$5.5M Profit in 2023 - at 27! | Lauren Tickner

She ditched the corporate grind and now wins massively at 27!

How did Lauren Tickner do it?

Lauren Tickner is the CEO of Impact School and Scale Systems. In 2023 alone, she generated $5.5 million in profit. With over 1,200 businesses using her systems, she's proven that her strategies work for agencies, consultants, and coaches looking to boost their businesses.

Lauren believes that making organic social media content should be your primary strategy for business growth and she has the track record to prove it.

This interview is also packed with Lauren’s best tips on using AI, boosting team productivity and building personal brands that attract top clients.

Enjoy the episode.

Follow Lauren Tickner at:

https://www.instagram.com/laurentickner
https://www.facebook.com/lauren.tickner
linkedin.com/in/laurentickner
https://x.com/laurentickner
https://www.youtube.com/c/laurentickner
https://www.tiktok.com/@laurentickner  

Follow Ken Okazaki at: 

https://www.instagram.com/kenokazaki/
https://www.youtube.com/c/KenOkazaki
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-content-capitalists-with-ken-okazaki/id1634328251
https://open.spotify.com/show/09IzKghscecbI7jPDVBJTw

Content Capitalists YouTube

Transcript

Lauren: I physically hated my job to the point where my eyes were hurting all the time. I was having a headache, like the corporate life that was not my game. And then I realized in that moment, there was such a contrast between. How I thought my life was going to be and how it really was. 

Jeremy (AI): With a background in fitness coaching, Lauren Tickner transitioned into a business coach and influencer, traveling to 12 countries and building business systems without outside investors.

Matilda (AI): In 2023 alone, she made 5. 5 million in profit after tax. Just felt very wrong to 

Lauren: me. So I was like, okay, I'll go and create a life of freedom, build my own business. And now I can confidently say hand on heart that I do have freedom. And so what's next? It was chasing revenue. And I was really shocked to realize that, wow, there are so many people who have businesses making a million a month and they're making like half the profit that I, and I was like, huh, wait, maybe I've actually done something good.

So I'm still trying to figure this out in my head because I still don't feel like I am where I need to be revenue wise, but now I shifted. How can I just maintain my freedom? 

Jeremy (AI): The Content Capitalist Podcast.

Ken Okazaki: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Content Capitalist Podcast. Today, we have a returning guest. I don't do this often, but when I have a true Content Capitalist on the show, then I'm very, very lucky to be able to catch them and bring them back. Her name is Lauren Tickner. Now she needs no introduction, but let me just read you something that she posted.

Last year, we're in 2024. So I guess this is 2023. She made 5. 5 million profit after tax, traveled to 12 countries, and doesn't do OnlyFans, doesn't have outside investors, doesn't spend any of daddy's money, and she's making millions as she travels around the world. Lauren, I want to start with a question if it's okay with you.

Why do you keep going and what's it all for? 

Lauren: Uh, yeah. So you, you called me out on my authority injury. That's what we call it, because sometimes you just got to say those bold things that are kind of awkward to say, to get people to listen to you so that you can reach a new audience who know that you're not just some like, you know, random guru on the internet.

So why do I keep going? 

I was thinking about this over the last few months, because as I've, I've I've worked on building the systems and team around me. I've had much more time and there's probably some people who can relate to this, you know, in the beginning, if you have an agency or a coaching business or doing even freelancing or whatever business you're running, you're Probably doing everything yourself, all the client work, right?

Doing all the sales or the marketing, all the tech, everything. And as I've not been doing that anymore, I had a lot of time on my hands. And I kind of came to a challenge with this question actually, because in the early days, when I very first started, it was because I physically hated my job to the point where.

As I was looking around, my eyes were hurting all the time. I was having a headache. Like I just, the corporate life, that was not my game. And then I realized in that moment, there was such a contrast between how I thought my life was going to be and how it really was. And my younger brother, who's two years younger than me, he's disabled.

He has epilepsy, autism, tons of other disabilities. He's in a wheelchair, can't eat. He has a tube in his stomach and he had his freedom stripped away from him at birth. And the fact that I was working this job that I hated, it just felt very wrong to me. So I was like, okay, I'll go and create a life of freedom, build my own business, have no idea what was going to happen.

And in the early days, it was chasing freedom, right? And now I can confidently say hand on heart that I do have freedom. And so then it became, well, what's next? And I. Over the last few years, it was, it was chasing revenue. Cause I would see massive businesses making like 2 million a month, 5 million a month.

And I was like, okay, I need to get to a million a month and then two, then three, et cetera. And what was really interesting is that, you know, how Ken, and I know you know this, you're friends with a lot of people who are big players in the industry and just in business in general. And I was really shocked to realize that, wow, there are so many people who have businesses making a million a month and they're making like half the profit that I am.

And I was Wait, maybe I've actually done something good. And so I've had this real, like weird dilemma and I have to say, I still haven't overcome this. I'm still trying to figure this out in my head because I still don't feel like I am where I need to be revenue wise, which is really interesting, but. I think it's because you see these such big numbers all the time.

So I was chasing for like, I'd say up until about a year and a half ago. So probably right when we first connected up until then, I was always chasing like, let's get to a million a month, a million a month. But now I shifted. 

And especially this is especially over the last six months, how can I just maintain my freedom?

And so if a team member comes to me with an urgent problem or something, instead of jumping in and fixing that thing, I'm asking them, okay, that's a problem. So what are some solutions that you suggest? And I'll, I'll guide you in finding out the right answer. So instead of me being reactive and essentially allowing my freedom to be taken from me and my piece, I shift it.

And I think, okay, how can I use this as an opportunity to coach someone to solve a problem? So it's really hard. I have to say every day, I'm still trying to fight the urge to solve the problems for them. But I realized well, I think just maintaining freedom is really what I'm optimizing for.

And it's not like the most sexiest answer, if I'm honest, but it is really what keeps me going. And I think it stems from, and I don't know, but I think it stems from seeing my younger brother not have freedom since he was like literally born, you know? So that's probably what I would say. 

Ken Okazaki: I love that.

However, like you're 27 years old, right? Right. You're profiting at five and a half million dollars. I don't think more money would actually give you more freedom at this point. So what is it really? 

