Latest / The Breakfast Club / Getting It Out the Mud

Transcript

Getting It Out the Mud · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Let's get, let's get, let's get to it, time to
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Speaker 1: do it. I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit
0:03
Speaker 1: about everything and everybody. Did you hear that exclusive? You
0:06
Speaker 1: don't feel alive out there, right?
0:07
Speaker 2: Lauren came in hot.
0:09
Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa, and this is
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Speaker 1: another episode of The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is
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Speaker 1: your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment news,
0:19
Speaker 1: and all of the conversations that shake the room, baby. Now,
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Speaker 1: we are going to get into a conversation that I
0:24
Speaker 1: personally had that definitely shook the room when I had it.
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Speaker 1: But before we get there, the conversation is about getting
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Speaker 1: it out the mud and kind of, you know, what
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Speaker 1: that looks like and the journey to figuring things out
0:35
Speaker 1: along the way of building something sustainable in business and
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Speaker 1: in life. Y'all know I love those type of conversations,
0:40
Speaker 1: but before we get there, we got to check in
0:43
Speaker 1: on ourselves. Let's check in behind the scenes of The Grind.
0:48
Speaker 1: So this weekend, y'all, I told y'all that I was
0:50
Speaker 1: out doing all of the things, homecoming. I traveled down
0:53
Speaker 1: to D.C. on Sunday for a alumni homecoming event, which
0:58
Speaker 1: was lit. It was a karaoke event. Shout out to
1:00
Speaker 1: the Boothmakers who brought me down there. Literally was there
1:03
Speaker 1: in and out for a day. We went to drinks
1:06
Speaker 1: and kind of like dinner with friends. We, me and Bae.
1:10
Speaker 1: And then we headed back up here to home because,
1:13
Speaker 1: you know, work in the morning. But We also had
1:16
Speaker 1: the privilege and the honor, or I had the privilege
1:19
Speaker 1: and the honor, of attending Jalen Brown's birthday party. Jalen Brown,
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Speaker 1: former Celtic, now a Philadelphia 76ers, along with LeBron and
1:28
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxey and so many other people who were about
1:31
Speaker 1: to make that team. Like, y'all, they about to go
1:34
Speaker 1: up over there. But I say I had the privilege
1:36
Speaker 1: and the honor to attend because I was there. As
1:39
Speaker 1: my man's plus one in celebration of him, we were
1:42
Speaker 1: celebrating Jalen Brown's birthday. Don't know Jalen Brown personally, but
1:46
Speaker 1: we do know the team that works behind the scenes
1:48
Speaker 1: with him. And my boyfriend has an organization. It is
1:52
Speaker 1: a nonprofit organization called the Catherine Brown Foundation. And it's
1:56
Speaker 1: all about transforming people and communities and enriching people's lives.
2:01
Speaker 1: And he has just built out a partnership that he's
2:04
Speaker 1: doing with the Philadelphia 76ers across the NBA. to go
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Speaker 1: back into the communities of Philadelphia where he is from and,
2:12
Speaker 1: you know, do full park rebuilds and renovations, financial literacy, education,
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Speaker 1: and really just making everything that he touches a better tomorrow.
2:23
Speaker 1: I am so proud of him. So, you know, Friday night,
2:26
Speaker 1: we kicked it off there. We were really excited to
2:27
Speaker 1: go and to meet everybody. And, you know, I got
2:30
Speaker 1: to meet a lot of people that he's been meeting
2:31
Speaker 1: with and having conversations with in person, you know, everybody
2:35
Speaker 1: from politicians to, You know, the team, you know, back
2:40
Speaker 1: office people that were there. But also just we got
2:43
Speaker 1: to see so many people in general. I mean, it's
2:46
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, who is one of the biggest conversations right
2:48
Speaker 1: now in the NBA. So, you know, there I ran
2:51
Speaker 1: into Meek Mill. I ran into I didn't get to
2:53
Speaker 1: see Keisha Cole. I got to see her perform, but
2:54
Speaker 1: I didn't get to talk to her. I was singing
2:56
Speaker 1: Keisha Cole down. OK, it was a full Hennessy sponsor bar.
2:59
Speaker 1: I had a few spritzers. But listen to me, Keisha Cole,
3:02
Speaker 1: listen to me. Yes, come on.
3:09
Speaker 2: Oh, hey, hey. Loshimi performed.
3:13
Speaker 1: I love Loshimi. Pretty girls in the world. Pretty girls
3:17
Speaker 1: in the world. I don't know if you guys know Loshimi,
3:20
Speaker 1: but he's one of my favorite artists right now.
3:44
Speaker 2: Yes. And now I'm going, what am I going to do?
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Speaker 2: So empty, my love, my soul can't go on. Go
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Speaker 2: on without you. My rain is made of rain.
