Aug. 3, 2021

Real Estate Sessions Rewind – Lauren Walker, Senior Director of Account Strategy, Inman News

Real Estate Sessions Rewind – Lauren Walker, Senior Director of Account Strategy, Inman News
Episode Summary: Meet today's guest, Lauren Walker, Senior Director of Account Strategy at Inman, currently based in Durham, North Carolina. In this episode, I sit with Lauren, raised in the western suburbs of Chicago, already with a passion for writing while growing up. She talks about her work as a copywriter and content creator. Top Takeaways:  "Even though an individual agent will join a big organization… they're still a solo operator, and at the end of the day, they're responsible for their own business." - [Lauren Walker] "Real Estate is phenomenally intimate as an industry setting." - [Lauren Walker] "My word for 2018 has been 'Conversations,' and when I talk to people, they need to be talking to people about real estate." - [Bill Risser] "You're not creating, you're documenting, and that takes the pressure off." - [Lauren Walker] "I strongly feel that you shouldn't limit yourself to just influencers in Real Estate; otherwise, you're just going to be a copy of somebody." - [Lauren Walker] Episode Highlights: [00:28] Intro [00:51] Meet today's guest, Lauren Walker. [03:20] Why Lauren chose to settle in Durham, North Carolina.  [05:43] About Lauren's copywriting.  [14:45] Lauren shares her challenges moving into the Real Estate space.  [17:02] Lauren talks about her role at Inman. [19:20] The value of relationships in the world of Real Estate.  [21:10] Is blogging dead? [24:08] Lauren shares some of her favorite content creators.  [28:08] Lauren's advice to new agents. [29:12] How to contact Lauren. Episode Notes:  Lauren's father had initially moved to Durham while she was in New York, and she only went there to pay him visits. Following the events of 9-11, she considered moving out of New York and was surprised at the options available in the beautiful environment of Durham, North Carolina. This encouraged her to leave New York and finally settle in Durham.   As a copywriter, Lauren uses words to get the desired result from people. Since high school, she has always written with hopes to make a living from it. Lauren shares the learning experience at Sarah Lawrence College, New York, where she honed her writing because the courses demand a considerable amount. This helped her secure a job in the marketing department of the "Readers Digest" magazine even before she graduated.  Around the year 2000, Lauren started her marketing and design firm, "Walker Interactive," with her husband, a web designer. Together they designed websites for solopreneurs and famous Olympic athletes. Lauren was also a consultant and contractor for IBM for over 13 years. She also worked with the marketing team on the website.  Lauren talks about her challenges moving into Real Estate, the first of which was having a lot to learn as she adapted to the Real Estate language. This meant more reading, and she also had to talk to people generally to understand their difficulties and needs before discussing real estate with them.  Discussing her role at Inman, she explains it is a unique one that involves helping advertisers and sponsors uncover how they can be most effective at Inman by strategic creativity.  Lauren explains that blogging is not dead, however even with little interest in writing, people still can be encouraged to create content by first identifying their interests using a voice memo app to document as they go through the day and creating content based on those interests. "I find the most underused tool that is on everybody's phone is the voice memo app" The most important thing is the story, and it can be told in different ways, whether it's through writing, videos, or pictures.   Having conversations centered around real estate is pivotal; this is particularly well articulated by sharing events and discussing community-related topics with people. Lauren explains the idea that you're not creating. You're documenting; knowing this takes the pressure off people who feel they need to be creative to have content. Instead, they can view content creation as a documentation of their interests, with the purpose of sharing. Lauren shares some of her favorite influencers in real estate, particularly noting that having influencers outside real estate helps create originality. Listeners are especially encouraged to sign up for the newsletter called "The Hustle" by Sam Parr.  From Lauren to new agents: Work backward; think about your goal in the industry and then work backward to identify what you need to do to make that happen.  Listeners are encouraged to visit the Inman website, check out connect in San Francisco, and save some money using promo code "BILL."  Resources Mentioned: Connect:  Find | THE REAL ESTATE SESSIONS At Tresonline.com   Find | Bill Risser At bill.risser@ratemyagent.com On Twitter On Facebook On Youtube   Find | Lauren Walker At lauren@inman.com  On LinkedIn On Twitter(@insertcopyhere) RATE & SUBSCRIBE  At Ratethispodcast.com/REsessions On Apple Podcasts On Google Podcasts On Stitcher