Lauren Scott : Collegiate Athlete, Marathon Runner to Superstar Realtor

Tracy Hayes  1:06  
welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. This is your host. Tracy Hayes, my guest today is not only a great real estate agent, but an amazing athlete as well. I've been admiring her through her consistent social media posts where she shares with her fans her passions, advocacies and athletic accomplishments. And just a short two and a half years, she's been putting up a consistent sales numbers. She's truly an entrepreneur at heart and driven to succeed. I wanted to get this up and coming rock star on the show, simply to say, to be the first to say, she is a rock star. She hails from Buford, Georgia. Now resides in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Based on your social media, that hasn't changed. Let me welcome to the show, the talented and very motivated rock star of the Berkshire Hathaway, Home Services Florida network, Realty. Lauren Scott, Lauren, welcome to the show. 

Lauren Scott  1:56  
Hi. Thank you, Tracy, thanks for having me. 

Tracy Hayes  1:58  
I'm really glad you were able to make it out today. I've been admiring you on your social media post. You know, of all the things I tell people I've been really became a podcast junkie. Recently, I said, I'm going to do a podcast. I started listening to podcasts. What is everyone else doing? And one of the one of the things that all of them say in our space, in the realtor industry, is you got to get out there on social media, whether it's just, hey, I'm having a cup of coffee at Starbucks, or, you know, you I see you showing the homes that you're showing on the weekends or open houses to even some of your advocacy work out at the beach. We're going to expand a little bit about that and how you got involved in that part as well. But you are getting yourself out there. And Lauren, I mean, you're putting out great material. Thank you. Y

Lauren Scott  2:45  
eah, I definitely agree, social media is definitely the way in the future, especially in our industry. It doesn't cost anything really, right, right? Your iPhone that you already have, and your cell phone service, and you're on the map. So, yep. So tell us a little bit about you, where you grew up. So let's go back to like eighth grade, just going into high school, where you at, what's going on? Sure. Okay, so as you mentioned, I'm from Buford, Georgia, born and raised. My family still lives in Buford. I was actually raised in Gwinnett County School. So in eighth grade, I was still kind of playing basketball, trying to figure out, you know, I love sports. I was always a tomboy. I have a twin brother. I have all brothers, two of them. So I was never super girly, even though I like to dress cute and everything. Wear makeup. I like fashion, but I was always super competitive. It's funny. My dad always said, you know, out of all my boys and one daughter, I thought that my boys would be the athletes, but my daughter is, yeah, so older brothers will do that to you. Yeah, yeah. I had to deal with

Lauren Scott  3:51  
that. So that's why I'm really tough. So I grew up playing sports and everything, and when I got in high school, you know, I was trying to play basketball, but I was just, it just wasn't my sport, but I was always the last one left running. And so, you know, the coach at the time said, Hey, why don't have you ever heard of cross country? And I was like, what is that? That sounds kind of boring, just running. What's the point? So, you know, that's what most people exactly what I think running. So actually, got into high school, you know, there were summer training trials for cross country and everything. And I said, whatever. It's something to do. So I did it, and actually loved it, but I didn't want to be on JV. I wanted to run with the girls around varsity. So my dad said, Okay, if you're going to do this, you're going to get up early and train, and I might like a freshman, sophomore. I was a freshman. I did make the varsity team my freshman year, and then, you know, kept going and eventually became the top runner my senior year in high school. So I did cross country and track. I set some school records for the two mile. I don't know if I set the mile. I did set the 5k and so I had a really good time in high school.

Lauren Scott  5:00  
School, you know, was pretty involved in just athletics. I wasn't, like, a crazy party, or wasn't really my thing. I was pretty good kid. I did struggle with math. That's like, the worst I would have had. I always tell everyone I would have had the perfect GPA if I wasn't for math. Like, I just never was one of those kids that was just really good at math, right? I was really good at talking. I could write, like, a 10 page book, whatever. So thus

Tracy Hayes  5:24  
became a Communications major. Yeah, exactly.

Lauren Scott  5:27  
But my dad was really happy getting, you know, having his only girl get a college scholarship for d1 school, for cross country and track. So that was pretty awesome. But I just grew to love running. I was super competitive, and it was just, I don't feel like I feel like I was born for it. You know, every athlete feels like they were kind of meant for their sport.

Tracy Hayes  5:46  
So, so you go off to college and you choose communications, yes. What was your thoughts there? What was your initial dreams of some career there? Right?

Lauren Scott  5:55  
So, actually, I, I did end up going to Kennesaw State initially. So that was in Georgia, like, right, yeah, kind of outside Atlanta. So I ended up going there for like, a year and a half, and I chose communications, and I wanted to do journalism at the time. I really loved writing, and I thought that journalism would be the route to go and be, maybe a reporter or work for newspaper. I still didn't quite have it figured out. And then I ended up transferring to UAB in Birmingham, Alabama, mainly for track because I was the number one distance runner at Kennesaw at the time as a freshman. So I, you know, I wanted to be more challenged, and we got a new coach and everything, and I just didn't see a future there to be challenged. And I didn't want to just run for a d1 school and be the best in the like in my school that that wouldn't really get me anywhere. So I went to UAB, got a pretty good scholarship there, and then I tucked in around, like the third and fourth spot, and then went back and forth. There was a bunch of really fast girls from Wales and England on my team, and I was blown away by them and the coach. And the coach was just, I mean, he I still talk to him today is awesome. He's kind of a hard ass, but he's great. He taught me a lot, so I ended up going to UBB, and then I actually switched from writing, like writing to Broadcast Communications, and I wanted to do sports. So my dad was pretty thrilled about that, because he was like, Oh, you can be like, Aaron Andrews, so that's kind of what I wanted to do. And I did a couple internships. I did a TV, you know, internship, I did sidelining for Bama in Auburn. And my dad's a huge Auburn fan. He went there, and a lot of my family. So I'm actually not a dog fan. I'm sorry. Go Auburn. If you're an Alabama fan watching this, I'm sorry. So, and you know, my dad was pretty happy about that, too. Anyways, I thought it was going to do broadcast, because I, you know, I did a radio internship too, so it's very familiar. But I ended up, actually, after college getting into I still wanted to compete. And so after I graduated from UAB, I got, like, a shoe sponsorship from Sketchers performance. So I was kind of, I was like, well, broadcast, you know, I tried to do, like a job in broadcast for a year, and I was doing, like, videography and editing, right? And it was either go that route or work at a really, really small market and move to the middle of nowhere. And do you know, like a small gig and news, and news, to me was very boring, and I wanted to do just sports, so I had to make a choice, keep running, figure out different, you know, job to do that pays the bills, or go into broadcasts and be miserable and work at like a very small market in the middle of nowhere. So, you know, my dad said, All right, if you want to run

Tracy Hayes  8:38  
for you had a lot of things going on.

