Stop Shrinking Yourself Online and Choose Authenticity with Lauren Larkin

In this episode, I'm welcoming back therapist and friend Lauren Larkin for an unfiltered conversation about authentic visibility, professional identity, and what it really takes to show up as your whole self online.

We're getting real about the mental load of building a platform as a mental health professional, the pressure to perform perfectly when your content reaches thousands of people, and why embracing your multiplicity isn't just okay—it's powerful.

This episode covers:
🌀 Managing the overwhelm and responsibility that comes with viral content as a therapist
🎭 Breaking free from the "stay in your lane" mentality that keeps you playing small professionally  
🧠 Real talk about client relationships, boundaries, and addressing controversial topics authentically
⚖️ Preventing content creator burnout while maintaining your therapeutic integrity
✨ Building a sustainable online presence that honors all parts of who you are
🎯 Lauren's vision for 2025—choosing alignment and authenticity over external validation

This is for therapists, coaches, healers, and multi-passionate entrepreneurs who are tired of compartmentalizing themselves online. We're talking about sustainable visibility, professional authenticity, and why the world needs your full self—not just the sanitized version.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to All Our Parts. I am so excited to have a returning guest with me. So lucky to call her a friend, Lauren Larkin. Thank you so much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_01: 0:14

Thank you so much for having me and for being you. And I'm so happy to see you. It's been way too long. I feel like it's been, what, two years? Yeah, it's been a lot. Wait, no. Really? That's crazy. 2023.

SPEAKER_00: 0:29

That's when I, because you were my first guest.

SPEAKER_01: 0:32

Oh, my That's so crazy. Okay. Yeah. Way too long. We got to make this at least an annual

SPEAKER_00: 0:39

thing. We did. Yes. It'll be our annual gift to one another. And I've loved seeing your career flourish and your essence really coming out, your content, allowing yourself to be you, letting us see different parts of you, both the fashion side, the humorous side, still leaning into the therapy content. You're not boxing yourself into that. And it's just so amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03

Thank you. I really tried so hard when I first started. I think I was so insecure taking up space and I thought, let me just stay in these couple of lanes that I feel comfortable in for a professional version of me. But lucky I've like always wanted to do social media and be an influencer like deep down. So I couldn't let that part of myself out because I felt like it was so cringe and embarrassing. And now I'm just like, no, we're going to go full force into it. And if you're here for for all of it. Great. If you're here for one part, I like you too, but not as much. No, I'm just kidding. My favorite DMs are like, I love your therapy content, fashion content. Even though every day I get ready and I have no clothes. I hate everything. So we're aspiring to be more in that space still.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53

How's that capsule wardrobe coming? Oh my God. It's so hard.

SPEAKER_01: 1:58

I feel I order things and then I'm okay. I have all my basics And then I'm putting together outfits and I'm like, this is so boring. So it's like a double-edged sword to be like, okay, I always have basic go-to items. Then I'm like, do I go to these too much? And then I'll go and buy like a pink sweater. And I'm like, that's not, that's probably not capsule, but it's fine. We're just playing around with all of it. I decide to be many different things, many different days as like style changes, ideas change, my goals change. It's like when we wake up and we're like, What are we going to do today? We have all the things we need to do. And then a couple of other things we want to do. And it's just, what are we going to get to? And who am I going to be?

SPEAKER_00: 2:40

I've loved seeing you embrace the street wear. Thank you. That's the personal favorite. Cause I feel like that's out of the box. And so when I see them, I

SPEAKER_01: 2:50

know it's like a blazer one day and like a buttoned up, like gold button sweater. And then the next day it's like a hat and like the baggiest jeans you've ever seen. But I've been working on not to make it clinical, but I've been working with clients a lot over the years on multiplicity. And I know the whole podcast and parts work. It's like embracing your parts and thinking through like, why do you have to be one thing? I guess your brain wants you to categorize yourself. Maybe the people around you want you to stay in one space for them or because that's how they understand you. But why is this part of you less valuable than that part of you? Or why can't you be an introvert and an extrovert? Why can't you like to party and like to read your book? Like why what's wrong with having all of these things come out I think people think that they like don't have an identity if they can't tangibly explain it to somebody else but I think I'm getting more and more comfortable having a really free-flowing ever-changing identity if that makes sense I know what my I think you use word essence I know what my essence is I know what I'm trying to project the most but then it's I love all the little branches I'm just having fun with it

SPEAKER_00: 3:58

and that's what we can do I love what you said word The word cringe, because I literally in session, I told someone like, do the cringe thing, do the thing that feels like really uncomfortable, that feels like you're really putting yourself out there and in a safe, like reasonable way, because that's going to be the thing that allows you to grow and learn the most about yourself. But I love, I think through podcasting and even through social content, like it's allowed me to evolve my professional identity. in a way that grad school could never teach me how to. Absolutely. It's so true. I love

SPEAKER_03: 4:40

it.

