“I need to be surrounded by high-thinkers and doers, and I have found that with Amanda and the team,” Laura explains. “Amanda has a passion that’s unlimited for our potential. She tells me every day I can do whatever I want.”

 

Laura has always thrived with good mentors. Growing up in Lyndhurst, her parents filled that role and still do to this day. Laura says her father, Norman, who is 94 years old, shows her how to get up and show up every day, even when times are hard. Which, after losing her mom, Lois, this past year, has been essential.

 

Not only did Laura’s father instill a strong work ethic in Laura, but he also passed on his curiosity and voracious appetite for reading. Like her father, Laura’s continual pursuit of knowledge has always been through books and people, whether peppering teachers and mentors with questions or taking time every day to ‘crack the spine of a book’.

 

“My father is a brilliant man. He was never able to attend college, but he reads every day – a variety of topics. And he still goes to the library every week,” she says.

 

With a drive to work hard and learn everything she could from life, Laura started working at a young age. She had a career as a licensed cosmetologist until the age of 22, at which time she decided to enter the world of sales and embarked on a long, successful career at Kilgore Trout, selling high-end goods.

 

For 18 years, Laura successfully managed an amazing client book at Kilgore Trout while raising her three kids, Johnna, Bella, and Sophia with her husband, Chip. Needing a change in life, Laura had developed a fascination with interior design and real estate, and by 2005 she wanted to pursue a new career in the industry. She knew the developer Ken Lurie, as an acquaintance through Kilgore, and decided to reach out to him for a job.

 

“Ken changed the path of my life by saying yes to just speaking with me,” Laura says. “The company sent me to Hondros to get licensed and I started working for Ken at Rockport Square in Lakewood and Bluestone in Cleveland Heights. I still consider him to be an important mentor and a life-changing relationship.”

 

Laura pursued a career as a developer and wanted to learn how to design and build communities. 2008 changed all of that, however. The recession’s impact on the company caused her to pivot into residential real estate sales. Although it was extremely tough to sell real estate during that time, she juggled kids, school work, activities, showed up, and kept learning everything about the market that she could. And she’s happy she did.

 

What Laura loves the most about real estate are the relationships she gets to develop every day. There is never a dull moment, and for someone like Laura, who has a certain zest and appreciation for life, real estate gives her the opportunity to go out and seize each day that is presented to her. “Carpe diem” is a motto she thoroughly lives by.

 

When Laura isn’t taking charge in real estate, she loves spending time with her family. She and Chip are passionate about their home and enjoy entertaining family. They also enjoy city living and Laura loves staging and set design. She also has an amazing garden and can usually be found tending to her flowers.

 

As Laura finishes the best year she’s ever had in real estate, she is looking forward to growing her own team. Her daughter, Isabella, is joining her to mentor and help create opportunities for others, as others have done for her. And when asked about what success meant to her, she had this to say, “Success to me means living a life as free from worry and self-doubt as you can imagine. Time spent in service to others.”