Hi!
I’m Lauren.
I’ve spent my career inside high-growth startups, first as an operator and Chief of Staff, then as a facilitator and coach. Along the way I learned a simple truth: teams don’t fail because of a lack of brains or strategy. They stall when trust frays, when the unsaid stays unsaid, and when leaders feel alone at the top.
I founded Conscious Ascent to change that… because there is another way. I help leaders and teams move from friction to flow with tight operating rhythms, honest conversations, and practical rituals that make culture real.
I’m also the Chapter Lead for Fuckup Nights Chicago, because sharing failure builds the kind of courage and connection we need at work. When I’m not working, you can find me climbing. Climbing taught me that you never summit alone: you rope up, check your knots, communicate with your belayer, and trust the system.
My broader mission is to contribute to ending the loneliness epidemic - starting at work, where we spend most of our lives.
Why Conscious Ascent?
When I’m not working, you can find me challenging myself, falling, trying again and sometimes sending big walls. I found climbing at an early age, but it wasn’t until 2017, when a friend taught me proper technique, that I truly got hooked. Since then, climbing has been my steady companion: a few times a week indoors, and outdoors every chance I get.
Climbing has taught me some of my deepest leadership lessons: how to be present, how to trust myself and others, how to embrace fear without letting it lead, and how to take one deliberate step at a time, even when the path upward is uncertain. I even gave a TEDx talk about the lessons climbing has taught me and how they mirror the entrepreneurial and leadership journey.
Conscious
Inspired by the principles of the Conscious Leadership Group, it’s about choosing awareness over autopilot. It’s about seeing clearly - ourselves, our impact, and our patterns - and leading with intention, responsibility, and presence.
Ascent
Climbing is both literal and metaphorical. Every leadership journey is a kind of ascent - full of bold moves, slips, recalculations, and moments of crystal clear perspective. Growth isn’t a straight line, but a series of conscious steps upward.
For me, this name is a reminder of what it takes to lead: courage, trust, awareness, and the willingness to keep climbing together - even when the route gets tricky.