Episode 065: Farokh Sarmad - Building An Instagram Empire

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Welcome to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today on episode 65, we have someone special with us. Faroaks are mad. And before we kind of jump into it, I just want to let you guys know that this dude is a G at building Instagrams and building brands and I really appreciate you coming on, man. Thank you, bro.

Thank you, Casey, for inviting me to this podcast. We finally made it happen and I'm really, really excited for it. Actually pretty stoked to be on here, bro.

Thank you for showing us. I know we've been connected for a while now. I know we have similar people in our network and I know that we've started to do a lot of stuff recently with just things that we both got going on. But I kind of want to always like to start off my podcast because I'm sure there's maybe one, two people that may not know where you're from, where you started all this, because obviously it really, like social media is a big world and obviously people listening, they always want to know kind of the backstory. But first question, I just want to catch people up to speed before we go into depth. So, like, what are you currently working on? What should people know about you just before we get into depth?

Well, my name is Faro Starmad. As you mentioned, some people call me Good Life. Reason being is a couple years ago, I'm 23 years old right now. So a couple years back when I was around 15, 16 year old, I started a blog around luxury and stuff like that, because that's always the sort of thing I was around into. Became one of the biggest bloggers on Tumblr around the luxury and lifestyle type of niche in the world to go to like around 150,000 followers very fast. Within a year, I saw that there was not that much money to be made on Tumblr. And then I saw Instagram and then people were scrolling. People were addicted to the grammar ready when it was just like. And I'm talking like fucking five years ago right now. Like, not like the whole boomerang. I'm talking like way before, you know, I mean, so I started doing that back then. I started my Instagram page under the name of Mr. Good Life, which is now changed to Good Life. And I started building a network. I said, you know what, I'm gonna take the advertisement because people like me or my friends around me are not watching TV anymore and everyone was streaming on Netflix or just online streaming their movies, if they even watched shows, you know. So I said, you know what, I'm take the adverts and I'm going to put them on Instagram and, and we're going to see how that's going to work. You know, I was a law school student back in the time and I still am trying to finish my double major in law, international relations. Still a little bit of trouble with that time wise, but I'm going to finish it, I'm going to. And you know, I started my, I started a few Instagram pages, good life, couple feelings, some travel pages, stuff like that. So I started building, you know, I was like, one day I'm going to own my own empire. I always said that. I said I want my own empire of Instagram pages. I love the gram. I love the way it allows people to express themselves and to show their passion sort of thing, you know, not just post their food or their dog. I often say that it's just like straight up, I knew there was going to be business. People laughed, people smiled. Nobody thought that Instagram was gonna be that big actually back then, no one. So I started growing. Within a year, I had 4 million followers on Instagram across multiple pages. Within the second year in business, had 10 million and had become, you know, my main source of income. You know, it was a full time for me. On top of being a student from the get go. I did a few months of studying and then I went in on it and straight up, like, it became, you know, my main revenue stream. I started a business around it, you know, for, you know, media marketing, media distribution, consulting and all that stuff. All that good stuff. And I guess we'll get in depth with that later. And yeah, so I started doing that and then I built my personal brand under the name. My name, Farouk. And I did pretty good, I guess.

I.

You can categorize me as a personal branding expert on Instagram. I don't like to use that word personally, but that's what some people have told me. And I have. I actually have the track record for it. You know, I've built brands and I've worked with pretty large names and I've appeared on other podcasts and articles and work with people who have, you know, who have done it pretty big on social media. So, yeah. And if you fast forward a couple years, today I pretty much merged up with my partner, his name is Joseph, and a few other people. We own about 100 million followers on Facebook and Instagram today. Our company is called Craze. So create a craze. And it's actually owners, just a network that we own that we have multiple verticals. Our company, one of them is client servicing. So we offer media services to our clients on Facebook, Instagram and whatnot. Whatever they want, we'll provide if we can, of course. So we do other media buying and stuff like that. That's one of the verticals. And the other vertical is we have our own brand, so we do e commerce. Shoplist is one of our stores. And then we know we rep our own clients. Brands like Oblifika, the hair care company. I'm sure you've seen it all over my feed and stuff like that. So, yeah, we do a lot of things and then we do ad breaks, ad rolls and stuff like that on Facebook because we have a very large page, actually. And I'm gonna plug this in because I'm very proud of it. If you allow me to. Our Facebook page viral trend, which is one of our Facebook pages. In the month of April, I was the second most used Facebook page in the world in terms of video views. We'd hit 1.4 billion views in a month. Right now we're May 30th. I just checked yesterday. We're at 1.6 billion views. So hopefully we'll stay second, if not first if we make it. And it's the sixth most viewed social media channel. That means across all socials. But we only have Facebook, so. And we're competing with billion dollar companies like Buzzfeed, but we only have 20 people in the team, you know, so. So it's pretty cool. We're working very hard and we're very proud of what we're doing, but we're nowhere near anywhere we want to get yet. So it's, it's, it's definitely. Yeah, it was a short introduction, but.

Yeah, yeah, bro, that's quite the intro, man. So you said it's what, like you said over a hundred million followers. Like, I know that's in your Instagram bio. Like, that's a lot of damn people, man. So I think there's one thing I want to touch on before we kind of like get into everything because I know, like people listening, they're definitely on Instagram. There they may be building their brand, building their personal brand. And my thing is like, bro, like, I know that you said that you started on Tumblr and then you switched to Instagram, but like, right now, what was that sort of just like the jump from having one page being interested to now, like, what's your current thoughts? Especially things social. Because I know like, five years ago things were different. Obviously when you first started the page, you didn't think it would get the level of what Instagram is now. But when it comes to like the transformation of Instagram, just a little something short. Like what. Where do you think in the next five years it could be? Just, I want to kind of touch on this before we go into depth because I know, like, this last five years have been crazy. What's your thoughts on like the, the next three, five years on Instagram?

