How to Build a Brand Without Losing Your Deen

Assalamu alayikum. Welcome to the Baraka Blueprint podcast. My name is Ibrahim Sharif. I am a brand strategist, creative director, graphic designer, project manager, many titles and also alhamdulillah I am a Quran. I believe that I have a long way to go in my journey and I believe that every single Muslim man and woman need to strive for excellence. I believe I am far from that and I want to achieve that excellence. So I created this podcast and my entire personal branding ecosystem as an experiment with myself as the test subject and I want you my dear listener to follow along through that journey. And I want to talk about some very interesting topics today. Topics for me that are for me very interesting which is specifically about building a brand. I think this is very important because many a times we are putting ourselves in positions where we are building brands without knowing that. Now I'm thinking about that a lot of times from a technical perspective or from a hands-on perspective. Why? Because as a graphic designer and as a brand identity strategist and a visual identity director or whatever title you want to come up with even um you want to build a brand that stands out. You want to build a brand that is successful and that actually triggers the right reactions. Why I'm saying this is because this is not just something that is applicable for graphic design. This is something that is actually applicable for everything in life because the way you interact with people is basically you building your brand. Your brand is the way you are going to be identified in front of your friends and family and your acquaintances, your colleagues, those that have never met you before and they see you for the first time. The first impression that they have of you is basically of your brand. Are you for example the accommodating welcoming person or are you the hostile aggressive person? Are you agreeable or disagreeable? So depending on what image you want to put forth to people this is the brand that you need to focus on. Now today's topic specifically is about building a baraka centered brand and this is applicable for everything. This is applicable for you that want to work as a graphic designer. This is applicable for you that wants to build a company even no matter what niche it is in. This is applicable for you who wants to build a dwa team even like a street dwa team or whatever like this is applicable for you who wants to build an image. Okay, it's applicable for you who wants to build an image no matter which direction it is. Because if we're building ourselves as a personal brand or as a person or as a colleague at work, we're building a brand. And if we're building a company that inshallah dominates a specific field and sector, we're equally building a brand. The important thing here is that we don't only focus on the visual metrics like for example uh the uh the revenue on ad spend or the return on investment or the visibility or any of those other measurable tangible KPIs. That's definitely one way to measure success and that more often than not that is going to be the way that you will track the progress of your company and the progress of the brand that you're building. The very important thing here is that for us as Muslim entrepreneurs and content creators and professionals, we need to understand that the brand that we are building ultimately needs to be a brand of baraka. It needs to be a brand that is centered in this divine spectrum of what is acceptable and what is going to be blessed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I think this is a topic that Muslim content creators, entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals are struggling with. Why I'm saying this is because I am struggling with it and I know I can't be alone. I know there are many people that are struggling with the exact same thing. So that's why I'm going to talk about this today. We're going to be addressing a couple of questions. How can we build a brand without losing ourselves? meaning how can we build a brand that is successful that measures up to these tangible KPIs without losing the butter essence without for example without chasing these vanity metrics or to just you know ride on a hype train and get the numbers but maybe not have the effect that we want it to Now most importantly as well how do and this is the question that I want to address that is I think the most important question how do we build a brand that yields this success in dunya without sacrificing your connection with Allah subhana wa ta'ala and the other day subh I was speaking to one of my closest friends in a in a live actually in a Tik Tok live albe in Swedish and we talked about the um the concept of friendship in Islam and the the layers of friendship and that the because because the the the the the highest level of friendship or connection is um what we call in Arabic al for example Allah subhana t has chosen Ibraimam to be his his near friend like it says in the Quran. So we talked about these layers and one of those layers is uh or the uh the connection. So it's very important that when we're building these products or the brand for example when you're building a brand be it for yourself for your client your image that you don't lose that connection with Allahh that your wasul that your connectivity to God remains intact and doesn't doesn't get affected in a harmful way. So I think this is this is a very important message and a very important episode to you my fellow Muslim listener uh in today's digital content sphere in today's world that is full of content consumption because everything now that you see around us is more visibly a brand. Like before maybe we didn't associate this terminology as in the brand or building the brand per se. But the more visual something gets and especially for us as human beings we are very easily drawn to the visually presentable things this will basically mean that now all we we are all the more convinced that building a brand and successful brand is so important. That's also why I'm pivoting my content altogether to focus more on branding both from a professional sense to teach people how to build successful brands uh in to to visually perform and to visually outperform competition but also now in terms of adding the Islamic lens to it how we can build a brand that pleases Allah subhana wa ta'ala. So, and I also why why I wanted to address this specifically is because this is also a journey that I'm figuring out myself. For example, I'm not very I'm not very wellversed when it comes to building a successful personal brand because building a successful personal brand goes way beyond the graphic design aspect of things. It's about having a successful salesunnel. It's about having a successful marketing funnel. It's about understanding uh what lead magnets are going to work for your particular industry and what are you going to do with those leads and how are you going to convert slowly and so on and so on and so on. There's so much terminology that I'm going to be very honest with you guys. It it gets