Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Marsicano, Esq.
Hi Lauren, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Growing up, I moved around the country 15 times, and although each move itself was tough, the hardest part was making new friends in each place and learning to have confidence in myself. Not only was I the “new girl” but I’ve been curvy at a young age too, which was something bullies loved to pick on (even online trolls to this day!). From those experiences, I learned how to make friends in almost any situation and how to have confidence in myself for the Curvy Queen I am, and now I help women and entrepreneurs with the life skills I developed growing up.
Whether it’s through my law firm – Marsicano + Leyva PLLC, my motivational and business coaching platform – Networking Maverick, or the nonprofit community that provides self-identifying women with support, grants, and community – Women for Success, my goal is to help each and every person gain confidence in themselves to launch businesses, build relationships, and protect their Queendoms! Now, I’m on a mission to create more women billionaires, and it all starts with self-confidence and authentic connections.
Many people fail to launch or experience any growth because of their own insecurities. What they don’t realize is that they can use those insecurities to build confidence! Much like courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it, so too confidence is not the absence of insecurities but mastering them. Knowing the root of your own insecurities shows a person’s ability to dig deep into self-discovery, to recognize what their insecurities are and what they mean about who they are, and to use that anxiety as a motivator and guide to build confidence. This can then translate into taking more risks (as big as launching a business or a small as making an authentic connection with a stranger at a networking event). Although I’m a business lawyer by trade, I’m also a serial entrepreneur that understands the challenges most women face in making authentic connections (on and offline) and the lack of support many faces in launching a business. That’s why this past year, our nonprofit Women for Success launched its Business Shower initiative to celebrate women that have launched business and shift how society treats women choosing nontraditional paths, one Business Shower at a time.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If the road is too smooth, to me, that means you aren’t taking any risks. The key to being a successful entrepreneur is being able to fail forward. When you try new things out of your comfort zone, you often fail at first. Thomas Edison, who took 10,000 attempts to perfect the lightbulb, is quoted saying, “I have not failed. I have just found 9,999 ways that do not work.” Another more recent example is Michael Jordan, who was originally cut from his varsity team in high school, and even after being known as the GOAT, is quoted saying that he fails 50% of the time. But knowing this, he makes sure he takes two shots: one to miss and one to score. During my time as a business owner, I’ve failed a lot.
When we were launching the law firm, so many people asked why I would leave “Big Law” behind and cautioned me that I’d be back. It made me feel sad at the lack of support but also had me questioning if I was taking the right path. After all, I had spent many years and thousands of dollars working my way to that dream job I was leaving. It was definitely hard to leave the idea of the “steady paycheck” behind, but now I see that being employed isn’t really a “secure” paycheck. Only I can provide myself that for myself. Even as an award-winning lawyer, I’ve lost hearings on issues despite believing we had the winning arguments, but I keep representing the client to the best of my abilities. More recently, when launching the nonprofit, I had zero idea how to organize fundraisers, secure sponsors, or market properly for that type of business. After two years, we’ve given out over $16,000 in grants and funding to women-owned businesses, but I’ve heard “no” more often then not when reaching out to sponsors or asking for monetary support. But what’s important is to keep going and experimenting with new methods until we succeed. Fail forward.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Marsicano + Leyva PLLC, Networking Maverick LLC, and Women for Success Inc.?
Whether it’s through my law firm – Marsicano + Leyva PLLC, my motivational and business coaching platform – Networking Maverick, or the nonprofit community that provides self-identifying women with support, grants, and community – Women for Success, my goal is to help each and every person gain confidence in themselves to launch businesses, build relationships, and protect their Queendoms! As I’ve mentioned, I’m on a mission to create more women billionaires, and it all starts with self-confidence and authentic connections.
After we launched our law firm, we were able to make six figures within the first year (something everyone told us wasn’t possible). Then, we doubled it our next year (another impossible feat). I attribute this mainly to the relationships I was able to foster before and after launch. Many of our first clients were people I’d met through school or law firm networking events or their referrals. For small businesses, word of mouth marketing is extremely important, and if you’re always networking just to make money and seeing a new connection as only dollar signs, then your reputation is going to suffer. Once people saw the success of our new firm, many women came up to me asking how I did it when they find networking as a women professional so difficult. That’s when I launched Networking Maverick. Its aim was to provide more people with tips on how to build confidence and focus on making authentic connections. In a world where people say ABC means Always Be Closing, I encouraged people to shift their perspective to ABC – Always Be CONNECTING. Truly engage with and care about the people you’re networking with at events. Focus on making three new, authentic connections at events rather than spraying your business card out at events and praying that one of them will call you back. Having a platform to help others build self-confidence and make real connections sets me apart from many other business lawyers and even other business growth “gurus”.
Once the pandemic hit, I heard so many women and mompreneurs especially discuss how negatively the pandemic was impacting their lives and businesses. This first female recession motivated me to find a way to lift women up when we were being pushed down the most, and from this, the nonprofit Women for Success was born. We hosted a virtual conference to raise funds to launch the nonprofit and give out grants, and within three months, we reached our first goal and served more than 300 women nationwide. Although the initial brunt of the pandemic has passed, society’s perspective on the paths women should take have not. We already have bridal showers and baby showers, but there’s never a real celebration with women starting their own businesses. Now, Women for Success has started to throw Business Showers for women choosing this nontraditional path in addition to the grants, networking, and free resources it already provides.
Whether it’s as a business lawyer, Networking Maverick, or philanthropist, my goal is always to lift women up and teach them how to have confidence and make authentic connections so that they can build and protect their Queendoms!
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
One thing the pandemic taught me is the power of community. When I had the crazy idea of launching a new nonprofit whose mission is to allow women to define success on their own terms, I went to my network of women to ask for their support (hoping they wouldn’t laugh me off the phone since we were ALL going through difficult times). Instead, what I received was an outpouring of love and support for the idea. Although cash was tight, we were able to fundraise through grassroots campaigns and hosting a virtual conference within three months of forming this idea. The community we have created and the support it provides for so many women is a testament to how powerful women can be when we come together for a common goal. Now, we host networking events and free training, provide grants to self-identifying women business owners, and throw Business Showers for women that have launched businesses. Without the pandemic, none of this would have happened, and I am so thankful for everyone that has supported this initiative, no matter how outlandish my vision may have seemed at the time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.networkingmaverick.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/networkingmaverick/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.marsicano
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NetworkingMaverick
- Other: https://www.giveforsuccess.org/
Image Credits
VCV Agency, The Magus Films, FrameTale Studios.
