Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alina Zerpa. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alina, appreciate you joining us today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

Whenever I doubted myself in the early stages of having a company, my Mom would say, “Tocar no es entrar,” which means “knocking on the door doesn’t mean you’ll get in”. AKA, knock anyway.

As a hobby, I have had a food blog since 2018 (@fromatozmiami). Sports Grill had invited me to visit their Pembroke Pines location to give it extra love. I filmed all the content I needed to, and I enjoyed getting to know the staff. My mom leaned over and said, “You should ask if they need marketing!”

I immediately said no because their marketing person invited me to eat, and I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

“Tocar no es entrar”, my mom said to me.

And so, I asked the magic question.

It turns out that their marketing person had to return to France due to visa issues. So, the spot was actually about to open up.

I filed my LLC on August 26, 2020, and Sports Grill signed on as my first client on September 4, 2020. They’ve been with me ever since.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Since high school, I knew I wanted to be a riveting investigative journalist. Give me a topic and pen and paper, and I am there. I graduated from the University of Miami with degrees in journalism and psychology, ready to work for any newspaper. However, with the rise of Only in Dade and other user-generated accounts came the fall of The Miami Herald. Staff were getting fired left and right while pages like Only in Dade reported the news faster than any newspapers and news stations could.

After I graduated, I worked in several communication departments, including Royal Caribbean. I enjoyed the work but knew the corporate world wasn’t for me. Then and there, I wanted my own social media agency, but I never knew what that entailed. During my time at Royal, specifically, I started a food blog as a hobby, but it quickly became a love of food, hospitality, and getting to know people in the industry. After my job at Royal Caribbean, I worked at an agency that showed me how much I loved the world of social media. After this job, I knew I had the grit to handle different accounts.

Fast forward to 2020, while I was working on social media for an at-home fitness program, I decided to start my own company right there on the dining room table. I thrive in being creative and organized and being able to write captions that resonate with people in a humorous way that still informs about what’s going on.

Four years later, this is still my favorite job ever. How lucky am I that I get to be funny and chronically online on behalf of others! We have a whole team know, which is surreal. I wake up every day, perhaps a little tired, but always grateful for the path I have been able to carve for myself.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

As cheesy as it sounds, you just have to post post post. Post behind-the-scenes, post about news and give your two cents on it, post your accomplishments. We live in a world where there is SO much information out and about and if you don’t put yourself out there, no one will know you exist. This isn’t about getting 30K followers for the sake of it; it’s about getting an active and engaging audience that cares about what you have to say. You’ll see your page grow in a way that you had no idea it could, but you must be consistent and give it love.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

How I treat my team is how I would want to be treated. I am incredibly lucky that my team is a group of incredible young women. It is easy to be nice and attentive to them because I genuinely love them as people! If someone’s dog has to go to the vet or if there’s a wedding where they need a few days off, by all means, attend to what’s going on. We genuinely enjoy hanging out with each other outside of the 9-5 routine, which not many people can say. We even go on TikTok Live as we prepare for our podcast or go out.

It’s not hard to be great to your team when your team is so great.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://atozsocialagency.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atoz_social
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/atoz_social