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[0:17] Laurel Mintz: So why Laurel, why this business?

[0:23] Laurel Mintz: Because I'm a glutton for punishment. No, I'm kidding. Um, so I'm actually a lawyer by education in Garden, California. Yes. I did a JD MBA at Ruckers on the East Coast. And um I ended up having to take over my family business. My dad got sick. He's healthy now, so it's a happy ending story. But I at 26, I was the CEO for the first time for three years. So I ran his company, which had a staff of 60. Uh, do you know the Bassett Furniture brand? Which one? Do you know that do you know Bassett Furniture? Uh-huh. So he was the West Coast partner for Bassett. So I stepped in at 26 and was interim CEO there for three years. I was the youngest person in the company, certainly the youngest woman, and uh had a staff of 60 and did all the marketing, merchandising, buying, training, sales, you name it.

Luckily, he got healthy, stepped back in, and I went back after those big law firm jobs, and I was getting those great six-figure offers. And every time I got one of those offers, Tanya, I was like, like something like viscerally in my body was like, this is this is not my jam. Like, this is not my direction anymore. And so I started really listening to my gut and my intuition, and the MBA was in marketing, and I started talking to and meeting with other entrepreneurs and all their pain points were around digital. It was right when digital started and probably aging myself a bit. And I was like, I could do that. I know how to figure that shit out. And I did. I mean, it was probably a little bit of uh, you know, guts and a little bit of gusto and a lot of bravado. And that was 12 years ago.

[1:52] Laurel Mintz: Do you have brothers and sisters?

[1:54] Laurel Mintz: I do. I have a younger sister, six years younger.

[1:57] Laurel Mintz: Okay, so it's just two girls. So she was younger than you. So you were the one who had to take it. What about mom?

[2:01] Laurel Mintz: Mom couldn't take over. My mom is a kindergarten teacher and has been for almost 50 years. We can't get her to retire, God bless her. But uh yeah, that was not gonna ever be her direction in life.

[2:13] Laurel Mintz: So I mean, that could not have been an easy thing, like running a company of 60 people. And this is an old, like established company, and you're this little young whippersnapper. What were some of the challenges of that?

[2:25] Laurel Mintz: Um, all of them, all of the challenges of that. Um yeah, I mean, it was not, it was not fun. It was not fun. The company was struggling when I stepped in financially. So, you know, people are like, oh, how cool you were a CEO at 26. And I was like, no, no, it was not that. I didn't have any formal training in being a business owner. And I think that's a big misnomer. It's like you go to business school, you get an MBA, you're a lawyer, you can handle anything. And I did figure it out and eventually got it done, but it was scary. I mean, I remember sitting in my car around the corner from one of the stores and just like crying, right? I was like, I can't do it in the store. I just I need to get my shit together, but I need to get out this emotion. Because the truth is I was running this company that I didn't know shit about while my dad was dying, and I thought it had completely derailed my entire life trajectory. So yeah, that it was not fun.

[3:19] Laurel Mintz: What were um what were some of the hardest things that you went through in that process that then turned out to be this gift in your current or your future? Like the worst possible thing that became the best possible thing when you look back on it.

[3:31] Laurel Mintz: Such a great question. Um, as I mentioned earlier, part of my ethos and a part of our ethos as a company is about um women's empowerment and diversity, right? And so being in that space where it was, you know, pale, male, and stale, um, you know, that was really eye-opening experience for me. And so I've I've really driven the company by the opposite of that. How can we have a more diverse perspective? How can we lead with empowering of women and girls? Um, how can I support uh a community that you know may not have had the same resources that I have had? Uh, I think that's been such a gift because I saw how I was treated just as a woman. And I was a woman with means and with education, and the most of the world is not like that. So I think it was uh it was super challenging, but in the long run, it has made me so much more clear about my purpose on this planet.

[4:24] Laurel Mintz: Did you ever have to put anybody in their place? Tell us, is there a story of having to put someone in their place?

[4:32] Laurel Mintz: Well, I think you can tell that I am not a quiet, you know, wallflower. Um, and so I remember very clearly being at high point in North Carolina, which is where the furniture market happens, right? And it was like me and thousands of these like fat, white middle-aged dudes smoking cigars and drinking scotch. And um, I remember very clearly that one of them hit on me and I had to look at him and I had to say, I I'm sorry, like in what world? In what world? Honestly. So that was really fun. Didn't cost any sales now, did it?

[5:10] Laurel Mintz: No, it did not. It did not. He was he owned Bassett stores in a different part of the country. So uh that was uh that was a different experience for me. But it was very, you know, very misogynistic, very driven by that male ego. And uh I don't put up with that shit. Not on my watch.

