Marketing, Mistakes, and Mastery with Lauren Petrullo of Mongoose Media

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My guest for Episode #245 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Lauren Petrullo. She is an award-winning marketing expert, digital marketing and eCommerce consultant, and successful multi-founder. Lauren has overcome great adversity from a young age, as well as living by the F.A.I.L. method with her Mongoose Media “pack mates” as she calls them.

Lauren is the CEO and Founder of Award Winning Marketing Agency, Mongoose Media, Founder of boutique eCommerce store Asian Beauty Essentials, Chief Marketing Officer of eco-conscious baby swimwear Beau & Belle Littles, and co-founder of chatbot service Bot Blondes. As a former Innovation Producer at The Walt Disney Company, Lauren incorporates her background in innovation and design to infuse creativity and play into all of her marketing strategies.

Today, we're talking about turning failures into stepping stones. In this episode, Lauren will dig into her “fail method,” the importance of integrating creativity into marketing strategies, and her unique approach to fostering a culture of transparency and learning at Mongoose Media.

Further, she will delve into the value of diversity in honing effective marketing strategies and the proactive approach toward addressing and learning from mistakes. Also, discover how Lauren and her team are leveraging innovative remote collaboration tools and setting an example of how to emulate a robust and dynamic work culture.

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Questions and Topics:

• Why the name Mongoose Media?
• Why “pack mates”?
• Why is it important to tell your team about your mistake?
• Having a F.A.I.L. channel on Slack
• Celebrating failure? “First Attempt in Learning”? 
• Celebrating the Biggest failure of the week?
• Hiring selection vs. bringing them along in the culture? Which is more important?
• Using small mistakes to prevent big ones?
• “Why do I want to celebrate failures??” — good catches
• What is “The ONLY Advertising Hospital™?”?
• Why do you embrace the title of “destruction queen”?
• In your bio it says — “Dare to be vulgar, refuse to be boring.”???
• Get a 20% discount code at AsianBeautyEssentials.com when you enter MISTAKES at checkout!

Scroll down to find:

• Video version of the episode
• How to subscribe
• Quotes
• Full transcript

Find Lauren on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook

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Episode Summary & Article

Lauren Petrullo: A Blazing Trail Through Creativity and Failure in Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a rapidly evolving industry that demands creativity, adaptability, and a willingness to learn from failure. Award-winning marketing expert, digital marketing and e-commerce consultant Lauren Petrullo, CEO and founder of Mongoose Media, has made a stellar career by embracing these very principles. Let's take a closer look at how Petrullo's unique approach to marketing, her fascinating career journey, and her innovative techniques are transforming the digital marketing landscape.

Embracing Failure as the First Attempt in Learning

In any competitive field, the fear of failure can be paralyzing. However, for leaders like Lauren Petrullo, failure is not only expected, it's celebrated. Petrullo lives by the fail method, which she defines as “First Attempt in Learning.” This philosophy is ingrained into the culture of her company, Mongoose Media. Encouraging her team to take risks and learn from their mistakes has cultivated an environment where innovation thrives. Team members are not chastised for errors, but rather, they are seen as valuable learning opportunities that contribute to personal and professional growth.

The “fail method” is more than just a catchy acronym; it’s a testament to the resilient spirit of a team that understands the importance of perseverance. Celebrating failure, even if it's on the second attempt—or “sailing through,” as Petrullo puts it—keeps the team dynamic and proactive. This culture instills a sense of courage in her pack mates, motivating them to push boundaries without the fear of repercussions should they not succeed on their first try.

Infusing Creativity and Play into Marketing Strategies

Creativity and playfulness are integral to Petrullo's approach, as evidenced by her tenure as an innovation producer at The Walt Disney Company. Her ability to inject creativity and play into marketing strategies has proven valuable in creating memorable connections and innovative solutions. Petrullo's playful spirit and instinct for fun have facilitated ice-breaking and relationship building in professional settings, but it has also taught her valuable lessons.

Petrullo's favorite mistake—an endearing term—occurred in her early days as the founder of Mongoose Media. At a marketing conference, she aimed to leave a memorable mark by introducing herself with various whimsical titles, such as “chief plumbing officer” or “tromboner specialist.” While this approach was successful in making her stand out, it accidentally left the attendees with no real understanding of her identity or company. The following year, people remembered the playful persona but not the real Lauren Petrullo, or the real Mongoose Media.

This experience taught her the fine balance between being memorable and maintaining clarity in communication. It also underscored the importance of authenticity in branding and self-introduction. By fine-tuning her playful approach, she learned to maintain the right elements of her job title and company, while still making the conversation engaging and fun.

A Diverse Portfolio of Leadership and Innovation

Lauren Petrullo's portfolio of accomplishments is diverse and impressive. She's not only the force behind Mongoose Media, but also the founder of Asian Beauty Essentials, a boutique e-commerce store, and the chief marketing officer of an eco-conscious baby swimwear company, Bo and Belle Littles. Additionally, she co-founded Bot Blondes, a chatbot service with a twist of humor—a name inspired by the founders themselves, triplets of creativity in the marketing world.

Her ventures reflect a pattern of innovative thinking and a penchant for challenging the status quo. Whether she is working on eco-friendly baby products or harnessing the power of chatbots for businesses, Petrullo consistently integrates her experience in innovation and design to create effective and playful marketing strategies.

The methodology Petrullo employs goes beyond traditional marketing; she is an advocate for breaking away from convention and taking on the giants of the industry with agility and smart strategy—much like the mongoose from which her company takes its name. Her success story is a blend of audacity, clever branding, and the understanding that, at times, one's most significant mistake can lead to their greatest triumph.

Creating a Culture of Transparency and Learning

At Mongoose Media, the emphasis on a culture of transparency is clear. Lauren Petrullo believes in setting expectations around failure and learning right from the hiring process. The candidates are made aware that making mistakes is an inherent part of learning and growth within the company. This openness not only sets clear expectations but also builds a foundation of trust between the leadership and team members from the start. Having transparent dialogues about failures and successes alike contributes to a more cohesive and understanding team.

Creating an environment where employees are comfortable admitting to and learning from their mistakes contributes to the company's adaptability and innovation. The existence of a dedicated “fail channel” on their communication platform exemplifies this unique culture. It is a space where mistakes are owned and shared, not to point fingers, but to learn collectively.

