Social Selling Sensation: Lauren Tickner’s Million-Dollar Empire at 23
Lauren Tickner is a force to be reckoned with in the world of online business coaching. At just 23, she became a millionaire, and has since helped over 1,800 businesses generate premium clients through social media with her company, Scale Systems. What drives this remarkable entrepreneur, and how did she transform from a corporate worker to a globally recognised business expert?
The Corporate Dream That Wasn’t
Growing up in the UK, Lauren had conventional aspirations of climbing the corporate ladder. Unlike many entrepreneurs who run lemonade stands as children, Lauren never saw herself as particularly creative or business-minded. “I always had the vision of climbing my way up the corporate ladder and becoming a female CEO of a massive financial firm,” she explained in our interview.
At just 18, Lauren shattered expectations. She began her career with an extraordinary leap, landing a coveted role at one of the UK’s leading asset management firms in the heart of London. She was the youngest person the company had hired in 50 years, wearing the suit she had always envisioned.
But beneath the prestigious exterior, reality didn’t match her expectations. Lauren found herself deeply unhappy, dreading each workday. The environment felt suffocating, with its rigid schedules and monotonous routine. She would stare longingly through the office windows at a gym across the street, wishing she could be there instead.
“I was in the hand of Montana at the time because I had this whole corporate setting where I had to be really respectable and presentable,” Lauren recalls. “And then I had this whole life on my phone, on this app called Instagram.”
The Pivot Point: When Health Became a Mission
While working her corporate job, Lauren was leading a double life. Having previously lost 50 pounds through her fitness journey, she had started sharing her progress on Instagram. What began as a way to connect with others who shared her interest in fitness was slowly becoming something more.
Her personal fitness journey wasn’t without struggles. In pursuing weight loss, Lauren had fallen into unhealthy patterns. “I really just unfortunately went down a really unhealthy fat loss journey,” she admits. “I was overly obsessed with this one thing, which for me was fitness. I am self-sabotaging my own potential freedom in the pursuit of a goal.”
Driving home from the gym one day, Lauren felt the familiar grip of a panic attack take hold. Her chest tightened as she struggled for air, and fear surged through her body. But in that overwhelming moment, a powerful realisation hit her like a thunderbolt. She saw, with heart-wrenching clarity, that she’d been trading her wellbeing for the relentless chase of external achievements, and it was costing her more than she could bear.
This epiphany coincided with a deeper motivation that has driven Lauren throughout her life—her brother. Two years younger than Lauren, he has epilepsy and autism, uses a wheelchair, and requires constant care.
“Seeing him grow up without the ability to take control and do the things that he wants to do… has always made me question why those who ARE able, don’t make the most of their freedom,” she shares.
From Fitness Influencer to Business Mentor
After quitting her asset management job, Lauren Tickner enrolled in the UK’s top business degree program, hoping to learn how to grow her burgeoning fitness content platform. However, university proved equally disappointing.
During an accounting lecture, Lauren approached her professor with a practical question about managing taxes for her online business, which was already serving international clients. His dismissive response—”That would be a good question for Google, Lauren”—solidified her decision to drop out. She realised her professors had never run real businesses themselves.
“What’s been happening in the past two months, my friends who were studying on my business degree alongside me are coming to me, asking me to help them review their business plans,” Lauren notes. “Whereas I’m the one who dropped out of that course, but I’ve actually built a business.”
Her fitness platform continued to grow, and she found herself in an enviable position. Making multiple six figures in profit yearly while still in her early twenties, she was receiving free trips and products, enjoying what she now calls her “glory days.”
The turning point toward business coaching came unexpectedly. At fitness conferences, while her friends were invited to lead workout classes, Lauren Tickner was repeatedly asked to speak about social media marketing. Eventually, a company approached her seeking consulting services—a concept so foreign to her that she had to Google what a “pitch deck” was before responding.
Meanwhile, her fellow fitness influencers with large followings weren’t monetising their platforms effectively. When Lauren showed them how to sell fitness programs to their audiences, some made $20,000 in their first launch. This revealed a gap in the market—talented content creators who didn’t understand business fundamentals.
Building Scale Systems: The Power of Social Media
Today, Lauren Tickner runs Scale Systems, which helps businesses generate clients through social media. Her approach combines psychological understanding with practical systems that work across different industries.
