EP 74: How Loren Lahav Helps Entrepreneurs Build Legacies

 Mimi:
Welcome to The Badass CEO podcast. This is Mimi MacLean. I'm a mom of five, entrepreneur, Columbia Business School grad, CPA and angel investor. And I'm here to share with you my passion for entrepreneurship. Throughout my career, I have met many incredible people who have started businesses, disrupted industries, persevered and turned opportunity into success. Each episode, we will discuss what it takes to become and continue to be a badass CEO, directly from the entrepreneurs who have made it happen. If you're new in your career, dreaming about starting your own business or already an entrepreneur, The Badass CEO podcast is for you. I want to give you the drive and tools needed to succeed in following your dreams.

Mimi:
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Mimi:
Hi, welcome back to The Badass CEO. This is your host, Mimi MacLean. And today we have on Loren Lahav. She's a dynamic entrepreneur who is a speaker, author, producer of her own events and a results coach. She's worked for many years with Tony Robbins and appeared onstage with Gary Vaynerchuk, Mike Rowe, Barbara Walters, and Barbara Corcoran, just to name a few. Loren's leadership and business triumph are a testament to her obsession with creating value. She's built explosive teams in 25 countries. She's a real estate investor and property owner throughout the United States. I'm excited today to speak with Loren about how she has created her personal brand and has created a legacy.

Mimi:
To get your Top 10 Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know, go to thebadassceo.com/tips.

Mimi:
Loren, thank you so much for coming on today. You've done so much. I was looking at your website and your videos and you've done so much. How did you get started creating your personal brand?

Loren:
Oh my gosh, how did I get started? Yeah, I think I started really young. I think I started once, as an entrepreneur, super young. My mom was the ultimate entrepreneur, I say. You and I were just talking about Santa Barbara before we got on the call and I went to this flea market. There was a shop that was a flea market. And I walk in there and I lit up, all of these feelings came back to me because I was raised on flea markets. And my mom, literally everybody knew her at the flea market. And I think I modeled my mom a lot about how important it is to create a brand, literally really young. But then I was really looking at what was it that made me unique? I was always looking for what makes me unique in the marketplace.

Loren:
I was just talking to my son about this, that I was going to go take a job when I graduated from college. And it was just like, I don't know if that's really unique enough. I don't know. I felt like I was getting stuck in the whole world of things. Then I started to really listen versus what did people see about me? What was about me that made me unique and how do I stay true to that? Because I think for so long, as you know, being in the world of Robbins for 32 years, it's a long time, I think a lot of times I would see people and they would not celebrate themselves and they would try little mini Tonys running around instead of really looking about why they did have an influence.

Loren:
And so when I was teaching these programs in Fiji for Tony, I was like, "Hey, I am a mom. I'm a woman. I'm doing all of these different things. Why not celebrate that?"

Mimi:
But how did you even get connected with Tony?

Loren:
So I was in college in 1986, it's a funny story, and my boyfriend and I back then, if I'm sure you remember, there were just books. So weren't personal, there weren't gluten free cookbooks, they were just books. And we're coming back from the football game and he sees this book, it says Unlimited Power. And he goes, "Oh my gosh, that's so you," and he drags me into the bookstore. Back then, on the back of the book in a full three piece suit, the whole car park going on on his head.

Loren:
And I was actually headed to Atlanta to go work for CNN, that was the path that I was headed to in '87. He goes, "One day, we're going to go to the Tony Robbins seminar." I'm like, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm going to move to Atlanta. I'm going to do this." And I thought, "Oh my gosh, you're crazy." And so I did what every good college graduate would do. I moved to Vail, Colorado, worked on my doctorate of waitressing degree instead of going to take a job. And then I ended up in San Diego. I was offered a job. I was in sports marketing. I worked for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, and it's very timely that we're doing this right now, because it was Thanksgiving, November, 1989, and a friend of mine invited me to go deliver food to the homeless.

Loren:
I loved my career, I loved what I was doing, but the part that was missing for me was contribution. So I ended up at this big house in Del Mar, and everybody had a big house in Del Mar and this particular house just happened to be in the shape of a castle. And we're delivering, there's 25 people there. And I'm like, "Oh my God, we're cool people. This is amazing." And then I'm walking around the turn of the castle and I see this guy and Nelson Mandela, this guy and the president. And then I see that book that my boyfriend bought in college. And I'm like, "Oh my god, that's that book my boyfriend bought me." And I feel a tap on the shoulder and it was Tony and he was only 29 at the time.

