“The number one strategy above everything else is just do not stop. If you do not stop, you will succeed one way or another” – SAARIM ASADY
S2-EP004 – In this episode, Saarim and I discuss the exact strategy he used to get successful on LinkedIn. We talk about his content creation journey, his fears, and the system he uses to show up online consistently.
So, grab a cup of spicy chai and enjoy the episode!
Have a question/comment or just want to chat? DM me on Instagram @mahrukh.m.imtiaz
Highlights from this episode:
[5:20] So what would you say to people who have this mindset of learning everything or holding back before they start?
[8:40] When someone’s starting off on LinkedIn. How is that content different than let’s say Instagram or Facebook or Tik Tok?
[12:10] What are five things people need to do on LinkedIn to start?
[14:45] What exactly is the conversion system that you have on Linkedin?
[18:50] So what are some of the fears you would say you started with when you went on LinkedIn?
[21:45] What are some of the fears that you have right now that are coming through as you’re building?
[31:05] What advice would you give the younger Saarim who’s starting out on LinkedIn? Something that you know, now that you didn’t know, before?
Connect with Saarim:
A little bit about Saarim:
Saarim is an award-winning online business coach. His online programs have generated over 6 figures in revenue. Today he specializes in helping online entrepreneurs get more clients online organically. Saarim is a graduate of Queen’s University (2016 – BAH) & (2017 – MMIE). If you’re looking to start an online coaching or consulting business OR grow your current to getting more high-paying clients, Saarim is the person to take you there.
FEATURED ON THE SHOW:
–> Watch my free training video to learn the 4 simple steps you can use to start your podcast today.
–> If this episode is making you think, I would love if you could share your thoughts with me over on Instagram!
ENJOY THE SHOW?
–> Don’t miss an episode, listen on Spotify and subscribe via Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform!
–> Leave me a review in Apple Podcasts.
Transcription:
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Today’s guest is an award-winning online business coach. He specializes in helping online entrepreneurs like myself get more clients organically through LinkedIn and Facebook. His online programs have generated over six figures and revenue. And he has done it all without having a million followers. Talk about quality over quantity. And this is someone that I call a mentor of mine, and has helped me leverage LinkedIn. Welcome to the show, Saarim.
Saarim Asady
Thank you so much. That was I was not expecting such a nice intro to took me back. So I really, really appreciate it. And I’m excited to be here and like, Yeah, I’ve heard so much about your podcast. Listen to some of your episodes. I just watched your last episode. I thought that was really cool. The last guest you had the one you just uploaded today. Tiktok guy.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Yeah,
Saarim Asady
He’s so cool. Like I I’ve scrolled on Instagram and seen as Tiktok so my oldest kind of creeps good content, and then I saw him on you’re all right. Yeah, you’re gonna pockets like that.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
He jumped in this like, really awesome. And the cool thing about him is that we’ve actually connected way before he became like, popular. Like, really? Yeah, we knew each other. And we were like, helping each other out as content creators like way before he became viral. So I think that’s like the beauty of like, the connections and the content, right? Like you keep connecting, you don’t know who’s gonna go viral, or who’s gonna do really well. And He’s stayed humble throughout. Like, we stay in touch. We still talk. So it’s pretty awesome. Yeah, good podcast definitely had so much gold. So, ya know, I’m excited for this one. And obviously, we will dive into LinkedIn, the world of LinkedIn, but I know when people have probably heard your story, but just for everyone listening today, what is your story?
