How I Created a 6 Figure Business Using LinkedIn Whilst Stranded in Colombia

EPISODE SUMMARY:

In this episode, Saarim shared how he moved from Ireland to Canada to Colombia and built a LinkedIn coaching business. He emphasized the importance of consistently creating content and leveraging LinkedIn's creator mode to generate organic leads. Saarim believes that if you publish content every day and build a system to convert that traffic, you will be successful

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Create more content consistently. Saarim believes that consistently creating and publishing content is the key to success. He said "the more content you create, the more money you will make."

2. Leverage LinkedIn's creator mode. Saarim recommends using LinkedIn's creator mode to get in front of your target audience organically. He explained how LinkedIn will show your content to relevant buyers if you create valuable content through creator mode.

3. Build a system and funnel. Saarim coaches his clients to not just create content but to build a system and funnel to generate qualified leads and schedule calls with them. This helps convert the organic traffic from LinkedIn into actual clients and sales.

BEST MOMENTS:

"The choice in life is what kind of problems do you want to deal with? Because you'll never have a life problem free."

"The more content you create, the more money you will make. I'm telling you, if you publish content every single day, you will never go broke again."

"If you just keep creating content, I'm telling you like, it will just come like it just compounds like at this point."

GUEST CONTACT METHOD:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saarim-asady/
https://onlinesalesmasterytraining.com/optin-448791041606519272178

CONTACT METHOD
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b16ree
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ree.hurakan.5/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/b16ree
Clubhouse: @b16ree
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@b16ree

Transcript

Ree  0:02  
Hey guys, and welcome to the entrepreneur heroes Show. Today we've got my man, sarin Assadi. What's going on brother?

Saarim  0:11  
Real. Everything's good man just finished the gym really happy to be here stoked to be on your podcast. And the moment you told me about this, I was like I when you invited me, I was like, Alright, I'm on this. So really happy to be here, man.

Ree  0:23  
Glad glad you accepted. Glad to have you man. I really got so much nuggets. People could see the title right now. And you're probably wondering what the hell so? No, we'll get we'll get into that. But to come back to the gym. How is it? What where are you in the world?

Saarim  0:40  
Right now I'm in meta gene Colombia. So I'm originally from Toronto, Canada. Actually, if you want to go back, I was born in Dublin. Ireland. Grow up? Yeah. Dublin. To us. Yeah, we probably lived only a few 100 kilometers from each other one. Yeah. And yeah, so I was born in Dublin, Ireland. And then when I was six years old, I moved to Canada, and then grew up in Toronto, who else city beside Toronto called Mississauga? You know, anyways, so live there my whole life. And then when I was 24 years old, 20 Yeah. And 2425. I decided I want to move to Colombia. I just said, You know what, it's time, I want to make a big change in my life, I realized that, you know, I wasn't growing as much as I wanted to grow in Toronto, you know, when you're just familiar in your hometown, doing the same things you get, I felt like it was kind of redundant. And I thought, Okay, I need to completely change. But I didn't want to just like go to New York or Los Angeles. Yeah, I wanted to put myself in a situation where like, I didn't know the language. I didn't know the culture. I didn't know anyone. Like it was just a complete, like, start from zero.

Ree  1:44  
Columbia. Yeah, part of

Saarim  1:46  
my places. That's a good question. Why Columbia? It's really because this basically, long story short in 2000 2017 was like the worst year of business in my whole life. Like, I think we netted. I think we're No, we were definitely negative. I think I was like negative 10 grand that year. And it was just like the hardest year of my entire life. Like, we got evicted from my office. I'll go into all this later, but we got evicted from my office. Just like last fall, the clients were business went zero, it was a very stressful year, then in 2018, was also a very stressful year. But I finally hit like a breakeven point where I was like, alright, we're no longer like in the red, there's some flow coming in. I wasn't rich by any means. I mean, like, I probably had, like, a grand in my bank account, right? Like, just like, something. But after all that, my friends and I who also went through similar things, we were like, You know what, let's, we're not like rich, but like, we've gone through a pretty rough two years here, let's, let's let's celebrate and have a little vacation for ourselves. So I literally we said, Alright, where are we going to go? So we pulled out a globe true story. And we span the globe like this. And we're like, Alright, whatever country goes to, we're going to go and I just put my finger on it. And we came up to Colombia. And I was like, I really wanted Brazil to I was like, No, I'd rather go to Brazil. My friends would like just trust it. Isn't Yeah. So yeah, then I went to Colombia for a two week vacation. I went to a bunch of different cities, I went to Bogota ne Jean Cartana, Santa Marta. And I just really felt connected to energy. And I was like, Wow, this city is super interesting. It's like Skirball. Yeah, I mean, no, no, no. Like, I after living here for so long. I've realized like, he was a real terrorist, you know what I mean? Like, you when you see the movies, you're like, oh, Escobar, the big businessman like Narco, but like, you gotta really destroyed lives you know, like some say the CIA. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like it was like the things that this guy did was like, atrocious you know what I mean? Like, like he would he blew up a plane just to kill one person. You know what I mean? Like these people don't have empathy in their brain. So ya know, I try I try to stay away from the whole Pablo Escobar thing when talking about Colombian because when you talk to Colombians here like when I first got here when I first arrived in 2019 Well like for the vacation I was you know similar like all yo, tell me more about Pablo Escobar I want to do a Pablo Escobar tour I want to travel around like see his like grave and all this stuff. And Colombians got very upset with me from the beginning they were like wow, we really don't like tourists coming here for a man that destroyed our country. We don't want people coming here for that reason, right because if you're going to Colombia for Pablo Escobar that means you're coming for like you're interested in topics of cocaine drug trafficking, Narcos guns, right. So I, you know, like at the beginning, I didn't understand but now I really do so. But yeah, like to go back to the story. So anyways, in 2019, I came I really felt connected to meta gene. It was one of the coolest it's like an urban jungle. Like, I can't explain to you it's like there's no city in the world like this. Like, there's just literally imagine living in a jungle in the mountains. And there's buildings and streets and they've just made it work. And it's so interesting. So it's such a beautiful city, so I felt really connected. And then when I got back to Canada after my two week vacation, I said to myself, You know what? I'm moving to this place. I don't know how but I'm going to do it. I literally wrote down on a piece of paper I will live in managing Columbia. By the end of this year. Wow, six, yeah, six months later, I made it happen. Ooh. And but the plan was originally actually only to stay here for three months. So literally what happened was my plan was only stay here for three months. And because I wanted to avoid the cold Canadian winter, I'm sure you know, like, the whole, like, up here, like, you know, January, February, March are like really cold months. So I really didn't want to be here for be in Toronto for those three months. So I decided, okay, you know what, I'm going to go for three months. Come back to Canada. I'll be good. Yeah. Then what happened was, I even had my return flight booked in March, then the pandemic happened. Then I got an email from Air Canada saying, Dear sir, Miss Saudi, we've canceled your flight back to Canada. And you now have to wait. There's no like indefinitely. There's no other flights away to Canada. And I was like, Oh, okay. Like it was kind of shocking other than I was like, What am I going to do? But like, I don't know why I was very calm. I was like, Okay, maybe there's a reason for this. So I called my family and talked to my family. They were like, all right, like this is it so they locked the borders for a year so for a full year there was no exit in this country. Yeah, I was I was literally stuck when I say stranded in Colombia, like literally stranded like there was no exit like, that was it so be careful

