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Work like you’re not a parent.
Parent like you don’t work.
What if that whole system is wrong?
This is Full Stack Moms, and we are Mallory Lee and Shannon Curran, two working moms navigating tech careers, parenting, and everything in between. We talk about why the traditional rules of work don’t fit modern parents and how women in tech are doing things differently. Through honest conversations and behind-the-scenes stories, this show explores careers, caregiving, ambition, and the messy reality of having it all, just not all at once.
Connect with Mallory: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/
Connect with Shannon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/
Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius
www.shareyourgenius.com
[00:00:00] Lauren Aquilino: This is my business and I'm gonna do what I want to do. And so far, you know, that's been successful, but I'm like, yeah, our website's gonna be pink because that's my favorite color. Like, it's just like not that deep, to be honest with you. Like it's not like, well, we did the research on our ICP and they tech should be blue.
[00:00:15] Like I'm like, well, yeah, like no, I don't care. Like this is my business and it's gonna be, um, it's gonna be fun and it's gonna be what we wanna do. Like it's very hard for me to produce something that's not feeling like us
[00:00:28] Mallory Lee: This is Full Stack Moms.
[00:00:30] Shannon Curran: This is not a parenting podcast, nor a business podcast, but a place where we talk building careers in tech, raising kids at home, and making it work in public.
[00:00:39] Mallory Lee: It's so good to see you, Lauren.
[00:00:41] Lauren Aquilino: Happy to be here. Happy to ... No, I'm,
[00:00:42] Shannon Curran: I'm meeting Lauren at this moment. But it's so nice to meet you.
[00:00:45] Lauren Aquilino: It's so nice to meet you too.
[00:00:46] So you had my co-founder Sydney on, and you mentioned that Shannon and Sydney sort of look alike. And then I was like, I think maybe Mal and I kinda look alike.
[00:00:56] Shannon Curran: You do a little. Yeah.
[00:00:58] Lauren Aquilino: So we just- This is like alternate universe podcasts.
[00:01:02] Mallory Lee: We do. We do. It's too funny. And we totally need to do the swap, like all four of us. We have to. All four of us. We have to do it. Yeah.
[00:01:10] Lauren Aquilino: Ooh, I like that.
[00:01:11] Mallory Lee: Tell us, tell us about your, your family and all your things.
[00:01:13] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah. So my name's Lauren Aquilino.
[00:01:16] I am co-founder at EMMIE Collective. We are a marketing apps and rev ops agency-ish. You can hear more of a pitch from Sydney's episode. She runs sales. So I focus more on our marketing side of things. I have three kids. I have a 13-year-old son, an 11-year-old daughter, and a seven-year-old daughter. So things are wild over here, in a good way.
[00:01:46] Mallory Lee: And you live in Ohio.
[00:01:47] Lauren Aquilino: I live in Cleveland.
[00:01:49] Mallory Lee: Is Cleveland Ohio?
[00:01:51] Shannon Curran: Yes.
[00:01:52] Lauren Aquilino: We are currently experiencing everything else, um, that others in our area are experiencing, which is vegetable lockdown, and number two, the Canadian wildfire- Wildfires ... smoke.
[00:02:03] Shannon Curran: So bad.
[00:02:04] Lauren Aquilino: So bad. So yesterday, our kids, our two youngest, the 11-year-old and seven-year-old, they go to camp at a, a daycare.
[00:02:14] And yesterday, I guess, like at the end of the day, the leaders were like, "Maybe you could check with your parents if you, like, have an alternative option for tomorrow. Like maybe hang with your grandparents." 'Cause they can't go outside, so I think it's just like so crazy inside with like the 60 kids just going nuts.
[00:02:32] Yeah.
[00:02:32] Mallory Lee: Oh my gosh,
[00:02:33] Shannon Curran: yeah. I know. We went outside for a little while and we were like, "Should we not be out here?" No. But it seemed okay, so it was... But I was like, we were only out there for like a half an hour, and then we were like, "Oh, okay, we should go back inside."
[00:02:42] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah, I went outside to, like, grab a drink from the fridge in the garage, and I was like, "Something's on fire."
[00:02:46] And then I was like, oh yeah, duh. That's like exactly- Yes ... what was happening, actually.
[00:02:51] Shannon Curran: Yeah. Um- It's
[00:02:52] Mallory Lee: far
[00:02:52] Lauren Aquilino: away, but
[00:02:53] Mallory Lee: it is
[00:02:53] Lauren Aquilino: on fire. I mean, it smells bad. Like, it was just like, I don't know, I wasn't expecting to smell it, I guess.
[00:02:58] Shannon Curran: We got it first, so no one knew what it was. Like there was no, like, conversation about it.
[00:03:02] It was just like, so I woke up on whatever day it was, Monday or Tuesday, and my eyes were burning. And I was like, oh, do I have allergies? Like, maybe. I've really sensitive eyes. Like if I'm in a restaurant and they're cutting onions in the kitchen, like I can't sit near the kitchen. Like that is how sensitive my eyes are.
[00:03:18] And so I was like, "What's going on?" And then it started to look like really, it was like, oh, it's probably gonna rain, is what it looked like. And then it just kept getting worse and worse, and we were the first ones to get it. So I finally was like, we finally get... We didn't get the alert until, like, maybe 36 hours after it started.
[00:03:33] Lauren Aquilino: I was looking outside like, if it was us that was on fire, we wouldn't know. You know? Like , like could they tell us to evacuate? I, I think they'd be like, "It's probably still Canada," I think.
[00:03:47] Shannon Curran: Luckily, things are already cleared up here. Like, the kids were outside yesterday, and today completely blue sky. Oh, okay.
[00:03:52] Cool. Oh, okay. So it was really just like a day and a half of, like, complete apocalyptic, like, scary world. But- Yeah. All right ... um,
[00:04:00] Lauren Aquilino: yeah,
[00:04:01] Shannon Curran: at the same time, you're not supposed to eat berries when I have two toddlers, so they're eating them anyway. They're
[00:04:05] Lauren Aquilino: eating amalgamated berries. Hopefully it's okay. Yeah. I was like, hopefully we're okay.
[00:04:07] I think they found the source. Lettuce. Apparently. They found the source, the lettuce. A- apparently, like, the media's really going wild with the it was served at Taco Bell thing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Which I feel really bad for them right now, because they have already got a bad rap in this area. Um, but it- I feel bad for them too.
[00:04:23] Not just
[00:04:23] Shannon Curran: in that area, everywhere.
