree with you that it is so hard to monetize a website, right? Because you're basically, what advertisers want is they want

traffic and how do you get traffic? That's, you know, marketing and SEO and all these things, right? So when I started Intern Queen, the way that we were making money is through a very minimal amount of advertising on the website because we didn't have a lot of traffic because I started it and didn't have a lot of money to invest, right? I also want to point out that Intern Queen has never taken on any investment money. And as you know, I feel like that's really important to point out because so many people think that you do have to have like a huge check written to you right to start your own business. So when I first started an intern, I was like, how the heck am I going to monetize this and then be able to hire someone to build out this huge internship search engine,

et cetera? So when I first started, we were monetizing the business through, again, advertisers on the site, which was minimal. Speaking engagements was one of the first things that I started getting paid for because, frankly, I didn't even need a website to do that, right? It just was it was the Lauren show. I had a blog site on WordPress, and that was enough for that. And then, you know, I would get, I would say like every year I would get like a cool endorsement deal that would just sort of be lucky, right? I'd get a LinkedIn note from someone or whoever. So I didn't need to make that much money. I just needed to be able to make sort of what I was making at the talent agency, which was also pretty minimal at the time to support like my rent, which in LA was not cheap,

but I needed the basics to survive. So I started doing that and I did that for the first two years of the business. We also started getting paid from companies that wanted to post or internships on our site, which we still do. Now, that is great in all. And so many people, there are so many people out there that I, again, respect and admire who have smaller websites, interim queens a smaller site, career queen's a smaller site, and they're able to monetize off of personal appearances,

endorsements, book, I have books out, things like that. That's a hard, it's a hard path. It's hard to control the brand endorsements. Again, I find that even now, 13 years in, sometimes they come and sometimes they don't, right? Some years are hot and some years are not. Web traffic is tricky because Google's always changing its algorithms. Like, it's a hard business to be in. And so what I did about two or three years into intern queen, which really revolutionized the way that I was making money was we started our college

marketing agency, the IQ agency. And the website is IQagency.com for anyone listening. But basically, I said, okay, what is, what's my special sauce? And my special sauce was our student community. We have a great relationship with so many young people from across the globe. That was our special sauce. Again, I'll try to be cautious of time and not get too far into my story, but I was watching American Idol one night, and I saw that the Ford Motor Company was sponsoring it. And I thought, why is Ford sponsoring American Idol? Oh, because they must want to get in front of young people. Well, I have young people in my audience. Maybe Ford wants to work with me. And so I literally cold-called the Ford Motor Company after a year of back and forth, because it did take

a year. I don't want to sugarcoat that. I closed my first pretty large business deal with them, and we started the Ford College Ambassador program, powered by the intern queen. And that was sort of our first step into segueing the business into a college marketing agency. So today, again, several years later, we have some of the biggest clients in the world. We just finished a program with T-Mobile. We work with Michael Coors with Ragginboe. across fashion beauty, lifestyle, food, et cetera. And that's really how we make money at intern queen. And again, a lot of people don't know that because our student-facing website is what

people know us for. But it's great because it's really taken the stress off of things like brand endorsements, which, as you know, can be just difficult. And then you end up working with brands that you don't love because you need the money. It's kind of a, it's a tough path, I think. So this marketing agency has been great because we can use the profits of that to fuel our free content. Because, you know, if you're going to have free content, that takes time, energy, and money, right? So it's been a really great business model.

And so I really encourage, I'm trying to, I want to make sure I sort of turn that into advice for the listeners. So I guess the advice there is really think about what makes you special. Like, what is your special sauce? And how can you potentially market and monetize that? And who are the people that would really care and who really need what you have? And again, for us, that's our students, right? So that's our, that's kind of our story about how we monetize the business. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I can relate on so many levels. Like I said, I had a website straight out of college. We were a very popular website. I used to host parties alongside with Funkmaster Flex and DJ Camillo and all these huge DJs. We were like, you know,

super popular. And I had a big following. And I couldn't monetize it. It was so hard. I just couldn't figure out. I was too young. I was too stupid. And I didn't stick. with it long enough. So you evolved. Not stupid. Not stupid. That is awesome what you did. You should be so proud of that.

That is so cool. It's cool. It's cool. And I mean, I've done a lot of things since then that I'm really proud of. But I'm mad at myself sometimes. And I think even the girls that had the website with me because everybody was like, how could you shut this down? We've got so much momentum.

