A reflective exploration of how meaningful relationships and expanded perspectives, rather than independence alone, drive true growth and success in life.
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Not everyone will understand the decisions that change your life. They don't have to. Your job is to make choices you can stand behind.
Lauren LaShae Owens · In Her Own Words
Her Story
About Lauren
Lauren LaShae Owens is a growth strategist, marketing leader, and Account Director who believes the best business decisions happen when strategy, data, and execution work together. Throughout her career, she has helped organizations turn ambitious goals into measurable outcomes by bringing clarity to complex challenges and building systems that allow teams to do their best work.
Her career began with an opportunity that changed everything. After entering the marketing industry with no formal experience, Lauren built her expertise through curiosity, continuous learning, and a willingness to take on challenges beyond her job description. That mindset carried her from intern to Head of Activation before transitioning into an Account Director role, where she partners with organizations to solve business challenges that extend well beyond marketing.
Lauren is known for connecting the dots. Whether she’s aligning business goals with marketing strategy, improving the way teams work, integrating AI into everyday decision making, or helping clients navigate change, she naturally looks for the patterns others overlook and builds practical solutions around them.
Outside of her client work, Lauren writes about leadership, growth, and the experiences that shape the way we think. Her perspective is rooted in a simple belief: our circumstances may influence where we begin, but they never define where we’re capable of going. She hopes her work encourages others to stay curious, think differently, and create opportunities that don’t yet exist.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lauren
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute much of my success to the people who helped me see beyond the limitations I had placed on myself.
When I left home at a young age, I was convinced I could figure everything out on my own. I was determined, independent, and more than a little hard-headed. Life has a way of teaching lessons we aren’t ready to learn, and one of the most important lessons it taught me was that accepting help is not a weakness.
Along the way, leaders, friends, family, and my husband challenged me to think bigger, push further, and see possibilities I couldn’t always see for myself. Looking back, I could have never imagined the life, family, or career I have today from where I started.
One of the greatest strengths we can develop is the willingness to learn from others, accept support, and allow people to help us grow into the person we are capable of becoming.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I’ve ever received was simple: Don’t let a title stop you.
I’ve carried that advice with me throughout my career. It reminded me that growth starts long before a promotion, a leadership role, or someone else deciding you’re ready. Some of the biggest opportunities in my career came from taking ownership before I had the title that matched it.
From intern to Head of Marketing, I’ve learned that where you are today is only one chapter. The people who continue growing are the ones who stay curious, keep learning, and are willing to step into opportunities before they feel fully qualified. That’s where some of the most meaningful growth happens.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering marketing is don’t make yourself small.
Ask questions. Share your perspective. Advocate for your ideas. Most importantly, believe you deserve a seat at the table. Early in my career, I learned that opportunities don’t always arrive because someone invites you into the conversation. Often, they come from being willing to contribute before you feel completely ready.
As women, and especially as women of color, there are still fewer seats at the highest levels of leadership. That reality can feel intimidating, but it should never determine how you see yourself or your potential. I’ve found that success is not about being the loudest person in the room. It’s about bringing value, building trust, and positioning yourself in a way that allows others to recognize your contributions.
You don’t have to choose between being authentic and being effective. You can be confident, thoughtful, collaborative, and ambitious at the same time. The key is to keep showing up, keep learning, and keep taking your seat at the table. The future of leadership needs more women who are willing to step into their potential rather than wait for permission.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think one of the biggest opportunities in marketing right now is that AI is making expertise more accessible than ever before. The challenge is that access to information is no longer the differentiator. Judgment is. We have more data, more tools, and more automation than ever, but technology can tell us what is happening. It still takes people to understand why it’s happening and what to do next.
Beyond marketing, I see the same challenge in leadership. Teams are being asked to adapt, learn, and move faster than ever before. The organizations that thrive will be the ones that combine technology with human judgment, creativity, and adaptability rather than relying on one or the other.
To me, the biggest opportunity is reinvention. The people who will have the greatest advantage are not necessarily the ones with the most experience. They are the ones who continue learning, challenging assumptions, and positioning themselves for what comes next.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that guide me most are transparency, honesty, loyalty, and adaptability.
Transparency and honesty create trust, and trust is the foundation of every strong relationship, whether it’s with a team, a client, a friend, or family. I’ve found that people can navigate almost any challenge when expectations are clear and conversations are honest.
Loyalty is equally important to me. Some of the greatest opportunities and lessons in my life have come through relationships built over time. I believe in showing up for people, investing in their success, and creating the kind of environment where people feel supported and valued.
Adaptability has been a constant throughout my career and life. Very little of my journey has gone according to plan, and many of the opportunities that shaped me came from being willing to learn, adjust, and keep moving forward. That ability to embrace change has allowed me to grow through challenges rather than be defined by them.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Lauren
The People Who Changed My Life Never Solved My Problems
How the people who expanded my perspective changed everything I thought I knew about success.
For much of my early life, I believed success was something a person earned through independence. If I worked hard enough, pushed long enough, and carried enough responsibility, I could create the future I wanted through determination alone. Leaving home at a young age reinforced that belief. Survival required self-reliance, and self-reliance became part of my identity. I viewed strength as the ability to carry my own weight, solve my own problems, and navigate challenges without depending on anyone else.
As I've gotten older, I've realized that many of the beliefs that helped me survive were not the same beliefs that helped me grow.
