During my 8+ years at Google, I’ve worked with large advertisers that are household names. That’s fun and exciting, but I’ve also always been passionate about helping smaller brands that are in the early stages of growth. I knew I wanted to explore that area in more depth in business school, but there wasn’t a concentration like that already. I’m a huge believer in “if it doesn’t exist, create it,” so I combined two existing concentrations—Entrepreneurship and Marketing—to create a specialized field of study that I found personally rewarding. It worked. I left business school equipped to pursue my passion project of helping small businesses grow through smart marketing choices.

A strong mobile marketing strategy isn’t complete without a user-friendly mobile site experience. You need mobile media that actually improves the life of the customer and also a way to measure how effective you are at doing that. The measurement piece is the hard part because it’s difficult to track exactly what happens after a user clicks on a mobile ad. Will they click on the ad but ultimately visit a brick and mortar store location [rather than buying online]? Will they click on an ad and then complete their purchase over the phone? The future of mobile marketing belongs to the company that can find a way to answer those questions for advertisers accurately and efficiently.

Despite the fact that my job is to help advertisers take advantage of Americans’ obsession with our smartphones, my heart still sinks a little when I walk through a restaurant and see everyone at a table in their own worlds on their screens. I definitely love the convenience and ease of having answers at my finger tips (that goes triple for driving directions spoken out loud to me!), but I try to put down my phone during meals and conversations.

Because I usually spend my entire work day in front not one but three screens (laptop, plus monitor, plus phone all right on my desk), on weekends I try to limit screen time. Some weekends I don’t respond to emails at all. It’s a lot easier to live in the moment and actually see the people you’re spending time with when there isn’t a screen in front of your face, blocking the view.

I try to do my part by volunteering my time through the Advertising Women of New York (AWNY.org) mentoring program—I also serve on the program board. I'm also on the leadership boards of several Women@Google groups. And when someone, especially a young woman, calls to ask for a favor or for my help connecting them with someone, I always try to say yes. You never know where life will take the people who you help out. I try to never turn down the opportunity to help anyone trying to build a meaningful career. It’s all in keeping with a personal motto that I hold dear: “Lift as you climb.”

Just like no day is typical, no day of writing or marketing A Northern Gentleman was or is typical. When I was writing, some months I would challenge myself to just write 100 words a day, every day. Some days I'd easily write 500. Others I would struggle to hit 99. Sometimes I'd be able to write over the lunch hour, but there were weeks when I couldn’t squeeze in time until the weekend.

Now that the book is published, the same goes for marketing. I try to schedule in time every day to work on it, but what gets accomplished—when it does—looks different every day. I’ve come to accept that that's OK. Flexibility will do me more favors in the long run than trying to adhere to a rigid self-imposed schedule.

I think one reason this book is catching readers' attention is that the main character asks an uncommon question for his era, but one that's all too familiar for our generation. Not so long ago, people worked just to make a living. Now though, many of us are fortunate enough to be able to ask questions like “But what is it I really want to do?” or “What is it that I’m meant to do?”

Those are the questions that my main character, Drucker May, explores, and they're certainly ones I can relate to. If you’re one of the people—as I often am—wrestling with similar concerns, you’ll have a lot of fun living vicariously through Drucker. The book follows him as he keeps reinventing himself, trying out these new lives and new lifestyles. Certainly it’s a lot more financially responsible than up and quitting your job. 

I’m the type of person who loves planning—and for me, planning ahead and scheduling are the keys to making time for all the things I need to do. I live by both my digital calendar and the handwritten to-do lists I carry around in an old-fashioned day planner. It’s what works for me. I schedule in time to work on the projects that are important to me alongside tasks for work and ways to unwind with friends and family. Even just setting aside half an hour a day to work on a project can really move the needle over a few weeks or a month’s time.

Writing and publishing A Northern Gentleman is my most meaningful accomplishment for sure. Writing a novel is something I've wanted to do since I was about nine years old. Even though there were roadblocks along the way (like taking a four year hiatus and juggling a full-time job while writing), I stuck with it mainly because of the story—I just couldn't forget about it. I knew the only way to make sure it was told was to push forward (one word at a time, honestly) until it was done. And so that’s what I did. 

Success is setting a goal and moving towards it.  Achieving the goal is the best case scenario—usually—but even if you don’t achieve it, you can find moments of success in the developments, maybe even the surprises, that you encounter along the way.

As a serial side-hobby entrepreneur, I’ve set plenty of goals for myself and not all of my endeavors have turned out the way I envisioned they would. I get excited about a project, work on it for a while, but then sometimes my interest shifts to another project and I move on. I’ve left a trail of abandoned projects, blogs, websites, business plans in my wake. But I can’t help it—I love starting things. That’s when I learn the most. 

I find that the best way to learn anything is to jump in with both feet and talk to as many people as you can about the topic. You'll learn by doing as you go along. And when I’m ready to move on, I look back and ask “did I learn something from this experience?” If the answer is yes, then in some way, it was a success. 

Leadership opportunities are built on strong relationships. I believe that's true for both men and women, and that those strong relationships can be forged with both men and women as well. Over the first decade of my career, I've become acutely aware of one thing: there's real truth to the cliche, “It’s about who you know." It really is so important to build a circle of people who can vouch for your work, your character, and the value you bring to the table.

Once I began to understand the importance of relationships, I started rearranging my schedule to make time for relationship building. For the last several years I’ve made a point to sit down for lunch or coffee with people at least 3 times a week to build those relationships and to keep them strong. Connecting with others face-to-face, especially in this hyper-digital world, is the way to create and maintain the real, human relationships from which leadership opportunities are made.

It's about layering in activities that are meaningful to you. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a job that you love and that challenges you, look for ways to add activities into your schedule that bring richness and depth to your day.

For me, I love taking classes that challenge me. In the past that meant a certificate in business and then an MBA (both from NYU), and a creative writing class through MediaBistro that helped put me on the road toward writing a novel. For the last couple of years, I’ve been taking Russian language class.

I’ve found that supplementing the work that pays the bills with an activity or a class will make you feel more fulfilled and well-rounded at the end of every work day. 

I’m expecting my first child in March 2016, and every morning I wake up looking forward to meeting him. I spent years worrying about and even fearing pregnancy and motherhood, and I’ve been wonderfully surprised by how much I’m loving the experience. It’s nothing like I thought it would be. It’s better in every way.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Lauren is now a Career Contessa Mentor! Click here to book personalized career advice with her.