Niche Marketing – The Power of Brand Focus | Lauren Paine

When we try to be real estate professionals who serve everyone, we become ones who serve no one. Alternatively, our brand gains traction when we harness the power of brand focus by defining a specific niche and going ALL-IN on hearing, understanding, speaking to, and serving them. We become known for something and gain traction in the minds of those we have chosen to serve.

Yet the question remains, “What niche should I choose, and how can I focus on that niche without missing out on other important opportunities outside of that niche?”

We’ll answer this question and more with Lauren Paine, a top real estate agent out of the Dripping Springs, Texas, market (@drippinginrealestate).

Full Transcript

On today’s episode, we talk about niche marketing. If you’re trying to talk to everyone if you’re trying to serve everyone, you’re really serving no one. We found an expert out of the Austin Texas area, who does an incredible job branding herself and her community. Today we’re going to talk about not only how she seeks successful business and significant life, but also how she is really honed in on having brand focus through niche marketing. Today’s episode is going to be a special one, stay with us.

So the big question is this. How do we those of us in the real estate industry who have crazy amounts of ambition? How do we think bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we create success and significance, income and impact? My name is Justin Stoddart. This is my co host, Stephanie Peck. And together we bring you the big bigger real estate podcast. Alright, welcome back, everybody to this episode of the Think bigger real estate show. My lovely co host Stephanie pack. Welcome back, my friend. Hello. Thanks for having me. Of course, of course. And we are both so excited to introduce Lauren Payne, out of Dripping Springs, Texas and her well known brand at dripping in real estate go follow her if you’re not already, Lauren, such a pleasure to have you here today.

Thank you guys so much. It’s so good to collaborate with you and talk with Stephanie, who’s as well a great expert, and I love following her as well. Now,

it’s been fun in the short time that I’ve got a chance to know you. A couple of things that have stood out for me right away is that you are a mom and real estate, you’re a mom and a wife first. And and that’s really important to us, as you know, our brand, think bigger real estate is all about successful businesses and significant lives. And again, just in a short period of time, you’ve talked about how your whole whole real estate brand is around creating spaces for families to be able to really create memories. I know you’ve been in the business for 14 years, and really have even people in your very own market, who refer you local business, because of the brand that you’ve built, which is such a complement to what you’ve done. So again, I’m so excited that we’re here together and get a chance to really learn niche marketing from you. So let’s dive right in. Let’s talk a little bit about what matters most to you about this this family. How many kids you have and what how have you been able to manage a busy career together with still being the kind of mom that you want to be?

Yeah, our family is so important. Obviously, we work for our kids, and you know, the lifestyle we want to create for them. Life’s busy. And I really, really love the hustle. I like to you know, have things going on I you know, I’m always helping with the school as well when I can but you know, family first and, and then my kids and my husband and everything that’s important to us. So we moved out here almost eight years ago. And for us, it was about creating a lifestyle of outdoor spaces, and a home that would better fit our family needs as we as we grew as a family. And you know, with the rising cost of Austin, we just found this little market, and, frankly, our home that happened to have everything we wanted in it. And for us, we’re like it’s only 10 minutes more. Well, now everything’s blown up. And everybody wants to come out here. So I am happy to help people. Yeah, I have been referred by a lot of Austin agents, which is really interesting that, you know, everybody wants to work every lead they can. But the truth is, if you’re not going to do 100% job, why not refer it and I do the same to know, you know, we’re busy in our own markets. So you know, I’m in the hill country, I could go work a lead in Fredericksburg, we have a lot of great Airbnbs out there. And people want to get investment properties. But I’m probably not the best person to do that. So what did I do? I referred it and that’s the better thing to do. They ended up closing it in like a month and I was like, great, I got a referral. So same thing happens in Austin. They don’t know a lot about forest properties or acreage is or Wells and barns and stuff like that. They all say I think you need to talk to Lauren and just refer it. I think I built a brand around Dripping Springs and the community that you know, we have out here.

