Recovering from setbacks in your business

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:: 00:02

At that point, when I thought I've got to find at least 150,000 pounds, if everybody turned around and wanted a refund, I've got to find that money. And the only place I've got that money in equity is in my house. When the UK went into lockdown, Lauren Prentice found herself at crisis point and main business, which provides affordable theater tickets for Western chairs,

:: 00:24

went to a whole, I had to furlough all my stuff, cause obviously you've got no money coming in. I'm by no means anywhere near, near the money that you need to come in to pay your kind of wage bills. In this episode, it's a courageous content podcast. You'll learn how long recovered from a big setback in her business and how she found the resilience to keep going.

:: 00:46

It was really, really tough because the other thing as well is the business is all my babies. I've nurtured them all from nothing to where they are now. And it was so soul destroying to have to say day in, day out. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But also learn how Lauren manages multiple businesses, including two subscription box businesses and what she believes are the key qualities for successful entrepreneurship.

:: 01:18

So Lauren, you've got seven businesses and you're 32. How did that happen? That is a very good question. I'm not entirely sure. So I went to drama school. Absolutely hated. Every minute of it came out at 21. When I don't want to be an actor, I can't think of anything worse. I'm going to start a business. So I did,

:: 01:42

and that was working in schools, teaching drama. We used to run about 50 different classes a week. And then I sold that in 2016 and started some other businesses. Basically. Why didn't you go into theater? What was it about stage school that made you think, Nope, this isn't for me. Yeah. So I mean so many reasons, but the main one was I went to drama school at 18.

:: 02:09

Most people don't go to drama sports. They're a little bit older and I got in straight away and I was like, oh my God, I got into drama school. It's a dream country. And it was, it was all I'd ever wanted. And I got in there and it just really didn't fulfill my expectations. I clearly hadn't done my research because I signed myself up for an,

:: 02:25

a method acting school, which meant that we spent three weeks solid living as a character. And by that, I mean all day as a villager was what I did. And they, when you go to drama school, they break you down. So, you know, they brought everything on the table. It's basically like going through therapy, but in a really,

:: 02:46

really bad unregulated way. And so they put everything out on the table and they're meant to build you back up again. And in reality, they don't do that. They break you down and then they kind of go, oh, you're graduated. Good luck. And I just knew from my third year, I, my second year, actually probably for about six weeks into the course that it just wasn't for me,

:: 03:08

it just wasn't something that I was really wanting. You know, people would literally be willing to sell their grandmother for a pop, Just wasn't me. And I knew that and I just thought, no, I'm, I'm dumb. So What businesses have you got now? So I've got a theater company and we sell theater tickets for less than the box office price.

:: 03:33

So that's the first one. I have three different subscription box businesses. I've got a company that goes into schools and teaches children how to cook. I have a Christmas elf business and I also teach people to start subscription boxes. I think that's seven. Wow. And are you the sole CEO of all of these businesses or some of them partnerships? Yeah.

:: 03:58

None of them are partnerships. I think partnerships will be really tricky to be honest. It's not something I've ever ventured into And well, you've got ADHD like I have. So I'm listening to that thinking seven businesses. How does she do it? How do you do it? I think because I have ADHD in all honesty really helps in that my mind cannot focus on one thing.

:: 04:23

So if I had just one business to run, I'd got bored by lunchtime on any given day. Whereas because I've got so many different kind of pots to dip into and to work on and to build and to grow, I can dip into those different businesses and spend a little bit of time on them, get that kind of dopamine hit and then move on to the next thing or back to the first thing as it might be.

:: 04:49

So this really interests me because although I have been diagnosed with ADHD as well, I've also recently been given a level one autism as well, and that might solve a puzzle for me because even though I have that kind of ADHD brain, which is all over the place, I need big chunks of time to get things done. And I've got this crazy all over the place brain,

:: 05:14

but then at the same time, I've got this very methodical brain. And part of me does things the same way if we see time. And if you try and interrupt me when I'm concentrating, you can't get a word out of me. So the thought of me flipping my attention across seven different businesses, it just blows my mind. But how do you do it?

:: 05:36

I think what's really, really, really important to note is that I do have a team. So for example, I have an operations manager who deals with all of our children's cookery classes. So she deals with all of that. And to be honest, beyond paying invoices and like a little bit of kind of creative input of me going, let's run a bake-off session of some kind of crazy idea that's popped up.