Saarim Asady
Okay, so, my business story, I’ll start because like, I guess, like life story goes a long way. But all my story starts back in 2016. That’s when I did my masters. Queens, we went to the same university. Yeah. Queens represent. So in order to graduate, one of our main projects was to start a business, right, and the business had to generate some income, and it could not be like Kijiji or Craigslist or eBay. You couldn’t just like, like, cheat your way through it. So I went through, like a bunch of ideas, ups and downs. And then I realized, Okay, let me build a blog, because I saw a lot of people were blogs were very popular back then, especially like, 2016, to my blog before then. And I realized you can make some decent money, if you like, from the ads just based on views. So I realized, okay, you can make, I think the metric was very 1000 views, you’ll make about $1. And I was like, Okay, well, I can get 1000 views, that’s not that hard to push to a website. So I did that graduated from the program. And then within six months, I grew this website, to a million active readers. So that’s influenced i just.com. So that was kind of cool. That was kind of like my first step into this entrepreneurship world. Then after that, I started getting hired by different universities across Canada to start giving lectures on digital marketing, SEO, all this stuff. It was really cool. I was giving lectures like MBA classes, and stuff like that. So that was cool. And then one day after one of my lectures, actually one of my lectures at Queens of the Toronto campus, I got a call from someone and he said, Hey, look, I’m a professor at Queens. I was wondering if you could help me out with my business. I’m looking to get some clients. I was like, Oh, well, what do you do? He’s like, Well, I’m a consultant on the side, I consult on artificial intelligence. So at the time, I didn’t know anything, I said, Well, I don’t know maybe give LinkedIn a try. Sounds like a cool idea to start with. And he’s like, not I trust you. So he, I remember, he transferred me to K that days, I got, you know, like, the complete he’s like, risk free, man. We’ll see what happens. Like if it all fails, it’s all on me. I was like, okay, cool. So I built him this entire marketing plan, executed it for him. And then two weeks later, three weeks later, he calls me he’s like, Sorem, whatever you did work, I was like, What are you mean, it worked. And he’s like, I just closed the $50,000 deal. I’m going to New Mexico in a week, like, thank you so much. And I was like, Oh, thanks. Like, this is great. And then he started referring me to like more and more of his colleagues. And then I actually ended up running a marketing agency for almost four years from that. And that’s kind of where I got my first start. And I was basically running marketing, like I was running marketing campaigns on LinkedIn for people to get them clients. And it’s cool. And I did for four years, then around when the pandemic started in 2020 2020. Yeah, I kind of switched over to coaching I just I was losing fulfillment in the agency space, wasn’t as excited about like, just getting up every day, just like finding leads for people, I realized that I had a lot more fulfillment and actually coaching people and like, I you know, the idea of like, you know, give someone a fish, you feed them for a day, teach someone a fish, you feed them for life, I was like, if someone just knew how to get clients on their own, like, think about the skill that would give them like, they could start any business and just like, understand, once you understand the principles, it’s like, you can just recreate different products, services, and just get like, you know, make make a great living from it. So anyways, that’s when I switched to coaching. And it’s yeah, 2022 So I’ve been doing it for like, yeah, two and a half years now. So overall, it’s been about six, six and a half years, almost seven years now and the whole LinkedIn online worldspace. And yeah, that’s kind of what’s brought me to this point now.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I love that and I love that you went from like so many, like you’ve tried and experimented with so many different things. You were doing your own business and then you did like feel lecturers and that that kind of went into just working one on one with this person? And you never said no, you were just like, alright, if you want my help, let’s do it. And you just always had that mindset, right? Like, hey, if someone needs my help, I’ll figure it out. And that’s the mindset of kind of like, pushes, like holds people back, right? Everyone’s just like, I need to know everything before I start. So what would you say to people? Like, how did you get this mindset of like, let’s just keep going, let’s just do everything, and we’ll figure it out.
Saarim Asady
Yeah, that’s a really good question. I would say, you just you have to have a lot of self belief in yourself. Like, look, a lot of times, things may look bleak in like, externally, right? And it happens, right? And you just kind of have to I actually, really, I forget who told me this, but it was a while ago, they’re like, Look, sir, logically speaking, if you don’t know anything, and you just keep going, and you just don’t stop, you will eventually figure it out one way or another. Think about if you I love that, let’s say you have a goal to make a million dollars, hypothetically, right? And you don’t know anything you don’t even know to make $5 or $1 yet, right? If you just keep optimizing, like, Okay, this doesn’t work. Okay, well, great. Now, that’s feedback. Now, let me keep going. And you just keep optimizing along the way, you will get to where you want to go. So that’s, like, I truly, truly believe like, the number one strategy above everything else is just do not stop. If you do not stop, you will succeed one way or another.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Yeah, I love that. And that’s the thing and it takes us it will take us back to the content piece of it, right? Like everything you did today, or everything that you are doing today. For LinkedIn, it all starts with content. Yeah, what gave you that kind of idea? Or what made you go that path of okay, content is the way that I need to start? And then everything else comes after?
