Lauren Reed
(Posted on Monday, August 29, 2022)
We wondered how women earlier in their career view risk-taking. Then we met Lauren Reed. Lauren grew up in St. Louis. Her father was an entrepreneur and money was always a concern for the family. Lauren realized at a young age she wanted to be financially independent.
After studying marketing and communications in college, Lauren went to work for an ad agency. After eight years, the agency imploded. They had grown too fast, and there was conflict between the partners. Lauren left to do freelance work, when one of her key clients from the ad agency reached out to hire her. Lauren decided to create a digital agency of her own.
Lauren values her independence. “After my experience at my last agency and what I learned, I realized I didn’t want my destiny in anyone else’s hands. Running my own agency, I have twenty different clients I work with, versus working for someone else, that’s one person who can decide to fire me.”
Lauren has run her own agency in Nashville for over a decade. Every year the agency has grown at least 10%, including the two years when she had her children. She has several major corporate clients.
Lauren focuses deeply on creating the right kind of culture:
“I went through a quarter-life crisis a few years ago where I thought, all I’ve ever done is work in an agency and it’s all I’m going to do. Then it hit me. What I’m doing now and what I’m providing is a really great workplace culture. My filters on my agency decisions are, am I providing a workplace I’d want my children, particularly my daughter, to work at?”