Lauren Scott  8:42  
There was the most important thing,

Tracy Hayes  8:44  
right? Well, you well, you know, we talked about the golf earlier, because I saw, you know, you've done, someone was on Instagram or Facebook or something, you were, you were at the driving range and so forth. So basketball, you're playing some golf, you're running all sorts of distances, yeah, what else are you doing?

Lauren Scott  9:02  
So as far as sports go, I mean, I haven't really, like played basketball seriously since, like, middle school, but running. I mean, now I took the last two years as, like, a break for competing, and I just got a new coach in Colorado, awesome. So I'm getting back into seriously competing now, but the marathon is probably the most intense, yeah, sport,

Tracy Hayes  9:23  
yeah, that I see you going to triathlon about. So I actually kind of had that. You have that, yeah, I gotta go to the next level.

Lauren Scott  9:32  
Swimming is really difficult for me. I've done some cross training in the pool, and I feel like I'm one of the fittest people, until I get into a pool, and then you start I feel so out of shape. I mean swimmers, they're incredible athletes. So I feel like for triathlon, that's where I would definitely suffer, is swimming, yeah, so that's the only thing

Tracy Hayes  9:53  
that I can't imagine, the distances they swim, that they do, and the hours of practice.

Lauren Scott  10:00  
Oh, yeah. And then open water the trap. The trap leads here, and I've seen some of them do open water in the ocean. Sorry,

Tracy Hayes  10:11  
exactly. So you the broadcasting. I was going through your resume. You did some representation, new balance and Sketchers. So you start to get a little taste of sales.

Lauren Scott  10:24  
Yes, exactly. So that's kind of where my journey, you know, I always knew that I was good at talking to people, I was good at really connecting with people. And so obviously, I'm not using broadcast now, but I'm using those skills. And so, yeah, getting into a little bit of sales, you know, things like that after college that did kind of pique my interest. And then after college, when I was competing, you know, I transferred into being a personal trainer, and so that was an outlet where I could help other people with their fitness while maintaining my fitness schedule. And then it was also sales, too, because when you're a personal trainer, you're essentially selling yourself. You have nowhere to hide. It's your personality, it's, you know, your physique, all the skills that you have to help other people. So that was kind of another I guess, because

Tracy Hayes  11:12  
you want that client to be long term, you don't want, you know, these clients come in and get one or two sessions not getting then they go, yeah, you want them to be using you every week. You know, it's funny, I work out, and I have a product, because he's he's there, but some of the little things that he doesn't, we talked about it when he's training a new trainer. And I've seen others in the gym training other people, and they kind of stand there with their hands behind the back, even a guy training a female, not even picking up the dumbbell and handing it to them, like making them pick it off the rack. It's like, that's what we're it's the concierge service, you know? So you got to have that customer service mentality, even though you think it's all about training, it's not all about the training. It's, it's the whole package. And that's how you keep them from long term. Yeah, absolutely. So how do you dabbling in sales? You you started at Lolos, yeah, fitness LLC, yes. And that was

Lauren Scott  12:06  
Yeah. So about that? Alright? So short. So I just recap. I moved to Jacksonville in 2017 and that's when I was still kind of running for Sketchers, really focusing on running, doing personal training. And so with personal training, especially being in Florida, it's a very saturated just like real estate, there's a bunch of Realtors, but personal training on is, let's just say you get paid differently for being a realtor in personal training. So you really the one way to really kind of make the most profit is to be on your own as a personal trainer, not to say that trainers and gyms don't have a place and, you know, they're awesome. It's just for me. That's not what I wanted, right? And I also, I don't like being told what to do. I like to I know what I want, and I like to do my way, and so that, you know, that's not a bad thing. So that's why I was like, You know what? I'm just gonna get my own LLC. I'm gonna do at home training. I'll make people workout plans. And at that time, online training was very popular. And you see these Instagram trainers, you know, granted, I don't know if all of them are certified or whatever, but you know, so that was kind of the route to go to get more clients, because you only have 24 hours in a day. You can only train X amount of people in a gym. I can train as many as I want online or doing, you know, lowest fitness. So that's what I was doing at the time. I really did enjoy it, but I just didn't I still wasn't fulfilled. I still didn't feel like I was challenging myself enough and being athlete my whole life being a distance runner. I guess we just like pain or discomfort. I don't know. I don't feel fulfilled unless I'm challenging myself. I just like to push the envelope with myself a little bit more. So it's really enjoying it. But I was also getting kind of burnt out, and I was just kind of like, okay, this is really exhausting. With my training too, and my boyfriend, we've been together for almost four years. So he his brother is actually a realtor. He's been a realtor for like, you know, 20 years. He's great. He's become kind of like a mentor since I've been here, and I've learned a lot from him and Nathan, my boyfriend and my dad, was just kind of like, Have you ever thought about getting into real estate? I mean, you have the whole package, basically, like, you're good at communicating whatever. You're approachable, yeah, and you know, you're good at connecting with others and their needs. So I just kind of blew him off for a little bit. I was like, You know what, I'm just gonna keep training. And then two years ago, I finally was like, You know what, I'll study, I'll take my test, we'll see. And so I studied for like two months, took my test, passed it, and then I was going to, you know, I joined Florida homes for a little bit, and then it just wasn't a great fit. Joined another brokerage. I was on a team and everything, and learned a lot from them, and then found place at Berkshire Hathaway. So basically learning everything from personal training, um. And the sales aspect and personality aspect and connecting with people on a personal level, I feel like real estate. I definitely found what I was looking for, I guess, and the challenging aspect and doing sales so

Tracy Hayes  15:13  
so take the, take the the athletic background, competitiveness that you have, and how do you on a day to day basis, do you see yourself molding that over into the real estate? What are, what are some things that internally you're like, Oh, I can't let someone beat me at that.

