Farokh Sarmad - The Future of Instagram Reels & Building A World Class Personal Brand

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What is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. On today's episode, we have Farooq Sarmad here with us, the founder of at Good Life on Instagram. And on this episode, we talk about Instagram reels and how Farok has built an Instagram empire with over 40 million followers. So before we get into it, please take a moment to share this episode with a friend. And that being said, let's get into the episode. All right, what is going on, everyone? Kasey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. We have the man, Faroq Sarmad. Thanks so much for coming on the show again, my man.

What's up, Casey? Thank you for having me for repeat.

Yes, sir.

Last time was sick. It was one of your first time, like at the beginning, right, like you.

Were saying, one of my first 30 episodes. It was. It was something that, you know, looking back around now, almost 300. So that was a couple years ago. So it's super cool to have you back during these interesting times. So I'm excited.

I appreciate it. I'm happy to see that I'm not too small for you anymore. Yeah, I'm still up there because I see I have Rick Ross and all these big people, the Larry King stuff, and I'm like, yeah. Damn, I hope I'm not too small now for Casey.

Absolutely not, bro. You're a legend, my man. And just to dive into it, man, I know as of yesterday, Instagram reel was launched and you're someone that I always look to as just. You give quality advice on social media and especially Instagram. And I know that you say you're married to the gram in your bio and someone that has just dominated Instagram since day one. I want to just bring it to what happened yesterday, which is the launch of Instagram Reels what is your initial thoughts and how has it, you know, how has your experience been with it so far?

Well, my initial thought is that I love it. Like, I love it because I just like anything that Instagram puts out there when it's a new tool because it's my favorite platform on social media. It's. I think Instagram is the most powerful social media platform. It's become like sort of a hub, you know, like you go on Instagram, you see like tweets, LinkedIn posts, Facebook posts, Instagram, TikTok see everything. And now that they have reels, I mean, obviously it's like a replica copycat of TikTok so that they could like compete in that space, especially with everything going around with TikTok in America and around the world, right? So I think it's a great timing for the tool to come out. And overall, I love it. I mean, look, it's fun, it's quick. I was editing a little video posting on it. I've had it for about a week and a half now. So I had the chance to like see, have a preview of it, but as of yesterday, they really pushed it. It was around like 3, 4pm Eastern. That really rolled out on everybody's accounts. And I mean, since then I've posted six of them on Good Life and I just posted before coming on one of my personal page and it's popping. I mean, obviously Instagram has no choice but to like push like views, right? In order for you to like give you preferential, like algorithm like placement in order for you to be incentivized to use it and use it and use it. Right? So so far so good. I like it. It's just 15 seconds. So it's very restraining because on TikTok you can go up to 60 seconds, right? Obviously. So you can't do that on reels, obviously. I don't find it like to have to like. I don't think it's as easy to create as TikTok is, but it'll get there. They're getting there. But again, it's not even 24 hours old, right? It's been in America. So so far I love it. I look on Good Life, I started posting, I posted three back to back, like within two minutes, I posted three reels on Good Life, I woke up, they're over 200,000 views. One of us has half a million. I posted one right before coming on your podcast, like 5 minutes ago. I'm at 20k views. My personal is at 8k views in 5 minutes. So if anything, I was telling everybody in my office here, like, we have four. We have. We have four editors, content creators. I was like, reels, reels, reels, reels, reels. I'm telling everyone's like, hey, are you reels. Ing? Are you reelsing? I'm like, I'm all over it. Like, whenever there's a new tool on Instagram, like, you obviously want to, like, jump. Jump on and just pump out content. Right. So I love it. I'm a fan. But again, I'm married to the gram. I'm an Instagram fan forever. So, you know, I'm obviously going to endorse everything they do, but hopefully, I mean, I don't know if it's gonna be the one that's gonna beat TikTok.

Honestly, I was gonna ask, what's your thoughts on that? Like, do you think it's gonna overpower them or will they live independently? Especially with things that are happening right now? And data.

It happens. I mean, I have my own little, like, like, opinion on the whole data thing. I mean, look at the day. Like, our data is taken by everyone.

Yeah.