When I look back on the defining moments of my life, very few were the result of a problem being solved for me. Instead, they came from people who expanded my perspective at critical moments. They challenged assumptions I didn't realize I was carrying. They helped me recognize strengths I had overlooked. They introduced possibilities that had existed long before I was capable of seeing them for myself.
Their influence was rarely dramatic in the moment. Most often, it came through a conversation, a question, a piece of encouragement, or an opportunity that changed the trajectory of what I believed was possible.
Expanders Instead of Rescuers
One of those moments occurred while I was working as a bartender and studying interior design. Marketing was not part of my plan, nor was leadership. Yet someone saw potential in me that had little to do with my résumé and everything to do with my ability to communicate, solve problems, and connect with people. That observation led to an opportunity. The opportunity led to an internship. The internship became a career. Years later, that career would lead me into executive leadership.
Looking back, the most remarkable part of that story is not the opportunity itself. It is the fact that someone recognized a possibility I could not yet recognize on my own.
Over time, I began to notice a pattern. The people who had the greatest impact on my life were expanders rather than rescuers. They expanded my thinking, my confidence, and my understanding of what was available to me. Mentors, leaders, friends, family members, and my husband all played different roles throughout that journey. None of them removed obstacles from my path. What they offered was something far more valuable: perspective. They helped me see beyond the limitations of my current circumstances and beyond the limitations I had unknowingly placed on myself.
The Idea of Being Self-Made
That realization changed the way I think about success. We often celebrate stories of people who built something entirely on their own, but I have never found the idea of being self-made particularly convincing. Every accomplishment is connected to a network of relationships, conversations, lessons, encouragement, and belief. Someone opened a door. Someone shared wisdom. Someone asked a question that created clarity. Someone offered support at the exact moment it was needed. The visible achievement may belong to one person, but the journey almost never does.
Today, as a leader, wife, mother, and mentor, I think less about individual success and more about the influence we have on the people around us. Most of us will never know the full impact of a conversation or the significance of a moment when we choose to encourage someone rather than dismiss them. We may never know when our belief in another person arrives during a season when they are struggling to believe in themselves. Yet those moments matter. In many cases, they become part of a story that continues unfolding long after the conversation ends.
The people who changed my life never solved my problems. They helped me see beyond them. Looking back, that may be one of the greatest gifts a person can give. Not a solution, not a shortcut, and not a rescue. Simply a broader view of what is possible.
A personal journey of transformation revealing how positioning yourself through adversity and believing in possibilities beyond your circumstances can reshape your entire future, from career success to unexpected blessings.
Circumstances Tell a Story. You Write the Ending.
How the Stories We Tell Ourselves Shape the Futures We Create
Some of the most defining moments in my life started with someone telling me what was possible.
What I have learned is that possibility is often much bigger than the circumstances in front of us.
When I was younger, I was convinced I had everything figured out. I left home the moment I could, determined to build a life on my own terms. What followed were some of the hardest lessons of my life. There were nights spent on the streets, plenty of mistakes, and more than a few moments when I had no idea what came next.
If someone had looked at my life during that season, they probably would not have predicted the future that followed. They would not have seen the marketing leader, the wife, the mother, or the life I would eventually build.
At some point, I stopped measuring my future by my current circumstances. I stopped treating difficult seasons as evidence that I was failing and started treating them as opportunities to grow. Every challenge carried a lesson. Every setback revealed a skill I needed to develop. Every uncomfortable chapter pushed me to become stronger, more resilient, and more accountable for the direction of my life.
That shift changed everything.
Years later, life reinforced that lesson in a way I never expected. When I met my husband, I gained far more than a partner. I became part of a family. Together, we built a life while raising three incredible stepchildren. Those years taught me that some of life's greatest blessings arrive in forms we never planned for. They also taught me the value of having someone who believes in you while you are still growing into the person you are becoming.
Then life handed me another challenge. I was told I would likely never have children naturally. For a moment, it felt like someone else was writing a chapter I had not agreed to.
Today, I am the proud mother of two amazing boys.
Every time I look at them, I am reminded that predictions are not promises. Statistics provide information. Expert opinions offer guidance. None of them gets the final say in what is possible for your life.
That lesson extends far beyond parenthood. It applies to careers, leadership, relationships, and personal growth.
Today, I lead teams, help organizations scale performance, and spend my days thinking about strategy, execution, and positioning. Most people associate positioning with brands and marketing campaigns. I believe positioning starts much earlier.
It Starts with the Story We Tell Ourselves
The same circumstance can create two very different futures. One person sees a setback and treats it as a conclusion. Another treats it as a chapter. The circumstance is the same. The positioning is different.
I think this is where people get stuck.
They allow a difficult chapter to become a permanent identity. They let a setback determine what they believe is possible. They hand over their future to a moment that was never meant to define them.
Growth asks something different of us.
It asks us to position ourselves for a future that has not yet introduced itself.
- The girl sleeping on the streets could not see the marketing leader she would become.
- The young woman building a blended family could not see every chapter waiting ahead.
- The woman hearing she might never have children could not see the two boys who would one day call her Mom.
The future existed long before there was evidence of it.
Looking back, that may have been the most important lesson of all.
Circumstances provided context.
Choices created direction.
The story continues to evolve with every decision we make.
No challenge, setback, diagnosis, or difficult season has the authority to write your ending.
That part still belongs to you.
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