Saarim Asady
Yeah, that’s a really good question. So it was because about in like, 2015 2016 that’s when kind of YouTubers were taking off, like YouTube was becoming really popular Instagramers like influencers? All this kind of stuff. So I what I did was I started like, analyzing it and was like, Okay, how like, it became, I really quickly understood that you have to get attention, right? You have to garner attention in order to sell products to do anything, any form of influence, even if you look through it. And then I started actually studying this, like, if you look at our history, how religions were formed, how governments were formed, how societies were formed, it was about just garnering the attention of people. And if you can make them believe something, then they will give you their commitment, whether that commitment be financially, emotionally, mentally, you know, romantically, whatever. So that’s kind of where I started. And I was like, okay, and then also at the time Gary Vee was starting to in 2016. And I remember he came up with this one video, he’s like, just document everything, document, everything
Mahrukh Imtiaz
was like, document don’t create.
Saarim Asady
Yeah, he was just like breakup. So I was like, okay, okay, so I’m actually really grateful. I’ve made it I have a lot of footage from when I first started, and all that stuff. So yeah, that’s kind of like the name of the game. I guess, to summarize, to summarize, my answer here is, you really, really need to understand like content is about attention. Once you have people’s attention, and you garner their trust, then you can start taking that next step, right, which is offering them services offering them products. But the first step is garnering attention and content is the fastest way to do that.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I think that’s really profound what you said there, it’s all about the attention and and love that you brought it took it back to the history and politics. And it’s all like, everywhere. I mean, even if you look at political campaigns or everything, it’s all based on what we see what we hear. And that’s all content at the end of totally. Where I want to go next with this is what I love about your stuff is that you made content very specific for LinkedIn, you know, it wasn’t just create content, it’s create impactful and intentional content. So let’s dive a bit into that like LinkedIn content. When someone’s starting off on LinkedIn. How is that content different than let’s say Instagram or Facebook or Tik Tok? Okay,
Saarim Asady
that’s a really, really good question. So the thing about LinkedIn is, obviously, you’re speaking to a professional network, you’re not necessarily speaking to, like, I don’t know, a 12 year old who’s just, you know, recess, or on the way home from school or something like that. So you have to understand, you have to understand your audience first, right? So you have to, like slang, all that kind of stuff, like the short forms doesn’t fly, as well, as well as much on LinkedIn. So you need to number one, obviously, understand you’re speaking to a more professional network. And you just need to really understand the audience. Right? So the good, like, there’s pros and cons, right? Obviously, there’s more users on LinkedIn. So that’s great. But what I realized is, look, if you’re selling a course program, anything in particular, you have the fastest access to a the highest income market on LinkedIn. Right? That’s like that. So one of the hardest things in business is getting someone to pay right like to pull money to pull out their credit card and invest in your services, right? It’s not I wouldn’t say hard, but it’s typically the bottleneck where people struggle, right? So if you why not, I always have always believed this. Put yourself in a position to win. Always right. And I always think about like, I this is one example. I can’t remember if I read or came up with it, but it was like, like if Warren And Buffett walked into a kindergarten class, right? Yeah, I read that post. Yeah, nobody wanted nobody respects, right, like, no one’s gonna be like, okay, he’s just an old man walking in the room. Great, he did not put himself in a position to win right there. But if you sit on that same day walked into the New York Stock Exchange, people would be bowing down. And like, truly, they’d be like, in awe of like the legend walking by them. So it’s like, put yourself in a position to win. And that’s why I see LinkedIn as such a, it’s such a fruitful platform, and like, you have the highest opportunity to win, in my opinion on LinkedIn.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I love that. And it’s so true. Like, even if you like, think about the amount of information and it’s something I learned from you the amount of information you get from a LinkedIn profile, versus let’s say, an Instagram profile, or tick tock profile, like you know exactly what someone’s income earning potential is where they work, what do so it’s really easy for a lot of one on one, coaches, or people getting that kind of high ticket offer. Would you say LinkedIn is for everyone? Or do you think LinkedIn is more for certain entrepreneurs versus others?