Ree  6:12  
what you wish for Be careful what you write down on paper.

Saarim  6:15  
Yeah. Literally, it comes true. So but I made the most of it. I really did. Like I during that time during the lockdown. I just said, you know, I'm going to focus on my business, I'm really going to double down on my business. So I just locked in 100% and was like, I just started going double and then they that was kind of my take off point right like that. Like lockdown period was like, where I just honed in on my program honed in on everything. And then obviously the money started stacking. That was one thing my confidence started stacking. And it really put me in a good place. So obviously the pandemics a terrible thing a lot of people have, you know, lost their families loved loved ones from it. Just from an economic point of view and a business point of view. It was like the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Right, like literally

Ree  6:56  
two things right? When chap is respond to react. Right? Yeah, exactly. itself or respond and pivot

Saarim  7:04  
100% 100%. And, yeah, that's what that's pretty much what happened. And yeah, then when the borders did open up a year later, I didn't want to go back. I was like, you know, I'm solidified. You're like I hired employees, Colombian employees. I have people working for me, like I have a whole operation here. I have a life here. You know, obviously I'm sure you see my Instagram stories. I'm literally at the gym every morning. So I really feel like connected like to me now honestly, like, honestly speaking like Colombia is like home. Like obviously Toronto and Canada is home. But like, I like if you asked me how I want to organize my life moving forward. I want it to be between Canada and Colombia. Like I wouldn't raise a family here to be honest, because there's a lot of crazy stuff that happens like honestly, and I don't even want to get crazy some of us out here. Okay. What crazy? Then you want me to be really be open he real man?

Ree  7:51  
Is what? It's all about vitro tests. Okay.

Saarim  7:54  
Okay, sure. So Colombia is a country where it's it's very not segregated, but divided. There's like upper class areas, like I live in a very nice area. So the way they organize it is by by they call it a strata one to straddle six. So that's like zone one to six. zone six is obviously the richest area. It's very clean. You don't need to worry about anything. So like, you know, if you're living in five or six, you're set. Yeah, literally, it's like that. So you, you have nothing to worry about. So obviously, for me, like living in this area, so for the first year, when I was here, I was only in the areas of five and six, like everyone was like, Don't go to one or two, don't even go to three don't go to four. Like those are like the really sketchy areas. And people were like, like the people I was spending time with they were like, if in the worst case scenario, only go to zone four get in and get out. And he's like, Well, like it kind of scared me. I was like, what's going on? Like, what's going on? So then, you know, like, turns out like, I moved to this new apartment, like, I'm sure you can see it. Obviously for stories and stuff. It's nice, beautiful apartment, then out of complete chance. My neighbor who also lives next door to me. He's Canadian. So he me and him just started hanging out and spending time together. Right? Like, you know, I'm sure if you saw another English like an English person, like, you know, in another country start chillin with him. So I was like, damn, like, one day we were hanging out and he's like, Yo, I'm going to this barrio called Manrico, which is like, a struggle to and I was like, Dude, are you out of your mind? What are you going to do there? And he's like, Dude, come on. I was like, No, I don't want to die. He's like, just come like see what it's like. He's like, Yo, you've been You've been brainwashed like it's not as bad as you think. So we went and in this barrio like, yes, it's it's not like people do scare you like it is like it's not as bad as you think. But it's pretty nuts. Like literally there's like 10 year old kids driving motorbikes. No helmet with like a girl on their back doing like popping wheelies, like smoking cigarettes. Like it's like what is going on? Like you're in another world essentially. It's like you've you've you've teleported to a world where there's different rules like in some Barrios here. They don't follow the government of Columbia's laws, right like there's like a kingpin. And there's a judicial system within that barrio. So let's say like you let's say you run the bar hypothetically, and you were to like steal something, you would not be accountable to the Government of Colombia, you would be accountable to like their like own system and their own laws. And yeah, some of them are a lot harsher than you know, just like, you know, robbing in Canada is like, I don't know, you get like a ticket or a fine maybe, I don't know, maybe he's got a night in jail, like over there. I don't know what they can do to you. Like, you literally don't know what they can do to you. Right? So that's what I'm talking about. Like, there's, there's levels to this stuff, right? There's like, there's, there's real level. So, you know, I spent a lot of time in the barrios over the last actually few months, and it really opened my eyes to right like, spending time with these people like, man, it's good and bad in a lot of senses. Like bro, I, I can't even explain to you like sometimes like one time I was eating a sandwich, right? Just on the street. There's a food truck, food trucks and all like, all over. And dude, like, there was a guy just digging through trash, trying to find a sandwich and cheese man. Like, it's hard. Like, it's hard for you to like, like, you know, when we're cooped up in our own world and first world, like, you know, if you're from first world country, England, Australia, Canada, US whatever. Like, you know, like, life is pretty good. Like, even the poor people. Like, you know, there's some there's some form of salvation here. But I'm talking about like, imagine just sitting down man, and you see a guy rummaging, obviously, like we help the guy, right? We got him a sandwich, we hooked him up and stuff like that. But like, maybe I fed him for one day. How do you know? Yeah, you know, you don't I mean, like, so yeah, it's a different world down in like, in depending on the barrios and stuff like that. But I'm really grateful that I was able to see that like to be able to see what's going on. And it's kind of motivated me, in a lot of ways, right. Like now, like, I give back, you know, I actually like, yeah, I want to give back now to these people. Because, you know, like, I'm lucky enough that I grew up in a good family. I grew up in Canada, you know, obviously born in Ireland, all that. But, you know, I had the opportunities that allowed me to be in this position just talking to you, right? Yeah. But they're there. There's kids in these Barrios, who probably have the same ambitions that I did, but don't have access to any of the resources. Right. They don't have money. They don't I'm talking about like, they don't have $5 to their name. They don't have $1 to their name. You know what I mean? Like they are not, they're not living paycheck to paycheck. They are living like lifeline to lifeline, right like that. Yeah, yeah. So now, like I'm trying to give back in any way I can. I try not to talk too much about like, the charitable thing. I'm not a big fan of like posting and being like, hey, look, this thing I did for Yeah. Okay. So