:: 05:58

I don't have that much in the day-to-day running. It's very much manager led and the same with some of the other bits. So for example, I don't really get involved with much of the admin side of things as much as I used to just because I know that my forte is not in replying to emails, it's not in doing the sort of day-to-day running.

:: 06:18

And there are people in my team who are great at that and who are so much better at that than I am. How good are you at outsourcing? So I find it quite hard sometimes. Cause sometimes I get stuck in that it would just be easier for me to do it myself because by the time I showed him how to do it and he did it wrong a few times or I have to chase them up cause they hadn't done it.

:: 06:38

I can very easily get stuck in that place. Like you, must've got very good at outsourcing. I think it's one of those things where you have to get better at it. Like it takes practice. So for example, for ages, I was doing things because it was easier for me to do them to spend 20 minutes showing someone else how to do them.

:: 07:01

And I do think it comes down to the strength of your team. So for example, there are people in my team who are really, really strong on some things, and I know a better at it than the male things and there's other tasks that I go, no, I can't get that to them. It's probably my own limiting belief. And you still seem to be quite active in your theater ticket business,

:: 07:25

which we'll talk about in a second. I know I'm a member of it and it looks like you still do a lot of the posting and the promotion of the tickets. Is that right? Yeah. So I do the majority of that and that is a job that I just really find hard to let go because I know what phrasing works. I know what posts work.

:: 07:45

I know what content works for our members. So I know that kind of a copied and pasted from the website about a show doesn't appeal to our members as a, oh my God. I saw this show and I love this and I love this and I love this. And here's some pictures that I took, the kind of user generated content comes from me.

:: 08:04

People trust a lot more. And I think that's quite tricky because that'd be a really, really easy thing to outsource and to give to one of the members of my team, but just getting that voice. That's my voice. Right? Yeah. I hear you so so much because I struggle with exactly that and content is my business. So it's really,

:: 08:27

really hard because I template a lot of stuff. So things like reminders for classes or certain social media posts I can template. But actually I know that if it's my voice and it's genuinely what I'm thinking and you know, my opinion on something that will do so much better even to paying customers, you know, when it comes to motivating them to turn up to live sessions or classes or whatever.

:: 08:52

And I wish I could find the solution for that. It would be helpful here. Actually, if you could explain a bit about theater express and other than that, I absolutely love it, but how did it work and how did you get the idea? Because it's, for me, it's just genius. Yeah. So the way that it works. So we have a really large Facebook group now,

:: 09:13

but that's obviously not how it started. I mentioned that I started this business when I came at drama school and was teaching children drama and all the, like the parents were saying, I, we really want to tighten steam, Matilda. We want to take them, see Charlie in the chocolate factory. That's what was on at the time, but it's so expensive.

:: 09:30

And I was like, oh, well we can get group rates. And so I started to arrange groups for those people, you know, like small group bookings and we take the kids and the parents would come. They were very grateful and it was a really good way of engaging people in a bit more than just an after school club. But then we started to offer them out to like the wider community.

:: 09:49

So we'd say to people on that local Facebook groups, cause back then a local Facebook group, wasn't a place to whinge and moan. It was much more of a place where there was like community and you could promote things. And it, it was a nicer place to be basically. So we'd say, you know, we've got tickets for Matilda, that X amount we're going on this date.

:: 10:12

And we were just flooded with people. So we started to build this group up time and time again, it was just growing and growing and growing. And then it got to, I think, 2017. And I was like, I can't rely on the systems I've got in place anymore. Like we had such an archaic system. Someone would have to message me on Facebook,

:: 10:32

say, you know, I want three tickets for cabaret next week and I'd go, okay, cool. Like add them to a list. Someone would have to phone them, take their payment over the phone. They would then have to process it. Then we'd have to post them tickets. And it was just like such a long-winded process. So we've had a website built and from there it's just grown and grade.

:: 10:54

I think we removed that barrier of entry and made it easier to buy. How were you personally impacted by COVID because obviously the theaters shut down. They were, how did that impact on you personally, but also your business? Yeah, so it was pretty horrendous in both counts, to be honest, obviously the theaters closed and we were one of the first industries to get closed down.