Lauren: I think for me, I had a big struggle in actually stepping into really building my personal brand. Because again, you see so many people on the internet who say these things like, Oh, well, I've sold a business for X amount of million, or I make X million per month.

And again, I genuinely think there's a big problem that When people say these numbers, they don't say profit. They say revenue. And most of the time it's not even cash flowing 

Ken Okazaki: Are you trying to prove something then? 

Lauren: Yeah, me or them. Me, both. You, are you trying to prove something 

Ken Okazaki: by by succeeding at that level, 

Lauren: You have to though, on the internet, right?

Because otherwise, why should people listen to you? So I think it's probably some, like, issue where I still don't think like, my backtrack record is like strong enough for people to actually listen to me. It's probably something like that that makes me question or and compare myself to other people.

That's for sure a thing like comparisonitis, right? Um, but I also think to get the best clients, the ones that I really like to work with the most, you have to be at a certain level, right? And so it's also a game of, of trying to level up who I'm working with and who I'm serving. I'd, I'd suppose, because Of course, like anyone can come and build a massive audience.

And I'd say that's like a content creator side. However, who are the people that you actually listen to in business? The people who have done what you aspire to do. So there are people, right, who have like scaled big e commerce businesses, then sold that thing for X amount, who have a beautiful family, who travel the world, who are healthy, who are fit.

Like, I'm going to listen to that person about business tips more than I would listen to someone who's just decided one day to make content on the internet about business when they haven't scaled a business to that level before, right? So, I think it's just that thing in my mind where I'm like, okay, in order for people to listen to me, I must maintain the thing that they most desire.

but also that has to be true for me. Okay. And I think for me, for sure, it's the freedom piece, the money. I agree. I think actually you can, like, I've had it as well in the past where I've scaled bigger profit margins goes way down. And then I've got this massive operation on this giant team. And personally, for me, that's not enjoyable at all.

And even since we last spoke, I stripped out my team a lot, and we've been finding ways to. Install automation and tech, etc. Because you have more control over that and the results are more repeatable. Plus if something goes wrong, you fix it one time. And then that has massive leverage. Whereas for a team member, each individual team member that requires management, etc, etc.

So we've been really trying to think how can we add systems through automations versus just systems through people? Which has been, you really interesting actually, especially with the rise of AI. Now, I'm not an AI guru by any means, but I'd say we've been getting some killer results. Like we were able to get, and I say this in like the most loving way possible, but we were able to reduce our team of setters by four, fewer people because we're using AI, which has been really amazing for us because that team is really challenging to manage because You know how it is with churn and with people not hitting numbers or saying one wrong thing that can then cause problems.

So that was really nice for us over the last few years, but to come back full circle and answer your question, like, why do I keep going and, and all this stuff? I genuinely love it. I really do enjoy what I do. And I do think that I, I have freedom. And so that's probably my really simple, like one sentence answer.

Ken Okazaki: Thanks for that. 

I've got a question is, uh, I think you're experiencing this and a lot of people experience this once they, you know, get to at least like a seven figure a year income is you realize that money only solves money problems and there's a lot of problems that it will not solve. What were some issues or problems that you realized money absolutely can't solve, but you didn't realize that until you hit the certain level of affluency.

Can you give me some examples of things that right now you're still working through that no amount of money will ever fix? 

Lauren: Well, money creates a lot of problems. So it solves problems, but it also creates problems. For example, especially when you're on the Internet doing Internet things, it attracts a lot of the wrong people.

So I found that some very scammy people. actually tried to, well, they saw what I was doing online, try to make business deals with you. And this isn't like, okay, I bought an online course and it was a scam. No, no, no. I'm talking like. I still can't say too much to this day. Um, but I will say that that caused a massive, massive problem in my life over the last couple of years and trusting that was trusting the wrong people, letting people in, sharing too much information.

So the problem that I created was a problem that I then had to solve with a lot of money through creating ways to protect assets, et cetera, so that that's untouchable now. Okay. So personally now, I own nothing. And that's great because now that problem won't reoccur. But being a young woman on the internet who has a lot of money, that, that in itself does create problems, right?

You're seen as a victim. You're seen as someone that is, well, a potential person that you can go after. And these are interesting things that I didn't realize were even a conversation until I had made a lot of money and now I speak to other people and they're like, yeah, Lauren, like, I mean, did you not think about doing that and putting things into very protected places where literally people can't come after you?

I was like, ah, okay. Interesting. So it actually made me pretty paranoid for quite a long time. I couldn't really trust anyone before I met my boyfriend now, um, which I've been with him now at this point to this day, about two and a half years. So even when I met him though, and before I met him, I was super skeptical whenever I was dating anyone.

Cause it was like, Oh gosh, like I don't really want them to know that I have money. Cause is it going to like emasculate them? Or if so, are they just trying to date me because I do have money? 

Ken Okazaki: Looking for a sugar mommy. Right. 

Lauren: But I'm not being funny. That's the thing. Like that's actually a real thing. So that's one side of things is actually the problems that money can create, which are things that I think aren't spoken about enough.

Right. So then the question becomes, okay, how can I protect my assets? How can I share things on the internet in a way that gets people to listen. To me, without them seeing me upfront. These dodgy people without those dodgy people seeing that you are somebody that can actually, uh, essentially be taken advantage of.

Um, and then on the other side, what are the problems that money can't solve? I think it's anything health related, right? There's that saying, and I think Tony Robbins or somebody, someone like that said this, but you can have a thousand wishes, but if you don't have your health, then you just have one. And I used to use that quote a lot when I was, you doing my fitness business back in the day.

but it really is so true because when you see people around you who are struggling, who are suffering like my granddad died because he had alzheimer's and you can't do anything with the money that you have. And so that then becomes, and I now really do see why people get into those charitable and, philanthropic endeavors once they have money.

Cause you literally realize that, okay, now I have this. Well, how can I actually put it to work to try and achieve something bigger and better? And that was always my ultimate goal that I wanted to do when I first started. Cause my brother, I wanted to do something in the world of either disabled kids and care families, or potentially even do something which is looking into brain research, et cetera, in the world of epilepsy.