SPEAKER_00: 4:42

I would like to stay in

SPEAKER_01: 5:00

this. When we are avoiding in some ways, yes, avoidance is like avoidance bad. When we think about it in therapy, sometimes it's like you don't want to avoid the emotions. You want to go straight into the hard thing. I actually see it so differently. I'm like, if your body is telling you it can't go towards the hard thing anymore, go towards the other thing. That's your body trying not to be overwhelmed and going to shutdown mode and letting you like microdose the negative emotions a little bit and then put them away for a sec. as long as you're constantly going back to it, let's do this thing. Let's talk identity. Let's talk multiplicity. Let's go in that direction. I'm obsessed.

SPEAKER_00: 5:53

I love it. And also it go, even as we talk about this conversation, allowing ourselves to ebb and flow in different spaces and not locking ourselves into one space, not compartmentalizing our identity. Like I think, especially in the social media sector as therapists, as professionals, we go in and we want to present as a very specific therapist or we want to be received as professional as reliable as capable and I think consumers are also wanting a human therapist

SPEAKER_01: 6:27

100% and the space that we're in now I think in terms of social media is what does well is the authenticity of it all I do still really enjoy having my educational videos where I'm sitting exactly where you see me right now and I'm going through an in-between sessions or I'm going through a here's your things that I learned in session with my clients over the years and here's what I want to share with you but I have a different presentation to me and it's not fake it's my educational speaker master's degree from NYU Lauren talking to you and then my doing my makeup in the morning or talking shit about something that annoys me is a very different vibe. So I think it's interesting because I'm always like this, the presentational part of me sometimes feels inauthentic, but it's still authentic to me. It's this one part of my authentic identity. It's my professional identity. It's the capital P like old school version of what we think of a therapist. And then the rest of it is just me being a person. And you can tell when somebody is being performative about their personhood. And then you can tell when it almost looks like you're watching somebody's private Instagram story that you're not supposed to see, right? This person's like, whoa, they're like in their towel. Like they're like doing their makeup. They're just talking. Maybe the lighting's not great. Maybe the aesthetic of the room isn't perfect. Like I like the mix of both because sometimes it's just freeing to hop on and say, here's my thought. And like, I'm not perfectly articulating this and I'm not perfectly presenting it. And then I do really like the thought out more scripted, like Like I wrote all these ideas down because I am intelligent and I am trying to like actually provide educationally something of value. And that's where I think in terms of, I know a lot of people ask me about growth and I think a lot of people ask me about social strategy and I've been loving, I've been doing a lot of business consults for this lately. And it's been so amazing to go through somebody's stuff and be like, here's what I would do. And this is the, this could work. This is really great. I think you should pull this out and duplicate that. Or you should do that. this, that, the other. But I think what I've noticed in terms of the growth that I've seen, and if I really wanted to only focus on growth, I think I know what my strategy would be, but I don't necessarily want to. I like the rate and the pace I've been going because if anyone has had something go viral, they know that it is like also very activating. I don't know how people do it all the time, but I like the idea of pulling from different audiences and growing over time. People who actually care about you I don't want to be the account that only gives you educational information that you can come to every single day and get three videos on education because that feels one note to me and that doesn't feel like a well-rounded account I want to be the person who yeah that one video doesn't do that well but there's still people who are here for it there are people who are buying into not just one sector of the content if that makes sense and that's what I think is like what what I think about my version of success in terms of like social media and sharing my life and my business and all the things that's really where I see, even if it's a smaller level of growth than other people, because you can always find people who have more followers or more engagement or more, whatever, even if the numbers are smaller and stay smaller for me, I would rather have a community that engages with all different aspects of me. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00: 10:09

100%. I had a my first like viral post last year the women and I

SPEAKER_01: 10:15

remember that was so freaking funny because if you know you that's the funniest part if you know the lore you know that this is even funnier I

SPEAKER_00: 10:25

was like Jasmine you you're speaking to an audience that you're not a part of that I know and they love me yeah but the activating I was like my comments aren't stopping this is this keeps going this is keep been going and so that was like the confirmation