Lauren Scott  15:33  
Oh, absolutely, I'm literally one of the most competitive people you'll ever meet. And it's not, it's not like I'm more competitive with myself, so I don't, I don't necessarily compare myself to other people. I mean, when I first got my license two years ago, almost years ago, it was very easy for me to look around at these giant rock stars and say, whoa. Like, holy crap. Like, how can I be as good as them? But, you know, going back to the athletic mentality, ever since I was in high school, and my dad, you know, he would get me up at like, five or six in the morning on the weekend as a high schooler, and say, if you're gonna do this, you're gonna do it all the way. You're not gonna half, you know, I can say that half

Tracy Hayes  16:17  
has, it's a podcast, kind of like cable television. You can say whatever you want. Well, the Facebook Live might get a little insulted.

Lauren Scott  16:27  
So anyways, that's kind of the mentality is, if you're gonna do something like do it all the way. And so my my dad always said, if you want to be number one, if you want to be like those girls who are winning state or running a 17 minute 5k you have to, you have to run with them. So that's kind of mentality getting into real estate. I was kind, I kind of fell in love with the career because there's essentially no cap, like you're, you're your own competition at the end of the day, and there's a bunch of people around you, but it's just like running a marathon. Everyone's kind of in a different place in the race, and everyone is going at their own pace. Everyone has different goals. So it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to compare yourself to another realtor who's 20 years older, who's making 15, like, selling 50 million or whatever, you know. So that's kind of what

Tracy Hayes  17:13  
I've got to get into your part of that marathon exactly, because they might be at the 25th mile,

Lauren Scott  17:19  
yeah, so I may just be at the beginning, and that's totally fine. And I'm, I'm, I'm not content with where I am, but I'm, I'm happy with how far I've come now and then looking back at my first year compared to where I'm at now, and I'm not on a team anymore. I'm completely solo. I'm doing things all by myself, and I'm super, super happy with that. So I'm definitely competitive, but it's more of me competing against myself last year, and then looking at all these, I've surrounded myself with a bunch of great, you know, I call them like big dogs, like Berkshire Hathaway is just the office I'm in is just incredible. All of the realtors, they're just amazing people, and they're so successful, and I, you know, they're super humble, too. And that's one thing I've learned is especially being new, you're gonna have to get your butt kicked a little bit and learn and just like, pay your dues. And I'm here for it. So, you know, I that's what I love about this career, though, and that the athletic mentality has helped me kind of stay on track and stay humble. And, you know, learn from each transaction and each client, and learned from every month, and it's also kept me in a routine. So I feel like being athlete definitely gives me a huge advantage over someone who's maybe not been a college athlete or something

Tracy Hayes  18:34  
well even, and that the athlete mentality, or, you know, there's no doubt that the team sport, I'm not saying team sport, but just being under a coach. That is your dad was partly a coach, and then you mentioned the coach at UAB, I think there earlier, tearing you down. And instead of just, oh, it's Lauren, she's great. She's great. And then you lose, you get too soft, versus you walk out there, you're you're they tear you down. I got my Citadel flag up here. First thing you walk when you're the Citadel is, I shave your head, make you wear black shoes and gym shorts and a T shirt. And you walk around for the first day like that, and you look like a big fool, but that's the point. They're tearing you down to humble you, yeah. And then you have to, then move forward in that thing. And then, know, it takes time, yeah, you know, I think for you, you know, when you started training, you weren't How long did it take you to reach that, that minute per mile that you wanted to reach, how many miles did you have to run? And you realize, you know what, I've run all these miles, and I reached that time limit I can run all these miles and get to that sales absolutely, yeah, in the stick width of this. And I think a lot of people, especially this day and age, and you being a young person, I'm sure you're around a lot of they want the instant gratification. And, yeah, don't want to put the time in. And they want, they think, because they graduate from college, everyone should pat them on the back and give them the salary and say, congratulations, here's your office. You know, it doesn't

Lauren Scott  20:10  
happen. It doesn't work that way. Real life is a rude awakening, and I've definitely had, you know, I'm not that far along in my real estate career. I'm just under two years and I've had a lot of newer agents or people that are about to get their license, and they look at me, and they see social media, and they're like, Wow, you're, you're doing great, you know, I think I can do that. And they're, you know, they're like, I don't think real estate is that hard, right? And it's, you know, it's not just, you know, the exam. Maybe it's hard, maybe it's not. Everyone's different. Everyone's a different test taker. So let's say the exam is easy. You pass your test and you start and, okay, it's not that hard, like, I can be a realtor, but it's, it's those moments where you have to figure it out for yourself, and it the work doesn't just come to you. You got to get stuff out of bed in the morning. Yeah, exactly. You have to have a routine. You have to dig in. And you're gonna have days where you feel like quitting, and that's, you know, if you can, I've been told if you can make it past your first year, you might be okay, like you can probably survive. But you're right. I mean, a lot of you know if you're soft, you're not going to make it, so you definitely have to.

Tracy Hayes  21:13  
Now, when you first started, you were still doing the fitness training,

Lauren Scott  21:18  
yeah, exactly. So I was still kind of training clients. And then when I was at the other brokerage, I did join a team. So I I was fortunate enough to have a team lead that, you know, paid for marketing, paid for a bunch of stuff. And if you're new agent, you know, there's two routes you can go. You can either go by yourself and, you know, do it that way. But I would suggest having, like, six months of savings, I didn't have that. So I was still doing personal training, kind of, and like, you know, trying to supplement my income here and there, and then having a team lead definitely helped, because she paid for a lot of the stuff that I would have had to have paid for by myself or didn't even know to pay for. There's so many, yeah, there's a lot of expenses that the test doesn't tell you, yeah. So that was, you know, that was a lot. But I'm I, I've had people reach out to me recently in the, you know, last couple months, last year, about personal training, and say, Hey, are you still training clients? I don't have time in person anymore, you know. But if it's for, like, a friend or something, I would send them a plan, but I don't. I just don't really have time for it, and sure, and also I don't want to. I've always been kind of all in person. So if I'm doing one thing, I want to give everything to that one thing. So real estate's kind of taken over.