And everybody knows about us. And I was just like, you know what? We're not making any money. And I got to grow up now. Like, I got to shut this down. And so sometimes I wonder. like what would have happened if I pivoted, if I started something new, if we turned it into something else, I probably would already, you know, be a superstar by now, but it's okay.

Everything happens for a reason. Yeah, they say, you know, everything happens for a reason. And I really think that one of one of my mentors who actually, I was thankfully able to hire and now helps with operations at Interim Queen. But she told me a couple years ago that I had a strong gut feeling. And I think that I used to think that whenever I had an instinct about something that was an insecurity of mine. Like, ooh, I have like, that must, that feeling must be self-doubt or I'm being insecure about this decision and I was really hard on myself. And then Leslie, is her name. And Leslie said to me, she's like, Lauren, that's not self-doubt. That's a gut instinct. And you've got to use your gut. And your gut is going to steer you in the right direction. And it was

such great advice. And I really try to think about that today. Like, what is my gut telling me is the right or wrong thing to do. And I really try to listen to it. And it sounds like, for whatever the reason was, right? Right or wrong, it was your gut that steered you in the direction and you followed it. And I think, you know, it is what it is. And you probably end up where you're supposed to be. Exactly.

And just the last thing I'll say on this because it just gets me excited. I think when you lead with passion, you don't need to have your plan right away in terms of how you're going to monetize, how you're going to make it big. Even with this podcast, it started out as me investing into this podcast. I pivoted into starting a podcast marketing agency and we're already, like this summer, we're already on track to make multi, you know, seven figures next year.

You know, already we're making multi-seven figures. That's huge. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. And it's because I was open to the opportunities around me and I knew that, you know, maybe the podcast is not going to be the thing that makes money,

but something around the podcast like our marketing. So I just want everybody to know that sometimes it's okay to just lead with passion and see where it goes. All right, so let's talk about your latest book. That's what I want to get into now. So your latest book is called Get It Together. Get it together. Because don't we all need to get it together sometimes?

Yeah. And so it came out in 2018 and you give a lot of actionable advice in terms of how to build your schedule, self-care, maintaining your relationships and so on. So one of the things that you first talk about in your book is the importance of loving yourself. So tell us about how you learned about self-love. Did you always love yourself? And at what point did you start, what changed you or impacted you where you realized you needed to start loving yourself more? That is such a good question.

And I'm not sure that I, I'm not sure that I even know the answer to it. I think that what I realized, so when I was writing Get It Together, I knew that I, along with my readers, all felt stressed. I knew we had a couple things in common, right? We all felt stress. We all felt overwhelmed. And we all felt like we were so busy, but not necessarily getting things done at the end of the day. Like we'd work all day long or for college students,

go to school all day long, do all these different things. But at the end of the day, those calendared items weren't making me feel fulfilled. So I knew something was wrong. And so before writing, get it together, I just sort of journaled for a while and did like a bunch of, in the book world, sometimes they call it word vomit of like, here's all the things that went wrong with my day.

Like, here's what I'm upset about. I'm upset about this. And this went wrong and this went wrong. And it was work stuff. It was personal stuff. And I basically used all of that sort of word vomit to kind of structure the book because I said, if I'm dealing with this and I was trying to be as, you know, raw and vulnerable in what I was writing as possible, then I think the world is needing this also.

And I think it was the, again, I, I don't know if self-love is the word, but I was putting so much pressure on myself to go everywhere, to be doing everything. And as an entrepreneur, I'm sure you can relate. Like, there is this pressure, especially as a female entrepreneur to be written up with the cool girls, right? There's like, there's a couple cool entrepreneurs and you want to be like featured with the cool girls. And then you want to meet this person and do this. And like, and you put all these things on your calendar. And then I think with friends and a personal life, there's a similar like unspoken competition of like, did you do more today? Did you hang out with more people? Did you have five plans on a Sunday?