Ree  12:19  
what do you what are the things you're doing? And like, why is it made you do that particular thing, then?

Saarim  12:26  
Yeah, so I do a lot of food runs. I do food runs now where? Like, it's funny. Like, we have a driver. He's he's a cool guy. We met him just, I mean, like, you understand, like, there's no like laws regularly. There are laws, but I mean, like, there's no rules that thing. So I'll give an example. We have this driver now. And this is how we met him. Me and my friend. We were just, he was at the mall one day, and there was a taxi stand. Yeah. And then he you know, after leaving the mall, he got in the taxi and then him in the taxi driver started talking to taxi driver told me like, Hey, man, I'm your driver now. So you need me, give me a call. Don't call any other taxis. So we're just like, okay, so whenever we needed for anything, we just call him we're like, Yo, we like we got to go here. And like, it's not like he drops us off. Like, he'll wait with us. You'll wait outside, you'll know if we go to a restaurant, he'll come in with us. Like, it's just like that. It's kind of like, it's cool. I like it like that. So anyways, like one thing that I do is with him is like, we'll call him up on like, a Friday night and be like, Yo, we're gonna go to we're gonna do a burger on let's go. So we'll go to McDonald's and buy like 40 burgers or whatever. And then we'll go to the barrios and we'll just roll down the window and start handing,

Ree  13:25  
oh, yeah, does it make you feel doing?

Saarim  13:28  
Good, you know, like, like, I'm living good here. Like, I'm living so good, right? Like, I'm living like, like, I'm probably like, top zero 1% of this population here, right. And, like, you know, I don't want to be king in the castle here living in this beautiful apartment have access to every resource I want, like this, like I can have some of the luxuries. I'm sure you know, this too. Like, in a third world country. If you're rich, you actually have access to more resources than if you were rich in like Canada or the US. You know what I mean? Like if, because of the disparity, like there's an app here called ropey turbo. And what it does is like, let's say you want to order groceries, they will deliver to your house and under 10 minutes, I can press a button right now and my doorbell would ring in three minutes literally, with all my grocery, like, like it's insane the level you can live here. And so anyways, my whole point is that yeah, I felt bad, like, almost like being having this and then you you take you drive 20 minutes left. And you know, there's people on the streets. So for me now, I feel like I'm playing a part obviously, like it's a drop in the bucket what I'm doing, but there's a lot more to come out.

Ree  14:34  
Because in the day, you're doing it on the street, you're doing it for them, you're not giving money to charity, you're not doing one day kind of charity day, like a lot of organizations do here right? And I'm sure they do the same in Canada, you're helping people that medium and so and I mean like if I had to applause button sound pad I'll do that for so I'll give you a random applause right because I appreciate that. All right. And because you're humble, you don't want to say your charitable stuff because what you do is good. And it comes back to you which I get there. But I just want people listening to realize that, give it to charity, it doesn't always mean putting, you know, putting some money in a bucket on the street or, or phoning the hotline and giving some money. No, no, it would be more people. Really, you've seen it. Obviously, if you didn't go out into that zone, where your friend said, you might not have seen it, you might have just been so constricted to this zone, you are in Colombia later say if you went there, you saw something. And you helped, man. So accent is commendable, man, it's really good what you're doing. So I just want to get get on now to the earlier point you mentioned, you know, you move from Ireland to Canada, to Colombia, and you had that kind of decided or I'm just going to do it. Yeah, you're done it. So now the pandemic said, alright, you know what? decimate you're stuck. What went through your mind when you're like, Shit, I'm here on my own. I got no way back home anytime soon. Yep. And at that point, your business was, was wasn't doing anything, was it?