:: 11:19

And then we were also the last to reopen. So we had in total about 18 months of closures. And I always, I keep thinking, it's mad to think that this time last year, the theaters weren't legally allowed to be open. And that was pretty horrendous. I had to furlough all my stuff because obviously you've got no money coming in or by no means anywhere near,

:: 11:44

near the money that you need to come in to pay your kind of wage bills to have to follow all my stuff. But then I had 10,000 tickets that needed rescheduling refunding or moving to somewhere or another else, which was an absolutely mammoth task. And to be honest, the first two weeks I was like, I'm going to have to sell my house because there was a situation where one of the booking agents that we is the one that we'd used the most we're refusing to process any refunds,

:: 12:16

they would only process credits. So that's all well and good if you've booked four tickets and it's a total of upstate, I don't know, 100 pounds or whatever it is, but we had 150 grams worth of tickets, but with them and they were refusing any refunds that was only exchanges. And of course the first thing that happens when it all hits the fan is people go,

:: 12:37

I want to refund and why I was like, cause everyone else has been fun, eat it. I'd love to give you a refund. But that refund was then going to have to come out of any earnings that we had in the business. So I didn't take away from the business for over two years, I've only just restarted taking a wage because it was important that we have the money in there in case everything went terribly wrong again.

:: 13:03

So from kind of an emotional and a mental health point of view, it was really, really tough because the other thing as well is the business is all my babies. You know, I've nurtured them all from nothing to where they are now. And it was so soul destroying to have to say day in, day out. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

:: 13:23

I'm so sorry. This has been canceled. We've got another six months. We're going to have to move you to September or we can have to move you to June or whatever it was. It was just such a soul destroying I can imagine. And there's so much, I want to ask about that. The first thing is about those customers who ask for a refund because it didn't even occur to me to ask for refunds or anything like that,

:: 13:48

because I was thinking to myself, I'm missing these shows, but all of these actors and actresses and musicians and theater technicians and the whole industry is not being paid. I'd say 90% of people because of the audience that I've built and then loyalty, because I think a lot of them for want of a better term like me, and like to support a small business,

:: 14:08

I think a lot of them said exactly like, you know, we want to support would leave our money and they left it in credits. We actually got to, I think it was probably about July last year and went through and added up all the unspent credits. And we've still got about 45,000 pounds of unused credits in the summer of last year. I should imagine the large majority of those have

been used now,

:: 14:32

but most people were super, super supportive and said, we're going to carry on paying our membership fees if they were in the BIP membership, which is the membership that sits alongside kind of the main business. And then the remaining 10%, some of them had very reasons for wanting refunds. So, you know, they'd lost their jobs or they'd been furloughed or,

:: 14:57

and there was a handful of people that were shielding and said, you know, we're not going to be able to go to the theater indefinitely now. So it was really, it was tough, but people did have that have their reasons. I'm sure a lot of people, when we explain the situation, we said, look, we can give you a refund.

:: 15:14

We're happy to give you a refund, but if you could consider leaving it in a credit, you'll have the money to spend. There's no expiry. And a lot of people after that were very, very happy to do that. And how did it impact on you personally? Because I can imagine the worry of that money. The only analogy I think I can draw is events.

:: 15:32

I had an event booked in person. I did lose quite a few thousand pounds, but not anywhere on those amounts of money. And I just kind of had to swallow it really. I looked at the alternatives, but it can make you feel sick and so worried about money. And how was that for you? It was hard because I was looking at,

:: 15:54

you know, you look at your kind of Stripe Stripe page every day, every couple of days to check, you know, the numbers and things. And they were just minuses day in, day out minuses. It was really hard. I think the other thing as well was none of us expected it to go on so long. And when it seemed like it was not going to end anytime soon,

:: 16:15

that's when it sunk in. And that's when it got really hard. So when it got to think it was probably September. Yeah. When it got to September, I was at a point where every single one of the businesses that I had pre COVID was completely mothballed. The theaters were still closed. Even the classes in the schools we couldn't do because the kids were in bubbles.

:: 16:37

So you couldn't run classes with them. And that was when it got really tough. Cause I was like, how much longer, how much longer can we possibly do this? And I did really question whether I'd made the right decision of saying to people, you know, we'll change your shows and things. I did think to myself, should I have just refunded everybody and try to restart again at the beginning,

:: 17:01

the Beginning of post COVID. And you said at one point you were thinking you might have to sell your house. When one of the booking agents was not willing to process any refunds, which, you know, we now know is very illegal at the time. We didn't, I didn't know that. And presumably nor did they, and if they did,

:: 17:21

then that's even less. But at that point, when I thought I've got to find at least 150,000 pounds, if peop, if everybody turned around and wanted a refund, I've got to find that money. And the only place I've got that money in equity is in my house. Wow. And it seriously crossed my mind. And my mum was like,

:: 17:44

you won't have to sell your house. You wouldn't have to sell your house. We'll figure something out, you know, like we'll make plan. And she was like really having to talk me down. Cause I was like, no, like this is, this is the only way. And thankfully after a couple of weeks, but as you can imagine,

:: 17:58

that was a really long two weeks. They did kind of go, oh, okay, actually we'd prefer you to take a credit, but we can refund you. And they did start to refund. And he said, you didn't pay yourself a wage for two years from that business where you've making money from. If anywhere, Initially I was making, the only money I had coming in was from our VIP members.

