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

Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

On February 20, 2015, I was diagnosed with stage 3, triple positive breast cancer and discovered I was positive for the BRCA gene. I went through it all, fertility preservation, chemotherapy, hair loss, breast surgery, radiation and reconstruction. Fast forward to 2019. We welcomed our beautiful baby girl in June of 2018 after 2 years of working with a fertility clinic and surrogacy agency. After a failed transfer and growing more embryos holding our daughter in our arms was the most beautiful blessing. We had our baby so why wasn’t my bucket completely full. I had started therapy, I was still having follow up appointments with my oncologist, but I was still feeling grief, loss and hurt. Truthfully, I’m not completely sure what made me start writing, but I was compelled to start writing about what I had just been through. A year after I completed treatment, I had 2 friends who received breast cancer diagnoses. I shared resources that I had discovered, programs that I had chosen to experience and products that helped provide me with comfort. Many of these resources, programs and products were founded on my own at the time of my treatment mainly because I didn’t know anyone else that had been through what I was experiencing. I decided it was time to share my story and talk about being a young adult cancer survivor.

This space became Liv & Let- Thriving Through Breast Cancer (LivandLet.com). It started as a blog and then expanded to include a community calendar, a resource library as well as product recommendations. Liv and Let is dedicated to giving strength and hope to those affected by breast cancer- previvors, survivors and caregivers. By nurturing and providing comprehensive knowledge, the hope is to provide individualized support as well as essential items to thrive through treatment and survivorship.

While deep in conversation with my husband on a bench in a Chicago suburb forest a year later, I came to the realization that I could help other warriors receive the support I felt I didn’t have access to while going through treatment. A natural gift giver and having a passion for giving back, I launched Giv by Liv & Let in the middle of 2020. Giv by Liv & Let assembled personalized curated caring crates created with love and thought for loved ones who are thriving through cancer. Each “build your own” lux crate was beautifully packaged with hand selected items to provide each individual and recipient with love, care and support. I tend to lean towards practical gifts when it comes to gifting, so I wanted it to be the same here. I believe in making sure that whatever I give is not just thoughtful but also useful.

Each personalized crate I put together was filled with items that would support each recipient through each stage, but also customized to the colors, scents or other details the recipient favored. I prioritized small businesses started by women as well as cancer survivors. Who better than to source a product from for a cancer patient than from a cancer survivor! After receiving an inquiry requesting a gift, I connected 1:1 with the gift giver to discuss the diagnosis and current stage of treatment as well as what the recipient enjoyed, hobbies, favorite colors or smells or even sensitivities. I had the experience with cancer, but they knew their friend or family member. Taking in all of this information I would curate 2-3 suggestions with pricing and photos for the customer to select the final items that would be wrapped in a basket with filler and ribbon.

We created gifts for survivors, previvors, caregivers, and family members. The most fun was when survivors have shopped for themselves telling me they deserved to feel good, be comfortable and taken care of. As a few more forms or inquiries would come from customers saying they wanted to get something for themselves I decided that the products needed to be available in a shop. I was familiar with some nonprofit organizations putting together chemo kits or care crates, but with repeat items. I received a few of these boxes and it made me feel thought of and cared for. How was I going to do this differently? Well, I already was doing it differently and that was by customizing each gift. I sourced products that I believed would support the journey beyond treatment as well. This is when I started to take the backend inventory system and bring it to the forefront. The one concern was would it be user friendly, and would customers come!

I had received an order one day and I was so excited because they had found me by using google. The one issue was that I didn’t have anything pre-made and the customer wanted it to get ordered and quickly delivered. This isn’t what my service was. I wanted to focus on the recipient and curate something special for just them! I began to think about what I could do to shape Giv into what I wanted it to be but also what customers would enjoy. This is when the redesign began!

Around this time, I had been putting a lot of focus on myself and care, taking a more holistic approach. I found a new therapist whose clinical focus was just what I needed, I started doing acupuncture and I started communicating more about the need for “me” time. I’ve said many times that survivorship has been the hardest part of cancer and I still believe that. It’s been 9 years since being diagnosed with breast cancer and it’s not until now, after the year of treatment, the grieving, the loss and pain that I finally see the importance of self-care. Not only should Giv be for those impacted by cancer, but for all who are looking to show their body kindness and love inside and out at all stages of life. Other than the nonprofit organizations that I found sending chemo packages, happy crates or pretty boxes, there were only a few providing essential products to support cancer patients all in a one-stop shop. I also found that there were many shops carrying clean skin care, but what about organic cotton pajamas or clean flavored water packets? Not only do I want Giv to be a place to shop for a gift, but also for someone to shop for themselves everyday especially in survivorship. Reducing your risk and early detection is something that I focus on in Liv and Let. Putting clean and natural products in and on your body is a part of this. Since its inception, Giv has provided about 60 crates to warriors, thrivers and caregivers.
As a part of Giv’s ongoing mission and effort to create space and empower others impacted by breast cancer, a percentage of proceeds from the Giv Shoppe will be donated to charities empowering the breast cancer, cancer and mental health communities. We are curating bundles and premade gifts that will directly support a chosen organization donating a percentage back from the purchase.

Beyond the yearly giving initiative, Giv Shoppe looks for opportunities to bring love, support and delight to one individual a month by sending a donated care kit to a nominated member or partner of the breast cancer, mental health and Liv & Let communities.

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

I am a stay at home mom to two beautiful kids – a 5.5 year old girl, Matilda and almost 1 year old baby boy, Milo, I grew up in the west suburbs of Chicago, went to school in Ohio and lived in New York City for years with my now husband before moving to Chicago. We now live in a north suburb of Chicago. I enjoy walking or riding my bike through nature. One of my biggest passions outside of my kids is music, playing the piano and guitar. Another passion is being on or in the water – surfing, SUP, swimming, you name it. Anything with music and water is my happy place!