[00:04:25] Lauren Aquilino: Everywhere. I know, you know. Like, would
[00:04:27] Shannon Curran: you know the difference between just, like, regular Taco Bell and if you got sick from it? Like, I don't know. Like, your body probably doesn't...
[00:04:33] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah, like I personally have never had a problem with Taco
[00:04:36] Shannon Curran: Bell. Me neither. I love it.
[00:04:37] Lauren Aquilino: And I love it, yeah.
[00:04:39] But the Taylor Farms brand happens to be the supplier for Taco Bell, but also the supplier for, like, all the bag lettuce, like all of it. Well, that's- So ...
[00:04:47] Mallory Lee: that's just it. Like, it might've been served at Taco Bell, but, like, it's not something that you can catch. It's not an outbreak that you can catch. It's like Taylor Farms supposedly is the one, and they send their lettuce to as many places as possible so they can make money, right?
[00:05:06] Like, they don't just supply lettuce at Taco Bell, so I do feel bad for Taco Bell. I feel like they didn't do anything wrong. They didn't do
[00:05:13] Lauren Aquilino: anything wrong.
[00:05:14] Mallory Lee: No.
[00:05:15] Shannon Curran: Bless, bless this social media team at Taco Bell right now. Right? So sorry, guys. I know. Yeah. Yeah. The crisis comms team, been there too many times.
[00:05:23] Melissa, who, uh, she was my boss at QuickBase, but she's been on this show. You know that trend that's been going around that's like getting ready for my documentary about, like, everyone's, like, sitting at... Hers was getting ready for my documentary after running crisis comms through back-to-back unprecedented times, and she's, like, literally sitting, and I'm just thinking about, like, her and I in an electrical closet right before COVID being like, "What are we gonna do when we're, like, at a sales kickoff and probably a super spreader event?"
[00:05:48] Like, you know, I've spent so many years in crisis comms that I just feel so deeply for anyone that's dealing with it. Oh my
[00:05:53] Lauren Aquilino: gosh. Like- Wow. Why would you choose that life? Yeah. I f- It's
[00:05:58] Shannon Curran: so fun. I'm so sorry. It's so
[00:05:58] Mallory Lee: fun. It's so fun.
[00:05:59] Shannon Curran: It's the rush. But I, um- The adrenaline, you know, the rush, you know. I didn't do it on purpose.
[00:06:04] It found me, but I don't know.
[00:06:05] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah, right.
[00:06:05] Shannon Curran: Absolutely something pathological about liking that work, for sure. And I just absorb it everywhere I go now 'cause the teams are smaller, but I
[00:06:11] Lauren Aquilino: like-
[00:06:11] Shannon Curran: You're like, "
[00:06:12] Lauren Aquilino: Let me help you."
[00:06:13] Shannon Curran: Yeah, let me help you not make this worse. Don't feed the trolls. That's always the ... It's like...
[00:06:19] Oh my
[00:06:19] Mallory Lee: gosh. Or you help them have a strategy that won't land them in a crisis. That's the ideal state, right?
[00:06:25] Shannon Curran: I try. Right. That's the hope, but, you know.
[00:06:28] Mallory Lee: Yeah.
[00:06:28] Shannon Curran: I, uh, I just had someone recently ask me again for my, like, tiered crisis comms program that I've, like, given a million of my, like, friends that run, that have to, like, absorb it at places.
[00:06:38] I have, like, this, like, 20-page doc of, like, triaging, like, who needs to be involved in what decision at what point for what. Like, what needs comms, what doesn't? And I'm like, now I can just put that into Claude and it would just tell me what to do. But at the time I had to ... We were doing docs, and we were writing statements with our hands.
[00:06:54] It was a different world out there. You were Claude.
[00:06:56] Lauren Aquilino: You were Claudia.
[00:06:56] Shannon Curran: I was Claude. For the love of Claude, it was me, and just me.
[00:07:01] Mallory Lee: Well, Lauren is my go-to, like, older boy mom advice as I need it. And we were at an event together a couple months ago when I got that text message from Grayson where he said, "I have a girlfriend."
[00:07:18] Mm-hmm. And I was like, "Lauren, what the heck? What do I do?" And I, you know, I, like, cried, and I was just like, "Ah." And she's like, "Oh, yeah, it'll probably be, like, very short-lived."
[00:07:34] Lauren Aquilino: Are they still together?
[00:07:36] Mallory Lee: No. No. No. Sure enough, I get home from this trip and they're, like, already broken up. It lasted-
[00:07:44] Lauren Aquilino: Aw ... like
[00:07:45] Mallory Lee: two days.
[00:07:45] It was so cute. Aw. It burned bright. It burned bright. You know? Like, there's...
[00:07:51] Lauren Aquilino: You'll always remember your first love.
[00:07:53] Mallory Lee: Always. Exactly. Yeah. Age of 10. Mm. Yeah.
[00:07:57] Lauren Aquilino: I know. Yeah, so- It's so sweet, though ... you got to have those
[00:08:00] Mallory Lee: people
[00:08:00] Lauren Aquilino: who can tell you. I, I was just so impressed and proud of you that, like, he told you that right away.
[00:08:05] Yes. Because I think that that's, like, key performance indicator.
[00:08:10] Mallory Lee: Aw.
[00:08:12] Lauren Aquilino: You know? Like, the stuff that your kid tell- Yeah ... like, tells you, I'm like, "Oh, thank God that you, like, felt comfortable telling me that." So it just get harder, you know, that the older they get, they kind of get a little bit quieter. But that was awesome.
[00:08:25] Mallory Lee: Yeah.
[00:08:26] Shannon Curran: Love
[00:08:26] Mallory Lee: it. That's so great. Well, I know that you've been, um, founder of EMMIE for how many years now?
[00:08:33] Lauren Aquilino: So officially, I've been running I am EMMIE.
[00:08:40] Mallory Lee: Right.
[00:08:40] Lauren Aquilino: I've been running EMMIE.
[00:08:41] Mallory Lee: You're the OG EMMIE.
[00:08:43] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah, like people are like, "Have EMMIE do it," but that used to just mean Lauren. Um, so at a very, very small level, I've been doing freelance consulting under EMMIE technically for about five years.
[00:08:55] And, um, Sydney Mulligan joined almost four years ago, and that's really when we started to build the business. So that's the true, like she's my ride or die. We would not be here, you know, without her. So EMMIE in its current state has been around for about four years, and we've grown like crazy, which is really scary, but it is like my fourth child at this point.
