Unlock the strategies that can transform your networking into a potent catalyst for business growth as we sit down with Aki Hamam, the visionary founder of Affiliate Business Club, straight from the dynamic city of Dubai. Embark on a journey through Aki's entrepreneurial landscape, where intimate gatherings become the birthplace of success stories and the after-parties buzz with the real magic of deal-making. As we weave through tales of his dual roles as a philanthropist and angel investor, you'll grasp the essence of creating lasting connections and the unparalleled value of a trusted community.
Step outside your comfort zone with us and discover the lucrative world of international entrepreneurship. Grasp the essence of diversification as we reminisce about investment endeavors from Bali to Amsterdam, and understand why being a person of value is non-negotiable in this realm. Recognize that your reputation is your greatest asset, and learn how to leverage a strong network to fast-track your path to plentiful opportunities and financial triumphs.
Let's navigate the intricacies of building a brand that stands the test of time, focusing on the role of community and automation in today's e-commerce and lead generation. Aki shares his wisdom on cultivating long-term value, fostering a business model that thrives on consistency and automated processes. Join us as we conclude with an invitation to dive into the transformative initiatives spearheaded by Aki, where the promise of enhancing your network and net worth awaits. This is your gateway to not just professional success, but also a journey toward personal fulfillment.
Unlock the strategies that can transform your networking into a potent catalyst for business growth as we sit down with Aki Hamam, the visionary founder of Affiliate Business Club, straight from the dynamic city of Dubai. Embark on a journey through Aki's entrepreneurial landscape, where intimate gatherings become the birthplace of success stories and the after-parties buzz with the real magic of deal-making. As we weave through tales of his dual roles as a philanthropist and angel investor, you'll grasp the essence of creating lasting connections and the unparalleled value of a trusted community.
Step outside your comfort zone with us and discover the lucrative world of international entrepreneurship. Grasp the essence of diversification as we reminisce about investment endeavors from Bali to Amsterdam, and understand why being a person of value is non-negotiable in this realm. Recognize that your reputation is your greatest asset, and learn how to leverage a strong network to fast-track your path to plentiful opportunities and financial triumphs.
Let's navigate the intricacies of building a brand that stands the test of time, focusing on the role of community and automation in today's e-commerce and lead generation. Aki shares his wisdom on cultivating long-term value, fostering a business model that thrives on consistency and automated processes. Join us as we conclude with an invitation to dive into the transformative initiatives spearheaded by Aki, where the promise of enhancing your network and net worth awaits. This is your gateway to not just professional success, but also a journey toward personal fulfillment.
Welcome to another edition of the LFG let's Fucking Go show. Today we're in a special location. We are in Dubai, where the world's soul is building the back of us. Right now I'm here with a good friend of mine, someone that I love a lot, a very unique person in our industry, aki Hamam Sup. Man, great to have you on the show. Man, really good to have you on the show. So Aki does a lot of stuff. He is the founder of Affiliate Business Club. They're a premier group of people, an E-com affiliates, in a space looking to take ship to the next level, a great network community.
Speaker 1:I met you there. Actually, I met you there three years ago here in Dubai, correct? You know I had a booth there. I had a lot of good business there. Great community. You're doing other stuff. You're cleaning up the Nile River Some amazing charity work that you're doing. Yeah, non-profit, right, doing good stuff. We're talking about that, and you're also an angel investor. So let's go, aki man. Let's tell everybody what you do. How'd you got into business man? Thank you for a lovely introduction. Great, great, yeah. So we did meet at one of my events through Amir. Yeah, shout out to Amir Mekay, hope you're doing good. Thanks, amir, for making the connections for sure.
Speaker 1:So ABC really started off with the goal to lay down better connections for people. I felt as an affiliate back in the days. For me I was lacking one event organizer that was just organizing the same kind of concept around all the shows. So I remember I was going to New York once, to the affiliate summit in New York and I just didn't meet enough people. In my opinion. It's massive. You get lost easily there. It's super lost. It's a massive city, yeah, it's a massive show. And then I heard all these people. They were invited to private events like Clickbank or whatever. Clickbank's been here for ages, right, and I wasn't working with Clickbank back in the day, so I wasn't invited to these events. So I remember after show I didn't know where to go and I was like, okay, but there should be something where, if I have this, other people have the same feeling. It's impossible that I'm the only one that doesn't know where to go after a show.
Speaker 1:So yeah, actually seven years ago came up with the idea you know what? Let's create a concept where people, the right people, can all connect and know where to go everywhere they go, whether it be affiliate summit, east West or affiliate world, or even the swallow shows, like in Ecom or Legion or iGaming or dating. I think we've done it perfectly in the sense of getting the right people on board. And now we've grown to yeah, we've done more than 150 events, for sure, and seven years, 40 countries doing meetups, masterminds, dinners, parties, soon our own show finally after all these years. So we're going to grow it bigger and to lay down better connections for the people.
Speaker 1:I love it and I can tell you that for a fact that it's not only the event. You also throw after parties and great parties as well, and I'm always a big, I'm always someone that says that it doesn't just happen at the events. A lot of them, my best business, has happened at the after parties. So let's talk about that. What are some success stories you've seen, whether it was at your event or at the after parties, or where, like, two people got together or a series of people got together and something beautiful came out of it. Any examples of that? Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Like I remember Alex Mikko, a very good buddy of mine. He's doing tens of millions a year during with YouTube and VSL. I remember him coming to our Barcelona event five, six years ago and he was making his first 10,000s and he even said, like, bro, back in days I met some people at your event and look at me now like in a good way, not like in a cock. We know how he is, he's awesome, he's very humble, he's a very humble guy. I'm like, well, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Like I met a few people at your event and actually in our Bangkok event in December I had two guys coming up to me and so like, actually we owe you a commission. I'm like for what? It's like well, actually we didn't tell you, but two years ago we met at your event and we just both discussed with each other that we wanted to give you a percentage because without you we wouldn't have met each other. Wow, and they randomly just gave me a commission. I was like, damn, that's crazy. And you know I make money on commissions and connecting people. You know so for me, it's like they know my business is like connecting people and without me asking, I think like you should always give regardless. So the more you give or the more you provide in general, the more you get back, and I've noticed that the more I was focusing on trying to make a buck or a percentage of introducing people with each other, the less I would make, but the more I would just organize I do the CEO entrepreneurs dinners all around the world. We did one in Bali, in Bangkok, now we're doing one in a couple of days here. The more I connect the right people with each other and be like, hey, guys, just come and connect with each other, the more they like oh man, thank you, without this I wouldn't have met these people.
