No Need To Ask with Amani Duncan
No Need To Ask with Amani Duncan
No Need to Ask Podcast | Sister to Sister, A Conversation with Lauren D. Williams of Pandora
Welcome to No Need to Ask podcast. My. name is Amani Duncan and I will be your host on this journey.
On today’s episode I had the pleasure of having a sister-to-sister conversation with Lauren D. Williams. I met Lauren when I was a guest on her Pandora for Brands’ sponsored podcast “Pass The Mic”. We immediately hit it off, learning that we have so much in common; from our early childhood to present day,
We always assume we are “too busy” to have meaningful encounters. The internet and social media has turned us into casual friends, distant and often superficial. But when you actually have the chance to really bond with someone, it reminds you of what is missing - the human connection. I feel so grateful to be able to have this genuine connection with Lauren.
So sit back and I hope you enjoy our candid conversation about life, careers and much more!
If you enjoy No Need to Ask podcast, please leave a lovely review and share with others. Until we meet up again, continue to be safe and be well.
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Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of no need to ask podcast. My name is Amani Duncan, and I will be your host on this journey. So I would say about a couple of weeks ago, I was asked to, uh, participate in one of Penn Dora's podcasts and it's called pass the mic. And I had this opportunity to really have a great conversation with Lauren Williams. She is the host of Pandora's pass the mic podcast. And during our conversation, you know, I was just talking about my background, you know, my childhood growing up and, and then we segwayed into, um, you know, the, my career journey. And so Lauren and I, it was just like this magic black girl magic between us. And we continued to talk on email and text message. And of course I was like, girl, I need you on my podcast. And she accepted, which I was forever grateful for because you know, this podcast is all about highlighting stories of dynamic women that inspire me in hopes that their stories will also inspire you. So Lauren is with us today and without further ado, Lauren, welcome to no need to ask podcast. I am so excited to be here. He was smiling. We're just like, Oh, we love each other. We love each other. Now I want to tell you guys just a little bit about Lauren. You know, Lauren is currently the senior director of strategic audio and vertical marketing at Pandora here in New York city. Um, she knows basically throughout her career, she worked in marketing services, consumer packaged goods, quick food services, adult beverages, and retail industries. After graduating with her master's degree, she joined the advertising industry, working on multicultural plans, media plans at tapestry in Chicago. Okay. Girl tapestry. Oh, right. That's a big agency. Um, so currently at Pandora, Lauren leads a team of data driven storytellers at the forefront of audio and vertical marketing trends. That position Pandora, as a thought leader, she partners with sales innovations research and other cross functional teams to leverage sales, performance insights, and key industry business drivers to develop effective marketing strategies. Okay. Sometimes we get this superstar, but when people read, you know, your bio, cause, you know, it's very interesting when other people read it out loud, like who is that person they're speaking of? Who is this amazing person I need to meet her. I know crazy. Right. But I believe, you know, Lauren, I would always tell my teams a little trick that I would do all the time at the beginning of every year. Like, you know, January, whenever we returned to office, in my notes section on my iPhone, I will start a blank note entitled 20, 20 highlights or 2019 highlights. And throughout the year, I'll just jot down these memorable moments. And so I found it to be such a helpful tool because we all live really fast. Paced, dynamic lives were on planes and trains. And you know, in automobiles, we're catching up on various time zones and where we're all doing this amazing work. But at the end of the year, when we're exhausted and just waiting for the holiday and you know, we might be sitting in a performance review with our manager. We tend to forget, we literally tend to forget those amazing highlights that we either played a part in or spearheaded ourselves. And so I was like, I'm not gonna let that happen. I want to remember those moments. So, you know, it's the same feeling of reading your bio or having someone else read your bio is, you know, sometimes we have to take pause and be like, you know what? I am that girl, you know what I mean? Like, okay,
Speaker 3:Going to do that, like moving forward because a lot of times, even if it's just
Speaker 2:Like us talking with our friends and we're like, Oh,
Speaker 3:Such a hard year, I've had a bad year. If you write down the highlights, you realize that you actually have not had a bad year at all. You've had a wonderful year. Exactly. Because a lot of times we focus on so much of it,
Speaker 2:The negative that it out in our mind
Speaker 3:Signs, it outweighs the positives, but that is a direct tool that you can use in order to highlight the positives versus dwelling on the news,
Speaker 2:Easy to do so easy. And then you form a habit and you just do it without even thinking, because you know, when I was early in my career and a lot of this has to do with, you know, not knowing any better, I, the years began to blend together, you know? And I felt like I, I was missing out or are not really present or, you know, simply just not remembering key moments in my life that I will never get back. And it really bummed me out at that time. And I just said, you know what? I have to start working on really being present and not focusing on two blackberries or two iPhones and like half listening to a conversation and not really engaging and, and just letting life's moments, slip away. You know, life is that's all life is, is a series of moments. And you know, my dad would always say live while it's still called today. I love. And that's what I try to do. Right?
