 Hey, what's up everybody? I'm Lauren Morrison and I'm taking over Shan Booty's channel as a means for me to introduce myself to you. Now, since me and my family have come over here from Canada to Los Angeles, we have been just inundated with an outpour of support from all of you. So many messages in my DM saying welcome to LA, encouraging us through this transition and we are so grateful for it. But I know how connections work and in order for us to continue to build this deep connection, you need to know my story and that's what this video is about. So before we get into it, I want to make sure that we give a shout out to our sponsor Squarespace. This video is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a professional website, online store or portfolio. When Lauren was ready to launch her business, she used Squarespace because it was easy to claim a domain and create a custom site that matched her style to bring her business to life. With Squarespace's powerful website analytics, you can quickly understand and grow your audience by staying on top of page views, traffic sources, most read content, audience geography and more. The best way to grow is to get instant feedback on what's working and how to improve. Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, go to Squarespace.com forward slash Shan Booty to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. All right, so let's get into it. What was it that made my family decide six months ago that we were coming to LA? Why LA? Why LA now at a time when both my husband and I were so solidly set in our careers? For those of you who don't know, prior to coming to LA, I had a 10-year career in a major telecommunications organization as a director. I had a team of many major mandates, pension, bonus, you name it. It was all stacked up for me. My husband very similarly works for a major global consulting firm as a senior director. And again, solid roots within Canada. Our careers were set. Our path was set. Our kids who were 10 and 12 had friendships who were, you know, they could walk to their best friend's house. They knew which high school they were going to go to. They had card BFFFF and all the trees in the neighborhood like we were planted. Community, check, family, check, career, check, longevity, check, all the things that when you look from the outside and you're like, they've got everything. So why risk it all? But here's something that maybe you don't know. This wasn't a six month plan. Coming out to LA, at least for me personally, was a seed that was planted early in my 20s that I just never executed on. It was always a what if in my life that I was always tempted to course correct at some point. But of course, as my roots got deeper, as my golden handcuffs got tighter, that dream just seemed to get further and further away from me. So where was that seed planted? When I was in university, I went to university for radio and television arts. So obviously the passion for media was there. The passion for the media arts was there even when I started in the theater as a young child growing up, always wanting to be on stage, always wanting to be in productions. When I got to university, I decided that not only did I want to figure out how to be in front of the camera, but I was really more so interested on the behind the scenes part of it. Even when I had a short stint as a Beyonce impersonator in a tribute band, I was more concerned about the actual contracts than I was concerned about the set list itself or whether or not I was flat, which was constant. I'm not that good. It planted a seed inside of me that I had this passion for the music industry. And if you asked me, what do you want to be when you grow up? I was going to be a music mogul. I was going to be the next female p ditty. I read every single billboard magazine every month, every vibe magazine, every source magazine. I was inundated in the music scene and it determined to learn everything I could about it. I also, after university, became involved in a music publishing house, which licenses music for film and television and working with a boutique record label, urban music boutique record label, which just again fueled my passion for not only the art of music, but also the film and television and the business side of it. For those of you who are from Canada, you also know that the music scene is a smaller scene. So in order for me to really become who I wanted to become, I knew where I needed to go. I needed to go to LA and I had the opportunity. But when the opportunity was presented to me to actually figure out that LA path, I started to hear narratives of my own childhood that started to say that you can't have both. If you go to California, if you go to LA, you're going to get swallowed up by this industry. You're not going to have time for friends. You're not going to have time for family. As a matter of fact, you might be uber successful, but your children will hate you. Your husband will have sex with a sex rotary and essentially you can't have success and a solid family life. You have to choose one. And that choice is what kept me planted in Canada. However, that seed of coming to LA to fulfill that dream was always there. It just never received any sunlight, any watering, any soil, no growth, no nurturing, but it always remained there. I then fast forwarded into setting up my family life and prioritizing my family life. I found an amazing husband. I found someone who I wanted to grow my life with who I wanted to have children with. And all I could think about at that time was stability. We have to make sure that we are set up to be stable. Risk was not an option while we had young children. Risk was not an option while we were setting up roots. So I maintained the course and kept that seed of mine buried deep into the ground. And from the outside looking in seemed to work out just fine. I started my career at a major telecommunications organization and faster than anyone else in the organization, I went from an entry-level position to director in six years. For anybody that's in a major