Let’s it’s you know, the most successful companies in the world are those who say no to more things than they say yes to you. And what you just taught us right there is that’s exactly how you’ve built your business, right is that you’re able to say no to a whole bunch of other things so that you can say yes, number one of your family, right, and those things that matter most. And you can say yes to the clients you can serve and really hone in on building that brand of Dripping Springs, Texas. I love it. Stephanie, I know you’ve got a whole pent up list of questions and you’re just so eager to learn from Lauren. So go for it. What’s on your mind? Yeah,

well what attracts you Me to Laura. And I actually found Lauren because she is marketing herself in a town that I was curious about. So what did I do, I went to Instagram, and I searched, Dripping Springs. And then I thought, Well, who knows more about a town, then a real estate agent. So I started Dripping Springs real estate, and what comes up dripping in real estate and became social media friends with Lauren. And what I love about what you do, Lauren is you highlight your community in a way that is so relatable. And you are in an area that has a lot of relocation business, whether it’s from out of state people relocating into Texas, but like you mentioned, people relocating from the city to the country. And even though it’s just a short amount of time away, it’s actually two completely different worlds to be in Austin versus Dripping Springs. So tell us more about what you what you do through your social media pages to really identify who is your client? And how do you attract them?

Yeah, so I started with dripping in real estate, I, you know, I don’t know if I’m a marketing guru or not. But I thought, you know, how somebody’s gonna find me if they are looking at Dripping Springs. And I just came up with dripping in real estate and rolled with it. So we’ve got a lot of great spaces out here from visiting, you know, the wineries, the breweries, all of them out here are great for families, because they also offer food, restaurants and places for the kids to play. So it’s kind of like after sports, people go and you meet up at one of these places, we’ve got the creeks we’ve got, you know, Cardinals falls Hamilton pool. So I always try to highlight, you know, the special things that are, you know, why we love living out here. And I’ve even had some friends go, you know, I just got sick of looking at you and your family, you know, playing in the rivers and streams, and now they’ve moved out here. So I think, you know, making your town desirable. Showing the great things about the schools, the people you love the businesses supporting the local community, and just highlighting everything about your town is, you know, what people want to relate to, and wish they could be at?

Yeah, you really paint a picture of the lifestyle that you are living, and you nailed it there that you’re you’re living that lifestyle. And by painting that picture, other people are saying, How do I get a lifestyle like that, too. And that’s where they’re reaching out and saying, you know, I think I need to know more about this town, I think I need to know more about all the things that you already know, you know, if I, if I have young children, I’m going to be looking at Lauren and saying she knows about the school, she knows about the parks and the activities, because she’s living it and I want to be a part of what she’s doing. I think that that’s such an important, parallel to looking at success and significance in business and in life, where you really are modeling that, like you can have a great business, and you have a great life that feeds the business, because what you’re doing in life, then turns into business. And so tell us more a little bit about that, like, how does that naturally happen for you? And how does that create an opportunity for you to not feel like you’re working, like you’re working with people that you want to be working with, and doing things that you love doing? Tell us how that feeds your business and feeds your energy?

Yeah, I mean, I think we all have to give to our community to make it great. And my kids are young and in school, and, you know, just offering to help people and serve people, even if they’re not my clients. I have people ask me for, you know, advice on taxes and advice on, you know, just contractors we use, like, you know, I know they have another real estate agent, but they’re clearly reaching out to me. So just being of service to people, you know, helping at your school, getting to know people sponsoring your sports teams. How can you, you know, just make things in your community by giving a little bit better.

You know, something that standing out to me is that again, in the world of marketing, you really have to penetrate so much noise in today’s world. And yet so many of us, I’ll say, as marketers tend to think we need to go really, really wide. But what what we end up doing is we end up going an inch deep, right and a mile wide. And we never really penetrate a certain brand. I am the expert at this thing in this area, because we’re too busy trying to go wide and serve everybody. And really what I love that you’ve done is you’ve really gone not just in a particular area, but you’ve gone on in particular, a certain kind of niche of lifestyle in that area, where I see many, many agents who are just advertising homes, right? What? People aren’t really buying a home, it’s like, What would life be inside that home? Right? Like, if I were to live in this area? What would my life look like? And yes, the house is part of that. But it’s one, it’s one very small part of it, right? It’s, it’s what what, what more am I going to experience outside of the home by living in this home? And I feel like you do that well, and that you’re really selling to people what it looks like to live here. And there’s no, there’s no mystery, then White people are reaching out to you to talk to you about things beyond just real estate, like contractors, like tax professionals, because they realize you are an expert in this particular area of help helping people to live in this community. So it totally makes sense. There’s there’s a complete, you know, parallel here as to why you’re getting that. Would you agree with that? Yeah,