Speaker 3:Jim's on this podcast, all the jokes
Speaker 4:And all the time, like Mike drop moments, like
Speaker 3:There, it is all that you need to know for the year.
Speaker 2:And let's see, but listen, this is all about you and how dynamic you are. And I, I want to hear it all Lauren, I know our backgrounds are similar. I want to hear the story of you and you know, the good parts, the challenging parts, you know, how did you get to Pandora and tapestry? Like girl, let the people know.
Speaker 3:All right. So let's see. It's very interesting. So if you, if no one on the, who's listening to this podcast, you need to go back and listen to Ammani's, um, story that she released about herself. Because when I listened to that in preparation for pass the mic, I was like, Oh my God, this is literally like, I'm standing in the mirror looking at so many parallel of experiences. It was insane. So, wow. You should do that first. And then come back and listen to this one. Or I finished this one and then go back to listen to that one, because it's such a powerful art of storytelling, which I love, you know, both of us. Um, anyways, let's see, where should I start? Well, my family is originally from Chicago, Illinois. I, um, a lot of people think that I am from Chicago because I tell them that, um, I'm actually not from Chicago, Mike trout moment. A lot of people are gonna be like, what? I don't really get into the ins and out because my family and I just moved around so much because of my dad's job. And everybody is always like, Oh, where you, were you a military brat? I'm like, no, my dad worked in marketing. Like both of us did. So I was actually born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Okay. Yeah. We lived in Pittsburgh. We moved to Pittsburgh like about a year later. I don't even know if I was one, but we moved to Pittsburgh for eight years. My dad was there. I believe he was still working for Sears, I think. And then we moved back to Cincinnati and he was working for Drackett before it got purchased by SC Johnson, a family company. Now they don't even say a family.
Speaker 2:Right. Wow. Um,
Speaker 3:And so then, um, after, in Cincinnati for again, just a year, we moved to Indianapolis and my dad worked for a Meritech, um, for people who are very young, you're probably like, what is a Meritech Ameritech was, it was first that, that I think it was bell South, then it was SBC. And then it was a T and T gone through a lot of different rebranding purchase, you know, those type of moments. And we ended up being in Indianapolis for most of my childhood. So I was there from fourth to 11th grade. Yes. I moved my senior year of high school. Um, I had such a dynamic group of friends, girlfriends that I'm really still close with to this day that we talk every single day. Um, and it's gotten even more that we talk even more now that we're in the pandemic. Cause we had literally have nothing else to do. Um, but I, I was there for elementary, middle high school. And then, um, my dad got, um, he got rotated to another position again. And this time it was in st. Louis and Indianapolis. I don't know if a lot of people know about Indi, but it is a place that is very large, but also small. It's a place where there's actually a lot more diversity than people realize. Um, when we first moved there, we lived in a very suburban area. My both of my parents grew up in like, um, city life. My mother's from Gary Indiana. My dad is from the South side of Chicago and they made it a point to raise us in the suburbs, um, to allow us for a little bit more opportunity. Um, and also to, I guess, you know, protect us from a certain sense, um, just because of the different things and issues that they went through in their own childhood. And they wanted to do better by us, both with, with what they were able to provide. Right. So when we first moved to Indy, I mean, it, wasn't a very diverse area. Um, and my elementary school was not very diverse at all. Um, I didn't really notice it similar to you. I didn't mean I didn't really notice it at all until I think I was a little taller than a lot of people and a little bit larger than some people. So people, you know, kids are read and cruel, so they started making fun. And then when you get to middle school, they start, um, to really call out different races and ethnicity. So then I became way more aware of my skin color and my sister actually, um, she's like, she's almost four years older. She acts like, she's like 14 years older. She's going to be like, whatever Lauren, which he became very yeah. Aware of her skin color too. And a lot of things, I necessarily didn't experience myself, but I would experience it through her own eyes. And so just like her being made fun of and feeling like she didn't fit in or fit in with the kids live down the street from us. Um, because no one really looked like us. That was definitely