I think it's just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I mean, anyone who didn't jump on the train right now are running after it, obviously. You know what they say, it's never too late to join, but it gets more costly, it's harder, you know, it's. Back then when I started, yeah, it was easy to grow page. Well, I don't like to say easy because we did work hard. It was easier, you know. Yes. It took less effort to post and use a few tags and get a shout out. And we'd go faster. Yes, through original content, mostly just photos back then, not that many videos. We'd grow faster. Yes, there was growth hacking techniques that were much easier than today. But, you know, it still was a lot of work. It was a lot of consistency, a lot of hard work and dedication to it. And especially I was running back then when I'm telling you I was on my own. I didn't have a company or nothing. It was just me and my phone and actually was just a broken iPhone5 because that's all I had. And I had 10 accounts. And back then, you're lucky, bro. You can have multiple account login right now. We didn't have that when it first started. That just came out like a year and a half, two years ago. A year and a half ago, something like that. I had to log in, log out of my pages all day long and post about 60 photos a day through all of my pages. You know, that was the grind. That's why I went the route. But I knew that the reward would have been bigger by owning multiple channels of distribution, because I would be like, okay, I'll sell you an ad on Good Life back then, you know, for X amount of money. But then I was like, wait, Farooq, if you have more pages, that's more revenue. So I'd be like, hey, you know what? I'll throw in this page for this much and that page for this much. And I would start making bundles and packages and growing, growing. And then my pages, since they were in different niches, would feed off of each other. But if you ask me, what's the future, in three to five years, Instagram is there to stay. Zuckerberg is the king of the world. He's a genius. He knows what he's doing. He has a great agenda. I don't care what people say, this, this, that, even the privacy thing, you know, listen, Instagram is growing still. Is still probably the fastest growing social media platform in the world, and that's a fact. I remember it went from 600 million users to 700 million in one month. That's the fastest growth ever recorded on social media ever. 100 million month. And it's just going to get better because Facebook is huge, but it's not saturated with people like Facebook, Snapchat, rest in peace, and then your Twitter, whatever. Instagram is still the most loved platform there is, bro. You know, everybody loves Instagram and it's just going to get better. I know for a fact it's going to get better. So I don't plan on going anywhere else. I've been preaching Instagram for years. Even today, some people tell me, oh, but Instagram sucks. There's no return on investment. Sure, it's not as good as Facebook, but you know what? It's the best thing for, best brand awareness tool there has ever been.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. Damn, bro. So when you Started, obviously, because I've read a little about your story and I know, like, I heard somewhere before where you said you had to log in and out of these accounts, and, like, obviously it's a lot different than it is now. So you said, how old were you when you kind of got into it? You said, like, 15, 16. Like, especially with the Good Life page. Because I know that one brand is something. One of the biggest motivational pages on earth is like luxury pages on Instagram.

Pages in the world. It's one of the biggest, actually, because when I started was only a handful of the night was everybody created luxury page. But it's probably one of the biggest in the world and one of the most known brands. And I'm not saying that to brag. It's a fact. It's verified. The username is OG Good Life. 1.4 million followers. And I got a whole list of celebrity followers as well. The engagement is through the roof. We're getting like 300 to 500,000 impressions per post, which is very good. But, you know, I kind of. I lost the question you just asked me. You asked me.

No, pretty much. It was just. Pretty much just like a saying based on. Just, like, when you first started off. When was the initial, like, we. 15, 16. Because I do a lot of young listeners.

It was. Well, I mean, I've been doing social media literally forever. Like, since I was literally a kid. Like, I was like 11, 12 years old. Like, I got Facebook. The day came out, I remember. And you. You had to be 13. I was just 12. Don't tell anyone. I did Twitter and. And Tumblr. I did Tumblr. I was around 15 years old. I grew fast. And then I moved to Instagram around 17. Yeah, like 2014ish, you know, and I'm 23 years old now. I've been doing Instagram for, like, five years, at least some four to five years, something like that.

So you were like, my age because I'm about to turn 18. So you kind of started going hard. Like, you're my age is starting, like, your. The Good Life page. Is that the one when you started, like, 17, 18? Yeah. That's super dope. Because I know obviously, I think a lot of people that are listening, they're obviously number one. They're either following one of your pages, definitely the luxury page, if they're, like, in this sort of niche or whatever. But another question I want to touch on, number one, before this, like, obviously Instagram, it came out when we were, like, kind of growing Up. You're what, like three, five years ahead of me. So, like, when you first were kind of growing up, going through high school, I'm about to graduate right now. Like, what was your plans? Like, did you have a plan? Was it, yo, I wanted to build a huge media company or like, what was your plans when you were kind of going through high school, going through middle school? Like, where were you at in those days?

Not at all. Not at all. I mean, I did own my school's meme page back then. I had 800 likes. So the whole school knew about it, but it didn't know it's me, but it's. No, not at all. I wanted to be a lawyer, bro. I did, I was, I did good in school. Not with a lot of. Not because I was starting like a maniac. I was good in school, you know, and I graduated. I got, you know.

I'm back, I'm back.

Sorry. Hello?

I'm good.

Oh, you disappeared off my screen. You might want to cut that. So we'll start again. Ask the question again. Let's do it again. Because twice.