Saarim Asady
Yeah, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t say it’s for everyone. I would say it’s for high ticket entrepreneurs. Like if you’re selling like, I don’t know, like, low to anything under 500 bucks, I would not actually go on LinkedIn, because you could, because here’s the thing, when you are selling high ticket, you don’t necessarily need an insanely high volume, right? If you’re selling, let’s say, a $2,000, coaching program, or course, right, you make 100 sales in a in a month, like I didn’t even that’s a substantial amount, and you’re a multimillionaire, you know what I mean? Like only 100. Whereas if you go and sell, I don’t know, like, a like $100 watch or something like that, right? You need to make so many more sales to get that and then I don’t think LinkedIn cannot actually is that is the right place to do that. I think that would be a good place to go Instagram, that would be a good place to go like Facebook, right? Like, go again, just understand like, there’s a billion users on LinkedIn. I mean, on Instagram, sorry, there’s a billion users on Instagram. So for your low ticket products, I would actually encourage you go go to Instagram, go to those areas. If for your higher ticket products, you are far better off on LinkedIn,
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Higher ticket products, right? And then, so you actually go in your content go through this a lot. And I would love for you to break this down for the person listening today. What are five things people need to do on LinkedIn to start,
Saarim Asady
oh, like to start, like, I guess getting getting like speaking sales getting traction, or just like starting
Mahrukh Imtiaz
out on LinkedIn, hey, I’m a coach, or I’m a creator. But I’m going to try on LinkedIn, because I think that’s where my audience is. Where would someone start? What would their map be?
Saarim Asady
Okay, so first thing I would say to start with is figure out what you want to offer, right? Even if you’re just a content creator, and you don’t have a product yet, right? Well, depending whether you have a product, you don’t have a product, I still encourage you to have an idea of what your offer is. Because you don’t want to focus too much on yield, you don’t want to build too much of an audience and then go in a completely different direction. So step one, is have an offer about what you want to actually sell to your to your market. That’s the first thing. The second thing is now you once you understand your offer, you need to go and get traffic behind your offer. How can you get the right buyers to actually go and find you on LinkedIn, and start looking at you and engaging with you now that’s the second step. So first is offer a second is traffic. Third is now content. Right, which is, the thing I noticed a lot is a lot of people post content, an insane amount of content, but they don’t have their offer or traffic dialed in. And then they struggle, right. So that’s why it’s so important that the first two are locked in, which is offer traffic then go and create content. Yes, content is obviously so important, the most bored in my opinion. And that is about like building trust and authority. And then the last thing I would say is you need a conversion system, right? You don’t want to just be a content creator, because LinkedIn is not going to pay you right for creating content, right? Maybe on Facebook, you might get paid. I think Instagram started something now where they’re like paying concentrators but genuinely like LinkedIn won’t do that. Right, they’re not going to pay you. So you need to have a conversion system. So if you have an offer, you have the traffic, you’re creating content speaking to that audience. Well, now the last step is okay, you need a conversion system to now take these people from just becoming viewers looking at your content admiring you to becoming part of your tribe, your community, your customers, your clients, right, those are the four step when you’re able to lock in an offer, have traffic, looking at you every day, engage a building trust and authority with that audience through your content, and have a conversion system to convert those people into clients. That is the real name of the game. It’s pretty simple to I’m not gonna say it’s easy, but it’s simple when you really break it down. And I always say to anyone, if you’re ever struggling in business, it’s probably because you don’t you have one of those four things missing or broken, right? It’s really just those four things you need.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Right? And I think number four is the one that most people don’t focus on at all, like the conversion system, they think they’re gonna make content. They’re gonna have an offer, they’re gonna have a product, they’re gonna make content and people will just come. But do you mind just diving deeper into the conversion system that you have on LinkedIn? Yeah, absolutely.