I got into this space after my breast cancer diagnosis. I started to share my story through Liv & Let, my blog about my breast cancer story. It started as an info hub and then I branched into curating care crates for those impacted by cancer. Getting to where I’m at right now has taken baby steps. I purchased “Blogging for Dummies” having no idea what blogging really was. When someone would ask me what I was doing I had a tough time saying I was writing a blog, because I wasn’t a writer. Well, that’s what I thought. I kept writing as well as researching. I started to organize a list of resources that I had heard were available, but I never knew about. As I was doing this, I started to come across businesses owned by women survivors, many of them survivors of breast cancer. I found a business creating bras, one sewing turbans, another designing lounge and robes, another mixing skincare, a doctor building a brand to support women undergoing breast surgery and so on. Why was I just now finding these businesses? I’m sure they were making a name for themselves, but I also wanted to share what they were doing. I started sending emails and letters to the founders and creators saying I wanted to partner with them and put their products in care crates for those impacted by breast cancer. Of the 50+ businesses I connected with there were just a handful that said no thank you. The remainder were on board from the beginning and I’m so grateful they gave this very inexperienced breast cancer survivor the chance to take my idea and move forward.

Truthfully, I had no clue what the next best step was, but I was confident in sharing my story and emphasizing my idea of curating gifts with thoughtful and usable items for stages of treatment as well as for caregivers and those who had lost someone. So many times, I would have someone ask, what should I do for my loved one. It’s not an easy task for someone who has not been through the experience of being diagnosed with cancer to understand or know what the best way is to show love and support. I wanted to be able to be a resource for them as a survivor and work together to curate something special for them, bringing them comfort and knowing they weren’t alone. I started to get businesses on board so now what did I do with the inventory that I was ordering. I started researching inventory programs, shopping platforms and ways to start spreading the word. I slowly got the back end of the shopping platform set up with inventory tallying up. I had a creative background, but did I know enough to start selling? When I first started, I wasn’t in it for the money. I wanted to be able to donate a care crate once a month and then commit to donating a monetary amount at the end of each year to a charity in the cancer and mental health space. I knew I deserved to make some sort of profit, so I opened up social media accounts and started sharing via these platforms. I would soon find out many of my sales would come from word of mouth, with a few from Google searches.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned how wellness and mindfulness are so important in self care. One of the things I was told in my survivorship meeting was to lessen my stress levels. How was I going to do that? I began focusing on healing holistically and it’s been an amazing shift. Not only did I want the shop to specialize in cancer care, but I wanted to share items to provide self-care! Not only was I prioritizing woman and survivor founded but clean, natural, and comfortable! There are many ways to provide our bodies and minds with selfcare as well as reduce risk for serious illnesses. What we put in and on our bodies is a start. I had found businesses with skincare, accessories, hydration products, but I wanted to get them all in one shoppe.

Giv will always specialize and pay it forward to the cancer communities, curating care crates. I also want to make sure it’s known that the shoppe not only curates gifts but every day wellness products to support self-care and reducing risk. We source lounge, bath and body, hair, hydration, jewelry, treatment care and more.

Our focus is on items supporting wellness to attain better physical and mental health outcomes so that instead of just surviving you’re thriving! We believe it’s important during cancer treatment but also in survivorship and everyday life to pursue activities, chooses and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health! It’s not easy, but if you put the work into it and have the space and support, it’s not unachievable.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I started shifting the blog I was writing to become an info hub for those impacted by cancer- previvors, survivors and caregivers I started to come across other organizations that were catering to these groups as well. I wasn’t familiar with any organization that acknowledged all who were impacted and sure enough now that I was trying to support these groups there were others who were seeing this open space. I started to get tough on myself that I hadn’t gotten all my ducks in a row soon enough, but over time I’ve learned to not compare myself to other organizations that might have other resources or backgrounds. I was doing this on my own and I should show myself some grace. It’s not easy to take an idea and move forward with it. It was going to take time especially when I had other projects going on in my home and family life. I’ve learned that when the timing is right, you’ll get to where you need to be and the right clients will come to you. When the care crate service started and I was spreading the word, the same thing happened, and I started seeing marketing places being created to support the cancer community. Again, I was hard on myself, but I reminded myself that it took time for followers to find Liv & Let. When they did it was a beautiful moment. A beautiful girl from Missouri found my story and she and I have been connected since that day. A now friend found Giv and has chosen to gift to her friends and family using Giv’s concierge service. It brings tears to my eyes to have her support! We had met at a breast cancer community function. She found me on social media, remembering me from the breast cancer community event and chose to support my small business.

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

It may not be for everyone, but for me holistic health has provided support through mind and body healing. Holistic health is an approach to wellness that simultaneously addresses the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual components of health. Since Liv & Let focuses on mental and emotional and Giv on the physical and social I feel that providing care and support with close communication and connection is important. I send monthly newsletters as well as connect via social media. I also have an open door for anyone to reach out at any time and ask questions or ask for support. I also have researched outside of the vendors I have partnerships with to find items to support customers in need. Many who have reached out through email, curated a gift or purchased products have kept in touch. We are a small but mighty community. I will continue to provide ways for those who find Giv, ways to make good choices for themselves, their lifestyles and those they want to send a gift to. Wellness is the active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health. All of this can lead to a better you! It’s not easy, but if you put the time and work into it, I’ll be well worth it! I’ve been able to get there slowly over the past 8 years and I want to help others who are interested in doing that as well, caring for the whole person!

Contact Info:

• Website: givshoppe.com
• Instagram: givshoppe
• Facebook: givshoppe

Image Credits
Erin Konrath