I think a lot of agents are afraid to niche down and be an expert of a certain area, because they feel like they’re not going to get business somewhere else. And that has been nothing but completely untrue. Like I still help. You know, people will ask me, Can you help in Austin? I’m like, absolutely. I lived in Austin for 15 years, I know it very well, I don’t say I’m an expert at North Austin, it’s almost, you know, an hour away in a completely different town. But you know, I go south, I go straight across, I’ve had a ton of Tesla clients. But it’s not to say that you can’t help in certain areas, if you feel confident that you know those areas, and you should, but it just makes you the expert in you know, specifics, a horse property of property with acreage, you know, something a little bit different than an agent, you know, in the West Lake Area who’s never come out here, they may try and sell it still. But they really don’t know this area. And we’re always supposed to ethically be, you know, experts in the area you’re gonna sell. So and like I said, people referring, because they know that I’m niching on this area, you know, has been awesome.

I just want to make one comment. I’m sure Stephanie has other good questions. But one thing that I I’m it’s really standing out to me is in this this maybe changing environment of real estate, where consumers feel maybe empowered to question, right, if an agent is involved in not that they haven’t always we all know that they’ve always had the ability to even negotiate commission. But they feel empowered now in part because of the lawsuit, in part because of what the media has done to maybe sensationalized some of this right. And I think maybe what’s given consumers even this, this concept up front is that they should is because there were agents out there who did not do what you are recommending, right? They’re like, Oh, Austin, yeah, I live. Yep. Like, yes, I can serve you. And it’s always like, Yes, I’ll take that. Yes, I’ll take that. Yes, I’ll take that. Right, when and then they go to these communities. And they know, they know very little bit about it. And I think the consumer actually knows if your agent is an expert or not. And sometimes it’s not until they’re in the middle of a transaction where they’re like, You don’t know this area very well, I can tell you, right. And now what I hear you saying is, is this strategy is actually the best strategy for, for consumers to not only be willing to pay for you, and wait for you and be really glad that they did after the fact is because you really do have domain expertise, right? You really do go deep. It’s not just marketing, and this some facade of like, this is what I post on social media to appear. I’m an expert. No, I’m actually a freaking expert. Is this when I say yes to all day long? And everything else? They say no to, right. And when you can really kind of stand behind that, like, No, this is who I serve. And other I’ll find you somebody else in another community, where, where they serve at that level, in this other community where I don’t serve as well, like, to me, that’s just the beautiful direction that our industry needs to go.

Yeah, I mean, people are afraid to refer it. And the fact of the matter is, like, if somebody can get that property, you know, and that person, you know, into a property sooner and quicker and done, because they were the better expert, then that was the right thing to do. And you got a referral for it.

And it’s it’s abundant thinking, right? And abundance always leads to more abundance, right? It doesn’t lead to scarcity. So anyway, Stephanie, what are your thoughts on this? Because you do the same thing, by the way, for those that don’t know, Stephanie? Well, she does the exact same thing in her community she is is well known as the agent in in her area. And so it’s, I’m excited to hear your your perspective on this as well.

Yeah, well, I mean, let’s remember that the real estate agent isn’t just there for you during the transaction. And especially if you’re moving if you’re moving from the city to the country, and you don’t know anyone there or if you’re moving from out of state to Texas, and you don’t know anyone there, your real estate agents probably going to be your first friend, maybe your only friend for a while, and potentially your best friend for a long time. If I were relocating, I would want to have someone that I could reach out to and say, you know, hey, how do I get my kids signed up for soccer or or I work from home, and how’s the internet in this area? Or I mean, all the things that only a local person is going to know. So, so tell us more about how you serve clients in that way, like, how do you? How do you show up for them beyond the transaction? Because they want someone that is going to be there for them? Always, not just after the deal closes. So what are some things that you do to show your value outside of just negotiating, showing homes and showing up with keys at the end? Yeah,

I mean, like you said, we do it all, and I’m happy to do it. I’m happy to do more than expected. Moving is already a stressful process. And I think one of our biggest assets we can do is keep our clients calm, especially through all those stressful situations. And if we can help them with the little things, yeah, what are my choices on doctors? What are my choices on dentist, I’ve made a, someone’s prom mum, for them. For their daughter that just moved here. I was like, Okay, I did this in high school, I know how to make one, I’m gonna make her one. So she feels like she’s here in the community. Anything, I’m happy to get it done. I one of my clients is out of town in Chicago right now. And so I’m doing the repairs. I had two people that, you know, I was going to call for windows that need broken windows that need to be replaced. I went over there and got it done this morning. So just go the extra mile for your clients, and they’re always gonna appreciate that.