Leveraging Diversity for Marketing Excellence

Petrullo's acknowledgment of the diverse backgrounds of her team members is vital in reinforcing the company's strengths. By bringing together individuals from five different continents, Mongoose Media harnesses a broad range of perspectives. This diversity is not only embraced but is seen as a powerful asset to provide unique and nuanced marketing campaigns, particularly in a culturally rich market like the United States.

The inclusion of various cultural and geographical insights enables Mongoose Media to create marketing strategies that resonate with a wide audience. This approach amplifies their ability to produce campaigns that can effectively communicate with and attract a diverse consumer base. The company's proactive stance on diversity is a testament to its commitment to thought diversity and cultural competency.

Proactive Learning from Mistakes

The proactive approach towards addressing mistakes at Mongoose Media helps in early identification and mitigation of larger errors. By establishing strong Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and improvement processes, they ensure that small oversights are caught early. This approach is ingrained as part of the company's philosophy of proactive problem-solving, turning potential catastrophes into opportunities for improvement and future-proofing.

Lauren adds that having a library of SOPs is critical to the company's ability to prevent and manage errors, ensuring that the quality assurance processes evolve with the organization. The creation of these processes, especially in a large team, provides a systematic way to manage and learn from errors. Smaller teams and solopreneurs can learn from this principle by documenting processes and preparing for growth in their own practices.

Embracing Technology for Remote Collaboration

The introduction of Gather Town—a virtual office platform—has drastically changed the way Mongoose Media operates on a daily basis. It simulates a physical office environment virtually, allowing seamless interaction and fostering camaraderie among team members. This technology helps reduce dependency on disruptive communication tools like Slack, streamlines workflow, and provides a more natural method of collaboration and documentation. The platform has also helped the company continue their playful spirit by allowing employees to customize their virtual desks and decorate the office space for various seasons, facilitating a sense of community and belonging among remote teams.

By adopting innovative technologies for remote work, encouraging diversity, celebrating failures, and setting an example of transparency, Lauren Petrullo exemplifies a leader who has crafted an exemplary work culture. Her revolutionary approach seems poised to continually drive Mongoose Media to new heights in digital marketing.

The Mongoose Media Approach to Marketing Transformation

The “advertising hospital” that Mongoose Media is often likened to underscores their comprehensive approach to marketing solutions. Just as in a medical facility, the company offers a diagnostic process to address “marketing pain” issues. They recognize that many businesses have been hemorrhaging funds due to ineffective ad campaigns, and thus they step in like emergency responders to provide necessary “marketing pain relief.”

Marketing Diagnosis and Treatment

Once a business is under Mongoose Media's care, they conduct a thorough analysis, similar to a medical diagnosis, to understand the root of the marketing afflictions. From there, a tailored “treatment plan” is created, which looks at both short-term pain relief—stopping the bleeding of funds—and long-term health through reconstruction and rehabilitation of the marketing strategies.

The Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Process

Just like a medical rehabilitation, where a patient works through a recovery process, Mongoose Media helps businesses rebuild their marketing muscle, strengthening their strategies so they can “lift more weight” with their advertising spend. This rehabilitation leads to the marketing equivalent of reconstructive surgery for a brand. In some cases, a complete overhaul is necessary, leading to a new “Brand 2.0.” This process may not be glamorous and can be likened to a six-month period of bruised noses, but the outcomes are a revitalized, more competitive brand identity and marketing strategy.

Addressing Resistance and Embracing Change

Mongoose Media is no stranger to the potential resistance from companies needing “interventions.” They address this by reminding clients that what worked pre-pandemic, or during the pandemic, may no longer be applicable. Marketing methods can quickly become dated, and strategies that are not optimized for the current landscape do not equate to wrong, just antiquated. It's about evolution and adaptation, qualities that Mongoose Media strongly advocates for.

Sales and Marketing Tension

When it comes to aligning sales and marketing teams, Mongoose Media understands the friction that can occur: sales teams might claim that the leads are not of high quality, while marketing teams argue that leads are not being appropriately pursued. These are typical points of contention that Mongoose Media skillfully navigates, ensuring that their approach supports both teams' efforts to work in tandem towards common goals.

Commitment to Long-Term Client Relationships

The company is selective with client partnerships, preferring long-term engagements that reflect the seriousness and commitment required for real results. These extended partnerships mirror the patience and dedication one must have when undergoing physical recovery—true transformation takes time.

The Role of ‘Destruction Queen' in Refining Strategies

Petrullo embraces the informal title of ‘Destruction Queen', a candid consultant who is not afraid to challenge the status quo. She doesn't hesitate to tell a business owner their “baby is ugly”—a no-nonsense approach that stakeholders may find disconcerting but necessary for genuine growth and improvement. This level of honesty is essential in crafting a “sexy offer” for an “obvious audience,” which, according to Petrullo, are foundational elements for a predictable and profitable business.

Setting Expectations for Reformation

During early interactions, Petrullo sets clear expectations with potential clients; those who find the directness off-putting may choose to look elsewhere. This process itself acts as a method for qualifying leads, ensuring a harmonious client-agency relationship centered on mutual acknowledgment of the need for blunt but constructive feedback.

The Strategy Behind ‘Obnoxiously You'

The Mongoose Media ethos emphasizes individuality and embracing a strong, distinctive brand personality. They advocate for making an impact and standing out in a cluttered market, which is reflected in the bold statement “Dare to be vulgar, refuse to be boring.” In an age of abundant content and fleeting attention spans, they believe that intriguing, bold marketing can create lasting engagement and loyalty.

AI: A Tool, Not a Replacement

Acknowledging the rise of AI in marketing, Mongoose Media notes the common missteps of treating AI as a complete solution rather than a powerful tool. While AI can exponentially increase productivity and efficiency, it is not infallible. It must be woven into existing strategies to augment and not replace the human element of marketing creativity and experience. Legalities surrounding AI-generated content are also spotlighted, emphasizing the need for human oversight and proper licensing understanding.

Looking Forward

By maintaining a balance between marketing expertise and emergent technologies like AI, Mongoose Media pioneers an approach that aligns with modern-day challenges and opportunities. Their unique blend of frankness, long-term strategy development, and innovative use of technology positions them as a leader in the digital marketing space, shaping the future of the industry through calculated disruption and powerful campaigning.

The Role of Human Creativity in AI-enhanced Marketing

As businesses increasingly integrate artificial intelligence into their marketing strategies, it's crucial to remember the value of human creativity and intervention. Mongoose Media understands this nuanced interplay and acts accordingly, ensuring that AI tools like mid journey are utilized can only enhance, not replace, the human touch in marketing initiatives.

