My experience growing up is to avoid failure at all costs. And sometimes even you know, to the point of burnout because you are almost so afraid of failing that you will do anything to avoid and that has been a fear I've had to think about head on.
Hi, I'm Jason Ramsden and I believe we can all work on leading a more positive and intentional life. And this show details my journey by sharing my learning stories and conversations with guests. If you want to lead a more intentional life focus on being the best view possible, please subscribe today. Now, let's get into today's episode. Low my positivity posse and welcome to another episode of positivity on
fire. Today, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with Laura Tierney, the founder and CEO of the social Institute, whose mission is to empower students to navigate social media and technology in a positive high character way lowers prior experience in the social media realm involved helping build strategies and campaigns for brands including ESPN, Samsung, Coca Cola, Travelocity Oakley
and Disney. Along with her passion for competition, this LED Laura's company to create a unique gamified social media curriculum, which has been featured on NPR and by the Washington Post and USA Today. We cover a lot of ground in today's show. So let's get started with my friend. And today's guest, Laura Tierney. Laura, good to see you. Welcome to the show. Welcome to positivity on fire,
thank you for having me, it's great to be back and talking with you.
It's been a while probably been a year or two since we've actually interacted directly.
That's right. But your influence on our work, I feel like it's still felt in the day to day. So it's been a while but also doesn't feel like it.
People may not know who you are. So I want you to introduce yourself. And I also want to share what your life motto is.
I'm Laura Tierney, founder and CEO of the social Institute. And my life motto is to control the controllable knowing that there's not a lot of things that we can control. But there are many things that we can stay in control of like our attitude and our interests and our goals. And our priorities. And that has really helped me along the way,
control that control over what are you what are you controlling right now?
I am controlling it my you know, my outlook on a Monday, a busy Monday afternoon, where there's a lot going on. And I think it's you know, it's easy to sometimes feel overwhelmed by the times that we're going through these unique, you know, times that we're navigating. But I think I also think that for every challenging meeting or challenging conversation, you're one step closer to something positive happening. So I think I'm you know, controlling, controlling my attitude and like
outlook these days. The phrase I use with our team is CTC. So control the controllable. And that's, that's all you could do at the end of the day.
Love it. And so people don't know you're you're the founder and CEO of the social Institute. I know you did that pre kids. So you've got grant, and then you got another one on the way in a couple of months. So you got a lot of control the controllable going on running pretty amazing company. I know the mission of the social Institute is to fuel students health, happiness, and future success. Now that's not a positive mission. I don't what is a positive mission? How did
it all come to be? tell everybody how it all came to be Laura?
Well, the social Institute is definitely a labor of love and taking risks and kind of pursuing what fulfills me, you know, at the end of the day, and so I started the social Institute in 2016. And I'm so thankful because I got paired up with you and your colleagues at ravenscraft to think about this mission of helping students and the five inches between their ears and making positive choices
especially online. And that started out as great I'm going to be helping this one school, you know, and maybe a few others, and over the years, always go with your gut and make certain decisions and five years later, we're helping 150 schools across the country 10s of 1000s of students and has taken off in a way I never ever dreamt it would when you and I and others were like reviewing surveys and content together and very just getting scrappy about it but putting in you know the work.
I'm really grateful for the the chance I have now to help students to build a team. But it definitely comes with taking risks too at the same time.
What do you think has been the biggest risk in the last five years?
Oh, man, my experience growing up is to avoid failure at all costs. And sometimes even, you know, to the point of burnout, because you are almost so afraid of failing that you will do anything to
avoid. And that has been a fear, I've had to think about head on, you know, as we at, we're a small business and during the pandemic, as we grew, the team had to make other decisions, you know, about growing the team or not growing the team and just that, that constant that that fears in the back of your mind. And so that's, I think that that is one of the biggest risks I've had to take is just accepting
that. And, you know, even if you if you fail, you know, you, you gave it your best shot, there's certainly other day to day risks, you know, that come with leading a team, or leading an organization, the risk of agreeing to something that might not be the best for you, or the organization, the risk of hiring someone that might not be a
great fit for the culture. But I think if you constantly think of like, well, what if in a negative way, you'll drive yourself nuts, because there's so many what ifs, that could happen from a negative
standpoint. And so for me, the thing I keep in the back of my head well is like, well, if we make this decision and go this direction, we can always pivot, you know, no matter what happens, and that has helped me Just think, you know, navigate the last five years and starting a company, while you know, having two kids and juggling everything that comes with it. When you
talk about the fear of failure, and I've done other episodes around that here on positivity on fire, I want to know what that that means to you, especially as it relates to control the controllable
I think for for me, because what I'm doing is so mission oriented, that fear of failure could mean letting that mission down, you know, in our sense, like letting the students down at the schools that we serve at the schools that we want to serve, is an immense weight to put on your shoulders. And for me, that acts as a driver, but it also acts as extra stress and pressure. When you make it so lofty, like that. And you step back then, okay? The kids are going to be all