a challenge, right. Um, that we had to overcome. And so then by the time we got to high school, it was a lot more diverse because a lot of the times in the suburbs, they bus kids in from different areas. So we actually were the ones bused in from the suburbs kind of more into the city. We actually passed another high school that was in the same district on the way to the high school that we attended. And I, it was just about the way that, how they did the district district. I'm not really sure how it played out, but we ended up going to, um, um, it was called Lawrence central high school loved the bears, Elsie bears[inaudible] but it was so much bad. I mean, we got to go to, so with school, with so many different people, um, like I said, I have a core group of friends. I still keep in contact with, I know my sister does too. And it was so much fun. Um, my sister ended up going to college she's three years in grade schools ahead of me. So I was near my parents, but then my C my going into my senior year, my dad got another opportunity, um, with still with, at and T it was actually with yellow pages by then. I think, I think they may have split up by then. I'm not quite sure we had got another opportunity in st. Louis. And so I moved my senior year of high school. I was uprooted from what I had known for eight years. Um, I did not know anyone in Lewis. It was, we lived in a similar type of area in st. Louis, but st. Louis is extremely different from Indianapolis. I mean, it is just, there are no black people where now there's more, you know, I've seen some video of black lives matter rallies in marches happening, like where I went to high school in st. Louis. And I was, it was astonishing to see that it was beautiful to see that because that would have never happened. And the time when I was there, um, it was in st. Louis where I had my real first. I had one other incident in Indianapolis when I was very young. But when I was in st. Louis was when I've had a real life experience with being racially profiled. Um, I was in the mall with one of my friends and we were just trying on clothes at a store. We all loved back then, you know, just be in teenage girls. And they, when I came out the dressing room police were there, they escorted me to the in mall. What area? Yeah. I mean, they accused me of shoplifting. Um, at that point, you know, my parents had been providing so much. My dad had an excellent job in marketing. My mother was a teacher. I could have purchased anything that I wanted to, I didn't do anything wrong. Um, but I never find anything. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I want to make sure everyone really understands this. They didn't find anything on, you know, what they're there. So there was no nothing to substantiate this claim.
Speaker 3:No, not at all. I just think that they did not expect someone who looked like me to be able to be in that type of store shopping. And it's not even like, it's that big of a store, like, right, right.
Speaker 2:Okay. Settle down everyone. Like, it's not like it's yeah. Settle down people. Wow. I just don't. I mean, first of all, this is disgusting and I hate to hear stories like this, but I'm, I'm really, you know, as I'm listening to you, I'm, I'm so stuck on the fact that,
Speaker 3:That in your senior year
Speaker 2:Had to just leave everything behind and start a new again at such an such an important like year in point in your young educational life. Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was awful. My parents gave me the option to stay. Um, they were going to get my mom and apartment for, you know, like a half a year and I would stay there with her. My dad would be in st. Louis working. Um, I would have, would have had to graduate early, but like when you're a senior, like the good stuff happens that second semester, I don't want to graduate and then have to start working while I wait to like go to college. I also didn't want to go to college early because it's not like you're coming in with the rest of the freshmen in the fall you're coming in at the spring. And then I also didn't want to be the wedge in between my parents. Like not really be other, like, it was a very mature type of decision to make at the time. Cause I mean, I was 17. I don't even know if I was seven. I was 16 by that time. Cause I was till I started school. Um, but I was just like it to me, it just wasn't worth the, the different to like to stay for a half a summer semester just wasn't worth it. So I just rolled with the punches and went to st. Louis and was really only one of four black people who lived out in that area. I mean, people would ask me on the weekends, like, do you drive out here to hang out with your friends? Like, no, I live up the street. What are you talking about? Wow,