Tracy Hayes  22:35  
So definitely, then a little bit of it with the team. So obviously, you wanted to get your your learning curve up, yeah. So you felt the comfortability of joining that team,

Lauren Scott  22:44  
yeah? So I was kind of hesitant at the start, because, like I said, I don't like being told what to do. I'm not a difficult person, but I I challenge. Yeah, and if there's something I don't agree with, I will not think about twice about asking you or pushing you on it if you're my authority, right? So anyways, the team was a good fit at the start because I said, Hey, look, I don't have six months of savings. I could benefit from a team, because they'll probably pull in some leads. I'm not from Jacksonville, so it's gonna be harder for me to establish, you know, a sphere. I don't have my high school friends here. I don't have my college buddies here. I don't have my family and friends here. They're all in Georgia. So I said, Hey, why don't I try a team for six months to a year, however long it takes me to actually know the ins and outs of the industry. Feel comfortable having my own listings, feel comfortable buyer counseling, feel comfortable doing all this and handling it, so I did the team thing. Wasn't even a year, maybe about six to eight months. It was great while it lasted. But then there were certain things that were kind of popping up that didn't really agree with. And then I started actually make money and get my own listings, but still under the team umbrella, you're getting a huge cut taken out. So I didn't really like that. I felt that I I was working really hard and that I deserved more admission, sure. So I kind of challenged that, and then didn't really get the feedback that, you know, I wanted. So I I just looked around the best fit for me. I met with one of my other who is now a huge mentor of mine, Shonda. She's with Berkshire Hathaway and Mandarin. She'll probably

Tracy Hayes  24:27  
kill me from how you pronounce the lesson camper ranch. Will you get her on my show?

Lauren Scott  24:31  
I can ask her, Oh, she'd probably love to, yes. She's also from Georgia. She's way more southern than me. She's gonna kill me, but I love her to death. She's, she's literally awesome. I text her all the time for stuff, and she's one of those rock stars I was talking about, yeah, that I learned from and and, you know, for some reason they like me. They invite me to lunch with them sometimes. So it's awesome sitting with them and I they're just, they're every. Thing that you want to be as young realtor looking for longevity in this career. And so, you know, she was one of the biggest reasons I went to Berkshire Hathaway, just for everything it stood for, and then just being a single agent, you know, she she's a single agent too, and she's very successful. So that was kind of another reason I wanted to kind of go solo, I learned everything that I felt I I got everything I needed to from a team. But there's two different personalities. Some people can be on a team for their whole life as a realtor and be totally fine and taking, not taking orders, but being told to do certain things as their place in the team, and being fine with that and taking their cut and moving on by I'm one of those competitive

Tracy Hayes  25:41  
people. Yes, competitiveness. Do you think confidence has a little bit of it? Yeah, after eight months, you felt you had enough confidence to be able to go out on

Lauren Scott  25:50  
your Yeah? Yeah, absolutely. And then I, like, I said, I don't like being told what to do there. There's no right or wrong way to do real estate. Everyone has their, like, I said, when you're in the race, everyone has their different way of doing it, so I just had a way that I wanted to do it that didn't match the teams anymore, and I felt like I could do it better for myself, not better than them, but better for myself. Because I you know yourself the best, and you know how you work the best.

Tracy Hayes  26:18  
And how important do you think that is doing it your way.

Lauren Scott  26:23  
It is super important, and that's another confidence thing. A lot of people on a team, they they might have a different personality, and they might ever, they might not ever get to that point with their confidence, or they might not want to. They might have other obligations and other focuses in their life, and they might be like a part time agent, or they might be someone who's just kind of all right, I'll just ride on the team and do my part and take my cut. But I think that it's super important to figure out what you really want and what your goals are. And I I just had bigger financial goals for myself, for my future and what I wanted to accomplish, and how much I wanted to kind of challenge myself, and then, like I said, you really have to know yourself, though, and a lot of people don't have that dialog with themselves, so they don't really get to that point.

Tracy Hayes  27:10  
So yeah, this is, this is why, one of the reasons why I started the podcast, and again, listening to another podcast that I was listening to, and then the person said, everybody has their own story, yeah. And if you actually sit down and listen to everyone's story, there's something you can get out of it. And us sitting here today, and I'm learning a lot more to you stuff, stuff I could see on LinkedIn and so forth. I can say I could put the connect the dots a little bit on the thing, but learning you and now, you know some of those things like, Hey, I my dad made me get up at five, six o'clock in the morning, because he told me, if I wanted to win state, I had to do it. You know what it's like to get up at that time? Yeah, you know what it's like to put in the extra hours, the extra sweat, to get to a certain level, and you set that goal, and you took the first step. And so many people set the goal, but they never take the first step. The first step may be actually getting up at five o'clock. Yeah, you have done it, and it sounds like you've done it numerous times, and being a young I don't want to demean you in any way being a young person because you're half my age. I wish I was. I don't know you're 25 ish in the area, I guess, right now, right? Something like that, late 20s. Late 20s. Okay, so I'm almost twice, yeah, I'm almost twice your age, almost, but I've been around but to look back in an individual's in my life that I've looked up to, or individuals like yourself who have done it time and time again, who have had mud in their face. Went over to UAB. You went from being number one at Kennesaw to number three or four over there. So you had to chase people. When I went to the Military College of South Carolina, we had to pass PT tests. And I'm not exactly a runner. So I would actually find those guys that could run like the wind, like you, and chase them at night around, you know, when it was time to do our pts and try to stay with them. You know, I was hundreds of yards behind them, but I knew that if I could stay within sight of them, I could fast the PT test. You know that that was some of the things, but having those goals and knowing you've accomplished those things as is just going to pay off big time for you. And I can see, obviously, your career is launched and moving very, very quickly. Because I know the people that you look up to, and you go, where am I going to be? You know, they've been doing this 20 years. Where, where are you going to be? You know, in 1520, years, if with what you're learning from them and pulling from them, because they've all they've gone through all that stuff too. What would you what would you feel if someone say, what is your what is your biggest strength?

