Meet Lauren Gontarek

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren Gontarek a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Nursing school was very tough. I cried a lot, but after every difficult experience in a lab/clinical it gave me confidence. I used this to propel me through getting my Bachelors in Nursing. I have been a nurse for 12 years. My work experience has been: taking care of kids with disabilities, eating disorders, a local pediatric hospital, and am a concierge ear piercing nurse. Working as a concierge ear piercing nurse has been a fun side business as well.

I am a wife to my husband Andrew, and mom to 3 girls. I have run three twin cities marathons. These races were one of the most difficult things I have done. Finishing these was so rewarding! With my personal and work experience every tough patient encounter I have instills confidence. Compassion is at the forefront when things are tough. My main goal to keep patients safe and happy.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I own my business named Fierce Pierce by Lauren. My social media handle is @fiercepiercebylauren. There you can check out photos, reviews, and the experience. I provide in-home concierge ear piercings across the Twin Cities and part of Wisconsin.

This service includes Any earring option (14K gold, white gold, and titanium. All nickel-free + hypoallergenic, ear/skin assessment, piercing, Neilmed sterile saline cleaning spray, numbing cream, crown, suckers, stickers, bravery certificate. Nurse check-in at a week + six weeks. Text/call access anytime.

This career has opened up some other opportunities. I have created social media reels for Neilmed Sterile Saline Spray (the cleaning spray company where I get spray to give to each client). I currently have a partnership with Oh Clementine Earrings with social media which has been fun!

I have done ear-piercing pop-ups at Minnesota Play Cafe, Honey P’s Boutique, and at the Lake Elmo National Night out in my town. Currently, I am partnered with Adorable Kids Parties. They offer in-home spa parties, and I come before the spa party to pierce ears for the group of kids! These opportunities are super fun, and great to connect with some incredible woman-led businesses in Minnesota!

Offering an in-home ear piercing service is such an intimate, fun experience versus going to the mall or scary tattoo shop. Being at home there’s more time so the child doesn’t feel rushed. I like helping calm down kids (and the parent who commonly is nervous), giving them coping skills to use during the piercing. It’s important to validate their emotion, giving options (putting numbing cream on so they don’t feel it as much, holding still like Anna in frozen, “breathing out while getting pierced blowing out their birthday candles”, and holding the bravery wand. With the convenience of being at home, children can hold their favorite stuffed animal/toy, or iPad, be in pajamas, watch movies, listen to their favorite music, aromatherapy, and eat favorite treats after all to make the experience fun and safe!

It is common for me to do birthdays, piercing parties, mom and daughter piercings, heritage piercing appointments, and piercings for a range of ages (2 months old with first Dtap vaccine on up!

I’m so grateful for being able to offer such a special service and make ear piercing a safe and fun experience!!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

When things get tough it’s important to validate your hard moment, and fact check to yourself. I commonly still use this phrase “this really sucks right now, but after it will feel so good to be done” and “it’s going to suck just as much to do it tomorrow, so I might as well just do it now”

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am always looking to partner with anything jewelry related!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fiercepiercebylauren
• Facebook: Fierce Pierce by Lauren
• Other: Tik tok: @fiercepiercebylauren