Obviously, COVID was like, we're going to shut down your entire life. Right? So now everything's different. But yeah, I felt like there was just all of this pressure that we were all putting on ourselves. And I just felt like I was putting all this pressure on myself every day. And then I wasn't even happy looking in the mirror at the end of the day. I wasn't happy with what I was accomplishing. I remember saying to my husband, actually, we do all these fun things, but it doesn't even matter because we don't get to reflect on any of them. Like, we're so busy doing the next fun thing. And, you know, I'm super blessed. I have a great husband. We travel all the time. We used to travel all the time. We do all these cool things. But I said to him, I don't even

have time to process the things that we do because we're already doing the next thing. And again, whether that's work-related or personal or, you know, in our personal lives, that's how I was feeling. So that's what I wanted to fix. And really kind of sorting through all the issues was what get it together allowed me to do again for myself, but also for all the readers. And I tried to be, again, as raw and vulnerable as I could in writing it. Yeah, it was a fun read, I have to say. I was like, kept reading and reading. So what's your compass then? You know, we're all overcommitted. We all feel pressure from our friends and we end up not having time to go to the doctor or to take a break and do nothing. Be bored. And also just have time to follow our dreams. You know,

I had to definitely prioritize my life differently when I started this podcast because I was focused on my dreams while my friends wanted to keep partying and this and that and I needed to get buckled down. So for you, what's your compass for saying yes versus no to an opportunity or to an activity? It is really hard. I mean, I try to prioritize, even as an entrepreneur, and I know this surprises a lot of people, but I try to prioritize my family and friends first, like above work. I feel like that's really important to do. I had a baby in six months ago. She's six months old. And so I've been challenged to sort of get it

together all over again because now I have, you know, this new person that I need to try to prioritize as well. So, you know, I try to prioritize friends and family first. But, you know, that does mean that the random friends that everybody has, you know, don't always get the time. And I've had some, I've had personal friends say to me like you're not calling me back enough. And I've I've had to say to them, like, this is what I can give you right now, and that's it. I've also, something that I've been challenged with, and I'm sure your listeners and you can probably relate, is texting. People expect an instant response or even like a within two-hour response. And if I'm working, me texting you is going to delay so much of my focus, right? Like me texting

a friend back about plans for like next Saturday. If I do that in the middle of my workday, that's going to create such a distraction for me, right? It's going to, and then if they, like, and then if they write me back, it's this whole thing. So I've really sort of tried to stop responding to text messages during the workday. And I think we all think that like a text message needs an immediate response, especially if it's, you know, even if it's from important people, unless it's an emergency, I really just don't respond anymore. And I respond to them later when I'm done with work. Because again, I'm giving them half responses. I've just realized I can't do three things at once, right? So I really try to give my energy to one thing at a time,

and I really try to look at everything that comes on my calendar and say, am I needed for this? And as a business owner, I have, there's eight people that work at Interim Queen full time. So it's not 100, but you know, it's eight and eight people's a lot. And we're a young business, so I'm very involved. And as a boss, I often have to say to myself, I know you want to be on that call, Lauren, but chill out. You can't be today, right? Like the world's not going to And so it is really hard to know when to tighten the reins and then when to like let people do their thing. So I try, you know, I struggle with that a little bit. But I've been trying to, you know, trust more and back up a little bit more.

But it's always hard. And I would just say if you feel like there's a pattern and you're constant, one day of frustration happens to everybody. But if a whole week goes by and you're frustrated every day and you don't think you have time for your kid or your husband or your friend or yourself yourself, right? I think that's when you should try to look at your schedule and see what you can do. I know we all don't have a lot of flex. Some people don't have a lot of flexibility, but typically there are small things that you can do, whether it's waking up early, whatever it is to try to make a positive change. At Yap, we have a super unique company culture.

We're all about obsessive excellence. We even call ourselves scrappy hustlers. And I'm really picky when it comes to my employees. My team is growing every day. We're 60 people all over the world. And when it comes to hiring, I no longer feel overwhelmed by finding that perfect candidate, even though I'm so picky, because when it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post noticed. Indeed, sponsor jobs help you stand out and hire fast

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Indeed.com slash profiting. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. Happy New Year, Yaff, gang. I just love it. the unique energy of the new year. It's all about fresh starts. And fresh starts not only feel possible, but also feel encouraged. And if you've been thinking about starting a business, this is your sign. There's no better time than right now. 2026 can be the year that you build something that is truly yours, the year where you take control over your career. And it starts with Shopify. I've built plenty of my own businesses on Shopify, including my LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass. So it's a two-day workshop. People buy their tickets on Shopify. And then my mastermind,

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That's Shopify.com slash profiting. Yeah, fam, hear your first. This new year was Shopify by your side. Yeah, I agree. And I think paying attention to the time that you waste, I think a lot of people watch mindless TV, a lot of people scroll mindlessly on social media. Social media is great if you use it with a purpose, you know.

And I think a lot of people just use it and feel bad about themselves and get jealous and just get... Sometimes I sit there and I watch reels now. It's so entertaining, but it just waste your time. And so be careful with that because it could just suck up your time. That could be your side hustle time, you know, and you're just spending it on TikTok and reels. It's so silly.

