How it Started vs. How it's Going

It quite literally started from a kitchen counter stool in my Over the Rhine apartment in Cincinnati while being quarantined from my Starbucks management position in November of 2020.

I had been managing a Starbucks through the chaos of Covid and was just about as miserable as I had been in my 28 years of life through that point, career-wise…if you could call what I was doing a career with my Master’s degree in tote.

What I was doing was on no account what 8-year-old Lauren saw herself doing, despite following the path she, or her parents, had carved out for her from a young age. Doesn’t everyone grow up wanting to manage a mediocre coffee shop in Cincinnati, Ohio?!

There is nothing wrong with that job. Some fantastic managers make an impact on their employees and community in so many ways, I know there were a few that impacted me and taught me a thing or two. But my entire life I had wanted more…different…not what I was doing. Starbucks was a great job for the position I was in after deciding that my 5 years of higher education, wasn’t what I wanted to do at all. Starbucks provided a consistent paycheck, room to grow, and benefits. You weren’t going to catch me not working.

It’s really easy for me to say from where I’m sitting, “if you don’t like what you’re doing, change it!” Because I did that. So I can, and will say that to everyone. I know how earth-shattering it feels, the uncomfortable aftershock that physically resonates within you after the hard part of deciding to do something different. And I also know that staying put in your comfort zone is not comfortable but rather outrageously more unsettling than taking the first step.

I was scrolling through what I am assuming was Instagram and I saw a friend from high school had posted about her job, traveling, and the training that she was now a private jet cabin attendant. Now I don’t know exactly when the lightbulb went off, but before I knew it I was filling out an application to go to training and scheduling an interview. Days later I was interviewing, and within a week I had scheduled to attend training on my own.

I told exactly 3 people what I was doing and put in an unexpected week of vacation time during December at Starbucks (I needed a break from the peppermint mochas anyway).

Did I have any flight attendant experience? No. Had I ever been to California? Also no. Could I afford it? On paper, not really. But you always find a way to make it work if you want it bad enough.

The training was challenging, but sure enough, my time at Starbucks had taught me more than I knew in regards to hospitality, service, time management, business acumen, and so on, so much of which you apply to this job. I also met some incredible women who I talk to on a weekly basis, who are succeeding, and was propelled into a network of private aviation individuals who have done nothing but support me. I graduated, came home, and realized the real work was about to start, as well as explain to everyone where I had disappeared to for the last week.

It’s not that I wanted to lie to people, but I wanted to keep this one close to me until I had it figured out. 2020 was a weird enough time in and of itself, I didn’t need to make it any harder by inviting other’s opinions about something they knew nothing about and wouldn’t support me in any way. I was going to make it known once I had started to make my way and have a plan.

After earning my wings, I took a red eye back home and immediately got to work. I began building my website from the Phoenix B-terminal, made a social media page for my new career, and was re-inspired to pick up my writing again. Something I had loved so much for most of my life but had gone stale along with my previous life.

2021 started with me turning prospecting & networking in this new industry into a full-time job + physically working at Starbucks at least 40 hours a week. I’d get up on my days off and start googling FBOs and aviation companies in the area, scouring LinkedIn, scheduling calls, and sending emails constantly. I was absolutely relentless. We were still very much in the “covid” era where the best way you could network was via LinkedIn. Turns out, this is still one of the best ways I’ve found to network and also stay in touch with people that you’ve networked with.

A few weeks in I had done 3 important things.

1. I had networked my way into my first flight. Any way that you can make some type of connection with someone and make it personal, do it. I fully took advantage of my Ohio State alumni status and connected with another alum who worked at an aviation company.
2. My social media, first blog, and website creation led me to partner with Steffany at SkyAngels as their first Media Director. I am so grateful for that opportunity. It allowed me to network through this new circle of aviation professionals, continue to build my own brand + SkyAngels, and was another way for me to make money in aviation. It was a win all around.
3. With all of those discovery calls with those already in the business, I had made a connection with someone WHILE AT STARBUCKS who ended up being someone I would work with at my first full-time job. When you don’t automatically come from a “what can you do for me? ” Place and are just looking to make genuine connections and learn, that’s where you’ll find what you’re looking for.

As it turns out, while a manager at a Starbucks that was near my local airport, I had served coffee to someone who worked at Delta Private Jets, which was in the process of merging with WUP. I add this because it is so important, in any job, to treat every single person with respect and kindness. Not because you think you have something to gain in the future, but because it’s the right thing to do.

I did my first flight and was called back for my second. And now I’m finally ready to talk about what happened on that next flight. I feel okay to share this story because over 2 years later, I can look back on it having learned a lesson for myself, but I also think it’s worth sharing for those who are just starting.