You're good, you're good. So, yeah, regarding. Just like whenever you were first, just in middle school, in high school, what was your mind back then? Did you plan to have a media company? Did you plan to do things social? Obviously it came out and you kind of just like followed a trend, which is now something huge. But like, what was your mind in middle school, high school? What was your plans?

Okay, so, well, basically I had absolutely no plans to become a social media distribution company, media company or whatever, even an Instagram consultant back in the days. If you asked me a couple years ago if I was going to go to social media, I would have laughed. You know, my goal is always to become a lawyer. I come from this and I'm Persian 100%. You know how it works. Yeah, always. You got to be a lawyer, this, that, no, but I always had a passion for law because to me, to me, law is the root of society. And if you understand how the law works, we've been in business. It's helped me a lot today, this background. I know how to read a contract and I know how not to get fucked. Part of my French, you know, I mean, I know how to read a contract. So to me lies the root of society. If you understand law, you understand how we work. It's very important to educate yourself. We can get on that after field because I also have my position on school. No school, total debate. It's very important to Stay educated. But, you know, I had. No, no, I. I went into law school age 17. I skipped the undergraduate thing. I went to law school very young. At 17, I was already in law school. Like, I got my first day of university of college.

I was.

I was 17 years old. I got into law school wanting to become a lawyer. I worked, as a matter of fact, for a very, very influential and big lawyer in Montreal for a year and a half. And then that's where I realized Saturday, I didn't like it. I didn't like working behind a desk. I didn't like making coffee. I didn't like printing and writing emails. You know, this shit was boring to me. And actually, the moment that sparked in my eyes, I'll never forget that in my life, and I'm very happy it happened, is what sparked inside of me, that I realized that I did not want to become a lawyer anymore. And I'm going to be very honest, is one day, one of our clients of the lawyer back then walked into the office, and my lawyer was extremely successful. So everything you want to envy as a kid to become a lawyer would be him, okay?

And.

And then my client walked in, he goes, you see this guy? This guy makes $120 million a year's revenue. And he was dressed cool, not a suit. Nothing was just cool. I was like, damn, that's dope. And I wasn't envying him in a jealous way. I hate envy and jealousy. I was just talking about that with my partner. I hate those things. But I was envying him in a positive way where I looked at my boss back then, I looked at him, and I'm like, I want to be him. I want to be the client. I want to be the guy paying those bills, because I can. This is who I am. I want to be a businessman. I want to know the law, but I want to be a business person. I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to run my companies. So then it didn't work out well, and I stopped working there. I stopped working at the law firm, and I realized I did not want to become a lawyer. And then I got another job as a. As a. As a. As a. I was selling upscale student residences to people. Okay, Just like that. Just sales. Sales, put it that way. Very fast. It became really top salesman there was crushing it. And then I got fired because I did something stupid. But I already had my plans for good life, to build it on Instagram. See, I was already plotting. I was like, I was so sick every day of going to Work. And like, working for someone, do this, do this, do that. It's not who I am, you know, I'm very stubborn, bro, in a good and a bad way. Yeah. But like. And then, you know, and then that day, I got fired. I took a piece of paper, I sat down my friend's house. I said, okay, this is Mr. Good Life back then. So good Life. I'm gonna do this, this and that. Back then, I think I'm offer people to make their logos, because that was nothing. I had a thousand followers back then. Yeah, a thousand. Just to prove for people watching that we all started with nothing.

Yeah.

Not in terms of money, because I did start also with nothing in terms of money, but in terms of following. I started with zero followers, rock bottom, like everybody else. So I said, I'm gonna do logos, I'm gonna grow my page, then I'm gonna make money, and then I'm gonna do this. So that's how it started, you know, and then I went full time at it. While I was studying, I was growing, growing, growing my pages, editing, grinding, grinding, connecting with people, you know, like networking, you know, talking with this, this, that. So I met a few people. And then from here on, bro, I skyrocketed. Not gonna lie, bro. Like, I was 25,000 followers my first month, 50 the second, 100 the third. Then I started, like, making money. Enough money to acquire a page. Then, like, just to, you know, I was taking risks back then. Nobody was doing that shit, bro. Nobody was doing that stuff back in the days. No one. Everybody was laughing at me, saying, faroq, what are you doing? You know what? This is never gonna work. But I said. I said, wait, just watch me. And today, everybody, and I'm not saying this in arrogant way, everybody wants a piece of us.

Yeah.

Our view of them who have a lot of following, I mean, of us as in our industry, our community, everybody wants to bite now, you know, And I think that I made the best decision of my life because with the 100 million followers that we own through our company today, we're in talks with some big dogs. You know, we sit with the sharks now. We swim with the sharks. You know, I used to talk about it, and now we're actually doing it. And I'm very, very happy, very proud. And. And we're nowhere yet. We're nowhere. We're nothing. We're nowhere. I don't feel like I'm successful. We're about. We're going to be, you know.

Dude, that's so badass. So you Literally went from like, all right, fuck it. I don't want to be a lawyer anymore. You already have, like, your thousand followers. You're like, all right, bro, I'm gonna turn up on this. And, like, was that, like, the pivoting point where you're like, bro, like, you had. You knew you wanted to do stuff. Instagram, you were doing it, and, like, it was something you were just doing. You didn't really know where it was in a lead. But, like, you know, just like, fuck it. I don't want to lawyer. I'm gonna do this. Like, that was your, like, locked on, or.

