Have you ever kept a painful secret, ashamed, embarrassed, afraid of the consequences of sharing it? This episode explores the liberating power of breaking silence and reclaiming one's life through the courageous story of Lauren Brill.

Discover how confronting past trauma can unlock profound personal growth and healing, resonating deeply with anyone on the path to finding their purpose and strength in adversity.

In this gripping episode, our remarkable guest, Lauren Brill, shares her deeply personal story of overcoming sexual assault as a teenager, a moment in her life that she kept secret for years. But now, Lauren has turned her secret into her superpower and she's on a mission to inspire you to do the same!

Why You Should Listen

• Empowerment through Empathy: Learn how sharing your story can help heal old wounds and empower others facing similar challenges.
• Actionable Advice on Resilience: Gain insights into building resilience and turning personal trials into triumphs.
• Inspiration for Personal Liberation: Discover the steps toward liberating oneself from the burdens of untold stories and the transformation that follows.

Prayer Requests

Please send your prayer request to be featured on an upcoming episode of the podcast.

• You Can Email: Podcast@LoweDownMedia.com
• Or Send via Text to 877-749-8178

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Sponsored by MyPillow: Use Promo Code Kevin
• Download your FREE: Rise & Thrive: Personal Development Tracker
• Website for The Unsealed
• Buy on Amazon: Unseal Your Superpowers: Letters to Inspire the Hero Within You

TODAY'S AWESOME GUEST

LAUREN BRILL

Lauren Brill is a former sports broadcaster turned advocate and entrepreneur, founder of The Unsealed, a platform for people to share their stories of adversity and triumph. With a career that spans high-profile interviews and pivotal roles in media, Lauren has transitioned her focus towards empowering others by fostering a community where personal struggles and successes are shared openly. Her work not only inspires but actively supports individuals in healing and growth, making her a perfect fit for today’s profound discussion.

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Guided by Faith. Inspired by life itself.

© 2024 Grit, Grace, & Inspiration

0:00:37 - (Kevin Lowe): Today, she's going to take you on a journey through the events of that night, of the event that she would keep secrets for so very long, until one day she would finally reveal her secret. And, my golly, it set her free in the most profound of ways. This is episode 282. This is the story of Lauren Brill. What's up, my friend? And welcome to Grit, grace, and inspiration. I am your host, Kevin Lowe. 20 years ago, I awoke from a life saving surgery, only to find that I was left completely blind.

0:01:43 - (Kevin Lowe): Before we go diving into today's interview, I do want to give you a quick announcement for something new that I've decided to try out here on the podcast. I'm always in a pursuit to make this podcast mean more to you, to make it leave an impact on your life. And therefore, I thought of including a new section on the podcast for prayer requests. I believe strongly in the power of prayer. Faith is a huge part of my life.

0:02:46 - (Kevin Lowe): I'm going to start today off with my own prayer request, and then I'm going to tell you how you can send your prayer requests to the podcast today. I would love to ask you to say a prayer for my friend Sharon. She's going through some hard times, some medical issues, and I would love it if you could please help me in praying for a complete healing, for comfort, for peace, for God to make her well. Her name is Sharon, and it would mean the world to have you praying for her.

0:03:58 - (Kevin Lowe): So if that will be easier for you to look at and then be able to jot down again, send your prayer requests. They will be kept anonymous at the most. I will only ever use somebody's first name, and I just want you to get to have your prayers heard by my audience, by people from all over the world, so we can begin to help out one another. With that, my friend, I introduce you to today's incredible guest, Lauren Brill.

0:05:03 - (Lauren Brill): So it was just, I had a really good childhood. And I had, at first I wanted to be an actress. And then I realized, like, practicing in a stage and inside in a theater, I found to be really boring. I was just such a hyperactive kid, and I just wanted to be outside playing sports. And then I went to a Rangers game with my dad. It was the year after they won the Stanley cup, and it was the playoffs. And this woman invited me to sit in the front row with her. She had, like, incredible tickets, and she saw us, and it reminded her of her and her dad.