The Importance of Human Interaction in AI Usage

With the rise of AI technologies, there's a temptation to let these sophisticated tools run on autopilot. However, Mongoose Media stresses the need for human intervention to maintain originality and legal protection. When using AI tools, it's paramount to involve a human element that tailors and personalizes output, thereby creating uniquely crafted work that resonates with audiences and stands up to legal scrutiny.

The In-House Residency Program

At Mongoose Media, training is key to maintaining high standards in marketing practice. They have instituted an in-house residency program where personnel are not put on client work until they have proven themselves with the company's internal processes. This initiative not only fosters professional growth but ensures quality and consistency across client campaigns.

Leveraging Internal Ventures for Marketing Experiments

Mongoose Media doesn't only preach; they practice. Through their internal companies, Mongoose Media creates an experimental ground to test and refine their marketing methodologies. One such venture is Asian Beauty Essentials, which serves as a living lab for the team to innovate and apply their marketing strategies in real-time, ensuring that the tactics they recommend to clients are battle-tested.

Inclusivity in Beauty and Marketing

In the case of Asian Beauty Essentials, it's clear that Mongoose Media's approach extends beyond product promotion—it involves breaking stereotypes and promoting inclusivity. By catering to a diverse customer base that spans from ivory to ebony skin tones, the company exemplifies how culturally aware marketing can both serve a wider audience and act as a proof point of successful branding.

Emphasizing a Fun and Engaging Work Culture

Recognizing that while work isn’t always fun, Mongoose Media infuses a philosophy where monotony has no place. By maintaining a vibrant and engaging work environment, the company believes that the quality of output will reflect the dynamism within the workplace. It's not just about being fun for fun's sake—it's about cultivating a company culture where creativity and enthusiasm naturally lead to better marketing solutions and a more agile business model.

Integrating Productive Entertainment in Marketing Strategies

This mindset spills over into Mongoose Media's marketing methodologies, where “fun” is strategically used to capture attention in a crowded digital landscape. Acknowledging that people are drawn to entertaining content, Mongoose Media engineers campaigns that are memorable, shareable, and most importantly, effective at driving the desired customer action—be it a click, a purchase, or brand advocacy.

By embracing these principles, Mongoose Media successfully navigates the complex intersection of human ingenuity and artificial intelligence in marketing, ensuring that their clients not only survive but thrive in an ever-evolving digital marketplace.

Automated Transcript (May Contain Mistakes)

Mark Graban:
Well, hi. Welcome back to my favorite mistake. I'm Mark Graban. Our guest today is Lauren Petrullo. She's an award-winning marketing expert, digital marketing and e-commerce consultant, and successful founder of multiple companies.

Mark Graban:
Lauren says she's overcome great adversity from a young age, and she lives by the fail method. F-A-I-L. I'm going to ask her about that in a second with her team at Goose Media, or her pack mates, as she calls them. So before I tell you a little bit more, Lauren, welcome to the podcast. How are you?

Lauren Petrullo:
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Mark Graban:
Thank you for being here. First question, then real quick, what does F.A.I.L. stand for there in the bio?

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah. First attempt in learning. We all mess up. We all make mistakes. And so if you're not failing, you're not learning.

Lauren Petrullo:
So it's a really big principle in our company. Literally, we celebrate failing and even the second attempt sailing through. But thrail isn't a word. So if it's a third attempt in like, we need to reevaluate something, well.

Mark Graban:
We'Ll talk about that more. For sure. Lauren is absolutely in the right place as she's demonstrating here to be on my favorite mistake. Lauren is CEO and founder of an award winning marketing agency, Mongoose Media. She's the founder of the boutique e commerce store asian beauty essentials, and she's chief marketing officer of an eco conscious baby swimwear company, Beau and Belle Littles.

Mark Graban:
She's also co founder of the chatbot service, Bot Blondes. How do you know a bot is blonde? By the like. I'm not trying to tell a joke. I'm trying to ask why it's blonde.

Lauren Petrullo:
No, that's fair. That's funny. It's myself and two other blondes. We were building chat messenger services for individuals, and all three of us were blondes. So we were the bot blondes.

Lauren Petrullo:
And it was a lot of fun making puns related to our blondness.

Mark Graban:
So it's the founders, not the bots.

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah.

Mark Graban:
So Lauren is a former innovation producer at the Walt Disney Company. So she gets to incorporate her background in innovation and design to help infuse creativity and play into all of her marketing strategies. I think we're going to have creativity and play here in the episode, right?

Lauren Petrullo:
Oh, for sure.

Mark Graban:
So, Lauren, I've already asked you a couple of questions, but the first question we normally get to, I guess this is now the third question. The different things that you've done, the different companies you've founded and worked in, what would you say is your favorite mistake?

Lauren Petrullo:
Well, this was actually in an introduction event, so my favorite mistake was trying to be creative and playful without remembering who I am kind of situation. So I was like, hey, let's have fun. Let's be memorable. And then I forgot to actually remind people who I am. So essentially I went to this conference.

Lauren Petrullo:
It was my first time at a marketing conference by myself. This was my first emergence into the world of marketing as Magooth Media founder. And every time we did the introduction, I didn't want to be boring. Hi, I'm Lauren. I am the founder of Magus Media.

Lauren Petrullo:
Instead, I kept changing it and making it up. And so I was a chief plumbing officer. I was like a tromboner specialist. I was all these different jobs and everyone's like, oh, my gosh, it's so great to meet you. This is so amazing.

Lauren Petrullo:
I've never met a chief plumbing officer before. I was like, oh, yeah, I'm in charge of these entire real estate offices. I manage over 600 toilets. I was just having fun, improvising almost, and then made really great connections. And then the next year, people kept looking for me.

Lauren Petrullo:
They're like, where's that plumbing girl? Where's that dog walker that is also like a telepath? Like all these different things and they couldn't find me. And I was like, I'm Lauren, founder of Mongoose Media. Here's who I actually am.

Lauren Petrullo:
They're like, ok, now I can be friends with you. Now I can email you. Now I can find you on socials. I was like, yes, sorry, that was memorable. But no one knew who I was.

Lauren Petrullo:
I was that memorable that they forgot who I actually.

Mark Graban:
Mean. When you say people are looking for you, was this where there's an app or a website where people could try to find people they know and plan how to meet up and reconnect?