Saarim Asady
Sure. So, most people, what they’ll do is like Yeah, they’ll cradle most people most sales calls I speak with but most people I speak to on sales call Those are you know, people who are? Well, I have not worked with personally before I have my first question and that is okay, how are you getting clients right now? And 95% of the time? It’s the same answer, sir Am I post a lot of content. And then you know, once in a while someone will reach out to me, we’ll get on a call. And, you know, we’ll close the deal. See, the problem with that is that just you’re operating on hope marketing, hope marketing is like hoping someone reaches out to you hoping someone decides that they’re going to buy your stuff. Now, that might happen once in a blue moon, or you know what I mean, like once in a while, but a conversion system is actually building out a systematic process, so that they can go through, they can go to your well, so I’ll give you I’ll give you a very basic one, right? Like the training video that we’ve done, right? Which is like, Okay, I create content every single day on LinkedIn, right? Five days, five, six days a week right? Now, from there, I’ll get like, each post of mine will get about two, two to 5000 views, and then some will go viral. But let’s just say on average, right, two to 5000 views proposal, right? Now, the next thing that will happen is, at the end of I’d say 85% of my posts, I will say hey, look, I have this free training video that shows you how to get clients from LinkedIn, it’s completely free complimentary. And it’ll give you a way more in depth analysis on how you can get more clients, which is essentially educating them on my offer, giving them value, but totally for free. Now, they will then click on this link, watch, they’ll put in their name, email phone number, so I know exactly who’s watched it, they will then watch this training video. Now them watching this people, like people don’t understand how valuable it is just to get someone to take that next step. You’ve literally gotten them to the next step here, right. So if they just watch your training video, great. Now you give them an enormous amount of value, I even say like, give so much value that like you could charge for it, right? That’s how much value you want to give them. Then at the end, you just make it you make a call to action, you say hey, look, if you like what you learn in this video, and you want to learn more about how to implement this, schedule a one on one call with me. And I can personally show you how you can implement it, they book a call, now you have a qualified sales call. And then if it’s the right fit, they’ll they’ll sign up for your program, and they’ll pay you in full. And you’d like if you really think about it, like really simply it’s like, okay, your content was the awareness. Great. It’s like your content was kind of like that first front facing thing they saw, then they took the next step into your world, which is like, Okay, well, there’s no real risk for me, I get to watch this free training video, learn more, right? I gotta give my you know, a little bit of my information, cool, boom, that’s an exchange, then they watch this video, then they get so in and like they get like, how do you say this? Like, they get so connected with your message, they start like really, they really start getting involved with you emotionally connected with you, they believe in you. And then they book a call, and then you go through. And it’s like, it’s really just a three step process. Now, obviously, there’s a lot of ways to do it. But that’s just one conversion system. And it works so effortlessly, so well, as long as you pump it well.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Right? Absolutely. I think that’s that’s important piece as long as you keep pumping it in as long as you keep following up with the people who’ve also signed up, and all of that stuff. And I think that’s like very, very important. So I think what Sauron was talking about is like a video sales letter, like a VSL, free training video, which is kind of, I mean, something you’ve mentored me through. And now I have a free training video. And I absolutely agree, this is so impactful, because I was one of those people before I met xRM, where I was creating a lot of content, and I didn’t have a system, I didn’t even have an offer. And while talking with you and getting your coaching, I realized, oh, shoot, I’m actually really good at what I do. But I don’t have an offer. And I don’t have a product. And I hope marketing was something I smiled at. Because that was literally me because I’m like those people and people did reach out here and there. Don’t get me wrong, but it was just like, something you were just kind of relying on versus having your own system. So I completely agreed number four, like having a conversion system. Especially if you are someone who’s creating content for a business or someone who wants to monetize their content. That’s extremely important. So yeah, thank you so much for seeing all of that. Now, I want to take a bit of a tangent and I want to kind of go into the mindset piece of things, because I feel like that is something you’re so good at, you know, I would say that’s one of your strengths. So what are some of the fears you would say you started with when you went on LinkedIn? were some good. I
Saarim Asady