Like, no matter, you're on LinkedIn, Microsoft has your data. You're on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and family of apps. You know, Zuckerberg has yourself Google. I mean, you know, so, you know, at the end of the day, our data is out there. And what's your data really worth? What are they gonna have, like, your name, your last name, your email? You know, I mean, like, your data is out there. It's concerning. It's something we need to be careful of and aware of. But, you know, I don't know what's gonna happen. But obviously, I mean, it's a good thing for Facebook and Mark ZUCKERBERG that, like, TikTok is potentially, possibly getting banned. But. But I don't know how they're gonna. How Reels is gonna compete with Talk TikTok directly, because TikTok is. You can arguably say that it's really part of the American culture today.

Totally. Yeah. And it's built so many careers. You know, you see people like Addison rae and Charli D', Amelio, and they have over 60 million followers on these platforms. And I want to ask you, like, nowadays, like, you've been someone that's used Instagram since day one, when you're looking at building pages nowadays, what's the best way to grow on Instagram? Because I know it changes so much, and there' many people that do these, like, BS Giveaways and this and that and all these different things that I know you talk about and hate. But what is the best way to grow on Instagram organically nowadays?

Man, I'm gonna lose a few friends here. I'm gonna lose friends here. I'm gonna lose a lot of friends here. But I've been saying it on my personal. I don't care. But no, it's not that. It's not even that. You know, people who know, know, and even the people selling those giveaways are aware. Like, if we're talking personal branding here, because that's my expertise, like building a personal branding community online for yourself, not your brand. So I don't care. Like, it's just personal brand. A giveaway is the worst way to go because they're pushed, forced followers to follow you and they don't care about what you're doing. They don't care about Casey's podcast and who's on the podcast. They don't care about Farouk and what Farooq has to say to share or even my reels, right? It's just a number. So if you have a brand, whatever, maybe like a product, maybe it's a good idea. But for a personal brand, I'm against it. And if you ask me, like, what's a good way to grow authentically is just by being active, by engaging with your followers, by engaging with your community and building a true community. Because people like you got to see it this way. Followers are not just followers. They're living and breathing organisms. They're people. They're human beings. So you have to treat them like that. Because Instagram has been around for a long time. There's a lot of personal brands out there. And I feel like the consumer, right, the follower now sort of has better way now to scan through, like, what's real and what's not, right? So to me, and I was making a post about that today is authenticity is key. Like, being as authentic as possible and just relaying your message in the most authentic, real way is important. So, of course, then the quality of your content when you post it, how you post it, and the frequency and the consistency that you have play a major part, right? But I really think that today, what's hot, like, what's really attractive is authenticity and engaging with your community. And that's what I did, is I put my name everywhere I went on, and I started commenting on every single meme page for four months. I was like, you know what? Screw it, I'm gonna do it. I grew 150,000 followers. Right. But it's not just that though. It was the fact that it was like posting a lot consistently. A couple times a week, I ramped it up. I was answering every comment on my page. Like every time someone commented, I replied. So people are like, whoa. Automatically they start sharing screenshots, like, oh my God, Farrokh replied to me, like, even now I'm starting to pin people's comments, right. And I'm getting reposted saying, oh my God, Farrokh pinned my comments. What do you think that's gonna do? All of their friends, they're gonna try and get it. And I don't mind if they do it for the right or the wrong reasons. I don't mind. I don't mind sharing energy with people or cloud, whatever you want to call it, because it's helping me grow as well. And it's, it's making everything I do like, it's 10xing my engagement. And then the content you post, if it's authentic, is gonna be shareable. People, people are gonna be able to relate to it. So if you ask me, you want to grow an authentic community, that's how you do it. Because you can gain a hundred thousand followers doing a giveaway. That's cool. Okay, cool, bro. But the day you launch a course, for example, a coaching or a product, or sell water bottle.

Yeah.

Nobody's gonna buy your stuff because they don't care about you. Like, I was talking to a client of mine and before you became a client, he told me for Oak, like, I'm not interested in just gaining 10,000 followers. I'll take a hundred customers over 10,000 followers. I said, that's fine. Let's work long term and build you an audience that cares for you through content, through a nice business. Content and community building strategy.