[00:09:21] Any advice for anyone who thinks about starting a business?
[00:09:24] Shannon Curran: Wait, you want
[00:09:24] Lauren Aquilino: the
[00:09:24] Shannon Curran: advice or you're giving
[00:09:26] Lauren Aquilino: the advice? No, I'm gonna give it. I do want some. Give it. I have over and over, this is not the advice, but it is, over and over been like, "Mm, I'm not the person for this. I should hire someone." So I think that's part of our growth path, is that like I really...
[00:09:40] There are a lot of founders who like wanna hold on to things and like make sure that they do it their way, and I'm like, "I cannot do this." It's actually very similar to my parenting strategy. Yep. Know where I'm like, "I'm, it's not for me." You know, like it, sending out invoices, not for me. Um, we had an advisor that was working with us, and he was like, "You know, you guys should really move from cash accounting to accrual accounting."
[00:10:04] And I was like, "Ugh, sounds like a you problem." Like I, you know, like, "You, do you want to do it?" Don't know
[00:10:10] Shannon Curran: her.
[00:10:10] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah. And we actually did end up hiring him on full time, you know, so I'm like, "You do it. I'm not doing that." I'm just not doing the things that like don't, don't suit me. But when you start a business, you also have to maintain it.
[00:10:24] Like I did not... I have ADHD. I think maybe this was like part of it, like my neurodivergent brain that was like couldn't fully visualize that this is a long-term investment, that this is like a kid that you give birth to, and then like they're here forever. You know? Like, I mean, it's not exactly the same.
[00:10:40] Like you can close your business, of course, or give it up for adoption, but like you have to like do, do something with it. That was very eye-opening for me. I was like I have a lot of entrepreneurial ideas, and to actually like create something You have to maintain it, so Mm-hmm. Totally. Oops. Here we are.
[00:10:58] Hello. Yeah.
[00:10:58] Shannon Curran: Here we are. What made you want to bring on a co-founder? If this was something that you were already building, like what was that choice?
[00:11:05] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah. So like I... It really was more of a lifestyle business when it, before Sydney joined. So I had maybe three clients, maybe four. And as they needed additional support internally, like I would be like, "Oh, I know a..."
[00:11:23] I, my Salesforce admin, you know, that I worked with when I was at GE, I bet she would take a couple hours like to help me out here, or I have somebody that can do, build emails. Um, and so I was running like a micro agency, but it was certainly not my intention to like build it beyond that. And so if you've heard Sydney's story, she got laid off while on maternity leave.
[00:11:44] And, um, I knew of her just from, like, the, the tech community, the marketing tech community. And I was like, "Well, this is interesting. If she's interested in building something, uh, we should do it." Like, I think that would be a lot of fun. We have a lot of the same network. We have a lot of the same skill set.
[00:12:02] But also if she was not interested, I was just not going to build the business any bigger. So, like, her joining was really, like, the catalyst to building EMMIE, but otherwise I, I probably would just still have a few clients on my own.
[00:12:14] Shannon Curran: That's really interesting. I feel like the ... I'm always asked too, like, "You gonna bring on employees?
[00:12:18] Are you gonna bring..." Lauren, I run my own business too. I'm not sure if you know that. But it's more of a lifestyle business at this point on purpose, and I-
[00:12:25] Mallory Lee: It's a good lifestyle. It's, like, a great- Yeah,
[00:12:28] Shannon Curran: certainly. Yeah. It's, it's a lot better than my lifestyle was working full time, so I can't really complain.
[00:12:34] Yeah.
[00:12:34] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah.
[00:12:34] Shannon Curran: Um. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's, it's very lucrative,
[00:12:37] Lauren Aquilino: which is great. I mean, still a lifestyle. Like, lifestyle business is a goal in of, of itself. You know? Like-
[00:12:41] Shannon Curran: Yeah, it was my goal. Yeah. It was my goal.
[00:12:42] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah.
[00:12:42] Shannon Curran: Right? Like, that was my goal. Um, but it's interesting that, like, I love the fact that you didn't go out searching for this thing that you wanted to grow and scale.
[00:12:51] 'Cause I feel like that's when I see a lot of this stuff, like, it feels, like, kind of shoehorned. It's like if the opportunity comes to you and then you see the opportunity, and you vet it in the time, and then it seems like a good way forward, that's when you step into it. That's totally the way that I navigate my business, too.
[00:13:04] It's like a lot of it is really intentional, like the way I set things up, but some of it is, like, I see the thing in front of me, I say yes or no. I move forward, right? Like, that is kind of the way- 100%, yeah ... that I think about it, too. Yeah. Because you can't imagine what life is gonna be like in five years, in three year, whatever.
[00:13:18] Like, so you can only evaluate what you're, what's in front of you right now, right? So that's very cool.
[00:13:22] Lauren Aquilino: Right. Yeah.
[00:13:23] Mallory Lee: Yeah.
[00:13:23] Lauren Aquilino: And we have, like- Yeah ... we've, w- we have grown a lot in the past four years. We have six of us that are on the team internally now full time, which is, like- Crazy ... I h- honestly, sometimes I don't, like
[00:13:35] I can't believe that because part of my fear in growing a business, and honestly part of the way that EMMIE is set up, is because I have this fear of, like, hiring people and, like, being responsible for their livelihood. And they're ... Very early, that person that I was saying is, like, a, a good Salesforce admin, I was like, "Hey, do you want, like, five or 10 hours worth of work?"
[00:13:57] She had a full-time job. She's like, "Yep, I'm gonna quit my job." And I was like, "I didn't say that. I didn't tell you to do that. I don't want you to quit your job." She was like, "No, I, uh, I have this skincare business that I really want to focus on a little bit more, and, like, having a little bit of consistent consult- consulting work would, would allow me to do that."
[00:14:13] I'm like, "All right. But as long as you know, like, that is your choice and not mine." And so some of the way that, like, EMMIE is different than a traditional agency is that everyone is an independent consultant. And so they're signed on just, like, essentially for the length of the contract that- They're in.
[00:14:30] So when that contract ends, like they're also aware that, you know, that their work might be ending. So they have some skin in the game. You know, we, we do have a lot of consultants that have their own clients as well. Like they're not dedicated to us obviously, you know, exclusively I guess is the word I'm looking for.
[00:14:44] But, but like part of it was because I had a fear of like I c- I don't want to hire all these people and then not have work for them or like be paying out of my pocket their salaries because they're not billable. Like it all just seemed so incredibly stressful to me and scary as you're building your business.