Yeah, and be a resource, be someone that’s so well connected, that if I need something in that area, I know that Lauren’s got my back, she probably already knows someone has worked with someone in the past, or has a way to find what I need. If I’m if I’m a client, that’s what I’m looking for out of a real

estate agent or connectors as well. Yeah, yeah,

absolutely. And so we were talking about branding, and how branding is really important to you. Can you elaborate more about that the importance of personal branding, because you’ve done a great job of branding yourself, who you are, who you serve, and attracting those clients. Talk to us more about the importance of that niche branding. Yeah,

I’m looking at your brand right now. And I love it. Beautiful. Mines kind of similar to that. I’ve been at several different companies through my real estate career. And it was always very important that I got to brand myself as Lauren Payne, real estate. dripping in real estate is my handle for Facebook and Instagram. But I always wanted to be me, allowed to have my own brand, mine kind of looks like a big farmhouse with kind of like a logo where my, my LNP and are connected or like a cattle brand. So I love that just represents me, and not just a big company name with my little name under it. So it’s always been important if I’m going to be at a brokerage that they’re going to allow me to shine and not it’s not really about their name. Sure, we want a strong brokerage behind us, but I want to be the star.

And ultimately, I think that’s 100% the way we should look at it is consumers are not in business with a brokerage. They’re in business with with a person and that that person, the agent is in business with the brokerage. Right. So if and, in my opinion, if a brokerage gets that wrong, they’re shortchanging their agents, they’re actually saying that the client is in business with us. And they may aspire that, but the reality is not people choose people to work with. And then we as agents have the responsibility to choose the best brokerage, with whom we’re in business with, right. And our branding should as you describe, should represent that. proportionally. Right? It should be there. The client is in business with us with powered by right. Some some some brokerage that actually is the platform on which we do our business. But yeah, they don’t have the relationship. So I think that’s a great point. And I think you’ve got that exactly right.

Thank you. Yeah, actually, it’s funny, I took over this I got a call one day from a media company asking if I wanted to be in their Walgreens, it was like a hand sanitizer station. Well, I had just seen one in CVS. And I was like, Oh, that’s great. I knew the agent. I knew the neighborhood she served. Everybody that’s coming into that CVS right by her neighborhood is seeing it and said, Well, I’m not really interested in the Walgreens. But I did see that and I think it’s a good opportunity. And they said, Well, we’re about to do a partnership with HEB. And I said, Oh, well at the time he vs our grocery store, there was only one heb in town now we have to but for some reason, the other one doesn’t do as well. So I had snag that spot at Insurance you walk in and you see my face and every and my brand and everybody in town sees it, and they take selfies with me and send it to me. It’s hysterical. But I had no idea it was gonna be that that big of a thing. And now people want my spot so bad that I’m not willing to give it up.

Stephanie, you had a similar strategy. Every time I went shopping in my local community, it was like I’m shopping with Stephanie faces, right? Which is funny, because you wouldn’t think that a relationship based agent would do that kind of advertising. But actually you Stephanie is the one that taught me that it’s like, you know, you’ve got brand penetration like you, you’ve you, yes, I worked by referral. But I also worked by reputation, and I want everywhere people look is to be reminded of the bonuses down.

You know, every time they walk in, they see it again.

Hard to forget.

Yeah, I mean, that’s how you become the girl next door, I guess, if you will, I mean, because you really are next door to everyone, when they’re grocery shopping, they’re seeing you. And it’s something that I’ve done it too. I’ve been on the grocery carts for years and years. And other agents are just waiting for me to get off of it, so that they can take that spot too. But, but what I love about doing it is it creates that constant recognition and that constant reminder. So when people associate real estate in your town, they’re thinking of you, because they saw your sign in the neighborhood, they saw you at an open house, then they saw you at a social event or community event. And now they see you every week when they grocery shop, it’s that layering experience that you have become part of their routine and part of their lives, without you even knowing it or having to do more. Which is great, because we can only show up in so many spaces every week before it becomes a burden on our time. And we’re giving up time with our families, and we’re giving up our free time. But if you were to be at every community event every week, it would be exhausting. But if you can put your face somewhere that people are already at on a regular basis, you’ve now created that space in their minds consistently. Right.