I was so passionate about my brand, and I love. I knew. I knew that I had something for social media, you know, I knew it. I was always addicted to social media. No, I was addicted to social media, Twitter. You know how everyone doing this problems. Like I said, Montreal Problems got 10,000 followers like that. I did my school's main page. Everybody caught on to it. I did this good life on Tumblr. Boom. I explored it. Like, I love social media. You know, I love producing content. I love the fact that I can reach out to people around the world with the. With the. With the tip of my thumbs. No matter their political views, no matter the religion, no matter their ethnicity, nobody gives a shit on social media when they like the same thing. Everybody likes the same me page. Everybody likes the same luxury page. Everybody shares the same content, bro.

Yeah.

That's the beauty of things people see. Social media is negative things. Sometimes I disagree because we all. Because that's when you realize that everybody has the same humor, everybody has the same face, no matter where they're from and what they believe in, bro. Yeah. And that was the beauty of social media for me. I always felt like I had a I. And I also. I'm very talkative. You notice that, I'm sure. But I always felt like I had. I deserved to be heard on a personal level. So I thought, I'm gonna grow channels, and one day I'm gonna boom. Explore my personal brand and go out there and try to give back as much as I can and just speak. So which. Which leads me to you. Look, today I have people like you. You have a very respectable and respected podcast shout out to you for doing that and for great things before coming on, like, yo, who's the Casey Adams? Invite me on podcast. Should I do it? And everybody told me, yo, go for it. I sort of got. I was like, yo, just don't even think twice.

Do it.

That's good. You built Something for yourself, a brand and name. So. And I was like, you know, I'm going to use this to inspire. So every time I go on something like this, my goal is really for people to take as much they can for me. Like, people watching me right now, I want you guys to take notes, please, or rewatch this. You know, learn about whether it's my drive and my passion. Take from that. Whether it's my knowledge about social media. Take from that. Because I'm gonna give you some insights and some tips. Take, take, take. And then just run with it. Take my advice and put it in the bank, you know, because I'm not a bullshitter, I'm not a speaker. I'm not a public speaker guy. I'm not. I'm just here to, like, give back from what I've learned, you know, because that's the more you give, the more you get at the end of the day.

Yeah. Yeah, dude. That's some real shit, bro. And number one, I really appreciate you coming on. I know that for everyone listening, we tried to set this up a couple months ago. We've been back and forth for a while now. So it definitely means a lot for Rok to be hopping on, because I'm sure if you guys aren't following him, if you go check out his pages and you'll understand. Once you start going through the pages, you're like, damn, this is the real deal. You know? And even, like, the 100 million followers, I'm sure there's pages you own that people would never even think, like, oh, my God, you own this page. You know? So when you say a hundred million, people are like, if you really think about 100 million, they have an empire. And I want everyone listening to definitely take what you're saying and execute and implemented. But one thing I want to touch on since you brought it up, was obviously, you're growing pages, you're building brand. You have access to hundreds of millions of followers. But it goes back to, boom, Like, I'm interviewing you, I'm interviewing you. Number one, you have a personal brand. And then, like, you brought that up. You wanted to build a personal brand. And I know, like, there's two major differences because there's a lot of people behind the scenes, they don't have a personal brand. They would never want to be in a podcast. But you're someone that also has a reputable personal brand. So, number one, like, when did that sort of come into place? Because I know some people that have hundreds and thousands of followers, but they have 300 followers on Instagram, and they're low key, right? So, like, for you, when was the pivot point to, like, want to start a personal brand? Or has it always been something on top of your mind?

Like I said, bro, I always wanted to start a personal brand. Not for the fame, not for the. I mean, it's cool. Yeah, it's cool to have a lot of followers, I guess. It's fun to get known. It is. It's cool, you know, but like. But, like. And I'm not even that big. I only have 115,000 followers on my personal. It's verified. But I always wanted to. It was always my goal. It was always. Since day one, I grew my page and I said, you know what? Now is the time to start. And I grew pretty fast. And on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, I did all that stuff. And mainly Instagram. And no, it was always my goal. Honestly, I always wanted to inspire and to give back. And I've gone over 10,000 messages, people, like, you know, thanking me or motivating me or time to keep going every day. I mean, if I go through my dms, I mean, like, right now, if I go, I always post my DMs to all my stories. Like, if I read a message, like, you know, I love the inspiration you give to people, and I was wondering if you're a Snapchat or people. Like, I don't know who you are, but I'm proud of you. You give me positive energy. Or like, you know, people tell me, like, I love your page and your movement, and you inspire me to start my page and travel the world. And then he tells me, like, I hope one day to inspire much as. As much as you, bro. You know, these are the messages that mean the most to me, you know, and this shit, like, I see this every day. I'm like, all right, let's wake up and go back to work. Really? That it's motivating. It's like. It's like personal development at the same time. You know, I'm just getting it from. From other people rather than from, you know.

Yeah, definitely. No, I think it's super cool because it definitely, like, even for me. And, like, the way I have this podcast and I've been able to sit down with some amazing people as well. Like, it all kind of goes back to my personal brand. And I kind of like to talk to, like, a lot of young people, especially, like, since I'm graduating high school. Like, teachers will tell you social media is bad if you obviously post pictures of you drinking and all this negative shit.

It's true.

They don't look at it in the positive where it's like, if you build a brand, you put out good content, you try to just inspire people with whatever you're doing, if you're an artist, if you're someone that's building a brand or whatever. So I kind of wanted to ask you because I know, like, there is a lot of young people that may be aspiring to build their brand. They might not have a page with a million followers or whatever that may be, but they may be just something that they're doing with their passion, but they're trying to get their. Either their, their art out there or their music out there. Like, for someone that's built so much and has a technical social media empire, what's some, like, technical things? Especially like right now, 2018, May 30th. This isn't five years ago where you could grow crazy like that. So, like, what do you think as someone that's managing all these pages? Like, what are some tactics to, like, be building your personal brand right now that people might not know?

