Hello, beautiful human beings of the internet. I'm Lauren Elizabeth and like, seriously, let's get serious. This is seriously happening.

Yes, it is actually happening. It's not just a teaser. It is the podcast and I honestly can't really believe it and my mood is

excited, nervous, but ready. Welcome to the first episode of mood with Lauren Elizabeth. Obviously, you know, I'm Lauren Elizabeth and this is my new podcast.

I'll be doing episodes every single Wednesday available on Spotify, the Apple Store. I know a lot of you guys were asking if it was going to be available on the Apple Store and hopefully you see now that it is. Things take time just like this podcast.

I wanted to basically do the first episode while doing the usual structure that I'm obviously going to tweak over time, but I have a little bit of structure in place.

But I wanted to just like talk to you guys and introduce myself. Maybe you know me. Maybe you don't know me. Maybe you watch my YouTube videos, follow me on Instagram, neither both whatever it is. I appreciate you if you do.

But you know, a lot of people might have come here from the morning toast or just tuning in for the first time and maybe have only seen photos of me.

So let's just dive right into everything mood and everything Lauren Elizabeth. I realize that saying you might have seen photos of me sounds either a scandalous, be weird or narcissistic.

I mean, if you have a podcast or an Instagram or a YouTube, I mean, you have to like yourself a little bit, I guess, but it's funny because I'm very confident.

But I'm also one of those people that definitely hates themselves inside their heads, but that is not the mood of today. Today we are excited, nervous and ready.

So please excuse me if I sound nervous. I think it's weird. Usually I obviously record myself talking to you guys with a camera in front of me. And now I'm literally talking into a microphone and staring down at a notebook.

So it's a little weird, but a lot of people asked me why I wanted to start a podcast and it goes a little something like this.

I started listening to podcasts about a year and a half, maybe two years ago. And I just like absolutely fell in love because a lot of you guys know I struggle with anxiety and it became something that helped me so much in the car because if I was listening to music or something, I just would not really be paying attention and just be all in my head and listen to podcasts for me was something I could actually focus on and pay attention to.

And so I really fell in love with just listening to people talk while I was in the car and not really needing that visual element. And I've been on YouTube since 2011, like I said, obviously a lot of times on my YouTube channel, I'm just kind of sitting there and talking.

And so for me, when I started YouTube initially, it was me watching other people's YouTube videos and thinking, huh, I could do this. I think this would be fun. This would be a good create about it. And so me listening to podcasts, it was kind of the same thing.

You know, when you're in this digital industry for so long, you could easily think, okay, so and so is doing this or so and so is coming out with a book or a clothing line or whatever, I need to do that because everyone else is doing it. And I never really do anything unless I'm actually really, really passionate about it. And I think it's fun and I want to do it. I want to be a part of that community.

And so that was what podcasting was for me. I wanted to start a podcast over a year and a half ago. And I was just talking about it, talking about maybe what I would do, how to start it. And it was definitely a very, very long journey for me because obviously I could easily just record something and throw it up.

But I wanted to do it the right way. And obviously I have people on my team, I'm a YouTuber and all that stuff. It's a real job now. So yes, I do have people that work with me and have to approve things that I do and want them to be good. And so, you know, for me, it was more so like, okay, how do I get this done the right way. And which I think is a good part when you're doing anything in business. And so for me, I really wanted to make sure that my podcast was going to be good that I was going to do it with the right people. And it ended up taking a lot longer than I wanted.

And so I wanted it to because for me, when I'm excited and I'm passionate, I just want to go. I want to do it. And that's kind of the pros and cons of being a YouTuber is when you want to make a YouTube channel, all you have to do is log on to YouTube and start it. And that's what I did. I was 16 years old. I was grounded. And my mom thought I should have a creative outlet. And one thing led to another, I was making a YouTube video. And so whenever I have an idea for a video or something, I want to say or get out there. All I have to do is sit down, put on my camera. And then I edit it and I upload it. And it's all on my side.

I've been doing it all day long. And I'm just going to do it on my schedule. So for me with all these other business endeavors, sometimes that can get very frustrated when things are taking too long. But I have to really trust the process because usually they take too long for a reason. And so that creative side of me has to focus on the business and think, OK, just take this slow. Everything happens for a reason. Don't rush into something. And I'm so glad that it happened that way because what ended up happening is I wanted to do a podcast for so long. I wrote out so many pitches. I thought of so many ideas.

And it was either my management being like, OK, flush this idea out a little bit more or we'll set up a meeting. And I finally got to the point where I was like, OK, I know I can do this. This is taking way too long. I've been patient. And I was like, I need to set up meetings. And so I started setting up meetings with different podcast production companies. And I went to stage coach where I became really, really good friends with the Osheres sisters all four of them. Obviously, if you listen to the morning toast, you know, Olivia, Margo, Jackie and Claudine,

Olivia, and we just instantly connected because they just remind me of the people that I'm friends with from home, just real genuine friends, not just like people you know through work or where you live, like people that we just genuinely have the same personalities and the same interests. And we just get it. And so we totally clicked and we spent all weekend together. And one day in the car, they were like, do you want to do a podcast? We're launching a podcast network. And I was just like, holy shit, you little mother at first. I don't know if I can swear yet.

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