Mimi:
Was it his house?

Loren:
It was his house. And he says, "Oh, have you read my book?" And I'm "No, but I have it." And I'm, "Oh my gosh." And he goes, "Look, I saw you had a really great time today. I'd to invite you to stay for Thanksgiving."

Mimi:
Wow.

Loren:
And I was like, "Oh, cool." Like I said, there was 25 people and set up a horseshoe and he had each person stand up and say what they were most grateful for. And I stood up and I'm grateful I finally met a group of people like this. I didn't know people like this were out there. And then that's the night I met my kids' father, who was a [inaudible 00:06:49] employee. And then I ended up going, six months later, going to working for the company in the production department, creating the crew division for Tony, the people that come and work the events. I created a family within a family.

Loren:
And that's when Tony asked me to move to Fiji and launch his life mastery program. So I lived there for two and a half years teaching that program, about 36 week long programs a year. So that's a little bit, long and short of it. But I really am very grateful for him because I remember him saying to me, I said to him, I said, "You could have brought anybody in the world to come launch this program in Fiji because it was because of 9/11 that we're all stuck in Hawaii." And he had to reinvent. He had to pivot, just exactly what we're all going through right now. And I think that's the biggest thing I've learned from him is how do you really pivot and reinvent.

Loren:
And so I said, "Why did you ask me? There's people with more skill than me, there's people with more experience." And he said, "Loren, I knew you'd take care of these people." And I said, "I know how to do that." And he said, "The skill will show up." And I think that I would say that to everybody out there just really think about, when you're talking about branding, really think about what do you really love to do? And I love to take care of people. I got that mama energy, that mama bear, I think there's a lot of, probably your listeners, who have that energy and who love to serve and take care of people.

Loren:
And I just was me. I just stepped up and I celebrated myself. And I think it gave, especially a lot of women hope back then that you didn't have to be some 6'7 guy to make a difference. I think a big role model to me was always Marianne Williamson when I would see her or Mary Morrissey. They're these tiny little women, but they're mighty. So that's pretty much how-

Mimi:
It's amazing though the destiny or the serendipity of the whole thing. And then you saying yes, too, right? It's just kind of meant to be.

Loren:
And I think that, that is a really important thing about, for me, I say yes, so much, right? I say yes because I never know where that road's going to take me. You're exactly right. And I think so many times, people always ask me all the time, how many events have you done? And I'm like, "Oh my God, I can't even count." My friend, she's having me write down how many events I've done. And I'm, "Okay, events that I've done at my kids' school or events that I've done, a show or events that I've done for my rotary club. What are you talking about?" So I think that saying yes is important because that time in the trenches is so important, and you never know who you're going to meet. I don't have any expectations about what's going to happen from whether it's a show or whether it's, like I said, my kids' school. It doesn't matter to me, I just want to keep on giving and keep on sharing.

Mimi:
That's great. You had mentioned that you were in charge of hiring people for Tony's events. That I find is probably one of the hardest things that people talk about as their pain point for companies as they grow is finding the right people or finding-

Loren:
Mine was more, what would happen was people would come to events and they graduate from the event and they would want to come and keep serving. So I created a community within a community. I remember my first event was in Chicago and people just showed up to work the event and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, where do people go? People need to be in places. People need to this and that." So I'm always in that logistical event mindset. If I'm a participant, what would I want here? What sign would I want to here? What person would I want to here? So I was like, how do I create a community within a community? So that's when we started putting together more skill based, extra bonuses for people if they would come and serve.

Loren:
But I would really watch people. I would literally look and go, "Where would I want to see this person?" Does that make sense? How do they make me feel? What's is their physiology like? What's their smile like. Maybe they don't need to be a person that they're greeting the people. And I also didn't play favorites because I would be like, there's always someone who's going to work well with someone. I remember there was this guy, God bless him, he was interesting. But he had a home, he had a home. And instead of thinking that people don't belong, everybody has a home. You can find someone a home. And I remember his home was literally being a runner for the AV team. As corny as that sounds, and he did it for 18 years. You know what I mean?

Mimi:
That's awesome.

Loren:
And it was just that other people like, "Gosh, he's so this, or he's so that." And I'm like, "Okay, I hear you, but let's just find him a home." And I learned that from a great book. It's called Gung Ho! Do you remember the book?

Mimi:
No.

