How to build a business by swearing on the internet, with Lauren Howard

You know that feeling when you stumble across someone on social media and immediately think, yep – they’re one of my people? That’s exactly what happened when I found Lauren, aka L2, on Threads.

While most of the coaching world was busy copy-pasting their Instagram strategies onto this new platform (and wondering why it wasn’t working), Lauren stood out by doing the opposite: saying what she actually thought. Thankfully, she’s not just insightful – she’s also scathingly funny, allergic to bullshit, and one hell of a communicator.

Lauren is the founder of LBee Health, a neuro-affirming mental health clinic in the U.S. that’s committed to making care genuinely accessible for people of every identity. With over a decade of experience in clinical operations and digital health strategy, she’s on a mission to foster open conversations about mental health and create resources that actually meet people where they are. Through LBee Health, Lauren empowers others to prioritise their mental well-being and access the support they need.

I first came across her content when she was talking openly about her own autism assessment journey. As the parent of an autistic child, this hit home – especially knowing just how stressful and inaccessible the diagnostic process can be.

In a world where American healthcare is… let’s say less than straightforward, Lauren is doing radical, meaningful work. And she’s doing it in a way that centres integrity, transparency, and humanity, while also building a business that supports her bottom line. Because yes, you can do both.

You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes peek at how she runs LBee Health, why she believes in swearing on the internet (spoiler: it’s liberating), and how she infuses her values into every part of her communication.

Grab a notebook, pour your coffee, and settle in, because Lauren’s getting on her soapbox, and you won’t want to miss a word.

Lauren's Links:

Follow Lauren on Threads
Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn
Follow Lauren on Instagram

LBee Health Website
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Transcript

Peta: 1:17

You know when you find someone on social media and you just think, yep. Um, yeah. Yeah. They're one of my people. that's how I felt when I came across our guest on the podcast today on Threads. Um, I was relatively new to threads, to be fair. Most people were relatively new to threads at that point, and I was watching lots of the. Coaching posse, try and replicate exactly what they've been talking about and the the strategies that they've been using on other social media on threads, which is quite funny'cause it wasn't working. Um, what I wanted was people who said what they thought, and the things that they thought were interesting. Uh, and if they were funny, then that was a massive bonus. Uh, thankfully I got all of those in Lauren. Lauren is. hilarious, scathing, insightful, um, a hater of bullshit. Uh, and she's also the founder of LB Health. LB Health is, um, a neuro affirming mental health clinic, and they're dedicated to creating safe and accessible mental health solutions and care for people of every identity. Um, so I got to know her content when she was talking about her autism assessment, and for those of you who know me, you know that my son is autistic. And you may know that, uh, the stress to, to get a diagnosis and and to access support, uh, was fairly intense. So knowing that there is someone in the world who is making this kind of diagnosis and support accessible for people, is so important to me. Yeah. And especially, in the wonderful world of American healthcare, uh, when accessing insurance is so hard. Um, and if you do have insurance, then you might have really high copays as Lauren and I talk about, um, that you might not want to, um, you might not want to use your insurance. So LB Health makes these kind of services accessible to anyone so that they can, um, they can learn more about themselves, uh, they can access the support and the help that they need. Um, we talk about a lot more than that. in today's episode, we talk about how, running a business for the benefit of your clients as well as for your bottom line, um, about why it's so difficult. Uh, we talk about other people's reactions to it, uh, and how Lauren deals with that. Um, we talk about misunderstandings, we talk about, the realities of American healthcare. Um, and American politics generally, a whole bunch of stuff, that I know that you'll find really, really interesting, and insightful. you'll learn about how Lauren runs, LB Health. You'll learn about how she, how she approaches her online presence. And you'll, learn about how she thinks about. Communication and, um, and the values that she injects into her communication. Um, yeah, I had a blast chatting to Lauren, and I know that you'll enjoy listening to it as well. So grab a notebook and a coffee and sit back and listen to Lauren get on her soapbox. Lauren, it is so nice to meet you, properly on the podcast and, um, yeah, to have you chat to all our listeners. Thank you very much for coming along.

Lauren: 4:41

Yeah, absolutely. It's great to be here.

Peta: 4:43

So for people who don't, um, know you, who have not found your fabulous profile on threads, which makes me laugh every single day, um, can you tell them a little bit about who you are, what you do, and kind of what, how you ended up here?