Lauren Scott  29:50  
My biggest strength is probably I would say that I don't give up. I know that I. After my last marathon, I went out to California with my dad. It was a pretty big marathon, California International Marathon in 2018 and I know, looking back now, I know I wasn't ready, but I had a lofty goal of qualifying for the B standard for the Olympic trials, which I still have time talking to my coach about now, so I my training, looking back, that was only my second marathon. I wasn't there. I went out there, and I had some other stressors at the time going on, and mentally, I just, you know, kind of broke down around mile 22 Yeah, and, you know, I just remember after that, I knew that I wasn't going to hit the time, and that was devastating to me, and I crossed the line, and I just like, collapsed into my dad's arms, and I was just like in tears. It was a really, really hard, hard flight back to Jacksonville without hitting the time I wanted and

Tracy Hayes  30:55  
worried about a time We're all worried about just finishing mile number two,

Lauren Scott  31:02  
I am, but one of the things that my dad's told me after like, hard losses like that is, Lauren, you cannot beat someone that never gives up. And that's a that's always been a huge, huge, powerful that is true mantra that I've repeated to myself every time I've gotten, like, my ass kicked. You know, whether that's having a deal fall through, which everyone has that happen, or just learning something the hard way. You know, the last two years have been super hard just adapting and growing into a new career and then getting back into training and having those thoughts of, oh gosh. Like, what if, you know, what if I can't run fast anymore? What if I'm not gonna have the times? Hit the times or whatever? But, you know, just keep coming back to you can't beat someone who doesn't give up. So that's kind of what that's kind of, I guess, my edge or my strength is that I don't give up. So yeah, so even if I, you know, have a slow start out the gate, or, you know, like a slow month, or whatever happens, I know that it's always going to come back up, and I know that I'm going to be I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be successful, because I don't give up, you

Tracy Hayes  32:09  
know, right? That, you know, it's very, it's so, I mean, you could take that so many different ways, but that was funny. I was telling my, my 11 year old son that the other day, you know, the whole stay in line long enough you will get to the front. Don't give up. Just keep showing up, and keep showing up, and you and you will, you will get there. So you're you have some mentors. Are you? Do you? Are you a book reader? Podcast? Where do you like to gain some of that other information?

Lauren Scott  32:38  
So I am definitely a book reader. I would say podcast wise, bigger pockets. Podcasts, yeah, I got turned on to that podcast last year. I love it. Yeah. I have not had any investment properties of myself yet, but that's what I want to get into. So it's somewhere

Tracy Hayes  32:55  
around I had, I had to think it said bigger pockets, because I did a little show not too long ago. I said bigger pocket. I was recommending I forget what it was they were talking you they're talking about somebody who's, this is a few weeks ago, or they're interviewing and we were just doing a little quick, little five minute thing on Facebook, and I had a bigger pocket. You got to listen to it. It is,

Lauren Scott  33:12  
yes, it's awesome. I listen to that. You know, when I have showings all over the city, I'll just pop that on. That's one of my main podcasts. There's a couple other ones, I still listen to this one mind pump. It's like a personal training one, but it's pretty entertaining, and they talk about, you know, like social issues in the world and stuff too. So that kind of keeps me in tune, because I don't really watch mainstream media anymore, so kind of, that's

Tracy Hayes  33:36  
where I shut that off, too.

Lauren Scott  33:40  
So I kind of stay away from that. But I, you know, that podcast is probably like the number one bigger pocket so, and then other inspiration, you know, my broker gave me one book called ninja selling that I'm still kind of reading right now. That's a really popular book that a lot of Berkshire Hathaway agents have read. That's kind of the training philosophy. Ryan serhant, he's awesome. I follow him.

Tracy Hayes  34:04  
How much in comparing to your career, in a lot of things we're talking about is mental,

Lauren Scott  34:11  
so much. I mean, obviously there's a physical aspect you have to get morning, you have to make your appointment at times. But

Tracy Hayes  34:18  
versus the running, because the running is a physical thing, but also there comes a mental

Lauren Scott  34:23  
when you I mean any race, especially the marathon, it's very mental. And that one of my friends the other day I was actually at the golf course. I was kind of frustrated, and he was just like, boring, mind over matter. You know, it was really hot, and I just wasn't feeling it. And he was just like, mind over matter. And you know, that is so true, whether it's in real estate or in running. I mean, just like you said, not giving up, how we were talking about that topic, a lot of people, that's why they say they don't last their first year, or they they quit real estate is because they just give up. You know. Where they say, Oh, I'm just going to take a step back or go into another career that's you giving up.

Tracy Hayes  35:04  
So in all these books, and we got Ryan sirhant here. For those who don't, haven't read this book, we'll give Ryan a prop here on the Facebook, him, whether it's the podcast people that you listen, because I'm like, the amazing people that that that they interview on these where there's bigger pockets or than many other out there, and you learn them, and someone said it, but I've read it other places. So many times, people are just one step away, one hour, one day, one another week, one week away from breaking through, and they they quit right before they get there. Yeah. And I think, I believe it's 100% mental Absolutely, it definitely is, especially, you know, in sales you're getting if you get no too many times. I mean, there's no first 12 years of my career, I was in a call center, Quicken Loans and then loan depot, and you're on the phone all day with headsets on like this, I'm like, and you're talking to people all day long, and you're saying the same things over and over again, and it's like it became, I had to get out of that world, and it started to affect my sales, because I mentally was just exhausted from it, and I had to get out and refresh. And obviously personal development is one of those. So podcasts? You? Are you audio books? Or what do you how do you like to take in

Lauren Scott  36:24  
your um, I, so I, I do podcasts. I would say I don't really have any audio books. I have books like this at home that I try to read in the evening or the morning, or, like, you know, Sunday morning, or if I have, like, any downtime or the pool, you know, I'll just pop my headphones in or take a book, or something like that. It's