SPEAKER_02: 10:45

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 10:45

I love the growth I love seeing it evolve and I like the rate that I'm going I like the I like being able to still engage with people I like still being able to explore my identity in this space but blowing up super quick like full respect for people that can manage it my nervous system it wasn't ready

SPEAKER_01: 11:10

and if that's your only goal, right? If you're not also seeing clients, if you're not also trying to get certain types of speaking engagements, or if you're not also trying to do other things, if your goal is just to grow, you can figure out a way to, again, compartmentalize and rage bait and just grow based off of that. You'll notice for me, like I engage with almost every comment for the most part. Like I really try to like friends or followers or whoever, like I'll send a heart or thank you like I'll at least like it or something because I think it's important to engage with your following in your community especially if I see people over and over again I love you like I'm like thank you for being here I like don't even know why you're here but I'm obsessed but then if there's a video that I notice quickly does really well I don't I can't keep up with them I don't want to look at them because I know that there's going to be a mix so I let it go and the comments are not for me the comments are not for me we are not looking today and I just let it go because it gets So much better for my mental health to be not engaging. Every single negative comment that I've ever engaged with has made me feel worse about myself after I've engaged. So unless like a sassy little funny joke that I'm going to put up, it's, you're not getting a reply. You're not getting a comment, like just move along. And guess what? After a while, it's oh, nothing bad is going to happen. It's just my stupid little phone. Oh, this is actually not that serious. And like you and I would never go out there and put out something horrible. offensive or particularly controversial. I just, that's just not, I don't think our jam. So there, there's also that knowing that if you misstep or you misspeak or whatever, it's okay. It is serious in that we're not trying to cause harm out in the world, but in the same way it's social media, it's not causing harm in our therapy space. And some people cannot differentiate that the two things are not the same, that just because you have a day job and then you're also participating in social media, that they have to be perfectly aligned and you have to present yourself perfectly as if you were in a session. Like those two things do not go together. I

SPEAKER_00: 13:19

am not your therapist. You have not signed a consent form with me. Therefore, I don't owe you that. And I feel like a lot of times that comes up in when therapists do like hot takes. And I'm thinking about the one you did for love is conditional. And yes, they ate you up.

SPEAKER_01: 13:40

They did. Yeah. Some of them, I don't care though. Like I'm like, no, I still feel pretty strongly about this. Like sometimes I'm just like, yeah, if you want to go, go keyboard warrior on my ass. Okay. No, the ones actually that go wild, which again, I also don't mind because I feel so strongly about this is if you say anything about cheating or infidelity, and if you have any empathy for cheating or infidelity, people will not hear the rest of what you're saying they hear you say the word and it's red hyperactive mode type and I'm like y'all first of all read some Esther Perel second of all we are actually supposed to if you really want to take the therapy into it and make it about me being a therapist which other people love to do like I am technically supposed to see all sides and understand all perspectives and understand I'm not going to break. If I have a client who's been cheated on, I'm not going to be like, let's think about her perspective or his perspective or their, I'm not going to do that in session, but you better believe I'm doing it in my brain. You better believe I'm thinking about how did we get here and what are all the different contributing factors and societal impact factors and intergenerational traumas and all the things. How did we get here? And having the knowledge on why cheating happens and why infidelity exists is a part of that job so it's for me to have any empathy for that was that is not enjoyable actually if I wanted to go viral more maybe I should just make a whole infidelity series forgiving your partner who has cheated on you and everyone can just rip me apart

SPEAKER_00: 15:32

and they don't that's like part of couples work if infidelity is the presenting issue we're not helping them if we say you know what leave them we're probably we may be it might be in the back of our minds but that that's not what they're coming to us for they're coming to repair it and part of being a therapist is perspective taking being able to look at the big picture and say okay what can we pull from this how can we look at this from a couple of different angles especially if we're working with more than one person in the room and i think what people think therapy is that's not where were doing in therapy I had I actually had a family member text me recently that they were like your job is to like help people not hurt people so why are you not contacting your family member I said actually part of my work is boundary setting and self-love and compassion so I am embodying what I would tell someone who's being impacted by their family in a negative way yep better

SPEAKER_01: 16:42

believe it

SPEAKER_00: 16:42

oh like the spineless concept sometimes that I feel like there are bits yeah maybe not spineless but like the I think the pleasing aspect