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah. So after this marketing conference, there are like big WhatsApp groups and stuff. And then there was, of course, Instagram and all those kind of channels. And I had several people come up to me saying that, hey, I was trying to find you. We were trying to include you in these events.

Lauren Petrullo:
There were some get togethers and some organizations. And because I hadn't, I mean, I also didn't have a business card. I was passing out. They were like, I couldn't find you. And when I would ask people, where's the plumbing blonde?

Lauren Petrullo:
No one knew who I was talking about because I told everyone different things.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. That spirit of fun or trying to mix it up is part of your background. Like improv comedy, or you like to have fun or to be funny. It seems that was an instinct or some training or both.

Lauren Petrullo:
I've only just started improv, so I'm actually in my second class of improv ever. It wasn't in the background before, but I grew up with all brothers, and it can be pretty boring when they're talking about less exciting stuff all the. But. So it was just, like, naturally a part of something that I was doing growing up. And I think just with my time at Disney, it was always about infusing play wherever we can.

Lauren Petrullo:
And a lot of the projects I would work on were with higher level executives, were with individuals that were spanning so much history within the Walt Disney company that these were large execs, new admin team members, cruise ship directors, that having the play helped even out the playing field a lot. So it wasn't just, like, paycheck, parade of conversations.

Mark Graban:
Yeah.

Lauren Petrullo:
So I think that's just, like, I did that at Disney, and I found it a really great way to break the ice and get to know each other. So I carried it through, but I carried it through so well that I left memorable impressions that they had forgotten who I was.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. At least that second year, at some point along the way there, you got the gift of feedback. It's possible you might not have even discovered you had made the mistake. You might have kept repeating it if someone didn't help close the loop with you.

Lauren Petrullo:
Very true. Very true. So the second year, because people were able to close the loop with it, it was really helpful for me to take that to the next level. So a really good friend of mine, Paul Barron, he and I then changed it to be level two of, instead of us making up a job, he came into it, and we started making up different ways that we met each other. It's like, oh, yeah, Paul and the, he's the founder of Boom Bell Littles.

Lauren Petrullo:
Let me tell you about how we met. And so we kept what our title was, and we kept what our jobs were, but then we changed just how we met of each other's stories. And then that was still a lot of fun because he would give me a seat or I'd give him a seed, and then he'd have to make it up on the spot. So just be like, oh, he saved me on a trip in Mount Kilimanjaro. I had sprained my ankle, and I was about to be left, and so he offered to give me a piggyback ride, but I had said, oh, if you're giving me a piggyback ride.

Lauren Petrullo:
I took on an extra two backpacks, so he was carrying me plus two backpacks. Anyways, we kept doing all these different things, so it was still the joy of play and unanticipated events. But this time, we at least correct name, correct job, just a fun, fake way of how we introduce each other. And then we told people this was fake, and we made this, like, a scoring thing. So I'd be like, okay, mark, all of that is not true.

Lauren Petrullo:
Who we are is very true, but how we met is not the case. On a scale of one to ten, how funny was that story? Because we're competing, and then we would make each time we have an event, who was the winner. We'd take an average of the score. Truth.

Mark Graban:
So you're having fun with these details that really weren't going to cause a problem, then, with people knowing or being able to find you? Yeah, in the future, but it sounds like what you were doing there. I've never taken an improv class. I've talked to a lot of people who have. When you were going back and forth about stories, was there some of that improv rule of, like, the.

Mark Graban:
Yes. And of always having to go along, build on the story?

Lauren Petrullo:
I've learned that since. So I've taken improv class now for two months, and this is four or five years ago. So, yeah, there's definitely that. Yes. And.

Lauren Petrullo:
And, essentially, you give someone an offer, and then you take the offer and run with it. So we would. I'd offer, and I'd say, like, for, like, we were in this big jazz competition, and someone had ruined my reads, and Paul came in and saved the day. He's like, yeah, absolutely. Someone trashed all these bamboo reeds that they were all using.

Lauren Petrullo:
So I went to the store and grabbed. So, like, he took the offer and ran with it. We just didn't have the background or training. But since learning about some of those principles that allow someone to be successful in improv, I'm like, oh, thanks, mom and dad, for having a competitive environment in the household.

Mark Graban:
So you're an intuitive improv. Now the class is kind of solidifying some things you seem to have an instinct for.

Lauren Petrullo:
For some things, yes. For other things, it's solidifying. I don't have an instinct for.

Mark Graban:
Do you feel like, let me ask about mistakes, then. I mean, are there mistakes in improv? Or do you feel like, oh, I made a mistake there? Or, what's the attitude? Or, how do they teach you to think about or deal with mistakes?

Mark Graban:
In the Improv class, I love that.

Lauren Petrullo:
We'Re talking about this because I'm taking improv because my friends say in marketing, it's like, a really great way to be more creative and to explore these opportunities. Because what is a mistake in improv? The only mistake you can make in improv is rescinding your offer. So if you're, like, wishy washy or you lack the confidence in what you're putting out there, you're setting up your other partner for failure. And that's so true in all other aspects, too, with marketing campaigns or even just communication in general.

Lauren Petrullo:
If you invite someone to a date and then you're like, hey, do you want Chinese? Okay, we don't have to get chinese. You're like, but what? It's totally adaptable. Principles everywhere up.

Lauren Petrullo:
But in theory, the only mistake you can make is with sending an offer or if and when you are unaware of the age, maturity of the show. So there's, like, certain shows that are 16 plus. I'll throw that in for good measure.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So again, we're joined today Lauren Petrullo, of the different companies she has founded. One of them is Mongoose Media. I like to ask the story behind the name. Are there fun, made up stories about why it's mongoose media?

Lauren Petrullo:
It's not a fun, made up story. I mean, I like it. One of my brothers, Brendan, had told me that I had been in a previous employment where I found myself no longer in their employment. And some of the sales techniques and the industry that they were in was something like people would make relations to it being snake oil salesmen. And it's just a very specific industry that has tons of bad press.

Lauren Petrullo:
And being in this no longer employed situation, I felt a little bit down on myself, and I was like, all right, well, I don't want to apply for jobs, so I'm just going to make my own job. I don't want to do the job application process. And I told my brother I was thinking of Goldilocks marketing, because it just fits, right? Right? Not too strong, not too small.

