Good afternoon, all the way from Miami, your host, Avro here to bring you another SLG meetup and one of our exciting guests to tell us all about real estate and marketing. For that, we're going to be flying all the way to New York City to talk to Ryan Garzon. He is the CEO and founder of VerySocial NYC, which is a full-service marketing agency for real estate professionals, and he is also the leader of the Garzon team at Compass. And he's going to tell us all about marketing and how important it is in such a competitive industry as real estate.
There he is. Hey, Elaria, thanks for having me. Of course, of course, how are things in New York, my friend? Great, great.
It's moving over here. Are you guys getting a bit more of a nicer weather? Finally, it's been cold for way too long. It's like 60 degrees.
It's weather jacket weather. It's perfect. Listen, I love that. But if you get a bit chilly, you can always come to Miami.
We're always having a good time. There's always an excuse to go to Miami, right? Yeah, there's always a good excuse. Right now we have the formula I want happening this weekend.
So it's going to be a lot of interesting things happening around that event. But no, listen, let's talk about yourself because I love the fact that you're having a combination of marketing and real estate. Like, that's a perfect combination. A lot of people that get into the industry.
They just disregard marketing. And you are the CEO and founder of Very Social NYC, which specializes in giving a full service marketing for all the real estate professionals. Tell us a little bit about yourself, about your company, and why is it so exciting that I'm not just the opposite. I'm a flirty and that move to New York.
I'm from Fort Lauderdale. I've been selling real estate for about eight years in New York City. We have a great team here. And I think what really separates us is that we're just out of box marketers.
I'm doing a listing video for every listing that we take on. And it's not your average listing video. It's definitely not boring. I think we really focus on telling a story.
And that resonates with buyers. And then we really focus on blasting that video or that piece of content out through our digital and social channels. And we're always creating content to keep our listings abuzz. So yeah, I started Very Social where our full service marketing agency for real estate professionals, where we collaborate with our clients to really elevate their brand on social media.
I love that. I think it's so important. What's that statistic by the 95% of people getting to real estate, they have no clue about marketing. They either try to figure it out on themselves or they just lack on doing it.
So I think the alternative of working with somebody that is in real estate, I understand real estate can help you with marketing. It's a huge advantage. So tell us a bit about what exactly you guys are doing very socially. Yeah, I think the one thing with agents too is that they don't really buy into building their brand.
And I think that's like social media is a perfect platform where you could really kind of highlight what you're passionate about, what you're selling, what you're doing every day. And it's hard. And it takes a lot of work. So I think very social is there to kind of really keep it consistent.
We do the posting. Our team is made up of graphic designers, copywriters, social media managers. I'm a real estate agent. And when I started working with a social media manager, it just totally elevated my game because it was a different type of skillset that I have.
I think the one really thing that very social does is we work with our clients. All our clients, they have a certain vision. They have a vision for their brand, how they look, how they talk, how they sell. And I think we make that vision come to life on social media.
Yeah, you cannot do it alone. That's for sure. Now, let me ask you, right, when people face this situation, right, of whether they build a brand for their business or a brand for themselves or they try to do both or they don't do anything, like what will be your first approach when trying to build your brand for personal? Definitely.
Just I think the more you have, the more confusing, the more work it is. I would really just focus on yourself. I do have the Garson team, IG, and I have my personal. But my personal is really where I have all my, that's where my conversations start.
I'm conversating all day long. I probably speak to about 200 people a month on Instagram. My DMs are crazy with messages. But not only are people like D&D and me, it's like, oh, great concept, but I'm doing that to them.
I'm putting the work in and really going through my scroll, going through my stories, giving people love. I think the more love that you give people, then they become part of your community and share your post, the comment, the like. So I think it's what you put in is what you're going to get out. And I love that you're saying that, right?
Because I was at the beginning of the journey, and I was focusing on building a brand, building a business. And then I was forgetting about building my personal brand. And the moment that you start building your own personal brand, that's when you start connecting with people to a different degree. Because we are in the people's business.
Real estate is at the end of the day, transacting between people. So people need to connect with you. And the more that you can showcase about yourself, whether that's in a very consistent branding, whether that's, you know, your lifestyle of doing sports and networking and traveling. And whatever your personal brand is, people will connect to that to a higher degree than just doing your business.
Totally. I mean, your customers and clients want to work with you because you're trustable and likable. And I think you can really give off that persona through your Instagram. Because like your followers, like those are your friends, your family, your clients, your supporters.
So, you know, it's just a great way to stay top of mind. And I definitely wouldn't recommend like bombarding them with business stuff. I think like the personal stuff, the lifestyle, like that's really important. Like that's what you should be posting about.
Like I do bagel reviews. Everyone talks to me about bagel reviews. I did a bagel review. Yeah, I reviewed over 40 different bagel shops in New York City because I felt like bagels are kind of like a staple for a neighborhood.
And then Dave, I saw Dave Port and I doing his piece of reviews. Like, you know what, I really like bagels. Hey, that's a great, that's a great thing. So next time I go to New York, I definitely ask you where to go to the bagel.