Yep. When, when new business owners are getting on, for example, a platform like Instagram, today, someone's going to launch a product or launch a Service today, in August 2020. What are some of the first things you recommend they do? Because a lot of people may feel like they are left behind. You know, they see pages with tens of millions of followers or that are verified and have hundreds of posts or even thousands. If someone's launching a product today and starting a new page, how can they get ahead in their business using Instagram?

I think people should focus less on what others have. First and foremost. I think that's what scares people the most. Right. Because what's the downside of social media is the comparability aspect of it. Right. So automatically when you go and launch a product of your own, let's say you're young entrepreneur, you're in heart, you're hungry, you're gonna obviously do a market analysis and see what everyone, everywhere, everyone else stands, right?

Yep.

But by comparing yourself too much to them, because maybe some people have been in the game for years, you're just gonna. You just not you. First of all, you're gonna push your launch and you're gonna be scared to do it. So I think that in order to really succeed in a new product is not. Look at how many followers likes or, or, or, or verified. And all this thing these people have or are, is really just launching and putting yourself out there as much as possible. Because 1.1 billion users on Instagram, how many customers you really need to be successful? And I tell that to a lot of my clients. I said, okay, you're seeing me, you're being coached by me. I have quarter million followers and I'm verified. Right. But you don't need to be me. Let me teach you how to be you.

Right.

Using the right platform. So perhaps you just need 10,000 followers in order to be successful. Like, I know people with 50,000 followers, they make more money than other people I know with 5 million followers.

Yeah.

Why? Because they mastered their own community, which is real, and they managed to sell a product to them. So for anybody Getting started today, August 2020, I would say just go for it launch and put yourself out there as much as possible. So of course you want to do it in organic ways with good content consistency. And we say that a lot, like, a lot of people love to throw the word consistency out there. One of them, however, you want to be consistent in the right ways because you can work as hard as possible on social media. You won't have results until you work smart. Right. So you want to use the right tools. For example, going back to what we just talked about, reels. Reels came out today. You're launching a product in August 2020. You should make a hundred reels.

Yeah.

You should be put, I'm six reels deep on my page. I'm gonna post 15 today and I'm going to post 15 more tomorrow. And if I had a product, let's say I'm selling this phone case, I would make reels of my phone case and just blast it across social media. I would just put it out there. So it's just really about putting it out there. It's not about like how many followers I know People with little to no followers, let's say with a product that make a lot of money because they've mastered Facebook ads or Instagram ads, or they do go to influencer marketing. So that stuff is still working. August 2020. It's just about targeting the right people and targeting the right markets and the right influencers. Again, goes back to authenticity, finding the right people with a real following that care for them.

Yep. I love that man. And I want to ask you, just speaking of building just that community aspect, you, you've done it so well. I watched ever since I've known you watch all your stories. You're always putting out great content. You add such a personality into your personal brand. You know, a lot of people might take like not understand like what you're truly doing. Right. Like the way you post, you engage, the way you just have just this compelling personality online. What would you say has allowed you to be so successful in the personal branding conversation because you're so good at it? And what would you tell people to focus on? Because, you know, I'm sure people have heard build community, but where do they start?

Well, wait, hold on. That was two questions. So first question.

Sorry.

To answer your first question, what was it? How I've managed. Well, how I've managed to build myself a sort of Persona, right?

Yeah. What would you say you've done so well because me as someone that views your content, I know, I tune in. I know you have this personality that's so compelling and you have great information like what is your personal strategy and what would you recommend for others when it comes to tactics every single day? Or should they be dm? Should they just be answering comments? How do they manage it when know managing their business as well, you should be all over.

And I think again, it goes back to really pushing on. Every single aspect of it is answering dms, is reposting people on your stories when they tag you and mention you. It's answering every comment on your page. It's liking a comment because think about it, people value time Today. Everybody realizes today the value of one's time, especially let's say you or me. People know that we're busy entrepreneurs. We have, we have other things to do. But if I take five seconds to like your comment and perhaps reply, whether it's an emoji or a couple, a couple words, people are gonna take that to heart and they're gonna see that you care. So I think that what's really sets me aside from other personal brands and I'm not Saying it's me. Only a lot of people are doing it. I see you doing it. My buddy Buster's doing it, and a lot of people are doing it. Right. Is we care for our followers.