Lauren Petrullo:
And he said, that's dumb. I was like, okay, so when my brother had said, that's a dumb idea. You need to take on something stronger. You're coming against these lines, these behemoths of marketing agencies. Like, I'm in Orlando, we have Disney and Universal, and the amount of qualified talent for marketing agencies is so ripe.

Lauren Petrullo:
He said, you need to have something that's stronger. And he said, mongoose can take on two snakes at a time. It can take on a lion, and it's this small little titan of an animal that can take on these really big projects. Thus, mongoose media was born.

Mark Graban:
So is the mongoose tougher than the honey badger, or is that not? I mean, that might be overdone. I wonder if people are naming companies after the honey badger.

Lauren Petrullo:
I think the honey badger lost his trend, but also, we were going for the alliteration of it. If we go based off of size, a mongoose is definitely smaller than a honey badger.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So the toughness per pound ratio is strong. Mongoose.

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah. Now I'm thinking I should have been like the ant because they can carry, like, some ridiculous size times their weight.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. And so when you talk about pack mates, is that the term for a group of. Is it monghese? Like, that gets complicated. Is it a pack of monghese?

Lauren Petrullo:
A pack of mongoose is like, you have a flock of. A flamboyant of flamingos, a murder of crows. You have a pack of mongoose.

Mark Graban:
And mongoose is the plural. Did I make a mistake in assuming the plural is monghse?

Lauren Petrullo:
If you look up multiple sources say it's mongoose. And mongoose. Yeah, I have a lip where it comes out, so I don't say monghse because it runs the risk. But, yeah, like, the mongoose. English is such, like, a fun language because octopi, octopus, but moose and mice.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. Well, there's some who say octopi isn't actually correct, that octopuses. There's debate about that or different sources. Maybe some of these sources are wrong. I'm not sure.

Lauren Petrullo:
I don't trust too much. I read on the Internet anymore, and I'm like, there's all these TikTok videos that will talk about these pieces. And I just go based off of what I've heard on Disney's animal kingdom, animal trek, and they'll be like, oh, look, a flamboyant of flamingos. I was like, that's the best group name after a murder of crows.

Mark Graban:
Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one for sure. So, Lauren, within the culture of Mongoose media, tell us more about celebrating failures or even as the founder and CEO, admitting mistakes, talking to your team about mistakes, can you talk about some of that dynamic? I know I kind of blurred a couple of questions together there.

Lauren Petrullo:
That's fine. As the founder and stuff, I like to set the tone at the very beginning of even in our hiring process. So we'll get a lot of enthusiastic individuals keen to join our pack, and I just have to make sure that we're transparent throughout. And I'm like, hey, look, this may be something you're new to, or at least our client type or our specific marketing campaign approach is new to you, that we expect you to fail. We want you to fail because you'll make mistakes.

Lauren Petrullo:
And I'm definitely going to make mistakes. So as the leader, I want you to have grace for me when I make mistakes, because I'm going to definitely have grace for you when you make those mistakes. So we do a lot of tone-setting in the beginning, and when we do celebrate the failures, we have our own fail channel on Slack. It's like, oh, hey, I uploaded this video onto YouTube and it generated a lot of attention, but I had listed for members only. And so it's like, okay, cool.

Lauren Petrullo:
First time I ever uploaded a long form video, I got this. This is what I learned from it. And it's like, amazing. I'm owning up to the mistakes. And we want to celebrate that significantly because it's way easier to not admit your mistake and then keep making the same mistake.

Lauren Petrullo:
So in the interview process, every Friday we have a meeting where we review ClickUp or we meet team members. We'll talk about some of the biggest failures that we had for the week. And part of that just comes from the philosophy that if you're going to make the mistake, we'll learn way more from it than if we don't make the mistake and just keep assuming that it's correct. So that's just been something that's been really helpful for us. And that grace period, as well for others, has allowed us to have retention for a lot of our PAC members that have been with us for over five years.

Mark Graban:
Yeah, well, I mean, imagine once they're in that kind of culture, it would be hard to imagine going back. If they've worked other places. They can probably see a pretty clear difference in your leadership mindsets and what they might have experienced before.

Lauren Petrullo:
Possibly. I'm sure it's different. We have individuals from five different continents, so there's also the interweaving of cultural, geographical, language differences that we can embrace and accept and accelerate and grow because the diversity of thought allows us to provide more unique perspectives to make an even better campaign. A lot of our marketing is to the United States, which has such a smorgasbord of people from all walks of life, that it's become a really great asset for us. And so I have heard, especially from foreigner team members, that that is not the standard or the generic assumption of what they have experienced on their cases.

Lauren Petrullo:
I can't speak for everyone at large, but at least for my style, it's helped me a lot because if I look at back to who I was when I first started, to who I am now, like, oh, gosh, wow, I learned a lot. And they equally gave me the grace to become a better leader.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. Like you said, I've ended up saying this a lot. We all make mistakes. What matters is learning from them. Or I've heard other people say making mistakes is not a choice, but learning from them is a choice leading in a way that creates the environment where people can learn.

Mark Graban:
I really appreciate it. I love hearing about how intentional you are about creating that and encouraging.

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah, thanks. Well, I mean, I think there's three categories that people can fall into when they make mistakes, and the fewest number of people that will own up to their mistake proactively and bring attention to it and then solve for it, is such a small minority that I try to make that the larger majority within the team, because most people will fall into the other two. They found out they made a mistake and they never bring it up, or they found out they made a mistake and someone else found out to it, then they'll apologize for it afterwards. So it's never apologize, apologize after, or proactively call themselves out. And I just want to be in a position because that's how I want to be treated.

Lauren Petrullo:
I know that's how our clients want to be treated. And of course, mistakes happen. Maybe a campaign budget had added an extra zero for two days, or a phone number was changed because we were using an outdated software or previous software the client's no longer using. And we didn't evaluate all 600 ads that were running at the moment. So in that same vein, we just want to preemptively say, like, oh, hey, yes, you're right, we do need to change that number.

Lauren Petrullo:
Or, hey, we were evaluating some of the emails that have been previously set up, and in this proactive stuff, we want to get some clarification. And before we make any changes, is this the correct workshop format or a master class format so that we assumed they were all correct before that was probably incorrect. Let's call it out now and have discourse together in a way that's proactive for the bottom.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So going back to what you said, Lauren, about categories of people, how much of a factor do you think of interviewing and selecting people with some of those characteristics during the hiring process and or the way you explain the culture and the mindsets and the expectations and kind of set them up as they start at.

