We’re looking forward to introducing you to Lauren Clark. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Lauren, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
This spring was the busiest work season of my life. I felt like I was dying on the inside a little bit and so I redid my bucket list with the intention of getting out and crossing something off of my list. I sold a home to a couple who took up sailing and then homeschooled their children on a sailboat in the BVIs for several months. I saw him post an old photo of him sailing right when I was writing my bucket list and thought I’d throw sailing into the bucket list. That looked adventurous!
I absolutely love the water, movement, being in nature and thinking critically. I posted the list on my IG and another lady shared that she had always wanted to learn sailing as well and tagged a local sailing school. I had no idea you could learn sailing near Austin! Apparently Lake Travis is a very windy lake and it makes for perfect sailing conditions. Within 2 days we were signed up for an intro to sailing course on Lake Travis and are just about to have our first of many certifications with the American Sailing Academy. We both made 100s on our test and are the only 40ish year old women/mothers in the program.
While we were in our training I saw a 70+ year old woman walk out onto her dock and back out a huge, beautiful sailboat by herself and I thought to myself… “That’ll be me one day.”
The wind in my hair and the sun on my face is one of life’s most exciting experiences.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a creative by nature. After the covid pandemic shut down my 18 year old photography business and deemed my way of providing for my family “non-essential” I decided to explore what it would look like to go into real estate sales. We had made a bold do or die move to Dripping Springs from Lubbock during the height of uncertainty, both my husband and I not having long term jobs, and I signed up for online real estate classes. I was licensed 6 weeks later as the market went into a frenzy. The brokerage I joined was very controlling and didn’t want me doing anything out of the box. No social media, nothing creative. “Stick to the plan”. Within 2 months I felt completely caged and knew I could do something different that didn’t suck the creative life out of me. It was too corporate. I am anything but corporate.
I switched to a local brokerage, Magnolia Realty Austin Hill Country, and focused all of my efforts on creative lead generation through storytelling photography and travel content on my new website- movetodrip.com. A few months later I was beginning to gain traction from people who loved my content and wanted to work with me to help them move to the area.
I’ve continued to carve my own path with creativity and have become the top buyer’s agent in my town and top producer in my local office.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My life coach.
I remember in the middle of the covid pandemic I was so depressed because of the loss of my business and chaos it had brought. There was so much uncertainty with moving and starting a new career and I felt like I had very little margin for error now that my kids were getting older. I had a lot of limiting beliefs around money and being a stay at home/working mom and he said to me, “Lauren, you’ve got money written all over you!!! You need to get out there and make a @%$! ton of money”. I was taken aback by his words because I didn’t curse hardly at all, and he knew this, but was also feeling a bit proud that someone would believe in me so vehemently. I remember it gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe it was ok to work hard and not be afraid to break some familiar cycles that I had believed about my faith and poverty mindset.
I grabbed onto that belief and within a year I was making 6 figures in sales. I continued to call him and tell him after every major milestone and thank him for believing in me and speaking so boldly. He really helped me break off a lot of poverty beliefs about myself and what was acceptable in my belief structure.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering experientially broke off pride from my life and taught me a new way to look at the stories of others. I was raised in a family with deep faith and the unspoken message I interpreted was to be perfect at all times. The more perfect that I was, the more praise and love I would receive and the less opportunity there was for rejection. I put all of my effort into this cause. I have always been an over achiever and this was my new mission- perfection.
Perfection was something I knew I couldn’t attain, but I would die trying. When you try to appear perfect all the time there is a deep sense of pride that creeps in. I would see others struggling in their life and the judgment inside of me would create stories about how they just didn’t try as hard as I did.
When I reached every financial and personal goal that I had set for myself in my early twenties I really came to a place of emptiness. This emptiness sent me on a downward spiral that made me just about burn it all to the ground. I felt lied to by the promises of the American dream, that once you get the money, the praise and the worldly goods then you will finally feel happy. Being raised in a lower middle class family and then catapulting into self made success where I could afford nice homes, cars and travel really felt like it would dissolve any shame that I had felt about my past. I didn’t. Because I have tended to be an “all or nothing” person, I switched beliefs and decided that living on less (way less), reading more, giving more and focusing almost nothing on money was the answer.
I would spend my days helping struggling students with their homework and finding ways to help others who were down and out. I befriended people who were near homelessness and would advocate for their needs and drive them to appointments. I began to learn their stories and circumstances that created so much of the cycles they lived in. I worked with pregnant and parenting teens and really began to understand how cycles of trauma and failed government systems really did hinder then from change if there was not more support from family and friends as well as a change in their own limiting beliefs and internal family stories.
As I focused less and less on my financial work and business I began to experience my own deep seeded poverty beliefs that were tied to my upbringing and my faith. Then I began to realize the fear of literally not having enough, but not wanting to go back to the emptiness of building an empty life of success. A series of connections led me to therapist, life coaches and mentors who brought me hope and led me out of these deeply limiting beliefs and now I struggle towards both desire to provide well for my family, and future generations, as well as the understanding that I am no “better” than someone who is living in struggle. I’m learning balance. My heart has known both the brokenness of knowing financial struggle and the understanding that I have the power to change and rise from it- with a more healthy mindset.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
One of my favorite people, although famous and I’ve never met, is Brene Brown. Her books on wholehearted living and shame truly were a piece to my transformation during a very challenging time. She talks my language about perfection and spiritual awakening with a personal breakdown she had. I could relate so much to her openness and it really helped me understand a lot about my own life. Her desire to be vulnerable and wholehearted, while also acknowledging shame and perfection, is very inspiring.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would get off social media and facebook and would spend more time with my family and with God. I do waste so much of my time doom scrolling out of habit and I would remove those apps right away and look into my people’s eyes more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laurenclarkrealtor.com
- Instagram: laurenlovesdrippingsprings
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurenlovesdrippingsprings
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@livingindrippingspringstexas
Image Credits
Carrin Lewis Photography