You nailed it. And even like, you know, so you said mindless TV. So I love some bachelor. I love some housewives. And I try to intentionally make time on certain nights, right? Like Mondays, Dancing with the Stars night, right? Like Froyo, dancing with the Stars. That's my jam.

But like sometimes my husband will be like, you were so excited. to like take a break and disconnect and watch dancing with the stars and you're scrolling on TikTok. Like you're not even enjoying your own thing that you set out to do and this is supposed to be your break. And he's totally right. So I think what you're saying is so important, like whether it's work or personal time, like put down your phone, stop scrolling. And I think some time away from our phones is what we all, whether we think we need it or not, you need it, you know? And I think just even for an hour trying to put your phone away. Like nothing. you know, the world isn't going to fall apart. It's going to be okay. Yeah. So let's talk about

organization and routines, because I know you talk about this a lot in your book too. So would you say that like naturally you're a very organized person or was it something that you really had to train yourself on? I would say I continue to have to train myself on being organized and I'm always experimenting with different things. Like for example, and I know we're on video. So the video folks can see this, but the listeners cannot. But like right now, I'll just describe it, but I have this new, you can kind of see it, like to-do list format. So it's like the to-dos, the notes, the hours. And I've been using this every day.

Or sometimes I'll do it. I usually do it like tonight. I'll make my little notepad setup for tomorrow. And I'll write out the calls I have and the hour slots. And then I'll write out my to do list items. And then I usually write next to the to-do list item. I'll write how many minutes or hours I think that item is going to take. And that really helps me.

like if I have a 10-minute gap, I look at my list and I'm like, okay, what's a 10-minute task rather than starting something and then having to, again, take a break and get distracted from it. But to answer your question, yes, I have to work on organization all the time. How about like in terms of like having a clean environment and being on time? I think they go hand in hand, actually, because I think a lot of people are late because they can't find their keys or they didn't know what they were going to wear. They're not preparing. Yeah.

So like, what's your advice on that? Because I think that's part of being a professional. Yeah, absolutely. So I think it's about knowing what you need. I think I talk about this in the book. So for me, so for example, I'm at my parents' house right now. You guys, for those of you on video, we're in my dad's study right now. So like I'm in, I'm in Florida for a month over the holidays with my family. And so every room is not my office set up, right? Like it is at my house in California. So here, I think it's just knowing what you need. So like, like what I need to be productive and feel good about my day is I need my computer. I need my phone. I need my AirPods. I need an ice coffee. And because I'm at my parents' house, I need a coaster

under the ice coffee. And I need a charger. Right. And I need my, the notepad I showed you in a pen. And like those are my things that I need to have to feel organized and like I'm in control of my day. If I didn't have the notepad, I would feel like something's off. So I think it's a matter of like knowing what you need to be productive. Like I am one of the people, like, I have my AirPods in and I listen to like loud music blasting and like I get into the zone. When I write my book, same thing. Other people, they want, they need quiet. So I think it's like knowing what you need and making sure that wherever you're working that day, because right now people are having to be really flexible and I'm adaptable. It's just knowing how to set up your space. And then what you're talking

about with being on time, I think a lot of that is just, it's really all preparation, right? It's thinking ahead. It's thinking about where you're going to be, what you're going to be doing, and the whole situation. And a lot of that is just looking ahead. We use Asana at Intern Queen, which is a task management tool. And it's really easy to just sort your tasks by the due date and to do your things for today.

Right? And I really challenge my team to always look at tomorrow. Look at the next day. Like, don't just look at the task that's due today. Like, try to challenge yourself. Can you get three days ahead? So it's looking ahead and just knowing what you're going to need to set yourself up for success. Yeah, totally. And I think it's also realizing your personality. So for me, I'm pretty carefree.

And so I think I always have all the time in the world because I'm very positive. I'm very ambitious. I'm very motivated. And so I always think, oh, I have all this time in the world. And I'm always running. I was even 15 minutes late to this interview. And it's not that I'm not working hard. It's just that my personality, it's very hard for me to think I don't have enough to. time. I'm always positive thinking I have enough time. So I think it's also about thinking about your personality and who you are and then putting some boundaries and rules around yourself. Cool. So you have a very fun story in your book. You talk about being a young entrepreneur and not having the motivation to get dressed in the morning. So now, you know, because you didn't have to

I'm in a hoodie today. Yeah, you're in a hoodie today. But like, you know, you were a young entrepreneur. you were used to going into the office and you didn't have to go to the office anymore so you had trouble waking up early and you had trouble getting dressed in the way. And I think, I was wondering what story you're going to reference and I think in the story you're talking about, I talk about my husband, right,

and how he had it all together and I would copy him. Exactly, exactly. So now everyone's in this situation. We're in COVID. We're all working from home. A lot of us are working from home. And even me, myself, I love to get dressed up. But sometimes I just don't feel like it.