There's some key basis that will never change through time is the quality of your content. You must always have a lot of content and it must be quality. It's just the way you, the length of it or the form of it that changes through time. Like right now, we've shifted to videos, you know, so you must have a lot of video content. That's what it's like today. Content, content, content is key. Consistency is also another formula. Secret. Not secret. I mean another piece of the formula that will never change. You know, you have to be consistent. You have to post on a regular basis. You have to post every day. That's where content comes in. Because you have to have a lot. And then of course, you have to go out there and put your name out there as much as you can. You know, if you're small and you don't have a budget, let's say you have nothing, bro. Let's. Let's really talk from the standpoint of someone who has nothing to start their brand but their talents. Okay, so they don't have like a hundred thousand dollars to go dish out on marketing. Okay, even 10,000. Okay, well, then you have to reach out to people as much as possible. You have to comment, you have to follow the pages, you have to like their posts. You have to go say, hey, watch me. You have to give out free content to people. You know, you message them you see, you're an artist. You're a painter. Well, you go on all the art pages on Instagram and Facebook and you say, hey, use my content for free. Just credit me. You know what, my company licenses videos because we know. We use. We get the rights. We don't just steal videos on Facebook. If someone tells me, hey, I'm an artist, here's my. I make viral videos. You can use them for free. In exchange, I want to credit. I'll say, yes. I'll post on my million follower page because I needed just as much as you do, you know, so go out there and grind. You know, when I was starting, I met. Yeah, I mentioned to you that I started, like, networking and stuff like that. I didn't have the means to, like, start either. So I can relate to that. You know, I was make. I would go to, like, my friend, millionaire mentor Jason Stone. Back then he had like 30,000 followers. But that was like, back then. I was like, the biggest motivation today. So I said, hey, your face sucks. I have the eye. I make. I used to make really nice photos. Like, I was really good at editing. Or make your post. Just. Just shut me up, bro. I'll work for free. You know, I did, though, and I grew. You know, it's just, you know, go out there, make yourself known, DM people, and don't, don't, don't be. Actually, you know what? Don't be afraid of being told no. And don't give up, because for every door that's going to close, another one's going to open. You know, the typical bullshit club. But that's true.

Yeah.

Because there's gonna be someone out there that's gonna dig your stuff and it's gonna pick you up. And you never know. You're gonna explode. It takes one piece of content to explode. One. One, bro. But you have to put up a thousand before that. But it takes one piece to go viral. One today. That's how it works. It has to be original, has to be cool, has to be trendy, has to be new, and has to be seen. Okay, so look at. In the. I always give that example. It's kind of cheesy if you ask me. But the best example of the one piece of content I'm viral is Justin Bieber, bro. The guy was out there making music. Nobody knew about him. One day he's on the staircase with his mom, you know, jamming the guitar. Next thing you know, Justin, Justin Timberlake and Usher at his door, and now he's Justin Bieber. Square braun potato. You know what I mean? Like all these. Or. Or the salt guy, he did one video.

Yeah, exactly.

Like 12 million. And now he's the blue celebrity, opened restaurants. But see, that doesn't play. But before that, how many meats did he cook? You know, how many videos did he make? Or not just him. Like, even all the little pages and all these people. I know so many people around me, bro. Like, like little artists, like comedians. Because we work with all these people, right? Like they're breakthrough is one video. But before that, dude, the guy made like 2,000 videos, man. He failed for three years, you know, like. But doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You have to pump out content. And don't be afraid just to get told no. Don't be scared to go out there and promote your work. Because you know why? I will respect someone who comes to me say, yo, come on, post my shit, post my shit. It's good. Rather than someone that waits, sits down and waits for me to come to him. You know, we don't have time to go look for these people either, you know, so just like reach out to people and send them your video. Say, hey, use my video free of license, you know, especially on Facebook.

Definitely, bro. That's. That's what's up, bro. And especially I think, because I have, definitely I have a. Speaking of our. My buddy. Like, it's. I think it's really just about the reaching out portion. Like, even for doing this podcast, you know, I reach out to you, I reach out to Andy Prisella, all these people that had millions of followers. But like, as much as I want them on my podcast, some people might want to get their voice out, some people might want to tell their story, you know, so it's. It's like the same reciprocal value, especially from like a point for pages, you know. And I think a lot of people that I know don't really get that. They're like, oh my God. Like, obviously some people, some pages charge if it's like, if it makes sense as an ad. But like theme pages, like you said, like, people need content and if you have good content, they need content.

But by all means, like, if you have marketing budget, I'm saying that to the people. If you really believe in your brand, if you want to build a brand, it's gonna take some money. So. So you know what?

Like a.

Invest in yourself too. That's investing in yourself. If you pay for a few videos and they go viral, you might go big, you know, So I think if you're building a personal brand, I mean, you gotta pay to get out there. You have to go. I work with a lot of personal brands. Listen, I'm talking big budgets, but they're making it out big and the reward is much bigger. My client might not see his money back in a month, two months or three months, but within a couple of years with the personal branding he's built, he's going to see it for sure. The return will be great, you know, so it's, there's two routes. If you don't have the money for, you have to go grant. If you have the money for it, by all means, go for it. But hire the right people and put the put to put this in the right eyes.

