We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren Salaun a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Lauren, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a confident person. I excelled in school, sports, music, art, and many other things, and received a lot of recognition for my skills and abilities, which naturally instilled in me a strong sense of confidence and self-esteem. My parents encouraged us to work hard, to learn, to practice, to pursue our passions, and to excel in what we did.
Throughout my life, I worked hard, excelled in nearly everything I did, received recognition, awards, and accolades, and always felt very confident in myself – or at least felt confident as far as what I knew confidence to mean.
My confidence and self-esteem, however, were quite dependent on external validation. So if I felt like I didn’t do something as well as I could have, or if I “failed” at something, or if I didn’t receive the recognition I’d hoped for, or if I felt judged, it would often personalize those experiences and feelings and make the “failures” mean something about my value and worth as a person. So anything that wasn’t “perfect” or “the best” – or at least one of the best – would really challenge my self-esteem.
It wasn’t until I was in my 30s, after going through major burn-out in my career, that I dove into my healing journey and began to develop true confidence. For so much of my life, while I was confident, my self worth was so closely attached to what I was doing, how I was performing, what I was achieving, and what others thought of me. It took a lot of deep work to heal all of that, to heal my perfectionism, to heal my over-achieving, and to heal my people-pleasing, so that my confidence and self-esteem was truly anchored in who I am rather than what I do.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a multi-passionate entrepreneur, host of the AMPLIFY podcast, speaker, women’s mentor, somatic healer, and transformational facilitator for embodied feminine leaders. I also own a Public Relations agency that specializes in helping female entrepreneurs in the personal development space, and I am also a real estate investor.
It’s my mission to awaken the unapologetic Divine Feminine and support women in remembering their true essence, connecting deeply with their body and intuition, and activating their sexuality, voice, pleasure, and purpose to new levels. I specialize in helping women break free of “boss babe” hustle culture and enter their soft, spacious, magnetic, and luxurious, Queen era.
Passionate about supporting women in amplifying their magnetism, attracting (and holding) abundance, and living as their most aligned and fully-expressed, I am committed to elevating feminine power and leadership.
I have also spent more than 15 years in the PR, marketing, and advertising space. In 2014, I decided to leave the corporate world to start my own public relations and marketing agency. In 2020, after informally coaching clients in a variety of capacities, I launched my coaching business. I am also a former health coach, personal trainer, fitness model, and bikini competitor, and had a successful fitness business for several years.
After years of hustling, running multiple businesses at one time, but not seeing the results I knew I truly deserved, I decided to go all-in and own my own mission – and that’s when everything changed.
As a coach and mentor for high performing humans, I specializes in emotional intelligence, masculine/feminine energetics harmonization, somatic healing, subconscious reprogramming, mindset, sexual energy and sensuality, vision-casting and execution, and personal development. A main focus of my coaching business is in supporting women who want to step into new levels of authenticity, confidence, sexual expression, magnetism, alignment, and abundance.
In Spring 2021, I launched the AMPLIFY podcast, where I share conversations and guest interviews about a variety of topics related to living your most amplified life, including magnetism, spirituality, masculine/feminine energetics and dynamics, dating and relationships, sexuality, confidence, and more.
My signature program, QUEENDOM, is a year-long lifestyle mentorship program, designed to help women step into their next level of magnetism, feminine embodiment, sexual liberation, and abundance. I created it after going through my own feminine embodiment journey “the hard way.”
I did a lot of my own feminine healing completely on my own, but I don’t recommend others go that route.
It took me about 5 years to feel like I really got to a place of self mastery and expertise in harmonizing my masculine and feminine energies. My only regret is not diving into all of this sooner and having more guidance along the way. Because if I had, so many things in my life would have been different. I would have ended my relationship with my ex-husband sooner (which was the right decision for both of us), I would have avoided two abusive relationships, I would have shifted out of “hustle mode” much earlier, I would have learned how to magnetize abundance and opportunities to me much sooner, I wouldn’t have spent as much money on various random programs and courses, I wouldn’t have fallen for a business scam that cost me thousands of dollars, and I would have owned my worth, my boundaries, my desires, and so much more… much, much sooner, and with much less struggle.
While I was investing in all kinds of support over those 5 years and pouring so many resources into my businesses and personal development, I never once made a really powerful decision to invest in my own feminine energy healing, somatic healing, and embodiment. I never really prioritized it, so it took a really long time (and lots of blood, sweat, and tears – literally and figuratively).
So while I was growing a lot in other areas of my life and business, my feminine embodiment journey took much longer. It took me 5 years to really feel like I got to a place of mastery with my feminine energy embodiment. The irony of this is that if I had focused on the feminine embodiment work sooner, so many of the other things would have been much easier and happened faster.