:: 18:20

So they were people within the theater membership who pay for things like exclusive shows and early access to shows. And we give out lots of free tickets and things like that. So I'm always going to be eternally in the debt of those people because they kept paying that. And it's only a small amount. It's like it was 10 pounds a month, but they kept paying that.

:: 18:42

So I had that money coming in, which did keep us afloat and managed to pay, you know, all the things that don't get canceled. Cause you're in a pandemic like insurance and website hosting and all those boring things, just part and parcel of running a business. Did you ever think to yourself, oh, I wish I'd just got like a normal job rather than the Oh my God.

:: 19:03

Yes. So much. And that I was really quite bitter as well because being a limited company, we didn't get any support, actual Nothing, and I physically couldn't do anything. You know, I could not run anything as much as I would have loved to. And I also, because I was limited company, didn't obviously get the grant and I was really,

:: 19:26

really, really, really annoyed about people who had got the grant. So for example, take someone who might be like a private tutor. They could get the grant of like two, 3000 pounds or whatever it was a month and still have a really thriving, busy business and get that grant. And I was like, where is the justice in that I can't run anything.

:: 19:50

It would, there is nothing for me to do it, try and make money because it's all closed yet. These people get not only the grant, but they can carry on running and have a thriving business. And that did leave a really bitter taste in your mouth. Yeah. It has been unfair. And I felt, I mean, I was lucky because I was able to keep working and in a sense I got busier.

:: 20:09

What did you learn about yourself during that really difficult period? I think I learned that I was more resilient than I thought I was. I think I realized that from a personal point of view with it in reference to my business is my baby. And I bet, you know, I'm very loyal to the business, so to speak, but something has to come from within and there has to be that resilience.

:: 20:38

And it made me realize just how resilient you have to be to run a business because it would have been so easy to have hidden under the DV and gone. I can't deal with this every day I had my laptop on, I was emailing the next batch of shows. I'm so sorry you've been canceled, et cetera, et cetera. I sometimes feel like for me,

:: 21:01

when I look at my clients, the biggest indicator for me as to whether somebody is going to succeed is personal responsibility. And I wonder if that was something that you see as well when you're working with clients and working with other businesses that kind of resilience, that tolerance to risk that just that bounce, that ability to bounce back. Yeah. And I think what's really,

:: 21:24

really important to note. So I noticed that a lot when I'm working with people who want to start subscription boxes is that there has to be an element of risk. You have to be willing to not only put yourself out there, but you have to put this. What's the best way to think of it is you have to eat, sleep and breathe your business.

:: 21:42

You do have to treat it like a full-time job. You can't dip in and pick up an hour here and then skip a week and pick up an hour there. And maybe you do two hours the next day, but the next week you skip a few hours. It just doesn't work like that. You've got to have that consistency. You have to treat it like there's no other reason than for it to go well,

:: 22:04

so that if all said and done, and it didn't go well and something terrible happened. And for example, you had to launch and it failed and nobody bought something or whatever it was, you were selling that at least you could hold your hands up and go. I couldn't have done anything more. And that's really interesting because it brings me to something else I want you to talk about,

:: 22:25

which was a failure. So as we're recording this, I've got a group who I've been working with for the last eight weeks who are launching their first digital products. And we're coming up to launch week and some people are hiding on me. They get a lot of accountability. So we check in with them every week there's tasks to do every week, but there's cold feet,

:: 22:48

there's hiding. And I know what it is. It's fear of failure. And I went into the group today and I was like, look, what's the worst possible thing that could happen is that you launched this digital products and no one buys it. And that's not actually that bad because you've learned how to do a launch. You've gone through all the steps with somebody experienced,

:: 23:05

you've had conversations with your customers. But I feel like the perception often is failure. And I feel like there's something there about tolerance to failure. So I'd love you to talk about what you failed at. And it was a how you see that, like how you see the role of failure in success. I think one of the things with regards to failure that I think you have to be really,

