Marketing Assistant Interview - She Never Saw Herself In Real Estate | Freedom Vlog | EP. 74

Hi, guys. Welcome back to another Freedom vlog. Today we are here with Lauren Etienza.

That's right. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

She is a marketing assistant here at the Freedom Real Estate Group family of companies, and today we're gonna get to know her a little bit more. Is there anything you want to start with before I start asking questions, or you just want to dive in?

No, I'm pretty excited. Yeah. This is the first time I've been on one of these, so this is exciting.

Yes. All right, so first question. Who is Lauren?

I always see these questions on other vlogs, and I'm like, oh, how would I answer this? So this is exciting. I am a recent graduate of Cedarville University. I graduated with a. Yeah, I know. Very exciting. About a year of graduating, and I got my bachelor's in marketing, and I am a Dayton, Ohio resident, but I have lived everywhere in the US Just because I was from a Navy family, veteran family.

So, yeah, very awesome. Where is your favorite place that you lived?

Oh, I loved the dry heat in California, but the access to the beach in Florida is. Which was. Yeah, that was great. I was homeschooled around that time, so every day at noon, we would just take a trip to the beach every day. It was a nice little vacation. I've always wondered what it'd be like to be homeschooled. It's an experience.

So what is your title? I kind of already said that. What is your title? What do you do here?

I am part of the marketing team as the marketing assistant to the marketing coordinator, and my roles here consist of. Of doing some field work, admin work. So my field work consists of taking property photos when the properties are done and finished for our investors to be able to see them, see if they look like what's going on with them, as well as placing our marketing signs out by properties. That's a lot of fun because I get to see the properties physically. It's really fun to see the end product of what we offer. Yes. The historic houses that we have are. It's always so cool. Fascinating to see the old architecture and stuff like that. So, yeah, that's really cool. I do the 3D tour, Matterport. That's really fun. I like doing that. And then the admin work consists of, I guess, keeping everyone on track in terms of, like, their professional email signatures, sometimes updating social media, assisting in posting ads and analyzing Google Analytics, seeing the trends and stuff that we have going on.

So, yeah, very interesting.

I love it.

As if I kind of already knew all that. But you guys didn't. But I have to agree. One of the things that I definitely miss is I don't get to go out to properties nearly as much as I used to. And that was one of my favorite things, is seeing the transformations for when we first acquire property to closing. So you get to do that kind of. But definitely on the end of things, you get to see what our final product is. And like you said, the historic homes, they're just.

They're beautiful.

It's making me more and more want to have one of my own one day.

It's very cool because you, like, you sit there and wonder, like, what was this home like when it was first built, the area, like the. The people that lived there, this type of stuff that they like to do. What it looked like when it was brand new built. Yeah, yeah. That's all the kind of stuff I think about whenever. Cause it's just so cool.

Yeah. And I feel like it's something to like, take pride in too.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yep.

All right, the next question is, have you always wanted to do marketing?

No. So I didn't decide that I wanted to be in marketing until I was a senior in high school, which is pretty late to decide. For my whole life, I. I wanted to be something that involved animals, so maybe like a vet tech or something. That college I offer, that I went to didn't offer that. And also I am terrible at biology, so that would not have worked out at all. It doesn't make any sense to me. So I decided not to go that route. I considered a graphic design major because that just seems really fun to do. So I decided to actually just go with marketing because that includes graphic design skills as well as you're learning business skills such as, like finance and accounting and, you know, marketing and stuff like that. So, yeah, I really like that. I did not expect that I'd ever be in real estate, as a lot of people in real estate say. But it has been a blast to learn everything going on in real estate. And I would say that's a very fun industry to be in.

Oh, definitely. Absolutely. Especially with, I mean, the market's constantly changing, so you're constantly faced with challenges, but in a good way.

Oh, yeah.

And so it's never boring.

You're constantly learning new things all the time.

But so I made that face because you said you made that the decision very late in the game. I changed my major like four or five times when I was a freshman in college, so I was a little bit later than you were.

I don't understand why they're expecting 18 year olds to decide the trajectory of their lives, but I am thankful. I feel like I chose the right major and I feel like I'm in the right industry for me because it's very fun.

Absolutely. Yeah, it definitely is. And like I said, it's always changing.

Oh, absolutely. Yep.

All right. All that being said, if you had to give one piece of advice, what would that be?

