You Already Know What to Do (Season 1 Finale)

allaykum. Hello everyone. Welcome to the season 1 finale of the blueprint podcast. Actually, words that I never thought or I haven't really thought I was going to say uh because you never know how far in you will get whenever you start a podcast. I mean, I've had podcasts before they discontinued and many people discontinue their podcasts and their content creation. But alhamdulillah, I am really happy to say that this journey has been absolutely successful. The Baraka Blueprint podcast, the podcast that talks about the optimal balance of faith and focus, the balance between dean and dunya, the blueprint to ultimate success in this life and in the hereafter. I'm your host, Ibraim. I have been very honored and very blessed to have delivered this season of 21 episodes to you my dear listener and I ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala that our efforts are accepted and that you have gotten the maximal benefit that you could have possibly gotten from this podcast and from the baraka blueprints. This podcast was created initially from the objective or from the goal to provide the listeners Muslims and non-Muslims alike with a blueprint for success. And the the paradigm or the perspective that I approach this as is that the success in life is purely based on the Quran. the success metrics in their entirety is Quran. Therefore, what I have done basically is every single episode that I've created was pretty much built around that. Every single episode that I have delivered is built around that vision. And I wanted to take this episode and the finale of season 1 as a moment to reflect. a moment to reflect both for myself but also between me and my beloved listeners. I want to take you through this reflection that I had about the Baka blueprint. So number one and one thing I'm going to come up to come out with very very clearly is that I haven't really thought that I was even going to be creating video content. Every single podcast that I have had an experience with has been purely audio. I don't know why, but for some reason I wasn't a big fan of having video content, right? I don't know why. Could be because it felt like it was an extra hassle. Could be because I don't know. It just it just felt that it was going to be extra work and it wasn't something that I how do I put this delicately? just something that I couldn't mentally afford if that makes sense. But I am very happy to say that I was wrong. I'm very happy to say that this journey paid off. If you've been with me on the Baka blueprint from the very start. If not, you can also go back and see the content that I have released. YouTube, Spotify, Tik Tok, Instagram, Apple Podcast, Overcast, any media platform, you're going to find me there inshallah. And one thing you'll be able to say is that I haven't missed a week. Alhamdulillah, since the beginning of the year, every single week, I was able to at least produce one episode. I believe it was one or two days that I didn't deliver on time the Friday, so it was the next day, but I've never missed a week. Alhamdulillah. Honestly, that is not something I thought I was going to do. And no matter whether the content was qualitative video-wise or audio-wise or if something was missing, I made sure that I was I had to get something out. Initially, it was just because I mean I have Iraqi blood, so I'm stubborn. Initially it was out of stubbornness but later I realized that it has nothing to do with that. Literally it has nothing to do with being consistent or growing your channel or growing your podcast or growing your fan base or whatever it is has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the intention. It has to do with ania. It has to do with understanding your why. And we talked about that in the past episode of episode 20. And I'm very very grateful and happy to say [Music] that now 20 or 21 episodes later, I think I understand my why. I think I understand my why much better. And this will inshallah tala be the fuel to an even better and even more valuable and even more engaging and an even more powerful season two for the baraka blueprints. And that is something I am very sure of. Alhamdulillah. If Allah subhana t keeps me alive and healthy, I can promise you one thing. I can promise you that season 2 is going to be absolutely unforgettable. And especially if you liked season 1, oh, I promise you that season 2 is going to be something you will love. All right, so I'm going to go through some uh pointers and thoughts about season one and some recaps. Now, season one had had its highlights. Alhamdulillah. Season one before I I I had the intention before starting the Baraka blueprint that if I was going to start a podcast, I'm gonna give it a seasonal approach. My nia my intention was that season one is going to be a solo season and that season two is going to be the start of a collaborative season. So season two would have a few guests, all right, but the majority would still be solo. And maybe season three when we have established ourselves and we've established the discipline and we've established the consistency of baraka blueprint and the consistency of delivery then we can have a higher frequency of guests and I'm so happy that I'm wrong with all of that. I am so happy that I'm wrong because subhan Allah and I guess when when there is a delivery of value and that delivery of value is for the sake of Allah I ask Allahh that this is that this is a sight of acceptance because ultimately all of our actions that we aim to do to please Allah subhana tala and we aim to attain his ultimate maximal reward which is paradise in Jenna and may Allah may Allah accept that from and you and reward us with that. Ultimately, there's no there's no guarantee that our actions are number one good. We can try our best based on the textbook or based on the guided manual that we've received, but there's no guarantee that this is good because it's God Almighty that decides. He multiplies the reward to whomever