Yep.

We're not treating them like fans. We're not celebrities, bro. I've never been in the movie. I'm not a basketball guy, but I'm just. I'm a regular dude with 250,000 followers. So often, like you said, people are like, well, what the fuck? Sorry. What the hell does he do? Like, you know, what the hell does he do with living? I'm just an entrepreneur trying to make it out there, and I love to share my life. And again, I'm just being undeniably and authentically myself. Like, I have nothing to hide. If I have something to say, I'll say it. And if I'm. If I'm winning, I'll share it. And if I'm not winning, I'll share that too, you know, And I think that this is what has always set me apart, but also, like, being consistent. Like, I have one of my friend, he's not in social media, but he always calls me the most consistent guy in the world because I'm literally like, I'm just non stop. Like, I just don't want to stop. And I love what I'm doing, but it's fine. I'm plowing through it. Like, even if I'm losing followers, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna keep going because I know I'm gonna reverse that curve. I'm know I'm gonna keep going Even right now, I have no problem telling you I was at 254,000 followers last week. I'm at 251,000 right now. I want negative 3k because I didn't do much during that last week and a half because I was busy building my business and other things and. But it doesn't matter because now reels is out. You guys are going to see me push, push, push, push, push it. You never know. One's going to hit the spot. I'm going to get 10,000.

Yeah.

So it's really about using all the tools that are given to you in the right way. Though, about, you got to give a fuck, you got to really push. You got to care about the people that are following you. You got to care about, like, wanting to build a personal brand. You got to be like, you just follow. Stay in your lane and talk about the things that, you know, Stay true to yourself. And that's how People are going to stay with you, like, why you like watching me? And I feel like I've got that comment a lot. It's just. It's compelling. It's cool. People like to see. And it's not just always one thing. There's. There's different pillars to my life. You see maybe the working aspect. You'll see my workouts when I'm working out. You'll see, like, okay, I'm having fun. I'm having fun. This. So you see a lot of the things and you want to stick to certain pillars that are, like, typical to you and your personal brand. You want to push every single one of them. And people are slowly going to catch on to you and start understanding who you are, and they're going to want to see more. Like, I have someone who DM me and said, hey, I unfollowed you about a month ago because I felt like I didn't need motivation anymore. I didn't need that inspiration. So I unfollowed you. And then he's like, I had to follow you back because I felt something was missing. Like, it was weird, not just waking up watching, going at it. So it's just like, even giving people. The fact that you're delivering value and creating impact, I think is important. And creating impact doesn't mean that you necessarily have to change a million people's lives, even if you're helping 10 people, even if they have a better day because of you, no matter what you. Or they're learning something because we're not all, like, motivators or. I don't find. I don't think I'm a motivator or an inspirational type of page. I'm just doing me. And I invite people to follow me on my journey because I'm working towards success or my definition of it. And I want people to come up with me. But let's say you're a trainer. Well, show your trainers deliver value. If you're. If you're. I was telling. I was telling Charlie that actually I was on a phone call with him two weeks ago, and he was telling me, listen, like, the engagement on my page has been a little lower recently because I'm only sharing basketball. Well, I said, well, why don't you? Because that's your mission, to make the NBA all start 2021, whenever it's going to happen, right? I said, you're gonna make it there. And we know that, but you don't always have. Not every single post has to be about basketball or it can be around basketball. But it doesn't have to be always you hooping. You can talk about it through a tweet, you can talk about it through a video. You can talk about it through someone you're talking to. There's so much more you can do, and you can use all the tools that you've built outside of it to push your traffic on your Instagram page. He did that. Next thing you know, pop in again. So it's just like, it's the same thing for everyone. No matter what niche you're in, no matter what you're pushing, promoting is just about just finding a way to, like, just, you know, be yourself and just show that.