0:06:02 - (Lauren Brill): And my parents were like, okay, I never had a lot of pressure from my parents. I never had a lot of, like, you have to do this or you have to go to this school. But my brother, who I love to death, is like Mister Smarty pants, and he set the bar, and I was very competitive. So since he did really well in school, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well as well and go to a good school like he did. So that's where I put a lot of pressure on myself, but not for my parents. My parents were like, just be happy. Just do it.

0:06:42 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. No, no, no. I think that's. That's amazing. Amazing. Now you have this idea that, I mean, what a powerful moment at the hockey game and to be a kid and be like, oh, my gosh, like, I can make dreams come true with this career.

0:07:44 - (Lauren Brill): And so then he had to get me tickets, too. And then he got. He. My brother played hockey, so he had gotten season tickets, like, shared with some other parents, so they were switching off, taking their, their sons to games. And so my dad used to flip flop back and forth between my brother and me. Then at some point, my brother was like, I don't want to go. She can just go.

0:08:22 - (Lauren Brill): I get, like, really excited about something like, I'm in. Yeah, it was definitely still a goal. I, in high school, I was, like, finding people's profiles on AOL that worked in sports broadcasting and, like, reaching out to them. I reached out to the radio announcer Kenny Albert for the New York Rangers on AOL. And so a game I went to, I sat in the radio booth for a few minutes, and I was networking at 14.

0:09:19 - (Lauren Brill): Dun dun dun. I decided to do something else at some point, like start my own company.

0:09:46 - (Lauren Brill): Yeah. When I was 16 years old, I went to a party hosted by one of my classmates and with two of my best friends. There was about, I would say, ten kids there that all knew each other from another school, and then everyone else there was from my high school, but I went to a private school for two years. So it was very easy for someone to show up from another school and you not really know where they're from because there's so many people there from all different towns that one person invites one person, who invites one person else, and they're from anywhere, like, you don't know. So there was ten kids there from a different school than the one I went to.

0:11:09 - (Lauren Brill): What they ended up doing. It just was like, oh, that's. There's a lot of people. They're having a lot of fun pouring this drink. This is weird. And I just remember having one, maybe two sips of that drink. And then my very next memory after that was being on a bed with two boys. I didn't know who. Who were sexually assaulting me. And I could barely move. I could barely speak. My voice wouldn't go louder than a whisper.

0:12:02 - (Lauren Brill): And I remember just thinking, like, remember Ouija board. Like, make yourself as heavy, like, light as a feather, stiff as a board. I remember thinking, like, let all your body weight go and make yourself as heavy as possible. Because if I was lying flat on my stomach, it would be harder for them to rate me. But they didn't touch me again. They just, like, ran out of the room in a panic. And in the moment, I remember thinking that they thought I died.

0:12:55 - (Lauren Brill): And then from there, I remember crawling across the hallway. I couldn't walk. And I tried to get to my friends who were locked in another room, who have, unfortunately, their own bad memories from that night. And then I remember being in a bed with, actually, I think, a classmate who just was like, are you okay? Do you need water? And he had no idea what happened that night. The kids from my school had nothing to do with any of this.

0:13:44 - (Lauren Brill): And then my friend walked in the room hysterically crying with that same sentiment, like, what? She cursed the f. Happened last night? And she was hysterically crying. And I was. I just have a different personality, and I was numb. I was just, like, couldn't process it. Got up, went to the bathroom, threw up, and then I got dressed, and I drove home, and I was radio silent. That ride home, I was just.

0:14:35 - (Lauren Brill): I knew that this was going to drastically impact me in some way or another, but I just didn't know how. And at first, I just try to tuck it away, like, pretend it's not there, just ignore it, don't pay to any mind. And I remember thinking on a drive, I was in the car with my mom thinking, just make success your revenge. Just be so great in life and do everything you want to do, and that's winning. And for me, I was an athlete. I played soccer. I played lacrosse, and I was, like, very competitive.

