Her Story
About Lauren
My career has been built on a foundation of delivering exceptional service and caring for members in subscription-based lifestyle organizations. I started my journey at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, where I interned throughout college and then took on a full-time role after graduating from CSU in 2009. There, I ran children's programming and worked as a concierge supervisor, really learning the front-end of delivering super world-class, high-level service. That experience shaped everything that came after. I spent about 7 years at Inspirato, a startup hospitality membership-based organization, where I started as an individual contributor and worked my way up to VP of Member Services and also worked on the sales side. From 2019 to 2022, I worked for Circus Tricks, which is actually SkyZone, and helped launch their membership profile and program both internationally and nationally. In September 2022, I joined YPO as the head of member care, and it's been the most notable achievement of my career. I came into the business and really helped operationalize my part of the business, create efficiencies, and implement AI into our day-to-day operations. When I started, the department was small, and we're now much larger. We went from getting about 40,000 inquiries or cases a year to over 100,000, and member satisfaction increased from around 3.4 out of 5 to 4.7. My department has only been around since 2021, so it was a new concept to the business that's been wildly successful. I sit on the executive leadership team, and my team sits around the world, operating 24-7, 365 days a year, serving about 37,000 members. We're the department in the organization that interfaces with the most members and chapter managers, with over 100,000 interactions every single year. No day is ever the same for me. It could be helping other departments reach their goals, professional development for my team, dealing with tough member situations, or just engaging with members to get a pulse on how they're dealing with their membership. My team also helps support in-person events around the world. My main area of expertise is truly caring for members in this subscription lifestyle, understanding what makes them engage, and delivering a super high level of service virtually. It's about tailoring every interaction to each member's needs, and we're dealing with a very diverse group of really influential people around the world.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lauren
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to getting down in the weeds and knowing exactly what my team is doing. I think in order to be a successful leader and really operationalize businesses, you have to be able to do the same functions that your team is doing. At any given time, I think it's important that they see that you can jump in and take on any task that they're doing, and I think that speaks volumes as a leader. There is no task in any part of my organization that's too small for me. I will do something as simple as responding to a member who needs help with a password to taking on a really tough situation. I think getting in the weeds and knowing that your team feels like you're going to show up when times are hard and do the same work they're doing is really important.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would give young women the advice that I see oftentimes where people feel like they either have to start a family, or they have to start a career, and I actually wholeheartedly believe that you can do both. I think that there are times where your family might take precedence over your job, and then I think there's times where sometimes you have to be very clear that there's a lot going on at work right now, and other things are going to take a backseat. So, I don't think people have to make a choice between starting their career, and growing their career, and wanting more, and having a family or starting a family.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Some of the biggest challenges on the member care side are all of the geopolitical issues that are going on around the world. I think that creates a tough front for everybody, and that creates challenges both for your teams internally and for clients. On the opportunities side, I think there are lots of people very hungry to connect with other people. In a world of AI, there's always these questions of, am I talking to a person? I think that element of human connection is a huge opportunity for people to capitalize on. I think there is a way in the world that both human connection and AI can exist and help out. I think people are, more so than ever, craving that human connection.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
To me, it's super important that you meet people where they're at, and you understand where they're coming from, as opposed to assuming. And obviously, always assume positive intent. In any given day, somebody has so many different things going on, and it is really important, not only in customer service, but I think as being a people leader, to meet people where they're at, understand what's going on, and know that there is a life outside of work, there is a life happening outside of your membership. Putting people first is really important to me, and I have found that if you put people first and you meet them where they're at, they show up for you tenfold on the back end. That is a super important value that I try to drive home to my people leaders, to my team, to my peers, and I happen to be a very positive person, so I find it easier to be super positive, even in the tough situations, rather than finding the negatives that are going on.
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