[5:26] Laurel Mintz: So, you know, you have quite uh I mean you have the capacity to do many, many things. Do you think that you will continue in this, or are you already visioning what your next chapter is?

[5:40] Laurel Mintz: I love what I do, I really do. I love building teams, I love finding talent, I love building brands. Um, I can't imagine doing anything else right now. And my husband's uh has his own agency as well, so we're both like total guns for punishment. Um so you both department separate companies?

[5:59] Laurel Mintz: He builds different kinds of platforms, so he's an engineer in the web space and he builds like the Netflixes of the world. So he builds what are called OTT or over the top platforms.

[6:07] Laurel Mintz: Oh, so he's far more technical than I am, but um, but we overlap from time to time.

[6:12] Laurel Mintz: And do you work together sometimes?

[6:14] Laurel Mintz: We have, yeah, we have.

[6:16] Laurel Mintz: Is that good?

[6:18] Laurel Mintz: Yes, we absolutely we love we so we don't have kids. Uh we have fur babies.

[6:23] Laurel Mintz: I thought I don't know if I was looking you up that you had two little kids where I saw a picture of you and they weren't your kids then.

[6:28] Laurel Mintz: Okay. Two fur two fur babies, that's what I call my my my fur babies. Um, so our our businesses are babies, um, and we really have so much mutual respect for each other and what what each of us does, and our skill sets overlap in some ways and really are so divergent in others, and and I think that's a beautiful thing. We really respect each other.

[6:46] Laurel Mintz: Do you get to travel?

[6:49] Laurel Mintz: I do. Well, not not right now, but typically, yeah, I definitely get to travel, um, both for pleasure and for business. It's it's really fun.

[6:58] Laurel Mintz: And so now what if you're doing a brand that's um, I mean, is the listening system really the basis for everything? Because I'm like one of these people, I'm like, the algorithm can't know everything. There's some things that come from humans. Like, like what is the intersection between data and then just intuitive sense of like this is what needs to be done?

[7:20] Laurel Mintz: Yeah, that's I think that's totally a fair question. Um, the data is the starting point because again, everyone has an opinion. And so even when brands or individuals to build a brand come to us, they're like, I think X, Y, and Z. And so I have to pull back and say, I I I appreciate your opinion. And I certainly have an opinion as well. As you can probably tell, I'm very opinionated about everything. Um, but I want to know what the what the data says first, then we overlay our expertise on top of it because that's really why that company has come to us or that person has come to us. And then I can go back from to a place of empowerment and say, this is what you think, this is what the data shows, this is what our expertise would have us do.

If you still want me to go through the process in the the way that you want me to do it, I mean I'll do it. It's your company, but I have to stand up and tell you this is what I think, and this is what the data shows, and this is how we believe you will be successful.

[8:13] Laurel Mintz: So I am just a contrary person. So it's like if you brought me the data, I would be like, Yeah, the data is what got us into the world we're in now, and I want to build a different world. I want to figure out how to do it differently. So, what are you gonna do with the client like me who's like that?

[8:30] Laurel Mintz: That's how people have been doing it forever, forever got us here. I want to come up with a new way.

[8:33] Laurel Mintz: I want to reinvent the wheel. What are you gonna do with me?

[8:36] Laurel Mintz: Well, that system runs behind the scenes no matter what you say. So it's going to continue to tell us what um, you know, what's working and what isn't. And you know, like I said, if ultimately you're the client and you want to go in a different direction, we'll go in that direction. But when it doesn't deliver the results, then we do it my way.

[8:57] Laurel Mintz: We're gonna do it your way, but you see, I'm your client who's like, no, I don't care how much it's costing me. I want we to us to keep doing it my way till we make my way the new way.

[9:08] Laurel Mintz: Then you're gonna spend a lot of money and not get a lot of results. And you know, we certainly have had stubborn clients like that for sure, but then that's not usually a good fit for us, right?

[9:18] Laurel Mintz: It's also about finding the the client um relationship fit with an agency. Like maybe we're not the right agency for you. Um, and that's okay.

[9:26] Laurel Mintz: We're not for everyone, you know?

[9:28] Laurel Mintz: But I would be remaining. So we're found new ways, like new ways. Cause I think my concern with the algorithm right now is we know that they're using that data to actually not even just predict your behavior, but to actually tip your behavior in a certain way. So, you know, maybe I want to tip your behavior back towards kinder, more morally sound, and the algorithm is always tipping you towards you know the things that are irritating and gonna get you outraged and get you mad.

[9:59] Laurel Mintz: Well, I think that's about your voice of brand, right? So that's about how you communicate, not how the data drives people to those channels.