Laura Prael (Director – LEP Digital)
“If you’re not interested in your people and you’re not interested in improving, then don’t run a business with people, work by yourself.”
Laura Prael
Laura Prael fell into leadership. She was working for a large global company and saw an opportunity with small businesses needing content marketing. So, out of normal business hours, she began helping clients. Word quickly spread and before long Laura made the decision to quit her job and work for herself. LEP Digital was formed and suddenly she had an agency. Suddenly, she was rapidly hiring staff. Suddenly, she realised she wasn’t just a doer or specialist, but a Manager.
Laura built her content marketing agency from the ground up, with no money at all. Now, they proudly support a steady list of national and international clients. In the six years since its conception, LEP Digital has morphed into an award-winning company. Laura was awarded Outstanding Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Central Coast Region in the 2018 NSW Business Chamber Business Awards. LEP Digital enjoyed continued success the following year when they were awarded the 2019 Micro-business of the Year at the regional level.
Laura’s next strategic decision was to focus on teamwork.
For 12 years of her professional career, Laura worked in large businesses and yet, had never completed a personality profile. As a new leader she was keen to get the most out of her people and understand how the team could function more cohesively. Laura went looking for guidance. Although the team were friendly and all got along, she could sense some frustrations bubbling on the surface. Guided by her instincts as a leader, she felt like something was missing. Laura saw the DISC Profiling tool as something she could use to form a common language among her group. This created an opportunity to learn more about each other.
Laura believes that you don’t have to wait for a crisis within your business to learn more about yourself and your team. She understands that business owners can’t afford to run a business and not look at how the team is working together. Laura has found that fear and resistance to change are two of the main reasons why businesses keep working business-as-usual, even when there are glitches in the system.
DISC Profiling has taught Laura to embrace her ‘style’ and that interaction and communication are the real key to helping people work together. This is apparent with the success of the different approaches that LEP Digital now take with daily situations. One example of this is how they now conduct weekly meetings. These are some of details Laura so generously shares with us during this week’s discussion.
“People work in very different ways and I think it’s very important that businesses take this seriously. If they want to succeed, have a high performing team, get more done, be more productive, sell more, they need to understand how to empower people to do that” says Laura.
Click here to hear first-hand how successful leaders, such as Laura, are ones who take the leap. They are people with a growth mindset who are open to learning.