Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another SLG meetup your host Alvaro here to bring you another exciting and interesting guest today we have with us a superstar in the TikTok space as well as a New York City real estate agent Maristen Sutton she has been recently featured in the real deal and she's been now joining the team around Harry Stevens as one of the superstars as she's also going to be starting a program on how to train other agents to become better on these booming platforms such as TikToks. There she is Maristen what's happening? Hi how are you? Good on yourself.
I'm not staying out of trouble. I stay out of trouble that's good that's good. How are things over there in New York? It is very rainy and snowy but other than that great as always.
The way first of all congratulations I was making a quick hit for about yourself but one of the most excited things and the reason that we found out about you is because of how you've recently been dominating that space in TikTok right so your handle the New York City agent has been going viral over TikTok now with over 100 000 followers and some of your videos going all over the internet and I think this is also because of what you just said right there the consistency in creating videos being innovative and now even to the point where the broker is at your ad wants you to start a training program to teach other agents on how to do it. How phenomenal is that? Oh no it's been incredible in the press that's been picked up over the past year. I've been in the real deal twice even press pieces like Bloomberg, Fox News, I was on Fox Business this other week and there's such a strong interest in what this industry is doing on video based platforms such as TikTok.
It's just grown exponentially in the past 18 months. So what made you start a TikTok? Oh I was winging it from the gekko. So I was actually a really, I was very young in my career when I started using TikTok.
I was a rental agent here in New York City and we I was about six months in when the pandemic started and we had to find a way to safely show units because people still had to move and we were considered essential but it wasn't quite sure how essential we were so this was a way to keep my client safe and it was the most efficient way. Did you see that ticking on your account? So to kind of give a point of mindset on not this past October of 2021 but of October of 2020 I hit 3,000 followers and I just started and I was like this is incredible. It was on my birthday and I actually got my first building on my birthday which was October 7th and from that point to now I'm at 100,000 so it was just really an immediate response.
So what kind of videos do you do that engage so much with the audience? Yeah again it's about having a little bit of variety but sticking to your niche so I'll do rental walkthroughs, I'll do luxury listings, even New York City based content I think it's really important on the platform if you are in like a client based service like we are to have a little bit of personality. A lot of people in the real estate industry or even in the luxury space in general they use social media to run awareness, they generate some leads. You in particular told me that you get 100% of your leads from TikTok?
Yes I get 100% of my organically generated business through TikTok with the like minor exception being referrals which are usually from deals I've done wow. So last year, well since I last year alone we did over and I said well I personally did over 100 and 10 deals just for how to pick up. Myself I'm verified on TikTok I have like over 180,000 followers like I've done also quite some work in TikTok and for some reason I just used it as a platform to expose my lifestyle and hopefully derail something into business but there is also a technique in there where you've been mastering to convert them into leads so how does that work? It also went hand in hand with me realizing that there are a lot of pain points in this industry and that a lot of the tech is fairly archaic.
It's very outdated and in New York City I'm going to refer to specifically rentals. We have such high turnover and there's a number it's like 82 or 84% of inquiries on street easy get no response. So I actually have a little bit of a specialty in tech based lead retention and I run a program where basically all my agents do is show apartments they don't handle any of the back and forth any of the scheduling, pre-qualification or the little questions but so this not only saves time for my agents they open up their calendar and they know exactly where they're going that day but it also allows the clients to feel really comfortable and keep expectations aligned. How do you envision the future of real estate when it comes to social media?