4:26
Speaker 1: A really Gary time, okay? It was not one quiet
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Speaker 1: lip in that room when Keisha Cole was performing. We
4:32
Speaker 1: love her damn. Great night. What else happened? Oh, Talil,
4:36
Speaker 1: streamer Talil, got to have a convo with him. He's
4:38
Speaker 1: one of the sweetest people ever. Taylor Townsend, world-renowned tennis player,
4:45
Speaker 1: also got to tell her how dope she is and
4:47
Speaker 1: how hard I be going for her, especially when she had,
4:49
Speaker 1: you know, the incident that happened, not this U.S. Open,
4:51
Speaker 1: but the last U.S. Open where that other tennis player
4:54
Speaker 1: tried to basically call her uneducated and not smart and
4:57
Speaker 1: all the things you don't say to black women. I
4:59
Speaker 1: had to let her know, girl, we was riding for
5:00
Speaker 1: you at dawn. Like, we was good, you know? Um,
5:03
Speaker 1: who else did we run into? LeBron James was there.
5:05
Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance to meet LeBron, but he
5:07
Speaker 1: was there. I saw him. LeBron James in real life
5:10
Speaker 1: was there. We also ran into Gilly was there, uh,
5:14
Speaker 1: with his wife too, um, who is a makeup artist
5:17
Speaker 1: in the industry, but you know, famously they have like
5:20
Speaker 1: the best, um, social media content together. So when you
5:23
Speaker 1: meet her and see them together, you feel like you
5:25
Speaker 1: already know them cause we watched them so much online. Um,
5:28
Speaker 1: even outside of what Gilly and Wallo do for a
5:30
Speaker 1: million dollars worth of game, um, just following Gilly's family
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Speaker 1: story across social running into them in person it was
5:37
Speaker 1: like I already felt like I knew her but we
5:39
Speaker 1: ran into them as well I did get a chance
5:42
Speaker 1: to meet Jalen Jalen super cool one of the things
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Speaker 1: I loved was seeing how surrounded by family and good
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Speaker 1: people he is one of his cousins was there I
5:50
Speaker 1: don't know if she'll remember this conversation if she ever
5:52
Speaker 1: will hear this I forget her name but she came
5:54
Speaker 1: up to me and she was like I've been staring
5:57
Speaker 1: at you the whole time trying to figure out how
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Speaker 1: I know you and I just realized you're the girl
6:00
Speaker 1: from the radio and I was like yep And she
6:03
Speaker 1: was like, I hope you hear on all positive vibes.
6:06
Speaker 1: Don't be, you know, rumor and reporting on all the
6:09
Speaker 1: BS with my cousin because we love him. And I
6:11
Speaker 1: was like, girl, I come in peace, love and Hennessy.
6:14
Speaker 1: I'm here to have a good time. And I was like, honestly,
6:16
Speaker 1: I don't even know what BS you're referring to. Because
6:19
Speaker 1: when we have conversations about Jalen Brown or have in
6:21
Speaker 1: the last few months, it's been about the big trade
6:24
Speaker 1: to the Sixers. how dope it was to see him
6:26
Speaker 1: do his press conference from the community center in Philadelphia
6:28
Speaker 1: and getting involved in the community. Him talking about fighting
6:31
Speaker 1: back against the big institution of the NBA and, you know,
6:35
Speaker 1: and how he alleged that like, they don't want you
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Speaker 1: to give back and look out for people in certain
6:38
Speaker 1: ways so that they can control you. Those are the
6:40
Speaker 1: type of powerful conversations he is sparking in the room
6:43
Speaker 1: that we sit in. And she was like, okay, cause
6:45
Speaker 1: we love him and he has a great family and
6:47
Speaker 1: comes from a great family. She just was running all
6:48
Speaker 1: the things down to me, but I didn't need to
6:50
Speaker 1: meet her to know that. Like you get to see,
6:52
Speaker 1: you got to see him with his mom, his brother,
6:55
Speaker 1: his teammates, like there's a lot of love on that
6:58
Speaker 1: team that they all have for each other. And I
7:00
Speaker 1: love to see that. But then also surrounded and being
7:02
Speaker 1: surrounded by love in real life is important. I think
7:04
Speaker 1: it speaks to his character and the character that a
7:06
Speaker 1: lot of people feel from him, which is why when
7:08
Speaker 1: he decided to leave the Celtics and head on over
7:10
Speaker 1: to Philly, there were some people that are sad, some
7:11
Speaker 1: people that are upset, but the city of Philadelphia is excited.
7:14
Speaker 1: There were a lot of change makers and tastemakers in
7:16
Speaker 1: that room from Pennsylvania, from the city of Philly, who
7:20
Speaker 1: were there in support and really excited to see what
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Speaker 1: the Sixers and as a franchise and sports brings to
7:25
Speaker 1: the city, but also what it's going to bring to
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Speaker 1: the community. So great time that I had this weekend. And,
7:30
Speaker 1: you know, speaking of building and a cloth that you're
7:32
Speaker 1: cut from and what you surround yourself with and what
7:35
Speaker 1: that equals, let's get into this conversation that I had.