Loren:
It was about this woman. She worked of this big company and they had all these distribution plants across the United States. There was this one distribution plant that she was told that they needed to go close it down because they had the worst results in the country. Well, she went and she noticed there was okay, they have the worst results in the country, but they also have one department that has the best results of any department in the country. So instead of looking about what wasn't working, and I learned this from Robbins as well. I give a lot of credit to what I've learned in that environment is we always start with what's great versus what's not great.

Loren:
And we always debrief in that way. And she went in and she went and studied. This turned out that the person was head of that department was a Native American. She goes, "Why do you have the best results of all the departments?" And she goes, "Let's go follow some animals." So the first day they went and they followed squirrels. And what does squirrels do?

Mimi:
Gather.

Loren:
They gather nuts. And if they don't gather nuts, then what happens?

Mimi:
They go hungry.

Loren:
They go hungry. So there are people, they're squirrels. You just give them a job, tell them what they do and then they go and do it right? And we need squirrels, we need a lot of squirrels. Right? Then they went the next day and they followed beavers and beavers, their outcome is the same. The outcome is to build the dam. Now you might bring ideas to the dam. I might bring the big logs to the dam. Somebody else might bring mud to the dam, but our outcome is still the same. The outcome's still the same, which is to build a dam. And beavers literally drive squirrels nuts because they thought we could do it this way and this way and this way and this way. And squirrels would just tell us what we need to do.

Mimi:
Right. Right, right. Yes.

Loren:
And then the third animal they followed were geese. And geese, they fly in formation. And they honk and they honk and they honk and they honk and they're cheering that lead goose on. And then that one drops out and goes behind. So they're kind of the cheerleaders. So what happens lots of times in organizations is they're not looking at the different kind of people that they have. A lot of people who go, "I don't feel appreciated." They've probably got a lot of great squirrels, but they don't have any geese cheering them on.

Mimi:
Right. That makes sense. Yeah.

Loren:
So I was always looking for what's the balance of where do we need certain kinds of people? Where are the ones that need to get the job done? Where are the ones we need that creativity, where are the ones we need to be cheering on participants? And I love that. It's my passion, as you can tell.

Mimi:
Yeah. That's awesome. And then now you're doing a results coaching business in addition to speaking.

Loren:
Yeah. I've been doing coaching for a long time. I think for me, I have a team of people that I have as coaches, because for me personally, there's just a lot of high level executives I love working with. I love to pass the mic. My friend, Lisa Grossman, she always says, "Your job is to get to the front of the room as quickly as possible, and then pass the mic to somebody else." I have an opportunity to do something and somebody was asking me to speak at an event and I go, "I really appreciate it, but I'd really to pass the mic to this person because they've earned it." And so I think that for me, that's what my passion is, teaching others to also to really people that love to do coaching. And that's just how I am.

Mimi:
Is your results coaching for other business people or is it to teach them to be in front of the room?

Loren:
My kids' dad and I, we've done a speakers bootcamp for many, many years just because we've learned from the best in the world. I believe that there's only a handful of what I call 1% speakers, and I mean really 1% speakers. And I know certain people have certain strategies with regards to things. We are really about pulling out that true voice for people like, what's your message, what's your true message with regards to that. So I have a group of women, my true leaders, it's called the TLC and those are women who they've already achieved a lot in their life. And they're really at that point that they want to leave a legacy. And so they're looking for helping them with their true voice. So at the last event, we obviously had it scheduled. Then the mandatory pause came along in the world, but a couple of them came out and really worked with them, one on one.

Loren:
A lot is pulling out their story and what is the message that they feel that is their legacy. So I do that. We do that a couple times a year, but it's a very small group because it's very intense. It's full on immersion. There are some people that are more will do something once a week type of learning and then there are people, and I think it's just because I've been in the event world for so long, they're like let's dive in, let's dive deep, let's just go.

Mimi:
Rip it off.

Loren:
That's how I am. Obviously, we teach the women to learn lots of times and it's not for everybody. Sometimes people, it's not their way of learning. It's kind of like I always say, you got to find the right school for your kid, not the right school. You got to find the right coach for you. Not just the best coach. There's just so many different ways.

Mimi:
It's hard though, to find clarity, to find your why, or to find who you are living day to day, just doing it once a week. I personally would rather just be emerged because then you're removed and you can really focus.

Loren:
That's me too. That's how I am too. I am full on that way because I let a lot of distractions, and there's a lot of distractions happening and then I can't get laser focused way that I would like. I keep my goggles here.