Yeah so I in terms of like the workshop my main goal is if an agent wants to participate in TikTok I think every agent should be on TikTok it's a lot of the same content that you'd be posting on Instagram or even street easy in terms of the videos and it's really only adding one extra step of forming it or filming it in portrait style and it only takes one person that's the interesting thing about TikTok is the ability to share content is significantly easier versus Instagram or Facebook where you would have to have more of a pre-established account or have the app downloaded where TikTok I could send you a video right now so a lot of my clients I would say almost 30% don't have a TikTok one of their friends who knew that they were looking for that sent them a link and that's how we got connected so in terms of where I see it going I only see it heavily expanding and my main goal is not only for agents that brown hair are sevans and not only for agents in New York City but nationwide and worldwide to show it's not nearly as scary and as you think it is and it's not nearly as vulnerable and the risk versus the reward is just so massive and you never know who you find out there that's true and you're just one video away of becoming a superstar like yourself so what would be them I guess advice for somebody that is either studying with TikTok or has nothing to imagine TikTok what's the first step the first step would be figuring out what you're comfortable with it you'll have to be on the camera you could be behind the camera and having a genuine approach posting consistently would be my next big tip we kind of have a 95 mindset where a lot of creators 95% of those videos they're not going to go viral and that's okay because you learned so much from those videos everything from how to shoot to how you present yourself to how you present the unit because filming a unit is very different than any other style of filming you have to as an expert in this field we can walk in a unit or a home and know exactly like what the worth is and what the main points are but conveying that work through a camera is a very different process so practice makes perfect and those 5% of videos that you go viral that's what's going to get you your following and things like that so don't be discouraged if your first five videos if it doesn't get you know 10,000 views or 100,000 views it's very normal okay no good to know and consistency I love that one because look we were having a conversation yesterday with another agent from New York and we were talking about TikTok and particularly about the consistency because a lot of people they post for a few days they don't see results and then they stop you know and the funny part is that you're maybe a video away from going viral because you just said 95 to 5% then that's the 5% that you need to be on in order to get that ticking boom and I feel like what you just said in there once you're writing that wave oh my god you're unstoppable right like more of your videos start going viral more people start connecting with you and as you said you start building this referral network as well well another point I'd like to make is you have a lot of different styles of content creators and in this field in particular we're extremely fortunate because I could post a video and it could perform terribly but if one person sees that video and wants to buy that apartment or rent that home that video just make you X amount of money and even more on it I wouldn't even be so excited on the views another conversion that's great so let me ask you this nice because obviously we've talked a lot about TikTok and how important it is are you fan of any other social media platforms so obviously I'm on instagram we're starting up a youtube channel as well because a lot of this content can be posted on multiple platforms so if you film a TikTok you have to keep in mind you can post that to reels so you're killing two birds with one stone but those are my main two platforms amazing well look I always ask this question and I'm very curious to know what you'll have to say what is the meaning of luxury to you oh gosh that's a good question I think the meaning of luxury it varies person to person but I think it also it has a feeling of content with progression so it's getting to a point that you were not before with the accommodations that you've always dreamed of when you were hit or really or even your early funnies when you were setting those goals for yourself so luxury has a different meaning to everyone but specifically in New York City I think when people think of luxury they think of high rises they think of you know these incredible luxe buildings but my personal interpretation of luxury is I love my loft I have a 2500 square foot loft and has charm and has brick walls and that's this is my luxury and the definition will change and the standards will change as you progress so it's really about being content and I know that's kind of like not the best or most correct answer but I know I love that answer I was expecting maybe waking up in the morning and see your video go viral that luxury but I love the answer that's great I agree with you by the way I think that's very deeper meaningful so aside from that obviously we have a big audience that are in the luxury space not just in real estate but in the different areas that resonate to the lifestyle and it's a very competitive market right and it's related to luxury so to enter into the market you need to be this raptor and platforms like TikTok allow you to do so by being a little bit different right becoming that outlier so you've done it yourself you position yourself as an authority in that space so what will be one takeaway that you can share with the audience with everything you've learned throughout your career and now specifically with what you do that they can do moving forward so I think kind of referring back to your point it's hard to get into a luxury market but the time is more so now than ever before because traditionally real estate has been about who you know and there's been a lot of nephitism throughout the years but now anyone can get the exposure and with exposure comes you know listings and effort will be talent every single time so in terms of actually from forgot the original question I'm so sorry no it's about the main takeaway you know yes if I had kind of any main takeaway it would just be just to get started people you have to have two there's two mindsets when you're posting yourself or listing there's a preventive mindset which is more so okay I'm going to post this but you're kind of worried about how it's perceived in terms of the comments or you know the negativity and then there's more of an expansive mindset and I think it's so important to go into this with an expansive mindset that's growth based that you're not worried about what people will say or how many views or likes it'll get but you're just excited about the potential and I think when you approach it that way it's going to be incredible that's amazing well thank you so much my reason I really appreciate your time and all the insights that you've been giving especially when it comes to social media and TikTok in particular because I find that a whole different world that it's so important to dive into especially at this time that we're living in as industry such as real estate and I do appreciate you being here today of course thank you for having me of course and I'm not sure if we have not touch on anything that you would like to share so anything else that you would like to add um just go for it let's go for it right every day is an opportunity to become your next version and yourself you just said it we're one video away we'll be coming the next superstar so myself I'm getting ready to head to Africa so as we hang up I'm just gonna finish banking and head to the airport because I'm gonna be climbing Kileimanjaro and I think that's a great spot to do some TikToks as well so yeah maybe we'll see you do a little dance or something little dance with the time we're there in Africa why not right show the real estate that they have of course now but thanks again Madison I appreciate good luck with everything that you're doing please everybody that is watching or listening make sure to follow her both on Instagram on TikTok if you want to see exactly what I've made by this song so successful and reach out to her she's very nice and lots of insights to learn from so thanks again Marisa and I wish you a beautiful day and I hope to see you soon see you soon have a safe trip and thanks again for everybody tuning in today we hope you enjoyed it and remember embrace it's beautiful success in life my name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time