Speaker 1:And sometimes we charge premium prices, like $500 or $1,000 for dinner, which is for dinner. It's well, I think it's a reasonable price, but I think so too. Some people say like whoa, you charge so much. Like whoa, you get to eat at the right spots, exactly, you get to meet the right people and you get to network with high level individuals, like high net program individuals, and I think this is the most important thing where I'd pay one grand to join a dinner if I know I'm going to meet the right people.
Speaker 1:So in that sense we're always trying to provide, like some, something of value and in that sense I always try to be a personal value as well for the people I meet along the way. Like how can I yeah, I know I'm a nice person but how can I add value to someone's life or business? And in that sense, abc is the perfect in my opinion, a perfect example where I've grown my network like crazy just by being the organizer. Everybody knows you're international I tell you that for sure and I've worked hard for it and in that sense we've gone through a lot of struggles. I've gone through personal struggles, like everyone. Dipanur ABC has had a very big hit during COVID, obviously, going from year to zero revenue almost In after two years. You don't know where you stand with the company or you're still what people think Like we used to be always like premium. After two years of no events to, people still think your opinion, that's actually when we met, like remember, that's when it was restarting again, the restarting again. And now we're always trying to be the best, the best possible way for ourselves.
Speaker 1:Not even I always think like being the best in the market is perception, because a lot of people they love what they're used to. They don't really necessarily love the best, right? If a super simple example I'm Dutch, right? I love Dutch cheese. Man, that cheese is the best. But I'm also Egyptian. I don't like the Egyptian cheese, but all my people in Egypt they love Egyptian cheese and they also love Dutch cheese, but I don't. I like what I'm used to, and not necessarily. And they even though Dutch cheese is better than Egyptian cheese they love what they're used to as well, and I think it's that in business as well, you're not necessarily always going for the best. You're going for what you're used to, what brings you stable, good money, because the best might not always be the best option, even though people are saying it's the best. So in that sense, yeah, we're trying to be our best selves and provide the best possible way, and that's you always need to change, and we were just talking about this morning, like loss, change, people change, perceptual change, initial changes. It moves so fast. So, in that sense, how can you always, how can you, provide the best value? Absolutely, and this is an ongoing change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I like what you said about really where Tomas is getting outside your comfort zone. Right, and in order to grow as a person, as an entrepreneur, you got to do new things. I came, I never been to Dubai or a lot of people, I think, in America are scared to go somewhere's international shows. I'm going to go to Dubai. What's going to be like there? Whatever you got to go, step outside your comfort zone and know someone like you, who. You live here, you have a lot of connections here, you've been all over the world. I mean, you live in Amsterdam and if I need something I was just asking you this question earlier we talked about I don't know six or seven months ago or maybe a year ago about investing in Bali, right, so I asked you today how is it?
Speaker 1:Like I said, I love Bali, but it's become over saturated. I don't recommend that now, but that's the kind of stuff the knowledge that, from an expert like you, you can help prevent someone like me or someone in your network from falling victim. Something like that. And I guess in your network, where maybe you guys have saved people a lot of money, prevented people from making some stupid decisions, I would say, like, because we work with a lot of companies in the industry, you know the good and the bad. Obviously, there's always good and bad people in every industry and I always try to work or see what someone's intention is. So, based on what someone's intention is, I can recommend things. One of the reasons why I co-founded an asset management company 30D capital so the asset management company was also something. I was lacking person.
Speaker 1:Why do I invest money outside crypto? Like in our industry is very normal to invest in crypto, right, absolutely Other people own quite some crypto. It's very accessible. We know how to work with MetaMask or all these other tools and how I drops work or something. But if you talk to a new or someone who doesn't know crypto, they don't know how to install MetaMask. They know how to. Yeah, it could be like oh, that MetaMask, what is it? Plug in. They don't know how to join an airdrop, but, okay, the crypto part was pretty easy. Then we're like, okay, what if I want to invest in stocks and crypto? That's what I said Stocks and IPOs, I mean outside crypto. But where do we start? And now I think, with the people that I know, a lot of people ask me normally hey, a lot of people make money with e-commerce or one thing really well, but they don't know how to diversify their investments. And this is really something where we wanted to create and provide value. Like, okay, we're a trusted source. I'm a trusted source.
Speaker 1:I know I'm a personal value because I've helped people. People know me, I wouldn't vanish with the money. The last thing I would do is vanish. I'm a religious guy as well. I believe in karma. You visit depends on your reputation. You can start a new business, but not new name. You could potentially.
Speaker 1:But I always say you take your character everywhere you go. So if you have a shit mindset, you take it anywhere you go. But if you have a great mindset, you take that everywhere you go to. So if you're a personal value, it doesn't matter which city you live in. People will want to connect with you because you're a personal value.
Speaker 1:In that sense, I've always tried to help people with my honest, personal opinion of what they should do. But I'm always asking, like we talked about. I love buying. I think it's still great investments, but it's becoming over-saturated. But that's my personal view. So I don't want to recommend you something just to make a quick buck and connect you, maybe with someone, and I'll make my commission 20 grand, 50 grand, 100 grand or whatever on something. But if your investment goes bad or down or you're not happy in one or two years whether they're really game, because money is made everywhere but trust is not made anywhere.
Speaker 1:So in that sense, I'd rather be like open and honest, like, hey guys, I wouldn't do it. I'd rather be like open and honest with the asset merchant company. I've invested all those things myself, so I can recommend because I've done it myself. So if someone comes up to me talks about being an angel investor or I've been an angel investor Like how, how is it to invest in something? I can tell from personal experience yeah, same with IPOs, same with crypto, same with stars. Now that I'm involved in it, it's way easier because I'm not saying something I don't know about and I don't want to recommend some something to someone which I have no clue talking about. So for me it's like, once you really like walk to talk, then it's like okay, you can recommend something to someone. Well, I just I don't like to talk to talk and then be like huh, yeah, you should do it, but I haven't done it myself and a lot of people do it because they want to make a quick buck. I love it.
