W2 vs. Entrepreneurship: The Unfiltered Pros, Cons, and Plot Twists Nobody Warns You About

When God stops whispering and just starts yelling

I realized that a series of seemingly unrelated stories are really just God flashing one big neon sign in front of my face: IT'S TIME TO GO. ✈️ I ran into a woman I hadn't seen in years at the Cancun airport and she has my literal dream business. First class seats, luxury retreats, and a sales pipeline that basically runs itself. 💥 A woman named Jessi started an Instagram account six months ago with zero strategy and made $1.2 million last week. She's not smarter than me. She just did it. 🍽️ My friend Jen said three words to me over dinner that cracked something open: "God wastes nothing." I've been stewing in a failure for two years and that sentence changed everything. 📱 I built a functioning app. Last night. With AI bots, customized coaching, and the sprint goal method I've been teaching for years. In two hours. So now I have zero excuses. 🎤 I realized mid-sermon that I am not living my calling, and I looked at my husband and said it out loud, which means I actually have to do something about it now. 🙋 I need YOU to hold me accountable: an event in Charlotte this fall, three beta testers for my app, and getting my face back on Instagram. If I go quiet, come find me and say "bitch, please." 📩 Want this energy in your inbox? Sign up for my twice-monthly newsletter at laurenwidrick.com [https://laurenwidrick.com/] where I share the real stuff, not the highlight reel. The signs are everywhere. The question isn't whether God is talking to you. It's whether you're finally ready to listen.

When is it time to quit your business and go back to Corporate America?

Entrepreneurship is HARD AF. So...how do you know if you should keep riding the roller coaster or get off? Should you push through or walk away? The best way I can answer this for you is through my own story. This is super-freaking-vulnerable and I spare no detail about what happened. I truly hope this helps you. Episode Highlights: 🚨 I turned a Hail Mary conference into a sign from the universe, a ski trip panic attack, a flu four days before showtime, and a stolen phone from a Charlotte street into the most clarifying moment of my entrepreneurial life. 💸 I was making "great revenue" while secretly bringing home a teacher's salary. My husband did the math. I did not want him to do the math. 🗣️ The squad went from $750 to $269 a month and almost nobody bought it. A member told me I had just devalued my own product in front of everyone. She was not wrong. ✝️ I walked into a church for the first time and had a genuine come-to-Jesus moment (literally) on the side of the highway. I cried an ugly cry. Multiple times. On this episode. 📋 I took a contract project manager job, called it a "soft place to land," and it turned out to be exactly what I needed to name a number so ridiculous it felt like a joke. 🎙️ If your business feels spiritually broken (not just hard), this episode is your permission slip. And if you want to talk it through, my DMs are open. 📩 Want more of this unfiltered realness twice a month? Sign up for my newsletter at laurenwidrick.com [https://laurenwidrick.com/]. Your life is not fixed and permanent. You can go back, pivot, leave, return, and do all of it on your own terms. You will not die.

Best Summer Ever + Event Updates + Hilary Duff + Yesteryear Review + Spencer Pratt

We're catching up. Just a mishmash of things I've been sitting on and finally hit record about. 🎉 Over 30 people slid into my DMs saying they'd show up to my event sight unseen, and now I might actually have to plan a real thing ✨ JJ invented an entire conference concept in one conversation and I'm absolutely taking credit for executing it (love you JJ) 📖 I read a book about a trad wife influencer who gets time-warped to 1855 and it wrecked me in the best way possible 🦆 Spencer Pratt is running for mayor of LA and I am weirdly here for it ☀️ I declared this the summer of structure, rest, and lifting heavy things, and I need you to hold me to it 🌊 Also Hilary Duff is on the cover of Sports Illustrated dropping an album at 37 and my friend group literally made her a group chat photo 💌 If you want the episode recap plus my occasional unhinged polls, sign up for the newsletter at laurenwidrick.com [https://laurenwidrick.com/] Stop waiting until you have something perfect to say. Nobody does. Hit record anyway.

Hey...do you want to hang out IRL? I'm serious.

I had an incredible night that also broke my brain a little. Sometimes the best nights are the ones that leave you questioning everything. 🎤 Went to a Charlotte Entrepreneurs event on a whim and almost talked myself out of going. 🎭 My friend Brian LaFontaine (yes, you've seen him on Ozark) taught us improv skills to actually listen to people instead of just waiting for our turn to talk. 😬 When someone asked what my business was, I froze, babbled something about "a little podcast I do from my car," and could feel myself radiating shame in real time. 🐉 Turns out I described my former business as "an eight-headed monster" to approximately four strangers that night, which is both accurate and kind of horrifying. 🔥 One killer question unlocked everything: if you burned it all down and kept only one thing, what would it be? My answer surprised me. 🎪 I'm declaring, right here, right now, that I'm doing an event. Pre-sold tickets. Cheap or free space. No Marriott ballroom deposit. We're not doing that again. 📬 If this is your kind of chaos, get on my newsletter at laurenwidrick.com [https://laurenwidrick.com/] for twice-monthly dispatches that are zero percent salesy and one hundred percent vibes. Your life is trying to tell you something. The breadcrumbs are always there. Just show up. Links and cool-ass people I mentioned: Super C Vitality: https://www.youtube.com/@SuperCVitality Brian LaFontaine: https://brianlafontaine.com/ Charlotte Entrepreneurs: https://charlotteentrepreneurs.com/

My TEDx Talk Idea: Goals are stupid and don't work. Here's the Anti-Goals system that does.

I've been sitting on a big idea, and instead of keeping it to myself, I workshopped the whole thing on the podcast. Out loud. Unfiltered. Half-baked and all. 🎯 92% of goals are dead within two weeks. A Harvard study said it. I'm just here to stop pretending otherwise. 🏃 I'm pitching a totally anti-goal system built on sprints, and the methodology I stole from software developers might be the thing that actually changes your life. ✨ Forget discipline and consistency. What if your plan only had to survive the next seven days? 🧠 I think I'm building an app. I also think I might be losing my mind. Possibly both. 📞 One brown spot on my cheek, one phone call, and suddenly I understand how micro wins turn into a completely different life. 🎤 I applied to do a TED Talk. Okay, I said I MIGHT apply. I'm dragging a friend into it either way. 📬 If this kind of messy, in-progress thinking is your thing, you'll love my twice-monthly newsletter over at laurenwidrick.com [https://laurenwidrick.com/]. The whole point of this podcast is vulnerability and building out loud. So there you go.