Episode 327: How Vision and Confidence Build an Empire | Lauren Kyle McDavid | Founder of Kyle & Co, Trove Living & More
Lauren Kyle McDavid is the powerhouse behind four thriving businesses, Kyle & Co interior design firm, Trove Living, Bar Trove, and Sports Club Ateliers, plus her growing personal brand. In this episode, she joins Kara to share how she’s building an empire with vision, style, and heart, all while navigating the unique challenges of being married to an NHL player. They dive into how Lauren balances creativity with strategy, leads with confidence, builds strong teams, and keeps saying yes to what lights her up. If you’re dreaming big, managing multiple roles, or looking for inspiration to follow your boldest ideas, this episode is a must-listen.
“I just decided I’m going to follow the path that makes me happiest and that I’m most passionate about.”
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Chapters:
00:00 — Origins of Sports Club Atelier
05:01 — Building Multiple Successful Businesses
07:59 — Expanding into Fashion and Sports Merchandise
12:33 — Team Building and Business Growth
18:20 — From Interior Design to Bar Owner
24:14 — Redefining the Role of an NHL Wife
29:41 — Building a Personal Brand
33:54 — Work-Life Balance and Self-Care
38:11 — Closing and Contact Information
Follow along using the Transcript
Origins of Sports Club Atelier
That led me to just having a conversation with the Oilers. We had just chatted about like, why don't we do a more fashion forward line? And there was a big gap in the market for unique garments that people wanna wear and like have these legacy pieces that there's just like a wave of female fans that are now interested.
That's Lauren Kyle McDavid. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.
Lauren Kay McDavid is building an empire and there's no signs of her slowing down. She is self-made and currently running for businesses. Kyle and co interior design firm Trove Living, Bard Trove and Sports Club Atelier with endless ideas in the horizon, plus her own personal brand. She's also juggling the location, schedule, and emotion support demands of being an NHL hockey wife.
In this episode, we dive into how she does it all and how she juggles it all. You talk about her confidence, vision, team building, and why it matters so much that you follow your heart and say yes to all of your beautiful ideas.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I am very excited that we're talking today. It's taken a little bit of scheduling to make this appointment work. 'cause as we were just saying, you are very busy. Your husband's very busy. You're launching about 15 things at once it looks like.
Yeah. And so we were connected from the amazing Olivia Ivy Bannock, and. She sent the most raving review in for aw a referral. Her, I'm gonna quote her. So sweet. She said that you are one of the most ambitious and driven women I know. She goes after exactly what she wants and sees it through to completion.
She's amazing as a human, and we would be a fantastic guest.
Aw, that is so sweet. I can absolutely say the same about her. So we definitely have a lot in common. And she spoke so highly of you, so I'm very excited to be here and chat with you a little bit more.
Let's tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
My name is Lauren Kyle McDavid. I am currently, we just got back home from Edmonton. Just arrived in our Aurora house in Ontario. We were at the cottage up this weekend and we're home for the summer.
And for people who may not know why are you bouncing between Edmonton and Ontario?
Yeah, my husband is a professional hockey player. He plays for Edmonton Oilers, and we are originally both from Ontario. So we spend the hockey season at Edmonton, and then we come home for the summer months, so about three months of the year, spend time with family, friends, and enjoy the lake a little.
When we were first supposed to connect, it was the morning after, I think game three when it went into overtime. Yeah. And I was texting Olivia. I'm like, I have already thrown the remote at the TV like five times. Yeah.
No kidding. I know.
How do you stay calm because you have so much going on that we're about to dive into. That's all your stuff. Yeah. You're so accomplished. You have so much going on. Then you also have to hold space for a huge career that your husband also has. Like how do you balance all the stress you have plus whatever stress he's bringing into your space too?
Yeah, it's definitely tough. I think that. In general, like the games bring, especially in the finals, against a team that, we lost against last year and we were hoping to have redemption this year.
It was hard to compose myself in those moments. The next day I was supposed to go on the podcast and I was emotionally drained and mentally drained. So it's definitely definitely hard. I can't say it's easy. I think for me, I always just try to focus on my own businesses and like staying present for those things in my life because it gives me a distraction and allows me to, ground myself a little bit in those moments.