Well, you know what, I'll bring you on my next bagel review. Yes. I like that. I like that.
Sounds good. No, but I think that's fantastic. And in regards to the real estate, right, because look, personal branding is very important. But how do you identify on the things that you need to do as a real estate agent to showcase more of that luxury properties that you have on the inventory of the new developments that are coming in the market, the latest statistics.
How do you bring that into your brand? Yeah, I mean, I think I just sprinkled that in. You know, I think my brand is more about me when I'm passionate about also like where I live. Like, I'm in New York City.
I'm a big proponent of the city. I'm always posting about new restaurants, events, whatever is happening. Like, I'm posting about that. And I sprinkle in the real estate and I try to make it natural.
Like, when I'm on a tour with a buyer, I might just do a quick video of the property or I might get on the camera and talk about it. I always try to really be strategic when I have a listing about creating like certain content pieces and distributing that over time consistently. But I think you just have to be authentic. Like, I think anybody who sees that you're not being authentic, they know that a mile away.
So just be you. Like, if you're passionate about real estate, like, you know, talk about like what you're passionate about. Like, you're talking real estate all day long. Like, realtors are freaking, we're 24 seven, especially in this crazy market.
You know, sometimes I think the one thing is like, like everyone's so busy that they don't really put the time to actually create the content. Like, I believe in like time blocking. Like, you know, set a time like Friday at 2 p.m. So like, you know, get on your camera and like talk about, you know, a certain real estate topic.
Or if you know, you're going to, you know, certain, you're taking out a buyer and you're showing like four or five beautiful properties. Like, you know, putting the effort into creating content is really important. And the thing is with real estate agents, we have so many different jobs, you know, like real estate agents are the busiest profession. And that's not even including like putting out the buyers.
Like, there's just so much that we're doing. But guess what guys content creation needs to be part of like what you're doing, like your day to day. And if you're not doing it, you're going to lose market share because there are enough agents out there that are really building their brand, you know, creating great content, getting more exposure. And your social media, your Instagram, it's like your business card.
And if you're going out listening presentation and you don't have, you know, have that business card of like a social media presence, I guarantee you, like it's sooner or later, you're going to start to lose business because there are people out there. They're hard on social media and they're building their business that way. It's so funny that you say that because nowadays people when you know they ask about somebody's like, Oh, what's it? What's he's or her Instagram?
They no longer ask for anything else. Like, they want to see that what you said, business card that digital business card that they Instagram. Now, within all the social media platforms, because there's different platforms for different audiences and obviously approaches. What's your favorite or most effective?
My favorite is Instagram. Just because I love the stories, I feel like it's in real time. I like the in feeds are kind of like, I feel like they're like a website. They, you know, because they live forever.
But the stories are not 24 hours. I can be a little bit more adventurous. I have a really good following. I've been on it for a while, but I'm on all the platforms and I create content differently for each platform.
So I usually repost a lot of the content from Instagram to Facebook, but I really do a lot more like copy heavy on LinkedIn. I feel like LinkedIn. If you put some time effort to that, there's definitely a lot of business there. I'm on TikTok, which I honestly don't feel so comfortable, but I'm like, I'm gonna go like all about the trends and those trends really aren't like, they're not really my vibe, but I do it.
And I actually get a lot of views and some of the videos that I actually dislike the most I get the most views on. And then I'm on YouTube, which is more like long form video, which takes like a commitment to do and it's hard to do consistently, but I do it. But I have a whole team around me, so I could do it by myself. But I would, my advice would be to really just pick one or two platforms and just lean in on it and try to build your brand that way.
100%. Now, let me ask you this, because this is something that we ask every of our guests. You know, we're luxury. It comes in so many different shapes and forms.
For some people, it's time, quality, $10 million property, whatever. So what is luxury to you? Luxury to me is about service. I think if you're professional, if you're charming, if you can really connect with your clients, I think that's luxury.
And, you know, if we're talking about like luxury products, like if you go into like a Chanel or a Cartier or you see a $20 million property, like that's the kind of service that you're going to get. And I really try to give my clients that five star service. And I think if you're consistent with it, like a luxury business will follow. That's fantastic.
Well, listen, I think that you've done very well for yourself. I really like the way that you're building your real estate career along with the marketing company. I think there are two parallel tasks that go pretty well together. And I know you're busy and New York is a never stopped city.
So if you have any last takeaways that you would like to share with us. Yeah, sure. I wrote a book called the Very Social Broker. It's on Amazon.
Guys, if you're out there, be very social, especially on social media. I love that. Wow. I'll get your book.
It seems very interesting. I'll send me the link. I will. I'll sign a copy of someone's here.
Ah, that's a nice guy. Very social and very nice. Thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you in New York or if you come to Miami, you're good.
Happy to go to Maya. Have fun. Ah, yeah. Go forward as much in Miami.
Yeah, well, I cannot promise you that. Take care, friend. See you again. Bye.
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.