Yeah. Outside of, you know, personal branding, when it comes to content strategy, on, you know, Good Life or any client that you're working with, what do you recommend brands do when laying out a content strategy? Because, you know, there's always a, hey, I got a post more. I need to post more stories. I need to follow up more and respond to the community. Like, how do you lay out a strategy for people to follow? And what's your. I would say, you know, like, go to strategy for certain clients, because I think it'd be great to give some business owners some tactics of, hey, if you're. Whether you already have a strategy and you can enhance it in a way or you're starting fresh, just what is a strategy so they can stay on track, they can build a system for their content and for their business.

Well, I think the most important thing, whether you're selling a product tangible or intangible, or whether you're selling yourself as a personal brand, is to find the why. So first you really want to dig deep, no matter what you're saying, okay, what's the essence of the product? Like, what's. What's the purpose of that product? Like, what is it gonna do? So once you've found that, you're gonna find out what your message is, your message is, and then you find a way to convey that message. Right. And how you convey is through content.

So.

So what's very important is your content strategy. Like, how. How am I gonna. Like, what kind of content am I gonna have to create and for which platforms am I gonna have to create it for? So that's the first thing you really need to find out is what's the purpose of, like, what does this bottle do that I'll be able to sell it? And with that, what tools am I gonna use in order to sell that bottle to the consumer? Right. So maybe I'M gonna. You choose your platforms. Okay, so this product is gonna be for YouTube or Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. And from that you create content around it they can repurpose for every platform. So you don't need to go and create this like five pieces of content. You make one long form you for YouTube and you chop it up for every other platform and you make it differently. But you know that, and I think everybody by now knows that they have to be present on a lot of different platforms. And when it comes to strategies, just like, you know, I don't think there's not two of my clients to which I give the same strategy totally. So I don't think there's like a blueprint anymore. Like, the blueprint really is like, okay, you got to be present everywhere. Okay, that's the, that's, that's the sizing ratio for video on Facebook, Instagram, you, etc. Those are things that will never change except if they add a different sizing. They just adapt. But I think it's really about just like finding what works and testing waters and doing different things. Like some people, if you're selling yourself, you have to in certain way. If you're selling a phone case, you have to another way. I think it's just like content today is still king. We're still. People are consuming now more than ever. Especially with COVID 19 that had everyone stay home and still has a lot of the world staying home. I personally believe we're gonna enter a second wave quarantine. I think so. Whether I believe in it or not is not the question. I think they're gonna put us back into quarantine. So people are gonna consume even more than they already are. I've never seen numbers like that on social media before. It's insane. So I think that really just creating the best possible content and then just putting it out there on a consistent basis is the strategy after that as courses waste the growth hack, of course, as marketers are better than others and in the way you do your Facebook ads and the way you run your YouTube, Google Ads, words and stuff like that. So it just, I don't think there's like a blueprint anymore. It's really all over. It really depends on the product and viral strategy. It's just so different.

Yeah, 100%. Speaking of, you said quarantine, how has these last seven months changed your life on a personal level? And how have you adapted your business during these uncertain times?

I hate to say that because it kind of Breaks my heart when a lot of people like, I've been through like hardships, but 2020 is the best year of my life. It kind of like there's a part of me I feel guilty saying, but I've gone over that guilt, like, yeah, it is the best year of my life, even business wise. Because we're in the media space, of course social media is booming, so of course for us it's better. So I would like to say I was talking to clients like, I love Covid. Life minus Covid.

Yeah.

You know, because obviously it sucks. You know, I feel bad for people. But how it has affected me, I think. I mean, it forced me to sit back, take a look at what I have, who I am and what I really want to do. I mean, it had me because I was traveling around for three years and it had me back home. Back home, back where I started with my mother and brother, exactly the same place where I started my business six years ago. And it made me think really what I really want to do, what I want to build. And it's funny, actually a lot of good things happened to me during this time. I mean, in January 2020, I decided to build my personal brand again because I was tired of building it for other people. Because I have been doing that, I've been consistent, consulting people, building other personal brands, doing a lot of influencer marketing for big personal brands. So I was like, you know what, I'm a build mine. I had 100k followers. I'm like, I'm gonna go to 250k. So in four months, I went from 100k to 250k on Instagram, organically, literally through just being everywhere. And that was like my screen time was like 14 hours a day. It was crazy. I was sharing it. I would spend some days, eight hours a day on Instagram, just on my personal page. Like, that was crazy. Yeah, I wasn't even focused on good life or whatever. It was just me. And even the first two months, I shut it down, I didn't take any clients. I was like, I want to do me.