And that’s why I created QUEENDOM, to help high-performing, high-achieving, powerful women heal and harmonize their masculine and feminine energies, heal and own their sexual energy, powerfully embody their feminine essence, and become wildly magnetic. I’ve put everything I’ve learned into this lifestyle program to help other women have those same results in a fraction of the time.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The 3 qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that have been most impactful for me in my own journey are:
1. Perseverance, resilience, and reinvention – As an entrepreneur, you will face many challenges, setbacks, and even failures. You will have launches where no one signs up, events where no one attends, crickets on social media posts, etc. This is a normal part of the journey. Perseverance, the ability to bounce back, and willingness to think outside the box, try new things, get creative, and be committed to problem solving are essentials skills to build a successful brand and business. While no one wants to experience challenges, failures, and setbacks, part of what makes the entrepreneurial journey so fulfilling is the fact that it’s always interesting – it never gets boring! – and you will continuously be presented with opportunities to grow and learn. Embrace the journey and commit to giving it your best and be willing to evolve and transform. Entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful personal growth journeys you will ever embark on.
2. Asking for and pursuing support and guidance – I used to be so resistant to asking for help and receiving support. I used to think that asking for help made me weak. So for a long time, I did so many things myself – too many things. While I enjoyed learning how to do a lot of different things, I often stretched myself too thing trying to do it all, rather than focusing my energy on what I enjoyed most and was best at and then getting support for everything else. In the beginning of your journey, you may need to wear a lot of hats, but as your business grows, outsource and hire so that you can stay focused on what matters most and what you enjoy most. Just because you “can” do everything, doesn’t mean you have to. Stay in your zone of genius and then ask for support with the rest. It’s also really important to get guidance, whether in the form of a mentor, coach, course, program, etc. Learn from others who have gone where you want to go, who have done what you want to do, who are living a life that you aspire to live. Investing in support within your business, like a virtual assistant to start, as well as support from outside your business in the form of a mentor who can share their wisdom and knowledge with you, are two major things that will help you scale while staying fulfilled and balanced.
3. Belief and trust in myself, and faith that everything is happening in my favor and that God wants me to have what’s meant for me – I have always believed in myself and trusted that I am meant to fulfill a big vision in my life. I have always known that I am meant to make an impact and meant to live a wildly fulfilling life of my own design. This belief is so firmly grounded in me that it helps keep me going when things are tough and keeps me motivated and inspired to keep showing. I also have a strong faith in God and believe that God wants me (and all of us) to have the desires of our heart. So, if I am able to envision this beautiful life, business, and career for myself, I know that it is possible for me. I know that God wouldn’t plant the seed of such a powerful vision in me if it weren’t totally possible for me to have.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I used to experience overwhelm all the time! In fact, I think I lived my life for many many years in an almost constant state of mild overwhelm – which I know is something that so many of my clients experience and come to me for help with.
The biggest things I did to deeply heal this at the root were: healing my masculine and feminine energies, healing my unworthiness, healing my overachieving, healing perfectionism, and somatic healing to reprogram my nervous system and subconscious mind.
Those methods all take time and consistency, but those are what will really clear your system of the subconscious desire to have overwhelm be your default operating system.
For quicker solutions when you’re feeling overwhelmed, here are things I recommend:
– Take a break to change your state – Go for a walk, have a 5-minute dance party, go workout, stretch, take a nap, etc.
– Get clear on the facts of the situation (what is actually happening) and then get clear on all the stuff you’re adding (like your own stories or narratives around what’s going on)
– Identify possible solutions for whatever the problem is and take ONE committed action toward a solution, even if it might not be the “best” solution, forward momentum and action will help you break out of overwhelm
– Ask for help – reach out to friends, family, your coach/mentor, and ask for support, or even just a safe space to vent
– Allow yourself to feel your feelings – if you need to cry, yell, pout, etc. over whatever is going on, give yourself some space to do that. Don’t hold those yucky feelings in. This doesn’t mean you spend the whole day moping and being in a bad mood, though sometimes that might be necessary, but give yourself a few minutes to feel the feelings. When we try to stuff these things down, they’re going to create other problems and they’re likely going to explode out at another time.
– Express gratitude – This may be counter-intuitive, but shifting into gratitude is a simple and really powerful way to change your state and calm your nervous system down. If you’re overwhelmed by something with work, what about your work are you grateful for? Can you find something to be grateful for in the specific situation that is overwhelming you? It’s also helpful to just make a list, or say out loud to yourself, a bunch of things in your life that you’re grateful for. This puts your mind into a more empowered, success-focused state.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laurensalaun.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurensalaun/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/laurensalaun
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensalaun/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@laurensalaun
Image Credits
All photos by: Monica Linda of Girl Squad Media
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