0:15:28 - (Lauren Brill): Too heavy to even, even face. And eventually it caught up to me and I had to talk about it and I had to deal with it. And I lost a lot of weight at that. That following year. I think it was the assault maybe combined also with applying to colleges, the stress that comes with that. I had a lot of anxiety, and I went from being, like, a healthy weight to losing 30 pounds. And I stress like, I wasn't overweight. I didn't have 30 pounds to lose.

0:16:26 - (Lauren Brill): Like, I didn't think anything actually would happen on campus logically. But when I would walk at night from, maybe it's like a three minute walk from where my boyfriend's dorm was to mine, if I had to walk that alone, my heart would race. I would get back to my dorm crying just to release the anxiety. Like, I felt safe, but I didn't. Like, I thought the area was safe, but. But I was still scared. I had so much anxiety.

0:17:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:17:11 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow, what a horrible story of what you went through. And not just that individual night, but all the years afterwards of staying silent. And so you. You never spoke to anybody about what happened during this time.

0:18:12 - (Lauren Brill): And then I had told him that something really bad had happened to me. I don't remember exactly what I called it because I didn't call it, like, rape or I probably called it sexual assault until I was older. And the federal definition. And the definition of rape has changed since I was assaulted. So by federal definition today, which is any sort of penetration is considered rape. So by federal definition today, it's considered rape. And in the state I was in, it's considered rape today when I was attacked, or it would have been considered sexual assault, attempted rape.

0:19:10 - (Lauren Brill): They don't deserve to experience that hurt of what happened to me. Like, they did everything right. You know, I wrote once that as parents, I don't believe that you can protect your child from the world or from everything. You can do your best, but you just can't. But what you can do is love them so hard and so much and give them so much support that when things do hit them and they do get knocked down, they have the strength and resilience to persevere and make the most of that situation. And I believe wholeheartedly that a majority, if not all of my strength, of my perseverance, the reason I am well today and healthy mentally, physically, emotionally, whatever you want to say, is because I was loved so hard. I just think I went into that assault.

0:20:23 - (Lauren Brill): I think that was part of the reason I was done. But I think there was another part to it that, like, when you go through trauma, I think your brain tries to protect you. Like, you just. I. Like, I wasn't, like, for. I think especially the beginning, like, the first couple years, I wasn't, like, consciously keeping a secret. I just don't think my brain could fully process what, like, had happened. And it was just like, you know what?

0:21:19 - (Lauren Brill): And I remember my boyfriend when I was 24, 25. I had told him, and he had told one of his friends, like, oh, she doesn't drink because of this xYz. And the friend came up to me, extremely well meaning and well intentioned, and said, you know, we'll always watch out for you. We'll never let anything happen to you. You know, so and so told me what happened to you when you were younger. We would never. We would always protect you.

0:22:16 - (Lauren Brill): And also, when I told my friends how it happened, I didn't realize. I didn't know what happened to them that night. We didn't talk about it after. I just know that they were locked in a room at the time. And when I went to have lunch with my best friend, who's still my best friend, and tell her what happened to me that night because she didn't know. I brought up the party and remind you, this is 24. So we're talking about a party that happened eight years prior, when I had this conversation with her, and I was like, do you remember the party at so and so's house, you know, in West Nyack or whatever?

0:23:06 - (Lauren Brill): It was my body. My brain was in, like, almost a state of shock. So when we reconnected and we tried to fill some, because I don't have, like, I remember also that night, I think I remember it was right after I was assaulted thinking, like, whatever I remember right now, I'm gonna remember for the rest of my life. So, like, there were holes that I don't remember. I don't remember how I got up to the room. I don't remember how I got in. I don't remember how I got upstairs. I don't remember how I got. Because we were.

