Love U Magazine Power Issue, 2017 | Page 42

was not ‘tuscan-y.’ But, I didn't know that. So, we moved over. I quit my GS14 job at the White House, which was fairly high level. I was 30 years old. I was looking at all the SES (Senior Executive Service) job offers, all these big roles. And I got there and they were like, 'you can be a secretary.'" My heart sank and my jaw dropped as I listened to Lauren tell her story. "They told me, 'You’re 30-years old, you just got married, you're going to have babies soon and you aren't going to be a professional for that much longer. But, your welcome to a secretarial position.'" Lauren went home and told her husband that she was going back to D.C. He could stay there as long as he wanted, but she was going back. L uckily for her husband, Lauren met Donna Huneycutt, her present- day business partner and COO, just a few weeks after arriving in Naples. Donna, a former corporate attorney, was also a military spouse who was stationed in Italy. Lauren reached out to Donna to share her her frustrations, "Donna said, 'Look, let me set up a company for you so that you can contract work from the states.'" Lauren abruptly declares, "This was not supposed to be... I am not supposed to be an Entrepreneur. This was not the plan by any shape or form. I was supposed to stay in the government. I was supposed to make SES and get a political appointment at some point -- go through the path." Lauren clearly accepted “...Nothing was handed to us, or dropped in our lap...”