7:39
Speaker 1: So I had the pleasure of being a keynote speaker
7:42
Speaker 1: at an event. Shout out to done and done. They
7:46
Speaker 1: are an executive team. Admin company, and they head up
7:50
Speaker 1: operations for, like, high-profile individuals. I've been working with them
7:53
Speaker 1: for some time. Even though we are about to move
7:56
Speaker 1: on and no longer work with the company, I support
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Speaker 1: their founder, Ajay. who is a young woman that I
8:02
Speaker 1: met some years ago when she was celebrating her first
8:04
Speaker 1: year anniversary, and I came there as a keynote. So
8:06
Speaker 1: to go back and speak during their 10-year anniversary was
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Speaker 1: such a big deal. I, along with Pinky Cole, you
8:12
Speaker 1: guys know her from Slutty Vegan. You also know her
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Speaker 1: now from Real Housewives of Atlanta. We're the keynote speakers,
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Speaker 1: and we talked about getting it out the mud and
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Speaker 1: what that looks like for our lives right now. Let's
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Speaker 1: get into the conversation. Hey, I'm Lauren LaRosa. Everything she
8:27
Speaker 1: said in the bio... That's the stuff I be doing.
8:29
Speaker 1: I was sitting over there like, dang, it's been a,
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Speaker 1: from the first year when I met Ajay and learned
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Speaker 1: about Done and Done and really didn't understand what having
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Speaker 1: an executive assistant or admin or operations person would look
8:47
Speaker 1: like for me and how it would make sense for
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Speaker 1: me to now. Life has really took, it's like a
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Speaker 1: complete 360. Um, and, and I say that because it's like,
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Speaker 1: y'all are sitting here today and you guys are in
9:04
Speaker 1: the space that you're in today. Mentally, I don't know
9:06
Speaker 1: where everybody is business wise. I don't know everybody's numbers
9:09
Speaker 1: and you know, what your Shopify's are doing and or
9:11
Speaker 1: not doing, but you just never know what is coming next.
9:17
Speaker 1: let me not say that you know what you want
9:20
Speaker 1: to to come next so you know what's coming next
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Speaker 1: like you can manifest that um but when you talk
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Speaker 1: about getting out the mud I think the only thing
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Speaker 1: that I would tell people is like to always stay
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Speaker 1: ready because that first year when I came and I
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Speaker 1: spoke and you know me and Ajay didn't know each
9:38
Speaker 1: other I just really loved her passion about her business
9:41
Speaker 1: and about life when we got on the phone and
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Speaker 1: I was like okay I want to support her um
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Speaker 1: For me personally in business, I was trying to figure
9:49
Speaker 1: out so much stuff. I knew what I wanted to do.
9:52
Speaker 1: I knew where I wanted to take things. I knew
9:55
Speaker 1: what God was going to do when I trusted him.
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Speaker 1: But I it wasn't like tangible yet at all like
10:02
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff now that I'm doing and
10:04
Speaker 1: I try see and a lot of things that she
10:06
Speaker 1: read in that bio I'm like wow there's been so
10:08
Speaker 1: much that has happened and I remember um when I
10:14
Speaker 1: spoke that first year at you know the one year
10:18
Speaker 1: anniversary My message was, you know, no matter what happens,
10:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to stay dangerous. And that was my message
10:26
Speaker 1: then because I was just like, you really don't, like
10:28
Speaker 1: you can't predict the things that are going to happen.
10:33
Speaker 1: You can't. You just have to show up. You got
10:36
Speaker 1: to be prepared. You got to be ready. When you get,
10:41
Speaker 1: you know, that couple extra dollars that you can put
10:43
Speaker 1: into your business, put it into your business. Put it
10:46
Speaker 1: into your team. If you don't have a team and
10:49
Speaker 1: it's just your homies who are willing to pull up
10:51
Speaker 1: and support you, make them your team. Period. Because, no,
10:56
Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell you. Because there's been a lot
10:58
Speaker 1: of me just figuring it out as I go. You know,
11:02
Speaker 1: I was blessed to grow up in a household where
11:05
Speaker 1: get it out the mud was the mantra. My mother
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Speaker 1: is an entrepreneur. I've never seen her work for anybody, ever.
11:10
Speaker 1: I'm 34 years old. And I lived a really good
11:14
Speaker 1: life as a kid. You know, I grew up in
11:16
Speaker 1: the inner city of Wilmington, Delaware. You know, everything's not
11:19
Speaker 1: perfect when you grow up in the inner city, but
11:20
Speaker 1: a lot of the imperfect things come from the outside world.
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Speaker 1: My mom did everything. I mean, I was in everything.
11:27
Speaker 1: I ice skated. I was a swimmer. I was on
11:31
Speaker 1: a swim team. I played tennis. I was in theater.