And we’ve been consistent about being Dripping Springs to know if I went and put that same hand sanitizer station in South Austin, would I be recognized? Probably not people don’t really know who you are. But I’ve already put my name out in this community. And yeah, it’s just an extra touch for people to see.

You’re going deep, right? You’re You’re penetrating, you know, the the community in which you live and just new new ways. And, you know, the thing that Stephanie has helped me to see is that I used to believe that agents who did that must not be referral based agent. But she’s helped me to see that no, you can absolutely be that. And there’s a difference right between the advertising doesn’t mean that that’s where your business comes from. It’s that you’re you’re you have more mindshare, in the minds of those people with whom you have a relationship with, right, it doesn’t change the way you interact with people. But it just allows them to be more mindful of the fact of that you’re here and that in that the relationship, not just with them, but with the community matters. And that’s something that I’ve seen Stephanie do a great job of being involved in community events. So it’s not just, I’m going to pay to replace myself. So I have to go she’s involved in stuff all the time. Right, which is, I would love to hear kind of your thoughts on that. Like, when it comes to this niche marketing, in Dripping Springs? Are there other things that you’re a part of, that allow the community to see you have like Lauren’s really invested in helping this community? Well, definitely.

I’ve always sponsored my boys, I have two boys. So we’re baseball family. And I always sponsor the teams, my name is on the back of their jerseys. I do the silent auction for our school every year for our Fall Fest. And that’s a big commitment. That is like my one thing that I’m like, Okay, I can’t be a room mom all the time. But I can serve this one thing. And I can do really good at it. Because I do have a connection with different businesses here and reaching out, you know, for them that have kids at our school to support and give. We’ve done an awesome job on that every year. And that’s my favorite thing that we do. Is that silent auction.

Good, great job, like really identifying what you can and can’t do. Right? And rather than being like, Oh, I wish I could be the room mom. It’s like no, but what can I do? I’ve got unique relationships with business owners, and a positioning to where I can have conversations with them where I get them because I’m a business owner as well. Really, really great thoughts, Stephanie, is that how you’ve chosen in part, the events that you’ve been a part of?

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve had to choose. Where can I make the biggest impact with the talents and the resources that I already have? And That biggest impact on on the community and on my people or on my family, and on my business at the same time, and they don’t have to be separated, they can coexist. And that’s exactly the definition to me of success and significance that I can have both. And often at the same time, I’m not choosing which 1am at Lauren, I’m sure that you you feel the same way. How do you choose things that you’re going to put your time into that serve both of those purposes, success and significance? Yeah,

I think we have to balance as moms, you know, where one thing doesn’t get too much of our time. You know, I don’t want to grow to a point where I am so big that I would have zero time with my family. That’s not the lifestyle I want to live. I don’t want my kids to think even though they do say I work a lot. You know, that’s the only thing important because it’s not. So choosing to balance where things fit in. Just really works. Like, just, you know, looking at your calendar for that month, can I can I fit this extra thing in? I don’t, I don’t have time right now, or, you know, this month, I do have a little extra time. So let me help out in this way, when I hear

you know that that reminds me and Stephanie knows my mom as well. Her name is also Stephanie, ironically, and something that I learned from my mom, and this this may be for any moms that are listening out there who are trying to balance this business versus family. And I think, you know, there are some and I don’t believe that either of you who do work so hard during the young years, they look back and you’re like, Man, I missed, I missed so much. My mom wasn’t that way. And I get from both of you that you’re not that way either. But here’s something that that I learned from her is that she was there every time it really mattered, right? Like she would have the ability that’s part of the reason why she chose the kind of career paths she did is because she could choose to put those big rocks in at the times when I really wanted her there. And it was important for to be there. She was there, right period, like she just made it happen. And at the same time, she was teaching me how to go for it. Right. And I think that’s really important is that kids need role models, whether it’s Mom, whether it’s mom and dad, you know, whether it’s even another family member, they need someone who takes a bit of a chance that doesn’t just choose the easy path and says, You know what, I’m going to go for it. I’m going to stick my neck out here and I’m going to build a business so that our family can live a better life. And I know for me is I look at my role models, right? My mom is one of those in that it gets she was she didn’t replace us with business in any way. But she prioritized us. And then she was also doing something special in business that gave me now the courage to go build businesses on my own. Right. So I don’t want to have any mom or dad out there, who maybe has feels that mom guilt or that dad guilt to be like, Oh, I don’t know, like, be sure you’re there at every time that you should be there be there. And then on top of that, just be proud of the fact that I’m giving my kids a template that they can follow to go pursue their dreams and create a better life for their family. Family, I think that’s essential, and it’s a beautiful thing