And I do know that I need to show up for Connor in a way in order to be strong for him. Like I can't have all of the emotions because he needs someone who has some strengths and composure. At least in front of him. I definitely sometimes don't have composure when I'm not around him, but definitely in front of him. I try to show up in a way that, provides him with support too.
You have been very busy. And I just, I'm gonna list the businesses that I'm aware of. You tell me if I'm missing any. Okay. We have Kyle and Co. Your interior design firm. Yeah, we have Bar Trove, which is about to open.
It's open, yeah, it's open. It's totally open now.
And you have Sports Club Atelier? Yep. You have Trove Living? Yeah. Am I missing anything?
Technically I've been working on a cookbook for four years, so that's something that's also in the works and almost done. And that is called the Tilly Table. So that's another business, and then I try to do some brand deals. So that's about it. That's it.
Building Multiple Successful Businesses
Just a few things. Yeah, just a few. So I believe the fir was the first one. Kyle and Co. Yeah, that was my first business. When did you start that and did you know immediately upon kind of graduation that's the track you were going into?
Yeah, I mean I did a full 360 pivot in grade 11 actually, sorry, grade 12, second semester might seem a little crazy. I entirely switched schools because there was another school that had an interior design force and I just decided like I'm gonna follow the path that makes me the happiest and that I'm the most passionate about.
Previous to that, I thought I was gonna be a physiotherapist and follow my mom's career trajectory, but I. I knew that like my soul was creative and I needed to be in something that fulfilled me creatively. So switched gears changed into that program, and then I went to fine art school for a year to build up my portfolio to get into school.
I think deep down I knew that I wanted to go into it. I was a very vivacious like child. I was always moving things around and reorganizing and redecorating. So it was always a skill I'd had and something I was always interested in.
I loved the story I read in our research about your, one of your mother's favorite moments. Of you surprising them for their anniversary when you were like eight? Yeah. So usually I ask people, when you were eight, would you imagine that this is your life? So it sounds like some parts of this you would've imagined.
Yeah, I think everyone grows up having a dream of what they wanna be when they're older. I don't know if mine was necessarily super clear growing up. I think I had lots of things that I wanted to do, but it was always grounded in creativity. I would say, yeah, I would imagine I would be in some sort of creative career. I didn't know what that would look like, but it landed me here today.
So how long were you doing Kyle and Co before you introduced your next business?
Yeah, so I had moved to Edmonton after I graduated, and, the only thing that made sense was to start my business right off the bat because of the travel schedule. We're only in Edmonton for X amount of months a year, and then back to Ontario in the summer. So I knew I couldn't really get a job that would allow me to do that, especially in the space I was in. So I was just. Taking the plunge. We built our house in my last year of university, took the plunge into that career. And then I think my next business that I would've created, I guess the cookbook started around then. And then the next business that I would've opened would've been Sports Club Atelier.
For everyone who doesn't know. And that was. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Just can you tell more about the sports club atelier business? 'cause it's, to me I spent 20 years in footwear and apparel. Mostly sportswear. Streetwear. And to me, I think this is such a smart idea and so missing. So let's tell everyone a little bit about that business.
Expanding into Fashion and Sports Merchandise
Yeah. It all started with me helping design jackets for our playoffs. If anyone doesn't know the jacket culture in the league is every team that's making the playoffs, they design their own jackets. And it started, I think it's getting more advanced, like it started piecemealing together, jackets that existed and then getting some custom letters and numbers on the jackets. And then it evolved into me taking a little bit more interest in it, and I started working with manufacturers and understanding a little bit more about garments and design and the whole thing.
That led me to just having a conversation with the Oilers and we had just chatted about like, why don't we do a more fashion forward line? I think we all saw it missing in the market and there was a big gap in the market for a variety of just unique garments that people wanna wear and like have these legacy pieces.
And you could see it in other sports too. NFL with Kristen in her line I think you could see it happening and. Getting some traction. And I think especially just fans in general, like there's, if you, I've done some research on it, but there's just like a wave of female female fans that are now, interested and there we are growing, we're growing like a ton, having female fans in the league and I think it was just missing.
So I, yeah, started this line, started with Oilers. We ended up. I ended up building a team around it and using my manufacturers. And then we're planning on expanding Tether teams now.
So I wanna come back to Sports Clubier and yeah, the shifting of women fans in sports. 'cause of course we're hearing so much about the explosion of the WNBA and other professional sports leagues, adding female teams and female leagues into things and.