11:35
Speaker 1: You know, she sent me to, if I had a
11:37
Speaker 1: cousin on Broadway, I was in New York. I have
11:39
Speaker 1: family in New York. She made sure she took us
11:42
Speaker 1: to New York often I say us me and my
11:43
Speaker 1: younger brother and just really would you know take us
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Speaker 1: to Broadway and show us the fashion district where she
11:50
Speaker 1: used to sell her clothing she you know used to
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Speaker 1: be a fashion designer um she did everything that she
11:54
Speaker 1: could and and it made a lot of sense then
11:59
Speaker 1: when I was younger I didn't really get it but
12:01
Speaker 1: as I got older I was like okay and you
12:04
Speaker 1: know you talk about getting out the mud I think
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Speaker 1: that that's like a generational thing for us as black
12:07
Speaker 1: people And a lot of us don't understand that, you know,
12:10
Speaker 1: getting out the mud doesn't mean that you always have
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Speaker 1: to stay muddy. Like you can get it out the
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Speaker 1: mud and figure it out and, you know, that builds
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Speaker 1: your character. But when you begin to build real business
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Speaker 1: out of what you got out the mud, baby, it
12:23
Speaker 1: is a blessing. For real. So for me, just being
12:28
Speaker 1: back here again all these years later and, you know,
12:30
Speaker 1: working with Ajay for all these years, I'm going to
12:33
Speaker 1: tell you something like getting it out the mud was
12:36
Speaker 1: a process. I don't even think I understood what I, um,
12:41
Speaker 1: was really setting out to do. I just love the
12:44
Speaker 1: things that I was doing. And even today, like I
12:47
Speaker 1: met some of y'all here today and the things y'all
12:50
Speaker 1: were saying to me, I was like, Oh wow, wait,
12:53
Speaker 1: that's okay. So that's, that's happened. And that's how, you know,
12:55
Speaker 1: you guys are receiving it. Cause for me, every single day,
12:59
Speaker 1: I'm just getting up, getting up and I'm blessed to
13:01
Speaker 1: do the things that like I'm passionate about. I love, I,
13:04
Speaker 1: I love being able to get dressed and talk about
13:07
Speaker 1: things and talk to people and explore new things and
13:12
Speaker 1: dig into things. And it's not even just about people
13:14
Speaker 1: in their business. I've always been a very inquisitive person
13:18
Speaker 1: in my household. Any family managers in the building? Yeah.
13:23
Speaker 1: How many of y'all, you know, oldest kid in your family?
13:26
Speaker 1: Oldest girl in the family? Okay. Okay. So oldest kid
13:31
Speaker 1: in the family, y'all understand me. Oldest girl, especially because,
13:34
Speaker 1: you know, be the black woman. Y'all understand me a
13:37
Speaker 1: little bit differently. I've always had to be the person
13:40
Speaker 1: that acts as why. You tell me something can't be done, why?
13:44
Speaker 1: You tell me that this happened, why? You tell me
13:46
Speaker 1: that this is where this originated from, why? That was
13:48
Speaker 1: a natural knack for me. I didn't know that me
13:53
Speaker 1: asking why and wanting to understand why and wanting to
13:56
Speaker 1: be able to tell people about the why and how
13:58
Speaker 1: the why connected to the next thing and the next
14:00
Speaker 1: thing made me a producer. I had no idea at all.
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Speaker 1: A lot of times when you're getting it out the mud,
14:07
Speaker 1: you don't even know what you're getting. You don't even
14:08
Speaker 1: know what you're doing. You just in the mud, fighting,
14:12
Speaker 1: figuring it out. Like a lot of times. And, you know,
14:15
Speaker 1: if you guys are in the beginning stages of your businesses,
14:19
Speaker 1: And even if not in the beginning stages, but if
14:20
Speaker 1: you are in a stage of your business where you
14:22
Speaker 1: don't necessarily feel all of the progress and the success
14:26
Speaker 1: and all the accolades and all the claps, it can
14:28
Speaker 1: feel like you're still in the mud. I'm going to
14:31
Speaker 1: tell you something right now. It don't matter where you
14:33
Speaker 1: get to with that business, with that idea, with that manifestation,
14:36
Speaker 1: you will always feel like you're getting it out of
14:37
Speaker 1: the mud still. I think it's a mindset thing. I'm
14:41
Speaker 1: in the process right now of trying to transition myself.
14:44
Speaker 1: my mindset because I think for a lot of us too,
14:46
Speaker 1: it's like the thing, it's like surviving versus actually living.