Yeah.

And it was pretty cool. And so, yeah, that's what it kind of forced me to do is just reflect on what I really want to do and what I want to build. And what's funny is then three months into quarantine, so I took it pretty seriously. Like I actually like stayed home for three months. Like, I didn't do much anyways. In Canada, in Montreal, everything was strictly closed. Like, like I went to the park once With a couple of friends. Cops came, like, they were like, hey, y' all gotta go. Yeah, they were giving fines up to six grand just for hanging out, even if you were six feet apart. Yeah, it was crazy. Now it's, like, more lenient, of course, but, you know, it was like that. So what's funny is that it's one of these days I'm outside just making my coffee, My famous Good life signature coffee. You know it. You like that? So I touched back base with my roots, right? So I was making that, and I'm, like, playing music, right? Then I see, like, a bunch of, like, children and, like, a family picnicking outside. Like, I have a back backyard with, like, you know, fences. And then I'm going back in. I hear, yo, bro. And I'm like, who the hell is screaming at me in my house? I turn around and I see this lady, this woman, and she's like, put the. Put the volume up. And I see she's with kids. And I love kids. So I'm like, okay, I'm a volume up. And you'll see when I get there, it's pretty funny story. And. And then, you know, then they start and I go and make my coffee. I come back at my fence, dancing, going crazy. Her two little beautiful little children, like daughter, son, and her family and stuff. So it's like. And then my mother comes in and she goes. I'm like, mom, look at these people. Like, they're tagging me on their stories. They're that. And. And then they're there. And she goes, oh, my God, this is Sonia. I'm like, who's that? Who's Sonia? And she's like, that's her. She's really making social media here. I'm like, okay. And then her stepson comes in and says, hey, you're the good life guy. And I'm like, yeah. And then her director, content creator goes, you're Faro. So they both recognize me for different reasons. And then I'm like, yeah, busted. I gotta move now. That's hilarious. She's like, hey, you know what? I have this office space. It was closed down. It was closed because of COVID And, you know, she was supposed to open, like, a co working space here. Like her own tribe, she calls it. And it was obviously shut down. Blah, blah, refund everyone. And she said, why don't you come work here and let's build something? So I went and I met with her. I said, hey, you know what? Like, you have things that I don't have that I need here. And I bring this, my network, my Instagram. I've been doing this for six years, right? And I have my 10 million followers on Instagram still. And I'm like, I bring this to the table. Let's just build a media company here. And I met a new person, new venture. And then, you know, next thing you know, we did. We cut a deal with Ferrari Quebec that same week to shoot a campaign for Ferrari here in Montreal. Because the. For the Grand Prix. That never happened because it was supposed to be Grand Prix in Montreal, of course. Covid. Friendly and conscious campaign, mass distance and everything. So we managed to do that and we've just been building the business here. So I was trying to escape Montreal for all these years, and it kind of like made me stay back, sit back, and just build out of here. And it feels good, honestly. It's. I'm happy about that.

That is so cool, man. So they. It went from turning up the volume to now getting involved with a new company and finding a new partner and just stepping into a new family.

You know, we have. We have. We have full time, you know, photo videographers, drone pilot, vfx, sound engineer. We have everything in here, and we have our own space. And it's private, right, because nobody comes in and out of it. So I know it's. I know, like, it's safe too, because I know we're still in the middle of Pandemic, and I know we still got to watch out, so we're safe. We have our own people, we have our own graphic designers. We know where everyone's going, where they go or not. So it's like our own thing. And I'm happy because they allow me to sit back and build at home. And I'm happy about this. It's still the same clients, still closing clients around the world, but with an actual team here without being remote, without doing that whole stuff. So it feels good. Honestly, I'm pretty happy. Met great people and only good things to come out of this, honestly for me.