Lauren Petrullo:
I mean, our interview process at Mongoose Media is entertaining, to say the least. We already know that I introduced myself in a wacky way, especially with my friend Paul, where we'll have playoff, or when I introduce myself in funny ways. And then I was so memorable that they forgot who I actually was. We have a process where if you're interested in a position that you have to send a 59 2nd or less video. If the video follows instructions, you'd tell us, if you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?

Lauren Petrullo:
If you pass that, then we invite you to an interview. The interview happens on our virtual office in our interview island. So we have this whole virtual office. Everyone has their own desk. We're all sitting in there.

Lauren Petrullo:
We can walk over to each other's desk. It's like a video game, a real life video game. And we give them this poem of how they can find how to get to interview island. They have at least four full days to find interview island. And we're very explicit.

Lauren Petrullo:
If you are late, if for some reason your camera or sound is not working, if any of that is not perfect, the second your interview starts, you'll automatically be disqualified. And so with that, we tell them, know, like, find the treasure map. It's exactly where you think it is. Anyone that's listening and is applying, spoiler alert. It's in the pirate room, right?

Lauren Petrullo:
There's a treasure chest and a map in the pirate room. You go interact with that, and it tells you how to get to interview island. And so what's been really great is we can see people moving around inside the office looking for interview island. We know that they're in the office early. We're trying to give the best simulation to an in person interview.

Lauren Petrullo:
Like, you go to the building 15 minutes early, find the door, which office do you get into? And the communication that they have before they even start it sets the tone of failure. We don't give them any restrictions. Some people will go ask some of the PAC members, hey, can you help me with this? Can I confirm that my microphone is on things of that nature?

Lauren Petrullo:
And it's like, oh, hey, it's not. Let me help you. It's okay. You failed independently. But part of that is just communication that's increasing and owning up to, I don't know how to do this.

Lauren Petrullo:
Would you help me? So, in our interview process, at least we do bring that to the table. But we also say very clearly, if you are late, if your technology is not set up for success, that's the only fail we don't give a second attempt on.

Mark Graban:
So, one other question. I wanted to ask you about some of the mindset around mistakes. We all make mistakes. You gave some examples here of adding a zero at the end of a budget limit for, let's say, some online advertising. That could be costly in the short term.

Mark Graban:
One thing I think is interesting to figure out is how do we learn early from a small mistake to prevent a large catastrophic mistake? Because I would say all mistakes aren't created equally. Like if somebody put a couple of extra zeros at the end of budget. Do you have any stories or experiences or even more broadly, thoughts about using small mistakes to prevent big ones?

Lauren Petrullo:
Sure. So things like in marketing, there's a lot of legal elements that go into it and proactive. You can invest twenty five cents a day to save $10 tomorrow. We have incorporated a stronger SoP structure, and we have checklists where if we find something that could have been a bigger error, we immediately make an SOP checklist. So now that library has grown significantly because we fail all the time.

Lauren Petrullo:
And the biggest is like, again, why we want to celebrate the failures, because that could have been way worse, adding a zero and catching it three days later. So we spent $500 a day instead of $50 a day. Yeah, that short term, like you said, we have almost like a month's worth of budget spent in three days. But imagine if we hadn't seen it for two weeks. We would have blown a larger spend of the campaign so that we can set those in.

Lauren Petrullo:
And so now, in that use case, we have someone double check every campaign before it goes live, so that we have a check and balances system in place. But I will say that that's unique for us, at least of our size. We work with over 30 Pac members, we have a large array of clients, and we're in a place where we have a QA team, we have QA processes in place. When you're a solopreneur or you're a team of under five, you, the owner, are the QA person. And that can be a lot because you have so many things flying at you.

Lauren Petrullo:
So having that QA opportunity in place is something we're really fortunate to have, that we've been able to expand. And I know that for us, at the next iteration is we would just have a dedicated QA team versus what we have as a backup for everyone, because also, that was something that we found without those sops in place. If someone was absent and not documenting it, that information retained inside their head, and if they were on vacation, those steps easily could get missed because that was something they learned, not as a team. So having this fail channel, everyone can be like, oh, yeah. Hey, remember when we said that the shorts need to have the title in both the description and the title repeated?

Lauren Petrullo:
Because I heard about this thing. It gives the team more ways to help, and we encourage asking help. And that's what our virtual office allows. You walk over to desks all the time.

Mark Graban:
Wow. So when you talk about virtual office for normal work days or even the interviewing, there's a certain tech platform you're using for that.

Lauren Petrullo:
It's called gather town, and it's free for the first ten people. And then you pay virtual rent. And we paid virtual rent because our team is so large. And I will say that the free tool is incredible. Everyone sits at the desk.

Lauren Petrullo:
You just have it open in another tab, and then I can walk over to your desk, ring the bell, and then we can start a conversation. It's helped us eliminate slack. I don't even have slack on my phone anymore. And slack is such, like an interrupted place. It's the worst for documenting anything.

Lauren Petrullo:
We use it for celebrating the failures. But if you're talking about a task or you're trying to keep track of different conversations, people can be in slack for 2 hours versus this is a five minute conversation. Let me walk over to your desk again to simulate what we could in the in person world virtually. But I will say gather town. Really great tool.

Lauren Petrullo:
I couldn't believe how much our team adopted to it. Everyone decorated their own desks. I'm like a minimalist to the online space. I had someone on the team decorate the desk for me, but the whole office right now is decorated for the fall. There are pumpkins everywhere.

Lauren Petrullo:
People leave Valentine's notes during the holidays. And so it's just all those warm and fuzzies that you get that in a lot of virtual teams is totally.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. Oh, cool. So, Lauren, you describe mongoose Media as the only advertising hospital. It's trademarked the TM. Think of healthcare analogies.

Mark Graban:
Are people coming to you with marketing pain, whether that's caused by curious, like, do you go through a process of diagnosis and maybe there's some pain relief and then some treatment and some education?

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah, we have full on marketing rehab to marketing reconstructive surgery. So we'll have people that are just, like, bleeding out. Right? A lot of ad accounts will come to us. Like, I am just bleeding out.

Lauren Petrullo:
I need to burn the end and stop this or I'm going to die. Like, their small business is going to come out. And then we do have others that have a really strong offer that has traditionally or in the past done well on one channel and they're looking to expand or they're looking to flex their budget a little bit more. So we'll do these kind of like, marketing rehab. Like, we're going to strengthen the muscle so that you can lift more weight with the current ad spend campaign.