Tracy Hayes  36:41  
amazing. Every one of the personal development people, they said, just, just take 10 minutes to 10 pages, 10 pages, 10 minutes, 10 pages, whatever. Read some books, some a lot of personal development books are actually the chapters are designed to be in that timeframe. Just read that chapter a day, or that 10 pages. You'd be amazed how fast you end up going through the book. Yeah, I

Lauren Scott  36:59  
feel like a lot of people that, and why they give up too, is they think they have to do everything all at once. And one thing this is one little trick that I have. It's called your first 15. And not every day is perfect. So, you know, I can tell when I don't do this every day. I'm different. I don't if I fly out the door, it's just like not eating breakfast or just getting ready and fly out the door. So your first 15 is, I learned this when I was in Birmingham. Actually went to a church of the highlands. It was like a church over there. And so your first 15 is five minutes of prayer or meditation or whatever you do, five minutes of worship or listening to whatever music you like, and then five minutes of the word. So whether that's the Bible or a motivational quote or book or whatever, take your first 15, because the first like, right when you wake up, that's what sets your whole mindset for the whole day. So if you take your first 15 that and everyone has 15 minutes in a day, you don't. I mean, there's no every single one may not

Tracy Hayes  37:57  
like to get up 15 minutes earlier, but it won't affect your day. Could affect your day if you're doing it right.

Lauren Scott  38:03  
You can do that while you're getting ready or, you know, so that's just a really easy way, right? You could have

Tracy Hayes  38:10  
that on an audio playing while you're, you know, you're getting ready, or whatever. For that, for sure, there is definitely a lot of, I don't know, Ryan, he gets up at, I mean, some godly 435, o'clock in the morning every day, and he's going down and working out. It's one of his things. A lot of people, yeah, do a meditation type thing. I know that the cold shower or the cold tub is a thing. Now I've done the cold shower thing after I've turned to cold and see how long I could stand in there until I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm in Florida. It's warm enough I can step outside in my list here. So we talked about Berkshire Hathaway. We've touched on it a few times. What makes Berkshire Hathaway your home? Now? What is it you like

Lauren Scott  38:57  
about that? So a lot. So initially, when I was attracted to Berkshire Hathaway. Of course, it was the name just being world renowned, Warren Buffett, very successful, and I kind of wanted to attach myself with a respectable name, especially being a newer realtor. I felt that that would kind of set me apart, as opposed to the 1000s of other realtors in Jacksonville. So with a boutique, yeah, exactly. So I wanted kind of a bigger name behind me, more success, and not only just the resources that they have for the clients that are superior, but also the culture and the type of people, was really important to me. I didn't want, you know, a nod to say that other places are like this, but I wanted something that was a little bit more professional, that had kind of a more focused code of ethics, and kind of, you know, just more detail oriented for the clients, and something, you know, a culture that kind of was all about the clients, you know. So that's kind of what brought me there, and then the all. Office in Atlantic Beach. Don Klein, my broker. He's absolutely wonderful. He's he's one of my mentors. I mean, I can, he's so busy all the time, but if I call him, or I text him, and I'm and I'm in a pickle, or I you know, which hasn't happened a lot, every one of us find ourselves there. So if I need, you know, some sort of counseling, or if I, you know, I I'm not sure of myself in a situation I haven't been in before, I'll text him, and he'll call me, like, pretty much right away. If it's an emergency or something serious or something time sensitive. He'll give me a call and just calmly say, Hey, this is what you need to do. No problem, you know. And so cool about it, yeah. And just everyone at that office, like Jennifer sex, and she's just, you know, incredible. She she called me out of the blue, and she found out I was coming to Berkshire Hathaway, because actually, she was actually a buyer's agent for one of my listings before I switched. And she called me and was super nice, and just said, if you need anything, let me know. And you know, for me, looking at her, I was just like, you know who I am, you know. So it was awesome. But yeah, I would say just the culture, just the ethics on, you know, not being a transaction brokerage, being a single agency, is very important for the clients, because we're much more loyal to the client, not just the contracts. And that's really big, that's really important. And a lot of a lot of real estate clients don't understand that difference, and that's something that we can just add value to our clients even more. Yeah, so I'd say just the strength of, kind of all of

Tracy Hayes  41:36  
that, I know you must remember your first deal, because you're not that old, so you do you remember your first transaction?

Lauren Scott  41:42  
Yeah, my first transaction on was a town home, and that was when that was in between. So I was, I was at, you know, like, the boutique brokers I was with. I wasn't really on a team yet, so I was kind of, you know, it was like, right before I was getting on Hayes team, and I kind of did use her to, like, help me, because we were still talking, and we were friends, and so we were kind of, you know, talking through that. And so I was pretty nervous by my clients, and the agent on the other end had no idea that it was my first deal, so I was, you know, and then when I remember when the listing agent would call me, and it wasn't even about anything major. He was just calling me to ask me something. I was so nervous, and I just, I remember, I was sitting with Hayley, and I was just like, Oh my God, he's calling me. And she was like, Don't answer it. She's like, It's okay, just don't answer it. Just make him text you or email you if you're not ready to talk to him. Like, what if he asked me something I don't know? Just like, so you just hung up the phone and I said, Hey, I'm busy. Let me call you back and, like, just text me, but I like, the transaction went fine, you know, my clients got when they needed we won the offer, and everything was fine. And, you know, it went smoothly, but I was pretty nervous, you know. And I was

Tracy Hayes  43:03  
nervous because you were confident you knew all the answers someone may ask you something.

Lauren Scott  43:09  
That's the biggest thing, especially when you're new, is, what if someone asked me something I don't know? And then, now, if I'm at a showing and or open house and a client asked me something, and I just tell them flat out I don't know. I'll find out for you if I don't know it.

Tracy Hayes  43:22  
I remember some friends that are there older than me, but they were very nervous about their first year. Didn't want the and I was doing the loan, and they didn't want the the their clients, to know that it was their first transaction.

Lauren Scott  43:36  
And then sometimes them asking, oh, how long have you been in the business? Or, you know, yeah, but I feel like if, as long as you're calm and cool and you don't, if you're if you show the client panic, they will panic, yes. So you have to be calm, cool and collected and act, you know, it's like, not fake until you make it, but you have to present a good image. And then, if you don't know something, ask your broker or ask for help, and then

Tracy Hayes  44:01  
brag about your broker like they are all knowing. That's why you went with them, because they're all knowing. If you don't know it, they do, you're only one step away.