0:24:03 - (Lauren Brill): Everything went wrong that night, but, like, I think it all started that we were all drugged and not in our.

0:24:15 - (Lauren Brill): I told my mom first. And the night before, I was dating someone, and he was one of those people that, like to, like, poke your buttons and make you, like, get a reaction out of you. Like, he likes to dig. And he kept asking me, like, why don't you drink? Why don't you drink? I'm like, leave it alone. Why don't you drink? Why don't you drink? Why don't you drink? Cause, like, I didn't just not drink. Like, if I. Like, I smelled alcohol, I was like, ugh. Like, I had just an adverse reaction to alcohol for a long time. I wouldn't touch it. And it wasn't, it wasn't like an alcoholic who was like, I don't want to be tempted. It was like, it was the most repulsive thing I could smell, and I couldn't kiss somebody if they had alcohol in their breath. Like, I can still, like, to this day, if I smell vodka, I can. I'll start to get a little nauseous.

0:25:38 - (Lauren Brill): And we just thought it would hurt my dad so much. He's just, like, very sensitive, very loving father, and there was nothing we could do about it at that point. When I was 24, like, I kind of had, was okay. Like, I wasn't. My anxiety was better. My PTSD was better. So I wasn't really asking my parents for help. I didn't really need help. I just needed, like, to tell them. I just needed that someone to know.

0:26:30 - (Lauren Brill): Because he's a lawyer. So, like, he's a fighter, you know? Like, he would. He would have gone after them like, full force. He's like, why didn't you tell me so we could have done something? And I was like, I just. The only way I can explain it is I couldn't really process it fully. I didn't wake up the next day, like, with a clear head of logic of, like, we should do this, we should do that. My body and my mind was just in such a state of shock, and, like, it just took a long time for me to be able to really process it, talk about it, deal with it, address it. And because I waited so long, I never found out who did it. I have, like, I remember them.

0:27:42 - (Lauren Brill): And I still have that mentality of, like, if I'm healthy and I didn't let them hurt me and I didn't let them stop me from, like, achieving any and every dream, then I win, and I just have to put everything in the context of, like, winning and losing because my brain is so competitive that it motivates me so much. Yeah, I just don't focus. Like, a lot of people ask the question, like, do I forgive them?

0:28:27 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Has it been a source of angst, a sense of even furthering the. Maybe the hardness to heal, the fact that you don't know who they are.

0:29:53 - (Lauren Brill): So I do. I. No, I don't. I think not knowing. I think it was. I think at one point it did. And I think I just. I was like, I'm gonna let this go. And that's when I think that's why I was like, okay, I gotta focus on me because there's nothing I could do about these two premens that I'm never gonna find. Because I did try to find them. I was looking through, like, all the yearbooks in, like, Bergen county from that year.

0:30:30 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:30:40 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Before we move on, throughout your story, I wanted to ask you, how did you react to your parents reaction? Were you surprised by the way they reacted to the news with your mom, your dad? Was it what you expected?

0:31:24 - (Lauren Brill): They just never really showed. They never made their emotions my burden to carry. So it was just like, what can we do to love you through this? What can we do to support you through this? It was never. I never got, like. Like, my dad asked me why I didn't tell him, but it was never, like, yelling. Like, why didn't you tell me? Da da da. Like, they put their emotions and their feelings and their effects that it had on him and my mom completely to the side.

0:32:26 - (Lauren Brill): She was really, really great. And just being an ear to listen to if I wanted to talk about and giving me the right feedback, I needed the right. She just always said the right thing, and she just gave me an ear to talk about it if I ever needed to talk about it. And again, never cried and said, oh, this is like, I'm so sad this happened to you. And I know she was, and I know it really hurt her, and I know it, like, broke my parents heart, but they never made their feelings my burden or my weight to carry. They never made me feel worse or anything like that. They were just.

0:33:01 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So my next question is, what brought you to the point of sharing your story publicly? Walk me through that, kind of where you were in your life career wise and what the story is behind you deciding to put this out into the world.

