By Chelsea Meyer
B103 Rockford
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Business: Lauren Davis Creative
Owner: Lauren Davis
Location: 2239 Charles St., suite No. 2, Rockford
Being local is something Lauren Davis, owner of Lauren Davis Creative, knows all too well. When she was 19, her and her then boyfriend, Skylar Davis ,decided to open a local vintage, vinyl record shop called Culture Shock. When they started, she didn’t know the first thing about business and became interested in learning how to get people through the door, how to keep the lights on and how to market.
“So I dove in head first and learned how to build legendary brands and that took me from Culture Shock in Rockford to traveling all over the country working with authors, podcasters, speakers on building their personal brands,” she said in an interview with the B103 Morning Routine.
Related: Floods nearly sank Culture Shock in its first three months. Here’s how it survived to celebrate 15 years
“What I love to do is that when I’m traveling and I’m out there in the world, studying local businesses, working with these speakers and authors, I love to take the concepts I’ve learned from them about building community and also bring those back to help local businesses here.”
Davis says her favorite thing is to help local businesses. So much so that her and a group of small businesses teamed up to create Winnebago Buy Local.
Winnebago Buy Local was established in 2010 and is an organization that helps local businesses from across Winnebago county get to know each other and collaborate while lifting each other up.
Related: Saluting Women Owned Businesses in the Stateline: Lawn Care by Walter in Rockford
“Local businesses are the bread and butter of our community,” Davis said. “They are the reasons why Rockford and the surrounding area is not a cookie cutter community, why it is different from anywhere else I ever travel to, or anywhere else we go to and it’s really what makes us special.”