We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Krailo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.

Lauren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Be prepared for my idea dump here. No perfect AI revisions from my friend Chat GPT, just good ole ADHD brain thinking about how to make this raw for your listeners!

My entire life has been about taking risks. I’ve never been one that was able to conform with authority. Growing up in a military home with traditional views, I wanted to be anything but fit into that basket. From an early age, I knew that I wanted to be different. I didn’t want to “traditional”. I wanted to be a risk taker. So naturally, I had to do all the things that would set me apart.

As a female living in the south, having tattoos is so taboo, so of course, I decided one day I’d be covered in them (somewhat). Being a female gym rat where you want to lift more than the guys, also a little “strange”… had to shoot for that one too. Quitting your big girl, full-time country club event management job to jump off a cliff and start a LinkedIn Marketing Agency for people in construction (who don’t adapt well to new technology for the life of them) with a full set of bills to pay… also, a little risky.

Now, there’s people out there who have an insane run of it, who have moved more, who have lifted heavier, who have started more businesses… but this is my little risk taking story.

I went to two different elementary schools, two different middle schools, and two different high schools, so I really learned how to adapt to new people and new places. This volume of transition can really force you learn how to talk to people and how to communicate. You learn that to really advance in business in life, you have to master the art of people.

I’ve always known that I was meant to make an impact on people. I was meant to stand in front of insanely large rooms and talk about something. Not sure what that something is yet, but I’ll continue to take risks until I get there.

I started Krailo Socials as a way to escape the repetitive reality of the ‘rat race’ of life. I didn’t want to look back in 30 years and see all of the growth that I had provided for another company. Without knowing it, I was trying to fulfill my “why” (impact). Krailo Socials started as a way for me to make money and quickly became the rocket ship that was going to launch me into making an impact across hundreds of businesses in some way, shape, or form, and as a way for me to restore autonomy on my life. To me the benefits way outweighed the risk.

As many business owners do in the beginning, I started with the plan to take every social media client that I could take. I wanted to make the most out of what I was doing, and never shut down an opportunity. As I progressed along in the business I realized that for me, I needed to really set myself in a niche to be successful (oh, and pick a platform because learning it all is impossible – Jack of All Trades, Master of None). That was another risk. And of course I had to pick the hardest industry (construction) and one of the ‘non trendy’ platforms at the time (LinkedIn) to migrate into. The idea is solid, and in theory it’s a wonderful world of possibility, but there’s not a whole lot of competition for a reason. It’s honestly hard to convince these guys to move from ‘old’ tech and businesses development methods. But my goodness were doing it.

When I look around and I take a second to evaluate everything that I have done from leaving the comfort of a country club job to the crazy stress and uncomfort of owning a business. It’s hard to get away from the idea that I want to keep taking risks. I want to keep shooting for things that aren’t typically within reach, such as aiming to have 500 people nominate your company—despite it being in the area for less than a year—to receive a local award to be one of the best marketing agencies locally.

Risks are just that, they’re risky. But somebody’s going to take them. That somebody’s going to be me. That somebody could also be you (if we want to get motivational – but its SO TRUE). I do this because one day I’m not going to look back on life and see that my journey stopped at the risk that I wasn’t willing to jump on.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My company, Krailo Socials works primarily with businesses in the commercial construction space to help them generate business, build relationships, and increase their top line revenue off of LinkedIn.

We are a done-for-you, LinkedIn marketing agency that handles the management of your company LinkedIn page doing everything from posting all the way to managing the ad campaigns.

Since the companies we work for are businesses that are selling to other businesses (b2b companies), we use LinkedIn as a way for them to get in front of the right connections and build relationships with them. This increases our clients visibility among the right people which in return increases their credibility, and in super return, benefits them in business, whether that’s from new relationships or from making sales directly.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I would be remiss if I didn’t answer this one! Hands-down LinkedIn.

We use this platform to connect with our current customers as well as people in our network. The majority of the people that we communicate with on this platform are not even prospects, but rather people that have met us at some point and support the idea of what we’re doing. These types of connections really aid in brand loyalty because if you nurture the relationship with these people, they can end up being referral partners or just avid supporters of your work, which to me is the definition of successful brand loyalty.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Wow. I can truly pick any other question, but this one really stood out to me. It didn’t stand out because I want to give you the answer to it, it stood out because this is such a REAL topic.

Pretty much the entire year of 2024 I was ready to give up. I had enough. I was beat down and exhausted. I’ve spent over half of my work week, networking and building relationships with people. I’d spent the remainder of my time trying to manage my team, streamline operations, find ways to be more efficient, improve our services, keep our clients happy, try and find new clients, and sell other ones. – All while putting every dime back into the business and not making a paycheck. Despite all my efforts, there were no new movements. Clients were not coming in the door as fast as I thought they should and nothing exciting was happening. As I looked around exciting things were happening for other people. Yes I know, comparison is a thief of joy, but when you work so hard at something, it is indescribably challenging when it isn’t working out like you wanted to.

The frustration of all this kept building, so I sought advice from another business owner. But they were far ahead of me in their career and weren’t really receptive to my questions about handling the stress of this situation. I wanted to know how they managed their stress, how they overcame the frustration, and how they climbed out of the hole.

I just wanted to know I wasn’t alone.

It’s a hard question to ask, especially when you’re deep in the weeds. It’s one thing to reflect on this question when you’re successful; it’s another to share your thoughts while you’re still in the middle of it. I’ve had my come-to-Jesus moment, and I’ve decided I will not quit my business—life will have to quit me first. But there are still plenty of moments when giving up feels logical, even reasonable.

To me, though, those moments are an invitation to take more risks, to put myself out there even more—because at some point, something has to work beyond how I imagined it would.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.krailosocials.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/comm/mynetwork/discovery-see-all?usecase=PEOPLE_FOLLOWS&followMember=lauren-krailosocialsmarketing

Image Credits

Josh Boone (Annual YP Summit) – www.joshboonephotography.com/
Joseph Cloonan Owner of – Lifemarksmedia.com