0:33:53 - (Lauren Brill): But then this had been on my mind, like, sharing my story, this idea. I was a sportscaster in Cleveland at the time, and at this point, I had been telling other people stories of perseverance, of resilience for many years. And all the other people's stories were really inspiring to me, and I thought their vulnerability was really courageous and also really helpful to other people. Then I did an interview with this girl, Gab Cruz. He was one of my good friends to this day, but we weren't friends at first. We met at a basketball game, started talking.

0:35:04 - (Lauren Brill): And I loved it that she was so perseverant after this horrible situation with her boyfriend. I was like, let's do a story. Would you. Can I interview you? And she was like, no, I'm not ready for his parents to see it. I'm not ready for my parents to see see it. I'm not ready for myself to talk about this on tv. She was like, thank you. If I ever change my mind, I'll let you know. But, no, no. And like, no.

0:35:59 - (Lauren Brill): And it was a pretty awful, awful statement and really just dismissive of sexual violence and violence against women. And so that's when she reached out to me and said, I'm ready to tell my story. And she gave a great interview. She was so vulnerable and honest and emotional and ended up going viral, the story in Cleveland at the time. And I asked her after the interview, I was like, why'd you change your mind? Like, what made you decided to share your story and not just share your story, but be so open and so vulnerable?

0:36:57 - (Lauren Brill): So it was me, like, basically putting my feet in the water. Like, just, like, is it cold? Is it warm? You know, like, just testing, like, put. Putting my, like happened to me. And I was telling people, but I didn't. I didn't go into detail. I left the story about her. I more just kind of said, you know, she inspired me because the same thing happened to me. And then I just kind of had to find the right time and the right avenue. And I couldn't just share my story, like, anywhere anyhow, if I wanted to publicly because I was under contract. I was on tv under contract. Like, I couldn't do things without permission from my boss.

0:37:52 - (Lauren Brill): She wrote that book inspired by, unfortunately, losing her husband suddenly. And so she asked me to do something for her website to promote her book. Her book had already been written, and I was like, oh, this is an interesting proposition that I can use to take to my boss. So they had a ghost writer. They let me write my own piece, but it was, like, very much in their format, their tone, their. It was not exactly how I would have presented it. So I asked my boss if I could, simultaneously, as I did this, open this statement on her website, write an open letter to sexual assault survivors and April.

0:39:02 - (Lauren Brill): So he had a little bit more compassion and was a little bit less afraid of someone coming out with a story like this. And mind you, it's pre me, too. So pre me too movement. It was still a very, like, taboo subject. Oh, my God. Sexual violence, like, keep that to yourself and, quote, unquote, made people uncomfortable. But he let me do it. He let me write this open letter, and we posted it on our station's website.

0:40:05 - (Lauren Brill): It went super viral. I had browns players, cavs players, retweeting it, sharing it, quoting it, and saying, we support you. We got your back. One of the players on the browns actually messaged me, text messaged me, and said, the same thing happened to my mother. Thank you for advocating and sharing your story. So, yeah. So, for me, it was when I pressed. I tweeted it out first. When I pressed, you know, the button to tweet it out, I was crying. And I'm not. Like, that doesn't happen that much with me.

0:41:13 - (Lauren Brill): And so I felt like I was giving this skeleton in my closet back to its rightful owner. Like, it wasn't mine to care. I didn't do anything wrong. So it was very framing. It was very like, here, let me. You take this back. It's yours. Weight lifted off my shoulder, and I say, like, that's the moment my secret became my superpower, because this thing that used to be, like, lingering in my head and weighing me down and hurting me, now all of a sudden, it's transformed into this thing that I can use to inspire people, to show people that this thing that hurt me didn't have to hold me back. And if someone went through something similar, they, too, can be okay.