Cause like his condition is. Uncurable. It's physically right now, uncurable. And so I think it's just quite an interesting concept because I personally get a lot of anxiety about my health. Again, seeing my younger brother with disabilities. Naturally, anything that goes wrong in my body, I'm freaking out.

And so I've done a lot of work on that, but still that doesn't go away. Like that's me in my own head. And so there's those things which are just you in your own head, which you can't solve that with money. Sure. You could mask it by like doing some activities or going shopping. But at the end of the day, when you're by yourself in a room by yourself, are you okay with that?

And so I was having some like heart palpitations because I was stressed and I was like really freaking out like, Oh my God, am I going to die? And, you can't solve that with money, right? Like I've solved it with meditation, thankfully, but, it's scary, right? And so those are the things that, is interesting.

What do you think? I mean, have you gone through this? Like, what, what's your perspective on, on this topic? 

Ken Okazaki: You know, I think there's a, I was running from things for a lot of my life. there's a recent podcast, I record, it's not out yet, but I, I only recently started sharing about my upbringing, which was, I was actually born in, a cult, like, and one of the really bad ones, like messed up stuff.

And, if I bring that up in a social setting, then there's a million more questions, you know, so I've always just kind of avoided that. But recently I've been okay sharing that. And the reason I'm sharing this right now is because when.I was an adult and had kids and was married is when I was actually for the first time exposed to the real world.

Because it was like this extremely isolated type of environment, and I had no skills, I had no degrees, I had, and when I say skills and degrees, like no, nothing official, right? Nothing licensed, credited, no job history, nothing, and, I might unpack this more in another episode, but this is about you. I remember thinking that there's no way I'm going to be able to support my wife and kids.

Like this and nobody could pay me enough to be able to support them. Just having a normal lifestyle that's not poverty. And then my only way out was to create a business. I knew nothing about what I was doing. I've just hacked it together. All along, I was running away from this fear of being broke and my wife and kids, like me not being able to provide for them.

That would be like the biggest, most shameful thing in my life. And I started with six kids and a wife. That's how I started. Okay? So my motivation was six people who were, I think my youngest was one and my, my oldest was, uh, 11 or 12 at the time. And I was just like, if I would, I will die before I give up trying to figure this out.

So I was able to just take every single inhibition that, and I was very shy, like very shy. I was scared of like any type of like physical, engagement with people, speaking in public. Like, everything scared the heck out of me. Making decisions about money scared me because we didn't, you know, we, we grew up in this environment where we weren't allowed to keep money, you know, like, it's, it's crazy.

There's one of those kinds of cults. but I knew that if I just let myself give into any one of those fears, then it will be game over and my mind would take over the fears to take over and everything would just start collapsing. So I just pushed all that stuff down and just figured shit out from scratch.

And come, the last, you know, five, 10 years, you know, we've been living very comfortably. The money problems have, for the most part, been solved. And I don't know if it's a problem that I can't, you know, just buy 10 bitcoins every day. I'd love to, but you know, But since it has, that pressure's off now, I have, you know, very good income from my recurring clients.

I'm getting great results. Uh, you know, a few of them we just talked about before we started the show, but I've been able to focus on me. And what that means is I actually hired a therapist, unpacked all that stuff. You know that I just been, pushing down. Uh, money can't solve that, man. you gotta spend the time and be okay with, you know.

Digging into that messy stuff that's, that's up here, right. another thing was fixing the relationships with my wife and kids because I was in survival mode all the way for like, I think it's 10 straight years of just trying to. Not be homeless, like literally that was the words my meant.

I, I gotta do this because we, we can't afford to be homeless. so now I gotta go back and fix these relationships because. I was trying to provide and protect instead of connect and love, right? another thing is, I'm actually going and taking care of my body. I'm going to the gym regularly.

I'm measuring my macros. I got my nutrition down. I hired a personal fitness trainer who made a plan for me. and you know, I got diagnosed with ADHD and since I, I got medicated, I am just like, it's like, why did I not know about this? 44 years. So. those are things, I guess, partially they're money problems because like, for example, some people, don't have enough to hire a personal fitness trainer.

well, they say they can't afford healthy food. I think that's bullshit. You know, like just put a bit more work and learn to cook, you know, there's some examples. Yeah. Yeah. To answer your question. 

Lauren: So cool. Because you don't have the time to focus on those things or the energy, should I say, if you are so worried about money and I see, uh, interesting.

I see this a lot in my clients who have a big team, which is way bigger than it should be because they've seen some ads and they think that they need to hire all these people. So they're basically making no profit in the beginning. And I see them sacrificing themselves and not showing up even as a good leader, right?

Because they haven't had the time or the energy to focus on those leadership skills that are required in order to actually get themselves out of doing all the things because they're having to force with brute force everything through because of the fact that it's like a, it's like a downward cycle, right?

If you don't make the time for that skill development, then you aren't able to show up as the best leader. Same with fitness. I mean, thankfully that was never for me an issue because, you know, tracking my, I actually did stop tracking micros for quite a few years and I started again recently. I also invested in a new trainer, which I hadn't done for years because obviously I was a trainer.

I'd had.

And so I was like, uh, actually, you know what? I really should take a dose of my own medicine and hire a fitness trainer. And that's been one of the best things ever because now you don't have to think about it. I mean, I'm obviously such an advocate for hiring one, but not having to think about anything that you do and just sticking to the plan.

That like reduces a bajillion decisions, literally, um, but I think it was interesting what you said about, why do you think it was that the first solution to feeling trapped was to create a business? Cause I had the same thing. As soon as I hated that job, I remember at the job, everyone, you could have a standing desk or a sitting desk, okay?

And it could go up or down on the button. This was like early days of that, you know? Almost 10 years ago, right? So I was the only one in the afternoon who would take the standing desk because everyone else was sitting down and nobody could see what I was doing. Okay. So I was like that really bad employee.

You know, the one that everyone business owner hates now, and I'm sorry about my former self, but I would just Google stuff all day. I'd be on LinkedIn. I'd be reading social media content. I'd be reading papers. I'd be Googling, searching everything. And I remember vividly. For weeks on end trying to figure out how do I start a business.