This business prides itself on perfection in every detail with little to no room for error. And to that, I would say, I agree. But when you strive for this level of perfection, mistakes HAPPEN. And as world-crushing as they feel at the moment and clearly for a while after, they don’t have to define you or your future in this career, and it could be the exact lesson you need.

I drove 4 hours through a snowstorm at 5 am, was packed for an 8-day trip, and had done everything right. Except I forgot my passport. And our first leg was to the Bahamas. It was sitting on my desk, the last thing I forgot to grab. I went white and to the pilots’ credit, they did everything they could to make this work for all of us. When it didn’t, I politely left, got in my car, and did what any 28-year-old who thought she had flipped her world upside down for nothing, called her mom and cried the entire drive back to Cincinnati.

Mortified doesn’t begin to describe how I felt and disappointed in myself doesn’t do it justice either. I was inconsolable for the next few hours. But after that drive, tears still in my eyes, I got back on my laptop and continued to send emails, prospect, and network. Later that day, the captain called to make sure I got home okay and that I hadn’t thrown myself into oncoming traffic, which was extremely kind of this hardly-acquaintance. I was okay. I thought my not-even-started career was over, but I was okay.

Coincidentally enough, the week that I was supposed to be gone, I had an introductory phone call with WUP. They were about to add a few large cabins to their fleet and needed a trio of new flight attendants.

Being that I knew very few people in this industry, I called the pilot whose trip I threw a wrench in to ask their opinion on the WUP job. Long story short, he said “Go work. Go grind it out for a year with a charter company, and we’ll talk.” They were getting a new Gulfstream that required a full-time cabin attendant and with experience, I could interview.

So that’s what I did. My goal was to go everywhere, learn everything, and get what I thought was my dream job with that account in Columbus (my favorite place in the world.) I put in my 2-weeks at Starbucks, worked exactly 3 days of that, and practically ran out the doors.

I spent almost a year to the day with WUP. I made incredible friendships with my crew, most of which I stay in touch with and still laugh about inside jokes. I loved that job, that schedule, and what I was doing. He was right. I desperately needed that experience, and I got it. I had amazing days, and I had some terrible ones. I did a lot right, and enough wrong, but I did my best every day because I was so hungry to learn and desperately wanted that job.

Winter of 2021 rolled around, and that pilot kept his word. They still needed a full-time cabin attendant and I wanted to be considered in the running. After I was hired, I knew that I didn’t have the most decorated aviation resume compared to others who had been interviewed, and let’s not forget (because we all sure didn’t and still talk about PassportGate) I had made one of the biggest mistakes I thought I could have made with this crew.

When I asked the captain why I was hired he reminded me of the day I showed up for my first flight and how I spent entirely too long trying to figure out how to work the jumpseat (which I still consider the worst one I’ve ever maneuvered). But I didn’t stop until I figured it out. I still wasn’t sure what he was getting at and he said that showed how much I cared. The way I reacted when I forgot my passport showed I cared. How I kept in touch, networked, and did what I needed to do to get experience for this job, showed I cared.

My point with all of this is that it isn’t always your experience level in this business that gives you that edge, but it’s the genuine effort and care that can make a difference. Caring enough to put in the work, with no expectations other than giving your best and striving to be better. That caring comes from having a heart to serve and do the work that comes with the job.

If you read any of my previous blogs, you know how the rest goes. We took delivery of the most beautiful jet that I had ever seen, decided to give my world another shake-up because I was on the flip-your-world-upside down-once-a-year track, and moved back to Columbus just in time for the software issue that kept us grounded for nearly 5 months. I spent important time with loved ones, ironed out my personal life, matured, turned 30, and now I’m having the summer and job that I couldn’t have aspired to in my wildest imaginations during December 2020.

For those of you starting, you’re feeling intimidated, hopeful, anxious, envious, impatient, energized, overwhelmed, and every emotion in between. The next best thing can’t come soon enough and 3 years may as well be a lifetime. You’re fearful of making mistakes that you don’t THINK you see others make. Are you cut out for this? Will you succeed? What will you have to sacrifice? And what do you even want out of this career?

But the questions you should be asking yourself are, who is in my corner for support? How can I continue to learn? What lessons are coming out of this? In what ways can I grow? What can I bring to the table?

So that’s how it started vs. how it’s going. And it’s still going as far as the eyes can see. If I could have given myself this type of preview as I sat wrapped in a blanket on those mismatched barstools in OTR even some of this was possible….I doubt I would have listened. But that’s okay, the surprises have been worth it.