Deep End Coaching

Find your answers beneath the surface.

Lauren Kress pairs 20+ years of hands-on retail and food-service operations leadership with iPEC Core Energy Coaching — helping entrepreneurs, small business owners, and people in transition move past the surface-level fixes and build something that actually holds.

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About

Meet Lauren Kress

Hi! I’m Lauren. I believe that the most powerful movements in life come from clarity. I help people find clarity in their personal and professional lives, so they can live a life in true alignment with their values.

With over 20 years of small business management experience, I have mentored, trained, and developed hundreds of individuals. What I’ve learned is that whether you are an entrepreneur looking to optimize your results or an individual seeking a more purposeful life, the obstacle is rarely a lack of know-how. Usually, it’s an energetic block, a story we’ve told ourselves so many times that we’ve started to mistake it for the truth.

In our sessions, we do the work that most people avoid: we Dive Deep. We identify the stories and blocks that keep you stuck in indecision. By quieting the surface noise, we find the internal symmetry and resilience that has been there all along.

Once we align your inner world, the natural result is the ability to Rise Higher. Whether that means boosting your business’s creativity, streamlining your operations, or simply living with a newfound sense of ease and abundance, we move forward with intention.

As a queer coach, I am committed to providing an affirming space for all walks of life. I believe in the incredible strength of the human spirit and its capacity to rewrite any story.

Are you ready to find your answers beneath the surface?

Credentials & Background

  • iPEC-Trained Core Energy Coach
  • 20+ Years in Operations & Training Leadership
  • Trader Joe's · Wawa · Princeton University Retail Operations
  • South Amboy, NJ — Serving Middlesex & Monmouth County

Services

Coaching & Consulting Packages

Four ways to work together, each built around real operational experience and Core Energy Coaching — whatever stage you and your business (or your next chapter) are in.

Operations Consulting

For New Store Openings & Hands-On Operational Support

Some problems need more than a weekly conversation; they need someone in it with you. This is a deeper level of engagement for founders and owners who need hands-on operational support, from opening a new location, to rebuilding a broken system, or scaling for future growth. I bring more than 20 years of operations and training leadership from Trader Joe's, Wawa, and Princeton University's retail operations directly into your business, building alongside you, not just advising from the sidelines.

What this can include:

  • New store openings — full launch timeline, staffing plan, and opening-week readiness
  • Systems & documentation — building the SOPs and daily rhythms your team can actually run on
  • Team build-out — designing hiring, onboarding, and training from scratch
  • On-site support — hands-on presence during launch, relaunch, or high-stakes transitions
  • Standardization — bringing consistency across multiple locations or shifts
  • Fractional leadership — stepping in as interim operational leadership during a gap or transition

How It Works

  • Scoping call — we map your timeline, gaps, and goals
  • Custom engagement plan — scope, deliverables, and timeline built around your project
  • On-site or remote — structured around what the work actually requires

Custom engagement, scoped after a discovery call.

Entrepreneur Coaching

For Food, Beverage & Retail Founders

Launching a food, beverage, or retail concept is one of the hardest things you'll ever do — and it's exactly where I want to be in your corner. Getting from concept to opening day, and from opening day to a business that runs without you standing in the middle of every shift, takes more than passion. I spent over twenty years building training systems and leading teams inside Trader Joe's, Wawa, and Princeton University's retail operations. This package pairs that hands-on operational fluency with Core Energy Coaching, so we build the business and the leader at the same time.

What we'll work on:

  • Concept to creation — a clear-eyed plan for concept, timeline, and what has to be true before opening day
  • Operational foundations — turning your vision into repeatable systems, SOPs, and daily rhythms
  • Your first team — hiring, onboarding, and training your first team members the right way
  • Culture — building a strong one before you inherit someone else's problem
  • The unglamorous stuff — vendor relationships, inventory discipline, and shift-to-shift consistency
  • Founder resilience — staying grounded and decisive when everything runs through you
  • Built to grow — laying the groundwork now for a second location, wholesale, or franchise

The Program

  • 12 sessions over a 3-month minimum engagement
  • 60-minute sessions, weekly, held virtually
  • Between-session support — email/text access for real-time questions

Small Business Owner Coaching

For Food, Beverage & Retail Operators

You didn't get into this business to spend every day putting out fires. After more than 20 years leading teams and operations for Trader Joe's, Wawa, and Princeton University's retail operations, I know exactly what it's like to run a location where the quality of the shift depends on who's working it. This package pairs that operational fluency with Core Energy Coaching to help you fix what's breaking and build what's next, without losing yourself in the process.

What we'll work on:

  • Your team — reducing turnover and building a real bench of future leaders
  • Consistency — standardizing training so quality doesn't depend on who's on shift
  • Letting go — delegating without losing control of what actually matters
  • Customer experience — tightening execution across shifts, dayparts, or locations
  • The mental load — managing the weight of ownership (decision fatigue, burnout, always being "on")
  • What's next — positioning the business for growth, sale, or your own next chapter

The Program

  • 12 sessions over a 3-month minimum engagement
  • 60-minute sessions, weekly, held virtually
  • Between-session support — email/text access for real-time questions

Life, Career & Transition Coaching

For People Ready to Build What's Next

Whether you're leaving a career that no longer fits, rebuilding after a hard chapter, or simply ready for something more like you, you don't have to figure it out alone. After more than twenty years leading people through change in high-pressure environments, and my own experience rebuilding a career from the ground up, I know that the answers are rarely on the surface. This package pairs real-world experience with Core Energy Coaching to help you get clear, get grounded, and get moving.

What we'll work on:

  • Clarity — figuring out what you actually want next, not what you think you should want
  • Transition — naming what's not working and why it's been hard to move past it
  • Career reposition — getting clear on your values, interests, and passion
  • Mindset — identifying the beliefs and patterns that keep showing up in your way
  • Forward motion — building momentum with small, honest, doable steps, not overwhelm
  • Energy & resilience — making decisions from steadiness instead of fear or fatigue

The Program

  • 12 sessions over a 3-month minimum engagement
  • 60-minute sessions, weekly, held virtually
  • Between-session support — email/text access for real-time questions

How It Works

From First Call to Real Momentum

01

Scoping Call

We start with a conversation — your goals, your timeline, and where things are actually getting stuck.

02

Custom Plan

Whether it's a scoped consulting engagement or a 12-session coaching program, we build a plan around what you need, not a one-size-fits-all package.

03

Ongoing Sessions

Weekly sessions or hands-on engagement work, with support in between so momentum doesn't stall between meetings.

Contact

Ready to Dive In?

Tell me a little about where you are and what you're working on. I'll follow up to schedule your discovery call.

Sessions

Coaching sessions are held virtually; operations consulting engagements can include on-site support when the work calls for it.