Saarim  16:16  
No, because we like when the pandemic first started, everything came to a halt. Right. Like everything came to a halt. It was only like after a few months into the pandemic that like things are picking up. So yeah, like I had, like, very little money. In my pocket. Obviously, when I say very little money. I'm like full transparency here. Like, I know that if worse, got to worst here. Like I have a great support system, my family, and like they could they would help me out. But I didn't want to resort to that. Right? You know what I mean? Like so but being here alone, without anyone really like I had friends. I had a girlfriend at the time. That was good. And but in Canada? No, no, here I met a girl here when I when I was here in Colombia. So that was good. But what happened really was, like when that immediate thing happened, you're it's kind of crazy. I started laughing. I remember looking at the email, and I was like, wow, like, this is gonna be an adventure. Like, I started literally laughing because like, I don't know, I've had so many, like, literally from the year 2016 until 2020 was just straight punches in the face, like into like, you know, getting evicted from the office losing the business, you know, like, like, literally losing everything. So I was like, I was like laughing at this one. I was like, oh, like, this is another challenge. Like,

Ree  17:30  
yeah, you know, what can they do to me that?

Saarim  17:33  
Literally, I started laughing at that point. I was like, alright, well, let's see where this takes me. And, you know, the first like, for the first couple of weeks, I was like, I was more in planning phase. I wasn't really doing anything else. Okay, like, because no one was really buying at that point. Right? Like it was a very low like, literally when the

Ree  17:50  
saving money. I remember I had the same problem. Yeah,

Saarim  17:53  
everyone was saving. And I was like, Oh, what do we do here? Like what's, what's the play? And then like, but then like, things started easing up. I started bringing in a couple clients, here and there. And but like going back to your question really succinctly to answer is like, when that immediate moment happened. I started laughing like, truly like I started laughing and was like, alright, let's, let's see where it takes me. And then I formulated a plan and then started taking action. Brilliant.

Ree  18:16  
So that constant for years have been punched in the face. Yeah, like, what else can you do when a man is down is down, right? And nothing more you can do. So you reacted that you responded. And this business now that you started then was in the same business that you got evicted from before?

Saarim  18:36  
Somewhat so at one point, so I've always been like the LinkedIn guy since like day one, right? Since I started an online marketing, I kind of picked up like back in 2016, I realized I was like, well, LinkedIn is like the thing. And so for a while I just ran a marketing agency, right, I ran a full marketing agency, a LinkedIn marketing agency where I would run, like marketing campaigns for people. Now one major aspect of my business back then was that it was a lot of videos. So I would actually have people come into my office, we'd film them record content, like and then manage their content. So when we got evicted from the office, I had no more so I had no studio anymore. Like I had nothing, right. Like I literally couldn't like, like, I'll tell you how bad it was like I had my, in my bank account I had, I have a screenshot of this. I'll never forget it was negative $1,487 in my account, and my overdraft limit was negative 1500. So I remember I had like $12.86 to eat. So it was it was it was it was a sketchy time. I remember that. So you remember the meal you got with that? Yeah, I remember I went to a drug Shoppers Drug Mart, which is like a pharmacy they have food and stuff in there. So I went inside there and I got three cans of beans and I got a pan I got like a loaf of bread knows I was gonna hold me down for a while. And it was funny like because I remember like looking back at it. It's kind of funny to look at it but I remember that that same day when we got evicted from the office. I went about the beans, and literally zero like nothing like literally nothing to my name. And I remember I was putting on my pants that morning that that know that they I was that morning the next morning. And while I was putting my leg in, I ripped the jeans. Like it literally just ripped while I was putting it in. And I just remember at that point, like I was like, I started laughing like I literally looked at this guy was like, you really tested me, huh? And like because I was funny. So but like these things solidify you Right? Like, like not only them a good stories later on, but like, they make you a stronger person. Right? And like when they look struggles will never leave you in life. That's just kind of life. Right? The one the one thing I've learned is that I learned I can't remember who I learned this from but they said like problems will never leave you. It's just that what kind of problems do you want in life? Right? What level like for example, billionaires problems are okay, how do I manage this cash flow? How do I manage the next decision right there. So problems you got to solve? Put, like someone in poverty, their problems are how do I find my next meal? Right? These are, but everyone's dealing with problems. So the choice in life is what kind of problems do you want to deal with? Right? Because you'll never have a life problem free. Yeah. And my philosophy now is like, okay, like, I think those were the hardest hits, I'll take thing like a knock on wood in my in my entrepreneurial career. And they solidified me like, so I'm really grateful that, you know, I was experiencing all these things like 2324 years old, right? Like, I was a young kid going through all these things. And like, at the same time, it was like, like, I went to a good school, a good university, good high school. And at the time, when I was going through all this stuff, my friends, who I grew up with, all had great six figure jobs, making good money going out on weekends party and hooking up with girls, you know, like, they were doing all that stuff. Whereas like, you know, I was like, meanwhile, like, negative 1500 in a bank account, like getting evicted from an office like sketching out like going through a lot of like, mental turbulence. And but like, in that moment, it felt sad because, you know, like, not only was like going through that I had no one to really relate to right I had like, you know, I had one friend who I got evicted with IBC me and him we'll go to the ends of the earth together for each other but like, aside from that, no one really understood what was going on. Right? No one could read comprehend it like these guys are like you I don't get why you can't come out tonight, man. Like, bro, like, these guys not understand. I just got evicted. Like, these guys are asking me to go, go get some drinks hang out. I'm like, Do you realize what like, like, that night out that they were inviting me, for example would be like, $110 night out. Like, do you realize what $110 means to me right now? Yeah. So anyways, yeah, man. I feel like I'm rambling. But yeah, that's a great story.

Ree  22:41  
So when you're evicted, then like, how did you tell your parents?