Lauren: 4:57

Yeah, absolutely. So, um. I ended up here is a very, very long story that I will do my best to truncate for, uh, everybody who wasn't hoping for like a historical brain dump. Um, but uh, currently I am the CEO of LB Health. We are a, uh, mental health platform in the United States. We have, um, mental health treatment in almost all 50 states for most of our programs and all 50 states for some of them. Um. Whether I, I don't know, uh, what side pond the majority of your listeners are, but apparently in the US um, healthcare is different in California than it is in Florida. And so we have to have very complex licensing rules for delivering those services. Um, but uh. That is, uh, technically my full-time job, but my other full-time job is being a, um, internet loud mouth, um, and, uh, fighting with people on the internet who say dumb things that, or ignorant things that maybe I should walk away from, but I choose not to. Um. Uh, for a number of reasons, but, uh, that is actually where the majority of the people who have signed up for our services and we are about to close in on 900 of. The majority of the people who sign up for our services come to us through my threads profile because, uh, you know, there are people who are never going to come to us for mental health treatment because I say fuck on the internet. And then there are a lot of people who are only going to come to us for mental health treatment because I say fuck on the internet and we are here for that second group. Um, and so, uh, it is a delicate balancing act that I pay very little attention to, uh, to talk about both, uh, the professional things that, um, keep me going, but also huge overlap into the personal parts of my account, which we don't shy away from either. And so, um, I have a fairly large following on threads. I had a following on, um, LinkedIn before that still do, uh, still talk there almost every day. And, um, we spend a lot of time talking about how we have created a world that is not friendly for neurodivergent brains and what could be possible if we made it friendlier. Um, and also the fact that neurodivergent brains are different, but they're not broken. Um, and so that's, uh, that is the majority of what I talk about on social media, though there is a fair amount of. dislike of American politicians, um, and their miserable cronies who deserve all of my ire and more. And I have considerable ire.

Peta: 7:54

You do. It makes me laugh.

Lauren: 7:56

yeah. No, um, it's like an un there, there's, it's like an unlimited well.

Peta: 8:03

And it is cool. Excellent. So yes, so I found, I found you on threads. Um, and, and I have, um, for those listeners who don't know, I have an autistic son. Um, and we went through, uh, a rigmarole to try and get some kind of diagnoses. Um, waiting lists, costs, all that kind of jazz. Um, so I'm familiar with those struggles. And the thing that stuck out, I. For me, with the content that you were putting out was that yes, you are, um, a very scathing of American politicians and people who are idiotic, which I love. Um, the healthy dose of kind of British style sarcasm, which is, um, which is always welcome, which also the stories that you put out there about the people that you and kind of LB Health have helped, um, and the fact that. They would not have access to knowledge about themselves. Um. And vital knowledge about themselves and support with how to deal with that knowledge, um, to make their life go slightly more smoothly or even on a greater scale, completely transform their life. Um, and that you can do that where you've been able to do that and set it up in a way that is accessible to a lot more people, which, um, yeah, is hugely heartwarming in a social kind of feed that is just often full of.