:: 23:29

really aware of is, and it's, it's this phrase and I don't know where the phrase comes from, but it's kill your darlings. And I remember it, Ernest Hemingway, isn't it. It's writing it, Kill your darlings. Or you need to know when is the right time to kill your darlings. And so, for example, when I sold my kids drama company in 2016,

:: 23:54

it was a real case of that because I was burned out. I was working all the hours under the sun and we just couldn't get the star. We were hiring actors. And the problem with actors is they're great. They were brilliant at teaching the kids. The kids love them. They had loads of energy, but they phone me at two o'clock on a Thursday and say,

:: 24:16

I've got a toothpaste commercial and I'd go, okay, when's that? Oh, I've got an audition at 10 to three today. And I'd be like, well, you're teaching a class at three o'clock and it was so difficult. And at that point I just went, nah, it's time. And I did it again in the pandemic. So I ran a kid's party company and it was thriving.

:: 24:37

You know, we'd have 14 different kids, parties that weekend and it would, yeah, it made loads of money. It was, it was a great business. We had still to this day, I get two or three inquiries a week and we removed the website. That's how much of a good name it had. So they can't even find us online.

:: 24:54

Somehow they're getting my number and I get inquiries two or three times a week on new post pandemic. It was time to, again, kill my darlings on that business because it didn't make as much money. As I knew other things make, I started the subscription boxes by them. They were successful. They were making lots of money. And also just from a personal point of view,

:: 25:16

I didn't want to be in a position where I had an entertainer with COVID or someone had been pinged with COVID and we had to cancel a five-year-old's party and that five-year-old didn't get Elser at that party or whoever it was they're expecting. And I knew emotionally, I couldn't deal with that. And so at that point I knew it was time to let that go.

:: 25:36

And I think there's a big thing to say with, it's not necessarily failure it's knowing when is the time to step away and respect. That sounds to me like quite a smart decision. Have you ever actually launched something that's just bombed or just not worked out how you hoped and how did you respond to that? We'll be honest and, you know, touch wood.

:: 25:59

I haven't, but sometimes I think things can feel like a failure. Oh, say more about that. Yeah. I think things can feel like a failure because you expect too much. So I'm really, really guilty of setting my targets too high. Say for example, when I first launched the business box in September, 2020, my target to hit for the first month,

:: 26:24

sales was 200 subscribers. Now it was completely and utterly unrealistic because there were only 300 people in my audience for that at the time, expecting like a 60% or higher even 66%. And that was really just not going to happen. And I think about 30 people signed up in that first month, which actually, when I look back at it now, I'm like,

:: 26:50

oh, that wasn't that bad. But at the time it felt like such a failure. That's a 10% conversion. Isn't it? The average conversion rate for online sales? I know there's no subscription boxes because we haven't got much data because the industry is quite new, but it's one to 2%. And then people go, oh, well that means I'm going to get a sell like one and a half.

:: 27:08

Of course, it's not like, well, yes. And the alternative to that is that you either go out there and build your audience, which is going to take you a bit of time or you do outreach. You reach out to people and you do that comfortable thing, which is where you reach out to people and say, Hey, I've just created this thing.

:: 27:24

Would you like to buy it? What things do you hate doing in your business that feel really uncomfortable, but you do them anyway. I think for me, the visibility side of things, I'm quite, I feel like I'm quite bad at, I'm not very consistent with things like social media. I'm very good with my Facebook groups for the tickets, but things like Instagram stories or Tik TOK or reels and things like that.

:: 27:50

I procrastinate those and put those right to the bottom of the pile. What is it that you find uncomfortable about that One? Because I don't really know. And I think if I knew then it would be easier to tackle it because if you know the answer, if I knew the answer to that, I could fix it. I think a lot of it is because I don't find the time.

:: 28:15

So I, what I should do is schedule the time in, but I'm also incredibly severely ADHD and would just put it off and put it off, but it often find an excuse not to do it. And Sydney jammy, Dodgers, instead, frankly. So I tell myself it's because I don't have the time, but actually that's absolute rubbish. And I think people would also find it reassuring to hear you say that because you still have a very successful business without Doing any of that stuff.

:: 28:45

And I think that's important. And one of the things I wanted to talk about was about investments that you've made in coaching or programs or courses that you've done. And in particular, I'd love to know about any bad investments that you've made. I think it's really important that people hear that people like you or me, that they may perceive to be further along,

:: 29:08

that we have invested in things that haven't worked out. We've bought courses that we haven't looked at. So tell us about what you've invested in and make us feel better. So I've been known to be a bit of a cost tar, you know, or sign up to something and think, oh, I've got the time to do that. Realistically. I really don't.