SPEAKER_01: 16:57

like we are only supposed to validate and listen and validate and listen person-centered yeah which I'm all for but I think it's actually way more harmful to not point out harmful patterns of behavior or, and that's why I love being relational. I was actually talking, we had group supervision before this and we were talking about cases and we were talking about just giving advice. And I'm always trying to continue to encourage my clients to bring up the relationship in the room. And I was sharing that there's a few patterns in a few different clients that I have been working with that I'm noticing showing up. And I'm like, I'm just trying to find the right moment to say, Hey, I think this I'm noticing something. And that might be something that your friends are noticing, or I've noticed a few times that I leave our conversations feeling X, Y, Z. And I'm thinking that maybe your girlfriend might also feel that, or your boyfriend might also feel that. So in the gentlest of ways saying, we are also here to call you in to the conversation. And we're not here to just yes, man, everybody. But that's the thing too. So we're talking about therapy criticism, right? It's about knowing what to say when and when to sit back and not say a damn thing at all, because it's not the time and it's not about you. So it's an art. And one of my supervisors in the past said, some of it, you just can't teach. Like some of it is very intuitive to, yes, you have all the knowledge and the experience in the back of your mind, but you can't teach someone when to integrate a certain tool in the right way. moment that has to be practiced and that has to be worked through and then some of it's just intuition

SPEAKER_00: 19:16

yeah and that I mean that's a huge piece of the relational aspect like I love being able to say girl like what's going on what'd you do but that comes with rapport that comes with paying attention that comes with exploring the patterns and also being really present with the patterns that are showing up in session that is it's learned it's it is it's And some of it is intuition. It's call you in lovingly with the best intentions has to be like time. And it has to be like the person also has to know that they are still held in that space, that they are still in like a space that is supportive of where they are of their growth.

SPEAKER_01: 20:02

And that was one thing that I was going to say before that flew out of my head. And now I'm not sure if it's relevant. So to the listeners, I'm sorry if this feels like it's not relevant to what we were just saying but when you have that loving and kind and non-judgmental space like through and through and the relationship is that strong enough that you could call someone out strong enough that you could just sit there and not speak the entire time and hold space and both would feel comfortable enough those topics that we were talking about before these like hot button keyboard warrior like things that people got really mad about in the world that we don't see as so black and white those are those like taboo topics and And nothing changes if we never talk about those taboo topics. And so if we can create a perspective that therapists can listen to taboo topics, and if we can create a perspective, either on social media or in the one-on-one work that people see that say, oh, you could actually go to somebody and say those dark things that are in your brain that you think you could never speak to anybody and have them say, I wonder where that comes from. Okay. You want to cheat on your partner. You been thinking about somebody at work you've been fantasizing about somebody at work huh I wonder what that means let's explore together instead of ew what an asshole right like how I would probably talk to my friends if I hear about that from their partners but that that's because I'm protective of my friends but in the therapy space I'm just there to say oh yeah I actually don't think any which way about you for sharing this and guess what if we don't say it to someone at some point we may act on it without having discernment without having made a conscious choice to act on it with all of the information that we can learn in therapy yeah So I think we should be talking about these things so much more and people should be way more open to hearing alternative perspective, even if they've had an experience where they've been harmed by someone. Just to say, maybe if that person went and talked to somebody, it wouldn't have played out that way.

SPEAKER_00: 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 22:17

Or if you could figure out a way to talk about that within your relationship, maybe it won't play out that way. I don't know. Just thoughts, total tangent, total tangent back to a thought. I'm like, this was a thread that I had before. The word taboo is like standing out in my head. And why did I want to say that? And then I found it, but it's Friday. Like I can't be perfectly cohesive today.

SPEAKER_00: 22:39

But when we talk about compartmentalizing, when we talk about being able to show up like authentically and honestly at As therapists, it also, this very, sometimes it's a touchy subject, but I am very comfortable with not being the therapist for everybody. And that's, I think that is also the bottom line is when you allow yourself to show up and you know, the clients that you are willing, like you are looking to attract, looking to work with. It's, I'm not the, I'm also not the therapist for everybody. And I'm going to be doing harm if I'm trying to be the therapist. 100%.

SPEAKER_01: 23:19

That's actually my favorite in a sassy way. moments with my clients and like, they're like, how would your clients feel if they saw this? They would giggle. My clients are like, I saw this actually on your TikTok. And that was a really good point because blah, blah, blah, blah. Or they're like, you came up with my TikTok. It was so cute and funny. Okay. Back to me. I'm like, my clients do not care. They don't care. Okay. And if they have cared, we've moved along or we've moved through it where they've set the boundaries that they need and they know that I'm not offended and they don't need to you be privy to all these parts of my life. And that's fine. But truly, if you do not have a sense of humor, I do not think you would be the client for me. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I hope it offends people.