Lauren: 9:37

Uh, sometimes the annoyingness is me. Um, but, uh, that's like, it's, it's called balance. Look it up. Um, no, we, um, you know, there is probably the right way to run a business, and that is not always the right way to run a practice. Um, and right or wrong, we are a bunch of very mission oriented people who don't sleep at night if, like, obviously our bills need to be paid, but we don't sleep at night if we're not providing service through those things. Um, and, and one of the big problems we have in the US is not. I mean, yes, there is a problem with uninsured people, but it's not always uninsured people. It's people who have insurance that is cost prohibitive for them to use. And so that was actually the population that we were targeting most when we started building out some of these more accessible programs, was not, uh, uninsured individuals as much as we're very, you know, we want to make. Service available to them as well. It was what do we do for people who have insurance and they're gainfully employed, but their deductibles are so high that they're precluded from using their insurance. Um, and so even before we had our autism program or a DHD diagnostic program, um, I sat down with my chief clinical officer and we were like, what can we do for$20? Like, most people have$20 at some point, maybe only once, but they prob maybe have$20. Um, what can we provide to people for$20 where they can get active help and support that is maybe not healthcare, but fulfills some of that need, um, that doesn't have us operating in the red all the time. Um, but does. Create a, a place that is, that does not exist currently. And that's where our group programs came from. Um, it really is$20. And because our group programs are psychoeducational support and peer support, they're not healthcare. They don't require licensure. That means they're available worldwide. And for 20 bucks you're able to go and sit with a therapist. It's therapy or it's therapist led, but not therapy. Um, the, it's more of a coaching function or a support function and talk about whatever the topic of that group is. And we have a ton of different topics, um, for an hour and. Get validation from people who are in the exact same spot that you are, that you've never, who you've never met before, who you probably never would've run into. But it's amazing how everybody who comes to a group, or for the most part, people who come to a group all have the same story. Even though they come from wildly different backgrounds, even though they've never met each other before and they didn't realize that was what they were coming to talk about, it just works out that we'll have five people show up to a group who have had the same experience or very similar experience, or felt the same things. Um, and that I say this all the time, and again, like this may not be the way to run a business, but I think it's the way to run a practice. Um. What we're doing in groups is not, there's nothing novel there, like we have not established some psychoeducational tool that is better for people in some measure. We're literally just giving people a void to scream into that's supported by somebody who knows what to do. If somebody is dysregulated enough that they need a higher level of support than avoid to scream into. Um, and we're, we're seeing almost therapeutic results from what is a Zoom room with friendly people in it. Um, and so I, I say that because I don't wanna set this expectation that the services we're providing on the nonclinical side can't be duplicated. In fact, please duplicate them because we need more of this, none of us, and we're not territorial over what we've built. I. Um, but it started from that very simple question of like, what can we do for$20? And it has grown into, okay, we have a, a following of people who found us for$20 or found us for free on the internet or whatever. do we apply that same logic to. Much more complicated programs. And that's how we ended up with our, actually our groups are the reason we ended up with our autism assessment because we had so many people coming in come into groups for burnout. That was our primary topic at the time, was burnout. The overlap between autism spectrum disorder and burnout is pretty considerable giant. Um, and people kept saying, I think I might be on the autism spectrum, but I don't have any idea how to get tested. And I was like. I mean, I know how, but I don't know how to help you actually find somebody because it's hard to find and it's expensive, and the timelines for testing are really protracted and it's probably not gonna result in immediate accommodations. That might be what you need. And, um, and so, uh, the questions kept coming at us and we finally were like, I think this is the thing we have to fix. And I think we have to fix it in a way that is actually. by, um, by some of the people who, um, who come to us for services, knowing that we make services accessible. And so, um, I'm not sure what the out-of-pocket cost across the pond is, but here, in order to get one of these assessments, which you often have to pay out of pocket for, it's like a minimum of$2,000.

Peta: 15:46

Wow.

Lauren: 15:46

For most of the people who are coming to us for$20 services, they do not have$2,000. And so the question was how do we make it more affordable? Um, and I went to one of our advisors and said like, am I losing my mind or do, is there really a path here to making this more accessible? And he basically said, um, there's a path, but you're gonna make a lot of people mad. And I was like. I don't really have that. You're not, that's not a problem for me.

Peta: 16:14

That doesn't strike me as something that would worry you.

Lauren: 16:17

the Yeah, exactly. If that's the biggest deterrent. I make people mad all the time and I do it for fun. So, um, and that's how we ended up here. And, and, and actually I wasn't, I was nervous to even talk about it on threads because I just felt like I'm just gonna be this crazy nonclinical lady who is saying she fixed autism. If you have an autism, you can come find out about your autism. And I was really nervous about it and one day I was just like, right, I'm gonna see what happens. Um, and by and large, the response has been so good. And that's where 90% of our patient population comes from.

Peta: 16:58

That's so cool. I love it. And I love that you just went, there's this problem and instead of going, it's probably not fixable because like it's a really big problem. You went, I wonder if we can fix it. Um, which is Yeah. Which is what more people should do. I think, um, we, so it is that accessibility of healthcare, um, especially when it comes to mental health, um, is that. Is that your big soapbox, the thing that kind of, that really riles you up? Or is there, or is there something else?

Lauren: 17:36

I think it is a big soap box, but it's also one that I don't. don't venture down on a grand scale too much because it is so gigantic to fix.

Peta: 17:48

Mm-hmm.