Lauren Petrullo:
And then, like, the reconstructive surgeries, we're like, what happened with this branding? This is no obvious audience. This isn't a sexy offer. We needed to go in and it's going to be six months of bruised noses, marks all over your face. You're going to come out and be your brand 2.0.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So when you talk about the need for marketing rehab, are there times, let's say, a CEO or a chief marketing officer comes to you? And they're like, look, we need help. But then if there's people on their team who are in denial about the need for rehab, like, do you need to do an intervention or do you ever have to convince people you might be making some mistakes, there might be some things that you can actually touch up?

Lauren Petrullo:
I think a lot of the time the best language is, like, that really worked before the pandemic or that really worked during the pandemic, and those are atypical experiences, like, during the pandemic. And then in this new post Covid reality of what's available in the marketing solutions, laws have significantly changed. And it's just that it's not that they're necessarily wrong, it's just it's become antiquated and it's not necessarily optimized. And we will have that friction often with the sales team because marketing and sales, by nature, will clash. Marketing will say, you're not contacting the leads.

Lauren Petrullo:
Sales will say, these aren't good leads. Everyone wants to defer blame. But I think where a lot of that will go in is, at least for our approach, when someone hires us as their agency, we don't take clients that want a variety of services for anything less than a year contract. We don't want brands that are looking to do something for 90 days, six months. Like a year is too short.

Lauren Petrullo:
We're looking for multi year engagements. Because when you think about rehab, if you've been in a major car accident, you're not going to be able to walk immediately. Within a month, you might be in the hospital for six months rehabilitating, and then you're still on a crutch for another six months. So what will come in is we're by no means trying to replace any type of work. What we're looking for is the immediate atypical growth.

Lauren Petrullo:
What levers can we pull from? We work with clients that are spending millions of dollars a month in ads. What can we leverage from what's working from them and apply it to your business so that we can have that atypical because we do have a six month opt out and we don't want you to be in a six month opt out. So we want to generate the most amount of impact immediately. And so when people come on to our engagements, it's kind of like, well, are you going to replace my job?

Lauren Petrullo:
It's like, no, we're just going to ten exit what you're already doing. You just need to be aware of like, this can put you into potential meta jail. This can expose you to a really big lawsuit. Or hey, you have a chat bot on your website right now. It's akin to wiretapping.

Lauren Petrullo:
So if you have a chat bot, let's explore and make sure that we have pieces in place so that you're collecting the data appropriately. You're leveraging the data you're collecting because a lot of it is just like you're sitting on all this gold. What you're doing is great, but 10% more can make. You can go from a five figure month to a six figure month with minimal changes in your business.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So one other phrase, informal title, maybe a fun title. So there's, first off, the healthcare analogy, but then there's this other phrase, the destruction queen. Tell us about why you embrace that. What does that mean?

Mark Graban:
What does that mean to you and to your clients?

Lauren Petrullo:
For the most part, in the simplest of terms, like, I will tell someone their baby is ugly, I'm not at all the one who birthed this child. I am not the one that owns it, but I'm the one that has major campaigns. I've worked with huge universities, the Walt Disney company, and other Fortune 500 brands, as well as small businesses that we've grown from six figures to eight figures in a few years. So I'll call it out. And I think a lot of that has just come from like, hey, you're paying me for my expertise, not for placating.

Lauren Petrullo:
And so you're not going to like a lot of what I have to say. And it all comes down to two quintessential things. Do you have a sexy offer for an obvious audience? If those two things aren't true, you do not have a predictable, profitable business. So I'll go in and be like, hey, you may tell me, everyone loves my product.

Lauren Petrullo:
Everyone knows about my product. This is the bees knees. And I'll just be honest, I've never heard about it before, or nothing about your marketing says that. It's very obvious you have all people from different walks of life, like, who is your target customer? And I do it in a more aggressive way than I think a lot of my competitors.

Lauren Petrullo:
And it's just like, we have to break things down so we can build up appropriately. And it's a fresh perspective because I think there happens to be a lot more placating and just saying, like, you can do it. Let's make this. I'm like, no way. You just spent $100,000 on this campaign.

Lauren Petrullo:
Literally, you said this is for podcasters. There's not one single podcasting piece of equipment on any of your ads.

Mark Graban:
Yeah.

Lauren Petrullo:
What?

Mark Graban:
Yeah. Is there kind of a filtering or is there a process where in a way, you're interviewing clients, where you're giving them some of this unvarnished feedback and if they don't like it, they can go find a placator as opposed to being happier working with you and your approach.

Lauren Petrullo:
So I like to say I'm always going to be like, be obnoxiously you because it comes back to sexy offer for an obvious audience. My obvious audience is someone that is ready to vibe with the truth and the experience. So if that is off putting, and it can be, and that's totally fine. I'm really polarizing in this sense, and that just makes it easier. I'm qualifying my leads and the relationship, because if that's something you're like, I'm not ready for this, or we have.

Lauren Petrullo:
Look, you can make the excuses, that's fine, but I'm still going to charge you. And I don't think it's in your best interest to pay me for our marketing efforts if you're just going to keep coming up with the excuses. I don't want to work with people that aren't looking for a multi year engagement kind of situation, especially for the bigger capacity, like for when you hire us as an agency, you're getting my head and my team's hands, so we'll get in there. But my head isn't going to change and say, like, okay, you don't want to change the home page. This is getting 80% of your traffic.

Lauren Petrullo:
It's not converting at the moment. That's just irresponsible spending on your side. So I will put it to the lead qualification of by not taking this, you're missing out an x amount of money. If you know that you can change this landing page, it should start generating $10,000 a month. Your delay is costing you $300 to $500 a day.

Mark Graban:
Yeah.

Lauren Petrullo:
If that's something that's not important to you, then you don't have an urgent need to hire us.

Mark Graban:
Yeah, filtering and qualification can be really helpful in your bio. There's a lot of fun things in the bio. You use the word obnoxious and we're having a fun conversation. You're not up to me. You're not being obnoxious, but you're not pushing me on some of my marketing problems.

Mark Graban:
But the other fun thing in your bio, I just want to hear kind of the story behind this. Dare to be vulgar, refuse to be boring.

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah, boring stuff doesn't get noticed. It's a very saturated market. Like, you have to break above the noise. A lot of people will come to us specifically for interruptive marketing techniques. So things in social media, you don't have inbound people that are actively looking for a pen with a comfortable grip.