I feel like no one's going to see me. I don't necessarily have to turn my Zoom on in the meeting. And I feel like being in my PJs all day. But what's your perspective on that? Is that healthy or like, why did you decide that you were going to get dressed every day no matter what? Yeah. So when I first started my own business, because I came from such a rigid, structured environment at my first job out of college, the idea that no one cared where I was all day was confusing. It was kind of scary.

I mean, you go from college where it is, you know, yeah, you're on your own, but it's structured. You have classes. You have your schedule. People are checking it on you. You have your roommates to, again, a job where it was really, again, rigid, disciplined environment. There was a dress code, all kinds of things. And now I go to like nothing. Like, no one cares where I am all day. It's all on me. And so learning self-discipline was really hard. I assume that a lot of college students are dealing with that right now with virtual school. And I actually think that skill is going to, really pay off in the future and a lot of executives that are learning how to work from home and be flexible. I had to learn that very early on. So for me, it was really difficult to wake up, to not stare at my bed and want to go back in it. And luckily, I was dating at the time, now he's my husband, but I was dating an entrepreneur who had been running his own business with a business partner for many years. And so I would watch what they did. And it was almost like he was my teacher, right? And I remember they would have morning conference calls. So I would be like, oh, I'll have a conference call with myself, right? And then it was with my first team members.

But I was really lucky to have that sort of guide to show me how to structure your day when no one's going to structure it for you. That was really hard. I did go, I've gone through many phases with the whole like getting dressed for work and and looking super professional. I would say nowadays I'll really only get like dressed. I would say like not, I feel like the hoodies like work from home gear, right? I would say when we have like client kickoff calls or if we have last week I did like five evening presentations

where I did these big panel speaking events, of course then I, you know, you put on the makeup, you get dressed up and whatnot. But I feel like right now, as long as I'm not working in what I've slept in, I feel like it's fine. You know, as long as you look presentable, as long as you can get on Zoom,

as long as you look somewhat, you know, well-groomed, I think having kind of, again, your hoodie, a hoodie in bike shorts has been like my go-to after-pregnancy and be an entrepreneur look. So, yeah, so I think my, and I think it's interesting not having, I do think there's this, I don't know if you want to call it a trend right now. I mean, on Instagram, right, that like you don't necessarily have to look perfect all the time. And that's a hard thing to kind of, I think wrap your head around because I always felt like I had to be like perfect and on and look like my newscaster self, you know, at all times. And now I think people are kind of cutting one another a lot more slack for a variety of reasons. But yeah. So I think now try to not work in what you

slept in just so you feel like you're transitioning from personal time to work time. But otherwise, I think be comfortable. And of course, if you're doing a job interview or something like that, you know, dress it up. Yeah, totally. Like you said, be comfortable. be clean. You don't have to get decked out. I would just say be confident and what you're bringing to the table and own it.

Like, if you don't feel confident, then that's the problem, right? And again, go with that gut instinct of what makes you feel comfortable and what doesn't. Young and profiters. I know there's so many people tuning in right now

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so I like to rally people and I like to invent new things, I used to be really shameful and had a lot of guilt around the fact that I didn't like enablement, which is one of my working frustrations. So I actually don't like to support people one-on-one. I don't like it when people slow me down. I don't like hand-holding. I like to move fast, invent, rally people, inspire. But what I do need to do is ensure that somebody else can fill the enablement role, which I do have K on my team. So working genius helps you uncover these genius gaps, helps you work better with your team, helps you reduce friction, helps you collaborate better, understand why people are the way that they are.