mean, like, I appreciate what you said, and I’ll be honest, like I’ve had all the insecurities that people go through, I think like everyone does, and but the like, it’s just about overcoming them. Right. And like the fears that I started with were first when I was started. I first started on LinkedIn when I was like 21 I think 21 So my first fear was like, who’s gonna listen to some 21 year old kid on this platform with all these, like professionals who have been in this industry for like, 20 plus years, like, some of these people have been working jobs longer than I’ve been alive. Right. So so so that was one fear of mine. Second fear was like, I don’t know, like, what if people hate me? Like, what if my content like, you know, doesn’t say, you know, what, I mean? Like, what if, like, people come like, all the I had all these fears, right? And I think the reality is that all these fears are inherently like, built into us. Like, that’s what I’m saying. Like, I don’t think anyone is like, fearless. It’s just a matter of they’ve overcome fear. And like, you know, if you look like, again, I’m not a scientist, but I’ve read the book in the book Sapiens, they talk about this right there. Add, we have so many because we’ve evolved for 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of years. Like, for example, when you when you’re hungry, I don’t know if you noticed, but you eat really fast when you’re hungry, because your body doesn’t know when you’re technically your body doesn’t know when your next meal is coming. So your body kind of like forces you to eat really fast. But in reality, you know that, you know, at least for us, we’re lucky enough and blessed enough to know that we’re going to have another meal, and we no need to eat so fast. And it’s the same thing with our fears. We fear being ostracized from the group, we fear being judged, we fear all of these things. But the reality is, is that you like you need to emotionally start understanding, like at least I had to go through this right. So I started to understand that all these fears are not really valid anymore. We’re not going to starve. We’re not going to you know, we’re not going to be like, like killed or hung for some of our content. You know what I mean? Like, we’re not going to be ostracized from the group, right? These things are, like unfounded. So I took a lot of work. And I really, I’m appreciative that I was able to handle all those things at a really young age, like 2122 I was dealing with all that stuff. So I’d say by the time I was like 23, I was alright, well, like, you know, what, if they don’t like me, it’s all good. Like, you know, for every one person that doesn’t like me, I’m sure there’s like five that are okay with me. So so that’s kind of what brought me there.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
It’s kind of like you will not die affirmation, like, and I keep telling him like this will not kill me, I will not die. And it’s weird, because it’s so powerful. And but so stupid, but so powerful. Like, will this kill me? No, it will not kill me. And it’s, uh, I love that you said that you experienced all of that when you were very young, because you went to that you feel like, you know, I am enough. I don’t need validation. You kind of kind of Gary Vaynerchuk says, Oh, don’t listen to people who are cheering you on. And don’t listen to people who are booing you just hold your lane, you’re enough. I think that’s very important. With your journey, you’ve obviously hit many milestones, you’ve gotten that six figure revenue, you keep building your business and you keep growing. What are some of the fears that you have right now that are coming through as you’re building? Some fears? I have? Yes.
Saarim Asady
That’s a good question. On a business note, one fear I have that I’m still working through is like now it’s like now I have a team. Right? Like, I have a team and it’s no longer just like me, like sold bowling. It’s not even just like me and a couple of days. It’s like, these are like, people whose livelihood risk like rests on my shoulders. Now there’s, I feel like an added pressure to perform. Right? And it’s fine. Like, I’m good with it. But it’s like, every day it’s I just, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a fear, but more so maybe a concern that it’s like, Okay, I gotta like, you know, this is not just for me anymore, like do you like, like, but I love it now. Because like, when we make a sale when we grow, like everyone on the team is like, like, they feel it’s their win too, because everyone played a part in it. Like, oh, I added this connection. Oh, I started the conversation. Oh, like I was one of the and it’s like, oh, it’s like, so I love that part of it. But then also, I guess a concern is like, Okay, well, now these people are relying on me, they trust me, right? The same way, even with my clients, right? It’s like you guys, like trust me not only with your money, but your time, your energy, it’s like you trust me to give you to lead you the right way. So I feel like at this point in my business life, I’m transitioning more to becoming a leader. I feel like before I was just like solo doling, it was just like, alright, conquer the world on my own. And it’s gotten to the I feel like I’ve gotten to a point where it’s like, Alright, you’ve done, you’ve done pretty well on your own, but it’s like, you can’t do this alone anymore. And you need that team. So now, like, I feel more, you know, just not again, concern that’s like, Okay, I need I’m learning how to become a better leader, right? That’s really my, my concern, my focus, and just being able to lead my team, lead my clients to success, lead everyone around me. And I feel like I’m starting to become that focal point in my life, where it’s like, people are now looking to me, and they’re like, like, you know, when you’re a kid, you look to your parents, and you’re like, Oh, what do I do here? What do I do here? And you’re just like, anything your parents say is like, this is like, like God’s word. It’s like, okay, they said, this is right, this is wrong. They’re right. Now I’m starting to notice that people are coming to me for that, like my team, my clients, all this stuff. So it’s like, I take, I take a lot of responsibility for that. And I don’t take it lightly that people trust me so much. So I’m really, really trying to make sure that, you know, the advice I give to my clients, the support I give to my team, I want everyone to understand that like, like, I’m in this and I’m going to make sure that I’m going to do my best for you.