Lauren Scott  44:10  
We're the same person.

Tracy Hayes  44:13  
What do you find the most rewarding about

Lauren Scott  44:17  
probably helping families. I know that sounds so cliche, like world peace, but it's true, though. Like, because I being competitive, it doesn't just come from, you know, self gratification, like, oh, I want to help myself. And I honestly don't even think about the, I know it sounds silly. I don't even think about the commission check on the forefront, I'm competitive as to, I want to help this client get this home. Because once you start getting to know your client after a few showings, you find out their motivation. You find out they're starting a family. This is gonna be their first home. You want to nail this so that they are so happy, and then when you're the closing table, they're getting to move into their first home as a family. And you know, right now, um. And I'm actually helping one of my best friends. She actually went to the same high school as me, was on the same cross country team. She actually moved here a few years before I did, and we found out later, I'm helping her buy a house right now, super and so like, that is just oh my gosh. I'm probably gonna cry

Tracy Hayes  45:19  
close to find one four in this market. Have you found? Oh yeah, yeah,

Lauren Scott  45:23  
great. And they're not cash buyers either, you know. Anyways, I feel like the most rewarding thing is meeting other people's goals. I mean, that just goes back to the same thought process of being a personal trainer and just trying to serve other people, not just yourself. So when I meet someone else's goals, not just mine, obviously it's like a win, win. It's even

Tracy Hayes  45:45  
better. So here's a hypothetical question. You're invited to come in and speak to, you know, new real estate, new real estate agent class. What would you share with them?

Lauren Scott  45:58  
Um, don't think that everything's going to be handed to you. Don't think that it's going to be easy and just be very intuitive, because there's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of good information, and there's a lot of people pulling you all different ways, but I would say, get to know yourself and get to know your why, you know? Why are you in this industry? Why do you want to be a realtor? Is it just to make a lot of money? What's a lot of money to you? And why do you want to make that money? Right? Where are you going to put it? You know, what you're like, really, I would say, get to know yourself and your why is number one on. Don't be soft. Just go ahead and expect rejection and for certain things not to work out and not to be negative, but you have to. You can't just think it's all going to be sunshine and rainbows. Some days will be but, you know,

Tracy Hayes  46:51  
I asked that question, or somewhat similar, to everyone and and I think initially people would think being negative or like, Oh, we're better, and that's why we've made it this far. But it's really it's not that you can't do it, yeah, just that you got to have the mindset, because so many drop out so quickly because they don't go in with it right, with that right frame of mind or right expectations, knowing that, hey, someone's going to say no to you, someone's going to next and go on in this market. And that is true with life. It's not, you know, we're talking about the sports analogy to moving over, to keep moving forward. Yeah, you know, are you going to get up a little earlier than the next guy? And then, really, it's all, it's like golf. It's like running. You're competing with yourself. You had a clock up here, or you're, you know, how many strokes you've taken on the golf course, that's what you're competing against. Yeah. And can I do better than yesterday? You know, another 10 seconds off, or stroke off your game, or whatever it is. And if you have that mentality moving forward, you know, improving, improving yourself, that those things that you're talking about are not negative. You're just, you got to know they're there, yeah, and how to overcome those obstacles. So to wrap up, the main part of the interview, just you've been doing it a couple of years now, all of a sudden, we've probably hit one of the most major it's not a recession, it's a kind of it's a positive, but crazy situation. You know, where you got 20 offers on these listings and and you're competing cash offer, non cash offer and so forth. What are you doing a little differently, you know, say this last three months and say you were doing last year.

Lauren Scott  48:29  
Yeah, so things are definitely moving a lot more quickly, and especially in the last three months. I mean, like you said, you're having multiple offers on houses that are, you know, going over asking so, and I've also had a lot of out of town buyers, like my clients from California. They're selling their house. They're moving here. So one thing I'm doing differently is, you know, kind of educating my clients a little bit more, not forcefully, but just kind of letting them in on the reality, especially in Jacksonville. I mean, across the US, it's it's crazy too. But especially here in Florida, we're having a lot of buyers from other states move here because they're a little bit happier with the way we're doing things. So that's just the reality of it. And so one thing I'm doing is just preparing them on structuring the offer, you know, if they're not a cash buyer and they have, you know, like a VA loan or an FHA loan, that I'm really honestly upset with how things are going with VA loans right now. A lot of a lot of listing agents, or I'm sorry, sellers, really are not even taking time a day to look at VA, and that's just really upsetting to me. So one thing is just preparing them for over asking offers. If they are going to submit an offer over asking there is a chance that it might not appraise. Are you willing to pay for the appraisal difference? Are you willing to pay for half of it? That's what we're kind of seeing right now. So we,

Tracy Hayes  49:52  
I didn't ask you about your advocacy, about the beach I'm going to want, oh, I'll let you finish up with that, telling that in a second. But we need so I was just talking to someone. This morning, we're talking about, why is it that the VA as lenders, we love it. We love the most forgiving loan, and to see someone come in an offer and he's just immediately shut down with that, with a lack of knowledge. So we need to start an advocacy group on that pro VA loans in Northeast Florida,

Lauren Scott  50:19  
just one with the VA so, oh, great. I'm very happy we

Tracy Hayes  50:23  
love them, yeah, just because we know, hey, they got the credit score and they got the income that loans, yeah, pretty much closed. Yeah, exactly the this is so forgiving that they've had boo boos in their credit so I had it written down here. Oh, Surf Rider Foundation, tell me about the surf, because you do it on so I see you on so I see you on social media out at the