Lauren: 17:50

Um, that I will in the, in the same way that I don't watch the news right now on this side of the pond. Uh, because the number of things that will come at me that I can't do anything about, I mean, like literally you just said it, there was, there's this monumental problem or huge problem in the neurodivergence space and I was like, I don't think we can fix that. I can't, can't do that with most healthcare and I certainly can't do it with our US political system. Um, and when my brain can't. Fix those things. It, it is like I will just become fully despondent. Um, so in the ways that I can make care accessible, yeah, it's a, it's a soapbox for me, but not in the ways that I can get anybody else to do it. I think, um, I think my soapbox today might be different than what it was when we spoke initially, um, because I don't know if this is news all over the globe or if it's just. If it's just a US thing, which man, but there is, uh, the big news story on this side of the world is how the incompetent jackasses running. Our Department of Defense sent out literal war plans Through what is technically a secure text message, but it is not an approved text messaging system for sending out war plans. Because guess what? There isn't one. Like, there's nobody that's like, if you're going to leak war plans to the media by accident, please use this app that doesn't exist. Um, but uh, our Secretary of Defense who. Came to the government from courtesy of Fox News. Uh, that was actually his job beforehand, was to be an anchor on Fox News. He has no background in the military all. Um, in fact, his biggest claim to fame right now is being an anchor on Fox News, also being a serial womanizer and an alcoholic. And apparently, apparently there's an entire. Dossier, for lack of a better word, from his mother on why he's a bad person that's publicly available anyway. Um, so this crew of incompetent jackasses, um, sent uh, plans for a bombing in Yemen to each other via the Signal app. Um. Uh, and copied in or added to the group chat, a reporter from a news outlet called The Atlantic.

Peta: 20:44

It's the funniest bit of the whole thing for me. Just like I have, I have been admin in a lot of group chats. My family are chatty and they have to have a new thread for everything, and it's all just like, and sometimes it is quite hard to go like, okay, so who's in this one and who's in that one? So I will check. Although like is this the group that has like, I dunno, great Aunt Phyllis in so that means that we can't talk about great Aunt Phyllis, or is this the group that we set up because it was somebody's birthday and we had to plan something, we couldn't tell'em about it. Like I look at who's in the group. None of these people looked at who was in the group. None of them.

Lauren: 21:24

no. and like every single person has made that mistake.

Peta: 21:29

Yeah.

Lauren: 21:30

I mean, I, I had a situation where there was somebody we were trying to offboard because he wasn't doing his job, and I made, thankfully, I made a very coded comment about him in a group chat, not realizing that it, that he was on there and it, the reason I didn't realize he was on there is because I had him in my phone under something that was not his name. For complicated, very funny to me, but not funny to anybody else who, um, and so like everybody has done that, which is why you are not supposed to talk about National Security Secrets on any app, but certainly not an app where you could accidentally or not realize that someone's been added to a group chat. So the Atlantic publishes all of this because of course they do. their owner's a woman, so yeah, of course they do. Um, and the guy who got the text was like, I, I just, I got this text and I don't, he, he was, he was publishing really good journalism that came from a place of being fully dumbfounded. And I get that.'cause I feel like that all the time when I am processing the things that these people do. But the thing that struck me about it, and this is like aside from the fact that the incompetence is just breathtaking, it is just, the thing that struck me about it is that I don't know a single woman, femme, non-binary individual who was shocked by it, who has worked in corporate before. Every single person was like, oh, you mean the stupid group of white dudes who failed to where they are? Yeah, they do stuff like that. Yeah. That sounds like something they would do. Nobody was like, they did what? like, oh, you mean they've never been held accountable for anything ever in their career and have continued to fail up until they're literally running the government? They did a thing that they've probably done a thousand times before and never been held accountable for. So why would they be now? And people are like, exit should resign. Why would he do that? He's not getting any internal pressure to resign.

Peta: 23:57

none of them are.

Lauren: 23:58

No. Why would he do that? He's, he didn't earn. So the, I just like I sit around and think like if they, if any one of them had been a woman, it would've been her fault.

Peta: 24:13

Yes. And she would already have been fired.

Lauren: 24:15

yes. There is a situation probably 10 years ago where the US Secret Service had just had their first. Female Secret Service Director. Secret Services like the, the organization, if you don't know, is the organization that protects it. They protect the president and most and many dignitaries or, or, or diplomats in the us they actually are a function of the Treasury Department, which is, kind of blows my mind. They're, they're actually tasked with protecting the currency somehow. That also means protecting the president, whatever. Um, but there are a fairly large law enforcement organization who are responsible to basically be the president's bodyguards. Um, and probably 10 years ago they put their first female director of the Secret Service, and it was a big deal. She, everybody made a big deal out of her, good for her, et cetera. But of course, like literal months after she's in place, there's some huge scandal where the Secret Service are found being. Disreputable and disgusting and getting hookers and all sorts of other stuff they should not be doing on the job. And especially not when they are, um, when they are like traveling for work and, and on the clock. Um, and of course the immediate thing that comes down is, well, she's incompetent. And I'm like, no, you picked a woman'cause you knew this shit was gonna come down. You wanted her to be, you wanted her to be the, the scapegoat for it. Like this was well planned out. You wanted to prove that women could not run this department. So you gave her a job she could physically could not do because the boys club set her up for failure. And so it's, and so of course she resigned and she was designed in disgrace and blah, blah, blah. And I think we had a similar thing happen with a woman director of the Secret Service a couple months ago. Um, and it's just like the Boys Club sets it up so that there is a woman or a minority there to take. The blame for it so that these dudes can keep failing up and that's what they're doing. I mean, Pete, he up does not end up the Secretary of Defense, not in any normal country at a minimum, but certainly not in the United States unless the bar for entry is that low. And he's rewarded repeatedly for incompetence. And that's, um. But again, had there been anybody who was not a cshe white male, they would've immediately been the reason it failed. They would've immediately been labeled a DEI hire and everything would be their fault. We, we call P hegseth, the DUI hire, which is pretty funny. Um,