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I love that and I think it’s something I can totally relate to like this just added pressure when you are responsible for someone else’s income. I definitely was feeling that too. And I feel like you know, it’s almost positively impacted me like, oh, just not only just for me, now it’s someone else’s dependent on this. But and it does obviously push your managerial skills, your leadership skills, like, am I delegating? Well? Am I explaining things well, like? Or is this even clear enough to me? So, you know, when you explain something to someone else, and especially like, someone who does not speak English as their first language, like it’s, it does challenge you in an in a different way. I mean, my work I mean, I’m a manager, I manage people all the time, but so different as a solopreneur. Yeah, because again, it’s like not the same level of like education sometimes or not the level totally. Culture, so many culture. Exactly. It’s just, it’s very different. It’s very fulfilling and A lot of ways. So definitely,
Saarim Asady
yeah, I feel like prepares us for parenthood.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I know, it was I personally don’t ever want to be a parent. You know, it does definitely put that kind of responsibility for sure. Sure. Sure. I think one thing I really want to touch on is kind of going back to LinkedIn a little bit. There’s so many myths around being on LinkedIn, right? Like so many people are so scared of putting content on LinkedIn, because they’re like, Oh, my fleshly side hustlers, right? A lot of people who are just doing this on the side and just wanting to grow that business, it’s Oh, my work will see this. And this will be a problem. Or, you know, I don’t know if this is the right platform, because it’s so professional. I don’t want to be this professional. What do you think about those kinds of comments?
Saarim Asady
Yeah, I think that all comes from stems from insecurity, to be honest with you, that I think people are just trying to find reasons as to why and again, maybe they’re not consciously doing it. Or they they’re just trying to find reasons not to do it. LinkedIn, yes, it is a professional platform. But it’s also dramatically changed. LinkedIn is in 2022, is not LinkedIn, even from 2020 to 2015. You know what I mean? It’s a whole different people are uploading family photos, I’ve seen some second posts that I was like, this is, this is going a little extreme, right? Some of the posts I’ve seen. But ya know, I truly, truly believe like, you know, especially for side hustlers, take advantage of this, don’t look at this as an obstacle, look at this as an opportunity. Right, you have access to the entire professional world, in your on your phone, that’s crazy. You have access to the entire professional world on your phone, and you’re telling me that it might not be the right fit. Like It’s bonkers. You know what I mean? Like, take advantage of this, like, look, I always say this, like, every social media platform has like a peak period before it kind of like starts oversaturating and becomes infinitely, like, I believe on Instagram, it’s pretty hard now to grow. I feel like with reels now it’s kind of getting a bit easier, because of the way they’ve kind of opened it up a bit bit. But overall, like, these platforms are not as easy as they used to be. But LinkedIn is still an open door. Like, you know what I mean? Like the door is here. I don’t know how long it’ll be here for maybe a couple years, three years, who knows. But take advantage right now. Like, if you are a side hustle or listening to this, you have a side hustle, you have anything, you just want to create content, like, just understand you have access to the entire professional world, the palm of your fingers. And it’s like you’re doing yourself and your future self a disservice. And I always believe that like, Look, if you don’t do it, what’s gonna happen? If you do do it, at least you have an opportunity to make something from it.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I love that. Yeah, it’s just like, I guess people don’t focus so much on what they’re gonna miss out. If they don’t do it. It’s like, they’re more scared of like, if I do this, this might go wrong. But what about if you don’t do it? What all will you miss out on? The lack of opportunities and the amount of years that will take you all of that stuff? And one thing I also want to ask you like, what is something that you think that people who are on LinkedIn, what do you think that they spent too much time on? That others should skip entirely? Like people who are actively on LinkedIn creators on LinkedIn business owners or side hustlers? What do you think they spend too much time on that you would recommend? They should skip entirely?