No, I don't agree, man. So damn, this is a good shit. Because I think especially from like a personal brand standpoint, because I mean everyone, I feel like everyone now, especially with like the people that I know, everyone's trying to build their brand, they're trying to keep growing, get their message heard and all that sort of stuff. So from like the standpoint of just like you as an individual, because I know like there's a lot of pages that you can pay to put your videos on, all that sort of stuff. What are some things that you've when it comes to like a client standpoint that like you think work the best? Is it doing like and let's say you have a budget, right? And people listening. Are you all right? Like I have a brand, I have 5,000, 10,000, 50,000 followers. And they kind of in that phase of like they have a small budget. Thousand bucks, 5,000 bucks, 10,000 bucks. Like, what's the best way to spend it? Is it people? Is it how to do? Is it just testing or like obviously testing with certain pages is the best in my experience. But from your experience, like, what's the best thing to do if you have a budget?

If you have a budget? I mean, yeah, I mean test it out, get a few shout outs and a few different pages depending on what you're trying to build. But it depends. Facebook, you know, Facebook has its own advertising platform, so you want to go through that as well. And you want to go through some pages to share viral videos. Instagram, the platform is all right for advertising, so you want to go through influencer marketing, you know, test it out, you know, say, hey, I'll buy a post and if it works, it works. If it doesn't, you buy five, you buy 10. I mean, look, consistency is key and it Takes the human ice. It takes a human being seven times see an ad before buying into it anyways. So you have to keep going, keep going, keep going. Don't expect also to grow overnight, bro. You know, don't expect to just like put a little bit of money and you're gonna grow. I'm talking to you from a standpoint of someone who spent money for other people. You know, I spend money for people on a daily basis. This is what we do technically when you client service, my clients who spend the most amount of money are the people are the most successful because also. But it's in the right hands, we know how to spend it. You know, just make sure that you work with the right people and make sure you work with the right pages and then you're getting a good deal. I mean that's, you know, that's for them to tell and depends on the brand. Again, a personal brand though there's a very few handful of pages out there. You go and you take a shot. But you have to build a team or you, you know, just make sure you work with the right people.

Definitely. So question. I'm super interested in this because you said I'm regarding just like the company that you have, there's like 20 people or when it comes to like a team building aspect like your company, is it, is it 20 people or is it more than that? Is it office? Is it all over the place? Because I'm super curious to know about that and I'm sure people are as well.

We're pretty remote. We're trying to bring everything to an office. Of course, like it's ideal to have everyone under one roof. And I wish, if you ask me, I wish I would go to the office every morning and sub 30 people and we're all working next to each other. But I mean today with today's communication systems, yes, it's easier. You have Slack, you have like Uber and all these things and those group chats. But no, we're very remote. We have our hq. Our main office is based outside of Isn't. Is in. Is outside of Ottawa. The capital of Canada is in a city called Gatineau because that's where my friend had started his business. You know, I was. We have some people based in Montreal. We have some people and then we're moving out to LA mostly because I mean that's where the game is. You know, that's where our media buyers are and stuff like that. So we have part of the team that's in Los Angeles. I'm very often in Texas, because I have a partner here in Texas, you know, so it would be Texas, Louisiana. San Antonio, Louisiana. We have Gatineau, Montreal, and then we have some people, you know, in Orlando. But then you outsource the people. So you have this guy that works from New York. It's a little all over the place, you know.

Yeah.

And we have one of my main partners, Liam, who's based out of London, but that's good because he's on a different time zone. He works with all the, you know, he works with all on the media side on Facebook. He works with all of the, like, all the creators in Europe, you know, and then we have another part of the team's name in Israel. So that's. It's cool in a way, you know, to be international and spread out. You just have to organize very well, though. You have to be extremely organized.

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Because I'm sort of kind of in that process of building a team, especially with now with build your empire, which we'll talk more about. But I think definitely, especially I wanted to kind of get your standpoint, because I know a lot of people, like, even if they run a client service, they're managing restaurants or personal brands or whatever it is, would you just definitely say just obviously the right structure and really like building that team? Because I think a lot of people like with team building, and I always. Andy, for Sal, he's always talking about culture of the company, and that's something that I really resonate with. So, like, with you, what does, like, company culture mean to you? How do you build that? What's your, like, plan with that communication? How does that look?

I mean, I'm a huge believer in company culture. Actually, I was just speaking about that with one of my partners. I think company culture is the most important thing there is in the company today because that's what keeps everybody going. You know, everybody runs as fast and everybody's always happy this that, you know, you. You'll see. Like, when you're part of a company, there's a lot of. Like, a lot of stuff that happens every day that. Oh, you know, it gets annoying. You know, it's tiring. It's long. Like, people aren't happy with this, with that. People are entitled or people are, you know, but it's just a lot of. It's. That's another part of the work, you know, when you want to build a company, you got to accept to go through all of that, you know, so that's why you Sort of try. That's what we're trying to do. And look at, we're just a startup, you know, so we're trying to build a culture right now. We're trying to do all these things. Your time, you organize and stuff like that. I mean, listen, you have to set your rules and you have to set a culture. And if you have to remind everybody, and I know that's hard, but if they're not happy, then there's a door and they can walk out. We're not forcing anyone to work with us. Yeah, and even my partner, like, he'll tell you, like, even if your partner, hey, you're not forced, you're not handcuffed to a chair, you know, if you're not happy, you can go, you know, and there's a lot of companies out there that were willing to work with you, you know, but it's just like, you know, you gotta do your best to build a culture, respectable and respectful environment, you know? You know, that's why we have like weekly team meetings where everybody gets on the same point and we share like our thoughts or to do lists and stuff like that. You have to push communication, really. But I would say for you, like, honest, like, don't build remote, try and build everything in house. I like the whole in house idea because I like to overview the work and I like to work with people. You know, I like to say, hey, bro, like, I need this like real quick, you know, like, can I get this design done? But us right now, we're a bit all over the place. That's fine too. It's nothing wrong if you're organized, but I think that having an in house team where everybody's under the same roof is the best idea.

