Season 8: Still Here • April 7, 2026

Relationships, Perseverance, Unruly

Shana Cosgrove talks to Lauren Wittenberg Weiner, Former CEO of Wittenberg Weiner Consulting, Author of Unruly

In this episode of the Outspoken podcast, Host Shana Cosgrove interviews Lauren Wittenberg Weiner about her book Unruly and her journey building a government contracting firm that grew organically from overseas consulting work into a $100M annual-revenue company, including winning a $200M contract after months of protests, and later selling the business after 18 years. Lauren credits her willingness to take on unfamiliar work by leveraging experts, trusting her gut over outside pressure to scale, focusing on customer service and ethics rather than metrics, and leading through relationships, transparency, and “don’t be an asshole” leadership with candid feedback. She discusses non-transactional relationships, finding an unconditionally supportive and moral “village,” mentors’ guidance that “success is new problems,” balancing family priorities, outsourcing to buy time, therapy’s value, and practical GovCon growth advice: define a distinguisher, align need/funding/vehicle, and persevere past obstacles.

QUOTES

  • [08.28] “The one thing I think I did probably better than anything else, was to trust my own gut in what we did, and what was comfortable for us, and what was right for us.” – Lauren Wittenberg Weiner
  • [21:13] “When you are non-transactional, when you don’t keep score, that’s where the deep relationships I think come.” – Lauren Wittenberg Weiner
  • [38.20] “You’ve gotta find what your distinguisher is and it cannot be… you’re a small business and it cannot be… you’re cheaper than everyone else ’cause that’s a race to the bottom.” – Lauren Wittenberg Weiner

TIMESTAMPS

  • [00:00] Introduction to Outspoken
  • [00:52] Sponsorship
  • [01:23] Meet Lauren Weiner
  • [02:28] Starting Overseas
  • [03:56] Organic Early Growth
  • [07:29] Scaling and Gut Trust
  • [10:30] The $200M Win
  • [14:52] Leadership Not Metrics
  • [18:22] Kind-Hard Feedback
  • [22:53] Non Transactional Bonds
  • [25:16] Building Your Village
  • [29:41] Success Means New Problems
  • [30:59] Knowing When To Sell
  • [33:48] Life After The Exit
  • [35:08] Writing Unruly
  • [37:44] Three Growth Lessons
  • [50:24] Work Life Equilibrium
  • [54:16] Therapy And Coaching
  • [58:28] Almost Joined The Circus
  • [59:34] Closing

RESOURCES

RELEVANT LINKS

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Live well, Shana

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