Speaker 1:That's the mindset you gotta have is always bring providing value for your people in your network. So I think, at the end of what you've built is a community. You build this community of high level people and I think really, what you do is you help collapse time frames. If you know, there's been times where I got involved in paper pool and like, hey, I got this guy in paper, call, connect you. You were able to talk to me really fast and you would identify hey, this is what I need, this is what I got, a guy that could help you out. And that's what you're doing. It's collapsing time for it at the end day, right, would you say that? Yeah, I think it really. Also, it goes back to to value, like when you become a trusted person. You know, when I introduce it to someone, it is a personal value, because, do you know, I wouldn't introduce it to someone as a bullshitter, sure, and the other person also knows. So I think the more you become a personal value and that's in everything that that's a personal value to any business, to the marketplace, to your family, also to your friends. I think in general, you should always try to provide Everyone around in the best possible way and once you've created that, people come to you and ask you for things and then now in a position where I can choose what to work with before you, you can't, because you still need to build up your reputation Absolutely, and it's just like we don't have much money.
Speaker 1:Actually, we have this theory in our company where we call it the headache per euro theory, and it's like a heavy for what? The headache per euro? Okay, for your dollar made or something. So, when you start a company, you have a lot of headache, right, but you don't make much money. But as soon as you get much money, more money, you want less headache and you're paying to have less headache, right? Well, for example, abc, I, I have a perfect CEO, natalia. She's, she's awesome, she's amazing. She creates way less headache for me, like, but she's making good money and ABC is making money.
Speaker 1:So at one moment, there's always someone who can do the job better than you. But what do you want yourself? A return and a piece of mind, right, every entrepreneur wants peace of mind, absolutely, we always have it. But everyone wants it, right. We're always like stressed out in something. But at that moment, like, okay, you're willing to pay, you hire people to do their job For you and you have less headache. So that's the headache per euro, let's say, right, but it's also, when you make more money, usually get more headache because there's more. That, like biggie said, more money, more probably Absolutely, or we'll sweat or whatever. So it's like in that sense how do you create something where you get less headache right? And I think the more you become a person of value, the more you're in a position to create less headache for you. Because now it's like you know how we make money. It's like I connect people with each other.
Speaker 1:Many things I could do. I could start a affiliate network, I could start something, a business of people I connect with, but I'm okay with making less money and having almost no headache and make my commission Because that's how it can be part of several companies connect people with more, with more with each other, and take my cuts and Also provide again more value, because in that sense, the fastest way to provide value is knowledge or network. It's not only money. We, you can. You can have a million dollar investments, but if you don't know what to do with the million dollars, what's the million dollars worth? But you can have half of the investments, have the right people on board, have the right consultants, have the right network involved and make Five million Absolutely. So I try to add value as fast as possible with knowledge and with my network. I can be like, hey, david's, I can't do extra for extra revenue, but just talk to these two people and it's a simple introduction. But again, you have to become a personal value first to be able to do these introductions. Yeah, and it takes time to write.
Speaker 1:That's how long you've been doing this. For over a decade, right? 10, 15 years, abc, seven years. I've been in the affiliate marketing industry 13 years. Now almost 30, 14. That's crazy. I think this is like dog years, bro. Every year it's like seven years, right, I've been, I've been doing, I've been a call service over 20 years, right, should I be 140 years, over that point? But I've been in digital markets in 2015, right, but, man, I think like every year is like dog years, right. So, something like you're a veteran, obviously, in the space.
Speaker 1:I feel like sometimes I talk to young kids. You know like, yeah, man, I've been in space for 13 years. Oh, those young kids will humble you, right? Oh, like what the fuck? And they're like Like Alex, I hold on, even how he is, he must be in late 20s, right, it's like 25, 27. He's like he's talking about these killings Like in 20, 30 a year or whatever. Awesome dude humboss. You know, yeah, he drives that car, but yeah, it's fine. No, but he's the most chill guy ever.
Speaker 1:I met some other e-com guys 24, 22, tick-tock guys and I was speaking to a guy even last year in bursala. He's like yeah, I made like 7 million last year. I'm like dude, that's crazy. 21 dude making 7 million with their humble as hell. Right, that's what I like about the industry.
Speaker 1:There's not really a lot of we call like douche bags or jerks falls. No one's like you know, you know they're doing well, but they're not flexing and they're and they're willing to share. Correct, it's like what you're talking about. And I guess if they're not, then they're, they're gonna hurt them. They're make short-term money, they make, they won't make the long-term money. But then I find a lot of guys like that that are making that kind of money. They don't know what to do next. Or there's, there's I'm gonna be speaking in a couple days about new changes to legion. Right, that's affecting my business, affecting other people. I don't know they're aware of that shit. So, but let's talk about that too, because I'm sure Especially you, especially being in Dubai and being in Europe and in the Middle East like you, you're seeing people with making a lot of money Really really fast, like what's your advice? So if you're someone like that, that's just gone the industry, you're killing an e-com or a legion. What's your advice to someone like that so you can protect your money, because it's easy to fucking lose money? There's so much shit to lose money on. You know that, right, I know that too. Trading wrong investments, wrong, wrong advice, wrong people. Most important, yeah, that's money quick.
Speaker 1:I'm a big fan in investing in, in different continents, different concepts or concepts or concepts. Yeah, for example, I I have a friend of mine, super successful real estate guy in Amsterdam. He's making millions and he but he's only doing real estate. He has many different properties. But what if the laws are changing now? Yeah, so you, you can say like I have different sources of income Because he thinks he has different properties. He's like, yeah, I have many different sources, but actually I have one source of income which is real estate. You can have several objects, but it's still one, one sort of one for thing. Yeah, and you're stick, you're stuck to one, one law which is Holland's. So if, if not like now, holland's, the, the, the laws are changing, he's fucked, he's paying more tax. Love is changing with more tax. He has a maximum of of of of rent he can ask because of the apartment that he has.
