{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Thriving Through","title":"E103 From Homeless Youth to National Consultant | Lauren Leonardis","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2943,"description":"What if the very experience that once felt like your biggest liability is actually the thing that makes you impossible to compete with, and commands premium consulting rates?\nIn this episode, host AJ Riedel talks to Lauren Leonardis, founder and consultant of Rind and Reason, a consulting firm specializing in stakeholder engagement, youth leadership, and organizational structure. Lauren is a nationally recognized expert on Youth Action Boards and co-author of the Massachusetts State Plan to End Youth Homelessness, and she built that career from lived experience as a formerly homeless young adult.\nWhy You Should Listen to This Episode\nIf you're a self-employed consultant struggling with inconsistent income, unsure how to stand out in a crowded market, or watching your client base dry up because of forces outside your control, this episode will hit close to home. Lauren's story is raw, real, and remarkably instructive. She went from being paid $15/hour under a 1099, with no framework for what she was worth, to running a national consulting practice. Then she lost virtually all of her clients overnight due to federal funding cuts, and had to figure out how to rebuild. What she learned about niching, pricing, personal branding, and building resilience into her business model is directly applicable to any consultant trying to build a practice that doesn't collapse when one client disappears.\nWhat You'll Learn in This Episode\n• Why Your Niche Is Your Superpower: Lauren explains how having a genuine, experience-backed niche, not just a chosen specialty, is what separates consultants who command premium rates from those competing on price.\n• How to Know What You're Worth (and Stop Taking Whatever's Offered): The real story of how Lauren went from accepting exploitative 1099 rates to\nunderstanding her fully loaded rate, and what that shift meant for her business.\n• What to Do When You Lose All Your Clients at Once: Lauren received a midnight termination notice cutting all...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/w-_QBbxVo-8ZDIXX54CZGe5vij6twqwNGEuGg-Wzdjk/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lZGZi/NGNmOTE1MjBjMWUy/YTk1ODIxMTNlNzJm/YWRiOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}