right. Even if, even if even if you do fail with this company, if we can stay positive about what we're doing. And I think that only just fuels your success. I'm curious, when ordered some of the themes that you all saw on previous podcasts around fear of failure,
I think for me, I was telling my own story about being afraid even to leap into doing a podcast and starting a company, everybody has fears, everybody has fears of failing for whatever reason it may be, it may be how you were brought up, it may be you don't want to look poorly in the eyes of your peers, you don't want to let a spouse or a partner down. And sometimes you just don't know enough about how to launch something to even try. But you know, I know the work that you
do. And then also the work that lots of educators do today is talking about how it's okay to fail because we learn from failure. And so when we talk about not fearing failing, or not fearing failure, it's a way to grow personally. And professionally, depending on where you're you're choosing to fail. For me failure is an option. You talked about a failure not being an option. But it is an option, because it's the only way you're going to
grow and learn. So I'm curious, all entrepreneurs fail at some point, or have a failing, what's that been for you? What's been your biggest failing
on there? There's small scale and large scale, I think failures. And when I look back on work with the social Institute, the small, you know, one small failure, I remember going into a meeting with a partner school and I had the wrong logo. Up on the screen. I literally had a different school
reference with this meeting. I remember walking out of there just being like, oh, my goodness, you know, just the conversation that goes through your head after mistakes like that you feel like a failure when moments like that you just silly and then there's other more large scale failures where you might bring someone on to your team and in retrospect, they might might not be a good fit, and you made that decision and you're trying to nurture them and, and grow with them.
And also you have to look at their strengths and how it, you know, fits the organization. And if that's good for the long term, and if it's not, you could feel like a failure as a leader for making that initial decision. But I think, kind of like back to what you said, though, for me, failure has always acted like a fuel to the fire, but at the same time, you can take it so seriously to the point that you're not okay, at all with failing, and you're focused solely on perfectionism.
Because I find that you innovate a lot slower. When you're just focused on being perfect, then I think that there's this great principle with startups and this great book called the lean startup. And it talks about how the most innovative entrepreneurs can go through this circle of innovation. And the faster you go through this circle, the more that you innovate, and part of that circle is failing, and getting feedback and implementing that
feedback. And so if you can measure and if you get kind of negative feedback from measuring, I see that again, it's like only taking one step forward, because you have now more input, you're a better leader for it, you're a better innovator for it.
If you look back on this past year, what's been a defining moment, talked a little bit about fear of failure, and kind of the things that maybe you've learned from that along the way. But in this past year, especially through COVID, what's been a defining moment for you. And it can be personal or professional,
when COVID initially hit schools, and schools began to really lock down what they were doing with the students, they locked down on budgets. as a, as a small business. That was a scary time, because you didn't know, there's just kind of also like fear of the unknown, you didn't know what was going to happen. And I remember our team getting together. And we started just
talking with schools. And I think that's one thing we've done really well over the past 12 months is we don't assume we know what you know, our audience wants, we want to go out and talk to them and see what makes you know, what makes them tick and what they their needs are. And so that's what we did back to controlling the controllable. Like, you could just control that inspiration and that input.
And then we out of that, out of those conversations, we ended up launching a whole new product called winedt social life, and it's lessons about current events and things going on in society. And that ended up taking off in you know, a few
months later. And the whole team felt like just rallied behind it felt like it felt like someone just giving you a ton of energy during that time when many people didn't have energy at the beginning of the pandemic, because we felt like we were in control of something we were in control of how we responded to this sort of unknown time and not knowing how how schools were
going to react to COVID. So professionally, that that stands out to me as a defining moment where you, you make something out of what you think might be nothing. And then personally, our family has started having family meetings, even with our little four and a half year old son just talking about what each of us needs to like get through the week, or to get through the day. And that open like communication has come out of the pandemic where we didn't do
that beforehand. But now, like my husband knows, he can always come to me and just say, hey, like, here's what I need to get through this week, and it's going to be a stressful week, things go a lot more smoothly. When you're able to communicate what you personally need, you know, to get to get through a certain time
chakra that open and transparent communication is actually something good,
right? That's right. That's right. And even like our you know, little grant man has gotten in on it is a four and a half year old telling us what, what, what he needs, even though sometimes like a third of his answer, usually just like chocolate, chocolate, or something else. Right?
He's only forecasting what we all know is Yeah, we need chocolate sometimes to get through a day. Right when it's tough, though.
Exactly. Exactly. The students Yeah, the kids know more than than we think we can take a lot of pointers for them as adults.
