We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Lynch Wemple recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

As an undergraduate student at Villanova University, I studied Art History. To rewind a bit, I was a Biology major and planned to become a dermatologist (very interesting transition, I know), but while studying abroad in London, England my Junior year of college, I had the opportunity to ditch chem lab and ended up at an internship working in the curatorial department of the Royal College of Physicians – after a few weeks working alongside historians, conservators, researchers and archivists, I decided to never, ever step foot in a science lab again.

Fast forward to post college, my first job was in China which led to Washington DC where I ended up in enterprise sales at a SaaS start up, a few years later I found myself hooked on tech and at another startup, this time in San Francisco. Come 2020, we’re mid pandemic and I decided to depart tech to build a menswear business with my brother, which resulted in a move to New York City and later my family’s hometown of San Diego, CA. Across each of these career shifts and many geographical relocations, one thing remained the same: I continued to be completely obsessed with art and history. When I lived in DC, I spent my mornings at the National Mall, enjoying the bulky collection that woven together is the Smithsonian, in NYC I sought out gallery openings and artists to speak with, while in San Francisco, my happiest moments were spent wandering around the de Young or Legion of Honor or at the Opera House. I never stopped being curious about why each city looks the way it does or the people who built its streets. While I departed the art world professionally, my Art History degree gave me one of my most treasured gifts as an adult: perspective, specifically the understanding that perspective is something we must constantly earn.

Two years ago, while on a flight from NYC to San Diego, I made my love of history and art official and started writing 21st & 18th, a twice weekly Newsletter in which I aim to time travel, musing on culture specifically covering art, history and fashion. Over the last couple of years, I’ve interviewed curators at top museums and institutions across the USA, highlighted local writers, professors and art critics amplifying contemporary artists and building up students, my curiosity has brought me into the back corridors of iconic places like the Breakers of the Newport Mansions or inside the Chief Curator’s brain at the Huntington Library, I’ve even uncovered aristocratic Austrian family lineage torn apart by Nazi Germany through research and study of heirloom silver service. 21st & 18th is the culmination of my study of Art History and a number of persisting cultural obsessions, in the 21st & 18th universe I ask questions of the people I most admire or always dreamt of meeting, peer into the archive of fashion collections, uncover the stories behind antiques and who made them and constantly toy with the question: Do I actually wish I were born in another time period? It’s a journey with no end in sight, which may seem daunting to some, but for me, it’s the challenge giving me hope, because we can’t understand ourselves or those around us without understanding where we came from.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

It was a blessing to begin my career working in the curatorial departments of museums in London, England and Changzhou, China, because I learned how to think, solve problems and tell stories. I then turned those skills into a high achieving career spent in enterprise sales at SaaS companies and tech startups, where my ability to story tell morphed into negotiating, managing a team and building long term, high value partnerships with strategic customers. Working in sales revved up my competitive engines and reminded me why I loved being on sports teams, good people make us better, especially in the workplace. After my time spent in technology, I was ready to bet on myself and build something I believed in and ended up building a menswear business at the intersection of surf and skate with my brother. Building a brand, managing inventory and a warehouse and sculpting our customer experience was the challenge I needed coming from tech – I got to use my hands, talk to thousands of customers, build physical product and share it with people globally through our in-house distribution and national retail partners, like Nordstrom. I learned a great deal about building fast growing retail brands alongside an authentic community of customers, but almost four years in, I realized I was building my brother’s dream, not mine. After a difficult decision, I left the company to build my own brand, focusing on what I love most: culture, people and business efficiency. Over the last 10 months, I’ve launched a production agency, 18 c., where my team and I produce content and luxury events, we focus on story telling, context and experience – we produce everything from short form video for brands, imagery with media partners and multi-day weddings and events. Alongside my work at 18 c., I write and produce 21st & 18th, my twice weekly Newsletter reporting on the pulse of culture today and across history.

As I look back on my career and accomplishments to date, I’m most proud of my ability to change and shape shift. My first job brought me to China, I’ve changed industries, mastered an incredible amount of roles and helped build several businesses from the ground and in some cases past their first $100 million, across all of this I’ve set aside my fears and jumped, “building the plane while flying” as they say. While I love change, I’m looking forward to committing to 18 c. and 21st & 18th in this next chapter and building something lasting and inspiring to people.

Any advice for managing a team?

Be the person you would choose to follow. For me this starts with leading by example. I learned this in high school while serving on our Associated Student Body, if you don’t embody the values your waxing poetic about you can’t expect others to espouse them when you ask. I’ve also found that anytime I feel stuck while coaching an employee, helping a sales rep hone their pitch or understanding where a customer is coming from, it never fails to return to basics, either tackling the problem with a teammate, asking your customer what they want as a resolution – efficient problem solving while involving the other party who might believe their voice doesn’t carry any weight.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

With social media connecting everyone globally we will always be learning how to optimize a new app or channel or tracking content conversion, and while this can seem daunting it’s a great reminder that our social media content must be as unique as each of us.

21st & 18th’s mission is to time travel and find enlightenment along the way, how do I do this? I write and research and interview experts but I also create vignettes, revisiting past fashions, trends, historical figures and art by interpreting these motifs through imagery and video. Our team produces photo content to accompany our cultural journalism with the goal of bringing our ideas and findings to life, making them more tangible for our existing subscribers and Patrons but also serving as the tip of the spear for new Readers who might be keen to join the growing 21st & 18th community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://21stand18th.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/21stand18th/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-lynch-/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMJ5PAIo6vdNbL2iIQV3XA
• Other: https://laurenlynch.substack.com/

Image Credits

All images are by Julio Adrian (@julioadrian.d) or Kerry Jeanne Photography (@kerryjeannephoto)