Speaker 1:So I'm I'm a firm believer that if you invest in different concepts, different industries, different countries most important and Different continents, that's when you spread your whole risk, because I can make money in Bali, in Egypt, saudi, dubai, europe. I see Europe as one thing, even though, like, say, spain or France or Holland, they're kind of like the same. There's opportunities there, or like Portugal used to be really hot with real estate, it's also changing, but that's because the EU, at the end, is still controlling Yep as as a Worldwide bigger organization to me. So for me, the reason why I'm heavily involved or spending more time in Arab countries, I'm Arab, so I'm, I'm, I'm Egyptian, I speak the language, I understand the Arab way of thinking, the Saudis, the Dubai people, yamaradis, egyptian people, obviously, like I'm based in Egypt now and there's a lot of opportunity for I'm not even talking like people like me, but the generation like us that have cash, that made cash online, that made money, euros and dollars and invested in a different country, because In Egypt there is a shortage of foreign cash, huge opportunity. You can buy an apartment for 100k. Flip it because there's a shortage of foreign cash. You pay with foreign cash. You pay with foreign cash. You get discount because you're paying foreign cash. You can start a business. And Egypt for 50 to 100 grand. Mickey 1k a month.
Speaker 1:In Europe it's impossible, because it's for me. When I was younger, I always thought I need to make a million with one big hit, right? Everyone thinks, well, how do I make my first million? Every young guy I thought, no man, I need to make one big hit. That I'm there, right. But To become successful is not to make one big hit, because you'll just be like a one-day fly. And I know guys that made money with a lot of crypto. They don't know how to invest. They're not a personal value, they're not an entrepreneur. They know. They don't know how to diversify. So you make good money and now they lost that. They might have okay money now, but if you don't know how to invest in different Industries, it's a very fast way of losing money quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for me is to connect at that many different places. It brings so much more opportunity because now people like, hey, actually I have an amazing opportunity, can you invest in this, startups, for example, but even real estate project. There's a guy who came, he invited me to uh talking about good real estate project now oman, like closer to down south, here in the dubai and then in the south. I think that's a good thing because you can buy apartments for between 200 and 500k, making you 10, 12 percent of the year Wow, whereas holland is 5%, I think now I don't, I don't know the exact number Probably like this, bali is still good, but yeah, you know my view about Bali. But then I'm like, people come to you because they see your personal value. They know that you know a lot of people, so they know you can raise capital. And that's the position I want to be in. I want to be in a position where opportunities come towards me Instead of me searching for the opportunity.
Speaker 1:But when you, when you're starting, you need to find what you're good at. I didn't know what I wanted to do. That's why you, you start doing many different things. Or maybe I should study, maybe I should work for a company, maybe I should, oh, have an idea. I should start this. No, I have another idea. I start this. We often we've all been there, every entrepreneur. I tried 50 things, let's say. But once you grow older, you know what you're really good at, and for me, that's networking and laying down connections, and If someone needs something they know I can provide very fast. Yeah, and that's what I want to be known for and that's what I want to keep doing for the rest of my life, because everyone really talks about where you see yourself in five years, but because I, I trust myself and my own characters, your characteristics and and I know my qualities I don't work a day in my life. Man, it's fun, for you it's fun and and without this it's like once you Like.
Speaker 1:For example, why do people fuck over other people? It's greed or ego, or or would I believe it's they're unsure of what they can gain in the future. So what are you? Uncertainty, because when you are afraid of the future and you don't know if you're going to make money next, next month, next year, and you, you you'll grab whatever you can grab. Yeah, it's that saying with with food, if people and and poorer nations, if, if you give them all the food, they'll eat as much as they can, because they don't know how much they will eat in the next couple Days, but that's the same thing with business or money. So when, when you fuck someone over, I can't smile right. Let's fucking go show, let's fucking go. Let's fucking go. No way, when you fuck someone over, you do it out of greed, uncertainty or your ego.
Speaker 1:But for me, I'm so certain about the future that things somehow, somewhere or the other, will be fine. I trust every process along the way. I'm a firm believer of God. I know God has. If you're a good person and you do good for the world, things will align and bad things will happen for you to not do what you thought you had to do. And that's the same thing.
Speaker 1:Quite like now, the industry, everything's changing. You're talking about it. A lot of people will think, oh shit, that's bad. But the people of opportunity or that are seeking opportunity, they'll change like this. They're like, okay, this is changing. I can cry, but I can also adapt Absolutely. And adapting is the only way of being certain about the future, because you can be, let's say, our parents. They're used to old way of working, like the work cards, work for a boss or whatever, but that's their knowledge, right. They're not used to adapting as fast to the marketplace as we do, and our industry is changing so fast man, it does.
Speaker 1:I think what you said was really huge about certainty, right, and I think that the one thing that's certain about the affiliate marketing space and online marketing is that there's always change, right? So you got to be able to adapt to that change and by knowing people like you, who I feel like you're like a power broker, you're a power network. At the end of the day, you really are, and in the fast going this here was freaking desert. 15 years ago. Now we're, I was at Palm Island, or is it Palm Palm's it? I was there yesterday, right, that was on water like 15, 20 years ago. Now it's like beautiful, it really got crazy real estate, right.
Speaker 1:So the point is that if you're, if your proximity is key, you're here, located where there's so much money coming towards, right, so you feel what's going on. So someone like me that lives in America, like right now I'm in Florida, there's a lot of money flowing towards Florida, but to have a connection like you here, if I want to invest one day here, I'm like hey, aki, what do you think about that? You're going to collapse time for me, and collapsing time for me is huge because I'm busy as fuck. You know, I'm working, I'm on the with my family in the weekends. I don't have the time to do that shit. So that's why that's the value of someone like you is that you can help reduce the uncertainty. And I know for certain, like hey, aki's a good guy, he's connected, he's not going to fuck me over, he's going to help accelerate time for his collapse, time for me, and create win-win's man at the end of the day. I think that's really the value. I think that's the most important thing.
