How I Built Mine When Everyone Was Laughing

When people look at what Gondal Group of Marketing has become today — the social media following, the brand recognition, the projects people associate with our name — they often assume it came easily. That the momentum was always there. That the path was obvious. Real estate personal branding in Pakistan did not look like an opportunity to most people when I started. It looked like something worth making fun of.

Here is the honest story of how it started, what people said, and what I think it means for anyone trying to build something of their own today.

 

The Camera, the Housing Societies, and the Beginning

In the very beginning, the process was as simple and unglamorous as it sounds. We would pick up a camera, drive out to a housing society, and shoot a video on-site — walking through the location, introducing the project to whoever was watching, explaining what was being built and why it mattered. There were no production teams, no elaborate setups, no polished graphics. Just a camera, a location, and a genuine attempt to give people useful information about where to invest their money.

I had a habit at the time of opening every single video with the same greeting: “Honored Clients.” Every video, without exception, started exactly the same way. Over time, that phrase became so closely associated with me that people in the market stopped calling me by my name. My nickname became “Honored Client.” I still hear it from people who have known me since those early days.

 

What 90% of My Circle Actually Said

Let me be completely honest about this, because I think it is the most important part of the story.

When I started doing this — creating content about housing societies, shooting videos on-site, building a social media presence around real estate — approximately 90% of my social circle in the local market mocked me for it.

Not gently. Not quietly. Openly.

They would say things like: “What kind of job has he started? He is running around with a camera telling people to buy plots.”

The people who said this were not strangers or outsiders. They were colleagues, acquaintances, people in the same industry who had known me for years. The local real estate market in Islamabad at that time had a very specific idea of how a property dealer was supposed to work — and what I was doing did not fit that idea at all.

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Why I Kept Going Anyway

This is the question people ask me most often when I share this story, and the honest answer is not particularly dramatic.

I kept going because I believed what I was doing was right — not just commercially, but genuinely right for the people watching. Buyers in Pakistan’s real estate market had very little access to honest, straightforward information about housing societies, project quality, legal status, and investment risk. Most of what existed was marketing material produced by developers to sell their own projects.

What I was doing was different. I was going on-site, showing people what was actually happening on the ground, and speaking to them directly without a script written by someone who needed them to buy something.

That felt worth doing. The mockery was uncomfortable, but it was not a reason to stop doing something I believed in.

 

What Happened Next

Today — and I say this not to boast but because it is the most relevant fact in this story — the people who mocked what I was doing are trying to do exactly what I did.

The same colleagues who questioned why I was running around with a camera are now creating their own social media content about real estate. The same market that treated video-based real estate education as a joke now treats it as a standard professional practice.

This is not unique to real estate in Pakistan. It is a pattern that repeats across almost every industry when someone does something genuinely new. The mockery comes first. Then the imitation.

Phase	What Happened
Early days	90% of social circle openly mocked the approach
Building phase	Consistent content, on-site videos, honest information shared week after week
Recognition phase	Audience grew, buyer inquiries increased, brand recognition built
Today	The same people who mocked are now trying to replicate the approach

 

The Lesson That Actually Matters

Real estate personal branding in Pakistan is not about cameras or social media platforms or production quality. Those are tools. The lesson underneath the story is about something more fundamental.

If you believe in what you are doing, and you know it is right, the opinions of the people around you are not data you need to act on. They are noise you need to learn to tune out without bitterness and without arrogance — just with enough quiet confidence to keep working.

The market rewards consistency over time in a way that short-term mockery can never prevent. But it requires you to stay in the game long enough for that consistency to become visible.

Most people quit before that point. They let the early-stage criticism redirect them toward safer, more conventional choices. And then, a few years later, they watch someone else receive the recognition that consistency eventually brings — and wonder what might have happened if they had kept going.

 

A Personal Note — For My Son and for Anyone Building Something

There is a part of this story that goes beyond professional advice. My son’s father — meaning me — is currently working hard every day building what I hope will become a brand he is proud of. Not for legacy in the abstract sense, but because I want him to grow up knowing that the work his father did meant something to the people it was meant to serve.

Right now, his father is building under the Gondal Group of Marketing name. Alongside that, he is also working on another venture — Dua Marketing — putting in the same kind of consistent effort that this story started with.

If my son chooses to enter this field when he grows up, I want him to be able to look at the work done before him and feel pride in it. Not because of the scale it reached, but because of how it was built — honestly, consistently, and without cutting corners to avoid criticism.

That is the standard I hold myself to. And it is the same standard I would offer to anyone watching from the outside right now, wondering whether the thing they believe in is worth the discomfort of building publicly when the people around them are not yet convinced.

 

What This Means If You Are Building a Brand Right Now

Whether you are a real estate agent, a marketing professional, a content creator, or someone in any industry trying to build a personal brand in Pakistan’s digital space — the specifics of this story apply more broadly than real estate.

• Start before you feel ready. The camera did not need to be professional. The location did not need to be glamorous. The content just needed to be honest and consistent.
• Expect early resistance. The 90% figure is not unique to my experience. Almost everyone who does something genuinely new faces a version of this.
• Do not measure early success by external validation. The audience builds before the recognition does. Keep going through the gap between the two.
• Consistency is the only non-negotiable. Every other variable — platform, format, production quality — matters less than showing up regularly with something genuinely useful.
• The imitators will come. When they do, it means you were right. Take it as confirmation, not competition.

 

Where Real Estate Personal Branding in Pakistan Stands Today

The landscape has changed dramatically from those early days of driving to housing societies with a single camera. Social media has given individual professionals in Pakistan’s real estate market the ability to build direct relationships with buyers at a scale that simply did not exist before. Buyers now research projects, compare agencies, and form opinions about who to trust long before they make a phone call.

In that environment, real estate personal branding in Pakistan is not a nice-to-have for agents and agencies. It is the primary mechanism through which trust is built at scale. The professionals who understood this early — and built consistently through the uncomfortable early stages — now have audiences, reputations, and buyer relationships that took years to develop and cannot be quickly replicated by someone who decides to start today.

The best time to start was years ago. The second-best time is now.

If you are working on building your own brand in real estate or any other field and want to connect with someone who has been through the full journey — the mockery, the consistency, the recognition, and everything in between — reach out. The conversation is always worth having.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When did Nasir Gondal start creating real estate content on social media?
   Nasir Gondal began creating on-site video content about housing societies in Islamabad in the early years of real estate social media in Pakistan, starting with basic camera setups and field visits to projects before the practice became standard in the industry.
2. What was the reaction from the local real estate market when he started?
   Approximately 90% of his social circle in the local market openly mocked what he was doing, questioning why a property dealer was creating videos and running around housing societies with a camera. Today, the same people are trying to replicate the approach.
3. What is the most important lesson from this branding journey?
   Belief in the value of what you are doing matters more than early external validation. Consistent, honest content built over time creates audience trust that short-term mockery cannot prevent — but it requires staying in the process long enough for that consistency to become visible.
4. How has real estate personal branding changed in Pakistan?
   It has shifted from being seen as unusual or unnecessary to becoming a core professional practice. Buyers now research agencies and agents online before making contact, meaning personal brand credibility built through consistent content directly influences who gets the inquiry call.
5. What advice does Nasir Gondal offer to people building a brand today?
   Start before you feel ready, expect early resistance, measure progress by audience value rather than immediate recognition, stay consistent through the gap between building and being recognised, and understand that imitators following your approach is confirmation — not competition.

 

Written by Mr. Nasir Gondal, Founder of Gondal Group of Marketing
This Content is Updated on Date: July 14, 2026