What makes Lauren’s methodology unique is her emphasis on direct, genuine engagement. She coined the term “permission-based relationship marketing,” which involves personally connecting with followers who engage with content rather than waiting for them to reach out.
“I would be having these conversations with people because they’ve commented on my posts, so I knew they were interested,” Lauren explains. “And essentially that comment and the fact that they were following me implied to me in my head, okay, I have their permission to message them.”
This hands-on approach has proven extraordinarily effective. While many marketers focus solely on creating content, Lauren believes in proactive engagement. She often helps clients achieve breakthrough results simply by shifting from passive content creation to active outreach.
“I would make some Instagram stories and I would literally get no clients,” she recalls of her early days. “And I was like, what is happening here? I have tens of thousands of followers, but no one’s wanting to buy from me.”
Once she began personally messaging people who engaged with her content, everything changed.
The Mindset Behind the Success
What truly sets Lauren apart is her mindset about business and success. She emphasises that success isn’t just about revenue figures but about profit and the freedom it creates.
“Three million in profit per year may be too small for your show, but I don’t go by big dick top line rev,” she candidly shared. “Revenue goes up and down, but the aim is to stabilise and slowly increase profit.”
This practical approach extends to how she structures her business. She believes many entrepreneurs overcomplicate their operations: “A lot of people that you and I know, for example, internet marketers, I don’t think they need to have as chaotic of an operation as they do because a lot of it is just excess complexity.”
For Lauren, success means building a life aligned with her core values: freedom and fulfillment. She regularly conducts what she calls a “revenue review,” examining her activities and marking whether they give her energy or drain it, whether they make money or not.
“If something makes me money but it takes my energy, well, it’s a money-making task, so why don’t I just pay someone to do it for me?” she reasons.
Living the Entrepreneurial Dream
Today, Lauren Tickner lives a lifestyle many entrepreneurs aspire to. Based in Dubai but frequently traveling, she designs her business around her desired lifestyle rather than the other way around. She maintains consistent routines—15,000 steps daily and healthy eating habits—regardless of location.
Her content strategy remains intentionally straightforward. She creates three types of content. These include bottom-of-funnel “intent trigger” content that directly generates leads, middle-of-funnel content that builds relationships, and top-of-funnel content that expands reach.
“The middle of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel is where I’m actually focusing in on my people,” she explains. “Top of the funnel is just purely designed to reach like a mass mass market.”
The Future of Scale Systems
Looking ahead, Lauren Tickner aims to continue empowering her team and clients. She’s exploring opportunities to acquire complementary businesses and diversify her portfolio.
Her goal for Scale Systems clients is ambitious. She has set an ambitious goal for her clients. Over 50% of them are expected to achieve remarkable success. Within their first 3-6 months of working with her team, they are likely to earn monthly incomes exceeding $25,000. It’s a significant target, but one that aligns with her track record of results.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, Lauren offers this advice:
“Study and learn from the people who have gone from where you are now to where you want to be.”
She believes in betting on yourself, understanding that regret is more painful than failure. Drawing inspiration from Les Brown, she reminds us: “The graveyard is the richest place on earth because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled… all because someone was too afraid to take that first step.”
Lauren Tickner took that step at 18, walking away from the corporate path she once thought she wanted. In doing so, she discovered not just financial success, but the freedom and fulfillment that come from building a business aligned with her deepest values. Her journey continues to inspire countless entrepreneurs seeking to forge their own paths in the digital economy.
Building a Values-Driven Business with Lauren Tickner
Lauren’s transformation from corporate dropout to social media selling sensation demonstrates the power of authentic engagement, strategic systems, and values-based entrepreneurship. If you’re inspired by her approach to building a profitable, lifestyle-friendly business, connect with Lauren on Instagram (@laurentickner) where she shares actionable strategies with her 125,000+ followers. You can also connect directly with Lauren on her personal LinkedIn profile. For more in-depth insights into her permission-based relationship marketing system, visit Scale Systems’ website or follow their LinkedIn page. Discover how Lauren’s expertise can help you build the freedom-based business you’ve always dreamed of—without the complexity that holds most entrepreneurs back.
Explore more entrepreneurial insights and success stories at Inspirepreneur, your go-to magazine for business innovation and leadership.
