Meet Lauran Arledge, the CEO of Bold Font Coaching which aims to bridge the gap between our personal and professional lives based on choices, courage, and authenticity.
Starting her career as a high school Social Studies teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina, Lauran has reached new heights in the last 15 years by working in public health violence prevention, community organizing, coaching and organizational development. Talking about the idea behind her initiative, she says, “I have been passionate about leadership and social justice my entire life. Since the inception of Bold Font, I have been able to marry these two passions to help people gain the skills they need to be stronger and more conscious leaders in a complex and diverse world.”
Bold Font Coaching guides individuals and businesses in creating exceptional leaders at every level and developing & maintaining healthy, thriving cultures. Lauran has spent the last two decades leading diverse teams in the education, public health, and technology spaces where she drove breakthrough results by designing and delivering complex people-centred programs. Apart from making the coaching affordable, she has utilized a lot of creativity and resources to look for ways to bring coaching to a wider audience.
“While the leadership development industry is a 366 billion dollar industry, there has been very little innovation over the years- for years we have relied on passive training and studying leadership to become better leaders. By researching, writing and delivering our coaching programs, we are pushed to get better with every passing day and are slowly building our digital platform to reach more people through a self-guided coaching process,” says Lauran about what makes her initiative ‘different’ from others.
With the belief that ‘to be an exceptional leader, you must get yourself straight first’, the organization focuses on the personal growth of individuals in a competitive environment. As this requires deep work and support, Bold Font uses group and individual coaching to provide the structure, safety, and skills they need to thrive both at work and at home. Its 26-week program builds leadership ‘muscle memory’ so that the knowledge and skills stick with you forever.
Its plain aim is to make coaching more accessible and this is why it works on product lines that meet a variety of budgets. Lauran and her team believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion in leadership are core-competencies and they take a bold stance on challenging an individual’s mental models around issues of race, gender, and ability. “I am the proudest of my team. Every day I am struck by their intellect, heart, and passion. I can’t imagine Bold Font without them. We have a lot of fun and do meaningful work. Does it get better than that?” she says as she gushes about her wonderful team.
As she looks back at her journey, she still believes her organization is in its initial stages and there’s a lot left to be achieved. However, one thing that she is really proud of is her ‘focus’- something that has strengthened over the years. She thinks that whenever a person starts something new, they end up doing everything that comes to them in order to keep the business running. With time, she has learnt that it is very important to actually focus on what you know may work best in your favour and something that adds value to your experiences- because it’s always better to ‘try’ rather than contemplating about ‘what could have been’ years later.