14:52
Speaker 1: And I think as business owners, especially like Black-owned businesses,
14:56
Speaker 1: and I mean, I don't got to say minority-owned because
14:59
Speaker 1: we all in here looking like me. As Black-owned businesses,
15:03
Speaker 1: a lot of times, like, you know, even when you
15:05
Speaker 1: see some success, even when you see a profit, even
15:09
Speaker 1: if you guys have gotten your businesses or, you know,
15:11
Speaker 1: your careers to the point where you can live off
15:13
Speaker 1: of it, it still don't feel like enough. Sometimes you
15:16
Speaker 1: still feel like you just this constant tension or this
15:19
Speaker 1: constant fight. And what I've learned is that no matter
15:22
Speaker 1: what stage you're at, it's a mental thing for real.
15:29
Speaker 1: Like my mentality, I was a freshman in high school,
15:33
Speaker 1: like I'm going to go to New York. I'm going
15:36
Speaker 1: to model. I'm going to, you know, be on the
15:38
Speaker 1: cover of the magazines and I'm going to act and
15:41
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a talk show. That was my
15:42
Speaker 1: mentality my ninth grade year in high school because that's
15:45
Speaker 1: the way I was raised in my household. Accomplishing things
15:49
Speaker 1: that were not tangible was what I grew up knowing
15:52
Speaker 1: was possible because my mother, like she didn't even force
15:55
Speaker 1: it on me. I could have went and became anything.
15:57
Speaker 1: She honestly wanted me to be a lawyer and then
15:59
Speaker 1: a president before she thought I could be the black,
16:02
Speaker 1: the first black president. I don't know why. You know,
16:04
Speaker 1: Black moms, they just see some stuff. You know what
16:07
Speaker 1: I mean? It, you know, be a little whatever. But
16:10
Speaker 1: my mom wanted me to be a lawyer. You know,
16:12
Speaker 1: it was stable. But also she felt like, you know,
16:14
Speaker 1: with all the things that I would encounter as a
16:16
Speaker 1: Black woman in the world, I would know how to
16:19
Speaker 1: really fight for myself and fight for other people. But she,
16:26
Speaker 1: it was always a thing of like, even if it's
16:28
Speaker 1: not tangible, you were able to do it. And she
16:31
Speaker 1: subtly put that into my life every single day. And
16:36
Speaker 1: now that I'm grown and I look back on it,
16:38
Speaker 1: I realize how much your mental matters when you are
16:41
Speaker 1: trying to figure out getting it out the mud and
16:44
Speaker 1: what that means and how you get away from, not
16:48
Speaker 1: get away from it in a way of like, you're
16:50
Speaker 1: always going to be grinding. You're always going to be
16:51
Speaker 1: figuring it out. But you got to steal these little
16:55
Speaker 1: pockets of joy for yourself too. And you got to
16:58
Speaker 1: be okay with that. Like I realized sometimes like I,
17:02
Speaker 1: it'd be small things I'll do for myself. Just as
17:04
Speaker 1: a girl, you've been working hard. You tired. Take the
17:08
Speaker 1: day to go sleep. And I feel like, Ooh, but
17:10
Speaker 1: if I go sleep, if I wake up tomorrow, it's
17:11
Speaker 1: all going to be gone. That's, that's the get it
17:16
Speaker 1: out the mud mentality because when you get it out
17:19
Speaker 1: the mud and it's so, you know, that tension is there.
17:22
Speaker 1: It's hard for you to really understand that eventually you,
17:27
Speaker 1: You clean the mud off and it's like you're still
17:29
Speaker 1: getting it. And it feels like getting it off the mud,
17:31
Speaker 1: but you ain't in the mud no more. Like the
17:33
Speaker 1: business elevates, things elevate. And that's the beauty of coming
17:37
Speaker 1: to things like this, because you meet professionals who are
17:41
Speaker 1: in their business, who are in different levels and different,
17:44
Speaker 1: you know, eras of their business. And you get to
17:46
Speaker 1: see them five years later, 10 years later, living off
17:51
Speaker 1: of their like life that they have created from something
17:53
Speaker 1: that was not tangible at one point. and how beautiful
17:56
Speaker 1: that can be but every now and then that get
17:59
Speaker 1: it out the mud like feeling and like energy oh
18:03
Speaker 1: they gotta go back in train to go you gotta
18:06
Speaker 1: be you are literally your first line of defense when
18:10
Speaker 1: you are getting it out the mud like you are
18:12
Speaker 1: and then it gets tiring it gets very tiring you
18:16
Speaker 1: know you exhaust your finances your resources You know, you're
18:20
Speaker 1: looking for like this support that doesn't really exist because
18:23
Speaker 1: a lot of times people don't understand. You know, you're
18:26
Speaker 1: blessed if you have a tribe of people who get
18:29
Speaker 1: getting it out the mud. I will say that. And
18:31
Speaker 1: I was blessed to have that to a certain extent.