Speaker 1:If, if, especially for entrepreneurs that that made good money like you, like you're successful with your company, you know a lot of people and and you want to most of the players they don't want to do too many things right. Like there's no entrepreneur, that's that that runs 10 companies full time. Like even Elon has four companies or something right and he's not managing all four companies, even though he's CEO of some. But if, if someone comes with an opportunity towards, let's say, you or even Elon, you will only go to a trusted person, who you will only invest your money or spend time with someone. If you know, okay, I trust this person, or it came to us.
Speaker 1:Personally, I think this is the main reason, or it's it's why I do what I do. I want to become the the bridge between the West and the Arab worlds. Hence why I was living in Dubai, spending more time in Saudi, living in Egypt now, and for people like you and many other people in the industry, people always want to invest in something because it's stupid not to the dollars to come, in less words, the euro. We don't know what's going to happen yet, but everyone, it's a known fact that the the dollars become a worth less. They're printing trillions of dollars, they're sending billions and AIDS to foreign countries and not fixing their own country, which, in my opinion, well, you've got bigger fish of pride and then sending AIDS, you know. But for entrepreneurs like us, which, where we've worked hard to build where we are and to have what we have, you always want to invest. I said, like with trusted people, absolutely, I love it, man. And let's talk about you made me think too. We're talking about uncertainty and certainty.
Speaker 1:If someone's a good media buyer, right, and they know how to generate leads, or they know how to get people to click on ads for ecom, they're making a lot of money doing that that's their lane, that's what they're really good at. You're a good network. This is your lane, but it's important to surround yourself with people that compliment you and, let's say, you'd like to be behind the screen. You know, have a small media team or big, whatever the hell it is. You're growing. You got to connect. You have to have other people that, as far as your network, that are good networkers or a good money. That's how you're going to grow ultimately, cause, at the end of the day, it's fun to generate leads and to do what you're doing, but you're not going to get to the next level if you're just doing that for the rest of your life, and that's part of stepping outside of your comfort zone. Right, you were great. And what would you say is you have any examples of people like that and maybe they start off I know we talked about Alec but they start off as maybe a one person affiliate buyer, affiliate media buyer or ecom person and now they're like they're blowing up because they follow those steps. So they follow that process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of all the media buyers by previous company. Uh, he's super low key, but he he actually doesn't like to go to shows, for example, but he likes to go to the smaller events around the shows, more intimate than wins. Yeah, I know he's, he's making seven figures a month easily. Wow, like easy. And I I always told him but you have to go to shows, cause we used to run a media by a company together 10 years ago and he didn't like. But you have to never, because you get better deals when people meet the face behind the trash. Trust, yes, I always can get a better deal, like I negotiate like crazy because I don't know. Yeah, you know, you go there and you smile. That's what it is, and and and that sense is like the more you get out there, the more people trust you, the easier it is to get a better deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause, let's say, you can get a 10% better profit margin just by asking online. It's very hard to get it, but once you work with each other and we'd like we know each other if you ask me something, I, I give people discounts, sometimes for the sponsorships or whatever, barely. But if I really liked someone and I know this guy's coming back a second time or a third time, I can be like, okay, you know what we can do, but if people ask me and they, they. I'm not sure if they come back like what's in it for me then, but it it all starts with, with, with like a bill, and that's also with certainty Cause now I'm certain I'm going to he's going to come back a second time or a third time, so then you don't mind giving a piece of the pie or or or giving away a discount because it's coming back. But if someone's not coming back, then why would you give discounts? It's a long game, it's longer.
Speaker 1:I think in the end that's the reason why why why you do what you do. You do it for a long game and just like you, we've seen people come in the other business, say one year, two year, three years, especially media buyers. They just want to make quick money, but they're not in it for the long, long run and then they don't build a sustainable business. And I can really recommend as I speak to a lot of people daily for a Philippines club, for the fund for the foundation or especially in in FA marketing I always want to tell people try to build a sustainable business. It doesn't matter what kind of office you promote, but being here for short term is never the right answer. People want to make quick buck. That's fine, but you can make so much more in two to five years time If you treat your business like a business and not like a cash grab or a hit and run, or let's say you're gambling like a casino, or if I can just run this ad.
Speaker 1:And even with media buying and I can speak from experience as well people are always like, oh, if I have this one ad that's working right, I'll just make bank. But it's not about this one ad, we're just talking about this. It's not about this one million you're making with one hit. It's about creating so many different ads or offers or promoting offers and then making a good buck, percentage wise, on all of them. And that's when you start reinvesting your, your money you're making, and that's when you grow any type of business.
Speaker 1:I didn't make my first million just by making one million overnight. There's some of it, but just like you didn't make your first million with this one one ad or one campaign, or it's several months of time, steps and steps. Yeah, you make five K, 10 K, 20 K, 50 K, 100 K and on to on, and that's when you reach, let's say, one million revenue than we did. That's why you reach one million in profits. But I feel this industry people are yes, you can make money quick, but there's an illusion where people think this is the only way, this is the way out quick. But even the ecom guys, the big, humble guys we're talking about, they build a brand or they're pushing several months and maybe they got lucky faster, but they treated it like a business or they didn't treat it like a quick hit and run on. Let me invest 10 K and make 100 K. Yeah, there's rarely someone who starts off and any type of business that invest, they will go to next very fast If you don't treat it like a business.
Speaker 1:And I think it comes out to the mentality right, because they say how you do one thing is how you do everything, so you try to get rich quick. Your whole life is going to be like that. Because you get rich quick, you're going to lose money quick too. It's the same fucking idea at the end of the day. That's why gamblers lose their money Exactly In life. Yeah, because they make habits. Yeah, it happens. They make quick money and they lose quick money because they're not used to building.
Speaker 1:Look, abc has been here for seven years now People are still coming up to me oh, you're still running ABC. I'm like, yeah, I asked you that here earlier. Yeah, you ever see you, although now, yeah, we have a CEO. Like she's awesome, and I said as well, like the reason why we have, or like ABC has, CEO is she does the job better than I do. Man, she's way more partious. She has a great vision. She understands me. Most important, she knows where ABC came from. So also, in that sense, she understands where I, with ABC, want to go. And now we created our own vision where we want to go, because it's not about me anymore. Abc is to be me ACI, abc, abc, aci. But now ABC is becoming a brand. It became a brand and she's running it on and the back end way better than I am. I'm still doing like the sponsorship and the people and that's why I'm good at that. I told her you're way better than what you do. I'm way better and just let me do these things and I'm up this way to go.