[00:14:59] Mallory Lee: Six people is like a lot of families and lives and that's intimidating.
[00:15:05] Lauren Aquilino: It's terrifying. I mentioned we hired on an advisor and he really has been ... He's b- he's done this before, you know, like grown an agency. And so to have an outside perspective tell me that like we're not poor, you know, that like, oh, like actually y- you could afford, or like if you were to hire this person, it's an investment that you get a return on.
[00:15:26] It's not a cost to the business, not an expense, is very hard for me to like navigate in that way, so.
[00:15:35] Shannon Curran: Or like you'd need to do a lot of things wrong, like to be able to get like, that is what I have to remind myself. It's like not just one wrong thing or two wrong things, like a bunch of wrong stuff to tank this thing.
[00:15:45] Like it's like, oh, okay, okay. Uh, data historically shows that you don't do everything wrong, but I had that same thought.
[00:15:52] Lauren Aquilino: When you're working inside your business, we have this analogy that we've been using is like Sydney and I were riding a tandem bike up a hill. And then like Ethan- She loves a bike ... our advisor, she lo- she, oh, she loves, she loves transportation.
[00:16:06] She loves it. Public transportation, bikes, loves it. Uh, we're riding a tandem bike up a hill, uh, e-bike maybe, but no, not in this analogy. A little
[00:16:14] Shannon Curran: bit of gas.
[00:16:15] Lauren Aquilino: Not in this analogy. And that like Ethan pulls up in a car and is like, "You girls like know you, you can afford a car, right?" And we're like, "What do you mean?"
[00:16:24] Like we're like sweating and just so focused on making it up the hill and on our tandem bike that like we didn't even look up and, and like look to see how we could make things easier and better for all of us, you know? So now we're like, "Oh, now we're in an air-conditioned car." And like everyone's happy, and they're in the car with us- Aw
[00:16:41] and, and it's great.
[00:16:42] Shannon Curran: And you can get where you're going faster. Yeah. Like that is the other thing is like- Yeah ... I think I have this thought too around like it's, it definitely is this like scarcity versus abundance mindset of like, but what if, but what if, but what if? Like that you're like, "I have to keep my balance sheet so low and light that like if everything blew up and I had to just like leave it, it wouldn't be that hard."
[00:17:04] It's funny, I actually, I have business coaches too, advisors that are often like, all right, so they'll, they'll take a look at like the capacity of e- of the scope of everything I'm doing. They're like, "What can we offload?" And as soon as I was able to do some of that, I was able to like 3x my ARR. And I'm like, "What was I do..."
[00:17:21] Like because I had to get that stuff out of the way to be able to grow the business. Like you just have to. But I think for the first like year to two years, like you don't, you, you don't know, right? You don't have enough data behind you to know that things are gonna work out or grow. But after, after that you're like, "Okay, like you can't, you can't grow without investing."
[00:17:38] Like this is a perfect parenting meth- Like you wouldn't tell your kids like, you know, like, "Never try anything," or, "Never invest any time in anything- ... because you might be bad at it." You
[00:17:48] Mallory Lee: might
[00:17:48] Shannon Curran: fail. You know what I mean? Like they're, yeah, it's like that's the opposite of the way we want our kids to be living, right?
[00:17:52] But I think also we've gotten really far in our careers 'cause we were scrappy and we worked with little bit and made a lot out of it. And so it is, uh, it's a hard lesson to learn, I think. Uh, it doesn't come naturally to me either.
[00:18:04] Mallory Lee: Fair enough. Lauren, um, I've been like seeing some of your guys' recent episodes, and I'm always wondering if it's Ethan that's like on with you guys.
[00:18:16] On the Is He Trash series
[00:18:20] Lauren Aquilino: So I mentioned our podcast a couple of times, I think, but our podcast is called Pretty Funny Business. So we're- it's typically just Sydney and I, and we, um, well, it just changed. Like actually historically we did have guests and then we started doing it in person, which has made guests a little bit harder.
[00:18:33] And so a- anyway, we're, we're back to virtual a little bit this summer and we decided to have men on our podcast, which is like not really on-brand for us. And not for user, but- Boys ... boys, exactly. Mm, like- So anyway, so we decided, uh, I'm a fan of Giggly Squad. Oh, yeah. Me too And they just like really make me laugh.
[00:18:52] And my friend Kimmy and I saw them live a couple of years ago, and they had this bit called Is He Trash, where they just like, you know, it is a sea of, it is a sea of non-men i- in the audience. And so there may be like three men and they pull someone out of the crowd and then they like survey them and investigate them and they like make the audience say like, "Is he trash or, or not?
[00:19:12] Is he good?" And so I was like, you know what? This might be a funny way to interview some men at our podcast and make it okay, is if we ask the... If we just, if we got to decide if they were trash. How are they doing so far? So the spoiler, like spoiler alert, we know all of these people already.
[00:19:29] Mallory Lee: They're not going to be trash.
[00:19:31] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah. The first two actually we decided are trash. First one, James Leadem's a little bit of trash. Uh, Alexander, total trash. He admitted that immediately. Ethan is our next- Self-defined
[00:19:41] Mallory Lee: trash ...
[00:19:42] Lauren Aquilino: yeah, Ethan is our next, uh, we just recorded his episode earlier this week, so that'll come out- It'll be okay ... in a couple weeks then.
[00:19:49] Okay. Ethan is the least trash man I've ever met, unfortunately. I can't even joke about him being trash. Like he's so awesome and so supportive and, you know, a feminist and all the really amazing things about him. So Ethan, not trash, but you'll be able to hear his episode. It's pretty funny. It, uh, it's a look into what our executive calls look like, which is mostly him just looking at me and Sydney like, "Ah, what is happening here?"
[00:20:16] Shannon Curran: I feel like you all do such a good job and you're, you're aptly named, your podcast aptly named, but at making business really successful and really fun. Like I feel like you do like an exceptionally good job at that. And I am curious as to if that was an intention going in or that's just your personalities.
[00:20:33] Are you ever like, "We're not gonna do this 'cause it's not fun"? Like I have to tell myself that sometimes too. Like if I'm not having fun, we're not doing it. Like, but a lot of the stuff we do is often not fun. So how do you kind of balance that?
[00:20:45] Lauren Aquilino: Okay, so when Sydney and I, I feel like she, again, talked about this on our episode, so I'm not gonna go over it, um, entirely.