Speaker 2:I do know that so well, but I experienced it, you know, from kindergarten to third grade. So I, you know, I was just a little, little bitty one, um, that just wanted to ride the tricycle, you know, during a recess. But to have to go through that as a 16, 17, 18 year old, the layers of complication, the intensity that comes along with, you know, that age group. I mean, I can only imagine how traumatizing yeah, yeah, it is. And
Speaker 3:You get used to moving and starting over and adapting, but having to do it at that type of age, um, with that much of a jarring experience is so difficult. Um, but I'm resilient. And I just,
Speaker 2:Of course, I mean the art, this is that should be every black woman's middle name resilience. I mean, we have to constantly pivot constantly, you know, adapt and hopefully have a high IQ to be able to read a room. Uh, the minute you walk through the door. So
Speaker 3:That is definitely something that is one of my gifts. Um, and I attribute it to the constant movement and the constant need to adapt. Like I feel like I have, like my superpower is that I can walk through walls so to speak because I can just fluidly enter in different types of environments, conversations with people who are very different from me who don't look like me and it's not an uncomfortable situation. I mean, sometimes somebody else might feel uncomfortable, but I feel like I just can do it a little bit easier without having to think so much, be so much in my head about it. Um,
Speaker 2:I agree. I agree. That was, um, one thing, you know, when you kind of just put all the challenges aside, I say the same thing that you just said, you know, being able to, you know, shift and pivot naturally from the boardroom to the club, you know, and, and it's just effortless. That's been one of my strongest suits that has guided me throughout my career. I'm just, I believe I'm okay. You're okay. And if you have the pro, you know, if you are, if you are uncomfortable with me, then that's for you to sort out, correct. Not for me to sort out for you. Um, so it is, it is an attribute, I think, um, I think that's a really positive way to look at it, you know? Cause not everyone has had those experiences at such a formative stage in their, in their lives. So kudos for you. I'm sorry that all of it has to happen. You know, I'm sorry, your sister and my sister and the both of us and probably so many other Brown little girls had to go through it because it really shouldn't be, but it really is a Testament to the natural ability that's within us. It's like almost like a survival technique for sure. Make it and make it okay for you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we, you know, and I never been to st. Louis. I've never been to st. Louis. I've never been to Ohio. I've I've never,
Speaker 3:I know people on the East coast,
Speaker 2:Other people on the East coast, like to consider the Midwest, the flyover States.
Speaker 3:True. This is true. It's so rude. It's so rude. What I will say,
Speaker 2:My dad took an assignment in Chicago and was there, uh, he, he just had this amazing apartment, um, overlooking Lake, Michigan. I, it was just unbelievable. And I would go, don't laugh. I'm still in college. But during winter break, yeah, I would go there. I would go to Chicago now don't ask me why I would go to Chicago in the dead of winter.
Speaker 3:Sure. Being a California girl. No, my dad, every time I would get off the plane, he's like, we're going right to the department store. Cause you are going to like, you are literally going to turn blue, but I love Chicago. I love Chicago. I love it. It is so vibrant. It really is. It really
Speaker 2:It's my absolute favorite city, especially in the summer.
Speaker 3:Oh yes I do.
Speaker 2:Could go in the winter a lot because my family is still there, but yeah.
Speaker 3:Right. Literally love. There is nothing like summertime shy. There is tell people
Speaker 2:I'm like spins this summer. It's hot as hell. But spend the summer in Chicago, there's like music and food and just everyone hanging out around the Lake. And it's just, I love it.
Speaker 3:I love it those three months. Because when that, what do they call it? The Hawk with a hot is no joke. I remember
Speaker 2:There was a rope now I'm just this LA girl. I don't even know what's going on. There was a rope, um, uh, in the middle of the swell in the crosswalk and it was, it was, you know, bolted down and people were literally holding onto the rope across the street so that they wouldn't, I was like holding the rope. I was like, what is this? It was so bad. It was a terrible winter. It was terrible. The Hawk, the wind. I mean, whew. Yes. It's like being used to figure out what you need to plan out the route, get it, get there as fast as possible and get home because it is, it is, I've never experienced.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it's bad. It's the, it's the Lake is against the Lake, but there's nothing in it. I know.