he wills, but also he accepts from whomever he wills. So there's no guarantee that the action in itself is good in its entirety because our intention has to be pure all the time. If not, it has to be purified all the time. And secondly, there's no guarantee that God almighty accepts the action. So we ask Allah to accept that uh from his merciful and uh loving nature. So I pray, I hope, I wish that this is a sign of acceptance because the how am I going to say this though? Uh we are way ahead of schedule already in season one. We have some very interesting collaborations. We had we we've had a collaboration with our brother Darren American in Dubai. We've had our first guest Canyon Mims earlier on in the season and both highly qualitative sessions, both highly qualitative podcast episodes that we've been able to generate. So what I'm trying to say is and I'm this is answering the question that I'm asking myself. How has the progress for Baka blueprint win uh been and it is a win is the answer. Uh the summary of progress I think is highly successful. know that I am very very grateful for alhamdulillah and I don't think I would have gotten there number one without uh Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's guidance and God almighty the support from God almighty and number two the support from you the support and the dedication and the love and the kindness and the feedback constructive and positive all of that I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart because this has really given me fuel for my purpose. So, with that being said, Baraka Blueprint season 1 has been a success. Alhamdulillah. I've also asked myself, what is my favorite episode? The problem is, okay, this one is going to be very difficult. Um, I actually need to remind myself which episodes have I shared. Okay, let's see. Uh, okay. I think I think I have that here. Yes. Um, let me just check if this is Yes, I have it right here. Uh, the favorite episode. This is going to sound very strange. Uh, my favorite episode is season 1, episode 11. And no, it's not because it's the same number over and over again. The reason why season 1, episode 11 is my favorite episode is because this was the episode where I was going to skip a week. I actually was not going to publish anything because I was behind on schedule. Uh I didn't have time to record anything. Friday came and I always try to publish something on Friday and I still didn't I didn't publish anything and h I said you know what no I have to I have to publish something. So I just got up I put up my camera I connected the microphone and then I just recorded and I published it. Now, looking back, it may not be the most qualitative episode, and you may have figured that out by now as well. If you haven't figured it out way ahead when you've seen the episode, because it was very quick. It was a quick episode. It wasn't the best edits. Well, some fancy stuff, some good color correction maybe, but I mean, other than that, there was nothing, right? So, in terms of quality, maybe it wasn't the best episode, but it helped my consistency. I'm still going to have to give the credit for the most special episode to be for brother Darren because it was the first ever collaboration. And that collaboration, subhan Allah, was very interesting because it happened very spontaneously. The brother and I connected randomly on a Tik Tok live and the next day we recorded the episode and it was very special. Subhan Allah. So I'm gonna have to give him major props. And also subhan Allah, brother Canyon, may Allah bless him and bless his journey to success and his journey to righteousness. Uh he was the first ever guest and he's actually the first guest that I reached out to as well and he agreed. Subhan Allah. and he despite him having a much larger following than myself on the various media platforms didn't let that get into his way and alhamdulillah he was very kind enough he was kind enough to accept and it was actually a very very special uh podcast episode so both the episode with Darren and Canyon have been special in their ways and they have their own uniqueness so we ask Allahh to accept from the two brothers and to elevate them in ranks in this life and in the hereafter. Now, I think the episode that was the hardest to record, alhamdulillah, it wasn't any of the the collab episodes because they those were recorded in studios. So, that part was already taken care of. But the episode that was hardest to record, again, I'm going to have to go and remind myself about the the list that we had. You know what? It's not just one. The episode that was the hardest to record or the episodes in plural were the episodes of Ramadan. uh because I was juggling that together with the fact that I was doing the undeniable Quran series as well. That gave me some challenges and some difficulties but alhamdulillah we were still able to manage just about fine. So, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, for the possibility of or the the luxury of this focus and this energy that we get during our acts of worship. May Allah accept from us and from you as well. One thing that I wish I could have done better. Honestly, there are two things that I have in mind. This thing is a personal reflection of a challenge that I went through. And the second thing is a reflection of how I might pivot the uh the direction of this podcast or the style of this podcast. First thing I'm thinking about is the delivery that I've had of the Baraka blueprint. Now, alhamdulillah, as a person, I usually don't have this issue, but when it comes to content creation media, I have been under the impression for the better half of the first season that I must script every episode to the tea. Of course, I'm following a certain outline that goes without saying, but what I've done most of the time, most of the episodes, is that I've scripted everything. And I realized that it made me sound very robotic and it made the episode very monotone, if that makes sense. And I felt kind of stuck because I mean, of course, that made a huge difference. It it's it's a huge difference between having content like this and comparing that to, let's say, somebody who's been in the business for a very long time. For them, it flows differently. For them, it is presented way differently. And one thing I wish I could have done is I I wish that I've realized that earlier that I don't necessarily need to script every single piece of an episode. Now having an outline is okay, but scripting every single thing and then building the needs and the necessary link that you have to follow the script and if you go off script and you need to edit and redo and rework, I think it can harm people in the long run and content creators. Why? Because first of all, number one, you're going to have to edit a lot more, which is it's it's a nuisance in of itself. Um, but at the same time, I would say that you're going to be putting shackles on yourself and it's going to be very visible. I'm looking at I'm re-watching episodes and I I see, wow, this is it's very visible that I used to be like this. I may still be like this going on even in season two. You you'll you'll you'll have to stick around to find out, right? But I feel like it's not necessarily the case or as often the case for the episodes that you've seen recently. Alhamdulillah, especially the last one and this one. Now let's see what exactly this this point I wanted to address as well. what is the uh this the the the second thing right and before I go to the second thing here the second point that uh I'm reflecting about in terms of a challenge and pivoting and changing only one thing I want to say is yes I wish I would have started earlier with what you call the uh not so much following the script part but I also wouldn't change it I wouldn't change a bit of it. And the reason why is this. I myself know many people, personal connections, personal experience with people, people I see many times over and over and over again digitally and personally. People that are holding on to great value that they should be sharing with others and they themselves are also interested in the content creation sphere. But the one thing that keeps holding them back is they want it to be perfect. They want it to be picture perfect because they have very high standards of themselves. I've said that in the previous episode that this is something that is completely okay. Actually hold on to that mindset. Okay. But don't necessarily follow it blindly. So there's a big difference between the two. Okay. I believe that you who is out there who let's say you want to build a personal brand. Okay. uh and the only thing that is holding you back is that you're trying to perfect yourself or to perfect your setup or to perfect your material or your delivery or every anything right before you start with the content creation to you. I'm going to say two things. The first thing I'm going to tell you and this is based on my own experience. It's based on what I myself have seen and lived and trialled and errored right or whatever you call it. Uh two things I'm going to tell you. First thing is stick to that mindset. I think it's very important. I think you need to have that mindset with you because when you follow that and you follow it correctly and I'm underlining correctly here. When you follow that correctly, what's going to happen very simply is this. What's going to happen is you will consistently look for areas of improvement and you're going to grow and your content is going to be better and better and better and it's going to become better than what you have imagined and you're going to get ideas and areas of improvement that you're going to be working on that you didn't even have any awareness of even when you were in your perfectionist stage or trying to be perfectionist stage. Okay. Furthermore, the second tip I'm going to tell you is do not destabilize and disable yourself. You're putting shackles on yourself. Right? You can you can execute this perfectionist idea in one of two ways. There are two ways you can execute this idea. You're either going to tell yourself that I'm gonna I'm gonna remain to be this person that wants his content to be perfect, but I'm gonna start. Okay, I'm going to start regardless. Even if you're filming with a carrot, I don't care. You start. The other way you can execute this is, oh, well, I'm going to wait until I get this camera, and then I'm going to wait until I get this light set up, and then I'm going to wait until I get this microphone, and then I'm going to wait until I get this, and then you can do that, and then you're going to keep pushing that start line. You'll never start. And if you never start, you'll never finish. And if you won't finish, you won't know what it feels like to have gone through the race. You won't get the benefits of the race. You won't get the benefits of waking up and training for that race. You won't get the benefits of competition and the competitive advantage. Okay? and the the the advantage that you get compared to other people of training. There are people who would for example turn on the screen and then uh judge the runners and then you have the runners, right? And then you have the runners who want to run but they're waiting until they're going to lose a couple of kilos. If you never take that journey, you you're if you're never going to start with that journey, you're always going to say one day. You need to start to say day one. Seriously, this this is the shift that you need to do. And I think I started to realize that right before Ramadan. Right before Ramadan, I started to realize that. Why? Because actually I had thoughts about completely passing the podcast if I was going to return to the Baraka blueprint. Seriously. But I still continued and a good friend of mine gave me this advice where he said that you've built momentum. You need to live on that momentum. You need to continue with that momentum. This thing completely pivoted completely changed the way I view