Even before Taylor Swift started going to all the games, like women have, at least my generation, I played sports, I played field hockey in college. I grew up, my dad swears Gretzky was like the first word I said, I don't believe it.
That's your funny.
But so being a woman who's always been sports oriented I dunno. I guess like for me it's, of course women are watching like, why haven't we been paying attention? Yeah, and acknowledging the fan base and the past couple of years in particular, we've seen the economic power of women and how much it's shifting and so it's I love that you saw an opportunity and just asked to change it. Yeah, for sure. Where does that confidence gumption, where does that come from?
Ooh. I don't know. I think I was maybe born with it born with it, but in a sense, like you build confidence over the years, and I think I've become more confident in myself by taking on more things and putting myself in uncomfortable positions. I would say I have a confidence in the sense that I. I always have an idea of what I wanna do and then actually do it. And I think that's something about me that I just was born with. But confidence on my own self have grown for sure. I'm not, I've never loved public speaking. I've grown into that aspect of businesses. But yeah that's where it came from. I guess a little bit of both nature and nurture.
I joke that all the businesses I've started have been because. I either respond to something saying that's stupid, or That's awesome. Like it's one of those two things where I wanna fix something.
Or it's of course we have to make that, why doesn't exist right now? And I think some people get really self-conscious about having an idea and just thinking about you like, okay, if I talk to the Oilers about this idea and it doesn't go somewhere, do I look like an idiot or. Just the idea of I, for me, how I think about ideas is that they're always step by step. So like I take the pressure off myself to see what happens next. Yeah. Are you thinking about that way too?
Yeah, definitely. I think I definitely ground into the fact that if I don't do what, I'm gonna be more regretful that I didn't do it, and then if someone else will do it. So just trying to get ahead of it and that's where my.
Ideas come from also you just mentioned, that you create ideas by if it's like a problem or something that you can fix. I think for me it's been like how can I make things like more beautiful and how can I bring beauty into the world? And I think that's how I think of everything that I'm doing and that's where my drive comes from as well. But yeah, I think better to do something than not to do it at all.
Team Building and Business Growth
Yeah.
And look like an idiot.
And what a magical powerful wand to like, be like, we're gonna make this beautiful today. And just know because you've proven to yourself that you've done it once before. Like you now know how, because I think we also get stopped a lot with great ideas.
'cause we're like, I don't know how to make this happen. When you get to a point where you're like, oh, I don't, I've never made a jacket before. I've never done these things. Where does your brain go to next of how do we actually execute on this?
Yeah, I mean I think that I learned a lot from my business coach. So that's definitely helped me. Build all these different businesses in a way that I don't need to have a ton of experience with it, but I know how to build a, I know how to build a team. I know how to build a foundation, and I know how to build processes. So I think that for me, I always think of what she says to me, who has believability in that area.
So even if it's manufacturing, like I know you're not an expert on it, but who do you know that has believability? And then I just go to my. Network of people, or I look for someone who know who has believability. And you just have to build a team of people who really know what they're doing and have a vision behind it. And that's how I've structured moving these businesses forward.
Yeah. There's a, I've worked with a lot of clients who are interior designers and. They tend to fi get kind of stress points in a couple places. One is delegating to people on their team, which you just mentioned, having teams. Yeah. And the second is the confidence or strategy to go after their dream clients. In your, in the journey of Kyle and Co. Have those been steps you've had to get through and if yes, how did you get through them?
A hundred percent. I think with Kyle and Co I, it was a learning curve, right? Because I hadn't been through how to grow a team really quickly. So it was difficult for me to make those decisions and to give up freedom around decision making, especially when it's around like a creative. Idea and a creative concept, and someone's home. You don't wanna just pass off all the decisions to a team member. But I learned what to delegate, what's important to de delegate versus what's important to make. As decisions on your own and try not to, take on all the little things because your team can do the little things and you can be involved in just the bigger decisions and what does that look like?
And it took time for sure, and it took time to train a team, especially when it comes to around design work and your style and helping them understand what your aesthetic is and what your decisions would look like. So yeah, it took time and. It definitely wasn't easy at the start.
Yeah, I, one of my key phrases I go back to is that everything is delegatable. And my joke with that is if we can delegate giving birth to somebody else, we can definitely delegate anything in our businesses. And so.