That's a good question. One of my life mottos growing up has always been expect nothing and appreciate everything. I say this because after I graduated college, I was trying to find a really cheap living situation opportunity just so that I could get on my feet as a brand new adult college graduate. In life, I found a very cheap living situation, but it was also the balance of it was a very bad living situation. So I began to appreciate the little things in life like air conditioning and a clean house, an organized house. And so I lived through that for about several months or so. And now I'm very thankful for anything that I get. Any little success that I get in my life, learning how to pay new bills or learning this new thing about life and appreciating the little things in life. So expect nothing and appreciate everything you get.

Yeah. Growing up is because we're, we're pretty close in age, so I'm not that much older than you. But growing up is a blessing in disguise. Although, you know, there's many rough times when you're in your early 20s, recently graduated high school and or college, you have a lot of changes happening fast, but it forces you to grow up and to realize the bigger picture on, you know, what the adults in your life had gone through. Like you, like, for me personally, like, I never really understood some of the struggles that my parents went through growing up. And now, like, I get it as an adult and it's, it is very rewarding. There are definitely hard times, don't get me wrong, but which, like I said, it's definitely a blessing in disguise.

Oh, absolutely. I'm learning the phrase now there's food at home. I'm learning it applies to everything all the time. Oh my gosh. I think about that one all the time. That's so funny. I'm glad you said that one.

Although I am constantly having to tell my significant other that now.

Oh, I know, yeah, I'm like, listen.

We just went to the grocery.

What do you mean? Just get McDonald's anytime you want. Yeah. But yeah, the other day I, I had to call a maintenance Worker to come to my apartment and fix some of my cabinets or something. And I, you know, talking to my landlord and stuff, I got to interesting being in real estate and knowing about the property management industry, how everything works. What I'm thankful for that we do for our. For our, you know, tenants and stuff like that and like seeing the comparisons between it. So I think that's what's something that's really applicable in life, being in the real estate industry is seeing how all that works.

Yeah, I'm kind of on the same boat with you there just because I may have said it in other podcasts or vlogs, but we're. I'm in the process of buying a house right now and it's a new build. And so having worked, working in this industry now for two years, officially, I am now like walking through our house and like, ooh, that needs fixed. Or that is not going to pass an inspection or xyz. And so it's really beneficial. And then what is great too is at the end we'll get to do our own blue tape inspection. And I wouldn't have known even what that term meant if it wouldn't have been for me working here. And now I know, like, even to go into this house, once it comes time to that, like, I'll know exactly what to do. I mean, not exactly, but for the most part I'll have a really good idea of, like, specific things to look for that I may not have known up. Known of previously.

Yeah. Yep, exactly.

All right. I have one final question. It's a fun one. Sorry, that got real serious. What is one random fact about you?

That's always the hardest question. These questions. You always forget who you are.

Yes, yes. Like the question like, what do you do on a daily basis? What do I do?

Exactly. No one ever remembers. Yeah. Yeah. I am a black belt in taekwondo. Oh.

Have you ever had to use it?

No. I got at a very young age. I don't remember anything, but I can say that I have it now. That's it. But yeah, that is cool.

Yeah. I got up to my orange belt in karate.

It's a lot of dedication. Yeah. And especially at that young of an age. It stays in your mind what you go through, but it was good for discipline.

I guess I was just about to say I'm kind of on the same boat. I was a little younger when I went through it, and I don't. There's like some very simple things that I remember. And like, like we had homework too, that we had to do. And I had. We had to learn how to count. And so I can count to five in Japanese. So that's like a random fact that I have. But other than that, it was more. I remember the discipline. I used to hate going, but now I look at it and I'm like, I mean, that was good. And one of those things. You don't realize it until you grow up.

Yep. That it was actually good for you. You don't realize it. Like, I wish I kept going in it. I have this unique skill, something I can specialize in, something I can brag about.

Yeah.

But I can't brag about anymore because I don't remember anything. Yeah, but you have it. I have it. I can say that now. I have the certificate. I have the medals. That's all that matters. I love it.

All right, guys, so that's all I have for you today. Do you want to add anything else at all?

I think I'm good. This was. This was very fun.

Perfect. We do have exciting news. I did not tell you about this, so sorry. But you guys will be able to see more of Lauren, myself, and our team. We are actually starting up a TikTok. What is the username?

I think it's just Freedom Real Estate Group.

That's what I thought it was. I wasn't sure if we added anything else onto it. I know Freedom Capital Investments also has one on there. If you guys want to check that out with the co founders, Flip and Daniel Robinson, you can find that on there as well.

Yep. There'll be a lot of different learning opportunities on there. We'll be showing you guys different end products that we have that we offer, like our properties that are nice and finished. We'll be answering a lot of questions, talking about the different aspects of real estate investing. I'm really excited for it.

I am, too. I am, too. So be sure to check that out. But for now, we always like to end these with invest smart, live happy. Bye, guys.

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