And the only solution that I had like then, and don't get me wrong, I already had like a tiny, tiny, tiny business, as in, like I was getting paid by brands to post on social media all the way back then. And I had some fitness coaching clients, but I wanted to start a physical product. fitness clothing company.

Cause like this was in the early days of brands like Gymshark. And so I kind of, unfortunately I didn't quite catch the trend cause I couldn't figure it out with my 18 year old brain just didn't allow me to quite get it and make it happen. But it's all good, right? We're here and we've done a different path, which I'm very happy about.

But my solution was I must create a business. So my only answer though back then was. Because of how I grew up, for me, it was more about like, go to university, get a really good job, I already had the good job, but then I wanted to go to university, so I enrolled on the UK's number one business degree, that was my solution, and when I got there, by then, that was a year later, well, by then, I actually had a ton of clients, and I was in my accounting lecture, In this big hole, right?

With all these super smart kids. And he's talking about tax. And I was like, cause in the UK, if you are making more than 80, 000 pounds a year, you have to register a company and have taxes. So I heard him say this and I was like, what? I had no idea. And so I had a ton of clients at that time. So I was like calculating everything, the dollars, the pounds, the Aussie dollars.

I was having all these different currencies. And I went and spoke to a lecturer at the front of the room. And I said, Hey, I think I need to register a company. I have clients here, there, and everywhere. I'm pretty sure it's making more than 80, 000 a year. Please, can you help me? And he was like, Oh, well, learn.

That would be a really good question for Google. And I was like, this guy who is supposedly my teacher won't even help me. Start my business, which is already running, but it's not a full entity. And I'm like the only one in this business degree that actually has a business right now. And at that point I just totally checked out and that's why I left.

But for you, why do you think it was that your only solution was to start a business? That's, that is quite interesting. Like, where do we get these ideas from? It's very fascinating. 

Ken Okazaki: You know, I started listening to a lot of motivational, like, uh, CDs at the time. You know, CDs, wow, yeah, old. I w I'm not old enough to have got those on cassette tape, even though when I was little we did have cassette tapes, but that was only music.

but I think I can't remember who it was. Maybe it was Robert Kiyosaki. And he talked about protecting your assets with businesses. and if you have a business, you can, like actually, deduct expenses before taxes. And I didn't really think of taking action on that at the time because I wasn't, you know, this was much earlier before I left the cult.

There was, I think the decision to, to start a business was because I looked around at all the different jobs and the average pay. and what I could expect at the experience level I had. And I think now if I were to go back, I would look at it differently. Like I could probably talk my way into a, like a management or commission or performance kind of pay and make a lot of money.

But I'm glad I didn't because I might have stuck through that corporate track forever. But I just saw what kind of jobs I thought I could do. And no, and they were all not going to get us past the poverty line with six children. It just like, even after like, I'm looking at like 10 year progression through corporate and stuff.

And then I was like, no, that, that looks like a dead end for me. And, I got to start a business. And the first business I started was actually, like doing live events, putting on, you know, big productions. And I was a promoter. We do anywhere from like, 2, 000 to 8, 000 people once a month. I launched my business off the tail of the movie, Wolf of Wall Street.

And I hired Jordan Balfour to come speak, and I figured, okay, this was a big hit in Japan, I'll run ads, and fill the room, and figure everything out as I go, so literally that was, you know, like, off to a running start, stumbling, tripping, cuts, bruises, little broken bones, you know, like, you know, figuratively, And no, the event did not go very well, but I got started.

That was my moonshot goal. Just, just start, you know? it's just a matter of like, OK, if I could get him to say yes and I have enough lead time from between when he says yes to when I need to pay him. Then I could sell tickets and use that money to pay him and then, we'll keep selling.

That was my thinking process. You know, very risky, 

Lauren: very risky, very entrepreneurial. 

Ken Okazaki: But for me, like, it's either that or spend 10 years. and settle for something that has a definite cap on it. And I don't get to decide my hours, my own rules, nothing. That was way more depressing than, going bankrupt and, humiliating myself publicly.

Like, I'm just like, it just has to work. You know, that's, it just has to. Now, I'm not in that business anymore, but that was my first entrepreneurial venture. And then we just rolled one into the next, into the next, and we're doing events every month forever. 

Lauren: That's intense. 

Ken Okazaki: Yeah. Yeah. You know how much it costs to hire like these guys a day?

Lauren: One, two, three hundred grand. 

Ken Okazaki: We brought 20 Robins to Japan. And when I say we, like, I couldn't do it by myself because at the time I didn't have enough cash. So I partnered up with some other promoters and we did the joint thing. Uh, I think it was claimed to about 1. 2 million per day, and this is like 10 years ago when it was worth a lot more.

And on top of that, that's just fees, okay? Now we're gonna talk about the jet, right? Private jet, right? And, the penthouse suites, and, and, and, and, and the chauffeurs, like, you gotta have balls of steel, or no balls at all to do those events. or like 10 years of experience and you just, you know, you know what to expect, 

But Working with these guys and hiring these kind of speakers is how I, like the kind of people that, that we spoke about earlier, I have access to them because I hired them, you know, like I was, wait, wait, they were my customer. No, well, I don't know how that goes, but like when I, when you hire someone, Then all of a sudden, like, you're no longer this, this fan boy, you know, in the, in the crowd, you know, give me an autograph, can we take a selfie?

It's more like, no, we're doing business together and we're going to talk real stuff and we're going to talk numbers. We're going to negotiate. And that's the footing I have with people of that caliber, which in the beginning freaked the fuck out of me, you know, I was just like, holy shit, you know, it's, you know, you know, whoever it is that like got up there, but.

I got used to it and I started understanding how to negotiate with people with really, really big influence and egos. and then coming up with first, deals with them and making money. So that, that launched me a bit, you know? 

Lauren: No, that's really cool. Like when you, so I've paid, I think it was either 10, for a dinner, right?

So I paid, let's just call it 10K to go for a dinner. And. That was in the early days and I'm like, K I've never really done this before, who's going to be that? That's 

Ken Okazaki: Dinner With who? 

Lauren: I don't know. Like, if I should say, because I don't, I don't know if they want like to know how much money it is. it's not crazy people, just like some business coaches.