Saarim  22:48  
Oh, I remember that. I remember the day I didn't know the day I got it. It's funny enough the day I got evicted, I didn't know I was gonna get evicted. Because what happened was, I remember I had a client come in that morning, and we filmed him. We took us well, it was funny, because, believe me, we weren't we weren't making a lot of money. But he was a client. And that was his last video that I was filming for him. So thank God that got evicted after we filmed that last video for him. Otherwise, he would have come after me for some money. So I remember in the morning, I went filmed with this guy. Good. Then I got a call from my friend who was like the lease was under his name legally. And he called me he's like, Dude, we're out. I was like, What do you mean, we're out? He's like, dude, like, pack up your stuff. Like we have to you have to be out by 12pm. And it was like, 10:30am He's like, the landlord's coming. Like, we need to be like, clear out this place. And I was like, Dude, are you serious? And he's like, Yeah, I was like, okay, so I just like, just emptied out everything. I could throw it in the back of an Uber, got an Uber, went to my brother's apartment store all the stuff my brother's apartment and then just like, laid down on the sofa and just looked at the sky for like, an hour. So but then I remember I remember afterwards, I called my dad. And I remember, it was it was a cold day. It was a cold day was like Sunday, and like early February. And it was like ice pellets. Like it was just like a gloomy day like it fit the scene essentially, right? Like me, you couldn't make this up. Then I remember I call my dad was crying like I was like, crying hardcore on the phone. Like, I remember crying to my dad saying like, I don't think I'm cut out to be an entrepreneur. Like, like, I failed so many times, like, like, I don't think entrepreneurs fail is bad, bad. And he was like, and it was like, sad like you like I was like really tearing a lot. And I remember I'll never forget what he said. He's like, look, these things don't make sense to you right now. But you'll understand that these these were some of the most important things that happen to you. Right and that like I really appreciated him so I didn't really understand at the moment but it made me feel a little better. So I really appreciated that and then that helped me a lot like gave me a lot like it gave me some comments and he was like look, you always have us were your family whatever gonna let you like slip through the cracks. You're not gonna be on the streets. We're not gonna allow that to happen. Like it was nice like it was comforting to know that but like but also like, my dignity was gone, like my dignity, like, I was like, I lost everything like, you know, our dignity is essentially based on the things that we build our life up on, right? Like not necessarily a material possessions. But like, you know, I built my dignity on having that office, I built my dignity on that go on the business, I built my dignity on the clients that we had. And when you lose it all in just one swoop, you lose your dignity

Ree  25:23  
you have what did you feel that your dignity is gone? Like? Sure, like you told me,

Saarim  25:29  
I just truly felt like, I truly felt like I wasn't cut out to be an entrepreneur. I was like, I don't know if I can do this. Like I truly was like, that was the most self doubt I've had in my life. But it's funny, I never once thought of getting a job. Even after that. I was like, we never got we gotta find the next hustle, man. We got to find it. Like that's like,

Ree  25:47  
that's a true entrepreneur.

Saarim  25:50  
I guess so I guess I've never had a job. I know. I've had one job at one job. And where I was a, I was I worked at a pizza shop when I was 17. No, I worked for Coca Cola for summer. So but cumulatively, in terms of time I've ever worked a job was like, three months of my whole life. I've never worked a job where I've been employed. So that's funny. But one thing I would add is like so after I call my dad and was crying and all this stuff, like he knows good I talk to my dad and my brother. He's a very like, tough, tough guy. Right? So he sends me a quote by David Goggins, you know, God. And all it says is, Don't be a bitch, suck it up, whatever you're going through. You're You're stronger than this. And I was like, I was like, crying. I'm like, bro, this is not what I need to read right now. I do not need to read this right now. And he's like, Nah, man, you got to suck this up. You got to fight through this. Like, don't be a bitch for all. And I was like, Man, I know my brother meant so well, like my brother. I'm not close. I'm the most person I'm closest with in this whole world, my brother, but I was like, this is not the time to say

Ree  26:50  
the man that alpha male man in a business, it's difficult to take that shit, man. And then mitigate the shame. The the fear, especially, you know, always great. You spoke to your dad and your dad could have easily said, son, his wife told me to get a job. Well, you know, this is why you went to school to get a job, what you while you're trying to be an entrepreneur for and it's great that you got that support, man. Because if you said something else, do you think it would have changed your direction?

Saarim  27:17  
I don't know. That's a good question. Actually. That's a really good question. I don't think it would have changed my direction. But it would have really surprised me because my my dad is like, very supportive of what I do. Like, like my, you know, my dad, you know, the typical immigrant story. He came to this country and he owes us he's like, look, I came in, he always told me one thing as a kid, he's like, look, I don't care what because my dad's a doctor. And what he told me was, look, I don't want you because you know how it is like Middle Eastern families, Eastern families, they always wanted to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer. But he would never push that agenda. And he always said to me, Look, I don't care what you do in your life, I really don't. But the only thing I tell you is whatever you choose to do, become the best in the world at it just become the best. He literally said if you want to be a journalist, go become the best journalist in the world if you want to become a doctor become the best doctor. But he's like whatever you do, just don't settle for just being that position become the best at it. So what I one that when I I think he caught on early that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, just like the small things. I was like nine years old, I was like knocking on doors, asking people if I could wash their car for money, like just doing all this stuff. So he clearly caught on at a like, an early age for me that I was like heading in that direction. Yeah, so he always encouraged me. He's like, Sorry, just don't think bigger, think bigger. Do like just like keep like following like, like, follow your inspirations, like learn from people. And that kind of like always sent me in the right direction. So I like you know, I, I don't think my dad would have ever said no, I think it's good to catch up. There was a point where he like subtly suggest that I should become a realtor, but but I like after I told him no, he never brought it up again.