is to the same thing with you know, referring if that’s not in your space, or in your time, and somebody else can do a better job. You know, it’s the same thing with as we grow so big, you know, make sure you’ve got the transaction coordinator thing, make sure you have somebody behind you that your marketing gal that’s gonna get those things done for you when you need the help. And just the extra help. Yeah, that’s great.

That’s exactly the experience I had when I started growing. My team is my kids were little, and business just kept coming to me. And it’s not because I just got so lucky that my phone number was on people’s fingers. It’s because I was always putting myself out there. And more people started calling and more people started calling and I was always looking for opportunity. But the moment for me, when that little girl looked at me and said, Mom, we never see you anymore. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, okay, so I have a choice here. I can either scale back my business, or I can bring on help so that we can still serve as many people I don’t have to say no to people, but I can and I can also give an opportunity to someone else. That’s exactly what brought me to the point of growing a small team was a way to continue to serve as many people as I had an opportunity to and get my time back and still have the family life that I wanted.

Absolutely.

What what type of leverage do you have in place since I hear both of you talking Stephanie obviously I’m I’m in touch with your teams. We’d love to hear from you as well. You know for the For the audience’s sake, but But who do you have helping you? Again, if you’re going to create a deep, niche learn, right? And you’re going to go deep, and you’re going to first, like, let go of all the things that aren’t in that particular niche, right? But who do you have helping you around you, that helps you really show up big in your area without taking away from those things that matter more than real estate.

For me, it’s always been really important. I love marketing, and I love doing a lot of it myself, but actually having a physical person on the team or at my brokerage that will help me. I’ve had I’ve been at brokerages where, you know, there’s an online template, and it’s like, oh, just send out these postcards. Well, I never do it. You know, I’m like, I need to have somebody behind me. I say, Okay, it’s so good. Send those just solds out, she’ll do it, she’ll send it to me to prove and get it out. I think transaction coordinators are super significant. And then if you get to a point where your time is, you know, scarce or not scarce, but you know, you have too many things going on. I think a buyer’s agent is great to help with showings, or go check out on properties that you just don’t have time to run to. Maybe it’s an investment property to make sure it’s cleaned right and ready to go and no damage. So I would say that’s probably why a lot of people start with buyer’s agents on their teams.

Love it, it’s definitely what would you add to that, as far as what’s been really valuable for you, again, for audience who’s listening to say, Okay, I love to build the kind of brand that these ladies have built, and still be the great mom, right? Or still be the great dad, that I’ve always wanted to be without having to sacrifice that who else would you say would be essential, in addition to what you know, with what Lauren has shared with us,

you know, there, there’s a blueprint out there that that talks about the order in which you should hire and and I do believe in that blueprint of hiring, hiring a transaction coordinator, and then an assistant and then a buyer’s agent, or showing assistant or showing partner, and then growing your team from there. And I do believe that but I think they, the best thing for someone to do is, and this, this is exactly what I did make a list of every every activity that needs to be done in this business, and not just the transaction, everything that you do as a real estate agent, make a list, and then separate it by these are the things that I love doing. And these are the things that I don’t love doing, or these are the things I’m really good at. These are the ones that I’m not, this is what I’m doing. And I’m excited to do it. These are the things that I will put off and avoid at all costs. I know I shouldn’t be sending out those postcards, but I don’t like sitting at the computer creating the postcard and I’m just not doing it. Once you have that list. Now let’s look at the side of I don’t like doing it, I’m not doing it. And I know that I should, or I it’s taking too much of my time or I’m not good at it whatever is on that list. Now create a position that serves those activities. And that should be your first hire.

Yep, that’s great.

