Meet Lauren Olds

We recently connected with Lauren Olds and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

There’s a line that I repeat often to a few friends of mine – “we’re all going to die eventually.” Morbid, I know. But it’s a line and a mantra I’ve repeated in my head over and over again for the past couple of years.

For most of my adult life, I have decidedly *not* been a risk taker. I followed the path that I was encouraged (and did so happily) to take. College, good job, start saving to buy a house.

Some might say that me moving from the east coast to California was a risk, and to some degree maybe it was. But it didn’t *feel* like a risk. I was moving with my boyfriend at the time, I was in love, and I knew in my heart I would love San Diego.

But when I turned 30, I started to look at things differently. Did I want to work in tech my entire life? Was that it for me? And if I wanted something different for myself, how would I even do that?

The second you start to think about making a massive pivot in your life, the doubt starts to creep in. The vulnerable parts of yourself want to protect you, keep you in your safe zone (my long standing career in software).

But then I thought to myself, I’m going to die one day. One day I will be old and on my way out of this world. I can either use this opportunity in time (single, no kids, no mortgage) to take a risk, because there will be a day in time when I can’t, or I can continue down a path that I know will ultimately leave me unhappy.

And when you look at those two options, the decision is made for you. You take the risk, you believe in yourself (even if sometimes you lean on delusion to get you through), and you get it your all.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

On 11-11 of this year, I launched my very first brand, LEEVA.

LEEVA is a collagen based herbal tea mix. It has 10 grams of protein per serving, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no caffeine. Our first flavor is ginger lemon! It’s brings the heat with a strong, spicy, ginger punch and subtle notes of lemon. It comes in powder form which allowed me to amp of the flavors compared to your traditional herbal teas, and all you need to do is add hot water.

When developing LEEVA, I knew I wanted to offer something familiar but with a new twist. Most people only drink tea on certain occasions – sore throats, rainy days, etc. With LEEVA, we’re building a ritual through a sensory experience. We have bold, loud branding. The smell is fresh, but strong. The ginger tingles your taste buds, and heats your chest as it moves down. And with the 10 grams of collagen based protein, you know you’re getting nourishment in every sip.

LEEVA has been a labor of love and my goal is to give people the gift of a pause. Every person deserves to have a moment for themselves every single day. And LEEVA is the invitation to take it.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Conviction. Communication. Tenacity.

You are going to be your brand’s biggest believer. If you don’t LOVE what you’re developing and believe in it with your whole heart, the road ahead of you will be longer and harder. People (mostly well intentioned) are going to throw their opinions at you left, right, and center. You have to remember who you are, what you’re doing, and what you’re doing it for. My biggest piece of advice? You need to tap into your intuition. It’s the strongest superpower I believe I have to date. When I landed on the idea for LEEVA, I felt it in my whole body. I knew it was right, I knew I loved it, and I knew I could sell it. Wait until you feel that moment, then charge forward. Your conviction will speak volumes to those around you.

I’ve worked in client relations my whole career so communication luckily felt simple to me but one of the most important skills I’ve had to use while building LEEVA. If you start your own brand like mine, you will be working with lawyers, labs, manufacturers, designers, web developers, customers, the list goes on. Your communication skills are a representation of you and of your brand. You need to be timely, clear, at times firm, and grounded in empathy. The people you are communicating with are helping you build the brand of your dreams, treat them as such!

I launched my brand just under two weeks ago and if I didn’t dig for every ounce of tenacity I have in my body, I would have never made it. From the moment I made the decision to become a founder to launch took me over two years. It’s long, hard work. You will have every single reason to quit be put in front of you. Dig down, find the grit, and remember, we all die eventually 🙂

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I feel overwhelmed frequently (particularly in this past year of building LEEVA), and I have several tools in my toolkit to help ease the tension.

My strongest medicine has been movement in the form of Pilates, specifically the studio I teach at, Saltvault Hot Pilates. Put me in a dark, hot room, surrounded by women who want to move and grow stronger, and suddenly the world melts away. I was a student at this studio years before I became an instructor and it will forever be a safe place for me and my mind. When I want to turn my brain off, I know it’s time to make a visit (every single day).

Breathwork! Breathwork is a newer practice in my life as of a couple of years ago. My amazing friends Mia and Matt Heck (founders of Soul Plunge) introduced me to the practice and I put it into practice almost daily. It’s amazing what slowing down your breath can do for you nervous system. Our body just wants to protect us, and we can tell it that we are safe through breath.

Back to my morbid statement but….remembering that we all die eventually. Will this problem be a problem tomorrow? A week from now? A year from now? Remember to put things in perspective. You are stronger than you think, you just need to remind yourself that you got this!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drinkleeva.com
• Instagram: drinkleeva

Image Credits

Ashley Batz