That's a good one. I like that.
But I think a lot of people who, their zone of genius is in that creativity, creative direction, the art direction part of things. They find it really hard to how do I translate how my brain works to somebody else because yeah.
We usually say that we don't trust people right away, but I always find it's not the trust, it's that we don't know how to articulate what we see to someone else. And yeah, I think once you can unlock that. It becomes this superpower of, okay, I've taught one person how to see a room the way I do now I can teach somebody else, and for sure I imagine it's the only way that you've been able to do all of these businesses while moving back and forth Yeah.
Between two places throughout the year.
Yeah, definitely. You have to learn how to be a really good teacher. And you have to learn how to just constantly be in communication with your team and asking them what you know, what do you need from me in order to solve this gap? Or in order to feel really confident in yourself when you're making decisions. Like, how can I help you understand, how can I help you develop these skills and develop, this sense of understanding what Kyle and PO's about and what our design aesthetic is about? And that's constantly teaching. Teaching. We did a lot of, and we do a lot of design sessions where I go through my thinking around design and I'm just constantly, trying to share with.
The team and say, my do's and don'ts and if I don't like something, I'm pretty vocal about it and I'm, I explain my thought process around it. So yeah, you have to learn how to be a really good teacher. And my life now in Kyle and CO looks like that, I don't do a ton of the design work. I'm not hands on the grounds for all of our projects.
I'm teaching them, I'm reviewing, I'm, being really high level about it because they've. Developed a skill to understand what Kyle and Co is about and what our design aesthetic is, so.
Well, yeah, and it allows you to go from doing to actually cing, which again, the only way to be running multiple businesses, like Yeah. I have three right now, and there are days that I wake up and I'm like, how did this happen? Yeah. But it can only happen because I have a team to give things away too. Otherwise it's impossible. Yeah. Like it's even impossible to run one business by yourself yeah, for sure. There's a, there's that phrase that business owners do and entrepreneurs lead, and that's, yeah. You can't lead if there's no team. Exactly. For sure.
It's definitely important.
From Interior Design to Bar Owner
How did you go from Kyle and Co to deciding, I need to open up a bar?
Yeah that's a great question. I think anyone who knows me knows that I love to host and in another world I might be an event planner or I might be, someone who loves to entertain and have people over.
And that's just a passion of mine. It worked naturally because the building that we. Rented that we're renting right now. It has three floors. It's 9,000 square feet. We had too much square footage to even know what we were gonna do with it. It made sense to have this, it originally started the concept, originally started thinking, oh, we should just do a little wine bar with charcuterie. And that way if our clients are purchasing furniture, they can come down and have a snack and a glass of wine and celebrate and make it more of this holistic approach to the design process and make it more fun and entertaining and just more of a, a, something that you can go do, like an activity. So that's where it started from and then it just developed because. I started talking about this bar, I'm like if we're doing a bar, let's just do it. Let's just do it all out. Let's have an amazing chef. Let's have a great menu. Let's, make it the place to be. So it just evolved from there.
Yeah. And within that you have trove living. Yeah. How does that fit into your empire?
It fits in so seamlessly. I think one of our biggest issues with our design process is furniture. And I think I was just noticing we're working with these clients who are spending a lot of money on furniture packages and there's really was like little places to go in Edmonton where I could take clients, have them sit on furniture and really experience what they're purchasing.
But. Yeah, we, it just, again, I'm solving a gap for my business and for the market. I felt because we had very modern furniture stores and we have very traditional furniture stores, there was no contemporary in between. I was missing a lot of my favorite furniture lines that I can go try out in Edmonton.
So that's where it came from and it's been amazing so far, like just being able to have a meeting with the client and then take them downstairs and have them sit on pieces. It makes our life and our design process so much easier and just more holistic.
When you look at how your year is planned, of course part of year is dictated by your husband's schedule.
How do you plan your year for your businesses and when you choose to take breaks and maybe go into more of a brainstorming creative space versus a very active client and vendor facing space.
Yeah, I would say it's a month to month based on needs. Even to week. This year, I hired an assistant, which was the best decision I've ever made.