Speaker 1:But to grow a company, I think you should also trust people and I think a lot of people are afraid to give away their baby because they're afraid to give away, they're afraid that something might go wrong. And then you're giving away something you've built. But at the end of the day, you're giving away something you've built. I could start a new ABC in any industry or a new ABC in this and XYZ tomorrow. Exactly, we call it XYZ If someone took ABC away or it would go down. You start a different brand because I know how to start this kind of business, same like you paper call. If this current, like unlimited holidays, goes down, I mean, yeah, okay, for every reason, you start a new brand. Right, and I got my network with them. Exactly, they'll come with me and the network is already talking to become a person of value, person of trust. Yeah, so in that sense, it's important to trust people to grow your company.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I'm not afraid of the future because I trust, I'm certain. Yeah, and that's the reason why I really am very careful to fuck shit up. Everyone fucks up sometimes, right, you make a mistake, you'll disappoint some people. You'll disappoint a attendee, a sponsor, maybe some people, maybe you're disappointed with the quality. There's always something which is that's life, man, but it's also how you treat the disappointment of people.
Speaker 1:How do you adapt? We're just talking about. How do you adapt? Okay, you're disappointed. How can I fix it?
Speaker 1:You just said a lot of big shit there. I would rewind. If you're listening to rewind what you said, play that again, because I think a lot of people in our industry they start off as buying media. They start making some money but they don't know how to. They can't even afford them having a team of 5, 10, 20 people on their team, right, and it comes down to certainty. There are certainties that they know how to generate leads, they know how to do whatever, but when you can train someone to do that and you can get yourself out of the business, that's really where you grow, right, it's when it comes down to. So I think it hats off to you for making that happen, because that's not an easy transition. I've done it myself.
Speaker 1:Shit is scary as fuck man, gary, man. But if you want to go to the next level, one reason I can travel the world is my business running because I got a team that's doing it. I got people on my team that I trust, that I know they're not going to fuck shit up. Or they do fuck it up, hey, we'll fix it at the end of the day. So let's talk about that, because I'm sure that it's happened to me.
Speaker 1:When you're connecting people, you're running a business, there's some fuck ups that happen. Can you talk about specifically what was the fuck up and how do you handle that fuck up and what's the lesson out of that fuck up? Like a big fuck up man, I trust my previous investors too much. Okay. Then there are people in the industry. A big fuck up was I was really trusting their words too much and their direction and they eventually also fucked me over big time for more than 100 grand. Not many people know this, but I think the biggest fuck up then was I tried to fix it as fast as possible, short term, no matter what. Like I was just actually what we were trying to say. It's like a sinking ship. You're trying to fix it while sinking, but you have to sometimes jump into the helicopter, spend the money just to get the fuck out. Yeah, get the fuck out, and that's when you can fix things better.
Speaker 1:But also with with sponsors, things happen. I remember we had an event right before COVID came and I was like no man, I'm not traveling to this conference COVID's coming. We didn't know what was going to happen. That was like are people dying? We heard people dying in China and stuff. And at that moment I was like you know what, I'm not going to travel to this event. But we were organizing an event and the sponsor is like Aki. It was organized like shit. The bandits were placed wrong and you weren't there. And I said you're right.
Speaker 1:I went to the office, I apologized. You know what. I told you guys, I wasn't going to be there, but I should have actually canceled the event because I was uncertain it was, it was going to be a good event due to COVID spreading and it had just started to spread in Europe. And then the only way to fix it is to go there and apologize, because I could be like yeah, guys, sorry, whatever the fuck, if you don't like it, whatever it could be, or I could be like you know, guys, I fucked up, I should have been more honest or I should have taken, called the shot and not organized the event. But I didn't want to disappoint you. But actually I disappointed you guys more and I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:How do you want it fixed? So I can see. In that sense, does it fit in my capacity to fix it or are you asking too much. But if I propose two ways, maybe I propose way more and they're okay with way with less, or maybe they're not happy with my proposal how it's being fixed. So once I asked, how do you like it to be fixed? Like, if you can do this for us, we'll be happy. Like, consider it done, done right.
Speaker 1:And I think once you fuck up and I fucked up many times, man in life, like a lot why learn one thing everything is fixable and time passes with everything. And if it's not fixable, it's not meant to be fixed. I love that Right. Like in that sense I've lost friendship because someone fucked me over, but I've forgiven you, these people. But I've also had people fucking me over and that I'm probably like bro, you fucked me over so hard. I can never forgive you. I might forgive but never want to see you again, it's possible and then it's not meant to be fixed. Or maybe I make a mistake and maybe I'm making a mistake in the future. We don't know. Man, life changes. I think that at the end of the day, you should always try to do your best and not to fuck up all the time, but when you do, you have to stand up and be mad and be like, hey, I'm sorry, face the music Right, and that's a lot easier said than done, I think. But that's when you got to buck up and I fucked up. Here I'm going to fix it. I don't know the fact that you asked the people how do you want this resolved? And then you did it right. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1:It's always better to ask questions than that people ask you questions. I love that Because the way we work and any type of business we even have it in our SOPs I always try to limit the question from the clients, because a question from the client means they need something from me. I don't want people to be needing something from me and wasting time. So when you limit the questions from a client, you win time and you win fast with like the speed. So that's a simple example.
Speaker 1:When a sponsor sponsor events, we send them a list of things of. We've had so many questions that now we know Sponsors usually have the same things. Right, it's always like five questions with people always ask. It's not like a hundred questions. But if you have 10 plus sponsors asking all the same questions simple example then you're wasting 10, 20 minutes each time. So when you have written in your SOPs all these questions you could possibly get from a sponsor and send them in one go, you limit the chance of uncertainty.
Speaker 1:From a sponsor working with you, I would say hey, bro, this is what we need from you. Send it maximum in three days. This is what you can expect at the event. This is this. By the way, the pictures will come within three to five days after the event, because these are questions we get. Hey, what are the pictures coming? Where is the band?