[00:20:52] But when we first were kind of planning what the business could look like, she and I had both previously worked at other traditional agencies, which we've started to call trad agencies, which is hilarious by the way.
[00:21:05] Shannon Curran: God, that's good. Agencies in aprons.
[00:21:10] Lauren Aquilino: You might- Ethan is actually the first person who said it, and we're like, I was like, "Well, there's our new marketing campaign." So we, like, knew what we didn't want it to be like, which was, like, stressful billable hours. We wanted it to be fun. We were like, "This is our life.
[00:21:22] This is, this is your life that you're dealing with." And so, like, this is my business, and I'm gonna do what I want to do. And so far, you know, that's been successful. But I'm like, "Yeah, our website's gonna be pink because that's my favorite color." Like, it's just, like, not that deep, to be honest with you.
[00:21:36] Like, it's not like, "Well, we did the research on our ICP, and they ... tech should be blue." Like, I'm like, "Well, yeah, like, no, I don't care. Like, this is my business, and it's gonna be, um, it's gonna be fun, and it's gonna be what we wanna do." Like, it's very hard for me to produce something that's not feeling like us, or like
[00:21:53] Like, we started to produce our first, like, e-book, which I already was like, "We don't do that." But there are some things. So I guess that's an example of, like, this isn't fun for me, but, uh, it's good for the business, you know? So it's like, well, how do we, how do I do my own, you know, spin on it? And so, like, it's called the g- The Good Girl's Guide to, to AI.
[00:22:11] Just, like, stuff that's, like, you know, i- it's gonna, gonna make us, like, stand out a little bit in the sea of B2B blah. So ...
[00:22:20] Shannon Curran: And you're getting hired by, like, major large businesses to do great work, 'cause you're great. That's the other thing that people have said to me before, too. It's like, well, I'm pretty parasocial with my content.
[00:22:32] Like, I include, both Mallory and I include our c- the conversations about our kids and, like, what we do as well as what we do for work. And, like, yet we're both able to be really s- like, successful, 'cause we just have to be good.
[00:22:44] Mallory Lee: Yeah.
[00:22:44] Shannon Curran: We just have to ... And if, like ... And I think that sounds, like, silly, but it's like you
[00:22:49] It does put a lot of pressure on you to be great, because you can't be silly and bad. But I think there are, like, the ability that, like, if you're investing and being really great at what you do, you should be able to do it your way and, like, in a way that feels like yours.
[00:23:01] Lauren Aquilino: Our campaign theme this year is personality hire, and it's like You know, it's like not
[00:23:06] It, it's of course a little bit self-dep- deprecating, but like our true push behind it is like the bar on technology has been lowered. And you have to be very good at your job, of course. Um, but if you can't like hold a conversation or like make someone feel comfortable or navigate different department conversations, like you're not gonna be that girl for that much longer.
[00:23:32] You know? Like you're just, you're just not ... Like with a- with AI and the way that it's impacting our industry, not that it's detrimental, I think it just means that our jobs look different, not like, you know, that they're gone. But I do think that that just means that like the empathetic side of being a human is gonna be that much more important.
[00:23:49] Mallory Lee: Yeah, the human side becomes the differentiator when everybody has ubiquitous amazing technology, right? I have a funny story about the whole personality thing, and this dates back so far back, when I first discovered LinkedIn. And so I had just started working full time. What year was this? It was like '09 or something, and I had an internship at a big company in product marketing for, you know, like manufacturing.
[00:24:17] It was very boys land. It was like there were guys working there that had been working there longer than I had been alive, and I was just like the little girl intern, you know, whatever. But I had inadvertently connected my Twitter to my LinkedIn.
[00:24:34] Lauren Aquilino: Oh my God.
[00:24:35] Mallory Lee: And I didn't know. No. Right? Like, it's just a setting that happened that I wasn't really cognizant of.
[00:24:41] And so I had been posting things on Twitter.
[00:24:43] Lauren Aquilino: That was someone else's bad idea. This is not your fault.
[00:24:45] Mallory Lee: I know. I know. And I had been posting things on Twitter that would like get reposted on LinkedIn. And so they weren't like, you know, that professional. And so I got a message from one of my former coworkers at this, you know, big Fortune 50 company, and he's like, "Um, you should probably stop this because it's not professional."
[00:25:08] And I got his message, and at first I was like so embarrassed, and I like went and disconnected it right away, and I was like, "Oh my God." But then after that, I like got my full jo- my full time job at Exec Target and like kind of like came into who I was professionally as, like, someone who works in tech and I was like, "You know what?
[00:25:28] Forget that." Like, I can be a normal human at the same time as being, like, someone who has a job. And so then I was really mad about him. I was just mad. And he would send me these messages, like every six months over the last, like, literally 10 years- Oh ... I've gotten messages from this guy, like- Get out of here
[00:25:46] keeping in touch. Yeah. I'm just like, "Screw you, dude. Whatever." And now, like, my personal life and my passion for, you know, like this working mom world and the podcast and then my professional life are, like, really intermixed into who I am online. And people are like, "Oh, are you ever nervous about, like, posting on LinkedIn, like, because of your day job?"
[00:26:11] And I'm like, "No. I'm, like, really good at my day job. Like, I have zero, zero concerns." She is. Right? Like-
[00:26:19] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah ...
[00:26:20] Mallory Lee: and I've been in this format prior to getting hired at, like, the last five companies I've worked with, so they know what they're getting. You know what I mean? It's just- Yeah ... I don't know. You got to be who you are.
[00:26:33] Lauren Aquilino: Right. And also, like, you wouldn't be at a company that would treat you that way, you know? Like, you personally. Right. Maybe somebody might.
[00:26:40] Mallory Lee: Yeah.
[00:26:40] Lauren Aquilino: And if you are, then- Yeah ... you should leave. But, uh but I know ... But no, you. Like, you'd be like, "I can't be myself? Like, this is not a fit."
[00:26:49] Shannon Curran: I think it's really hard at the beginning of your career to drive that line, like, figure out that line.
[00:26:53] Because I started off not in tech, and it was not as good for your girl. I must've been such a pain in the ass to manage. I just, like, was so hungry, always wanted the answer, always wanted the next ... Always wanted us to be better. And some industries just really don't like that, like nonprofit, higher ed, healthcare.
[00:27:12] They're like, "Can you just sit back and let the people that have worked here for 20 years just do this the way we've always done it?" And so my personality did not mesh with those environments at all. Like, and also, I'm extremely bad at what most entry level people are supposed to be good at. So, like- details, like, uh, spreadsheets.
