Lauren Pears's guest appearances

Lauren Pears

Let's Go Kickass Today

9 to when?

Fiona Oakes

Nicholas McCarthy

Jack Parsons

Ernest Hemingway

Henry Ford

Abe Lincoln

Emma Watson

Alice Smith

Suzi Quatro

Hunter S. Thompson

Rosemary Brown

Gina Gardiner

Tony Humphries

Jane Perrone

David Brear

OwlTail

Show notes Lauren Pears is the proud owner of Lady Dinah's cat Emporium – an Alice in Wonderland themed cat cafe based in Bethnal Green, London. They currently have 16 cats and an enormous waiting list for weekend visits.   Starting out - Lady Dinah’s has been running for around six years. The first two years were stressful!  - When starting out, Lauren faced a lot of challenges. One of these was a disconnect between herself and investors - Lauren also underestimated the hype – when she opened her booking system in 2013, she received over 20,000 bookings within the first seven days - The flip side of this was that people were forgetting about their bookings, and while it was booked out according to the online system, Lauren had an empty cafe - No shows are a massive problem, and as a result Lauren now requires customers to purchase their ticket upfront  - Along with the usual cafe staff, Lady Dinah’s have cat carers who are trained to look after the cats while customers are enjoying their time  Interior design - Alice in Wonderland - Lady Dinah’s is named after Alice’s cat in Lewis Carroll’s famous book, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ - Upstairs, the cafe is themed as the Mad Hatter’s tea room. It features a giant top hat that the cats like to walk around, and rope bridges connected to the walls - Lauren learned quickly that cats destroy everything, so anything you build has to be cat-proof - Her creative team have helped her build the interior, including turning a structural column into a hand-sculpted tree  Social media  - Lady Dinah’s have a strong digital following on social media, with over 250,000 followers across various platforms - Marketing has been an 'unsolvable problem' for Lauren since she first opened the cafe - Lauren has found it hard to get someone who isn’t regularly in the cafe to do marketing for her, so for a long time did it herself - In order to free up a little bit of her time she has had to learn to delegate social roles   Negative customers  - Lauren has inevitably had to deal with customers who don’t know how to interact with the animals properly  - She believes it’s essential that as a business owner you stick up for your staff - Negative reviews on Trip Advisor are hard to navigate, and are frustrating when a customer’s account doesn’t align with the truth or is unfair - For small businesses, negative reviews can be really damaging  - Ultimately, there is a bigger margin for failure as cats are unpredictable – some customers are more understanding than others   From video games to cats - Before starting Lady Dinah’s, Lauren was working in the game industry - After a number of different jobs working on some exciting games, the 2008 economic collapse meant that Australia was no longer a cheap place to develop games  - After a brief break from the game industry, Lauren was drawn back and made the leap to move to London where she worked at Sony Playstation for around two years   - Her time in the games industry means that she has been able to take on the techy / analytic side of Lady Dinah’s with relative ease  What’s one thing you wish you knew when you were first starting out? - Don’t try and behave like a boss, the boss’ you’ve already had are the reason you left - Be the boss that you want to work for   The big biz whiz quiz Lauren scored 7/10

Show notes Lauren Pears is the proud owner of <a href="https://www.ladydinahs.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lady Dinah's cat Emporium</a> – an Alice in Wonderland themed cat cafe based in Bethnal Green, London. They currently have 16 cats and an enormous waiting list for weekend visits.  Starting out - Lady Dinah’s has been running for around six years. The first two years were stressful!  - When starting out, Lauren faced a lot of challenges. One of these was a disconnect between herself and investors - Lauren also underestimated the hype – when she opened her booking system in 2013, she received over 20,000 bookings within the first seven days - The flip side of this was that people were forgetting about their bookings, and while it was booked out according to the online system, Lauren had an empty cafe - No shows are a massive problem, and as a result Lauren now requires customers to purchase their ticket upfront  - Along with the usual cafe staff, Lady Dinah’s have cat carers who are trained to look after the cats while customers are enjoying their time Interior design - Alice in Wonderland - Lady Dinah’s is named after Alice’s cat in Lewis Carroll’s famous book, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ - Upstairs, the cafe is themed as the Mad Hatter’s tea room. It features a giant top hat that the cats like to walk around, and rope bridges connected to the walls - Lauren learned quickly that cats destroy everything, so anything you build has to be cat-proof - Her creative team have helped her build the interior, including turning a structural column into a hand-sculpted tree Social media  - Lady Dinah’s have a strong digital following on social media, with over 250,000 followers across various platforms - Marketing has been an 'unsolvable problem' for Lauren since she first opened the cafe - Lauren has found it hard to get someone who isn’t regularly in the cafe to do marketing for her, so for a long time did it herself - In order to free up a little bit of her time she has had to learn to delegate social roles  Negative customers  - Lauren has inevitably had to deal with customers who don’t know how to interact with the animals properly  - She believes it’s essential that as a business owner you stick up for your staff - Negative reviews on Trip Advisor are hard to navigate, and are frustrating when a customer’s account doesn’t align with the truth or is unfair - For small businesses, negative reviews can be really damaging  - Ultimately, there is a bigger margin for failure as cats are unpredictable – some customers are more understanding than others From video games to cats - Before starting Lady Dinah’s, Lauren was working in the game industry - After a number of different jobs working on some exciting games, the 2008 economic collapse meant that Australia was no longer a cheap place to develop games  - After a brief break from the game industry, Lauren was drawn back and made the leap to move to London where she worked at Sony Playstation for around two years   - Her time in the games industry means that she has been able to take on the techy / analytic side of Lady Dinah’s with relative ease What’s one thing you wish you knew when you were first starting out? - Don’t try and behave like a boss, the boss’ you’ve already had are the reason you left - Be the boss that you want to work for The big biz whiz quiz Lauren scored 7/10

Week 30: Running London's most coveted cat cafe | Lauren Pears, Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium 

Naomi Liberty

Simon Coates

Jackie Adedeji

A monthly podcast talking to inspirational people from the fields of Music, Adventure and Culture. In this episode I chat to Naomi and Simon about their collaboration, "These are our friends" raising awareness on the subject of FGM. Lauren shares her journey of cycling solo from London to Istanbul and Jackie talks self love and acceptance. Produced, presented and edited by Vicky Carter. Logo Design by: Hannah Eachus Jingle by: Nicola T Chang

A monthly podcast talking to inspirational people from the fields of Music, Adventure and Culture. In this episode I chat to Naomi and Simon about their collaboration, "These are our friends" raising awareness on the subject of FGM. Lauren shares her journey of cycling solo from London to Istanbul and Jackie talks self love and acceptance. Produced, presented and edited by Vicky Carter. Logo Design by: Hannah Eachus Jingle by: Nicola T Chang

Extreme Pain, Self Love & Adventure with Naomi Liberty, Simon Coates, Lauren Pears & Jackie Adedeji