Right. some of them, let's just say they have like fitness franchises. Okay? So maybe you can figure out. I heard it. And so. I remember like, I honestly forgot about this until you said that actually. I remember feeling so insecure about doing this because I'm like, am I paying right now to have friends?

But what was so crazy is that after doing that, they then invited me back to go to their next mini mastermind, right? I didn't have to pay for the ticket to that thing, even though they were actually selling tickets to that event. I then got access to more dinners at that event with more cool people, which usually were also like private VIP dinners and stuff.

And it's just, 'cause I, I rocked up the first time I paid, I clearly showed that I was like legit and serious and that maybe I was a good person to have in the group or whatever. And, it just unlocked a ton of doors for me. And then from there, through that, I was able to meet people back, this is what, five years ago or so, who became guests on my podcast, which then allowed me to then I call it like, you know.

You kind of like trade upwards, right? Like you get one really good guest on, and then you use that as leverage to get the next guest on. 

And then you use that as leverage to get the next guest on. And just a couple of connections away was Ed Maillet. So then I was able to interview Ed Maillet, have him on my show.

And then from there I got Grant Cardone, et cetera. And it's interesting because that only began through me actually putting some skin in the game. When people took me seriously, I knew that I wasn't just like some random person over here trying to like, you know, Get them all on a podcast or try and pick their brain and it gets people to take you seriously, you know, it's so funny I actually had totally forgotten about that because this was so long ago now and I remember just being so like scared.

Another thing was like, I paid 20 K to go to one event. And it's funny. Cause as soon as I got there, there was a check on the table and they refunded everyone the money. Cause they were like, our whole thing is we don't sell anything. Right. And so it was super fun 

Ken Okazaki: to see your commitment level, right? 

Lauren: They wanted to see the commitment level.

And that was only like, that 

Ken Okazaki: is so brilliant. 

Lauren: 20 to 30 entrepreneurs that it was like, again, like we had to promise that we won't share who it is can probably put two and two together. But, it was. Insanely valuable. And I flew all the way from Dubai to like the West coast of America. Uh, this long ass flight to get that changed my plans within two weeks, my entire travel schedule, entire thing changed everything to be there.

And, yeah, then it got the 20 K back right in a check. And, that was pretty cool. Yeah. So just shows that sometimes you just got to take the leap and make these big investments and, uh, it always pays dividends. 

And if it doesn't, like this one investment I made 50K pounds, I mean, Dan, that caused me a lot of problems, but my oh my, that was the key to me learning that, uh, you must protect your assets.

Let's just put it that way. 

Ken Okazaki: I learned my lesson that I'm not a good investor. Like I'm good at, I'm better at business, like investing in myself and my business and in education. When it comes to like anything else, crypto stocks, my wife is so much better. I'm like, guard me from my money and please like, and she, she does all the numbers and the charts and the, you know, so I can't do that.

It's too slow and boring. So I'm just like, I'll make money and I'll, and then you. You're like, protect it from me. And that's our plan. Uh, and we just have to play off each other's strengths. She's not a risk taker, which is why we haven't lost our investments, for the last five years. And, but before that it was, you know, I hear somebody on a podcast saying this thing is going to explode.

I'm like, great, pump it in, you know? And then, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's a craziness. Uh, like I don't think entrepreneurs in general fit the profile of a steady growth investor. It's a 

Lauren: disaster. I 100 percent absolutely relate to that. And that's why I think it was just never meant to be that my first job was in asset management.

It was just not gonna happen for me. I feel you like, cause it's just, you want things to be exciting, but the best investors and I've studied like crazy how to be a better investor. And the thing that you hear again and again, and again, and again, is. Protecting from risk. I mean, that's really what they do.

It's not like, let's try and make money. It's let's try and protect our money. And fundamentally, I just don't think entrepreneurs are good at that. Cause I mean, the definition of the word entrepreneur is taking on financial risk for future potential upside or something like that. I mean, if you type it into the Google dictionary, Cambridge dictionary or whatever, like it says something along those lines.

And I think it's quite interesting because. The opposite is investing, right? Which is where you're trying literally to prevent against the downside risk. So, yeah, it's, um, it's something I personally also try to heavily, heavily avoid and just, you know, Set it on automated DCA and just not touch that thing.

Ken Okazaki: Nice. 

Let me ask you a question about titles. You've, you've been a fitness coach, you've been an influencer, entrepreneur, uh, business coach, um, let's say probably a guru in a few different categories. WorldTraveler, I would say probably like a socialite as well. 

Lauren: Model 

Ken Okazaki: at some point now. There's a lot of titles, but at this stage, which one feels the most right to you?

Lauren: Well, people put those titles on me, so I didn't choose those titles, right? I always, since the very beginning have seen myself as a business owner and an entrepreneur, like that's fundamentally how I see myself, if we think about titles from that sense, but it's funny because. I just say I'm Lauren, right?

Like it's, I actually have this joke with my boyfriend about that because like people will say something to me and then I'll just be like, no, I'm Lauren. And I don't know why I do that. I think I actually started doing that like when I was really little and it's just been something that's always stuck with me.

So, yeah, those titles, I don't know. It's interesting, isn't it? How people put that on other people. Cause like, for example, when I look at you, I don't think about you as like, you know, a social media influencer or whatever. or like a content creator. I'm 

Ken Okazaki: not, I'm not, I'm not nearly good enough looking to be it.

Lauren: You're making content and you are on social media and you're changing the way people make video content, especially. Right. And so like at the end of the day, how do you define an influencer? I mean, you just, you're influencing other people to do different things. So I would see you also as a business owner.

And so I think it's the way that you see yourself that reflects upon which, how you define other people. So people would call me a guru if they want to be a guru themselves, or they see other people on the internet as gurus, like, I've never seen myself as a guru, I mean, what is a guru? I mean, a guru comes from Asia, right?

Like the yogis, and I don't know the exact background behind it, but a guru is like, Um, definitely not what anyone on the internet is, especially if they're like in front of their Lambos, you know, that's not a guru for sure. When it comes to like an influencer or stuff, I mean, yeah, if you Google my name, that's actually what's coming up a lot, but I never wrote those words.