Peta: 27:24

and then this happens.

Lauren: 27:26

and also very true.

Peta: 27:28

That's brilliant. I, I am stating that.

Lauren: 27:31

Yeah. no, go for it. Um, but, uh, so it goes back to the same thing where they, they're insisting that they have wiped out of every corner of the federal government to reinforce merit-based hiring.

Peta: 27:49

Yeah, and then this happens.

Lauren: 27:52

Anybody, can you show me on the doll where the merit is? Because I certainly don't see it. Um, and I don't think anybody sees it. Uh, and in this case, the merit is, you know, cronies of the, the installed president, for lack of a better term, um, who will support all of his. Various and Sund and bizarre needs. Um,

Peta: 28:22

All people that he just enjoyed watching on Fox News when he was up at all hours.

Lauren: 28:27

oh yeah. People who, yeah, exactly. People who gave him airtime and didn't tell him he was wrong. Um, mind you, Fox News, not that long ago, had a judgment levied around them for almost a billion dollars for doing what they do. And, and for lots of misinformation around the last election cycle. So they lost almost a billion dollars. Tucker Carlson lost his job. That's not a complaint. He never should have had a job to begin with. Um, but a billion dollars. And the outcome is this guy gets to become Secretary of Defense and people voted for it. It's just, just a really, I mean, it's probably always a really uncomfortable time to be American, but it's certainly right now really uncomfortable time to be American.

Peta: 29:29

I think that, so every morning, I mean, I am fairly obsessed with. What's going on over in the States because a lot of my audience is in America. And because I also, because, um, I am a political geek and wish that Bartlett was president. Um,

Lauren: 29:48

There's a sign on my wall that says you will tempt the rack of whatever from high thing.

Peta: 29:53

oh, I love it.

Lauren: 29:54

temp the wrath or whatever. Yeah, we, I've, I've watched the show all the way through probably 12 times.

Peta: 30:00

Yeah, yeah. No, it's, um, yeah, so that I'm fairly obsessed with American politics. Um, and so every morning I will wake up and on the way back from the school run, I will watch or listen to Rachel Maddow's show from the previous evening in, um, in the US as they've turned it into a podcast so I can catch up with it in the morning. Um, and. It just never stops. There is just thing after thing after thing and like it's stressful enough listening to it from afar, even though obviously it does, like it affects me in various ways, like the tariffs that are coming in and, um, and there's definitely been, um, impact in, um, in like the marketing market. Because there's so much instability. Um, but from, as an outsider, it's stressful. I cannot imagine what it must be like to kind of be there and be in it.

Lauren: 30:55

I mean, it is, it feels like regularly being assaulted. Like, like imagine, imagine that every sign on the street that you're going down says wrong way. And so you don't go down it because. It's the wrong way and everybody around you just goes down it like that's what it's like. You are like, there's a very clear right and wrong here. We're not talking about political issues. We're not talking about like, are we fiscally conservative, socially liberal? Those are not the conversations we're having. We're having like, does this person deserve to be treated like a human? Should we take away legal safety from people because we don't like them? Um, should we pick wars with our ally countries or pick fights with our ally countries just to see what happens?

Peta: 31:54

Do we need a weather forecast? Like what? What the hell?