So we have Monday meetings and Friday meetings, and we go over my week and we talk about, what's the important action items and. Every, I would say every hour of my day is scheduled, even from my working sessions, what I know I need to get done in the week, if it's working on some design aspect or if it's an internal review, if it's, something to do with my social media stuff, everything is scheduled into and blocked outta my calendar.
Definitely my assistant is a big part of that and really being intentional with my time.
Do you mind sharing, like, how big is your, if you add up all the people who support your companies, how big would you say your team is?
So I'd have to do a deep dive on bar trove. 'cause I know we've been doing some hires and and whatnot. I wanna guess around just over 20, yeah. Maybe 25. If I added everyone up. Yeah.
Because I think too, like people think as well, like another myth at when people are starting businesses is yeah. When they see successful businesses that are in the seven plus figure range, they think there must be hundreds of people supporting those businesses.
And I'm like, no, it has to be in the hundreds of millions of dollar businesses to support that many people. Yeah, hundred percent. Yeah. And so I think that, i'm so glad you have an assistant. My first recommendation is always who's your right hand? Yeah. For the first hire. Because again, like you have to replicate yourself, but there's, you can do so much with one other person and then five other people, and for sure it's, I think it's actually fun to be like pulling together who the people are. 'Cause again, everyone doesn't need to be full-time either.
Exactly. I think it's all about who you're hiring. It's about the people. Because honestly, one person can equal to two people depending on how talented they are or how, efficient of workers they are. And I think it's just about hiring like a really good team and having people in place that can be rock stars and know exactly what they're doing. I think that's really important.
Where do you go either. In real life or online to come back to keeping yourself inspired and excited about the future of design?
Yeah. Where do I go? I think there's people that inspire me. There's a few key people in the design world that I'm inspired by. Kelly Wearsler. I'm trying to think off the top of my head. Who else? Jeremiah Brent, like anyone in the design world that's like on the 80 a hundred, I'm always looking at. 'cause they're, they always find a way to stay true to what their design ethos is, but also keep propelling in that space. And then I think the world of fashion inspires me. I'm really interested in it. And I love being inspired by. The way that we see ourselves and the way that, we're moving forward in that world. Yeah, those are my biggest fashion, just interiors even just like beautiful things in the world, like new restaurants and all that. Yeah. I get inspired by a lot of things.
Redefining the Role of an NHL Wife
What I was so excited about in regards to your story and an article recently came out about it is that. There's a perception of wags the wives and girlfriends of professional athletes, and I almost feel in regards to your relationship that your husband should be intimidated by you. Like you guys met when you were teenagers.
You, you've been crushing it. You keep adding new things. That being the equivalent of him playing like on five different sports teams or in different sports in general. And yeah, you're completely rewriting what that means. And there's nothing wrong with the traditional wag either. Yeah. But so often their businesses or what they're up to come from that celebrity focus, and it's not the same as like someone who, like you've clearly been building things that are aligned with you and your heart and what you're inspired by and like you're fully building an empire.
Yeah. How does that allow you to still relate to other women who are in the clubhouse with you? Do you feel like, yeah, you're an anomaly in these spaces? Like how do you flow? No, not at all in the world.
Yeah. First off, I would say Connor and I are just like our biggest cheer cheerleaders for each other. So like very lucky to have that. And he just wants me to succeed as much as I want him to succeed. And I think when I think of like the community and space, I really separate it completely. Yeah. I think that everyone has their own journey and whether that looks like, killing it as a mom, which there's so many girls that I look up to.
Yeah. When I think of, how they're showing up for their families it's very inspiring in its own way. So I show up in a group, like I would show up even if I didn't have any of these businesses. I think what goes along hand in hand with, my personality is I'm an entertainer. And in that sense, I'm a leader on.
A team where I want to like, bring people together and I want to create, experiences for everyone to connect because I think that's such an important part of the hockey world. I think obviously what's going on in the team is important, but everyone and every player is affected by their partners and their partners happiness and what they're going through.
And I think if I can play a little part in making people feel like they're in a really comfortable, homey, accepting environment. That's what I strive to do in my own way. And I think that's how I've always been trying to connect people. So it's a really important part of my life that doesn't have anything to do with business.
Yeah. But it's rounding out who you are. And yeah. It's just, it's making you more powerful, quite frankly. Because and not in a, not in an aggressive way, but in a like white light type of way because Yeah, you're able to, yeah, it comes from.