That is true. That is true. Talked about control controllable. You talked about fear of failure and kind of learning from that. He talked about things you've learned from the pandemic here in terms of opening up family meetings and conversation, through all of that, what's what's something that you've learned about yourself, or
I've learned that you can always be learning that you can always like, surround yourself with people who have been there done that before. And you can always take notes from them. And I think of, you know, my, my interactions and in our work together, like I think back to the time, like three years ago, where I thought, I had a great sense of where I wanted to go with the social Institute.
And I remember sitting down and watching one of your presentations at the Atlas conference, I believe it was, and you presented about the intersection of how schools are making decisions based on data.
And that for me, it was like, mind blowing, and we ended up incorporating that into just thinking about how do we approach our work, that ranging to you're sitting down with my colleagues, my teammates, who have sometimes different personalities, you know, than I do, they might be more introverted or more extroverted.
Right, and then, but learning not only how to interact with them, but how that is such a strength, and you know, what they bring to the team and I, so I think, for me, it's just you're always learning like you never, you never definitely never know everything. And if you can have that mindset of, you know, being humble and vulnerable, and have your ears open, for different people that come in, into your life, I think
you could just be a sponge. And so for me, the pandemic has actually allowed me to use like LinkedIn and zoom and, and other tools to connect with so many different people who have all these great strengths, where I could just learn a lot from
them. And sometimes it just that stems from like reaching out on LinkedIn and saying, Hey, I came across your profile, I was reading an article on this website about your team's work and would just love to hear more about it, there are silver linings, and that that would be one silver lining, I definitely look to from the last 12 months.
And I know you love acronyms, right CTN. So abl always be learning, always can learn something new. How do you apply that in your daily work?
Well, especially at the social Institute, we love learning from students. And so I make sure nearly every week we have meetings with students, where we could ask them questions about what they're experiencing, like, what does your day to day routine look like? What are your concerns about starting school this fall, and I find that taking a seat, coming to those calls, knowing that you don't know everything about the students and facts often Far from it, of what
they're going through. And if you can sit there and truly, actively listen to what they're going through and, and hear them out and take those insights and apply it, you know, to our work. It puts us in a position of constantly learning because what students are navigating is always changing, you know, from year to year, and online and offline. And that's definitely one of the things I love about this industry and this organization is that technology
is changing so quickly. And then when you combine that with how a student's life is developmentally changing so quickly, you're in a position to just have nonstop learning. every single week.
I know we serve a kids all the time, or around their social media habits. And you also have student ambassadors who are tend to be college kids who are kind of giving back to your program through internships and that sort of thing. You've learned a lot about kids, if you had to give advice to parents, because you know, my listeners are parents and have kids. Like what's one piece of advice that you would give to parents today? about kids?
I'm going to speak for the students on this one because we actually have this is a great question. And it's a question we ask students to share. What advice would you also give to parents and the most popular response that the students shares that how social media and technology, it's not all negative, and it could be used for it could be used positively, if we choose to see the positives, and how it's not
going away anytime soon. And so the more that we can empower and equip, instead of scare and restrict, you end up helping a child, you know, set a child up for success no matter what they have to navigate, rather than restricting them from this world that is not going away. And so it's taking I think your your same foundation, you know, to your work of positivity, and applying it to the world of social media and technology with students
do parents whose kids not you know, work with the social Institute, have ability to get stuff at your site to power equip themselves to work better with their kids,
definitely, we have resources for parents free resources were ranging from family tech contracts that can help your entire family, not just the child or children, but your entire family, navigate social media and technology, like, like nearly everything we do. We built it with students, we built it with students at at
ravenscraft. And we have optimized, you know, enhanced it over the years with input from other students across the country, parents are able to go in and get the, you know, rundown on different insights about students, the most popular apps that students are using across Middle School, across high school and beyond. And so we're, we're hoping to be that, that friend in your corner, that's not getting you ahead of
your children. But we're we're keeping you pretty close to where your child is when it comes to navigating social media and technology. And so parents could head over to the social Institute COMM And there's a Resources tab on our website that that lists a lot of these great resources and downloads, and reports and more.
That's great, thank you. I know my listeners are certainly gonna enjoy those resources. It's kind of like that old commercial that used to say the more you know, right, the more parents can equip themselves with knowledge about kids and social media. I think that's important. What right now, what's the biggest motivator in your life?
Yeah, I see so many headlines these days about what students are navigating from a social emotional perspective, their well being, I see media, that news tends to often cover a negative angle on a lot of topics. And for me, the motivators, giving students some sort of inspiration and
positivity. And if I could craft something that even for 15 minutes of their day, helps them reframe how they might think about their well being this fall, we just launched a lesson about thinking, you know, reflecting on what you need to succeed this fall as, as a student, even giving them that 1520 minutes, just like smile and connect with their peers, we know connection is more important than ever. Now, during
the pandemic. That's a huge motivator for me, because it feels like oftentimes, you're swimming upstream, especially when it comes to negativity, like there's so much of it to go around in the world, especially when you think about social media and just media in general. And so it's kind of motivating to, to swim upstream, or go against the grain, whatever you want to call it. And, like put more of that positive energy
into the world. And to do it in a just a really relevant, relatable, engaging way for students, which is the trickiest part. But it's, it's an awesome, awesome challenge.