Speaker 1:We are so well prepared now that if my mother would read the SOP, she could talk to a sponsor and that's a real SOP. But I think when you work with any type of client, you should be the one asking the questions, because if someone asks you, they will call you like hey, I don't know about this and I don't like to be called with questions or something where I have to shift my energy on something I'm working on and answer simple questions going backwards at that point and maybe I'm busy with something else or I'm in my deep work mode and then someone's calling me with a simple question and I'm tuned out. But once you have also to the SOPs, once you have the SOPs so well written, or even in a team boy, you could work in my company and you could. You know how to work with a sponsor. Same counts for my mother, for anybody. But this is like how the way to grow a business, fast and easy, because then at the end there's no uncertainty for anybody. We know exactly that the sponsor knows and we ask hey, did you read the whole, all the questions? We confirm. Once we've confirmed we know, hey, if he asks, you can redirect him back to the documents. Hey, bro, it's in the documents. If you want to call, it's possible, but please first read the document first and then you at one. That's how you scale and speed. That's what it is. You gotta make your process in place that are repeatable Exactly. Other people won't put it. I love it.
Speaker 1:So let's let's shift back to e-com media buying. You obviously have a different perspective. I think that most people you see things from a different kind of view, right In terms, I think, from a high up. So what's going on? Where do you see the future of e-com and Legion from where you sit? I spoke to two great guys yesterday, monisha and Daniel. Monisha is a big e-com guy builds brands, does a couple million a year Very successfully in space, because he's built a community for his e-com brands. What I liked about him and I'm also working with Daniel Daniel he builds platforms. But it could be a very simplified platform to scale things in the back end for your e-com brand or for your Legion brand.
Speaker 1:So how I see the future is really it's automation, like platforms, it's community building in any sense, because people come back once they feel connected to the brand. But that's that. I think brand and community is the same. But now I consult or connect also e-com brands with agencies, with platform builders or whatever they need, or a fit of networks, for example, or fits, because they're usually good in their own country or their own region, but they want a skill, either to Manor Region, like to Arab countries, or they want a skill to Europe or the US and with, obviously, the ABC network, it's very easy to tap into. Hey, talk to these people. But talking to these brands, I really feel like again, it's like long term game.
Speaker 1:If you want to start a Legion company or you want to work in Legion, or you want to start an e-com brand or e-com company, it's all. How do I provide the best possible value to the people that I'm selling to or that I want to become on board. Because once people feel scammed let's say in Legion, or they're coming into a whole quiz and funnel being bombarded in a negative way, you lose this client, you lose this type of people. Same counts for e-com If you can sell a shit Alibaba or Aliexpress product, you'll make a quick buck, but that's about it. But once you're still building a brand, providing, building a community that they're part of and making it super easy, possible for them let's say, automated free-owners for yourself, I think that's then you build a sellable business.
Speaker 1:And building a sellable business is not making quick buck because no one will buy a dropshipping brand. Well, maybe they do, but if it's a shit dropshipping brand, people won't really buy it because it's not sellable, because it's like a hype, unless you really have the process, the community which you dropped your brand, you've automated all the processes. Then you or me could be like, oh, that's an interesting business, they're doing so much revenue. Okay, then you two-axis, five-axis, whatever. But that's all part of the backend and I think that goes back to certainty. By having those automations in place right by having it creates predictable revenue flows, which makes your company more appetizing for someone to buy it out, because they know that they can buy it here. They have these automations, they can take it to there. It all comes at the end of the day. So that's something I didn't expect to talk about.
Speaker 1:But we talked about certainty. A lot right, and that's what life comes down to. It's like, hey, you're going to put X amount of money in this. What's the certainty? That's going to bring X amount of value at the end of the day. So that was great. A lot of fucking value here, man, I love it. I can talk out for ages, but it just happened to come like this.
Speaker 1:But I think that the certainty I really want to give, or tell people when you start giving, that's certain, absolutely, because when you start giving, people are starting to talk about you. Like, I know I'm a person of value, people know me, but why? How do they know me? It's because I gave with free events, with right connections. Even now we have paid events. But we give the right connections and we give so much back to the people in the community that it all starts with giving. Man, and also, when you're a taker, you sleep less better, less good, but when you're a giver you sleep well, right.
Speaker 1:But when you start giving, that's certain because you can always give and unlimited. You can give energy, time, connections. Whatever you can give is endless. But you cannot expect something to come to you if you haven't given Absolutely. But even now I don't expect. And I've given a lot like donated, built, whatever connections Even now I don't expect.
Speaker 1:But I know it comes back so much faster because people now want to help. They see a foundation, they see a fund, they see a community events company like, oh man, he's giving so much to the community, how can I give something back? And now people come to okay, you have to meet this person. I know this guy or this girl. You guys have to meet. And this will happen when you've given to people. But if you're not a person of value and you're only a taker, no one will be like, hey, david, don't even think about him. Or they'll think in a negative way be like fuck that guy, he's a taker, yeah, he's a taker, he's a lead chieftain. Never mind Absolutely. And this is it.
Speaker 1:All comes back to certainty. If you're a certain of yourself, if you're self-confidence, if you love what you do. Most important, bro, I don't feel I'm working any day of my life. Man, I love that. I travel. I meet the brightest minds in the world, I see so many beautiful human beings and they all want to help because they know I'm a giver and I don't give because I want people to think I'm a giver. You have to give from your hearts and that's the reason why I started the foundation.
Speaker 1:Even people in Egypt in the street, the kids in the street. We adopted the street dog. Everyone's treating the street dogs with care because I told them like guys, street dog, you just get birth to seven puppies. For example, I want this to be the cleanest streets in Cairo. People come, the kids come clean the street. Now I love it.
Speaker 1:And you change their mindset Like, hey, guys, it all starts with giving. You got it in the mindset of giving Exactly Back to the community, giving back, taking care of people, taking care of the streets. It starts with taking care of trash. They care of the streets, they care of your parents, your friends, your family. It goes, it's endless. But again, it all starts with giving. And that's a great way to wrap this up because obviously we're here in Iraq, in the, we're at Filly Road, we're in Dubai, right. Everyone comes to learn what are the tricks so they can make more money, help their businesses grow. But when you grow a business, it's absolutely important to give back right, to give back to the community, give back to the environment and so forth.