For sure. Yeah. I, it comes from like just a place of care, like caring, I think. And yeah, just making, I think the hockey world is interesting and it can feel really lonely too. And I wanna make sure that if I can help, I'm making people feel comfortable and not lonely and in a really good community. Yeah.
And I would say that those sound like values and themes that go through everything you're doing. Yeah. For sure. When you hear the words powerful in ladies, how would you define them? And do their definitions change when they're next to each other?
Ooh, that's a good question. When I hear the word powerful I think of a force. I think of someone who is finding purpose in life. Putting everything they can into it.
And then ladies, I think that it powerful should just be in ladies because I think all women are powerful in their own way. And I think that, everyone has their own journey and we're all like, we're all powerful in our own way and we're all doing things that are impactful and it looks different.
Yeah. For people who are, who have so many ideas and they don't know where to begin, what advice would you give them?
I think choose one at first and focus on that. Choose the one you're most passionate about, whatever idea that may be and just block out time for that idea. Make action items. Move forward like it's a project and just don't give up. Keep consistency is really important and use your network of people or just put yourself out there and send a message to someone who might help you move that forward. Or someone that you know is like an expert in that field. I definitely send out some cold call. Messages myself, and it's so uncomfortable, but it's important to do. And you never know who you're gonna connect with, and you never know how they can help you. So I think that's really important.
You, we talked at the beginning, we were listing all of the businesses that you're running, that one of them is also you as a brand. I've been talking to a lot of clients about making sure that while their businesses are successful, they're also stepping into that thought leadership space of them as a brand and what that means and how it impacts the other things they're up to. How important is building like the Lauren Kyle brand to the success of what you're up to now, ver and what you're shooting for in the future?
Building a Personal Brand
Yeah. I think it's safe to say that in general the world is moving towards brands, being about people and being about the story rather than so attached to the product, if that makes sense. That's important. Like definitely I think your brand and the way you show up to the world is important to your businesses, and for me it's always just about expanding my brand and being really authentic to who I am and hoping that comes across to the audience and hoping it comes across to the people that.
Are supporting me in a very authentic way so that they can understand my passion behind the businesses and you know why I am creating them. And maybe that will make them become a supporter as well. Like it all, everything, it affects all of your businesses. It affects your brand. Definitely tell the story about what you're representing and what these businesses are about and how they're created.
How do other powerful women in your life, how have they guided you, supported you? What do they mean to you today?
Yeah. I think that I've been lucky to have a great family who supports me. I think, for example, my mom and dad, all my family I went into a career that is. More risky technically in a sense where it's just not the norm and they focus more about, they cared more about me doing something I'm happy about and passionate about rather than what is safe.
And that has really helped me grow and helped me feel really competent in my decision and my businesses. And then, yeah, just having an incredible group of friends who always show up and support me no matter what is really special. Everyone. Every one of my community is just always wants me to be, always wants me to succeed and will always show up if I'm having something important with my career that they can be involved in.
Yeah, I'm just lucky to have such a great group. Even the hockey girls, like all of the team have been so supportive. All of them have showed up for any sort of event I have. And it means a lot to have, that community of women who. We're just happy for you and s wanna support you and see you succeed.
And I imagine that you probably, whether it's conscious or subconscious, like who you're choosing to be in your circle as well.
Yeah.
For sure. Yeah, exactly. Because I think there's a lot of people who, when they start doing entrepreneurial journeys and going after what. You really care about, like there's a vulnerability component to it and i, there's a lot of people who I know who have had gone through while they are going after their extraordinary life, they've had to be really selective about who stays and who's allowed in. Yeah. Because we do have to protect our bubble because. I mean I, for me anyway, I'd love to hear about for you, but there are moments when Yeah, I'm like, that's it. We're burning it all down. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, no, I think you spoke to how important it is and I think there's two aspects of it. One is obviously just friends who are wanna see you happy and wanna see you succeed and that's all they care about. And also I'm putting myself out there in the world a lot for judgment, no matter what I'm gonna, the more I grow, the more judgment I'm gonna have and the more eyes I'm gonna have on me. And this world is a very judgmental place at times, and I'm exposing myself to that. You wanna make sure your friend group is also just lifting you up and not tearing you down.
