Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Hong.
Lauren, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My love for marketing was instilled naturally in me. My father was a journalist who loved to tell stories and my mother was a painter who sold her own designs. I was raised in Kansas City, MO and went to college at Drake University where I studied graphic design and advertising. My spark of interest for marketing grew as I dug into the theories behind why designs worked and how successful campaigns are built. After college, a Fulbright Scholarship took me to South Korea where I taught English to middle school girls and then connected with the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs division where I dove into some interesting PR campaigns.
I also got a master’s degree in International Studies at Ewha University in South Korea. I followed my fiancé to Washington D.C. and worked for a brand new boutique marketing firm, helping their U.S. based clients with international campaigns. I carried that to Boston and dabbled in entrepreneurship. No matter where in the world I lived in or who was employing me, there was one thing I could never shake – my absolute love for marketing positioning and messaging. It woke me every day with renewed vigor. It’s been my constant.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Five years ago, I took all those experiences and started fresh in San Diego, with my husband. With the exception of a couple friends, we knew no one. I had no professional network and no marketing portfolio of my own. I had to dig deep and prove myself with every step I took in building my company. Initially, it was just me, freelance graphic design projects. Every project was a proving ground. I had to put all the self-doubt or hesitant noise aside and just push toward what I knew I could build.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a digital marketing agency, serving medium-size companies primarily in the financial services industry who are committed to growth. Our clients come to us because they don’t want a cookie-cutter strategy. We provide unique and client-driven outbound marketing strategies, based on the pulse of their company.
Something I’m really proud of is our ability to actually listen to our clients. Clients can reach out to us anytime. We become an extension of their team. Our team is made up of top-notch people who really enjoy and get fired up about their skill sets. That lets us produce the highest quality outcome for our clients.
How do you, personally, define success? What’s your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc?
True success, in my estimation, is building a work life around the one thing that wakes you up every day. If you can do work that doesn’t feel like “work,” and build a job or business around that, that’s ultimate success in life. It’s about creating the life you want, with no strings attached. The key there is genuine happiness. The criteria for that is finding something that excites you, while still making time for the things that matter, such as family.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4241 Jutland Drive, #301 San Diego, CA 92117
- Website: outandaboutcommunications.com
- Phone: (619) 564-8584
- Email: hello@outandaboutcomm.com
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