Ree  28:47  
Okay. That's really good. It is good to see that support network. You had man in that in that time, because there's other people it's come completely completely the wrong way. So in Colombia now like I'm just gonna go back a bit more. Yeah. So did you think and share I'm stuck he started laughing. Obviously, you do speak to workers Spanish so How How did you learn to speak back to one of your sons, Spanish now?

Saarim  29:19  
You want me to speak in Spanish? Yeah, do a little bit. Let's talk a lot in Espanol. No, I problema en espanol, nos perfecto pero estoy. Nicely fluido pero. Indian not all but a lot. contigo

Ree  29:30  
is still pretty good. It's not fluent. But it's good. Yeah,

Saarim  29:33  
I can speak I can speak like I can. I've never had a problem now. Like at this point. I'm good. Like I could speak Bert like not perfectly but has a flown it? It was good question. So at the time, when I was with my girlfriend, during the pandemic, her family was very nice to me. And they like, they were like, Okay, well, this guy's living alone in this apartment by himself. And so they invited me and they said you can come stay with us like, like in their family in their family home, which was really nice. So I lived there for like a month, actually a bit more than a month like, and it was nice and like her. Her parents don't speak at her parents didn't speak a lick of English like just like nothing like zero. So, being there for like a month and a half is like, okay, the only way I could communicate like with her family was through speaking Spanish. So like, at first it was super embarrassing. I'll never forget, I would like say like, my grammar was so off, I would say like, like I was trying to say like, Thank you for the food, which is gracias por la comida. But I would I remember once I said to him, like, gracias por command, which means like, Thank you eat. They were like, that makes no grammatical sense. Well, and I was like, Oh, I don't, I didn't know. So but no, I learned a lot like living in that in their house, they were really good to me. Really appreciate that. Like, they never asked anything of me. They, you know, they fed me took care of me. So I'll actually be like, you know, forever grateful to their family for that. That was that was a really important thing to me. So yeah, that's really where I learned Spanish was with her family. And then once the handout or once I like left their house and went back to my place. Just started making more of an effort, I realized one thing, one piece of advice someone gave me was actually another friend. And she said to me, Look, you got to just accept you're gonna save things bad. And you're gonna say things incorrect, incorrect grammatically, but just go out and you know, confidently say that. And when people correct you just learn, and that's kind of what I started doing. So once I got my foundational base after living in their house for like, a month and a half, I was like, okay, then I started just talking and people would be like, hey, no, it's actually you say, like this. And I was like, Ah, okay. And then like, I just kept like, you know, interpreting and understanding but I never took formal classes or anything like that. The best way

Ree  31:37  
is to be intense. Intensive. Because you're in a real life situation. You've got no other choice, but to do it, just like you had no other choice. But to work on your business. Yeah, no, the choice to learn a language because you can't go anywhere. No, no, you can't go. So sometimes these intense environment is good for you. You know, oh, yeah, I'm on my best development is when I've been super intense in and I've got no other way. And, you know, it's proven for you and the language. So what happened to the girlfriend then? He said, Yeah,

Saarim  32:09  
yeah, no, like, you know, didn't end up working out long term. But I got really like, you don't still have infinite love for her. You know, we'll see what the future holds. are still talking, seeing what happens. I'm not gonna say that chapters closed forever. Definitely not. But yeah, like we stayed together after throughout the whole pandemic. Everything was great. And then we we broke up in not too long ago, like about November, so just about like two months ago. But you know, we're still talking. We're still talking. We're still working on it. We'll see

Ree  32:39  
you break comes in Spanish or English. I don't even know. Your grammar. Didi.

Saarim  32:46  
I didn't break. But she broke with me. Yeah, she broke up with me. So so no, but I you know, it is what it is like she like it happened, you know, but it was like mid November, something like that. But like I said, we're still talking. We're still working on it soon.

Ree  33:01  
I know. And then you never know what can happen in the future. Sometimes. Things happen in the right time. Maybe now's not the right time, maybe late. So it's good. You know,

Saarim  33:11  
it's life. You know, it is Eisley. Like, like I said, like, I have infinite love for her. I'm super grateful to her her family for everything they did to me. And like, like I said, like, I don't think the chapters close forever. In terms of that, like, I don't know, maybe she ends up watching this podcast. So truly what I believe is, you know, if it's meant to be it'll be la senorita. Hola, Santa Rita. And, yeah, like, if it's meant to be, it'll be and I, you know, I hope it I hope that I hope we can come back together to be honest with you, we'll see, we'll see what happens. But I'll leave it up up to faith and continue to be, you know, the best me and I hope that she continues to be the best her and that, that there's an opportunity for us to come back together again in the future.

Ree  33:50  
That's a great message, man. It's great. You handle that. And it's just refreshing to hear, because some of the can be some bitterness from people depart, you know, so it's good, good. You're saying that? For sure. When to move to the business side. Now. So sure, you know, we've been hearing bits of the business about LinkedIn, your client agency. So why don't you tell everyone? What is your business? Now? What do you do? How do you help people?

Saarim  34:17  
Great. So yeah, we run a LinkedIn coaching business. So anyone looking to get clients from LinkedIn, whether your high ticket coach, consultant, even agency owners, anyone who's selling, you know, a product over $500, really, who are looking to use LinkedIn, we help them we show them exactly how to do it. And why I really like to say our program is different is that instead of just kind of giving you some advice on like, Hey, do a little bit of this, do a little bit of this. I've just built out a full system, right? I have no problem sharing this system with you today. Like I'm not here to hide anything. We've built out a full system, and the whole thing, the whole program is like here's the system, I'm going to help you I'm going to work with you to build up the system. We're going to get you clients from the system. We're going to give you a guarantee that you're going to get clients and we're just going to run it right And we've seen a lot of success with this. And like I said, I started this really at the beginning, right? This was with my marketing agency. It's not like I just went into coaching. Like, I've noticed, I got nothing against other people who just jump into coaching without any prior experience. That's totally their call. But you know, like I said, I ran this marketing agency for almost four years. Before, you know, before I transitioned to coaching, like I found, like, I know what I'm doing here. I've been in this I've been in the trenches, I've been from the bottom with the agency, I grow the agency up like it's a lot has happened. So that's really the program ultimately, it's, it's teaching people how to get clients from LinkedIn organically, you know,

Ree  35:34  
summon, so if we you started out by yourself nice, and you've got a team. So how many people on the team are they will locally are they?

