[upbeat music] Hey friend, it's David Nabinsky, the Senior Community Manager at the Chief of Staff Network.
We help chiefs of staff through the three Cs: cohorts, curriculum, and community via a Slack with over 900 people in it. Learn more about our upcoming events and programs at chiefofstaff.network.
There you can also subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you do not miss out on anything.
This episode of the Chief of Staff Network podcast is with Lauren Stein, the chief of staff at GrowthLoop, a leading platform for data-driven marketing.
It was recorded live at our New York City BrainTrust event, a six-hour mini conference.
In this episode, you'll learn about how Lauren got her chief of staff role, how hiring execs can be challenging, and her interest in wanting to be the world's best sidekick.
We are so excited for you to level up as a chief of staff. Here we go with Lauren. Give it up for Lauren. [clapping] Yay. I'm so nervous. Aww. [laughs] Um, how'd you get your chief of staff role, Lauren? Um, okay. So
my last job was a contract job. It was one year, so it was going to end, and I had to figure out my next step.
So I thought about going back to this, and I was working in HR, and I thought about going back to school to be for IO psychology. People put me in that direction. Mm-hmm. So I had to update my resume for the application.
And my current-- my boss at the time said, "Oh, you should put chief of staff on your resume to look really, really good." Like, at the very top you have, like, those three bullets, and I was like, "Okay, sure."
[laughs] Um, I was like, that's a cool thing. There's the word chief in it. Sounds good. I did not get into school, you should know. But, so I had to find actually something to do.
I had to find work, so I found an HR coordinator job at a small startup. It was like 10 people, and they just needed boots on the ground, someone to do onboarding, off-boarding. They were looking to grow.
And in the interview, the one question I got asked from this founder was, "Oh, I saw chief of staff on your resume. What does that mean?"
And I said, "Okay, you clearly opened it up two seconds before this interview and only read the first sentence." [laughs] He asked me something that was right at the top and right at the very bottom.
And I said, "Okay, this makes sense." Um, so then I said, "Wait, maybe this is actually something to consider as a job." Um, found the Chief of Staff Network way back then, talked to Scott- Mm-hmm...
but I was way too early. I had no idea what any of this was. Um, but then when I took this job that I'm currently at now, it's been three years, I said, "But this is actually something I want to consider, this role.
I don't know what it is, but I kinda wanna work towards it. It sounds interesting." Um, so I basically am an internal chief of staff.
I got it because I've been there and I worked for it, um, and I was introduced to it, uh, very, uh, non-traditionally. [laughs] Love that, love that.
Um, what's a, a project or a challenge or a problem that you've recently solved that you wanna talk about? Yeah.
Um, so I think as, uh, I'm sure a lot of you have experienced, hiring, uh, executives as part of a leadership team is really difficult.
Um, I would say for the first two and a half years that I was at this company, it was me and the two founders just trying to figure it out.
Um, there were a few other folks who sat at the leadership level, but not in the sense of, like, really working to grow the company.
And now there's a VP of sales, there's a VP of marketing, there's someone running partnerships, there's a CTO who's looking to hire a VP of engineering.
Like, there is a leadership team, and I think finding the synergies between all the different groups that have to work together, especially as you're, like, trying to drive the bus and, like, build it at the same time, uh, or I think plane is the right way to say it- [laughs]...
um, can be really difficult.
So I think one thing that I'll say is I haven't quite solved it yet, but I, but what I've been very proud of is along the way that I've been uncovering different roadblocks, finding solutions within it that just keep us going.
And 'cause that's a, that's a hard problem to solve. I think it'll take a very long time, but it's solving little things along the way, just to keep getting there and just not getting stuck.
Um, I don't have any go-to-market experience whatsoever. I don't...
I, you know, I'm, I'm new to the role, so I think just thinking intuitively and a little critically to, again, just get ahead of all the different roadblocks has been really, really fun. Love it, love it, love it.
Who's got a question? I know it's hard to top the last two. [laughs] What is your proudest achievement in this role? And also, what's your five-year plan? [gasps] Whoa.
[laughs] [laughs] [laughs] Oh, they're pissed. No, I just... I knew you were gonna ask me this question, Holly. Holly and I had a great chat earlier. Um,
okay, my proudest achievement, um, I will say one that led to another. So, um, I helped our company get SOC 2 and HIPAA certified. [clapping] Um, yeah, hugely valuable for the business.
And then, you know, you have an annual audit, and you have to keep that certification. So I think from that experience, number one, literally had to dive in, figure it out. I had no idea what any of these words meant.
It was so technically above my head. But now I actually support our CTO on a lot of our, like, infrastructure.
And, like, if a prospect and, you know, a VP of engineering at a prospect has questions about our architecture and how we deploy in different environments, I can help support those conversations.
So from a project that I was so nervous about and had to figure out and made 106 mistakes along the way, I'm now able to support the business in so many different areas, all the way, you know, to RFPs that we'll get that go so, so deep into how, um, our software operates.
So a very small project over here has helped me help in so many areas- Mm-hmm... throughout the business.
Um, and then I would say my five-year plan is, um-To continue to find those small things that ex- that turn into, like, exponential things in different areas. I wouldn't say I wanna be a founder.
I wouldn't say I want to, like, start my own business. I've always said I wanted to be the world's best sidekick. [laughs] And what I wanna do is continue to be the world's best sidekick.
So whatever that title is, I'm not really attached to titles, um, I wanna be the world's best sidekick. Love that. Love that. Yeah. [clapping] One more question. Yeah. Thank you for sharing.
Um, what's the biggest mistake you've made throughout those years? [exhales] [laughs] Um, I would say one very... It's hard to say what is the biggest mistake, because everything feels catastrophic for me. Mm-hmm.
But one, one, one big, big mistake that I still feel really terrible about, even though I'm sure this person forgot about it, um, we were figuring out, um, terms with a partner,
referral agreements, reseller agreements, like what happens with certain contracts, just, like, all the legal jargon.
Um, and our legal team was reviewing it, and they sent, uh, the updated version in Sl- in Slack in our strategy channel and said, "Okay, here are the, here's the updated red lines for the partner," and I said, "Great."
Without even opening it, reading it, thinking about it, um, I just sent it over and I was like, "Hey, so and so, here, here are the red lines," and I get an email back a couple hours later and they say, "Hey, I, I think you must have sent us the wrong version.
This doesn't seem right." I was like, "Okay, that's kind of strange." It had the most, like, horrible things about this partner. Like, oh my goodness, I, I, I didn't know people write red lines like this at my company.
But it was like, you know, just n- not really, really not nice things about this partner in the way that they were, like, talking to each other. I, I know that sounds kind of vague.
I think one thing said, like, "I think they're trying to be too greedy here," like, "These people are awful," like, "They're being not so nice," but like just... I was like, "Why are you writing this in a document?"
[laughs] Like, call the person and talk about this. And, um, we did end up partnering thankfully, so. [laughs] [clapping] Got on a call and just talked it out and, and figured it out together.
But I would say, um, lesson learned that I read every document before I send it. [laughs] World's best sidekick. Thank you so much, Lauren. World's best sidekick.
[clapping] [upbeat music]