Speaker 2:I know I'm with you. It's so good. So you, okay. So you graduated from, you know, high school in st. Louis and then, you know, what was the next phase?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So after that I went, um, to an HBCU. I selected, um, Kentucky state university who are not familiar. HBCU stands for a historically black college or university. And so I selected Kentucky state university is the only black institution in the state of Kentucky. It's in Frankfort, Kentucky, which is the capital. It's not LaVar Lexington. It is Frankfurt. It is an absolutely wonderful school. I absolutely love my Alma mater. I am still very active with my university this day, but it was there that I really cultivated who I am right now because when I got there, I was just this montage of myself, just really taking on different forms depending on who I was with. Right. But it was at that school where I was able to learn so much about my own, um, my own ancestors history, the different types of blackness, where people come from, we got to go to school with people from Florida, people from Detroit, from California, from Africa, from Asia. I mean, it was just so diverse in terms of the different types of blackness, but also the different types of races and cultures that came to that school as well. Um, so it was just a absolute, I would not trade my undergraduate experience for anything in the world. I tell people to this day, I wish I could go back to college right now. And I have any of the work. I don't want to do any of the work. I just wish that I would have truly, really enjoyed that moment because there's nothing like it. Um, and it was just absolutely awesome. I was super active on campus. Um, really involved in the student government association and the concert choir. We traveled around the country during break. Oh wow. I was in the honors college. I was like you, this is where it really starts to get very familiar. Okay. And, um, the Whitney young honors college, which sets you up to go to law school, uh, like go, yeah, I got to about the end of junior year and I'm not going to last the right moment where you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Is this really what I want to do? I wish I figured that out while I was in college, instead of waiting until I graduated to have the meltdown. Oh my God. I'm just like, cause I mean, I went through such a transition. I was a vocal music performance major. When I got there, then I was like, all I can do is singer teach. I'm not teaching anybody's children. Cause my mom's a teacher. So I was like, I need to get more of a well rounded type of, because then I went to the Whitney young honors college, um, which is basically liberal studies, but we did a lot of pre law work. And then I was like, okay, this is not going to work. So then I started writing for the newspaper, doing journalism, see, there you go. So what can I do here? And I really, really liked it. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to go get a master's degree because I don't want to go to work. So you just want to be a professional student the same way I'm going to go with school. So I applied to two schools, I applied to Northwestern and Indiana university and was like, don't get into one. I'm not supposed to go. I didn't get into Northwestern. I got into ICU. So I went to ICU Agilent on the very first day. I was like, yeah, who told me to go to school right after undergrad? Cause I don't want to do this. Right. But I was not about this whole going to work life. So I got, I got my master's and um, I was studying to be, I wanted to be on air talent, but I really wasn't willing to have the same type of lifestyle that I had as a kid. I didn't want to like graduate and go to Yakima and then have to move to like West Virginia. And then I didn't want to do all of that. And at the time I didn't have the look of an on air talent. Cause I had natural hair. I was really skinny. It just wasn't really conducive to people who look like me. Right. So I changed, which is crazy. Yeah. Carry on. I mean, this wasn't that long ago and I need people, you know, that's that's what's so
Speaker 2:See, that's why you have to know your history, but also
Speaker 3:The art of storytelling, which is rooted in the oral from our
Speaker 2:Ancestors. Like what you said right now is that gentle reminder that we always have to keep front of mind. Like we'd love to think that these things happened so long ago and they're just, you know, not applicable to present day. I mean, yeah. It, it wasn't that long ago, you know? Um, when my dad was refused a hotel room and Mississippi, that was in the eighties. That is so crazy. Yeah. I'm like that it wasn't that long ago. And so we have to keep, that's why we have to stay focused and keep, you know, the pressure on for change, um, in the cause, you know, it's so easy to let your foot off the gas pedal, you know, you're letting everyone off the hook at that point. You're not holding people accountable and we have to hold people accountable. Another note I want to, I want to stop and pause for the, for the younger listeners is that, you know, your journey in college, switching majors, discovering yourself, finding the right direction. You know, it's a process. And I think, you know, a lot of kids going in, you know, entering their first year or, you know, maybe they're in their sophomore year. They there's this pressure that they have to like, know their major, you know, and they have to declare it and like I can't change. And it's just this finality that almost takes away from the process that you really should be leaning into. You know? Um, I have an 18 year old will just turn 1919 in my house hold. And he's about to start in August, his sophomore year at Seton hall university. And you know, we went through this with him, like going into his freshman year, you know, Whoa, I need to, Oh, I need to declare something and I need to, what am I doing? You know, because my coursework needs to fall in line with that. We were like, come on, take a, take a breath. Okay. Yeah. Take a breath, declare business. You know, you have interest in that, but it doesn't mean you have to lock in because as you discover yourself who the possibilities are truly limitless. So I just wanted to point out that in your story, that it's okay, because look at you now, you turned out, okay, you're winning, you're super successful with masters, you know? So, you know, everyone be easy on yourself. If you're going into college as a freshman, or if you're currently, you know, a sophomore or junior, it's okay to change. It's okay to pivot, you know, no harm, no foul. Those pivots happen throughout your entire life, whether you want it to or correct.
Speaker 3:So true. It's so true. Things just go in a different direction. That exactly works out exactly how it's supposed to. It really does without fail. That is such the truth.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].