Like the press would write things about me, and I never chose that, it's just how they define me, because that's probably what's going to get them the most clicks. So at the end of the day, I think titles are just marketing. And it's the same thing when it comes to hiring people. If you want to hire the right person for the right role, you need to pick the right title.

That's going to be within that type of pay range. So you get the level of candidate and the salary range that you're looking to hire for. So if you are to ask me, I personally don't care about titles at all. It's like the bottom of my worries in this life, actually, but other people do care. And that's where you have to remember, like, personally, I've done just, like, so much personal development.

it's quite hard to suffer something to shake me, right? Um, or to make me angry or to upset me. Like, I, I can kind of control my emotions. And, you know, choose how I want to feel in a moment, right? And again, that's taken like a lot of work to get there. But if I think about titles, I mean, I've had people on my team, like upset about someone else coming in who has like a higher ranking title or something, because they feel like they're now not good enough or like their whole childhood trauma that they haven't worked through is coming out there.

And so it's quite an interesting topic, isn't it? Because Um, I think as well as an entrepreneur, like you probably just don't really care because you've had to do it all. I mean, at some points you could call me the tech girl, right? I don't care. I got to do what I got to do to get the job done, you know?

Ken Okazaki: It's interesting my, as you were saying all this, I just had my birthday recently, uh, April 27. So that's like 10 days ago, right? My team had gotten a customs, hoodie printed for me and it's on it. They, you know, it was beautiful graphics and everything, but it said, I'm Ken doing Ken things. 

Lauren: The team is always just 

Ken Okazaki: like, what are you doing anyway?

You know, like, and it's true. Like I, sometimes I get through the end of the day and I know I did a lot, but I'm just like, I, it's hard to define. it's mostly about thinking, you know? I think. And one of my favorite hacks is, is to, when I work out, I hit the treadmill. I do. I run. It's like 30 to 45 minutes.

Once I, this actually only happened once I, I got, uh, diagnosed. and got medicated for ADHD. I now take my earpods out and boy it's like emptying, it's like clearing the inbox of my brain because now all the thoughts, I get to think all the thoughts and I get to process all the thoughts and then afterwards I'm like so much more clear and I feel like I got a whole lot done.

By refusing to take any kind of like, I'm not listening to podcasts, no music. I just get to think and zone out. So I think that's where I get the most done is thinking, period. And it's crazy. And then I do much less physical actions, much less button clicking, much less traveling. And accomplish more because I spend more time thinking and it's definitely up my productivity more than anything else is just take the earbuds out.

Don't get off the treadmill until you hit that, you know, you hit the target and then I'm just like, boom, I'm ready, 

Lauren: Yeah. 

So a concept I've been obsessed about lately is productivity versus activity. And if you look at the word product, ivity, activity. And then when you look at the definitions of the word, productivity is all about doing work that achieves an outcome, whereas activity is like doing the doing, right?

And I was literally, I was looking at the dictionary definitions and, it was fascinating because, There have been so many periods of my life where I have been doing the activity because I feel like it is required to feel productive, but productive is all about producing the product. And as humans, we chase that, we chase productivity, but nowadays, because there's so much busy work that can be done at any moment, the activity often feels like productivity.

And unless you know the difference between those two words, if you. Study the definitions and actually look at practically how this shows up in the real world. Man, it just changes the way that you operate. For example, I'll give an example that's like top of mind for like a lot of people listening to this who make content, right?

So activity would be like, okay, we're going to post 20 pieces of short form content every single day. And we're going to hire like a VA over in some cheap country just to clip out random bits and write the caption and post whatever the hell they feel like. Whereas, so that would be a lot of activity, right?

You're getting a lot of stuff out there. Whereas productivity would be, okay, analyzing the content that's performing really well, studying how to get a really good hook, and then putting 90 percent of the time on the hook. And then from there, Figuring out platform by platform, how to make slight tweaks so that it's going to perform better individually on each platform.

And then knowing the strategy behind, okay, let's get for every piece of content, let's get three hooks so we can post them all at once and figure out A B test, which one's going to do the best blah, blah, blah, blah. Like then posting maybe once or twice a day, or even just three times a week. So that you can get the max output from that one piece of content.

And then looking at what works, studying the analytics, doing more of what's working and less of what's not working. And that would be. Activity versus productivity when it comes to short form video content. So how many people are out there just posting whatever the hell and no strategy behind it, because they know that it's something that they need to do for that business, but they're just not doing it.

Strategically, these tiny things make such a big difference. And those are the things where you say you like spending thinking time or studying. The studying is like the sharpening of the X, right? That's the whole point of figuring out how can I be more productive versus being more, doing more activity?

Because if you do a ton of activity, Then you get to the end of it and you're knackered. You're exhausted. Whereas you can actually make a way less moves when you're highly productive because productivity is not doing a lot of activity. There's a big misconception in the market, in the industry, in the world, that productivity is activity, but it's not.

Activity is the doing of things without achieving the outcome. Whereas the productivity is achieving the product, the desired outcome that you want. And so you can be very strategic with doing as little as you can possible to get the same level of productivity. And when that clicks in your mind, the way you game your days changes a lot.

And it for sure has for me, like I'm spending way less time doing things. And now I'm trying to Understand how can I get the things done that are required through other people, through other systems, through other strategies, automations, because what all does this thing even need to be done at all, right?

It may not even be necessary thing. And sometimes killing something and just not doing that thing is better than doing it at all, because then you have more energy to focus on the other thing. So it's pretty interesting. 

Ken Okazaki: I think Jeff Bezos is such a great example of somebody who's, they've started so many services.

It was like Amazon, there's the fire stick, right? Then Amazon, they had a, like a Skype competitor. they had a social media network, like they created every single category to compete at some point and nine out of 10 of them were profitable. They didn't, none of them were as profitable as their core business, which is e commerce.

So they tried it and they were just like, Nope, not as good. And they shut it down. They didn't keep it going just because it's profitable. They shut it down so they could refocus on what's the most profitable, but they keep launching these little businesses and to see if it would work. Now, AWS has been super successful and it keeps going.

So that's, that's great because, but it also just compliments Amazon, you know, the e commerce store. So it, it's so important. Like there's so many things we could be doing, but then what if you just stack the energy? instead of you know, evenly dividing it among five or six. I, I'm guilty of doing that a lot.