SPEAKER_00: 24:32

You can't handle a little sass. If you can't handle a little humor, I am definitely not the therapist for you. And I have a list that I can send you of people that would probably work. And that is if we are meant to support our clients and embodying being themselves and being true to who they are that also has to like we got to model that in our work too I think because then we're just in congruence

SPEAKER_01: 25:00

100% like that would just not be us practicing what we preach and I know we talked about this before we started recording too it's like actually doing the work as a therapist is doing what you would encourage your client to do And it's tricky. It's tricky because sometimes that requires us to take time for ourselves. And I know for me, one of the biggest things is I want to be Elastigirl in the Incredibles. Like I would like to have my hand in everything and stretch myself as thin as possible. And then I will get an email and it's, do you have any more time? And I'm like, I really need a couple of things today for me to breathe. I don't think I can move things around. around or that would cost a lot of money for me to move that workout class or like that. Like I, I just, I, I don't have anything today. How about tomorrow? How about we move our session up to another day earlier in the week next week? Like I will do whatever I can because I care so much, but I have to care for myself. And I think that's the trickiest part of being a therapist is we want to be reliable. We want to be accessible, but we also have to compartmentalize in a way where we have a our own lives and we have plans that we stick to and we blow off steam in whatever way works for us and we shut off from the emotional holding because then otherwise our therapists are going to burn out really quickly and then we're not going to have accessibility and good therapy available for people. And it's such a delicate balance in the compartmentalization space. I actually said to my supervisee yesterday because I had a couple of just tough clients this week just tough stuff they're not tough clients tough stuff coming up in their sessions and I'm like pretty good at compartmentalization if I do say so myself I feel like I have gotten to a place where I like feel like it's a muscle like I open and close but I was like in a coffee shop trying to get some admin work done and like tears started coming into my eyeballs I was like I didn't know where, and I was like, what is this? As a therapist, we're like, where is this coming from? And what emotion is this that I'm feeling? And I was like, you're just, it's just a heavy week. Like I was just like, this is just a lot. Like you've just had a lot going on this week and you're holding a lot of space for a lot of heavy things. And I'm glad that we're recording this at a time where this is going to come out completely unrelated to this actual week. Nobody's ever going to know who I'm thinking about or talking about. And that's why I love being able to talk about this at such a high level. But because I don't want anyone to feel bad about what they're sharing with me. That is the gift. That is the best part about the work that we do is being able to hold that space. But I was like, oh, this is a tough week. That's important for me to know. What can I do for self-care? And thank you to this emotion for creeping out at this coffee shop, because this is helping me actually legitimize and remind myself that this is so tough sometimes. And not just tough. Totally fine. Let's now shop totally different mode. Yes. Sometimes that helps, but it didn't help this week because it was just, it surpassed the typical level of compartmentalization that I'm capable of. Oh my God, I can't speak today.

SPEAKER_00: 28:31

And that we are still people. We are people supporting people. And so we have to give ourselves like permission to be human, to be people, to not have it all together, to not be holding that space and just say, thank you. Damn, it's been a hard week. Been a hard month. And I'm burying a lot. And I... That's hard. That's, that starts to weigh on a person. I think when we can get, when we are able to compartmentalize so much that we become completely like separate from it, that's where it's like checking in. Okay. Do I need to lean more into the self-care aspects? Do I need to up the, like the self-care classes, the workouts, the friend times, like all the things that help us be a person? Am I really holding onto something that might be time to unpack and see what's like coming up for me in that space I think all of it gets to be data it gets to tell us okay I need to lean more into the naps I need to I need more

SPEAKER_03: 29:36

naps almost

SPEAKER_00: 29:42

wore the sweatshirt today I was like what slug gear can I like I love you get out of my repertoire but yes it all gets to be like data yeah okay this is is where I'm at this week right and when we give ourselves permission to be there it actually allows us to compartmentalize a lot easier because it's like I know this is where I am and I'm okay with that and I'm gonna just keep rolling on with my week

SPEAKER_01: 30:12

and it's interesting it's like that phenomenon that we're speaking about sometimes I'm making this today like a social media rant in some ways but I think it's important to talk about the misunderstanding of it like Sometimes I will speak to the duality of the experience and that therapists are going through hard things, whether it's in their own life or just the hardness of carrying other people's stuff or whatever else. And people will say, that just makes me feel bad going and talking to my therapist. I don't want to know this. And it's like, first of all, how do you not know those? Do you really think that the person that you've been speaking to or that a person, any person could hear and witness and hold and feel with you and never have a feeling outside of that. And then secondly, that doesn't mean we can't do it. It doesn't mean we didn't sign up for it. That doesn't mean that we don't have systems in place to handle it, including laughing about it,