18:35
Speaker 1: But there's still a certain point of your vision is
18:37
Speaker 1: yours and God gives it to you. So a lot
18:39
Speaker 1: of times you're walking alone. So you walking through that
18:41
Speaker 1: mud and, you know, you get it off of you,
18:45
Speaker 1: but you're doing it by yourself. That's tough. But if
18:48
Speaker 1: I'm being honest with y'all, once you get to a
18:51
Speaker 1: point where, you know, that getting out the mud isn't
18:54
Speaker 1: the physical swinging of the mud off of you and
18:57
Speaker 1: your business and your life and your household. And it's
19:00
Speaker 1: a mentality that you can go in and out of.
19:02
Speaker 1: Like every now and then I got to get out
19:05
Speaker 1: of my like black girl luxury. You deserve to be
19:09
Speaker 1: able to go by that and take that weekend and
19:11
Speaker 1: do this and get to the grind for real. Not
19:14
Speaker 1: even every now and then. Majority of my time is spent.
19:18
Speaker 1: grinding like brown girl grinding is a moniker for real
19:21
Speaker 1: not because you know it's just like this cute thing
19:25
Speaker 1: I started brown girl grinding in 2016 I moved to
19:28
Speaker 1: LA I had an agent tell me like you know
19:31
Speaker 1: black women on television in the talk show space and
19:34
Speaker 1: just in general period it's really difficult to tell y'all
19:38
Speaker 1: and you a brown skin girl you know like I
19:41
Speaker 1: I don't know what I could do with you And
19:43
Speaker 1: he was honest with me. He was an aging guy.
19:45
Speaker 1: He was older. He was really honest with me because
19:47
Speaker 1: he said, you know, I have a daughter your age
19:48
Speaker 1: who just also had growth. college. And if she was
19:51
Speaker 1: in the world trying to figure it out, I would
19:53
Speaker 1: want somebody to be honest with her. And I appreciated
19:56
Speaker 1: that honesty. I was pissed the hell off. I'm like, yo,
19:59
Speaker 1: I didn't move all the way to LA for you
20:00
Speaker 1: to play in my face. I did not. I've done
20:03
Speaker 1: a lot of work up until this point. But I
20:06
Speaker 1: was so appreciative of it because, number one, it was honest.
20:09
Speaker 1: But also I think it lit a spark in me.
20:11
Speaker 1: I left that office that day and I was like, okay,
20:16
Speaker 1: you know, like if I'm thinking about like we all
20:18
Speaker 1: own businesses and are creators and work within different fields here,
20:22
Speaker 1: you guys know the best thing you can do is
20:25
Speaker 1: find a hole in the market and fulfill a need
20:28
Speaker 1: that people don't even know they need. It makes you
20:31
Speaker 1: one of one. It makes you the go-to for something.
20:34
Speaker 1: That has been my life. From that moment on, I
20:36
Speaker 1: was like, okay, if you're telling me that Girls who
20:39
Speaker 1: look like me, you don't even know how to market
20:42
Speaker 1: us and how to make money off of us. I
20:44
Speaker 1: don't want to figure that out because I know it's
20:46
Speaker 1: some money out here. Like I've always been a person
20:49
Speaker 1: that has been able to get to the tangible, like
20:53
Speaker 1: the flip of the money. That was not ever my issue.
20:57
Speaker 1: Growing up in Delaware, we threw fashion shows. We threw parties.
21:01
Speaker 1: And my mom always supported all of this because her
21:04
Speaker 1: thing was whatever you set your mind out to do,
21:08
Speaker 1: you're going to figure it out. So I'm in L.A.
21:11
Speaker 1: and I get told that and I'm like, you know what?
21:12
Speaker 1: I'm going to just start documenting my journey. And I
21:17
Speaker 1: want to do it in a way where when the
21:18
Speaker 1: world finally realizes they need me, they know exactly where
21:21
Speaker 1: to find me. So I started hashtagging Brown Girl Grinding
21:24
Speaker 1: in 2016. No, actually, it was before 2016. It was
21:28
Speaker 1: around like 2014, 2015. And it was just like small stuff.
21:32
Speaker 1: Like I would get cute and come to events like
21:34
Speaker 1: this in L.A., Or I would go cover carpets and
21:38
Speaker 1: all of this for free. And I was living off
21:40
Speaker 1: of a savings account that my grandmother had put aside
21:42
Speaker 1: for me. Thank God for grandmother and their prayers and
21:44
Speaker 1: their savings, right? No, for real. Because my first time
21:49
Speaker 1: moving to LA, I was literally living off of a
21:51
Speaker 1: savings account that my grandmother gave to me. And the
21:53
Speaker 1: fact that she prayed for me and was like, I
21:55
Speaker 1: know you're going to figure this out. So I would
21:57
Speaker 1: go to these events and just do as much as
22:00
Speaker 1: I could for YouTube. This was when YouTube was so new.
22:03
Speaker 1: Like when I tell y'all it was new, I mean,
22:05
Speaker 1: I would reach out to people and say, hey, I
22:07
Speaker 1: got this show on YouTube sitting down and interviewing people.