Mimi:
I love that.

Loren:
Because when I sit at my desk, my friend, my business coach, he said to me, he's not a business coach, he's an amazing businessman. He's not a coach. But he's like, "Loren, you need to be the Michael Phelps of your profession." And I'm like, "What do you mean?" He goes, "You need to just put your goggles on and swim." So I think that you're right. For me, without immersion, I can get very, very distracted of what's happening around me. But there are some people that are really great at it.

Loren:
So I would say find a person that's great at doing that for you. I'm probably not that person. I'm more I'll kick you in the butt and I'll hug you at the same time. But my intention's always good. And you know what? Like I said, I freaking have been with the best, I've seen the best, I've worked with them. And not just Tony, I'm talking a lot of different speakers. Another one of my favorite is Bob Proctor, and he is true as true is. I remember talking to him once because he wrote the forward to another book that I've been working on. I said, "Bob, I owe you a big of apology." And he goes, "Why?" I go, "I never really appreciated the time in the trenches as much as I do now, my experience of 32 years."

Mimi:
Wow.

Loren:
And I want to help others rise. I think it's our responsibility to mentor people, to help them rise. But I remember how cocky I was in my twenties and thirties and even forties. And I was like, "Oh I got this. I don't need to have worked with however many people." And now I'm like, oh my gosh, it's unbelievable all the experience I've had and who I've met and resources I can pull that I never ever, ever had as resources.

Mimi:
I see that you're also an entrepreneur and you have real estate. Can you talk a little bit about that? Everyone tells you, you're supposed to stay focused, but you're like me where you like to do lots of different things.

Loren:
Well, some people say that, but I remember hearing, I was MCing an event for success resources and it was in New Jersey. So it's funny. It was this beautiful theater in New Jersey. And I was right before the mandatory pause in the world, and Gary V was talking about this. And he says, "A lot of people will tell you to be focused." He goes, "I'm going to tell you no." He said, "All roads lead to," like it's kind of like everything brings you back home. And he talked about diversifying. You hear about wealth. You learn anything about the top wealth people in the world and no matter who they are, no matter what they believe about wealth, but they always talk about diversify, diversify, diversify, diversify. And thank God I look at my life and I'm, thank God I diversified in my life because I was so full on in immersion of just focusing on speaking and doing those things that when this mandatory pause happened, thank God I had all of these things that I was diversified in. Many different businesses that I have.

Loren:
And I might say there's probably seven different things that I do. I love real estate, I've always loved real estate. I didn't love real estate so much during the recession.

Mimi:
Especially if you're the land lord.

Loren:
Yeah. Especially, our house, we had a million dollar home and we had to short sell it for 305. We had to pay $45,000 to get out of our house. I went through a divorce. We've all got our story. Right?

Mimi:
Right.

Loren:
But I remember that feeling and I think the feeling that drives so many of us is never again, the feeling of never again, I'm never going to do those things. So when I met my husband, I met him at baggage claim 10 years ago. And both of us had been going through divorces, and I thank God I had been doing little to make sure I'd save money for my kids. I put, I remember when I was pregnant with them, it was $50 a month, then it was $100 a month. But thank goodness I had that contingency money, if God forbid, anything went wrong. And it did. Even though I was doing well, I still had three kids in very expensive sports, like lacrosse and wrestling and dance. I'm sure we can all relate to this.

Mimi:
It all adds up.

Loren:
Right. So it's more month at the end of the money. But I remember with my husband, we're like, we're going to do this, we're going to figure this out. And we've done real estate. During the mandatory pause, we started going to Zion and visiting Zion. And it's just so good for my soul. And then we're like, we'll start buying land and we ended up buying 120 acres of land. We're planning on doing a dog rescue and a facility, a retreat center.

Loren:
So I think that you've got to just follow what really makes your heart sing. And then if you love it, because there's really only three ways to make money, right? One, real estate, two, stocks, bonds, whatever, now crypto, my kids are into, doing their crypto things, and a business. Those are the only three ways to make money. So whether you own a business or you're part of a business. So I think that for me, I just got excited about it. And I think I had a lot of pain as well. My dad was an optometrist, and I just saw him working. We never went on a family vacation unless it was a weekend. And I just was like, I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be like that I can't enjoy it. And then of course, right when my dad retired, a couple months later, he passed away. So I think that for me, I'm like, what can I do now so that I can really be smart and diversify?