It's helped me restructure my team, put people in the spots that they're going to really excel, and it's also helped me in hiring. Working Genius is absolutely amazing. I'm obsessed with this model. So if you guys want to take the Working Genius assessment and get 20% off, you can use code profiting, go to workinggenius.com. Again, that's working genius.com. Stop guessing, start working in your genius. Hello, young improfitors. Running my own business has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. But I won't lie to you. In those early days of

setting it up, I feel like I was jumping on a cliff with no parachute. I'm not really good at that kind of stuff. I'm really good at marketing, sales, growing a business, offers. But I had so many questions and zero idea where to find the answers when it came to starting an official business. I wish I had known about Northwest Registered Agent back when I was starting Yap Media. And if you're an entrepreneur, you need to know what Northwest Registered Agent is. They've been helping small business owners launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They literally make life easy for entrepreneurs. They don't just help you form your business. They give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements and

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and the New Year is the perfect moment to reset and commit to your growth. But let's be real. You can't build an empire if your finances are all over the place. That's why getting into it QuickBooks is one of the best first moves you can make this year. They've got powerful money management tools built right into their platform, and they have them for every stage of your business, whether you're a solopreneur or a small business. And I love that QuickBooks helps you get paid faster, pay bill smarter, and even gives you access to funding when opportunity pops up. So QuickBooks can help you with bookkeeping, can help you with getting paid, can even help you with projections and understanding where your business is at financially. Plus, QuickBooks Money Solutions reduces manual work by

half and keeps your money and your books perfectly synced. That means less time staring at spreadsheets and more time actually building the vision that you started with. That's the upgrade that every profiting entrepreneur needs. Start the New Year's strong, take control of your cash flow with QuickBooks Money Tools. Learn more at quickbooks.com slash money. Again, that's quickbooks.com slash money. Terms apply. Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Incorporated, licensed as a money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Yeah. So I want to talk about another topic you talk about in your book. It's called mood over method. I actually had Seth Godin on the show a couple weeks ago and we talked about something

pretty similar. He talks about being a professional in his book when it comes to creative work. And when you're creative, you have to be creative no matter your mood. And that's what being a professional is. It's doing your work, what you have to do no matter your mood. And so he was saying there's no such thing as writer's block, for example. Like that's totally an excuse that writers say because they're not in the mood to write when really it's their job to write. And so they need to embrace the process, know their process and be professional. So tell us about your mood over method. I think it really relates to all of this and break that down for us. Yeah. I mean, again, I think the example that I give in my book for this is the typical everybody, like,

I feel like at night, we're all so ambitious, right? We're like, we're going to get up tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. And then we're going to do a workout and then we're going to do this. And then then like it's 5 a.m. And you're like, heck no, snooze, snooze, news, news, news, right? And that's an example of like you had a strategy, but instead of going with the strategy, you decided to go with your mood, right? Your feeling that you were tired, that you were sleepy. And again, not to say that that's right or wrong, but you didn't quite go with your plan, right? So I think it's really important to try to be consistent and really follow through on whatever that plan is. And also know yourself. Like I've really tried to stop making over ambitious plans.

Like I've tried to stop making plans that I know I'm not going to do. Right. Like stop writing 100 things on your to do list when you know you're only going to get to the top five. Because at the end of the day, you're the one feeling frustrated with yourself. When actually going into it, you already knew you weren't going to accomplish all these things. Right. And I think that's a hard thing for all of us to work on. So I recommend really trying to stick with the strategy.

and not the, I'm tired, I'm sleepy, I'm in a bad mood, I don't want to go anymore. Like, no, you said you were going to go to this event. You RSVPed for it. Clearly, you had a thought process there. So don't not go to the event because your friend called or you're bored or you're sleepy or you want to watch Dancing with the Stars, right, or whatever it is. So really try to go with that mindset over your mood. And I think that'll help everybody get it together. Yeah, I totally agree. And I think it's important for for you to keep commitments with yourself. And a lot of times it's easier to say,

oh, it's just a date with myself at the gym. Who cares? But it's your health. It matters. And just because your friend, you didn't make plans that your friend to meet you at the gym, doesn't mean you don't have to go.

And I never heard anybody who regretted going to the gym after they went. Nobody ever regrets it, you know? And so it's like, I think my best advice for people who have trouble starting, I have a lot of people who ask me, I can never finish anything. I never get my work done.

and I can never focus. Do it for 10 minutes. Start it for 10 minutes. Right. I think that's a great point. Yeah. It's like once you start, you know, you're halfway there. You get it done, you know.