And this thinking has just gotten me to like, you know, suss out all the options and make better decisions really about where to focus my energy. 

Lauren: Yeah. It's all about decision making for sure, because as well as a leader, if your team sees you always put it simply hustling things out, then they take those actions too.

And there's never then space to think about more strategic ways of doing things. And what I noticed as well in the past is like, we would just put more people on a solution to fit, to do, to get something done. Whereas then, when I was able to create the space for myself to ask the questions that would otherwise not be asked.

Then it empowered my team to also begin to ask those questions in their area to find a better solution instead. Like, for example, in, you know, the topic that we spoke about earlier, like setters, right? We would always feel like, okay, how can we hire more setters more quickly, train them up, ramp them up faster, better people who can hit more numbers?

Whereas then instead, it actually came down to, well, how can we have a more optimal system for speed to lead? So then we were like, okay, cool. We can put a zap into Slack and then let's dial up the leads within five minutes. Okay, that's great. Now they were like one of the girls last week books, 34 calls just from doing that.

That one thing, just that one thing, 34 calls. That's insane. And that was a.

somebody on our team was able to change the way that they were thinking because they stopped asking like how can we hire more people to work more leads instead what could we do to actually have a better strategy which will allow for better productivity instead of more activity and then as well The AI setter, right?

Like that was also a big change for us because that in itself is just, you know, working leads by itself. And so, yeah, it was just pretty, pretty cool to see my team also emulating the way that I was leading. Because if I'm just rushing, True stuff all the time and just like burning bridges and burning things down or whatever, then they're gonna do the same thing.

And so it's kind of our responsibility as the leader. I mean, it definitely is our responsibility to go first, right? A leader is the one who walks the path before the others so they can follow. It's been a interesting shift for me as well. 

Ken Okazaki: Love that. 

Could you give us a peek into what's that process look like right now?

You just mentioned AI Center. You mentioned Uh, you know, people ringing up prospects. What is the current version of Lauren Tickner? I'm not going to say, you know, your business, cause it's Lauren. Lauren's, uh, client acquisition system. What's, what's it from never heard of you cold to sold in your program, big smile on their face and not regretting a single thing.

Lauren: Well, it all starts with what are you actually selling and offering, right? Cause you have to reverse engineer it all from there. So we really, Distilled everything down just into one thing. One thing. We also rebranded into Scale Systems because our old name was called Impact School and it just didn't make any sense.

Like, we really don't sell education. Um, we really do like install systems and scale stands for sales, clients, attention, leads, and economics. And so those are the areas that we work on with our clients who primarily have agency consulting coaching businesses. Those are like, that's the business model that we serve.

And, um, So backtracking from that, knowing that that's who we're looking to serve, then we can obviously figure out, okay, what different angles do we want to test when it comes to top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, bottom of the funnel, and everything that we do, like, it's segmented through that, but it's very simple.

We have one freebie, and then we have one VSL, and that's pretty much it, like, so the freebie is a social media sales system, essentially how to generate leads and clients from social media. And then the VSL explains how it works. Like it's super simple. And what we do is when someone opts into either of those things, there's a priority level.

So if they opt into the bottom of the funnel VSL, then when that zaps into Slack, we have, On our team right now, two setters, that's it, only two setters who are dialing these leads. One of them's in European, Asia kind of time zone. One of them is in USA time zone. And that there, therefore we can cover pretty much like all 24 hours.

But there's a few hours in between. I'm not so stressed about that. But the goal is speed to lead. Like, how can we ring up those who opt in within five minutes? That's the goal. We, we really noticed the difference like when someone opts in five minutes versus 10 minutes versus 15, like it seems every five minutes thereafter opt in, the efficiency decreases massively.

So, speed to lead is key. And essentially that's actually how we're booking the majority of our sales calls right now, honestly, is phoning those leads up. And it's, it's honestly just so simple. Like it really is. Like mostly nowadays they don't go through the whole webinar. They don't go through the whole VSL.

Now, some who do, they're really good leads by the time that they book a sales school. Okay. That's fantastic. But like I think about myself, if ever I've booked a sales school, I've actually. Either gone onto the website and physically booked it. 'cause I'm like, I wanna join now. I don't even want a sales school.

Like, please, dear God, just let me buy now. And then I'm a bit frustrated 'cause I don't want the sales school, but I get it. And then the second thing is I've actually been dialed up and then I've booked on an actual sales call or I've just bought right then and that. That's actually for me, the only two times I buy, I personally haven't, like, as I was looking at my behavior and I think looking at your own behavior is really powerful.

I haven't ever like watched an, okay, one time, but it was only a 1, 000 thing, watch a full webinar or a VSL and then been like, cool, this is what I need. It hasn't happened to me like that. And so if I think, if we look at our own behavior, it's quite interesting, like to see how do you get sold to, because most likely if you are, Serving people who want to do a similar thing to what you've done most of the time, or if it's an agency as well.

Most of the time people will be purchasing similar to you, right? They like you if it's a personal brand, like they like you because it's you. And so they're probably quite similar to you. So I think that's quite interesting. but yeah, to answer your question, like we're mainly getting leads through organic social media.

We did start running ads since we last spoke. I learn ads. I'm actually running it all by myself. Um, and it's very, very, very, very, very easy. Very. Very easy. I'm kind of pissed, but I did it. It was 

Ken Okazaki: difficult before you got into it. 

Lauren: Yeah, well, it was difficult, right? Back in the day, it was hard. You had to learn all the targeting, the interest that this, that the different placements and all that, but now it just does it all for you.

It's like the easiest thing in the world. I spent a fortune. I've literally invested hundreds of thousands in ads with no return up until now. Uh, YouTube, Google. Facebook, I mean, just meta in general. Yeah. But now, I mean, it's super profitable and it's, it's fantastic. And so the moral of the story is social media pushes people to comment on the posts, get a freebie to the DMs, AI setter then follows up, books in calls, and on the landing page post opt in, they can schedule a call.

And then The VSL, which is the bottom of the funnel, there's a post on social media, someone replies info, then again it will go through the AI setter to the landing page, they can book a call there if they want, or we phone them up after they opt in. And that's pretty much it, like there's really nothing more to it.