Lauren: 32:00

Our planes are crashing because they were like the fa a's not important, right? I say this is a person who doesn't like to fly at all. And my husband's like, we need to go up north. Do you want No, no, because the flames are falling out of the sky because they didn't think it was important to have people, to not let them fall out of the sky. Um, they, they gave, I call him little Lord fuck Alon. Uh, they gave him access to all of our personal social security data that he downloaded onto a private server, and people are like, well, this is wrong. He shouldn't be doing that. And I'm like, you are right. Why isn't anybody doing anything about it? But nobody cares. The people who actually have the power to do something about it don't care. And the people who at least are elected so they could make some version of noise in some capacity also are not doing anything like they're sitting around like, call your senators. You are my senator. Like, I'm literally calling you right now and you're telling me to write letters, like, why are, why are our elected officials not on a hunger strike? Why are they not doing something more drastic than saying, this is really bad. This is unfortunate, this is bad for America. No, no shit. But they, it's like, it's just like watching it. It's like being in the middle of a dumpster fire. Just watching it burn and being like, gross, the water is right there. It's, there's a lot of it. All you gotta do is hook up the hose and everybody's like, I don't think, I don't think there's any solution to this. fire, you have water. I bet you could even find some foam. And then like, we literally have like places in the country that are just erupting into fire. And they're like, we have no idea why this is happening. I'm like, no. We know exactly what is happening. They, they have cut funding from like every medical, whatever organization. Every, every government, every federally funded like grant is basically under question as to whether it will continue. It's all, everything is very up in the air. But what are they spending money on? They're doing, uh, they're, they called for, or, or funded a new study on the link between vaccines and autism.

Peta: 35:04

I heard about this this morning and um, nearly question to a tree. I was just like, yeah.

Lauren: 35:11

I feel like you guys have the information we need on this. Like you already have, you already have the information. It's already been studied, but again, like we have, we have people who believe in their freedom of expression, but not anybody else's. Their freedom of expression based on what is coming down from the jackasses who run the government says that they don't have to vaccinate their children because vaccines are bad for you. Vaccines create adults is what they do.

Peta: 35:52

Mm-hmm.

Lauren: 35:54

Like vaccines lead to adults. Autism causes vaccines. You can probably attribute most vaccines to autism. Absolutely. But so now we are funding a study into very established science that is going to be wildly biased toward proving.

Peta: 36:17

Mm-hmm.

Lauren: 36:19

mind you, most of the people who are behind these things are vaccinated.

Peta: 36:25

Yes. Yeah.

Lauren: 36:28

If they're saying, I've got the immunity that I need, let's kill your children instead.

Peta: 36:37

And how do you like, so we talked earlier about like that balance between being a business owner and being, and dealing with all this, talking about it on the internet. I. When every day is a new dumpster fire, when you feel so strongly about what could be done and what isn't being done, but the way or, and the way that you get your business feels like the wrong word, but the way that, the way that you pull people into your programs.

Lauren: 37:13

our patient. Yeah. that's our patient

Peta: 37:14

Yeah. The way that you find your patients. Yeah. Is um. Is in that space, how do you deal with, with finding that balance and with the pushback that I've seen you get?

Lauren: 37:27

Don't worry about the balance that much. Um, the ba I worry about the balance. We're coming up on payday and I need to be able to pay my employees. And, and I don't mean that in that it changes my content or that it changes the intent. It, it just means like sometimes we do more marketing, but we still do the other stuff. Um, again, it's probably good business to worry about that. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it because the reality is it's still my personal account. Um, that's where we get most of our stuff from is from my personal accounts and, um, I don't do anybody, like there is, our message is so heavily intertwined with. We need, you know, you should be yourself and, and who you are is not shameful. It's not, it doesn't need to be fixed. It maybe needs to be supported, but it certainly doesn't need to be fixed. And so showing up is anything other than my twisted, dark humored brain, um, does not serve our population well at all because it's, it defeats this purpose that we so strongly talk about. Um, but also. There are not a lot of people wearing red hats who are gonna be interested in our services, and that's fine. Um, that's gotta be okay because, and I also like, I don't know that they go for mental health treatment, but I don't have a lot to offer them because if, if the primary source of your stressors is that there's too many brown people around you or. Or we treat, you know, uh, illegals are taking jobs. I mean, that's probably a gross oversimplification of their mindsets, but like, I, I don't have anything to offer you because that is not how our services operate, right? Like, like when you come in to our services, the first thing we ask is what your preferred name is and your pronouns. Do you go by your legal name? No. What's your legal, or what's the preferred name? What's the name you prefer to go by? What are your pronouns? How do you identify? You're gonna hate us within the first 45 seconds.

Peta: 39:51

So you might as well hate us before and

Lauren: 39:53

Exactly. Um, it is a, I am in a unique place as both a business owner and a cumin in that I can afford. I say that in a number of different ways. Um, not, I don't necessarily mean financially, but I can afford to let people self-select out. It also means that the patients who get to us are our patients.