[00:27:32] Like, I take all that too. I have, like, a thing about, yeah, about if I don't respect authority, like falling in line. Like, to be fair, I didn't know everything, but, like, I was a quick learn. And so, like, if you channeled me properly, I could have been really great. But if not, I was such a pain in the ass. Like, I think back to now, I'm like, "Oh my God," like I must have been so, like, frustrating to manage for the wrong manager, right?
[00:27:54] Like, and I could have provided a lot of value, but, like, either they would give me full autonomy and just be like, "Go do whatever you want. Like, just do..." And then I didn't have enough structure to know, like, where to go, so I would just do weird stuff. Or they would give me, like, way too much structure, and I'd just be annoyed, like, all the time.
[00:28:09] And so I think it took me finding the right environment to be able to be successful. The right skills. I did, like, I did get an MBA. Like, all these things, so I had things to, like, back up, like, the, like, thoughts of, like, all of these things that I had. And then tech is a much better fit for my speed. Like, when people are like, "Oh, you're a better culture fit," I think, I'm like, I think it's a velocity thing.
[00:28:30] Like, it's culture plus velocity. It's like I wanna move really fast, and I want to be able to learn quickly. And if I'm in environments that don't actually wanna learn anything until the end of the year where we do a single retro to decide what we wanna do for the next year, it's just not the right environment for me.
[00:28:45] Whereas I know other people that have been in tech, like we recently, I w- I had a, a former client go through a little bit of a riff, and we had to let go of someone that was really awesome, but just not the right fit for the velocity of the business. Just, like, not it. Like, would be better off in a business that is, like, more formulaic in how they review things and stuff like that.
[00:29:03] It's just, I think it's really hard to say, like, be yourself if you're not in an environment that respects, like, that, like, or is, like, good at fostering whoever you are. It's hard. If anyone's struggling with that still, I did too for, like, many years. Many, many years, right? Like, it was terrible. You know?
[00:29:19] Like, it was awful.
[00:29:20] Mallory Lee: Oh, I have a question for you, Lauren. So backstory, like, I was aware of who you were, and EMMIE, and Sydney, right, for a while. Uh, just kinda like fan girl on LinkedIn. And then eventually we met and became pals, like all these things. And it always stood out to me from the beginning, like, the sense of humor.
[00:29:42] And I think that that stands out to a lot of people, and they love it. So- First of all, just like good job. Love it. Um
[00:29:50] Shannon Curran: Noted.
[00:29:52] Mallory Lee: You think I'm funny? You're pretty great, yeah. Um- You think I'm funny? But my question is, like, how does that translate into mom life? And, like, having older kids who can also have a sense of humor, what does that look like in your family at this point in time, and how do you, like, channel that?
[00:30:13] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah. It's a good question. My kids are funny. I think so. You know, my husband also has a pretty good sense of humor. In fact... Well, I shouldn't say pretty good. I actually think we do not have the same sense of humor. Like, he sends me stuff on Instagram. I'm like, "Bro, this is, like, not funny at all." But he's also the person who will laugh at, like, anything, and I'm not saying that as a diss.
[00:30:32] Like, I hear him watching, like, he, like, loves YouTube golf, and this guy is, like, bent over, dying laughing. I'm so h- pleased. Like, I'm so happy for you that you are, like, crying laughing at this. But I think, honestly, like, having a sense of humor is just, like, an alternative way of just, like, living with a lot of grace and, like, mercy and, like...
[00:30:56] I mean, the obvious thing to say is to not take things too seriously, but it's so true. You know, that, like, your kid spills something, or, like, something goes wrong, or they say something mean or whatever, to be able to just be like, "You know what? Let's, like, work through that. Like, it's not actually that serious.
[00:31:10] It's not that important. It's not that bad," instead of, like, having every little moment just be this, like, absolute catastrophic situation that we have to, like, punish and deal with immediately. It's also really hard, man, they'll fight. Like, the older they get, they really do fight. And, like, each of the sibling relationships, they love each other, like, individually, but, like, put them in specific scenarios, like specifically my girls, they just like to get on each other's nerves.
[00:31:39] And it's something as simple as, like, looking at the other person wrong. It's not like, like they're punching each other in the face. Like, they're just like, "I know if my sister, if I, like, touch the remote while she's watching TV, that it's gonna be like, 'Ah, you're gonna change the channel.'" Like, it's like, it's just so silly.
[00:31:53] But to be able to, like, maneuver, like, that's what we're in the middle of right now is, like, how do you parent fighting siblings and gentle parent them? It's like, all right, I'm not gonna, like, send them to their room because they're fighting. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. So I think just, like, working through those scenarios with humor and, like, with a little bit of calmness is, like, the best way for me to get through that.
[00:32:13] Mallory Lee: Yeah. I love that. We had a similar situation happen this week. I don't know if I did the best job, but we had this toy that made it to our house from a garage sale. The boys love going to garage sales and buying just, like, the weirdest toys. And it was this thing filled with green slime, okay? And they are so rough with this thing, and both Brian and I were like, "It is just a matter of time until this thing explodes," right?
[00:32:42] Well, this week it exploded all over my house. Grayson was, like, in the, you know, like, entry area between the kitchen and the stairs, and somehow this thing exploded. So I had neon green slime all the way up the stairs, all over the wall, all the way back to the other wall, all over the kitchen. It was literally everywhere.
[00:33:06] It was all over his face. I mean- How do you clean that stuff?
[00:33:09] Lauren Aquilino: We, I should have started this podcast by saying, "Hi, I'm Lauren Aquilino, and I run a slime-free household." Like, that is how-
[00:33:16] Mallory Lee: Yeah, yeah The garage sale- So do I, but my kids
[00:33:19] Shannon Curran: don't know what it is yet, so I don't, I
[00:33:20] Lauren Aquilino: don't know. Yeah.
[00:33:21] Mallory Lee: There you go. Yeah.
[00:33:22] Yeah. You'll have to battle that later. Normally, we're, like, totally slime-free, but it was the garage sale where they snuck it in. Because they go to the garage sales with the nanny on the golf cart, and they buy things, and they sneak them back into the house. Anyway, long story short, I tried my very best to not freak out, but I was not happy.
[00:33:41] And there was, like, zero humor on my face. And so we're, like, going through this moment of I'm like, "Get a wet paper towel. Go to the wall. You need to, like, move your body. Start, start cleaning this up," right? And so he's working through it a little bit, and then I'm working on other cleanup methods. And all of a sudden, Miss Lauren, our nanny, she just busted out laughing.