Definitely, man. I totally agree with you. That's kind of like the way that I'm kind of start moving things. Especially about to graduate high school. So you know what it is? We got this. The doors open now. Almost there, bro. I got like a week left. But yeah, dude, I totally feel you on that, dude. So when it comes to a couple, I have like two more questions before we wrap this up. So just the concept, I know you were talking about Jason Stone building the pages, kind of building that network of people that you first started growing with. I know Tim from Daily Dose. Jason, you guys really built this huge following of luxury, quote entrepreneur sort of themes. And you guys were like the people that like, I would say pretty much brought it into where it is today. You know, like you said at the beginning, like, there's thousands of cool pictures. Now there's thousands of we, motivation.

We invented the style. I have no shame in saying that I don't care what people think. I mean, we did. We invented the whole like layer a quote on them. No, I mean people like on Instagram, I do the whole, you know, cool, cool thing. Yeah, came up with it.

That's what I'm saying. I think a lot of people, because I know you guys background, I think a lot of people that are listening, they might not know like the severities of like you guys literally created that shit, you know. So like with that being said and like networking today, when it comes to just like your network, what you've been able to build, obviously, you know, a lot of the right people now I think for my biggest thing today is still communication, still just meeting the right people, getting on podcast, talking to people, knowing their stories. So what's been your experience with just your network, just the people around you? Because I think a lot of people underestimate, like the power of it. If they're young, they might be like, oh, that's B.S. but like, what's your experience of that?

I think that the most, the best thing I've done so far in my life, I guess in my career or entrepreneurship journey so far, is I've surrounded myself with amazing individuals. Like, and that's something I'm very good at. I'm a people's person. I'm good at also, you know, look reading through people. But I think the best thing I've ever done is really surrounding myself with the best and also learning how to cut ties with people who were dragging me down, weighing me down, or just like out there for themselves, you know. And like you said, I think it's very important. I think that surrounding yourself with people who will empower you and help you and push you further is very important. People who motivate you as well. You know, like I said, I hate envy and jealousy. So I look up to people in a way that I'm like, I want to aspire to become like them in my own version. You know, like, I admire my partners, I admire the people, you know, I respect them and I look up to them. I don't like being the smartest guy. I don't like, I don't want to be that person. You know, I just want to be with people who are better than me. Because that's how you become better as well. Like look at a soccer player, for example. How do they become better? Because they train with people that are better than them and they play with them and they learn from them, right? Or any sportsman. It's the same thing in life. It's the same thing in work. It's the same thing with anything that you're trying to do. You have to surround yourself with the best. And you have also to learn how to cut ties. And that's the hardest part. You have to know when to say, hey. You have to cut the grass, you know, bye, you know, and you have to learn how to sort of rely on yourself. Above all, you have to learn how to rely on yourself and yourself only. You have to learn who you are and you have to learn to be alone. You have to learn to fight for your own cause. But then you have to learn also to fight together as a team with the right people. You know, you have to collaborate. Look, I mean, I did that in a way where I became friends. I mean, bro, like I'm friends with a lot of great people now and they've helped me. And you mentioned Andy, stuff like that. I mean, these are people I network with, you know, And I was just a kid. I was just a kid trying to build something back in the days. And you know, like Andy invited me to his podcast. Like, whoa, way back, like episode 68, like this Morning, someone asked again which episodes. I just shared it. Like it's 68, you know, back then, like a two, 300 episodes now. But like, you know, these people, Gary Vee, so. But not only that, I mean, those are like public figures. But if you knew the people I network with on a daily basis that are not on Instagram, like those business people that they don't need to have an Instagram page to make it. We're talking people who are like building like nine figure business, you know, ten figure business and stuff like that. It's just like, you know, it's just like, it's just through the network, through hard work, through dedication and, you know, and you want to be surrounded by these people. I don't have time, bro, to like, to mess with people who are gonna bring me down and bring negative vibes to me, you know, I bring positive vibes to the table. They bring positive spots on the table and we find a way to leverage each other. Right? Like, don't go networking with nothing to give either, bro.

Yeah.

I mean, then you look stupid. And they know, successful people know when someone's out there to get take from them, you know, they know. So bring something to the table. Always be prepared. I'm gonna do. I Bring this, this, and this to you and don't expect something in return. Always stop expecting and stop being entitled. You know, just wait. Just give, give, give. Provide value to each other and you're gonna build a strong relationship. You're gonna find mentors that way. Friends, partners, you know, Life is beautiful, bro. There's opportunities everywhere. So just, I think networking is. Wow, it is so important, my network. I don't mean going to a fucking party, a little cocktail party, network event. No, I mean networking for real. I mean, for relationships with people, you know, that's very important. Very, very blessed.

I'm blessed.

I'm. I'm thankful, grateful, blessed, whatever words you want to put in, and very, very blessed in that way, in that sense that I'm very well surrounded and. But I've built that for myself. I don't owe that to anyone. Yeah, you know, it's important. Starts with you. That's why I say. I say everything starts. I preach that within yourself. Learn who you are so you can go pitch yourself, you know, I mean, if you're not true to yourself, people will know that if you're not real. So be real, be honest, be you. And there's gonna be someone out there, some people out there that you're gonna be able to work with and relate to, you know?

