“Helping Business Owners Tell Their Story” with Lauren Perna of Lauren Perna Communications

Jeffrey (0s):
Well, welcome back everybody to Radio Entrepreneurs. And I want to thank all our listeners over the last seven plus years over a million people have connected with the show over time. And because people want to hear what entrepreneurs are doing in real time, not read about it, you know, in magazines or books necessarily after the fact. And our next guest is Lauren Perna, CEO of Lauren Perna Communications. Welcome.

Lauren (27s):
Thank you guys so much for having me.

Jeffrey (29s):
So tell us about Lauren Perna communications, what you do.

Lauren (34s):
Sure. So we’re a communications company, help people tell their story online through content copywriting. I also do workshops and speaking, and really just helping people tell their story. I focus a lot on life science companies. That’s my background, kind of where I found my niche and our tagline is turning complex concepts into compelling content, because it can be hard to tell your story when you have something that people don’t understand, but that’s where we come in. We help life science companies, meaning biotech, pharma, med tech, and all the kind of service industries that support those industries.

Lauren (1m 16s):
But we also help people that are in mental health and personal and professional development. So really our whole goal, I always like to say is we are helping companies that are either impacting lives or inspiring others. So,

Jeffrey (1m 33s):
So how long have you been in business?

Lauren (1m 36s):
About a year and a half.

Jeffrey (1m 38s):
So I always like to say, I draw upon my age, go back into the Wayback machine. Can you give us your background, how you sort of evolved into your own business and into an entrepreneur?

Lauren (1m 47s):
Yeah, sure. So I worked for nine and a half years at the life science trade organization, which is right in Kendall square. And I know this day and age nine years is like an eternity, but I absolutely loved it. I started off as like an assistant, grew my way up to a senior director and it’s a membership organization, which means it’s a nonprofit, it’s very multifaceted. So we did a lot of everything. And by the time, you know, I felt like it was time to move on. I was like, well, I don’t really know where to go from here. This has been my dream job. So I decided to just take this leap of faith and take some time off and really kind of figure out what it is.

Lauren (2m 32s):
What is it that I like the best? Where do I want to go? So I did freelancing for a couple of years and I really found that the writing and the storytelling and digital media was my passion. So I pursued that and the life science angle was just a natural fit. That’s where most of my network was and what my background was. And it slowly evolved over the last year and a half really focusing more on the content and copywriting. And now in 2022, my goal is to do more workshops and trainings and speaking engagements.

Lauren (3m 13s):
And then the last few months I’ve really incorporated mental health and mental illness, advocacy arm of the business, something I’m very passionate about. So I hope to kind of pursue that and incorporate that even more in 2022,

Jeffrey (3m 31s):
All very interesting. And did you know, when did you have the aha moment that you wanted to become an entrepreneur?

Lauren (3m 40s):
I probably always known to be honest with you. My dad is an entrepreneur. He started Perna financial services almost 40 years ago and just seeing him work for himself. And I come from a long line of entrepreneurs, both sides, grandfathers were entrepreneurs. So just, I grew up with that mentality and I always knew that I wanted to start my own business. I’d want to work for myself. It was just a matter of figuring out what and how and writing has always been my passion. So just seems like a natural flow.

Jeffrey (4m 16s):
Interesting. You mentioned we is the, we just you with contractors or okay.

Lauren (4m 23s):
Yeah, the, the proverbial way, but you know, when I first started, I was very focused like, oh, I just want this to be me. I really want that to be that high touch. But the more I grew, the more I realized I cannot provide that high touch if I am trying to do it all. So that’s where contractors have come in and I’m still able to provide that high tax by bringing in people that are, you know, at my level and have my expertise.

Jeffrey (4m 53s):
So give us a sense of, you know, you mentioned sort of biopharma, a typical biopharma client that you think is right in your sweet, sweet spot because you know, there are multi-billion dollar pharma companies, and then there are a lot of VC funded startup ones. I mean, a few years ago, if I would have mentioned Madrona, people would have said

Lauren (5m 14s):
Right across from my office when I worked in game bridge, remember when they were nice and tiny, but it’s a good question because yes, there are multinational corporations and then there are VCs. And I like to say that we are somewhere in between a multinational organization is probably has an internal team of writers and a VC probably can’t afford a full team or someone to outsource. They’re probably all doing it themselves, or maybe they just would be this for one-off projects, but where we kind of insert ourselves nicely are people that maybe have a couple of rounds of funding already.

Lauren (5m 54s):
They’re heading into the clinic. Maybe they’re already through the clinical trials. Maybe they have like one or two marketing people and they really just need that support system, someone to write the content for them or manage the social media. They just don’t have that bandwidth. Or we help companies that are service providers to the life science industry and maybe their team just doesn’t understand the science. And that’s where outsourcing to us makes the most sense since we understand the science, we know how to talk to scientists and we know, you know, what the audience is looking for in terms of blog and social media content.

Jeffrey (6m 37s):
Interesting has is the industry changing a lot right now? Can you talk a little bit about that? Because you know, entrepreneurship in itself is a constantly evolving beast and now you’re in an industry that’s going through massive changes.

Lauren (6m 51s):
Yeah, it is always changing. When I started at my job in 2010, first of all, I didn’t even know what biotech was and I would wager a gas, a lot of people that weren’t in industry didn’t really either, but obviously now you can’t go left or right, without running into a biotech of some sort or small pharma or large pharma. And so I think just locally, our footprint as the life science super cluster has really solidified. But as an industry, I think people are just much more aware and how people are creating visibility, getting funding, getting their name out there, it’s all evolving.

Lauren (7m 37s):
And which also means that our job is evolving too, because the industry obviously needs more transparency and needs, you know, to help the public understand a little bit better. And that’s where our job can come into.

Jeffrey (7m 53s):
Interesting. Just to remind our listeners, we’re talking with Lauren Purna, CEO of Lauren Perna communications, Lauren, how do you see your own firm changing? Do you look at staying the way you are with a sort of virtual staff or do you look at eventually, you know, bringing on staff and how do you, how do you see the

Lauren (8m 15s):
It’s already evolved? When I first started that, like I said, I thought it was just going to be me and I’ve already grown to the point that I need contractors. So I would say now that I have a better sense of what I’m capable of and how I want it to look, I will absolutely bring on a staff. Not sure I ever want to be in person again. I love the virtual life, my husband and I have a house in lake Winnipesaukee. So we’re back and forth all the time. So the virtual world is perfect for me, but I could definitely see myself bringing on some full-timers full-time writers and maybe some operations people to just really help me grow, you know, the three facets of the business, the writing, the workshops, and then that mental health advocacy, which is more personal.

Jeffrey (9m 9s):
Nope. Lauren, if somebody was looking for you wanting to know more about the firm, how would they find you?

Lauren (9m 15s):
Lauren perna.com, nice and easy. And all my social links are on there. You’re welcome to connect me on LinkedIn. You can just find me under alarm printed comms or Lauren printed. I’m on there. Okay.

Jeffrey (9m 31s):
I want to thank you for being on the show today and we hope you come back and visit us again and talk about more things that are going on within your business.

Lauren (9m 38s):
Thank you so much for having me

Jeffrey (9m 40s):
Great be well. And I want to remind everybody, this is radio entrepreneurs.