And I love it. I've been seeing this, watching your stories too. That office is beautiful, man. It looks amazing.

Yeah, it's fun. It's big. It's pretty big and good people. And it's just like, you count your blessings, right? In times like that, people around the world that are dying and there's all these things happening to 2020 has been quite a year, quite a rough ride for, I think, for everyone, mentally. And it's just like, I feel like I've grown out of it. Like, I think I've never grown more than this year, really, as a person. And even I've learned to, like, gate my energy, to be careful who I share it with and just to just, like, value my worth and what I'm really, like, doing and to build something beyond what I was doing before.

Love that, man. I have one more question before we wrap up, and that is just looking back six years to when you started. I know that we had this interview, you know, two years ago, and it was probably looking back four years ago. Right. But now looking back, like, over the last two years, since I had you on the podcast originally and even before that, what would you tell a young entrepreneur today that's starting their first business in 2020.

Is don't rush. Don't rush. I was actually telling a young entrepreneur that came to my office, he's 18. He had all these ideas. I wanted to tell him this. I said, don't spread yourself too thin and don't rush. Don't jump into ideas very fast and don't do 10 things at a time. You know, the biggest mistake us young entrepreneurs do is that we spread ourselves way too thin instead of focusing on one thing that we want to work. Okay? So we try to build so many things because we follow all these serial entrepreneurs on Instagram, on social media, and I find the entrepreneurship space on Instagram specifically to be so toxic. Yeah, because you have all these people glamorizing entrepreneurship, showing the cars the nice things, the ups inside. But what people don't understand is, like, we all suffer. Like, we've all suffered. And I'm sure I'll speak for myself, but I'm sure you've been through it. Like, we've all suffered anxiety. We've all been through a phase of depression. We've all been through failures. And I have been through multiple failures myself as well. And I've learned from them. But it's because I was always trying to rush and to spread myself too thin and sometimes compare myself to people that perhaps I'm not them. I'm Farooq. And I think that if every young entrepreneur finds the answers and the solutions within themselves, your mind, your heart, your guts, you're going to be able to plow through anything and make it happen. So I'm looking at myself six years later, and I'm like, damn, you know what? I'm happy of where I am. Because When I turned 25 last September, I was like, I was sad that day. I am not a lie. Like, when I turned 25. I'm like, you know what? I'm not where I want to be. And I felt, like, not like a failure, but I was like, I'm not happy. And then I had a conversation with Angie Purcell on the phone, and I told him that, and he was like, bro, like, you're 25. I'm like, yeah. He's like, you're ahead. And then I had another call with one of my mentors, Steve Mary. He literally told me to shut up. He was like, stop. He's like, stop with this stuff. You're way ahead of where you should be, and you're exactly where you should be. So focus on building something 10 years long. Stop looking at what other people are doing and focus on your mission. You know, don't let the noise distract you. Don't let someone else's grind distract you. Let it inspire you and lift you up. But do not, by all means, try to compare yourself and let it distract you. Some people are 25, they make 100 mil. Some people are 25, they make a mil. Some people 25, they make 10 grand. It's okay you do you. But you'll be successful by being the most consistent and hardest working person and smartest working person in the room.

Love that, man. That is the truth. Do not compare. Focus on you. I love that. Well, Farouk, before I let you run, man, where is the best place for people to stay and touch with everything you have going on?

Honestly? Instagram. I mean, I. I live and breathe on Instagram. My username is literally my first name. Faroke. F A R O K H O G Squad. Exactly. Yo, first name gang, baby.

Let's go.

First name gang.

You know what I mean?

So it's there. Or. Or. I mean, I'm trying to push my LinkedIn, so if y' all want to follow me on LinkedIn, I mean, gonna try and bring some value there, you know, so. But mostly my Instagram pages were, like, you really get to, like, see me. I'm launching. I'm gonna try launching my vlog soon, in the next week. So if you look me up on YouTube, probably gonna find me there. But, yeah, Instagram is where really I. I reside.

I'll make sure to link that down below, man. Thanks so much.

Thank you, brother.

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