You’re creating your first job description, right of all the stuff that you’ve been procrastinating? There’s a great book called who not how a few if you haven’t read that anyone in the audience. It’s a great one. And what it causes you to do is to think differently about procrastination is that if you feel like oh, I should be doing that. And we just feel guilt, guilt guilt, at some point, you just need to say, this is this is assigned to me that I’m not the person to be doing this, that should be like, Oh, awesome. This is the point where I hand the baton, right? This is the point where I get tired, I don’t want to do that. And so I’m going to pass it to somebody else who this is their thing, like they just get lit up doing this particular thing. So maybe we can all look at the things that we’ve been procrastinating a little bit differently, actually want to put, you know, as I as I listen to, to you two very impactful ladies in real estate. You know, I know there’s a lot of you in the audience who would aspire to have you know, what you have. And sometimes I would say it’s even there’s low hanging fruit that you’re not capturing. And actually Stephanie and I were just refining a tool this morning called the referral score, I’m putting a QR code right up here over Laurens Lauren said there that scanning that QR code will give you a quick report on the amount of referrals that you’re missing out on both in your personal sphere as well as in your professional sphere. And it’ll just be a quick diagnostic tool for you it probably takes about 90 seconds and we found it to be really valuable for people to realize like oh my goodness, I am so close to so much more money if I just if I just involved these couple of systems some of which have been talked about here today with these wonderful ladies. So anyway, if you haven’t yet got your your referral score thing figured out real estate forward slash referral score for any that are just listening to the to the podcast. So as we’re coming up here on the end of the episode. Are there any last questions you want to ask? Definitely before we move to kind of our final round.

I just want to go to the final question because I’m excited to see what Lauren’s gonna say. Okay,

very good. Lauren. So you are a big thinker, right? You’ve obviously shown that both in your personal life, building a great family, being involved in the community, as well as in your business, right of really building a great business. What is it that you do Lauren, to continue to, to grow, to continue to expand your possibilities, to continue to be a big thinker, right, give us something, something that you do on a regular basis, that really helps you to continue to expand and grow yourself.

I think we have to, excuse me, all learn from each other. We all have to learn in our industry, you know, certain courses that we have to retake, but I think going out and just seeing what other agents are doing, there are some that are willing to share and there are some, you know, that aren’t, is, you know, add one more thing that they’re doing to how you do it, and then you’re mastering it all. I think one thing that I do really well is social media marketing video. And I think it’s super important for every agent to be doing that with a property, not just and I mean, actually, you have to be on camera with it, you have to be talking, you have to be touring your property and telling them why this property is so great, not just a video from your photographer zooming through, with no audio, you know, just picture, they want a tour of it, they want to know why it’s so great. And not only is that marketing that property, but it’s marketing yourself as

well. Yeah, brilliant. I love that. I do think that when we look around to see the expertise of other people, sometimes we feel like oh, my goodness, that person is better at that thing than me, that shouldn’t cause you to be to feel insecure, it should be like, I need to learn that from them. Right. And you can imagine the things that you can pick up from great people around you, it really again, goes back to that abundance mentality, and really helps you to to start to aggregate, you know, great skills from great people. So appreciate you sharing that. Stephanie, anything you want to add to that, before we wrap it up for today.

I think Lauren just said exactly why we do this podcast. And why I love being a part of it is to bring this information to other people and to say, to introduce people in our audience, to people like Lauren, to say, This person is doing something really well. And if this is something that you want to be doing, go over and follow her go to dripping in real estate, on Instagram and Facebook, see what she’s doing and do it. And now you’ve created a great partnership, a great referral partnership and a friendship with another real estate agent. And that’s why I love being on this podcast is because I get to learn from people like you everyday. So thank you for that.

Oh, absolutely. Love following you back. And you know, we just had this ongoing relationship for probably three or four years through social media, and relating through real estate and the things that we do and I learned from you every day, too. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Lauren so much. And I want to thank our audience for tuning in. And that my final requests of everybody listening here today, these three simple words and they are go think bigger. Thank you, Lauren, again for helping us do that today.

Thank you.

Before you go, we’ve got one more invitation for you. We all know that listening to a podcast is not enough to help you to become a big thinker and high achiever. We must take action. So the very first step, think about one Aha, one lesson learned from this podcast that you’d like to apply and send it to us in the form of a direct message at Think bigger real estate. We look forward to hearing from you and help

Transcribed by https://otter.ai