Lauren Petrullo:
Right. We're getting in front of individuals, presenting them with a sexy offer, and because they're the obvious audience, they're going to want to raise their hands and engage further. If you refuse to be boring, you have the opportunity to interrupt. We live in a community where, yes, everyone talks about this nat personality. Like, oh, we change our attention every 5 seconds.

Lauren Petrullo:
Right, the attention span of the Nat. But I contradict that because we also live in a binge consumption society where people will watch 31 hours of Netflix a week, they'll watch six seasons of the same show in a matter of a few weeks. We want to consume, even if you're podcasting, like, you'll have the podcast on back and forth. People will listen to 2 hours of a Joe Rogan contest. Joe Rogan Podcast we're not in an attention economy where you have attention a, you have to design for second zero, and you have to sustain their attention for 5 seconds because if you can hook them in, you may have them for life.

Lauren Petrullo:
So I think if you refuse to be boring, you have the opportunity to capitalize on an area that most people aren't doing well. When people are like, oh, it's like red ocean on Facebook, or it's red ocean on Google. It's so expensive for certain keywords. Again, I refute that because it's a blue ocean. And I got this from Roberto Blake.

Lauren Petrullo:
If you can show up on these four things, it's a blue ocean because no one else is doing it, or at least not enough of a competition to really say red ocean. And as long as you provide high quality, high value, high consistency and high effort, you will win.

Mark Graban:
Yeah, well, thank you for not being boring. To be vulgar to where I need to mark the episode with the explicit or bleeping something out would take some work. But maybe one other question for you, Lauren. Whether it's bots or otherwise, as AI is getting incorporated into work in different ways, what are some of the new mistakes that people might make incorporating AI into marketing or advertising?

Lauren Petrullo:
Great question. For us, at least. We've been using AI for several years, and so when Chat GPT blew up, we're like, great, welcome to the new world, where have you been? But I think a lot of people use AI as like a shiny object. And they weren't thinking of AI as incorporation, but they were thinking AI as replacement.

Lauren Petrullo:
We've been able to ten x our productivity rate. We've been able to 400 x our team's return rate for some of our other projects, like 400 x. Investment with the AI tools that we incorporate has had a significant impact on our business. But where people are making the mistakes is they're assuming AI is perfect. It's the worst it's ever going to be.

Lauren Petrullo:
From this day forward, every day it gets better. But when you can interweave AI, you can go from just a good marketer to an incredible marketer. So if you are going to lean on only AI, you're going to be boring and you're going to be the same as everyone else. If you can interweave AI like a recipe or the way I describe it is like legos, you can use AI to build a castle that is an awesome place to interact with, or you can just build the same set that everyone else is creating because you bought the Legos that you don't have any imagination. And that's going to work a little bit, but not long term.

Lauren Petrullo:
It's not going to build the habits you need. So you want to layer AI in to make your processes better. And if someone's using blogs, we've grown websites to over 100,000 organic visitors a month using blogs. With AI, we totally have an SoP on that. Just send me a message on Mongoosemedia us.

Lauren Petrullo:
We'll give you our SOP. It's like 25 pages, but I would say incorporating it as one. A second mistake is that people aren't using AI as a webhook, so they're limiting AI to just. It can create an image or can create a piece of content. The mistake is that AI can be a lot more powerful in terms of using their open AI tool so that you can have it expand into businesses, so that you can build thoughtful marketing campaigns.

Lauren Petrullo:
In a way, I think people are honestly like, they're kindergartners and this is collegiate level stuff, and they're expecting to only attend a nap class and become experts. It's a tool. You need to learn it like you learned Adobe or meta ads or the Google Ads network. And then the third thing I would say is, just on the legal standpoint, you can't assume that you own everything created with AI. You have to have a human intervention.

Lauren Petrullo:
And I'm not a lawyer, but Sid Mobley is a great lawyer who's really following all the stuff related to AI. She's been presenting stuff that this most recent artist lost all IP rights for creating an image with mid journey, doing a little bit of Photoshop to it.

Mark Graban:
She doesn't own it anymore because there wasn't enough intervention.

Lauren Petrullo:
Correct.

Mark Graban:
Not enough human hand involved.

Lauren Petrullo:
Yeah. AI is not considered a tool. Mid journey specifically is not a tool. So anything that you're using with AI to best protect your assets or stuff you're making for clients, you need to have the human interaction or intervention piece so that it's a unique created piece of work.

Mark Graban:
Wow. Thanks for all those tips. And we can try to help people avoid some mistakes, but otherwise follow Lauren's lead and learning from those mistakes. I really appreciate you sharing all of that today. So again, we've been joined by Lauren Petrullo.

Mark Graban:
She has started companies including Mongoose Media. And then as we wrap up here, there's a 20% discount code available for you@asianbeautiesentials.com. Use the code mistakes at checkout. Tell us real quickly about that company. Is that a company?

Mark Graban:
That's a way for you to practice and use your own marketing methodologies, or is there a different origin story to that?

Lauren Petrullo:
Great. Well, there's a fun origin story to it, but at the essential, we're an advertising hospital. It's our in house residency program. We don't put any PAC members on client work until they've proven process in one of our internal companies. So we have quite a few.

Lauren Petrullo:
And so that just becomes the working ground of, you know, it's where we make the most, you know, it's fun. It's a lot of korean japanese skincare and beauty products. So for those that are listening that make the mistake of not washing your face at least once a like we got you, there's a lot of great stuff we can help you with.

Mark Graban:
Okay, so it's beauty essentials from Asia. Don't make the mistake of thinking they're beauty essentials only for.

Lauren Petrullo:
Correct, correct. Actually, the large majority of our customers are women of color that spend, from ivory through ebony, the full range of individuals.

Mark Graban:
Okay, something for everybody. Everyone's welcome@asianbeautiesentials.com. Lauren, it's been great welcoming you here to the podcast. Thank you so much for sharing. Not just your favorite mistake story and your learning, but it's great to hear about what you're doing as a leader in building the culture.

Mark Graban:
So thank you so much for sharing all of that.

Lauren Petrullo:
Oh, thanks, Mark. I had a lot of fun.

Mark Graban:
Good. We aim to do that right. We were going to have a fun time. I think we did.

Lauren Petrullo:
I mean, at work, we always say work isn't always fun. We know this. But it doesn't always have to be boring.