22:10
Speaker 1: I got such and such views. They'd be like, YouTube
22:12
Speaker 1: sitting down with you? Like if it was a celebrity,
22:15
Speaker 1: like a real celebrity, I'd be like, no, we good.
22:16
Speaker 1: We're not sitting down with you. Like what network are
22:18
Speaker 1: you with? Now everybody has a show on YouTube and
22:22
Speaker 1: YouTube is doing basically development deals trying to get you
22:25
Speaker 1: to not go to Netflix. I hired myself a long
22:28
Speaker 1: time ago. Like I knew that this stuff was coming
22:31
Speaker 1: because I've always been an internet kid. So I'm doing
22:33
Speaker 1: all of that and figuring this stuff out. And eventually
22:37
Speaker 1: what happened through me sharing my journey, you guys can
22:40
Speaker 1: go to my YouTube channel. It's Lauren LaRosa TV. I
22:43
Speaker 1: documented the day I moved to LA and everything after.
22:46
Speaker 1: I mean, car being repo, sleeping on my homegirl couch,
22:51
Speaker 1: having to move back to Delaware and working for a
22:53
Speaker 1: bank for two years and trying to figure out why
22:55
Speaker 1: the hell I was at this bank. Like me, I'm
22:58
Speaker 1: in this bank like this. I'm in this bank with
23:00
Speaker 1: all these old, you know, rich white men trying to
23:04
Speaker 1: explain to them what the culture of women's in Delaware was.
23:06
Speaker 1: And I'm in the community relations department. So my job
23:09
Speaker 1: was to give money back to the community, which I
23:11
Speaker 1: love because I really, really understand what people say when
23:16
Speaker 1: it's like, it takes a, it takes a village. Like
23:19
Speaker 1: my mom did a lot, but, She needed those voices
23:23
Speaker 1: outside of the house, the good ones. I mean, the
23:26
Speaker 1: bad ones came too, but I understood what that meant
23:29
Speaker 1: early because my neighborhood raised me. A lot of the
23:33
Speaker 1: people I grew up with are my counterparts. We show
23:36
Speaker 1: up for each other. You know what I mean? So
23:37
Speaker 1: I'm working at this bank. I'm doing all these things.
23:39
Speaker 1: I'm documenting all of this. What started to happen was
23:42
Speaker 1: people begin to hashtag brown girl grinding as well. So
23:46
Speaker 1: there were like, you know, black girls who were like
23:49
Speaker 1: cute outside figuring it out. Hashtag and Brown Girl Grinding.
23:53
Speaker 1: And when I realized that, I'm like, oh, OK, this
23:57
Speaker 1: is like a movement. We could be like a club.
24:00
Speaker 1: So 2015, I was like, OK, I need to trademark it.
24:07
Speaker 1: But I don't want to go home. I don't want
24:09
Speaker 1: to ask for money because no one's going to understand
24:12
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. So I started selling swimsuits. I'm like,
24:15
Speaker 1: if I get enough money to trademark Brown Girl Grinding,
24:17
Speaker 1: I'm going to end the swimsuit line. I sold swimsuits
24:19
Speaker 1: for maybe a week. Everything sold out in a week.
24:21
Speaker 1: That's how God be working. When you know you want
24:23
Speaker 1: to do something, right? Sold the swimsuits, trademark Brown Girl
24:28
Speaker 1: Grinding in 2016 as a production company and has been
24:30
Speaker 1: a moniker ever since. And... When I think about just
24:34
Speaker 1: that hustle and how I've had to replicate that energy
24:39
Speaker 1: of that hustle over and over and over again, you
24:42
Speaker 1: don't get to no point in your life where all
24:45
Speaker 1: of that leaves you. Like, people talk to me about
24:48
Speaker 1: brown girl grinding. I'm like, oh, I don't want to
24:49
Speaker 1: grind because grinding is like grinding yourself into the ground.
24:54
Speaker 1: And I get what they're saying. Like, you think about
24:56
Speaker 1: a nail. Eventually, you grind a nail enough, the nail
24:59
Speaker 1: is useless. It's dull. It's nothing it can do for you.
25:03
Speaker 1: What I've had to learn through all of my experience
25:05
Speaker 1: of things, right? Like my mom in her cancer journey
25:09
Speaker 1: and her surviving stage four and all these things is
25:12
Speaker 1: that you have to figure out before you get to
25:14
Speaker 1: that point where you are no good to nobody, you
25:16
Speaker 1: got to be good to yourself. And getting it out
25:19
Speaker 1: the mud can literally drain you to the point where
25:22
Speaker 1: you're no good to nobody or yourself. So for me,
25:26
Speaker 1: when I think about getting it out the mud, I
25:28
Speaker 1: think about the mental part of it. and how you
25:31
Speaker 1: can turn it on and turn it off. And if
25:32
Speaker 1: I could tell y'all anything today, learn how to turn
25:35
Speaker 1: that on. And when it's time, I'm grinding. I'm outside.
