Exploring Life & Business with Lauren Youngblood of The Elle Word, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Youngblood.

Hi Lauren, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am born and raised in New Orleans but moved to NYC in 2015. I had hopes of chasing a dream because I wanted to work at a record label ever since I was a teen. I loved music, hip hop and r&b culture, and sung quite often in church and wherever else was available. Coming from a small city that was well-known for its musical influence, we had a large scene, but not enough to keep mr there forever. I started to work on the festival production circuit. I worked on things like Essence Music Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I then knew that I wanted to go beyond. I moved to NYC in 2015…and had some of the most amazing opportunities!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road. I worked full-time in a space that I loved, but wore me down mentally and physically. I live in NYC so of course I had to hold a job down, while still pursuing my dreams. I’d interviewed at record labels while still working full-time, I had absolutely no luck. When I finally got a break, it came with sacrifice. My full-time role was not paying enough, but I could no longer take the environment. I had to pivot and work a bunch of opportunities to stay afloat. It was ROUGH,

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I can honestly see my industry working smarter and not harder. I know AI is taking over, but I can see it being a tool, but not the bar for the events and entertainment industry. While I realize that the professionals are encouraging us to embrace AI, which we’ve been using for quite sometime, there is nothing like the human touch when it comes to live events. I can see a major trend being the utilization of AI tools for free, rather than paid subscription software that helps with the planning and execution of events. For instance, Zkipster or Social Tables are used to create things like seating charts based on measurements. I watched a friend of mine used Claude to create a seating chart in seconds!

While I am not a daily AI user, I could see where it’s useful in the entertainment and events field.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theellewordllc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/l_nichelley/