And an important challenge to read is reading the news today, actually, where a study had come out and say that the kids who are entering college now the freshmen are the most depressed and most anxious
kids ever to enter college. And the types of things that are motivating you right now, are things that should be motivating college educators and parents to find resources to be able to better help kids through, it's going to be a trying time for them, right, they're coming out of the year and a half of being virtual more or less than than having to go off to college, which may most likely be in person at the moment. And so it took them to do that, I think is
a is a great challenge. And I appreciate that you're trying to tackle
to build on that I read a statistic early on in this work about how we care so much certainly at schools about student's academic success. But in order to one big contributor to a student's academic success, of course, is their social emotional well being and how that, you know, fuels child's ability to be able to balance schoolwork and focus on their priorities and more. And so I think, I think there's a wave coming a wave of social emotional education and focus on
well being and self care. And that's going to come I think, across k 12 schools across colleges and universities across companies and companies thinking about how they prioritize their employees well being. And so it's, again, something coming out of this pandemic is that that focus on supporting the whole person and not just a part of a part of them.
So important, so important. I appreciate that a lot. Because I think it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be critical for kids success in the future, that the whole social emotional learning package, if you will, right, it's not just academics, it's how they interact with others and how they kind of go through life. So well done on that
will include, I was gonna say, Well done, like kudos to you all because I feel like you and your time at Ravenscroft and the team at Ravenscroft, you just, you all saw into the future writing so much about how this focus on social media and technology, it wasn't going away. I mean, you're, you're, of course, like your background, with technology. And then you intersect that with, you know, people's mindset. That's a really powerful thing, technology and mindset and
attitude. And so a lot of this was just, you know, trying to keep up with the vision that you all laid out, you know, years ago, and in starting help helping me get this off the ground and starting this work together. But it's exciting to think about schools are prioritizing this more and more and more. And, and it's definitely not going away.
Yeah, it's been a pleasure to kind of get started with you and watch you grow, watch the company grow, to watch it pivot throughout the pandemic, to add the social emotional learning component, to add a board of advisors who are all about kids and kids health. And you know, I only see great things for you in the future as you continue to grow the company. And before I let you go, I always have two questions that I asked my guests to close
out an episode. What, what's something that most people don't know about you? I'm tough when you're a public person, right?
Most people don't know that I leave my phone charging in the kitchen overnight. And I love technology. I love social media. But I also want to practice what I preach, and I cannot get sleep. When I have the phone next to my bedside table. I just cannot I am so tempted, like to pick it up and check things. So for me, it's totally like, out of sight, out of sight out of mind.
And then the final question is, it's gonna be a fill in the blank question. So happiness is
being really self aware of what does and doesn't make you tick. Because I think that awareness can be in many ways your North Star for a lot of the decisions you make, and how you frame different challenges that you come across. It's something that I'm constantly working on, and struggling with, and working on. And for those reasons, like you, you never maybe have full self awareness, but you can get closer and closer. You know, each each project you take on each team you work with, and you
know, each week that passes. So I think the self awareness is is is the key to to happiness.
I appreciate you being with us today, Laura, it's been a great conversation. Where can people find you online and the work that you do?
Well, you better believe I am on most social media platforms. So you can always, you know, connect on LinkedIn or on Twitter, at Laura Tierney, and but you can also reach out to our organization if there's any way that we could ever be helpful to you or other parents or children. And that's the social institute.com. Yeah. Thanks, Jason.
Thank you, Laura. Here are my three takeaways from my conversation with Laura today. The fear of failure should be a motivator, not something that paralyzes you and your work. The social emotional health of students and young adults coming out of the pandemic should be of utmost importance for educators. And finally, in life, we should focus more on those things that we can control rather than those we cannot control the controllable is a strong life
motto. If you liked today's episode, please give us a five star rating wherever you listen. And please share this episode as word of mouth is the only way this shows message grows. And finally, as I close every show, thank you for being here today, my friends, your gift of time listening to the show means the world to me. And as always be well be happy be you. And until next time, may your quest for positivity begin today.
And how you frame different challenges that you come across. It's something that I'm constantly working on and struggling with and working on. And for those reasons like you You never maybe have full self awareness but you can get closer and closer
For more on my positivity quest, follow me at underscore j y Ramsden on Instagram tik tok and Twitter. If you like today's episode, please give us a five star rating and review on your favorite podcast app or visit. Jason calm and search for positivity on fire. Positivity on fire is a production of impact one media LLC. All rights reserved.