:: 29:27

I don't have time to attend the alive one hour session for the next six months or whatever it is, six weeks. So I signed up to courses in blogging in Pinterest, in PR else, have I done you name it? I've probably signed up for courses in it, Facebook ads. And then what I ended up doing is looking at it going,

:: 29:50

no, I don't have time for this. And I ended up outsourcing it to somebody who knows what they're doing. And how do you feel about those investments? Do you look back and think, oh, I'm so annoyed with myself that I wasted the money. No, I'm pretty good at just going, okay. That was a bad choice, which I appreciate is probably a very,

:: 30:07

very bad privileged way of being and a thinking. But what I do try and do with those courses. So for example, with the blogging course, I gave it to one of my team and I said, right, can you sit through the recordings and do this and an implement this because I'm not going to have the time, but this is a really good project that you can take on.

:: 30:25

Yeah, it's interesting because I feel exactly the same. And I actually did a podcast episode on this, which I can link to in the show notes, which was basically calling for people. So you just forget about the courses that you've invested in that you haven't opens because there's usually a reason it's maybe not the right course for you. Maybe it's not a good cause maybe it's not the right time and even bad experiences teach you something that,

:: 30:47

Yeah, it drives me mad, like from a personal point of view when somebody signs up to costs and because they've signed up to the course, they think they're going to get the success. I think you have to sign up to the course and do the work because if you don't do the work, you're not going to get any of the results and you can't blame the course.

:: 31:07

And for me, it comes back to personal responsibility. So be able to hold your hands up and say, well, yeah, I didn't get the results because I didn't finish the course or I show up to those sessions or I decided it wasn't right for me. And I do think that we have to reframe it. And I mean, even bad courses or bad events or bad,

:: 31:25

I can maybe I've just got a sunny disposition, but I can always see something that I got out of it. And I think in business, we have to be able to move forward and make better decisions. So can you share with us, what's coming up in your business and what you're excited about? Yeah. So I am gearing up at the moment to launch my course,

:: 31:49

which hopefully people will finish tick all the boxes and tickle the boxes either course that will literally take you from concept of a subscription box all the way through to growing your audience, to the pre-launch phase, to the launch phase, sourcing all the items, making sure people aren't going to cancel straight away. It's kind of a one-stop shop really for everything subscription box based.

:: 32:15

So I am launching that on the 4th of July and I'll be running a challenge the week before It goes to lots of shows and you that's how you're able to write such great coffee and get everybody else excited about going to the shows. Do you ever sit there and think, oh, I wish that was named No, never. I'm asked this all the time and no,

:: 32:32

I never ever, ever, because I know how hard it is. I know that so many of those

performers on that stage were working Tesco six months ago. Yeah. And being broken down at, say to school. Yeah. Has that prepared you for the resilience you need in business? You think A hundred percent? I think it's the only thing I got out of drama school that I would say was a positive.

:: 32:55

Wow. Because it was, it was brutal because it's not just a, for want of a better term and attack on your performance skills. It's an attack on your whole personality. Like in my first year, my feedback from my, the head of the first year, and she went, you're like an obstinate flower. And I was like, I don't know what obstinate means is you get a dictionary and just left me.

:: 33:22

So I went home and I got my dictionary and I looked up obstinate and it was stubborn and I'm willing to change. But you know, I've just been told that, what do I do with that? What do we do with that information? I'm 18 years old. It was just such a bizarre experience. And I'd love, I love the opportunity to write an expose on the drama schools in the 2010s or whatever it was because so many of their practices were so immoral.

:: 33:52

But yeah, and I just, I don't regret going. I regret not leaving. I hope you were inspired as I was by this conversation with Levin Prentice, there is so much we can learn from her resilience and how she showed up for her customers. Even when she was going through a really tough time. If you're in the UK and love theater,

:: 34:12

I would highly recommend checking out her theater express membership. And I'll definitely recommend a VIP membership. And I am not an affiliate for express or in any way being paid to say that myself and my daughter have seen so many Western shows for a fraction of the price. And as someone who can easily get stuck into the habit of being at my desk 12 to 14 hours a day,

:: 34:35

it definitely does me good to get out and go to the theater. If you'd like to know more about loving subscription box businesses and the training she provides, I've added links in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this episode, please connect with both myself and Lauren on Instagram and tell us what you enjoyed about it. I'm Jan Murray, UK and Lauren is I'm little Lauren.