But if you just never start, that's where the trouble begins. And if you never keep your own commitments, that's when you become unsuccessful. Everybody who's successful keeps their own personal commitments, whether that's on their to-do list, whether that's their health. They keep their own commitments. And so I think that's one of the secrets of success, honestly, is keeping your own personal commitments. I totally agree. Okay, so last item from your book, we're running out of time here, and then I'm going to close this out. Let's talk about rejection. I've been rejected so many times in my life. I'm sure everybody deals with rejection. No matter how talented you are, no matter, you know, actually the more talented you are, probably the more opportunities you're going to get and the more rejection you're going to face because you've got more opportunities. So I myself have been a victim of rejection. You tell this really cool story in your book about a sponsor basically dropping you. They used to sponsor all your events. And then, you myself, you have been a victim of rejection. You tell this really cool story in your book about a sponsor, you

And one year they decided that they no longer wanted to work with the intern queen. Yeah, my remembering that email. But you took it in a really professional way and you handled it really well. And I have learned the hard way about rejection and handling it really badly. So tell me about how you handled it well and the advice that you can give to people when they get that rejection note and how they should approach it. Yeah. So if I remember that story correctly, now I'm thinking, oh, I wonder if I said it the exact, same way in the book. I got the email. And you know, it's really hard. Just tell it from your heart.

It doesn't need to be from the book. I'm sure it's stuck in your brain. It's hard when you, it's hard when you have a lot going on in your day and that, right, and everybody deals with this. And then you get rejected in the middle of your day. So what I really tried to do was I got this email and it hurt. And some rejections don't hurt, but some emails do. And this was an email that definitely hurt, right? Like I was emotionally attached to this email. So I got this email that this company, big company, didn't want to work with me anymore. And we had, you know, they always say don't take things personally as an entrepreneur. And that's easy to say and hard to do because you do, I find even now, so many years in, I find that I'm still investing so much of myself to do a great job for the

relationships that I create. So I create a relationship with an executive. I try to do it so well. So then when they take the opportunity away, you feel like it is personal. So I had a really busy day that day. So instead, I think I even like started drafting a couple of responses that were a little bit knee jerk, maybe had a little bit of sass in the tone. And then I was like, no, no, no, I'm not going to do that. And I went back to my, I sort of had like the let's put it in a box mentality. And then I went back to my to do list. I did a bunch of other things. I've learned that when I get rejected, one of the things that makes me feel better is accomplishing something else. No matter how small, just like the act of doing something else is really helpful. So I did a couple of

other things sort of took a deep breath. And I think it was maybe like two or three days later, I went back to the email, sort of took a deep breath. I didn't feel as connected to it. I didn't feel as fired up, right, as sometimes we all do the day we get those kinds of emails. And I really just had like the old school, kill them with kindness mentality of like it's a long career. Even though we're not working together now, it doesn't mean we, you know, we might work together in six years, right? Whether it's at this company or maybe this executive is at a different company and I just tried to write back a really kind response. And so that's how I handled it. But I think that a piece of advice that I give in my speeches and presentations is no,

doesn't mean never. It just means not right now. And something that's been really a hard lesson for me to learn as an entrepreneur is that you meet an executive, you sell them, you pitch them, you get them to say yes. And then in your mind, again, especially I think us entrepreneurs do this, you put these people. Let's say like Sarah Smith works for Duncan, right? And Duncan is actually a client of mine, but let's say Sarah Smith is a fake person. Sarah Smith says yes to a deal, right? I've now, in my heart put Sarah Smith on this pedestal. In my mind, Sarah Smith is a yes person. She loves me and everything I do. Two years later, Sarah Smith says no. And now as an entrepreneur, I'm like, I'm shocked. I don't know what to do. Sarah Smith was a yes person and now there are no

person. And so that's been really hard. And I think it's an important thing to note is that just because someone, not to be negative and be Debbie Downer here, but you do need to realize that the people that say yes to you might come back and say no for other things. And you need to be ready and prepared and have sort of that thick skin developed to deal with that because it can be really challenging when the people that say yes come back to years later and say no. And I've dealt with that a lot. So again, something that's helped me is moving on to the next thing on the to do list, stepping away from it, giving it some air, giving yourself some space, and then writing back a kind email. And if you need to challenge the response and ask for feedback, that's fair as well. Yeah, I totally agree. I think the best piece of

advice is never write, never send anything that's written when you're mad. I got fired from Hot 97. I was an unpaid intern. I still got fired, quote unquote, because I was like, you know, this glorified intern that worked there. And it was because I didn't get this job that I wanted as an assistant producer after working for free for three years and I wrote a really nasty text to the guy who did get it and he showed it to Angie Martinez who was the host of the show. And so I got fired for that. I ended up, you know, fixing my bridges after that, but it was one of the biggest lessons that I had to learn the hard way because I wrote something really mean and sent it as soon as I felt really bad. And you'll always look at things differently a couple days later when you cool down and whether

