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

Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

I am coming upon my one year anniversary of discovering Web 3 technology. During my initial months of learning about NFTs, Blockchains, Crypto, Defi and other topics within the space I found I was having so many conversations with people who knew about these topics so I decided that instead of keeping that information to myself I would record the questions I was asking. That’s when the Freedom with NFTs brand was born. I had the vision to create a hub for people to get the support they needed as they started to learn about Web 3 technology through a podcast, blog articles, email blasts, live and pre-recorded trainings, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone.

Fortunately, I already had several team members that I had hired from when I was business coach, but these topics we were diving into were completely new to me and them.

I believe in investing in education for team members so I invested time and energy in teaching my team everything I was learning so they could start to understand this technology and why it was so important for us to learn about it and share it with others.

I also invested in trainings for them to take from other experts so they could expand their skill sets, knowledge, and expertises so that as we pivoted into a new industry we were fully supported.

In order to have a successful business or project, you must align with others who can support in bringing your vision to life with skills that you don’t have so that you are not overwhelmed or focused on tasks that aren’t in your areas of expertise. By coming together with others so much more can be achieved, together we thrive!

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?

I am Lauren Turton, a Public Speaker, Podcast Host, #1 Best Selling Author, Self-Portrait Photographer, Restaurateur, and Non-Profit Vice President. I have successfully supported hundreds of companies in expanding their businesses; clients include companies listed in the Fortune 500, Forbes Richest List, and with clients throughout the world. She has written a #1 Best Selling book on the business expansion process I created called Soul Career Clarity and was featured in Forbes in August 2021.

I am the host of Freedom with NFTs, a podcast dedicated to sharing information about NFTs to the masses. In each episode I interview NFT enthusiasts who share their experience, tools, and tips so that the audience can dive deeper into creating their own freedom with NFTs. Most notable on the show is Gary Vaynerchuk.

I am a partner at Ciao Ciao Piadina, an Italian restaurant located in San Diego, California. Ciao Ciao Piadina features piadinas, an Italian flatbread filled with imported Italian meats and cheeses as well as a boutique, organic Italian wine list. The design of Ciao Ciao is pinks and blues with several spaces for your social media posts.

I am on the Leales team. We create custom NFT projects for the hospitality and tourism industry so resorts and hotels can increase their community and loyalty programs.

I am the creator of Find The Hare, a self portrait photography project that she started over a decade ago. She takes bizarre photos of myself in a rabbit mask in interesting locations. It’s one of her favorite ways to create and to express myself.

I serve as the Vice President of Help the Kani, a nonprofit that provides education and essential services to women and children in southern India. Pre-pandemic I traveled to India to check in on the projects that Help the Kani funds and I have helped raise thousands of dollars to support these projects including; children’s homes, family homes, and schools.

I got to where I am today by “failing forward” and never giving up on the pursuit to educate myself further and to help others on their journeys.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It was incredible to interview Gary Vaynerchuck on my podcast Freedom with NFTs in November 2021 at an event in New York City. How I secured the interview shows resilience. Here’s what went down.

I spent months interacting with Gary on Twitter until he Retweeted a Tweet of mine in the fall of 2021. That Tweet caused a lot of interest so it was heavily interacted with.

On the last Sunday of October my restaurant Ciao Ciao Piadina announced a new marketing plan that involved NFTs at a meet up that thirty people attended. During the meet up we had everyone Tweet to Gary Vee about the program we had just announced.

Leading up to the NFT NYC conference in November 2021 I was planning for the people I wanted to interview on the podcast and Gary was at the top of my list. I knew it was going to be difficult to secure an interview with him during this time and I knew I had to think of a way to get time with him when he wouldn’t be surrounded by a lot of people.

A few weeks before the conference a satellite event announced that they were hosting an event the day prior to the conference and that Gary was speaking. I immediately bought a ticket.

The day of the event I arrived at the venue an hour prior to the event beginning. I was the third person to register for the event. I was able to get a front row seat.

At this point more people started to enter the room and networking began.

I thought to myself, “If I speak with others I am going to be distracted and I need to be hyper focused on the two points of entry so when he enters the room I can be the first person to speak to him and ask for an interview after his talk”, so I decided not to speak with others and just focus on the two points of entry.

When he walked into the venue I beelined it to him before anyone else could and I said, “Hi Gary! I am Lauren Turton! Nice to meet you!” I had prepared what I was going to say next but to my surprise Gary said, “Hey Lauren! I know exactly who you are. What you did at your restaurant with NFTs. You are crushing it the Web 3 space!”

I was SHOCKED when he said this and started to get flustered, but I went back to the lines that I had practiced over and over again and said, “Gary. May I please have three minutes of your time to interview you for the Freedom with NFTs podcast?” He said, “Yes!”

Gary and Jimmy McNeils delivered an incredible talk with Doctor Peace Uche aka doc Peace closing out the event with a spoken word flow.

As the event started to close I could feel the crowd behind me begin to shift their energy to get up and rush towards Gary for photos with him.

I had my podcast equipment in hand and sprang forward before anyone else and I looked at Gary and said “GARY. PODCAST.” He looked at the room and said, “Please give me three minutes!” and then he and I went to the hallway for a three minute interview.

As you can see, this story shows that I was resilient in the actions I took so that I could secure an interview with Gary Vee for the Freedom with NFTs podcast. It wasn’t luck or being in the right place at the right time. There was months of work and strategy that went into making that interview happen.

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

When you start treating social media as a tool to connect with your community rather than growing your audience then you will see that growth happens so much more organically on the various platforms.

An audience is an assembled group of people at an in person or virtual setting, but a community is a group of people that have something in common. When you take the time to create content that connects you will grow your community.

Here is a formula I created that allows for content that connects, it’s called the SOUL Formula. I use this for when I am creating copy for posts or as a guide for when I create video content.

The SOUL Formula

S – Stop the scroll with an attention-grabbing statement

O – Open communications to connect further with your community

U – Uncover the truth by providing value

L – Link it up with a call to action

Contact Info:

• Website: www.freedomwithnfts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenturton/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-turton/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurenTurton_