The Skills You’re Ignoring Might Be Your Biggest Advantage with Omar Zenhom

Omar Zenhom
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[00:00:00] Introduction: Be Yourself
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[00:00:00] Omar: you know, It's really important for you to tap into who you are as a person try not to perform and try to just be yourself. I think that's probably one of the hardest things for most people is just understanding that the harder you try, the worst it gets. It's kind of like you just need to relax and kind of just be your unique self.

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[00:00:25] Allan: Alright.

[00:00:26] Welcome Back, Omar!
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[00:00:38] Allan: Welcome to the podcast. Today I'm joined by a guest who's a return guest and he is a wonderful friend of mine, a beautiful human being, someone who's super smart, super successful. Omar, welcome buddy.

[00:00:39] Omar: Thanks Allan. I'm gonna record that bit so I can, you know, listen back to it on a cloudy day.

[00:00:46] Allan: Well, it's all 100% true. I always enjoy spending time with you, either if it's in person or we are chatting online like this.

[00:00:52] Personal Branding Insights
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[00:00:53] Allan: So, you and I recently, we went to kind of, I guess a personal branding bootcamp. And I'd love to hear some of your biggest takeaways there, [00:01:00] and also what's your thinking around personal brand in, you know, 2026 and beyond.

[00:01:05] Allan: You know, why are you investing in personal brand? What are the things that have made you kind of move that way?

[00:01:12] Omar: Yeah, it's a good question because I signed up for that event because about a year ago, I really started to invest in my personal brand and I kind of saw it like an afterthought or kind of something that was a little bit of a burden to work on because I was building my business and I was trying to, you know, make sure that make payroll, make be profitable, all that kind of stuff, you know, grow the company so.

[00:01:34] Allan: Yep.

[00:01:36] Omar: I, I would say like my personal brand, my social media presence, all that kinda stuff kind of took a backseat and I kind of ignored it. And for the last, I would say, 18 months to a year, I've been really trying to make it a priority and make it part of my efforts. And I went to this event and I think the biggest takeaway I got was just like thinking bigger about.

[00:01:55] Omar: The long-term vision of the brand, understanding like the ripple effects [00:02:00] of being able to be somebody that people like and trust and have a relationship with even if it's via newsletter or even if it's via, you know, stories or whatever it might be. And I would probably add to the fact that, you know, it's really important for you to tap into who you are as a person. Try not to perform and try to just be yourself. I think that's probably one of the hardest things for most people is just understanding that the harder you try, the worst it gets. It's kind of like you just need to relax and kind of just be your unique self.

[00:02:33] Omar: One of the things I look at in, in the world of online business and branding and I look at the people that get all the attention, like Mr. Beast for example, like love him or hate him, he really is unique and he really understands that novelty is important. You gotta kind of stand out in a crowded world. And the reality is that like, you know, I run a podcast and I'm not just competing with other podcasts.

[00:02:55] Omar: I'm competing with you know, audio books and Taylor Swift and all the other things you could [00:03:00] listen to on your commute, you know, all that kind of stuff. So kind of got me thinking about, you know, how could I see this as a long-term effort and in a sustainable way.

[00:03:08] Omar: Not only social media stuff, but also for the podcast.

[00:03:11] The Importance of Videography
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[00:03:11] Omar: Right now, I'm, the way I record the podcast is I record with a multi-camera setup and then our editing team goes ahead and edits.

[00:03:17] Omar: But we're starting a project, like a pilot project with a videographer, and that's gonna be really exciting. And I think one of the things I do believe is that when somebody else is in the room and somebody's directing you, you're gonna perform differently. You're going to be able to you know, kinda bring your best self into the game and you're less likely to kind of lean into bad habits. And those bad habits could just be literally like, you know, maybe phoning in the script or maybe not having your energy where it needs to be. 'cause you really can't see yourself. You know, and honestly, like when somebody is taking care of all the camera work, it's much easier for you to just focus on the content.

[00:03:53] Omar: You know, instead of you making sure that you're in focus and make sure you're, you know, everything is aligned. Oh wait, the camera's not straight. All that kind [00:04:00] of stuff. So, it allows you to be able to deliver the content and then have somebody kind of see what's happening and saying, actually could do that again.

[00:04:07] Omar: You stumbled on your words, whatever, you may not notice it when you're in the moment. So, that's gonna be really exciting.

[00:04:12] Transitioning to a Local Team
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[00:04:12] Omar: We're building a little bit of a local team, and that's kind of what we're doing here. And it's a big challenge for us and a big transition because we've been a remote team for over 15 years as a business.

[00:04:22] Omar: So, we're looking forward to the challenge in transforming how we operate.

[00:04:27] Allan: That's cool. Yeah I hired a um, full-time videographer slash head of video content late last year and it's definitely game changer. So shout out to Dana. One of the tips that I got from Caleb Rston, who was the one of the video videographers for Gary V and Alex Hormozi and a few others was to have the videographer kind of be end to end in terms of editing, uploading, posting ideas and all of that sort of thing.

[00:04:53] Allan: Gary V and Alex, I think do it by channel. So they'll have like the guy who does the Instagram reels, the guy who does [00:05:00] the in YouTube shorts, the guy, so someone owns it end to end. And I thought that was a really good tip. 'Cause a lot of people have like, you know, the guy who holds the camera and then the guy who does the script and the guy who does the editing and a lot is lost in translation.

[00:05:13] Allan: And then who's responsible for the result of the actual thing, right?

[00:05:17] Omar: That's part of the reason why I'm so excited is because I think when you're creating content, you have a creative vision of whatever piece of content that is, like, let's say it's a podcast episode and you have an idea in your head and this is the result that you want, and you communicate that to the person you're working with.

[00:05:32] Omar: And it might, there's so many places where the ball can get dropped, whether it's in the scripting or in the editing, or in the shooting or in the, you know, in the packaging, in the thumbnail. And it's just much easier if there's less people involved that, okay, you could see it through and then, you know.

[00:05:49] Omar: Right now we're doing it kind of piecemeal. And we even have like the QA piecemealed and we, that really should be part of, you know, the responsibility of the person that's doing it. And it's gonna be fun to kind of go through this [00:06:00] process and see what the end result is because sometimes I have to say, to be honest with you, you know, I've recorded over 2,700 podcast episodes.

[00:06:06] Omar: And there are some episodes where they turn out and I'm like, that's not exactly what I wanted. That's exactly what I was envisioning. And I think it's time for me to kind of understand what it looks like when I never have to settle.

[00:06:20] Allan: Yeah. I love that. I love that. And I think the other thing that giving the person autonomy, I think has been really powerful for me because they've had a vision or they've had an idea that I never would've had if I had have storyboarded that or scripted that or whatever. So sometimes Dana will have stitched footage from some B-roll from some other stuff we did and then put together a narrative.

[00:06:42] Allan: And I'm like, that was really good. Like I wouldn't have come up with that. And so having a third party who's got the autonomy to kind of experiment and just try new things, I think that's really cool.

[00:06:51] Omar: Yeah, I think it's really gonna be a challenge for me personally because one of the things I got from the event is that you need to start transitioning into just being the talent. You know, [00:07:00] just, you need to show up and do your best thing and teach. But, you know, that requires me letting go of a lot of the responsibilities that I've been doing for over 11 years.

[00:07:10] Omar: So I gotta, it's gonna be a good personal development challenge for me.

[00:07:15] Allan: It is, yeah. Let, letting go. For us, high control freak entrepreneurs, that's definitely a

[00:07:20] Omar: into this thing.

[00:07:23] Allan: So, um, you've been teaching people online business for forever, I feel. I mean, like you said you're over 2,700 episodes, which is just. You know, incredible. I mean, almost no one has that kind of longevity in the podcast game.

[00:07:38] Online Business Evolution
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[00:07:38] Allan: So what's changing in terms of online business? So, what are the things that kind of no longer work or that you might've advised in the past but now is kind of outdated advice versus, you know, what would someone, what would you advise someone right now say thinking, okay, I want to get into online business.

[00:07:56] Allan: I wanna be able to kind of generate an income from [00:08:00] either content or information or knowledge, whatever it is. What would you advise in the past? What's kind of changed and what would you advise now?

[00:08:08] Omar: My first piece of advice to anybody is if you have a time machine, start your, you know, start a week ago. All right. If you don't have a time machine, start immediately because especially if you're maybe in a career right now. A lot of the people that we talk to and the people that we help at the hundred MBA are people like that are looking to transition out of their current career.

[00:08:26] Omar: Maybe they went to university, they studied, they got their job, they worked with the corporate ladder, and it's not panning out the way they expected. So they might be in their late thirties, forties, maybe even fifties or sixties. And my immediate thing is stop worrying about your sunk costs. Stop worrying about the fact that, oh, but I put all this time and effort into trying to be whatever it is, an engineer, a doctor you know, a tradie, whatever it might be.

[00:08:53] Omar: You know, a lot of 'em feel like the gap between where they are right now and where they need to be as an entrepreneur. So wide, what's the [00:09:00] point of getting started? Well, the point is that it's never been easier to get started and it's never been easier to get started and get traction fast.

[00:09:08] The Power of AI in Business
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[00:09:08] Omar: I mean, AI has literally changed everything.

[00:09:11] Omar: Like, I'm not even joking. There's an episode that we're gonna be publishing soon on the podcast where I did a seven day experiment where I said, can I build a fully fledged SaaS product in seven days using AI? I just wanted to see if this is even possible, and I wanted to do it for my audience for exactly this reason.

[00:09:29] Omar: Like you don't actually don't need that much time to get something out in the world like. I'm telling you it was so shocking how much AI has speeds up the process. Like what I got done in seven days and, you know, I built a software company for 10 years. You know, I grew in, we got acquired, but the seven days of that project was like.

[00:09:51] Omar: The output was the equivalent of literally like maybe two years of work of what I did. It's so incredible what you could do with AI [00:10:00] And another reason why I did that episode is to show you that like you don't need to know so much about whatever you're doing. 'cause AI can give you the answers.

[00:10:08] Omar: Like, for example, like. I don't know how to use this AI coding tool. Great. Go to ChatGPT and ask them the questions as you're building and it will tell you what to do. It'll give you screenshots, it'll walk you step by step, like if you are willing to do the work. It's incredible what you can do these days.

[00:10:23] Omar: So what I always say is that something that's easy to do is also easy not to do. So it's easy to go take a walk in the morning after breakfast. It's also easy not to do it. So this is your competitive advantage is that most people they know, oh yeah, I could do that. And they just don't do it right?

[00:10:40] Omar: So like the people that actually do it are the ones that actually succeed. And I think that because of the choices, because of the ease of entering into the marketplace these days. People have like analysis paralysis. And it's even like easier now to be able to kind of get going and get started and stand out because people that are willing to do the work are the ones [00:11:00] that are gonna be able to kind of put a product out in the world and start making some money and start seeing some traction.

[00:11:05] Omar: And my advice to 'em is just like, Hey, you have to see this as a learning experience, you know? It's okay if you fail. I always tell people like, I have more failures than I have successes. Actually, I have like three times more failures than successes.

[00:11:18] Creating Products People Want
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[00:11:18] Omar: And one of the things I would advise anybody when they're starting out a business is there is a rule I believe that is basically 90% of business.

[00:11:28] Omar: Like, if you do this, then it's like you're almost at the finish line. All my failures in business failed because of one reason. It's the same reason, and I was so stubborn. I didn't realize this was the reason for so long, right? But the one reason why they failed is because I was selling something that people didn't want bad enough.

[00:11:45] Omar: It's actually that simple, like you need to create something that people are happily paying for, like, they would actually pay double for it and be happy to pay it. Like the easiest example I can give you is like Spotify, right? Like if Spotify [00:12:00] doubled the rates, I would still pay it because I have unlimited music to all the music in history.

[00:12:04] Omar: Are you kidding me audio books. I have podcasts there's so much access I have to it. Right? You know, and this is why Netflix can like raise their prices constant 'cause the value, they have so much value equity that people will still pay for it, right? So you need to create a product that people really want.

[00:12:20] Omar: So your whole goal as an entrepreneur is to figure out what are the pain points of the people I'm serving? What are the problems that they can't stand and that they would throw money at it? Any success I've had in business is a product that was like that, a product where people are just like, oh, like.

[00:12:35] Omar: It was like pushing a boulder down the hill. It was so easy. I didn't need to sell it, so, so as soon as people were exposed to it, they're like, okay, how do I buy this? So that one thing will change and make your life so much easier in business. So it's better for you to actually work and refine understanding who you're serving and what their problems are so that you can create a product, and that's why it's important for you to create content and to be out in [00:13:00] the world and put out kind of test products or even like free products like eBooks or online courses or whatever it might be, to see what resonates with people, if that resonates with somebody. Okay. I maybe, I'm getting warmer, right? Remember that hot and cold thing we did as kids?

[00:13:12] Omar: Are you getting hotter or are you getting warmer? Am I getting warmer? Okay. I'm burning hot. Okay, great. Let me just test something out here and maybe do like a presale, maybe get a waiting list going. See what people will say, okay, there's overwhelming demand. Let me start charging for it. You know, like my software company webinar intro when we started, I pre-sold that product, like I didn't have a product yet, and I just put a landing page together with mockups of the solution of what I was solving, which is an easy way to run webinars, to sell your products and services.

[00:13:40] Omar: And then from there I asked people, Hey, if you wanna buy this thing, I can give you beta access once it's ready in four months. Just gimme $250 as a deposit and I'll update you as you, right? Because I knew it was such a pain point ' cause at the time all there was like go to meeting and it was like a meeting software and there was no like landing pages and no email automations.

[00:13:58] Omar: There was nothing going on there. [00:14:00] So I had a very small email list. I had like 500 people on my email list. I put it on social media and I sold a hundred spots in 24 hours.

[00:14:09] Allan: Hey, it's Allan here, ready to dive deeper into today's marketing insights? Head over to lean marketing.com/podcast. To get a full summary of today's episode, including all of the resources mentioned, go to lean marketing.com/podcast. Now, back to the show.

[00:14:26]

[00:14:26] Allan : Uh, so we, we were talking, um, we were talking sunk cost and one of the things that I've found really powerful for powering for overcoming Sunk cost fallacy is really thinking forward, is thinking, can I do another 10 years of this?

[00:14:39] Allan : Can I do another? 10 years of this business, or 10 years of this job, or 20 years of this relationship, or whatever it is, and that really adds a cost to the sunk cost value. It's now calculating a future cost rather than a past sunk cost. I think that's been a powerful frame for me at

[00:14:57] Omar: Yeah. Another powerful visual that [00:15:00] I find very helpful in this situation is there's all these different kind of calculators that can show your life in weeks. You could just Google it and find one, but I have actually one right here in front of me. Life at weeks and if you just, like, this is what it looks like basically, right?

[00:15:15] Omar: And when you see it, like, I'm 45 and let's say for example, the average life and expectancy is 90, 80, but let's say we push it to 90 and then when you see like, like half of your life is over and oh, actually I don't have that much left. And actually, you know, I'm turning 46 this year. And more time has gone than I have left.

[00:15:37] Omar: So it gets you thinking about like, am I willing to give up my precious life? The rest of it, doing things that I don't enjoy or maybe with die with regrets. And for me, that was a very big motivator. My fear of regret outweighed my fear of failure.

[00:15:54] Allan : Yeah. Yeah. I love that. The other thing that I've heard as an objection to like starting a new business or doing [00:16:00] something now is like, it's oversaturated and, you know, you were saying how easy it is now, you did in a week or two weeks, what it took you like years to do previously from a SaaS point of view.

[00:16:10] Allan : And so the objection is like, hey, it's so easy. Everyone's gonna be doing it and or everyone is doing it. And I think the best one that I've heard is despite how much easier it is with all the tools that we've got now. We still have about the same percentage of people who are entrepreneurs, right?

[00:16:28] Allan : Because I remember when I was starting my very first online business, like there was no stripe, there was no landing page creators. There was like, we had to do HTML, we probably spent six months with a bank trying to figure out the API, how to connect to their backend and how to do credit cards and refunds and all of that.

[00:16:46] Allan : And it was just an absolute nightmare, right? but despite all of that, despite how easy now you can start taking credit cards in five minutes, sign up for a Stripe account, set up a virtual bank account, all that sort of stuff. Now you can do SaaS. We still have about the [00:17:00] same percentage of entrepreneurs, so it's not how hard or easy it is to get into it.

[00:17:04] Allan : It's really how risk averse people are about, you know, starting a business or doing their own thing.

[00:17:10] Omar: Yeah, business is really a mental game and this is what I love about it 'cause you could compete for a very long time. You know, this is why Warren Buffett, who's, you know, in his mid nineties, are still going strong. I find it interesting that statistic, because If you're in business and you've been doing this for a while, it's absolutely ridiculous how some of the things are just afforded to you.

[00:17:31] Omar: Like you talked about Stripe and like how easy it is for you to be able to charge somebody with a credit card. Like that's just the tip of the iceberg. I went to the Stripe conference that was in Sydney recently, and like if you run a platform, like say for example, you have customers that use Stripe to check out their own customers, like you have some sort of like a Kajabi or a course platform or something like that.

[00:17:50] Omar: Kajabi can partner with you and they will give you a percentage of any money that they make because they offer debt financing to companies. So like, like you could [00:18:00] become a bank basically and make money just by just introducing Stripe to your customers as an option. And it's just like what the, this is.

[00:18:09] Omar: Getting almost ridiculous now. Like how, if you have the infrastructure set up in your business, but for those who are thinking, well, I haven't started anything yet. I dunno where to get started how do I have a competitive advantage? This is my advice to you, and this is what's worked for me, is that you are actually not that behind as you think you are.

[00:18:27] Omar: You think that, oh man, everybody's kind of. Ready went up the scale in business and I'm still in this line of like whatever career I'm in. So like my career before I was a fulltime entrepreneur was, I was a teacher, I was a school teacher. I taught five lessons a day, five days a week. Right. That's what I did.

[00:18:43] Omar: And I was a school administrator. I trained teachers. I was the chair of department. That was my career for 10 years. I didn't just throw that out in the garbage when I became an entrepreneur. No. I realized, okay, these are my experiences. These are my skills. I have to use it to my advantage as much as possible so I can [00:19:00] compete.

[00:19:00] Omar: A lot of people don't know that my first podcast was not the a hundred BA show. It was actually a podcast that was an interview podcast that completely flopped and was horrible, and Nicole and I were having a long discussion on a road trip. We're asking ourselves like, why is this failing? And we're looking at the top podcasts.

[00:19:16] Omar: In Apple Podcasts at the time, and we're looking at like Tim Ferriss, who's got like four New York Times bestsellers, like all this guy does is win. How am I gonna compete with Tim Ferris? How am I gonna compete with Jordan Harbinger started podcasting in 2006 before the iPhone came out.

[00:19:30] Omar: Like what? What am I gonna do here? Right? I was competing with startup and NPR who have like, years of history in radio broadcasting and podcasting. They have so much experience and so much access. So I had to get real, how am I going to compete? And I thought to myself like, why am I interviewing? If I'm probably a better teacher than all of 'em, like I've taught for 10 years, I have a certification in teaching.

[00:19:53] Leveraging Unique Skills
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[00:19:53] Omar: I should leverage my strength. I might not be a New York Times bestseller, but I'm probably a better teacher than Tim Ferris, you know, just based on my [00:20:00] experience and based on what I know. So that's kind of when we flipped the script and we started the a 100 MBA show podcast and started teaching, and I.

[00:20:06] Omar: Basically, you know, we came up with this idea of, you know, you have language lessons, there's podcasts actually that teach you languages like coffee break French and coffee break Spanish, and you tune in for 15 minutes and learn a bit of French, and then you can use it when you go, you know, on your trip to France.

[00:20:21] Omar: But I thought, what, no one's doing this in business. Let's do these bite-sized lessons where people can learn something and implement it in their business immediately. And that's kind of where the show started to take off because I added unique value based on my unique experience, no one can really do it as well as me unless they have this particular skillset of like how many people are gonna have 10 years of teaching experience knows how to you know, teach in a comprehensive way. Get to an outcome in 15 minutes. 'cause that's what I did for a living. Or my students would fail the test and I would look really bad as a teacher, right? And has business [00:21:00] experience, knows how to build a business, knows how to understand the ins and outs of growing a business, how to self fund a business, all that kind of stuff.

[00:21:06] Omar: So a combined, you know, a love and a passion and experience with my experience. And that's my advice to anybody. So don't throw, don't become. A life coach if you are a senior developer, okay? There's other people that wanna learn how to develop, they want people that wanna be a CTO. You know, use your skills and your experiences as much as possible in, the business that you start.

[00:21:27] Allan : I love that. I think Dharmesh Shah, who's one of the founders of HubSpot, calls it the Venn diagram of success. It's where, you know, you look on the big board and you see a sea of competitors, but then you're like, alright, what are my three big, unique overlapping skills? So like, if I was to look at myself, I would be like, writing is definitely one of them.

[00:21:46] Allan : Technology is another one. And then marketing and business would be a third one. And if you overlap all of those skills the Venn diagram where all three overlap, suddenly there's not really very much competition at all, right? [00:22:00] So looking at it that way, stacking some of the skills that you've developed in unrelated but potentially complimentary areas is a massive, massive win.

[00:22:08] Omar: Yeah. One of the things I would definitely look at is try to look at the people that you love and admire in different markets. Like for example, I'm a big lover of like the late great Anthony Bourdain, right? Anthony Bourdain. The reason why he was so successful is because of that Venn diagram is because he was a great writer and if you notice, like if you ever watch a show, there's a lot of over narration of what's happening. And that's all written by him, you know, so he is a great writer. A lot of people don't know that he has like one of the most successful autobiographies of all time called Kitchen Confidential. It like skyrocketed him. And he, so he's a fantastic writer. He also is a chef, a trained chef that is somebody that understands culinary and food. And he's also somebody that loves to travel. And he used the idea of like, how do I connect with other cultures through food and then package it and deliver the show with my great [00:23:00] writing? And this is why it's, it just feels like magic when he watches because it's like so mesmerizing 'cause he's using all his best skills.

[00:23:07] Omar: Now is Anthony Bourdain Great at everything. No, probably if you meet, if you met him at a time, probably like there's a lot of things that he's sloppy at, but he just used the things that he's familiar with, comfortable with, he has experience with, and just put 'em all together.

[00:23:21] Allan : Yeah, so thinking tactically and practically and potentially even business model, right now, if someone's wanting to kind of get in like sa is now a potential for almost anyone. Content is something that's really tempting to kind of get into as well. Some of the older, you know, online business models, like, you know, affiliate marketing and things like that are still kind of relevant well still very much relevant. Where like tactic wise, okay, so totally understand that yes, now is the best time to start or yesterday was a, an even better time. But sort of where would you steer someone tactically in terms of, should [00:24:00] I do a SaaS? Should I vibe code an app?

[00:24:02] Allan : Should I start just creating content? Should I become an affiliate for someone? How do you think about that?

[00:24:07] Omar: My answer might surprise everybody. So if you're in a job right now and you don't have the luxury of just quitting and taking six months sabbatical to work on your business, then this is what I recommend. Like if you have a a job and you have to work your nine to five. And let's say you have some discretionary time.

[00:24:24] Omar: Let's say you have a few hours during the week and you can plug in five or six hours on Saturday. Okay. I like to say, try to squeeze in eight to 10 hours to work on this business.

[00:24:35] Starting an Events Business
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[00:24:43] Omar: And the business I would start, or I would do is an events business. I would run an event like, like for example, doing a excursion, doing a ski trip, even a dinner.

[00:24:48] Omar: Like let's just organize a four hour dinner at a fancy restaurant for other like-minded people in whatever space they're in. This could be business, it could be fitness, it could be health, it could be people that love Star Wars. It could be people [00:25:00] that love you know, Tarantino, movies, whatever it might be.

[00:25:03] Omar: But the point here is that you're gonna learn a ton about business by just running this one isolated project. And what I love about events is that it's very hard for you not to be profitable because you can do the math beforehand. You could say, okay if I buy out this venue or if I like, the simple thing is just like.

[00:25:22] Omar: Get a dinner going. So like you get a set menu for let's say 20 people. How much is a set menu? It's a hundred dollars. Okay. So it's gonna cost you $2,000? If I have 20 people. Okay, great. So is there anything else I need to add? Oh, maybe I'll have a little parting gift. Okay. Let's say my budget now is, you know, X amount of dollars.

[00:25:39] Omar: Okay. So now how much I gotta charge so I can make some money. So like, in order for this to be profitable, let me, you know, try to charge double of what whatever the costs are. 'cause there might be some things I don't see, I don't understand. It's better to be safe in the beginning and then start seeing if you could sell those tickets just basically on your network.

[00:25:56] Omar: Go to conferences that people that would be interested [00:26:00] in this event would like to go to it. I find that events are one of the easiest things to sell because people wanna get out people, especially if it's associated with their livelihood or their business. It's a business expense too, so it's not like a huge expense for them, or it's something that they can expense through their business.

[00:26:16] Omar: And people wanna meet people. In today's day and age, everything's done online. They want to, you know, have a meal with somebody or go on an excursion or do something fun. And as long as it's something fun and interesting and beneficial to them, it's probably gonna be a yes if their time is on their calendar.

[00:26:32] Omar: And by doing that, you're gonna learn how to run a p and l, like a profit or loss sheet. You're gonna learn how to make sure you're profitable, you're gonna learn how to do things on time, work with vendors. All kinds of stuff. And through that project you can say, Hey, did I enjoy that? Making money outside of my paycheck.

[00:26:47] Omar: You know, some, most people that do this, they feel like invigorated. Like, oh my God, I can't believe I just made, you know, whatever it is, like $1,500 in one day. what, What happened here? Like, and they dissect it. What if I do this every week? What [00:27:00] if I do this every month? What happens? So. This is my kind of entry into entrepreneurship, which is very easy to do.

[00:27:06] Omar: You don't have to, you know, start a corporation. You don't have to do any of this stuff. You could just do this as a sole proprietor and go ahead and see if you enjoy the process of creating something outta thin air.

[00:27:18] Allan : I love that and I think, live events are gonna be something that are a unique thing now with everything kind of going digital and AI and automated and all of that sort of thing. It's kind of like a real proof of life element and it's one of the things that we're doing in our coaching program is creating that live community events where we come together with our clients three times a year in person.

[00:27:37] Allan : 'cause it's such a big differentiator in terms of everyone's gone digital, everyone's doing AI, everyone's doing automated and that's all fine. But the value of live face-to-face events is, I think is just skyrocketing. And you're absolutely right. You're gonna have to learn how to market, you're gonna have to learn how to sell, you gonna have to learn to deal with vendors.

[00:27:56] Allan : You're gonna have to learn to deal with people who know, show or [00:28:00] cancellations, all of those sorts of things. So, I love that. That's really cool. In terms of events around people's industry. So, I've also found it's an incredible way to learn deeply about a particular industry.

[00:28:12] Allan : Like when I've spoken at industry events, like I've spoke at a pharmacy event, I've spoken at an it industry event. I've spoken at a, an accounting industry event in half a day. I. I learn more about all the pain points of that industry than I could have in six months of research because you know, there's the panel speakers who are talking about whatever the hot topic is.

[00:28:32] Allan : They're talking about the thing that they're concerned about. At lunchtime, when you are sitting with someone, they're talking about what's happening in their business and in the industry, the challenges, the opportunities, all of that. You just learn so much. It's just such a powerful hack to really learning a particular industry at a deep level.

[00:28:48] Omar: Yeah, totally. And I think it's interesting 'cause some industries their issues are like non-issues in another industry and vice versa. Like they have that solved but not this thing. And it's [00:29:00] just like interesting to see how, not all businesses are the same. Not all businesses have the same pain points or problems, and not all businesses are like nickel and dimming.

[00:29:09] Omar: There's some industries where like they're happy to pay, you know, lots of money for a very simple solution. You know, like in the financial industry, like in the engineering industry, like most of those contracts are like, nothing's less than like a couple million dollars, like, you know, so it's like, it's a very interesting place to be.

[00:29:25] Omar: But a lot of us, we think of like selling to individuals and, you know, selling eBooks to working dads or whatever it might be. But the point here is, is that like there's a lot of levels and a lot of different ways you can make money in business.

[00:29:38] The Value of Content Creation
---

[00:29:38] Allan : What are your thoughts around someone just starting out with content, just starting to record reels or tiktoks or LinkedIn posts and just starting with content and seeing what sort of traction they get.

[00:29:49] Omar: I think this is a fantastic practice because number one, you're gonna get better at communication, which is the mother of all skills. This is what I learned when I was teaching is that it teaching is basically selling. You're [00:30:00] convincing somebody that this is something that they should know, first of all, like no one learns anything unless they feel like they have to.

[00:30:05] Omar: So one of the first things you do in a reel is like you try to hook them in a hook and you try to convince them in a quick way that hey, this is something you need to know, right? And people have to be receptive to what you about to teach them. And once they're like, okay, this sounds interesting, I'm open to learning, then you gotta be able to actually deliver on your promise.

[00:30:24] Omar: So say for example, the title of your episode is like how to spend a hundred dollars a month on marketing. Okay, then how do you, you gotta make sure you deliver on that promise and not say, well actually it's a hundred dollars the first month, the next month is $300. You know, like all that kind of stuff.

[00:30:36] Omar: So you need to actually deliver on the promise. So your title is your promise. You need to make sure that happens, because then you're gonna be able to earn massive trust and people are gonna be like, okay, I want more from this person. I wanna subscribe, I wanna keep listening. You're gonna learn how to, get the ideas outta your head and into a cohesive way, into the mic, into the screen, into the video, which is not as easy as [00:31:00] you think it is. You know? How many of you have, you know, this person in your life where like you're having dinner with them? It could be a friend, it could be a family member, and it's like, it's five minutes in.

[00:31:08] Omar: It's like, what is the story about? What are you talking about? Like,

[00:31:11] Allan : Yes,

[00:31:11] Omar: Yeah. Right. So it's like. That is doesn't fly online. No one has the patience. They're gonna just flick right through you. So you need to be able to cohesively and concisely convey what you want to convey. So there's so many skills you're gonna learn by just creating content. And I find that it's much easier to build a business around an audience that you already have.

[00:31:32] Omar: So as you're building content, you're building audience, you can start asking questions, start learning what is, you know, the pain points of this Audi, of this audience members. What are they struggling with? What do they complain about? What are the things that they wish they didn't have to deal with from day to day, whether it's in their business or in their life?

[00:31:47] Omar: And from there, you can start cultivating some solutions that they might be interested in. And it's much easier to sell to a hungry crowd than to sell to crickets or sell to nobody. I definitely recommend, you [00:32:00] know, it, this is a great starting point and you're gonna learn a ton about yourself in the process.

[00:32:04] Omar: 'Cause I've been doing this content game for over 12 years now, and I still learn things about myself, which just like, why do I do that? I gotta learn how to, you know, change that up or be a little bit more self-aware.

[00:32:17] Allan : Yeah. The other thing that I love is now the algorithms have made content a lot more of a meritocracy. Before it was based on the number of followers is how much reach you would get. Now. At least in theory, you know, someone posting their very first reel could hit it out of the park and reach a million people instantly if it's something that people love.

[00:32:38] Allan : So, those algorithms, like especially driven by TikTok, by Instagram reels, by YouTube shorts, where hey, if someone's getting lots of views, if some, if this is something that people are really sharing about, it can really blow up in a very short period of time. So, followers and celebrity is now less of a factor than it was before and now it's much more of a [00:33:00] meritocracy.

[00:33:01] Omar: Yeah. Dan's like head of content, Sam, who met at the event, right? He started doing daily reels maybe a couple days before the event. This event was in December, mid-December, basically. So this is like. Little over a month ago when he started doing this, he started with like 300 followers on Instagram when he started doing these ins Instagram reels.

[00:33:23] Omar: Today, this morning I saw he's got like 20,000 followers in a month because he's putting out incredible content. He knows how to package it 'cause he did it for Dan for years and he, he's just being consistent. So this is not that impossible.

[00:33:37] Allan : Yeah. And you know. In this, and really everything that we do from a business perspective, there's really levels to the game. You see, wow, people at five levels above are just really doing and thinking completely differently. And the mistake I see people make is they try to skip levels. You know, it's kind of like, if your goal is to become, you know, super jacked, you [00:34:00] know, muscular, you know, lean, all of that sort of thing.

[00:34:03] Allan : Even if we waved a wand today and gave you that body by magic. Would you know how to maintain it with your current nutrition, with your current diet, with your current workout plan. So, you know, Jim Rowan used to say, I want you to become a millionaire because of what it will make of you to become one.

[00:34:17] Allan : Not, you know, the money's automatic. And so the skills you learn along the way, you know, moving up those levels, it's you know, I kind of got into, it's been years since I've ever played a video game, but I'm like, I started playing Tetris again, and I'm like, if you start at Tetris level 15, we haven't done you any favors.

[00:34:32] Allan : It's just going boom. Right? You've got you've gotta. Yeah, exactly. So you gotta get to level one, level two, level three. You can move through levels really fast if you do the right stuff. But skipping levels is such a big mistake.

[00:34:43] Omar: One of my favorite Jim Rohn quotes, and I'm gonna do my best. Jim Rohn here, he says. If the world divided all the money equally, it would end up in the same pockets eventually.

[00:34:56] Omar: And it's just because of that skillset. It's like people that know how to [00:35:00] create value in the world and offer it, which that's business, are going to be profitable.

[00:35:06] Omar: I think we need to kind of stop there for a moment. 'cause a lot of people think, oh, you know. Aren't I valuable? Yeah you're valuable maybe in different ways to the community. Maybe you're valuable to your family, valuable as a friend. But in terms of the marketplace rewards, who can bring the most value and the reason love them or hate 'em.

[00:35:23] Omar: You know, Elon Musk or Bezos or whoever you want to say, you know, they bring a lot of value to the marketplace and they're rewarded because of that. And that's what capitalism is. And if you want to take advantage of that system, then you need to offer more value.

[00:35:37] Allan : That's 100% true.

[00:35:39] Closing Thoughts and Farewell
---

[00:35:42] Allan : Well, Omar, I think that's a great place to, to finish up. You are the man behind the a $100 MBA, one of the top podcasts on the planet. Certainly one of the top business podcasts on the planet, which is incredible. You've grown web and grown and scaled and exited Webinar Ninja.

[00:35:56] Allan : So, um. where do people find you right now, and what's the best way for people to connect [00:36:00] with you?

[00:36:01] Omar: Well, if you found any value in today's conversation and you wanna hear from me again, then you should subscribe to my podcast called the a $100 MBA Show. We publish Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And I try my best every time I get on the mic to help the person that's listening, build and grow their business in a way that one is sustainable so that they can still have a life.

[00:36:22] Omar: But also two, doesn't, like I said, feel like you're pushing the boulder up the hill, you're pushing it down the hill. You're working with what works for you and what works for the marketplace. So, I could check out the podcast and I'll see you there.

[00:36:33] Allan : And it is a really awesome podcast, and you are really leveraging your skill as a teacher on that podcast. It's great. I love listening to it and you really just systematically take people through a whole teaching process on each episode. So yeah, highly recommend everyone check out your podcast.

[00:36:48] Omar: Thanks Allan. Appreciate it.

[00:36:49] Allan : Thanks, man.

[00:36:50] Allan: Thanks for tuning in to the Lean Marketing Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by the Lean Marketing Accelerator. Wanna take control of your marketing and see real [00:37:00] results with the Accelerator. You get proven strategies, tools, and personalized support to scale your business. Visit lean marketing.com/accelerator to learn how we can help you get bigger results with less marketing.

[00:37:14] Allan: And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review or share it with someone who would find it helpful. See you next time.

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