Yeah, dude, that's facts, bro. That was just straight fire for a good five, ten minutes straight, my dude. So last thing, last question before we wrap it up. I know just everything we talked about, I know we've been on here for around 45, about an hour or so. And it's just. I think it's just amazing from. Just like, from. If I look back from my situation, boom. You started when you're 1718. I'm 1718. It's just super cool because, like, you said, like, I talked to a lot of people. I have some business partners that are like 40, 50. But it's like, it's super cool to see people like yourself that's like, five years ago you started these pages, and now it's like this mass media company that, like, it's just the steps you took that really, you didn't know what was happening. But now, so you look back, it's like, holy shit. Like, we were the cutting edge people that started these quote pictures or started luxury pages or motivational pages. And, like, you guys are definitely a pioneer to that space, which will forever, like, live on in a sense. So last question before we wrap it up. Just to, like, someone that's hungry, someone that's fucking just coming up, learning, trying to build their network. I think a lot of people, young people especially, like, learn from this so far. But if there was just like one sentence, one like, tip of advice that you'd want to give to a younger individual listening, a simple fact, what would. What would be that thing? You just want someone to know that you've learned throughout your journey.

It's really to stop at nothing. I mean, it all comes. I could drop so many different facts, but really that one is so important, bro. It's stuff at nothing, Stop at nothing. I mean, don't give up as in a way like, no, no, never give up on your dreams. Like, no, really, like, like stop at nothing to get where you want to get, you know, like, there's so many opportunities out there, bro. Like, I have, like, I can come, I can drop 50 business ideas in the next five minutes if I wanted to right now. But we don't have time to make them all happen, right? Focus on one. But like, there's stop at nothing and don't let nobody step on your feet and tell you who you are and who you should become. Okay? This is very important. This is very, very, very important to stay true to who you are, yourself, within yourself. It's very important. And once you know that, once you get like that, the keys, you know, like, that is you, the world is yours, bro. Because if you're true to yourself, if you walk with your head high, your shoulders up, bro, back straight up, you walk in the same direction, which is forward, you're going to get somewhere. It's so important. It's so, so, so important. There's a lot of people that are going to try and drag you down. A lot of people are going to stop you. Life, it's itself is going to try and stop you. Because life is not easy, bro. There's a lot of stuff in the ups and downs. You're gonna be lonely, you're gonna be hurt. You might have a little personal issue, but in business, nobody fucking cares about your personal issues, bro. I'm talking about business here. We're talking this, we're talking about entrepreneurship. You're not talking personal, like, psychological stuff here. You know, you have to keep going. You have to keep crushing every single day of the week. And you can't stop, stop at nothing. And four, no one either. You must keep moving forward. And even at the times you feel down, just get back up and right back, get out of bed, right back up and get back to work. You know nothing. And you have to stop for no one either, you know, you really have to keep pushing. It's very important, dude.

That's the fact, man. So I wanted to wrap it up with that, man. I think just number one, it's a pleasure to have you on the show. I definitely appreciate your time. I know like we said at the beginning, we've been trying to set this up and we have a lot of different people that we know as well. So last thing regarding just connecting with you, I know you're big on Instagram, obviously you're on a bunch of social medias. What's the best place for people to follow you and hit you up?

Well, my personal page on IG, I answer to like all of the DMs too. Like, well, I try to, you know, it's relevant and often when it brings value to people, I'll enter, I'll post in my stories. So everyone at least gets it. Gets. Gets something out of it. So my personal page, it's Farok Far. Okh. That's. It's my name. It's my personal IG page. You know, I don't know if you can see the screen, but, you know, that's okay. That's where I connect with people the most. You know, I do stories on a daily basis, very actively, and, and that's where I guess you can connect. That's where you can read about me and what I do. And that's why I try to bring value as much as possible when I can. I mean, I get busy, but I try, you know, that's. That's what people can connect with me. Yeah, for sure.

And then everyone listen, if you want to follow him, all of his socials will be down below so you don't have to remember what he said. You'll be able to look at it, copy paste it, and do it the simple way. So that being said for I definitely appreciate you. Appreciate you coming on the Rise of the Young podcast. Everyone listening. I know you got something from this and I definitely want you to follow him and really just analyze what he's done. Because I think a lot of people, like, if you go to someone's page, you can kind of put together the puzzle pieces. Like, oh shit. Well, like, he did this and this and this, you know, So I definitely want everyone to really just go hit him up. Ask him literally a real question. I think a lot of people, they'll hit someone up and like, hey, man, what's up? But like, ask something legit. Ask something. If you're interested in knowing more about him, if you want to know. A tip of advice, like you said, like, I follow you all the time on Instagram. You'll do the screenshots and you'll post value. So good stuff. So definitely hit him up. Don't hesitate. And that being said, man, I definitely appreciate you coming on the show, man.

Thank you, Casey. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Big up. Congrats to what you're doing, bro. Keep pushing. I love it. And thank you guys for watching. Appreciate it. Absolutely.

Yep. Everyone, thanks so much for tuning in to the Rise, the Young podcast. We will talk to you soon.

It's hard to stop my movement When I'm already in motion this ain't luck, this is by design I had to work in the dark for my light to shine A lot of people are dope they just quit too soon A lot of rappers a lot of rappers they got rich too soon My confidence.

Was my success Monarch Legacy of Monsters An Apple original series the world is on fire. I decided to do something about it. On November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me. The most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise. Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV.

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