0:42:16 - (Lauren Brill): And the unsealed is a platform where people can write and share open letters about their lives and about their stories. And we ask, all the letters have a positive message to go along with it. So if it's in a negative situation like mine, you still share a positive message. Share how you persevered, share how you're something that someone else can take away and be inspired by and feel hope from. Initially, I started the site, I couldn't build a community because I didn't have a community.

0:43:07 - (Lauren Brill): When my contract was up, I had, I think I published a letter in April of 2017. And then I started brainstorming and thinking of this idea. And I would say my whole last year of my contract, I had started planning and plotting this. This company. And then, like, as soon as I left, which was June of 19, I was like, okay, launch. Like, I was ready for it. And by December of that year, we had 250,000 views. I hadn't spent a penny on advertising because I didn't have any money yet. Like, I invested $3,000 to start my company, and everything from there was just money I was making, I was putting back in. Money I was making, I was putting back in.

0:44:19 - (Lauren Brill): So I would say it's my childhood dream, but I'm not child anymore. Right. But there were things that led up to it. You know, the sports casting world wasn't a very kind world to women, in my opinion. And I didn't want my whole life story to be how I endured negativity, abuse, whatever you want to call it, from men. So that was. That was a part of it. In some ways. The dream was the dream, right? I got to be at the finals for the Cavs and celebrate them winning a championship and ending a drought. I was at the World Series when the Indians played the Cubs, and the Cubs won. Like, I had all these. I've interviewed LeBron, Michael Jordan.

0:45:38 - (Lauren Brill): And I remember just being so fascinated how he just, like, hustled so much. He was super cheap, and, like, I'm super cheap now, too. And I'm, like, very proud of it because I'm like, Turner was jeep, right? And he just, if a fence went up, he climbed the fence, or he dug a hole underneath. He just found every way to make this business take off. And I found that fascinating and exciting. So I think in the back of my mind, I always found business very exciting and intriguing. But I first wanted to become a sportscaster, so I think being, starting a business was always in the back of my mind.

0:46:49 - (Lauren Brill): And there was a week or two where I was waiting to find out if I got this job, and I realized I didn't want it. Like, I was like, if I take job, it was a very x's and o jobs. You're basically following the team and reporting on the team for MSG. And it was very, it wasn't like feature stories, which I really liked doing. That was kind of my bread and butter at local news. It was more just like what happened in the game tonight, you know?

0:47:52 - (Lauren Brill): The whole definition of journalism or basis is an objective point of view. So, you know, you can't be advocating for equality or the rights that you think humans should have with your own voice. You can only do it really through the stories you tell and even that you're supposed to be balanced and objective. And so I wanted a job that didn't exist. And I went and I didn't get the devil's job. So I didn't turn it down. I didn't get it.

0:48:50 - (Lauren Brill): And I went looking for an opportunity where I could be, like, an advocate and a journalist, and I just couldn't find anything that fit. I met with uninterrupted, which was LeBron's media company out in LA. I met with some other people, but nothing really felt like it clicked. And so that's what led me to start my own company. And I actually what I do to advocate on issues, I advocate on the issues I believe in and I stand up for them, but I also provide a platform and help other people use their voices so we can advocate through other people's stories. And it's not advocacy in the sense of, like, you should think, like, I don't tell people, you shouldn't rape people.

0:49:49 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Wow. Wow. I keep saying the word powerful. I just. I listen to your story, and I think how powerful it is of what you've done, of what you've overcome, of. Of the. The chapters of life that you've lived, and then being adventurous enough, bold enough to turn the page when it's time to embark on a new chapter, I just think it's absolutely incredible. I'm absolutely just in awe at you. Talk to me a little bit about the business that you have now today. What does this look like?

0:50:38 - (Lauren Brill): Terrifying. It was terrifying. That first thing was completely terrifying. I was working nonstop 24/7 like, my parents would come visit and be like, let's have some dinner. I'm like, I can't. I gotta work. I gotta write. I gotta do this, I gotta do that. I was scared, but also confident. Like, I remember leaving Cleveland and thinking, I'm never gonna work for anyone again. And I remember knowing that and having faith. I think it was more faith than confidence. Like, I just believed that this was meant for me, and I believed it in a way that was so powerful that I was willing to put in so much work because I knew it was meant for me.