Peta: 40:19

Yeah.

Lauren: 40:21

They are the people who are here to talk to us. Um, they know that our clinicians will have the same attitudes that they do. They know that, that everybody who comes through our, our programs. Is neuro affirming that, you know, they, they know that, um, I think if you were in the US, the way you typically find. A healthcare provider is you call your insurance and or you go through their provider finder and find the one who's in your network and there's not a lot of information about them. Maybe they have a website, maybe they have some reviews. Reviews aren't super reliable because people only write reviews when they're very, very mad or very, very happy. And the tens of thousands of other people who are just fine with their healthcare and don't wanna talk about it on the internet aren't writing reviews. And so you very rarely, like patient turnover is gonna be high. Because especially in mental health where it's much more like dating than it is like going to find a primary care provider. Like you need to find somebody who you can talk to and who you feel comfortable with, who recognizes you, who validates you. It is, it is very, the process of transference is very different than than every other field or most other fields, I should say. Um, if we had patients who came to us that way. Our patient turnover rate and our retention rate would probably be a lot lower. But because their primary driver to us is something where they know exactly what they're getting before they even click on our website. Like literally people call me the CEO who says fuck on the internet. They know what they're getting. They know what's allowed, they know what's acceptable. Um, they're not asking for a balance. And so that's worked out. And also, uh, I'm comfortable letting people decide that it's not right for them. And there probably are a lot of people who, and, and sometimes people say it to me, you work in mental health. Are you supposed to act like this on the internet? Tell me what I'm supposed to act like on the internet. Do you have a book on it? Like, is there a, is there an actual, or like, you know, every now and then somebody will be like, I wonder what the licensing board thinks about. I'm like, sweetheart. I'm not a licensed clinician, and I say that all the time, please complain to every licensing board about me, encourage it. They'll be like, we don't know who this person is. Um, clinicians have a little bit of a different, a little bit of a different requirement in how they present themselves and, and what can be reported to the board, but most of their requirements are around, like, there actually is a requirement for most therapists. That they err on the side of social justice and that they, they do what's right for their patients without discrimination. And so the things that a lot of these red hats get mad about on the internet actually literally codified for our clinicians that you are supposed to do things this way and like you can't. Like you gotta use a lot of veiled language to codify bigotry, but it very clearly says you are supposed to, you are supposed to protect the social justice of your patients. They're actually doing their jobs by being vocal about causing harm about people. And so like. The places. I think where it probably bites me the most, and this is the conscious choice and I think I'm fine with it, is that every now and then we do have like big companies that come to us who wanna either use our services or offer groups to their people or whatever. They all, they often don't turn out into anything, and I don't think this is the reason why, but like there is a part of me that sometimes is like, I wonder if they're gonna look me up online. Be like, maybe this is not the service we wanna offer'cause this person's on edge. Um, so does it maybe like in the long run, do we see your like, actual corporate opportunities? Maybe? I don't. It will be some time before we know if that actually impacts us in any way.'cause most of the corporate opportunities we've gotten are so. They, they basically, like, we would lose money working on them because they don't wanna pay my therapist. And,

Peta: 44:49

Yeah.

Lauren: 44:50

and so we walk away from them anyway. We had one that could have actually turned into a fair amount of business for us, um, and my margin by margin, even by cutting my therapist rate. So I would've had to pay my therapist less than what I'm paying them now, which I think is already too low. Uh, my margin would've been like 3%. That was, if I was really aggressively mean to my therapists, and they were, but they, and they were pri they were promising all this volume and we could have this many patients per week. And, and it's like, but first off, unhappy therapists don't provide good care. I. Who have to deal with high turnover because therapists are unhappy, don't get better. And then on top of that, what is 10,000 patients on margins so small that I can't run my business? You're actually gonna put me out of business with this super good deal you have for me.

Peta: 45:44

It's like, oh, thank you. The only thing that I like more than low paid work is more low paid work.

Lauren: 45:50

Exactly, exactly like, like I really appreciate the opportunity to slash what I'm already paying my therapist. And on top of that, I can't pay my operation staff either. The consideration is massive. And they're like, well we just on our, you know, on our, our race, our margins, we just can't get above X amount per session. And I was like, that sounds like a U problem. And then they wonder why they can't build out their national network. Like that's what they really wanted me to do is to come in and build their national network. And it's like, sure, I can do that. I've already done it for myself, but like I've built my national network'cause people wanna work for me'cause I do my best to. Pay them and I tell them why they're being paid, what they're paid, and I will show them our contracts so they know.