The key is the social media, like the social media is like the absolute fundamental piece of it all. Because now that we have the. Workshop, which is the social media sales system for the freebie and then the VSL. None of those two things are done. It's really just a case of getting more people there, just getting more traffic.

And we are leveraging social media, mainly organic, a little bit of ads to get people to go to those funnels. And it's been cool because of social media is so strong, we test on organic social media. And then we take what's working and we just run that with ads and that has actually allowed our cost per lead and cost per call to be really low, but also really good quality.

So I will ramp that up over time. I just haven't, like we right now, if we needed to do that, we would actually have to add a setter or change our process from a two call close to a one call close, which we're actually trying to do that because like go to a one call close instead of because, We figured out how we can lead score and then automate to go to the best closer, someone who's like, let's say Ken pops on my calendar, right?

He's going to go to the best closer, right? Whereas if we had someone who's like typing like, yeah, well, I'm not really sure. I haven't really seen much about you guys. I don't really know if this is good. That's going to be ranked like number one or number two. It would go to a setter to have a two booklets.

So we want to add some more automation and use like a chat GPT. Essentially we'll program it to read the application to be able to pass it through to the right person. or even give them something for free if they're like a number one score if they're number one we'll just we won't cancel the call just like bye bye you're not qualified we'll give them something for free so we're gonna do that we're actually building at the moment it should be done in the next couple weeks because again i want to think smarter not try and you know always create more things Need more people on the team.

You know what I mean? So that's kind of how it was working right now. 

Ken Okazaki: it's the age of the machines again, but digital machines this time. We've got to wrap this up in just a second. I really appreciate you sharing kind of like what's inside one tiny question. 

You said you have AI setters. Is that, the AI that's built into meta or are you bringing it in externally, like with, uh, you know, GHL or something like that?

Lauren: Yeah, we use GHL. Yeah, it's really good. It's, it's great. It took a while to train it up, but the reason why it works so well is because, I mean, we, we crush the DMs. That's like, probably I'd say one of the main reasons, like why clients choose to work with us is because, we're very good at using DMs to drive revenue.

So once you know how it works, then you can add the AI in place. Like, I don't know if you know, Nathan Chan from Founder. Yeah, so right now, I'm working with him directly on that and he texted me last week. He's like, Lauren, for years, I didn't think that DM sales was going to be possible, but my team just generated 25K using your system.

I was like, Oh, cool. That's nice. Okay. Now let's automate this thing. Because DMs is like such an amazing way to generate sales. Because once you get the system down, obviously, I've faced some problems in the past where, like, you hire setters and they, like, you know, I mean, they keep following up again and again, and it looks so spammy, whereas, like, you can make sure that the AI doesn't do that, right?

If it's, like, a junior person on your team that you've hired, like a setter, and then they leave and you replace them, Sometimes like, maybe it hasn't, all the information hasn't pulled into the CRM, so you can't see when the last follow up was and things like that. Whereas the AI has it all that it needs to know.

So actually it's way better than people for the DMs. And then I want to leverage the people to be taking the calls with those less qualified leads so that then their calendar can pretty much be stacked. And then they don't have to be doing the DMing all the time. That's, um, yeah, I think it should be done in like three weeks or so and it will be pretty cool.

Ken Okazaki: And is that something that's going to be like very, very proprietary for just you or is this something you also offer to clients? 

Lauren: I don't know if we'll offer it to clients. We haven't thought about it. We just Too 

Ken Okazaki: early, right? 

Lauren: Yeah, I, I, I tried to. Be like really good at something before I try and do it with a client, you know, um, so maybe in the future we have had clients ask, I mean, we're using the AI setter now, like it's killing it.

It's crushing it for us. Every single day is booking at least 10 calls just from my Instagram. Like, that's really, really hype. Obviously, that's one, that's, like discovery call or whatever you want to call it. Um, but, um, We're seeing like 40 to 42, 42 ish percentage passing through onto an actual sales school.

So it's pretty decent. but again, like if you have a good social media strategy, if you aren't already using social media, well, obviously anything you do in the DMS, like, well, why bother setting anything in the DMS up if you're having like five leads a day, you know, it's not worth your time. Um, so yeah, it's good though.

Like the AI setter. But, I would say, I won't do something with a client until I know for sure that it's a gonna work for them as well, right? So I'm going to do it with Nathan. I'm working one on one with him. So I'll do it with him. He already knows that it's the first time that I'm doing it and my team will help with that too.

But, uh, yeah. So pretty much that's my, that's how I game things, you know. 

Ken Okazaki: I'm going to wrap this up by reading something that you put out there. 

Lauren: Okay. I 

Ken Okazaki: think it really sums up everything we talked about really well here. This is what you wrote. Freedom is being able to say no to non dream clients. And in the beginning, we talked about the concept of freedom.

I really like this version because especially when you're in services, you want to have a good quality of life and non dream clients are what suck that away from you. So I appreciate that. 

Lauren: Totally. That's everything. No, thank you so much for having me. This is great. And, yeah, I look forward to finally connecting in person when you take some more travels.

Ken Okazaki: Where can, people find out more about you? Like this version of what you're doing right now, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, what's, what's the best place? 

Lauren: Yeah, everywhere. Just Lauren Tickner, L A U R E N T I C K N E R. You can find me on all the socials. Obviously not only fans like we discussed in the beginning.

Um, but yeah, so probably the most active I am on like Instagram, Facebook, but Hey, who knows how times are going to change. I'm pretty bullish on LinkedIn right now. So let's see, maybe I'll become a LinkedIn influencer. That'll be my You said that 

Ken Okazaki: right after you laughed about OnlyFans and then you said, ha ha ha, who knows what times will change?

I thought you were laughing about that. 

Lauren: No, I meant LinkedIn. LinkedIn. I, I will definitely not be doing OnlyFans. That's for sure. 

Ken Okazaki: All right, guys, there will be links down below. If you're watching on YouTube, go to the description. If you're on a podcast, go to the show notes and we'll include all the links to your socials.

Lauren, thank you so much. I would award you definitely five star content capitalist qualified recommended. You're doing a bang up job and I appreciate you showing such a great example. And for everybody else, I'll see you next week.