[00:34:04] Like, so funny, and it made me realize like, okay, this is actually pretty funny. And so then, like, I laughed too, and then Grayson laughed too, and I was like, "Oh my God." And we got through it, and, like, things are fine. I still have carpets to clean, but it is a good reminder that things happen on accident, and, like, it's not that deep.
[00:34:27] Like, he didn't try to ruin my house with a slime toy, you know? And you just have to laugh to keep from crying some days. Yeah.
[00:34:36] Lauren Aquilino: And I think, like, the kids remember those moments. Obviously, they don't remember all of them, you know, but, like, if it goes really well or if it goes really bad, like, those are the moments that you're kind of like, "Oh, thank God," like, "that my mom didn't, like, yell at me in this moment."
[00:34:49] Shannon Curran: I spilled water, uh, when I was putting Seb into the... So I have a two-and-a-half-year-old, almost three, that I was putting in the car after I put the one-year-old in, 'cause she has to go in first. It's like a whole, you know. And I spilled a little bit of his water, and I said, "Oh, sorry," and he looks at me and he goes, "Oh, you don't have to be sorry, Mommy, it was an accident."
[00:35:06] And I was like, "Oh." I, I was like, "Oh, he hears me say that all the time," and that's true. And so when I tell him not to say sorry for spilling stuff, like, I also have to realize that I've been conditioned to say sorry for everything. So I say sorry all the time. And he started doing it when he was, like, first probably, like, two-ish.
[00:35:24] He would say sorry all the time, and it broke my heart. I was like, "Why, buddy? You don't have to be sorry. Like, also, when you hit your sister, like, you should be sorry. If there's, like, an accident or something, like, don't feel like you have to be," right? And it was one of those moments where I was like, oh, okay, like, as a reminder, I'm holding myself to an unrealistic standard that I'm not even holding him to, right?
[00:35:40] That, like, accidents happen. We're all okay. But it was funny. It was like, I feel like at this age he has, like, catchphrases, so it's one of his current catchphrases. Oh
[00:35:48] Lauren Aquilino: my gosh.
[00:35:48] Shannon Curran: It's fine, Mo. You don't have to be sorry. That is
[00:35:50] Lauren Aquilino: so cute. When Pippa, my youngest, was about that age, she must've picked it up at, at her daycare, but she always used to go, "
[00:35:57] Mallory Lee: Don't have to ask me twice."
[00:36:00] And I'm like, "What?"
[00:36:04] Lauren Aquilino: And like obviously like she didn't know what she was saying, but it was just so cute. That's
[00:36:09] Mallory Lee: adorable. That's adorable.
[00:36:11] Lauren Aquilino: I like always to remember. And like these are things, especially when your kids are little, it's funny, like they be- they become like vocal stems for my husband and I, you know- Yeah ...
[00:36:18] Shannon Curran: that
[00:36:18] Mallory Lee: like
[00:36:18] Lauren Aquilino: now I feel like, "You wanna go to dinner?"
[00:36:20] Do you wanna dance, dance- Gonna dance me twice. Yeah.
[00:36:23] Shannon Curran: Seb's that's go- that's gone on for like a year is, "Let's go check it out." He's like, "What's that noise? Let's go check it out." It's so cute. So Pete and I sometimes will say, like we'll hear like thunder or something, we're like, we're like, "We gotta go check it out."
[00:36:34] Lauren Aquilino: Exactly. Like your whole vocabulary changes as a parent. Even when theirs doesn't- It does ... when they don't say that anymore, like you s- you'll still say it, so.
[00:36:42] Shannon Curran: I know. Mal and I were talking about how she was so good about like quoting, was it Grayson that you were really good about, like remembering all the things he said?
[00:36:49] And I've been so bad about like writing them down or like keeping any kind of like ... And my friends the other night reminded me that on New Year's, so Seb would, had just turned one, 'cause he, it was at the end of September. He was the only kid of all my like closest friends. And so it was New Year's and they were all over having dinner.
[00:37:04] It was like 10 of us, and he was ... It's, if you're not watching the video, there is an eye roll involved in this. He would go, "Oh, brother." And he only did it for that one night for some reason. Like, he never did it again, and they all have tried to get him to do it again like years later, and he won't do it.
[00:37:20] But it's like something they remember, so like such a core memory for them about him saying that thing, 'cause he was literally one year old, like not even, like barely, and walking around with his like onesie unclipped, 'cause Pete never snaps them, and just like sauntering around going, "Oh, brother." It was so good.
[00:37:38] Ah, so good.
[00:37:40] Mallory Lee: Babies. That's great. That's great.
[00:37:41] Shannon Curran: I know.
[00:37:42] Mallory Lee: Okay. Well, it's time for our save of the week.
[00:37:45] Shannon Curran: This was so fast. This was- I wanna do this for another hour.
[00:37:46] Mallory Lee: I know. I know, I know Okay. So Lauren, save of the week is something that helped you a lot as a parent this week. So it could be like a person or it could be a, a product or it could be like a process that you have that just made your life better as working parent.
[00:38:04] So ...
[00:38:04] Lauren Aquilino: Oh, man. It's very easy for me to answer this question because my husband is the save of my every week. And he, his job's actually ... It's so weird to say because I run a business, but his job's pretty flexible as well, and he also is a morning person, and I am not a morning person. And some of that is mental, but some of that is also physical.
[00:38:25] Um, I had mentioned early on, and I'd probably do a whole nother podcast on, like, parenting and working with a chronic illness, but I have POTS, which makes mornings really, really hard because you don't get, like, oxygen to your brain until later on in the day. Love. So I'm happy about it, but actually I should be crying.
[00:38:42] Abnormal. Um, but my husband has, like, completely taken over morning. So it's not just this week, but it's every week that really he gets the kids up and out the door. Um, which, like, previously, before actually I was diagnosed, I would ... I knew that, like, if I were getting the kids out the door, that, like, the rest of my day was gonna be really, really hard and I was gonna be tired and have to take, like, a long nap and everything- Yeah
[00:39:04] but I never knew why. Um, and so now that, like, I know that mornings can be really hard, the fact that he does mornings is awesome. And he also, like, makes me a protein shake and brings it to me. So in addition, the save of the week is also my Orgain protein shakes that keep me alive.
[00:39:21] Shannon Curran: Oh, I love that.
[00:39:23] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah.