Lauren Scott  50:43  
beach. What's that all about? Okay, so the Surf Rider foundation, I'm part of the First Coast chapter. It is the Northeast Florida chapter here in Jacksonville. And so the Surfrider Foundation is part of a global network on ocean charity. They donate money to clean up our oceans. They do a lot of work in the community here, hosting different events at the beach. They do other area cleanups that are not at the beach, but basically is to keep all the plastic and pollution out of our oceans. And so actually partnered with them, probably almost two years ago, my boyfriend actually he created a product that donates a percent to the Surf Rider Foundation, and we were looking for an ocean charity that was kind of that had a local tie that we could get involved in. And ever since I moved to Jacksonville, I wanted to get involved in an ocean charity, because I've always grown up going to the beach. I love the beach, and this is my home now, so I want to keep it clean. So we found the Surf Rider Foundation. We partnered with them, and so I started, you know, getting more involved. I joined the chapter, not only, you know, donating to them, but I wanted to actually partake, and, you know, helping out. So we do a monthly beach cleanup. It's the last Saturday of every month, from nine to 11. Typically, it's at Jacksonville Beach, at the pier. Sometimes it's at Atlantic Beach, but it's pretty consistent, two hour beach cleanup. I know that they do other events too, sprinkled in, but I try to go

Tracy Hayes  52:09  
every month, Surfrider foundation.com, or it's

Lauren Scott  52:13  
the Surfrider Foundation. I believe it.com's and the if you want to join the chapter here, it's the First Coast so if you go on the website, you just have to click, look at chapters. Yeah. It says, find a chapter in your area, and you can join. So you can join the chapter, donate. And the best way to get involved is just come to the beach cleanup. I always post whenever they are I try to send out an email to mine.

Tracy Hayes  52:36  
You guys don't like doing it in the evening with some cocktails or to check with my mom. I mean, I get more attendance.

Lauren Scott  52:45  
Oh yeah for sure. Yeah. Actually is a good point. So yeah, all

Tracy Hayes  52:50  
right, these are my two minute warning questions. I do officiate football, so that's what I call it. Other guys call it speed round or whatever, just random questions. Is it more important who you know or what you know?

Lauren Scott  53:04  
Wow, that that is very difficult, but I'll look at it as a perspective for a younger person or someone, maybe fresh out of college or fresh realtor, I would say who you know, because you can have all the books smart in the world, but if you're not surrounded by good people, how are you going to use that knowledge? So I feel like it's who you know, especially in this industry, you can learn a lot from those

Tracy Hayes  53:26  
people. If you had a choice right now and for the rest of your career, would you be a Lister or buying agent? Oh, Listing Agent all day, baby. I think listing is like setting little traps. You go sit all your little traps out there and go tend to it's crazy right now, because you have 20 agents now calling you, making offers. So

Lauren Scott  53:47  
many memes about listing agents, right?

Tracy Hayes  53:52  
We talked about sports, would you in you meant we talked a little bit about running, and running wasn't really your initial thinking, like, why would I just run? Yeah, would I get there? But me, if you for just to go out, Hey, we're going to exercise today. Do you want to go run so many miles? Or would you rather go, you know, play basketball or something physical, some other, some sport like that, whatever it is, would you rather play a team sport or just run?

Lauren Scott  54:18  
I mean, honestly, right now, like, I'm so in love with running, and that will always be, like, my number one thing, especially now that I'm, like, a little, not old, I'm older, I feel like, especially being a realtor, running that is the only time I am completely by myself. Do you leave the phone? And sometimes I run with music, if I'm doing, like, a speed workout, or after a certain time, and I'm by myself, sometimes I'll listen music, but a lot of times, like, you know, on a long run or something like that, I'll leave it because then I'm not tempted to. I feel like I get anxiety if I'm running and I see, like, an email pop up and it makes me mad. I'm like, someone text you like, you got to respond. Yeah, I feel like I have to initially respond. So i i running is just the one safe place I have where I'm by myself.

Tracy Hayes  55:07  
Well, you're a sporting girl, so I'm actually add a little bit to so we got the Iceman jumbo shrimp Jags where, what's your preferred venue?

Lauren Scott  55:17  
So I've actually been, I went to one Iceman game. Finally, I think it was in February, and I had a blast. But you know what? It was my first hockey game, and I was expecting more fights. That's kind of the only reason. So maybe next time they can, you know, add a little bit more razzle dazzle, I don't know. And the hockey game is pretty cool. I haven't been to a shrimp game, but I'm a huge Braves fan, you know? What we'll we'll talk about that later. I have not been to a shrink game, and I haven't been to a Jags game, and

Tracy Hayes  55:47  
I have thought about as come I was gonna preach it. We need to get a box and and have your I mean, you know, you need to get a box and you can help rent the whole section. Have, you know, having the hot dogs, hamburgers and beers and stuff like that. I mean, they obviously cater to all that stuff down there. What's on your travel bucket list?

Lauren Scott  56:04  
Ooh, well, that depends on certain restrictions and where I'll be allowed to go. But I've been to Mexico. I haven't been to Puerto Rico, but I thought that would be cool, I don't know. And then

Tracy Hayes  56:21  
I heard Colombia when totally no covid restrictions at all, really. And Costa Rica is not too bad,

Lauren Scott  56:28  
okay, yeah, maybe something like that on, I don't know, they all,

Tracy Hayes  56:31  
they've all tailored back, because I'm my sister in law's going one of the island St Martin or something like that, yeah. And then they've changed the restriction. She hasn't. She's going in a few weeks, and she was talking about them changing their restrictions back down from that. Yeah, Lauren, how can our fans reach you? I know Daniel's put up, you know, your your Facebook, your Instagram and so forth, but they want to get a hold of you right now. In whether talk about because they're interested in being a realtor or they they're ready to list or buy us buy their home, how would they reach you? The best way.

Lauren Scott  57:00  
Well, you, you can text me or call me. I'm pretty much always in my family. I always answer it, yeah, you can text me or call me,

Tracy Hayes  57:08  
all right. That'll be in the show notes too. And obviously your, you know stuff on the Facebook they'll be able to go right to it, so it'll it'll

Lauren Scott  57:16  
be on much anywhere. I answer all of those platforms pretty regularly.

Tracy Hayes  57:20  
Facebook listeners, please like comment below. Lauren's been a great guest. This has been another hour here. We've been talking and just it goes by like that 57 minutes we're at right now. So I'm going to wrap it up and appreciate Lauren. Thank you for coming on the show today. Thanks. Bye, guys.