Saarim  35:42  
Yeah, so we have Hold on, let me see the full thing. Deena, Team Me. So we have five right now. And we're looking to hire six. Oh, amazing. Yeah. Thanks, bro.

Ree  35:54  
Really good in the coming couple of years. So why don't we share a mini masterclass? So if I'm a, I'm mature, I've got a business, you know, thinking about using LinkedIn as a platform? Yeah. What would be the some tips you can give us on? You know how to do it?

Saarim  36:13  
Good question. So what LinkedIn, LinkedIn has really changed over the last year like 2022. So one of the biggest things that LinkedIn has done is they've created something called Creator mode. And what creator mode is, is that LinkedIn wants you to create content, and they've written made this unwritten agreement that hey, read, if you create content, that's super valuable, that's good. We'll find your buyers and we'll actually put your buyers will make your buyers watcher look at your content so that you can make more business, which is on heard, even, yeah, even Instagram doesn't have this yet, which is so crazy. So like, let's say you're a career coach, hypothetically, right? Let's just say your career coach, you help people get jobs, which is pretty prime for LinkedIn. Now, with that being said, let's say you set your account up on creator mode, and you say I teach university students how to get, you know, high paying jobs out of university, right, and you set that up in your Creator mode, and you start creating content on LinkedIn, just like about that topic. Guess what's gonna happen? LinkedIn is going to find those university students, show them your content, and then you can go from there. Right? Like, that's crazy. They're literally finding the article you. Yeah, yeah. Which is all organically, okay. Yeah, you're not paying, I'm not paying for ads or anything, you have to look at it like this. LinkedIn is a business itself, right. And in order for LinkedIn, to grow as a business to make more money, what do they need, they need more attention, they need more users on the platform. That's how LinkedIn works. The more people who are actively using LinkedIn, the more money LinkedIn makes very plain and simple. Now, simply, with that being said, if you are creating content that's super valuable, which is keeping people on the platform, keeping people engaged, guess what you're doing, you're helping LinkedIn, make more money. So guess what LinkedIn is going to do? Hey, you're helping us make more money, let us help you. So then it becomes a virtuous cycle. It's like, you help us make money or help you make money, you help us make money, and boom, and that becomes, so you're not doing anything wrong. Lincoln's encouraging you to make great content, because it helps them and it helps you. So it's a win win situation. And that's where LinkedIn becomes super, super valuable. Now, with that being said, this is where you need to have a system or some form of a funnel in between, because if you're just creating content and doing nothing else, well, now you put yourself in a, you know, in somewhat of a tricky situation, that's where our program comes in. Not only do we help you set up with creator mode, help you teach you what kind of content to create all that kind of stuff, we actually help you create a system so that you're ultimately scheduling calls, because that's the number one thing, right, you're not gonna make sales just by sending someone a link who you've never met, and to get them to buy a $2,000 program or a $5,000 program. Right? You got to speak them. So it's all about generating calls, how many calls have qualified prospects can you make so you have these assets, you have LinkedIn, a platform where people are doing business, you have creator mode and opportunity to get in front of your buyers. So you have three valuable assets at your at your disposal right now? How are you going to use those three assets and leverage them to create more business. And that's where we come in, right? We help you maximize those three, those three assets, we help you build an entire system to actually get those clients and ultimately convert them and make more money from their

Ree  39:14  
Damn, that's brilliant. There you go. People like right now, you've just been given some some gold man is some new stuff, whether you're on LinkedIn or not. I think you just told us how powerful LinkedIn is and use the functionality use what they're giving you, and they'll help you if you don't ask you won't get so get on LinkedIn, get on the career mode. Start asking making content for that particular niche. And don't put it in front of the people for you. So that's really good man. I'm really grateful you've been able to share this valuable information because I know you know what you do not a lot of people are doing it and it's working well for you. You know, I've, I've been in your program. I've seen the benefits for myself and you've already updated it. All of this stuff. So did you go like guys, if someone is not just does a program and it leaves a guest still, he's in it. He's constantly doing it. That means you can constantly update it. So it's always gonna be best for you guys and for his clients.

Saarim  40:14  
Yeah, absolutely. I was literally updating the course last night you can see my Instagram story if you want. Yeah, so that that's yeah, so LinkedIn honestly, if you're watching this right now, and you are, you know, in the field of high ticket coaching, consulting or agency, or really just selling a product or service over $500, like LinkedIn is a huge opportunity that's on top, like I'm telling you, the whole world is fighting for crumbs on Facebook and Instagram, a whole world, right? The whole world is on this. And meanwhile, you have this whole business platform that nobody's getting in touch with like no one's you know, what's crazy, is that I tried this. This was like this footlocker shot, please share the strategy, like, you know, when you want to DM or talk to someone like super famous, they're like, how am I going to get a hold of them? Most people DM them on Instagram, you're never gonna get an answer from their DMS, you message them on LinkedIn, your chances are like 70%, I've spoken to like super high level people like I'm talking about, like, millionaires, billionaires, like people on LinkedIn, because nobody's messaging them on LinkedIn. They're all messaging them on Instagram. Like, the whole world is here fighting for like a little piece of like a crumb. Like you can have the whole pie here the whole thing. And I think it's so

Ree  41:21  
cool. I want some pie. So I think we're gonna have to have a conversation and do stuff because I got to hang out on LinkedIn that

