Ep 391 | Lauren Kleinman

Written By Yasmin Nouri

Before You Decide to Quit Your Job: Here's How to Turn What Frustrates You at Work Into a Business

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Lauren Kleinman is the founder of Dreamday and co-founder of Quality Media and The Quality Edit. She coined the term "performance PR," built two agencies without raising a dollar, and today leads more than a hundred people.

Before any of this, Lauren spent almost a decade as an employee. First employee at StartEngine. Sixteenth at Scopely, which sold for billions. Then first employee at Ritual. She knew she wanted to build something of her own, she just didn't know what yet. When she finally left, she named her company Dreamday, because she'd pictured the day she actually wanted. A hike, a swim, a couple of client calls, and time with her kids. Seven years later, she'll tell you it has never happened. What happened instead was having two young kids during COVID, no maternity leave, and burning herself out so badly she had panic attacks for the first time in her life.

In this episode, Lauren gives you the actual playbook, from how to know when you're ready to leave your job, to how to line up your first client before you even quit. She breaks down how to get press when you can't afford PR, and what makes an editor open your email out of the four hundred sitting in her inbox that day. And she's just as honest about the rest of it, from what burnout really looked like for her, to what she'd tell you to watch out for, to how she finally stopped believing she had to carry all of it alone. If you want to build something of your own one day, and you also want to still like your life while you build it, this one is for you.  

Show Notes:

  • Why overworking became tied to worthiness and success. [02:20]

  • Learning to shift from constant doing toward simply being. [03:16]

  • Unlearning the hustle mentality after years of proving her worth through work. [04:38]

  • Why perfect balance is unrealistic—and one ball will always drop. [09:20]

  • Why profitability and sustainable margins matter from day one. [14:11] 

  • Knowing when the entrepreneurial itch is strong enough to make the leap. [16:08]

  • Spotting gaps in PR and coining the idea of performance PR. [18:00]

  • How whitelisting gives brands the credibility of creators and publishers. [19:35]

  • Turning real brand pain points into The Quality Edit and Quality Media. [20:00]

  • Using a network and early clients to validate the leap into entrepreneurship. [21:00]

  • Recognizing when business momentum starts looking dangerously like burnout. [23:20]

  • The burnout breaking point and learning to build boundaries around work. [24:59]

  • Why public speaking is a muscle for founders. [30:16]

  • How smaller brands can build PR relationships and use AI to pitch smarter. [35:02]

  • What makes a pitch cut through: cultural relevance, strong numbers, and making the editor's job easier. [36:58]

  • Why affiliate links matter—and when publications actually use them. [42:58]

  • Learning to delegate, release perfectionism, and decide which fires can burn. [47:18]

  • The reminder that even successful leaders are still figuring it out. [50:28]

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Ep 390 | Amber Venz Box