the baraka blueprint. And I promised myself that I was going to continue to be consistent and at least produce around 20 episodes until I hit a seasonal break. And that seasonal break has to be structured and the preparation for season two will be even more structured because it's about structure. It's about discipline. So again to you my dear perfectionist listener, friend, colleague, companion, whomever you may be and whoever feels struck by this, I'm going to tell you very clearly. You know exactly what you need to do, but you need to be courageous enough to start doing it. That's the one thing I'm going to tell you. Honestly, you need to have the courage to understand that it is going to be difficult to discipline that road map. It is going to be difficult to structure that road map. It's going to take you time, but you need to do it. This has nothing to do with strictly content creation. It can be your journey to become a of the Quran. It can be your journey to learning DevOps. It can be your journey towards becoming a project manager, becoming a graphic designer, becoming a cinematographer, a videographer, a photographer, a whateverographer. What you need to do is you need to start. You need to take that first step. That first step can literally be anything. That first step can be taking a pen, opening your journal or piece of paper and then you start writing something. Whatever it is, you have to be consistent. That is also why the most beloved action to Almighty God is consistency. This is an excerpt from something that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said. Another narration is where he was asked the question, what are the most beloved actions to God? The most consistent of actions, even if they're tiny, small, right? Never overlook a deed. Never overlook an action. Like even if we were to zoom out from this dunya focused piece of content that I just delivered part of the podcast and if we were to think about the thing that really matters which is your persona the character that is going to wake up on the day of judgment this is the character that you need to build this temporary GTA character in dunya. Well, I mean, it's good to have that because I mean, it's going to be it's going to be your path to the ultimate character, but ultimately you need to build that ultimate character. That character needs to be the one with the most points. That character needs to be the one with the most powerups. And that character will only have the most powerups if that character has discipline. Because discipline is what builds empires. Discipline is what builds kingdoms. And discipline is what builds a ruler. It starts with something small. Discipline is what gives. Discipline is what gives discipline is what builds every single thing that lasts. And this podcast is about success that truly lasts. And like my beloved friend in Sweden kept telling me, a friend that I've been doing dawa with for a very long time. And he used to say, whenever I point a finger, there are three that point back to me. So of course, I'm going to take that advice to myself first and foremost. It's about my own discipline as well. Also, because I'm a selfish guy, I want the advice for myself. So I'm going to advise myself before I advise you. And this is something this is something I wish I was told very very often. Discipline. Stick to the discipline. Discipline yourself. And discipline is best built with consistency. So start with that consistency and start with that soon and change. This is the last thing I'm going to say before I close down season one. Change. In the 13th chapter of the Quran, Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, "God almighty does not change the condition of a people lest they change that condition within themselves." So step one to the two of us that means it's both me and you listener. Let's identify what it is that we want to change. And step two is let's take the first step to make that change. And speaking of change, now we're changing seasons, my dear listener, because this is and it marks the end of season one of the Baraka Blueprint podcast. This isn't a goodbye. This is I'm going to see you soon. I am going to see you soon, inshallah. I am going to see you soon with even more impactful content. One thing I'm going to promise you as well is that you are definitely going to be getting a different host. Of course, it's going to be Ibrahim Sharif. Hey, I'm I'm not I'm not changing guys, but I'm changing for the better. Everyone should you shouldn't be the same person as you were a month ago. So, one thing I'm going to be promising you is inshallah until Baraka Blueprint season 2 is going to starts, you're going to have an even better delivery. You're going to have an even more valuepacked Baraka Blueprint. Why? Because this is the ultimate blueprint. And this is what I want to share with every single person I can get my hands on. You can find this podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, short clips from Tik Tok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram and every gram. And stick around, follow me on Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok because I will still be producing content. I will still be delivering uh stuff to you guys. Uh, but just the Baraka blueprint is going to be on a seasonal break because we're going to be building it up. We're going to be prepping it up and it's going to come back even stronger and even better than you can imagine. Until then, if there is something that I said that was beneficial, it was purely from Allah subhana wa ta'ala and the guidance of his beloved messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And anything that I said that was wrong, faltering or in error is only from myself and from the whispers of of Shaitan and my beloved religion and blueprint is fully free from my mistakes and shortcomings. Until next time and until season two, stay productive, stay faithful, stay valuable, build yourself in Baraka style and remember your