Saarim  41:26  
way. Yeah. For sure, man, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. You know, anyone who wants to contact you just messaged me on LinkedIn, like anyone who like watch it this month, learn more about LinkedIn, like, all your details

Ree  41:37  
will be below enter your links. So social media has a hold of you. And he's content, like, just go on his profile. Look at his content, man is my content machine. And, you know, like you read it, and it just puts you in a story is brilliant, brilliant, amazing content. And, and that's the one thing right? He makes great content through his creative mode. It's intriguing is curious. It's gonna bring people to it. So I think information has been super valuable. I've learned a lot of stuff just by talking to you now. And I think everyone else watching this listening to this can learn stuff, because we're in the information age. There's so many platforms, like he said, like, even just look at the cost of ads, you've run an agency or the cost of ads. Now, people are spending a shitload of money to get you on Facebook. Yeah, on YouTube. And that lead might not even show up, you're doing a webinar during an event, they might not show up. So you're spending money. So content, organic is something we should still do. And I remember when we present when you helped me out, and I was like, Man, I'm, I don't have time for organic or just free money, everything. But I've changed my mindset on stuff because this stuff works. And you need

Saarim  42:48  
Oh, yeah. 100% Yeah, no, it works so well. And like, honestly, I will say this, there's, there's always like golden stages of all, like certain things, for example, like Facebook ads, even when they did come out early in 2011 2012, when they were like starting to grab some momentum. Like they were super cheap. So you could get a lot of conversion. That was a golden age of them. Yeah, right. Instagram, when it first came out. That was the golden age when it was starting to roll creator mode was launched this year. Yeah, just take that in, or London within the last four or five months. Like, think about that it was launched four or five months ago, when the whole world gets a hold of this in three years. Well, the answer the next, like, like truly, like, I'll probably tell you about some of the things I'm doing.

Ree  43:31  
Again, when you're like, Yeah, even bigger, and an even bigger team, and you're not you're smoking Cohiba.

Saarim  43:42  
You're gonna be there with me, man.

Ree  43:43  
I'll be there that little one will be a few years old now to bring

Saarim  43:47  
that will bring the whole family.

Ree  43:49  
But thank you for being here as I went off to one, one question, which, if you if you're new to this podcast is new. But if you're a loyal subscriber, I ask every entrepreneur, so what is your number one secret to success?

Saarim  44:03  
My number one secret says, honestly, create more content. That's it. You the more content you create, the more money you will make. I'm telling you, I wish I could have given you a more like, you know, high level like believe in yourself. You never stop, keep pushing. Keep going. That's cool. And I agree with all that. But I'm telling you just keep publishing content. Every day, I'll tell you this, if you publish content every single day, you will never go broke. Again, I'm telling you if you just publish content every single day, so that that's my golden thing. I fundamentally know that if I just keep publishing content, we're just going up and up and up.

Ree  44:41  
Doesn't really matter. It's amazing. And but like, you know, like you said, we're in the content age. people consume that consume, consume, but your content will slowly nurture them.

Saarim  44:50  
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And if you just keep creating content, I'm telling you like, it will just come like it just compounds like at this point. Obviously we Do do messaging and stuff like that. But we're just scheduling calls just from content now, like just it's just they're coming in, they're just coming in, like organic

Ree  45:07  
team do that now, do you still do your own content?

Saarim  45:10  
No content is the one thing that I don't, that I don't like outsource or gift anyone. It's like 50% Because I love doing it. Like, I genuinely enjoy creating content. It's fun. For me, it's a creative outlet. It's fun, like I like it. And also, it's just it's very important, right? Like, you know, you it's very hard to give someone else your voice like, hey, I need you to speak in my voice. I mean, it can be done. I know other people. Yeah, but But truly, like, I like I said, I love creating content, like, look, obviously, you should optimize your business, make it efficient, do all that kind of stuff. But business should be fun, too. So you should I mean, the things you like to do. And personally for me, I love creating content. I love like coming up with ideas, you know, making things I'm working on a YouTube channel right now publishing videos or like contents my thing, and it always will be I don't care if I'm worth a billion dollars or whatever, I still want to be in the content creation. I want to be involved in that I want to be active. That's That's me.

Ree  46:05  
That's pretty man. You can tell you're passionate and you love this stuff, man. So like I said, Look, guys, he's details gonna be below you can follow subscribe, you know, if you want to look at his content, you know, Tony Robbins said model people that are doing well, you know, you can look at what he's doing. Right? Try and work it out. And if you get stuck, holler at him. And

Saarim  46:24  
so I appreciate that. Man, I look, I really appreciate you having me on this podcast. And I know you're in the early stages with it. But the way you are handling this and the way it's going like, this is gonna be great man, I can already tell and like, I really appreciate being being on this. And it was it was a pleasure. I don't really open up about this stuff about like being evicted. And the whole Colombia situation, even my relationship, but you know, I really feel comfortable being having you as the host going back and forth to you. So I really appreciate that man. And I'll happily spread the word on this podcast and whoever is lucky enough to go next, you'd really cherish that opportunity. Well, thanks

Ree  46:57  
very much, man. Appreciate love the love and I'm glad you feel comfortable. You know, I think the whole point of this, this podcast is to show people that it doesn't matter where you are, who you are, what you've been hit with that. We can all do it. And everyone that's come on the show is relatable. I'm not just gonna be speaking to like super millionaires that aren't unrelatable we're speaking to a lot of people that we can relate to. So sort of thank you once again, and we'll definitely probably get you back again. And we can talk more LinkedIn strategy. For sure, man,

Saarim  47:27  
anytime you need me. I'll be there. I look forward to it.

Ree  47:29  
Oh Zambada. Thank you very much.

Saarim  47:31  
All right. Take care man. Bye bye.