[00:39:24] Yeah.
[00:39:25] Mallory Lee: I just switched to the Orgain 30 gram A2
[00:39:29] Lauren Aquilino: Oh, I remember you drinking some- Creatine ... some gree- green stuff, babe. Yeah.
[00:39:34] Mallory Lee: Well, that's, that's the AG1, yeah.
[00:39:39] Lauren Aquilino: I'm talking about, obviously. I need to get better- ... on my supplicate- supplements game.
[00:39:43] Mallory Lee: It's a whole world of, of drama, but-
[00:39:46] Shannon Curran: Potions
[00:39:47] Lauren Aquilino: potions- Potions ... oh, I love that. Yeah ... and
[00:39:49] Mallory Lee: lotions and creatine and all the things. Um-
[00:39:52] Shannon Curran: Yep. Love it. Speaking on humor, I think this is probably a good one. So my save this week, I've been feeling really, really down. I just weaned Willa, and I think I'm just having, like, the hormone crash of the century of just, like, feeling so sad all the time.
[00:40:08] I'm kind of coming out on the other side, I think. So this, like, apocalyptic air was not helping, let me tell you. I was like, "Okay, so let's just call it, guys. Let's just call it." One of my favorite podcasts just came back, and speaking of vocal stim, feel like it has turned into my, like, entire brain, um, I listened to or watch Ride by Mary Beth Barone and Benny Skinner, Benny Drama, and it is, like, the funniest 40 minutes of my entire week-
[00:40:31] and I'm not even usually into, like, com- I don't know what this is ... podcasts. I was-
[00:40:34] Lauren Aquilino: I'm gonna
[00:40:34] Shannon Curran: have to look it up ... Oh, Lauren. Okay.
[00:40:36] Mallory Lee: I don't even
[00:40:36] Shannon Curran: know, Lauren. Oh. It is so ... Oh, my God. I, like, couldn't stop laughing. I, I now ... And I've re-watched the episode twice 'cause it's just, like, they're both comedians. It's just, like, bits that they just, like, have running, but it's like brain rot internet bits, and it's so funny.
[00:40:49] And I was just like, you know what? Like, I needed a little bit of, like, more TLC for me this week than usual, and, like, finding things that made me smile and laugh has been my major save for the week, so.
[00:41:01] Mallory Lee: I think that's great, Shannon. Like, you have to be able to recognize that, and it's like-
[00:41:06] Shannon Curran: Mm-hmm ...
[00:41:06] Mallory Lee: I need this.
[00:41:07] I'm doing it- Show up ... because I need it, so that's really good. Mm-hmm. So save of the week, Nanny Lauren, Miss Lauren, partially because she got me through the slime episode of 2026, but also she discovered recently that Cohen will eat a turkey and cheese sandwich And he eats them all the way, and he likes them.
[00:41:31] I would've never thought to try it, but she makes them and he eats it.
[00:41:35] Lauren Aquilino: My kids are also picky eaters. My kids trying new foods is like the one thing that I positively reinforce all the time. Like, wow. Like, even to my 13-year-old, I'm like, "Oh, nothing makes me happier than when my kids find a new food that they like."
[00:41:49] It just makes life so much easier, doesn't it? Seriously.
[00:41:53] Mallory Lee: Yes. Yeah.
[00:41:54] Lauren Aquilino: Like, one of my kids didn't like eggs since birth, and like now one doesn't like bread. Like, what are you talking about? Anyway.
[00:42:02] Mallory Lee: That's- It's
[00:42:03] Shannon Curran: how they are ... that feels unnecessary. My kids- Yeah ... are extremely good eaters right now, but it's 'cause they're little.
[00:42:08] Like, that's not... I know this is coming for me. Other than the fact that Sebastian wants spicy chicken every night, which is General Tso's chicken. Aw.
[00:42:14] Lauren Aquilino: That's so cute.
[00:42:16] Shannon Curran: I want spicy chicken
[00:42:16] Lauren Aquilino: every night. I- that's what I
[00:42:17] Shannon Curran: want every night. And I'm like, me too, but it's a little bit pricey, buddy. That's starting to get- Yeah
[00:42:22] Thai takeout is not something we can eat every night.
[00:42:26] Mallory Lee: Or you can, it just has various consequences. Consequences.
[00:42:30] Shannon Curran: I know. We've, uh, started buying the Costco, like, bare chicken nuggets, and I bought the General Tso's ch- sauce, so then I just put it on it for him. Mm. And it is homemade spicy chicken, homemade Costco-made spicy chicken.
[00:42:43] Mallory Lee: Nice.
[00:42:43] Shannon Curran: Whatever you need, buddy. Whatever you need.
[00:42:45] Mallory Lee: Well, this is awesome. Lauren, I miss you. We got to hang out, and then, like, we didn't anymore. It was
[00:42:50] Lauren Aquilino: given to us, and then it was taken away.
[00:42:52] Shannon Curran: When's the next time? I wanna come-
[00:42:54] Lauren Aquilino: Yeah ... wherever you're going. Why not?
[00:42:55] Shannon Curran: You know.
[00:42:55] Mallory Lee: Back to my calendar-
[00:42:57] Lauren Aquilino: Back
[00:42:57] Mallory Lee: to reality
[00:42:57] and my life. Back to reality. Okay. This was so fun. Thanks for having
[00:43:00] Lauren Aquilino: me. This was so fun. Aw, Lauren, thanks for coming. Yeah,
[00:43:02] Mallory Lee: thanks for coming.
[00:43:04] Shannon Curran: Thanks for listening to Full Stack Moms.
[00:43:07] Mallory Lee: We'll be back with more episodes that help you see you're not crazy and you're not alone. If we might be your people, please make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:43:17] My save this week is gonna be Lauren, partially because of the slime scenario. Um-
[00:43:25] Lauren Aquilino: Oh, not me. Your, your nanny.
[00:43:30] Shannon Curran: I was like, "That's so sweet."
[00:43:36] Lauren Aquilino: And then I was like, "The slime. I didn't-"
[00:43:37] Shannon Curran: Oh, no. Oh, no. I was like, "Did you call Lauren about how to clean up slime?"
[00:43:42] Lauren Aquilino: I was like, "I would've told you. Well, that's your own fault. You brought it into your house."
[00:43:45] Shannon Curran: That, my girl, is something you need to figure out on your own. Like, I don't- Aw.
[00:43:48] Lauren Aquilino: Exactly.
[00:43:50] Mallory Lee: I feel bad now