it's your personal relationships or professional relationships, you want to just calm down before you say anything that because your words stick with you forever and it can really hurt your reputation. Okay. So last question. The last question I ask all my guests is what is your secret to profiting in life? I think that it's really been prioritizing personal things above work. And even for an entrepreneur, with entrepreneurs, it's easy to say work, work, work, work,

right? And I see a lot of my friends that have corporate jobs saying work, work, work, work, work. But at the end of the day, we only have so much control. over our work. You know, if you have a boss, when you get, I mean, we saw with COVID, there were so many people that thought they had these jobs forever that were, you know, laid off out of nowhere. And so I just think it's so important to have, to have special unique relationships that you, you know, to some extent, control, right? So I think prioritizing for me, it's family and friends for other people, it's religion or, you know, whatever it might be.

but for me it's prioritizing family and friends first, putting the majority of my time and energy there. And that way, I still love my work. I'm still passionate about it. But when work isn't going my way and it's a constant roller coaster, it's not like this all the time, right? It's not all the way up all the time. I think that's been really helpful. And it gives me a lot of personal satisfaction at the end of the day. Cool. Well, I think you've covered a lot of ground here. We had a great conversation. Thank you so much for coming on Young and Profiting Podcast. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting Podcast.

I hope you enjoyed this episode with Lauren Berger. And if you're a new listener, please take a few minutes to subscribe to the app and drop us a review on Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcast reviews are the most coveted kind of reviews for podcasters. We love them because they act as social proof for new listeners and they largely impact our podcast rankings. So from now on, every time I end the show, I'm going to be show. shouting out anybody who leaves us an Apple podcast review. And so if you're a listener on CastBox, on Spotify, Podcast Republic, Overcast, wherever you are, do me a favor and hop on to Apple Podcasts using your iPhone or a family member's iPhone and support Young and Profiting Podcasts

by leaving us a five-star Apple Podcasts review. I really want to get to 200 reviews by 2021. And so we have one month left to get me to 200 reviews. And I am obsessed with reaching this goal. anybody knows me, I always reach my goal. So please, please take the time to leave us an Apple podcast review. I'm trying to get to 200 reviews by 2021. We've got thousands and thousands of listeners. And so if you appreciate my podcast, please take a minute to leave us an Apple podcast review. Okay. So this week, I'm going to share a review from Marsh Beuse and Patrick Mike. So Patry Mike, I think is his Apple ID. If you guys don't tell me your full name in your review, and your location, I won't be able to properly shut you out. So remember to leave your full name

and your location in the review. So the first one is from Marsh and it's a really good one. He says, you're as young as you want to be. I'm 46 years young and I love Holla's podcast. There's no such thing as too, too old, too late, too young, too much or too little of anything unless you make it so. You've got now and now is a great equalizer. No matter where you find yourself in life, Hollow will take you where you need to be. Subscribe today. Wow, that's like one of the best reviews I've ever read. And I appreciate you so much.

Thank you so much, Marsh, for dropping such a thoughtful review and such a motivational review. And I encourage all of you to try to beat that. Next one from Pat. Super valuable. I love this podcast. Holla is super talented and has added so much value to my life. She always asks great questions and has the best guests.

Thank you. much, Pat. I appreciate it. And your ID is what only showed up. It's Pat your Mike. I'm sure that's not your real name. So I'm sorry that I was unable to properly shout you out. But for everybody out there listening, if you guys do leave an Apple podcast review, which I hope you do, please leave your full name and location so I can properly shout you out. And so what happens to Pat your mic doesn't happen to you. So thank you both for the amazing reviews. And if you're out there listening and you found value in today's show with Lauren, please take a few minutes to write us an Apple podcast review. It's a free and effective way to support our show. And if you don't have

access to Apple Podcasts, try borrowing someone's iPhone. And don't forget to include your full name and location when you leave your review so I can properly shout you out. And I love seeing posts about YAP on LinkedIn or Instagram. If you're listening on Spotify, you can share the podcast, write your Instagram story. There's like a little button you click share and then it says Instagram story and you can just shoot it off right there or take a screenshot of your podcast app and share it to your story and tag me at Yap with Hala. I'll always repost and support those who support us. And if you follow me at YAP with Hala, I'll follow you back. And you can also find me on LinkedIn. Just search for my name. It's Hala Taha. Big thanks to the YAP team. As always, you guys are awesome. This is Hala,

signing off.