Peta: 46:34

Mm-hmm.

Lauren: 46:35

And he was like, you show your clinicians your contracts. I was like, you don't, you, you don't show people where your money is coming from. He was like, he couldn't, he just couldn't even conceptualize the amount of transparency because like. I'm paying my clinicians probably at least$20 an hour or less than I wanna be paying them. They're paid, they're paid top of the middle range. That's a bad way to say it, but I, one of our, um, one of our insurance company, actually, I think our highest reimbursement from our insurance companies for a 45 minute session for my therapist is$83. If I paid my therapist a dollar more. We literally wouldn't be in the red, and we make no money off of therapy, but we know our patients need it, and so we offer it again, like none of this is good business, none of it, but it's how to run a good practice.

Peta: 47:40

that's the thing. And I think, yeah. So often when we, when we start businesses doing something that either we love doing or that we see a need for, we end up losing sight of, of the value and the reason why we did it in the first place. And we listen to all these business rules that say we have to do this and we have to do that, and these are, these should be our driving principles. Whereas actually that wasn't why. If that wasn't why we started in first place.

Lauren: 48:05

And listen, like. My, my dad was a psychiatrist. He was an incredible psychiatrist, best I've ever worked with, and I've worked with some really incredible psychiatrists. At this point. He was the worst businessman I've ever seen. He should never have been allowed near a checkbook or a credit card ever, but from watching him be atrocious at business, I learned to be really good at business because I realized that all of my instincts, which were the opposite of what he was doing. Maybe should have been what we went with. Um, and so I started running his practice when I was 21 because like, it was basically like, I can't be worse than he is. Like, it's not possible. Um, and so I, there are plenty of creative ways that I've found that we can make money and build margins and create opportunities for us. And we, we will stay in the black, black even if certain services are marginally in the red. Like that's. I'm good at business, but also I am not good at running a quote unquote good business

Peta: 49:12

Yeah.

Lauren: 49:14

'cause I, that's not what I care about. And I still eat, my kids still eat my business partner, he's a physician. He's licensed in 50 states. He's the same way. He eats his kids eat. Could we probably make more money doing what we do? Yes. Do we sleep at night? Yes. That's what we prefer.

Peta: 49:32

Okay. So if anybody listening wants to come and, um, look at services from a business that cares about people, um. And sleeps at night. Uh, then, then how, how would they find you? Um, kind of, yeah, all that stuff.

Lauren: 49:52

Uh, so our website is lb health.com, LBE as in Edward, E as in edward health.com. My dad was Lawrence b Ehrlich. He's the LB in lb. Um. It's just a tidbit. It's not important, um, that you can actually find groups that you can sign up internationally there, if you're in the us we have services in most states. Um, I'm also on threads being unhinged on the regs. Um, it's ELL Eco two, like the word spelled out. TWO. Uh, we have Patreon now where it's the Okayest,$2 you'll spend a month. Um, and uh, it is really just us being silly about. Neurodivergence, but all of the proceeds from the Patreon go to supporting our scholarship fund. So, um, it's how, it's one of the ways that we're working alongside our footprint partners to help people who can't afford the$485 for an autism evaluation to get one without having to, um, like smell, sell a vital organ or something. That's how we do things in the us. Um, and then, uh, I'm also on LinkedIn almost every day, actually. Every day. Uh. Same thing, linkedin.com/n/l two. Uh, also a loud mouth there, usually slightly fewer fuck words, but only because the LinkedIn algorithm really doesn't like it. Um, and no, but whereas Threads loves it so many more. Fuck words.

Peta: 51:15

Excellent. Cool. Yes. Highly recommend finding Lauren in all of those places. Um, and checking out some of the amazing yeah. Stories that she tells people about kind of the good work that she's doing, um, and the rants that she has about the fact that the world is a dumpster fire. Um, this was fabulous, Owen. Thank you so much. Oh look. Lauren is showing me what I think is a little,

Lauren: 51:41

It's a crocheted dumpster

Peta: 51:43

it is a crochet dumpster fight. That is

Lauren: 51:45

It sits in front of my, it says emotional support, dumpster fire. It's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine, and it stays in front of me all the time to remind me, I don't know. I don't need to be reminded that the world's a dumpster fire, but you make, you make a dumpster fire. Cute, and it feels less bad

Peta: 52:00

Okay. I want one of those

Lauren: 52:01

second.

Peta: 52:03

Fab. Okay. Thank you so much. Everybody. Go find Lauren. Um, this has been an absolute pleasure. I.