Speaker 1:So one thing I learned today I didn't know that you have a foundation where you're cleaning up the Nile River, right. I didn't know that there was so much pollution going on. I had no clue until you told me that. That's the thing about awareness. I'm becoming more aware of it. I want to give to that, right. It's right. I mean, people depend on the river for a lot of things, right. So let's talk about that. And where do the ideas come from? Why are you so passionate about it and how can we provide value to that? How can we give to that? Thanks for asking it. Wasn't expecting it so.
Speaker 1:But look, I think like I've always had a connection with Egypt, like I'm Arab, my friends are Egyptian, born and raised in Egypt. I'm born and raised in Holland. I think, for people like me especially, like growing up with two different cultures at home, like our culture at home, with being raised in a Dutch society. You always thought the connection thanks to my mom. She put in so much effort in teaching me Arabic, teaching me the Quran, teaching me the Arab values, staying true to yourself as an Arab. She also would be like you're going to be discriminated because you're Muslim, you're Arab, that's just how the way it's going to be. But don't get mad, because if you get mad they will look bad at you. But these are like things you learn at a young age. And then she always, like my dad, always, took me around in Cairo as a young kid on the shoulder and walking around like he's the nicest guy ever, always laughing and always trying to show me around.
Speaker 1:When I was a kid, you know, and I think, when you're a kid and you're growing up in two countries, basically, I saw 100 always being clean and I saw Egypt always being dirty and I was always wondering, oh, why is it dirty? As a kid. And then now the story actually goes that my father and me were walking past the Nile River and he grew up there, so he used to swim as a kid in the Nile River and now it's impossible. And he showed me where he used to swim as a kid and it was just full of trash and I couldn't imagine him swimming there. And then I realized, man, something needs to be done because he was so disappointed and I realized that's real disappointment because it hurts. I saw him go back to his childhood memory and think, like what the fuck has happened? And my mom always used to say Egypt used to be so clean, cairo used to be so clean. Back in the days when I was a kid, walking to high school or walking to primary school or university, I used to walk. We wouldn't find a paper on the street. And I look now, bro, everywhere you look, there's papers on the street.
Speaker 1:So the foundation really came of also giving providing. I saw an opportunity. I think the recycling business is also. It's an interesting industry to be in. But it all starts with giving back to the community, because I know the water level is going down because of Ethiopian dam People in general they treat trash in a very bad way in Egypt. They just throw it out on the streets.
Speaker 1:I'm heavily, heavily sure that I can change the mindset of the people in Egypt. That's awesome, because it took two generations to make Egypt dirty. I think we can fix it within one generation. That's beautiful Because it's all about priorities. Now, river is just a start, because now we're taking the trash out. But I want to fix local communities, build football fields, school mosques, homes, build homes for homeless people Because now I came across that that's also a big issue, and actually both for us is not much money. You can build a home for a couple grand, which is generational change. Football fields will cost less than a grand. You can have a local community kids playing soccer field or football field which will be there for 10 years At least if they're treated well and stuff. I think now that the knock-up is it opening many doors where my goal is really to fix it in all 11 countries.
Speaker 1:Organize a conference, actually coming from their events backgrounds, and now a conference where we get all 11 countries on board, having the same direction of vision, because you cannot be like I'm building a dam in Egypt, like Ethiopia. You cannot have a factory polluted in Uganda or Sudan, because this will also influence Egypt and without the river now there wouldn't be no pyramids man. I would be. The Egyptian. Pride is denial and besides, the denial is owned by all the Egyptians. It's not even owned by the government. Wow, I didn't know that the people own the now river, so they should benefit from the now river, but the government isn't doing anything because they've got bigger pressure. Friday economy is going down, the Egyptian pound is dropping like crazy, everything's getting more expensive, I know, but someone needs to do and I'm like, okay, but my network, with my vision, with the people that I know, I know I can move things fast, get funding, get donations, get the right people on board.
Speaker 1:So the goals this is something we're talking about. I don't feel like I'm working a day in my life and this is something I could see I can do for the rest of my life. Yeah, I love that, but I hope to only have a foundation for 10 years and that it's not needed anymore. So my goal is I could do it for the rest of my life, but I hope we build a foundation and we change the people's mindset that my foundation isn't even needed in the future, because that's when you've created generational change, because when people treat trash better and don't pollute them now with chemicals, then actually we're becoming obsolete. But now we're needed, and we're definitely needed to change the communities.
Speaker 1:I love it. I think that's great because that's a longer term vision, helping the community, and then, at the end of it, it's a habit, right. It changes everything we treat trash better. I mean it's going to lead to open doors or other opportunities. So I love it and I think that this is beautiful.
Speaker 1:You got in this business. Obviously You're growing, you're scaling the business right now. Your building is amazing. Community. You're doing this internationally. So I freaking love it.
Speaker 1:I think this is one of the best interviews we've done, because you just help us see shit from a whole different level, right, and the great thing about the world is it's the whole building behind it. So that's the kind of concept we're thinking about Think outside the box, think differently, man. So how can people find you? Man? Follow me on Instagram, I think best I'll send you the Instagram home, like. I'll send you the link. We'll work on the website, my personal brand website. I want to get more out there, get the story more out there, especially for the foundation. The foundation is called the NIO Cleanuporg, now cleanuporg the org. We're changing the website as we speak.
Speaker 1:Affiliate Business Club obviously AffiliateBusinesscom. We're launching conference and a platform this year. Send you all the details. That's the most important thing that everyone check out. Affiliate Business Club. I've been to many events. I'm going to a few here. Great community, you want to grow your network? Here's your net worth. At the end of the day. Aki's a great guy to know. Obviously helps collapse time frames. That's how you go from A to Z as quickly as possible With that, avoiding all those land mines that are out there. I love it, aki. Great having you on the show. Man. Let's fucking go, baby. Love it, man. This is awesome. Thank you, bro. Good shit, the Squid Lord.