0:51:40 - (Lauren Brill): Like, why are you so anxious? Not, like, not sitting down for a meal, not taking a break. Like, this is a lot like, what is going on here? And I said to my dad, I'm like, you believed in me so much throughout my entire life. You still believe in myself so much. You think I can do anything. If I fail at this, there's no fingers I can point. There's no. This person didn't give me an opportunity, or there's just, like, nothing. There's nothing. There's no reason for it other than if I fail, it's on me.

0:52:39 - (Lauren Brill): Just wake up every day and have a positive outlook, a smile on your face, and I'm good. Like, I don't need much else. Like, I just. My dad just wants me to be happy. And that was such a gift, because when you wake up, a positive attitude, it also makes you more successful. Like, I believed that, like, I was going to wake up in the morning and I was going to have a viral story or that I was going to sign new members. And if you believe you're going to sign a new member, then instead of messaging 100 people, you'll message up 250 people, because you're like, I just got to find the one. He's there. He's there.

0:54:00 - (Lauren Brill): Like, pretty close. Once that happened, I was like, okay, there's nothing to lose now. There's nothing to lose. I'm at the same place I was before financially, except now I have full control, full freedom, full power to do and whatever I want. And. And when you're an entrepreneur, it's not like your salary is set. Like, you can lose. You can go. You can. Your salary can go up or down, right? You can lose money, and the ceiling isn't there. There's endless opportunity.

0:55:27 - (Lauren Brill): Not as much as I wish I knew, but I learned about web development. I've learned about newsletters and marketing, and I've published four books through the unsealed. And I learned how to do all of that by myself. And I've learned how to manage people. I hire freelancers now, so I've learned how to do that. I've learned how to use all this different software that I never even knew existed. So I'm not just a writer anymore. I'm not just, we do virtual events and are a host.

0:56:38 - (Lauren Brill): So there's always this constant challenge and places to learn. And I'm reading books. I read a book about gamification that was so fascinating. And I'm using all these, this information and trying to use it to, like, build my site and build my company. And remember, I've said, like three times, I'm competitive. So to me, this is like the ultimate competition. But you're not competing against other people. You're just competing against winning. Like, you're trying to win. You're trying to build this successful company, and I guess you're competing against the odds.

0:57:39 - (Lauren Brill): And I also have a lot of freedom. My boyfriend and I will, he also works for himself and has his own thing going on. And we can pick up and say, hey, we're going to work from California. We're going to work from Europe. We're going to go here and go there, and we just take our computers with us and go wherever we want. We don't have kids, so we have a lot of freedom, which is definitely a very cool perk, not having to be in a spot at any given time. We can just work from anywhere.

0:58:31 - (Lauren Brill): So the best place would be to go to the unsealed.com. You can check out stories that I ghost wrote. You can check out stories that members submitted. We host poetry contests. We host writing contests. You can interact with other people, sharing their stories and letters and poems from members of our community. And it's a safe space for people to share their truth and show love to one another and encourage other people.

0:59:05 - (Kevin Lowe): Amazing. I will be sure that all of those links are inside of today's show notes for anybody you know interested in plugging into your world. Such a powerful story you have. And my last question for you is, if you, knowing what you know now, if you were able to talk to that girl the day after that horrible event happened, what would you like to say to her?

1:00:03 - (Kevin Lowe): Amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much for being here today. For you, my listeners, I hope that you've enjoyed today's conversation as much as I have. But even more than enjoyed, I hope that if you yourself have been through something like today's guest, please check out her amazing resource. Use the link in the show notes for easy access. And as always, if there's somebody you know who you feel like could benefit from hearing her story, please share today's episode with them.