25:40
Speaker 1: I'm frontline, trained to go. You can't tell me nothing.
25:43
Speaker 1: I'm here. I'm prepared. I'm ready. And that's why you
25:45
Speaker 1: guys have been able to see what you guys have
25:47
Speaker 1: been able to see from me. But what I'm also
25:49
Speaker 1: learning now in my 34 years of life, you know,
25:51
Speaker 1: is that At the same time, I have to take
25:58
Speaker 1: care of me as well too. So as you're getting
26:01
Speaker 1: it out the mud, also realize that getting it out
26:03
Speaker 1: the mud needs to be like a character that you
26:07
Speaker 1: like enable. You know what I mean? Like your businesses
26:11
Speaker 1: cannot sustain if you are not sustaining once you get
26:14
Speaker 1: through the mud. You gotta be able to understand that
26:18
Speaker 1: like all that y'all are doing and the work that
26:20
Speaker 1: you're putting in is seasons of you only get it
26:23
Speaker 1: out the mud. And you go in and out of
26:25
Speaker 1: those seats no matter what level of your life you're on.
26:27
Speaker 1: I promise you that. But at the same time, when
26:31
Speaker 1: there are little successes, celebrate them. When you can take
26:35
Speaker 1: a little nap, don't feel guilty about it. When you
26:38
Speaker 1: got to isolate yourself from your friends, it's okay. If
26:41
Speaker 1: they don't understand, they got to go anyway. Like getting
26:46
Speaker 1: it out the mud is not just about the physical
26:49
Speaker 1: burnout of trying to figure these things out. It's also
26:52
Speaker 1: about How are you taking care of yourself? Because you're
26:56
Speaker 1: going to have to get it again and again and
26:59
Speaker 1: again and again and again. But eventually what will happen
27:03
Speaker 1: is you got resources, you got people you can call,
27:06
Speaker 1: you understand schedules, you understand booking agreements, you understand contracts,
27:11
Speaker 1: you understand boundaries. And that's when you really get it
27:15
Speaker 1: out the mud and things are elevating for real, for real.
27:18
Speaker 1: When you have got yourself to a place where You know,
27:21
Speaker 1: you're grinding, but you're also understanding that, like, you are
27:25
Speaker 1: the magic. And you got to protect the magic. Life
27:28
Speaker 1: get tricky. You got to stay in that magic. That's it. Y'all,
27:35
Speaker 1: I'm always shedding tears, okay? Because this stuff means a
27:37
Speaker 1: lot to me. I am so grateful for everything that
27:40
Speaker 1: is happening day to day in my life. I'm grateful
27:42
Speaker 1: for God for even blessing me with the ability to
27:44
Speaker 1: recognize and to position and to think through and to strategize.
27:48
Speaker 1: I am just grateful. They say to those who a
27:51
Speaker 1: lot is given, too much is required. And I never— it' s
27:54
Speaker 1: like I understood what that meant, but I don't think
27:55
Speaker 1: I felt the weight of it until as I'm getting
27:58
Speaker 1: older now. And I want to build up my family
28:01
Speaker 1: members and my niece and eventually when I have children
28:03
Speaker 1: in the way that I was brought up because I'm
28:05
Speaker 1: realizing that everybody is not like this. People are not naturally—
28:09
Speaker 1: People that can just figure things out on everybody's not,
28:12
Speaker 1: you know, a person wanting to give back and rebuild
28:14
Speaker 1: and do things in the right way. But I think
28:16
Speaker 1: it's because people have to be impacted by the right
28:18
Speaker 1: people in their lives sometimes in order to make that
28:21
Speaker 1: trajectory a real thing. and it's like each one teach
28:25
Speaker 1: one like if I can teach somebody what I learned
28:28
Speaker 1: and the things that course corrected me I'm going to
28:30
Speaker 1: do it and as I as I realize that I'm
28:33
Speaker 1: being put in a position to be able to do
28:34
Speaker 1: that I just feel just the the grateful profound honor
28:39
Speaker 1: that God has bestowed upon my life and I don't
28:41
Speaker 1: know it gets me so emotional but I'm learning a
28:43
Speaker 1: lot about building and what get out the mud really
28:46
Speaker 1: truly means and how there's so many levels to it
28:48
Speaker 1: and That's the level of getting out the mud that
28:50
Speaker 1: I'm in right now. So y'all know, I always keep
28:53
Speaker 1: y'all posted on all the latest. I take you guys
28:54
Speaker 1: with me everywhere. It's the latest with Lauren La Rosa.
28:58
Speaker 1: I tell y'all every single episode, y'all could be anywhere
29:00
Speaker 1: with any old body, but you choose to be right
29:02
Speaker 1: here with me, my low riders. I appreciate you. I'll
29:05
Speaker 1: catch you in my next one.