And the second part of it is. Time, like I had to, honestly, like my friends, I'm so thankful for them because I haven't been able to show up this year as like the best friend that I possibly can be and like the most communicative friend that I can be. And I think all of them know that I, it's not on purpose.
I just had a really busy year and they don't take it personally and every time we connect it's amazing. But it's something that, I didn't love about this year that was so busy that I lost a little bit, but. It's important that your friends like understand it's just the reality of, life getting busy for a little bit. So it's also something I would say is important.
Work-Life Balance and Self-Care
What are some rituals or habits that you must have in order to operate at your best to hold space for all the things that you're up to?
Yeah, I think. For me, it's like finding some sort of balance, whatever that looks like. Being really intentional around communication, like over communicating is always really helpful to me.
And then just setting consistent meetings for me, it's like I need to have my Monday, Friday meeting with my assistant. There's a couple key meetings that I know I need to have in a week in order to feel. Like everything's in line. I think those are, and then just self-care too. Like I need to mix in little self-care here and there.
Trying to keep myself healthy, work it as much as possible and 'cause I think you can, when I feel overwhelmed and stressed, it's usually if my body is not being taken care of. So that's important. For sure.
I think that's a really good point. 'cause I think so often when we're feeling overwhelmed, we assume it's our to-do list. And not our capacity to handle the to-do list. Yeah. Yeah.
Most of the time it's not my to-do list. It's a hundred percent to do with I have not worked out in a while. I haven't done anything to take care of my body properly. It's, I've just lost that a little and then it shows up in an emotional way for me. So yeah, that's definitely important.
That's nice to have that tuned in component. That self-awareness. You're like, oh, nope, I need to go work out.
Yeah. Sometimes it's just I get sick and I'm like, oh crap. Yeah. It's definitely because I'm not taking care of myself properly, or Connor has to remind me, Hey, I'm gonna take care of yourself too.
We ask everyone on the powerful ladies where you would put yourself on the powerful ladies scale. If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you rank yourself today and on an average day?
Oh my gosh, that's so difficult. 'cause I think one of my, like I wanna say a seven right now. 'Cause I don't think I've gotten to 10 and I think one of the things that keeps me. Is I still have a lot to go and I still have a lot more that I wanna achieve and a lot of things to check off my list. Yeah, on a day to day, maybe 10, but overall I'm like, I'm still seven. Gotta get to a 10.
This is a powerful and connected community. What is something that's on your to-do list, your wishlist to manifest list that you would like to share with this group so we can help you make it happen?
Yeah. That's a good question. I would love to be on a AD 100. That's always been my top goal for Kyle and Co. Is getting there one day and then, yeah, that, that's the one that comes to mind the most for me.
Okay. Yeah, I'm already scheming up some things we can talk about offline. Perfect. It has been such a pleasure to speak with you today. I'm so glad that Olivia connected us. I am just really impressed with the who you are for holding space for just people and community and bringing people together and how those values show up.
There are people who are. Being authentic on, what they're sharing, especially on social media. And I really think that your heart shows up in all those places and it's really impressive the balance that you're able to pull off. And thank you so much. You're welcome. And thank you for being someone who's out there trying to make things beautiful. The. We need more of that in our world and today, maybe more than ever. And so it's nice having you in your corner making sure that those things are happening so that the rest of us can focus elsewhere.
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a very easy first podcast and it was so much fun. And yeah, I really appreciate talking with you and I'm happy we got connected from Olivia.
Me too. So for everyone who wants to follow you, support you, find you, where can they do those things? We will have a list of all of your links and all the things in our show notes, but where would you recommend that they go right now?
I share a lot on my social media. I think it's a funnel for, sharing each business. So probably just my Instagram account.
And what's that handle? I think it's Lauren Kyle one. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much and I can't wait to see what you're up to next. Thank you.
Closing and Contact Information
Thanks for listening. If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com where you can find all the links to connect with Lauren and everything she's up to, including Kyle and Co. Bar Trove, trove Living and Sports Club Atelier. Come hang out with powerful ladies on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and you can find me and all my socials@karaduffy.com.
This episode is produced by Amanda Kass and our audio engineer is Jordan Duffy. I'll be back next week with the brand new episode, and so then I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Episode 292: Why Creative Agency Culture Needs a Redesign | Roanne Adams | Founder RoAndCo & State of Feeling
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
