Guest: Lauren Weinberg, CMO and Global Head of Marketing and Communications at Square
In this episode, we cover: Weekend date nights and the best restaurants in New York City (10:04); How Lauren creates her own time and recharges (15:15); Moving to California to work at Yahoo, and finding a new community (19:32); “The worst year of my life” and going into “survival mode” (22:52); The difference between Square and its newly re-christened parent company, Block (30:22); Why our culture is galvanized by small business stories (36:05); What inspired Lauren and Jackie to write “Self-Made Boss,” and the surprising parts of publishing a book (39:52); Why Lauren includes sad or funny personal stories in every marketing email (42:26); Square’s secret superpower in the company’s early days (49:27); The planning “manifesto” Lauren sent to Square’s executive team shortly after joining (53:31); and how Square “earns the right” to show up for social causes (56:50)
Show Notes
As the CMO for Square, Lauren Weinberg spends a lot of her time talking to new and inexperienced small business owners — and she knows that each of them has wisdom that the others could benefit from. So, Lauren and her former colleague Jackie Reses wrote a book pooling all that wisdom into one place,
Self-Made Boss: Advice, Hacks, and Lessons From Small Business Owners
In this episode, Lauren and Joubin discuss why Lauren never leaves home without sneakers post-9/11; how she maintains discipline in her schedule, and how her priorities have changed over the years; how Lauren overcame three back-to-back challenges in her personal life; why she took a job at Square — after initially turning them down; and the importance of competition for any business.
In this episode, we cover:
- Weekend date nights and the best restaurants in New York City (10:04)
- How Lauren creates her own time and recharges (15:15)
- Moving to California to work at Yahoo, and finding a new community (19:32)
- “The worst year of my life” and going into “survival mode” (22:52)
- The difference between Square and its newly re-christened parent company, Block (30:22)
- Why our culture is galvanized by small business stories (36:05)
- What inspired Lauren and Jackie to write “Self-Made Boss,” and the surprising parts of publishing a book (39:52)
- Why Lauren includes sad or funny personal stories in every marketing email (42:26)
- Square’s secret superpower in the company’s early days (49:27)
- The planning “manifesto” Lauren sent to Square’s executive team shortly after joining (53:31)
- How Square “earns the right” to show up for social causes (56:50)
Links:
What is Grit?
Grit explores what it takes to create, build, and scale world-class organizations. It features weekly episodes highlighting the leaders who are pushing their companies to make a difference. This series is hosted by Joubin Mirzadegan, go to market operating partner at Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm investing in history-making founders.