SPEAKER_02: 31:12

making

SPEAKER_01: 31:13

silly little jokes about it, having supervision, having our own therapy, having my therapist right now, she's really on me, on my butt about not talking about work. not giving her a progress report on all the projects I'm working on, essentially. She's, I need to not have you like come in and just tell me, and then I'm doing this and I'm working about that. And I'm stressed about this. And she's no, no more. But this week I did say, I was like, I know I'm not supposed to talk about work, but I have to talk about these emotional things that have to do with work. And I have to walk myself through the fact that I'm doing everything. Okay. Or right. Like by the book. Okay. And she's like, I'll allow it. But it's like being able to speak to it and have community in it, I think is so important for therapists also to know that they're not alone. And I think for clients to just be aware that their therapist is a person too, but that they shouldn't feel bad because this is a job that we signed up for. This is a job that we can handle. And the reality is there's collective trauma. There's individual trauma. There's so much relational stuff going on in everybody's lives in the here and now day to day that of course we have our own stuff but when we do turn it off we feel better I don't know I'll speak for myself I feel better when I see my clients I can really turn the noise volume all the way down on something else going on in my life and be there for them and that does make me feel good in many ways so I don't know I get to the criticism doesn't get to me too much because I know what I'm trying to achieve in some of these ways but sometimes I wish I could say this to people maybe I'll just say go to listen to this podcast go listen to this part all my comments hey just go listen to this podcast that I did of jazz because I think if you're misunderstanding some of the intent behind some of these things this might help you understand

SPEAKER_00: 33:13

but if you are I took my first client again this week on Tuesday and it was like the best I was like oh my gosh I've missed you I'm so happy to see you and it's that it's that hour of reprieve for them but it's also an hour of reprieve for us too like we get to show up for you we get to support you we get to celebrate you and be in this space and share it with you and that that feels good that's why we're in this work that's why we do that's why we create the containers that we do and show up the ways that we do because that work is is fulfilling for us and so I echo your sentiment that there is nothing better than for me sometimes to just show up and sit with a client.

SPEAKER_01: 33:56

100%. Unless I'm not going to be able to be present, which I know is a skill that we have to check in with ourselves about, then I would cancel. But most of the time I would say, even if I'm going through something in my own life, I would rather show up for them because it's so fulfilling. It's so lovely. The relationships are so genuine. They're so real for me that my day to day, my week to week, just seeing my people and It's not like how I see them now feels better than if I were to maybe some days shy away from it.

SPEAKER_00: 34:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:32

But we do need to take time off. Sometimes we need to be better about taking time off too.

SPEAKER_00: 34:37

Thank you so much for joining me today and chatting. I'm always so appreciative of you and I've loved having you in my life on this journey with me. Like it's really made a difference. I have so much respect and admiration and love for you.

SPEAKER_01: 34:52

Right back at you. I'm so proud of you. I feel like we've been through a lot. Like when I first did this call with you and I didn't know you, or we did a call just to meet each other. I think a long time ago and then when we first did our first podcast recording we were like we could do this forever we could just talk forever and that's the biggest thing I've gotten from social media is these friends all over

SPEAKER_03: 35:14

that

SPEAKER_01: 35:15

share the same values and share the same belief system and have the same passion for the work so

SPEAKER_03: 35:20

I love you I

SPEAKER_00: 35:22

am asking all of my guests this season for their 2025 what is your commitment to yourself

SPEAKER_01: 35:31

commitment to myself. Ooh, okay. So my word for the year is opportunity. So I'm trying to feel this out and think about what the commitment is. So it's, I'm really big on not taking every opportunity right now because I don't want to overextend myself, but holding out and trusting the universe that if I say no to an opportunity, because it doesn't feel right, that bigger opportunities are coming. So I think my commitment to myself is trusting the process and dreaming big so that I don't overextend myself with the scarcity mindset of I have to do it all. Instead, I'm going to say no to the things that are going to drain me or overextend me. And I'm going to hold out hope that means that something bigger and better is coming.

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Oh, I love it. Thanks. So excited for you, Lauren. Thank you so much for joining me today.

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You're the best. Thank you for having me.

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We're healing out loud together.