accomplishment, let alone a woman of color. But there was always that seed that kept whispering for water. But again, all those things that you looked out from the outside, again, career, check, trajectory, check, pension, check, bonus, check, stable kids, check, friends, community, check, check, check, check, check, balance, family life, love, togetherness. Why would you risk all of that for a whisper? But the thing about those whispers is they just get louder. Even when you ignore them. Even when you try to shut it out. Even when you try to rationalize your way out of it. It just gets louder and louder and louder until it's a full on scream. I used to cry. Actually, I think the last time I cried about this was in January, where I sat at the foot of my bed and I cried, holding my hands over my ears, saying, I just want that voice to stop. I want that voice to stop telling me that I'm supposed to do something different. Just let me stay this course. Just let me do what I know is safe. Let me do what I know is working. Stop screaming at me. But I couldn't. And that voice became its loudest after Chris and I and the whole family came out to LA in December to be here for Shannon Jared with the birth of their baby. And suddenly it wasn't just my scream. It was my husband's scream too because you see, he too had a dream to do something different. He too had the opportunity way back before he met me to pursue a career in the States and he shut that away. And it was always this what if for him as well. So unbeknownst to me, the two of us had these seeds that were screaming to sprout. And when we got here and we realized that this was something that together would make us happy, not just us for our family, but us as an entire family unit. We could join forces with my sister, with my brother, where our kids could grow up together. We could do this together. And that screaming wouldn't have to be there because I'm leaning into what I love. My husband's leaning into what he loves. But not only that, but we're leaning into the people that we love. I'm no longer doing things for the purposes of a corporation that let's face it paid the bills, but I didn't care about it beyond that. This I cared about. This family I cared about my sister's dreams, my brother's dreams, my dreams. Those are things I cared about. And the scary thing is, is that when you actually sit down with that scream and break it apart bit by bit to say, what is it that scares me about actually accomplishing it? You figure those things out one by one. We started categorizing all the things that could potentially get in our way. And we started just mitigating each brick one at a time. And suddenly that plan that said, let's just start and see where it takes us in two years, rather than starting it in two years and wishing we would have started today. Now it's six months. We could be here. We could be living that dream. We could be watering those seeds in six months. That's scary as shit. But when the universe gives you green light after green light after green light after green light affirmation that this is where you're supposed to be, we are making it easy for you. Visas taken care of. Jobs taken care of. Community, you'll have that. You're home. You'll have that. You can't look at it in the face and be like, yeah, but you know what? It's too scary. You have to make that leap. And I'm here today standing in front of you talking to you today because I've made that leap because as much as I wanted so badly to continue safe, so badly to continue putting others in front of me, so badly wanted to continue to suppress what I knew I could bring to the world. There is something inside me that wouldn't let me do it. And I knew it wouldn't stop until I leaned into it. So now I'm here. And now this is my opportunity to marry everything that I have learned over the past 18 to 20 years, everything that I have grown in, everything that I've learned that I'm amazing at, and to marry it to that 21 year old girl who had a passion for something bigger. And I get to lean into the parts of me that I love the most. I've launched my own coaching consultation business, career coaching for women of color, which is something that I'm so passionate about, especially being a woman of color who was always seen in her corporation as an only. I've also been able to now lean in through shared entertainment on getting back to my production roots, getting back to my media roots, learning how to put together content for this new age of social media, being in front of the camera, telling amazing stories. Now I get to bring those best parts of me to light. But of course the road to change is not all rainbows and unicorns and it's not without its difficulties because if it was everybody would be making these kinds of leaps. But if you want to learn more about my journey, the good, the bad, and sometimes the very ugly and very vulnerable, make sure you check out my blog that is on Squarespace, which is MakeTheShiftCoach.com where you can read about my journey, but also learn a little bit about my business and what I bring to this world. Thank you for tuning into today's video. And thank you again to Squarespace for not only sponsoring the video but also being an integral part of how we and our family operate our businesses. The best way to bring any new idea to life is to just start. You can head over to Squarespace.com today for a free trial to begin browsing the templates to see what fits your brand and also play with the features such as Squarespace's email campaigns where you can create powerful email content that matches your existing branding and blog posts so your messaging is consistent and effective. Speaking of blog posts, don't forget to check out more of Lauren's personal journal on www.maketheshift.com forward slash blog and join the mailing list. If that journal inspires you to launch your own idea, start your free trial with Squarespace and when you're ready to launch, don't forget to use squarespace.com forward slash Shan Booty to save 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain today.