Saarim Asady
I would say there’s a lot of like people who are so fixated on, like I say, non income producing activities. I actually created a post about this today, like, I’ve gotten on calls with people, and they’re like, Oh, sir, and when I have a website, I’ll sign up for your coaching. I’m like, What does your website have to do with this? Like, I’ve like, I’ve almost like lifelong goals. I’m like, What do you mean, your website? Like? Basically, what I’m trying to answer here is things that don’t move the needle. Like, if you’re spending like an hour editing a photo, or trying to perfect a post, here’s the thing, you don’t actually know, what post is going to do well, and not do well, you might have an idea. I feel like even like, I have an idea now, but I don’t really know, like some of the posts I have published where I’m like, Oh, this is gonna be a banger. Like, you know, we’re gonna hit 20,000 views. I’m like, just like, down like nothing. I’m like, what? And then other times I’ve literally written a blog post while like, no, no, like, just like walking the dog. And I’m like, Ah, whatever. Let’s see what this happens. What happens with this post that 40,000 views? You know what I mean? It’s kind of it’s not. So it’s like, you don’t know. So I’d say perfectionism is holding people back a lot on LinkedIn. And then also focusing on things that don’t matter. Like maybe a few years ago, website, like was a big deal. But really, now if you’re just active, you’re more than like, you’re good enough. I don’t use my website at all. I don’t think I’ve gotten a client from my website in the last year, I’ve gone to like, all from like, just social media,
Mahrukh Imtiaz
right? Absolutely. And I think that it’s just mindset shift, right? It’s just needing those things or thinking that I need to 10 out of 10 things to start doing something when No, You don’t. You can just choose a platform, be it LinkedIn or not. And just kind of go all in into that platform, understand it. And the thing, the thing that you mentioned earlier, understand the platform and understand the context like understand your audience. Don’t just do what you’re doing and other platforms understand it. But if you keep doing it, you’ll eventually get better and better at it. I I love that you spoken all about like the strategies of not only just LinkedIn, but these are marketing principles that really can be applied to all these different platforms. Absolutely. But the advantage that LinkedIn has is again, you have all information in the profile. You have all these people with a lot of money because they’re professionals. And the DM system like works really well look like versus tick tock, where do you have a system sucks, or the content and all that is so much better? So I’m certain things are really great. Certain things are not like LinkedIn groups absolutely suck, right? Yes, the Facebook groups are really good. But this this has been really, really great. Sorry, I’m a lot of gold. So right before my final question, I just want to ask Where can people today find you online?
Saarim Asady
LinkedIn, just type in my first last name Sauron. Assadi. S A R I M last than Saudi as ad why? Just type my name. And I really think I’m the only sarma Saudi on LinkedIn. So
Mahrukh Imtiaz
really good. Like, when I type in Mark and PA, there’s like a million or like, ah, oh, really? It’s Toronto. Like, yeah,
Saarim Asady
that’s funny. That’s funny. I didn’t know that. Yeah. So you can find me on LinkedIn. I’ll be and Justin, just shoot me a DM and just tell me you came from the spicy Chai podcast. I’d love to know where you came from. So yeah, that’d be great.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Awesome. All right. Well, final question. What advice would you give the younger Sauron who’s starting out on LinkedIn? Something that you know, now that you didn’t know, before?
Saarim Asady
I was hoping you’d ask me this. I, I will, I will preface it, I will preface what I’m going to say is, I have no regrets of what I did like my of my past. I’m very proud of myself looking back, like, you know, there was a lot of Bleak times when I was 2122, where things were not working out. And I kind of just still persevered. But the one piece of advice I would give to my younger self, or anyone who listen to this is that one thing that I should have done is that I should have I should have learned from someone, I was too hard headed at the beginning thinking I can figure this out all on my own, I can figure this out all on my own. You know, I don’t really I don’t need any help. And I feel like my first two and a half three years of like, grueling this could have been compressed into six months. Right? I could I feel like I could have, like fast track things a lot quicker. And what I did hire that first coach, when I did first learn from someone when I first did get a mentor. It just scaled dramatically, like everything got better. So and I always look at people in this industry, like people who are doing or who pick up really fast really well. And it’s because they’ve learned from someone, whether that’s investing in a coaching program, whether that’s doing an apprenticeship, whether that’s anything like that you can learn but just fast track learning, because you will get better results and time is your most precious commodity. So don’t waste it. Right. You can never buy it time is only being spent. So learn how to spend it wisely.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I love that and investing in yourself, I believe is the best investment. It’s like what I hear all the Guru’s Alex from Rosie Tony Robbins, like they they still invest in themselves, like you are so huge. So that just says something. So thank you again. xRM. I really had a great time in this conversation. And for everyone listening please check out Sorry, I’m on LinkedIn. Do make sure you watch his free training video. We’ll have the links all in show notes. And until next week, you got this beautiful! Thank you so much.