Mimi:
Right. That's one lesson I tell especially women now. It's like if one thing we all learn during COVID is make sure you don't have one stream of income. So it's like, if you need to keep your job, that's great. But then on the side, follow your passion. If it's making something, if it's a service business, whatever, do something on the side that helps you create another stream of income or real estate or whatever.

Loren:
I will tell you, I know there's a lot of people, I love affiliate marketing, I love network marketing. I think that for network marketing nowadays, people have a community to plug into, which is not something a lot of people had. If you look at what people are really hungry for is community, right? Whether they're wherever they went to church, their synagogue, their whatever, their mosque, whatever, that went away during that time. And so many people had their needs met by that community, a hug, welcoming somebody, greeting somebody. Or I look at the Robbins events, now Tony just did his first live event in two years. And people like the crew came back and it's like they're all back to life now. We are meant for community.

Loren:
We're meant to be brought together, especially as women. That's what we do, we create community. So however that it is, find a community, I would say. They're great. I went to some affiliate. Every event comes to Vegas, as you can imagine. But all these people that did different affiliate marketing, they were all there and that was the community. My husband, I called him one time and I go, "I think I'm really depressed." And he goes, "What are you talking about?" He goes, "You're with people all day long." I go, "No, I'm not." I go, "No, I'm not." And this was before the mandatory pause. I said, "You're with people all day long," because he worked as an executive on this trip. I said you're with people all day long.

Loren:
You don't realize just seeing people in the coffee room or walking down the hall that you're getting filled up in some different way. I go, "I'm not." I go, "I'm on Zooms, but I'm not with people." When I go and do those immersion things, that's when I fill up or I'm going out to a class, or the gym or something.

Loren:
I think people need to really audit their lives and really take inventory of what really fills their mind. Anybody I work with, I always say make a list of everything that you love, everything that you love, from the sunset to the sunrise, to the sand between your toes, to the way your kids say your name and make that list so that you make sure in some way, you're filling yourself up with those. Make a list of the things you really, I don't like to use softeners like hate. I hate the feeling of living paycheck to paycheck. That's why I did it. I hated that feeling. I had so much pain because the pain's what moves you, right?

Mimi:
Yeah.

Loren:
Because when you're comfortable, you're not growing, as we know.

Mimi:
That's great. So I'd love to end on any advice because you have so much great advice from all your speeches and your class and your coaching program, what advice do you have for an entrepreneur or woman? Any kind of just to leave them on, any good advice?

Loren:
My advice is just to go for it. I would also be patient. I always like to say, you need to be patiently persistent. I think nowadays, we expect results so quickly with things instead of letting that momentum build. Things take time. You can see behind me, I think you can see behind me, I have bamboo there. And I'd say the best advice is just using the example of a bamboo. With anything, the first year you plant bamboo and all you see is dirt and people go, "There's nothing happening. What's up with that business of yours? Stop doing that business." It's my husband, right? He's like, "What are you doing? What are the sales? What is this?" Second year, all you can see is dirt. The truth is it's growing an inch. Right? And then another inch the next year. Third year nothing's happening, people are like, "Just give up that business. What are you doing? That's crazy. Why are you doing that? Why are you still in the game?"

Loren:
Fourth year, and you're starting to go, "Maybe they're right. What am I doing with this thing?" But it's still growing those roots and you're going, maybe I should have bought a ficus right or something that. And then the fifth year, as we know, is your business can grow like a bamboo plant grows between 30 and 100 feet depending on the species of bamboo. So all that time, it was creating these strong roots and building deep. The depth is so important to you. But there is a lot of people, a lot of people that may look like their businesses are growing, but it's very surface. I'm like you, I'm proud that I've built a strong, deep business. It's an unshakeable business for myself. I have those years of experience. I have case studies. I have whatever that it is. So now that it's got that depth, even though it wasn't shiny lots of times, it's deep. So I would say be patiently persistent, stay laser focused and find a great team around you to support you. So that would be my advice, and stay badass.

Mimi:
Yeah. I love that. Thank you so much. This has been amazing. And I love all your advice. And for those of you would like to find out more about Loren, you can go to LorenLahav.com. So it's LorenLahav.com. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Loren:
Thanks so much.

Mimi:
Thank you for joining us on The Badass CEO. To get your copy of the Top 10 Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know, go to thebadassceo.com/tips. Also, please leave a review as it helps others find us. If you have any ideas or suggest questions, I would love to hear them. So email me at Mimi@thebadassceo.com. See you next week and thank you for listening.