so confusing for me because I actually I'm still figuring many things out. I am within my very first year. I am in my debut year of content creation and a visual podcast or audiovisisual podcast. So I have no idea what many of these things are or what this uh measurement will result in or what I will do with this information or what information I should even be acquiring. And that's why um what I have done recently and if I'm going to be honest a lot of what I have been doing very recently especially in my short form content has been like a lot of trial and error and it felt I don't know I I I felt quite lost in this particular endeavor because I didn't focus on my and on the entire reason why I started doing this to begin with and the reason Why I started to do this is because I wanted to talk about well the one thing that leads to success the baraka blueprint. I mean it's in the name it's in the name of the podcast. So that's why I think I really needed this reminder for myself and I do think that many people there are going to be some people at least maybe not many but some people at least are going to be listening to this and thinking oh this message is very important for me as well. So for a very long time even now actually I feel very overwhelmed even when it comes to the content that I'm creating I would feel empty at many times honestly especially especially when you've built this maze and labyrinth and then you're trying to navigate through that labyrinth that you've built. In this case, my personal brand, my personal brand feels like a labyrinth that I've built and I'm now trying to figure my way out of it and it feels difficult and I feel stuck. So, it's very easy to feel overwhelmed and disconnected. And I think the worst part of this all is I didn't feel like this brought me closer to Allahhana wa ta'ala. And I think this is the big problem. This doesn't this didn't really help me with my provision of Quran. didn't help me with my connection to Allahh in terms of being stronger in my maj and my revision of so and also at the same time looking back at my journey I feel like I have grown immensely in my personal brand in my short form content in my YouTube I'm soon to reach a thousand subscribers and many of you that are watching this are not subscribing so hey guys listen any help a brother out. Come on. H but but still I mean I started from zero subscribers and I'm soon to reach a thousand. I think last time I checked I am seven subscribers away from a th00and. So YouTube wise I've grown a lot. Instagram I've grown more than I think 250 or 300% in my followers. In my Tik Tok I've grown more than 300%. Visually the brand is looking so much clearer. I mean, I've I've I've decided on this on the visual components of the brand that I'm going to be sticking to. Um, all of the visual aspects of the brand are looking much much better than when I actually started. And this reminds me of one thing that the brand that you're building can have the most compelling visuals. It can be the most How do I put this delicately? It can be the most optimized strategy. Mine is not, but my strategy is getting more optimized as we're talking. And at the same time, this can be the it can even it can even be the one that gets the most views, but still feel dead inside and empty. And this reminds me of what that's why I'm bringing this up because I feel like this this resonates very well with my particular situation because I've focused on that specifically and I haven't focused on um connecting that brand to the act of worship the IA. I think we need to remind ourselves of two things even though these are two words that I have mentioned a lot. Uh I still want to bring them up because those are really the two metrics and the only two KPIs that will matter for you. Uh Allahh says in the Quran inah chapter number 17 in the first page if you excel you will excel for yourselves and you will reap the rewards of your own excellence. Excellence uh Allahh says in or sorry the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says in an authentic narration Allahh has prescribed excellence on everything. what is excellence? Because if we want to build something that is impactful and we wanted to contribute to the legacy that we want to build and the legacy that we want to leave behind us after we pass away, whatever we have built, it needs to be built with excellence. There's no other way around. It needs to be built with the sun. It means that you need to excel in the for example in in in in the case of in the in the case of building a brand of a person that is going to be remembered fondly by people around them. That means you need to excel in the characteristics and in the personality traits that speak to people. For example, be it your generosity, people will remember the person who is generous quite fondly. That's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said in in the authentic narration that when the person dies three things will remain and those are going to be the only three things that will yield this person reward and benefits and those three things are tied to legacy. The first one being spirit a continuous charity. So a generous person will directly have a net positive legacy that they're leaving behind and knowledge that is beneficial to the masses. And finally and righteous offspring that call out to to Allah subhana t to have mercy on the dead on that one that that that person in question. So this specifically talks about what brand you're building. What is the brand that you're building and the brand that you're leaving behind you. Now from a technical aspect we would call it a brand. Now the the more philosophical aspect to it would be called legacy. And legacy is the thing that will keep giving you a return of investment. Legacy is what you're investing. And then the theat that you're reaping from it is your return of investment that will then end up benefiting you in the day of judgment and will be your door to paradise. And in order to perform with excellence, you need to start with your why. This works from a company level like is presented to us in the book start with why by Simon Synynic or something that Islam already told us a long time ago. The actions are preceded by the intentions. So your excellence is only going to matter and be as effective as the as the intention that you're having. That is also the reason why in the most in most hadith collections the hadith or the narration about intention comes first and the narration about excellence comes second. Like for example, if you take a look at the 140 collection, what are we going to find? We're going to find the hadith of excellence to be mentioned as hadith number one. Hadith number two also narrated by is the long narration where the where he talks about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam telling the archangel Gabriel about the different aspects of our faith Islam iman and being the one where you worship God Almighty as though you see him and even though you don't see him and you won't see him in this life he will verilely see do. So keep that in mind and perform excellently and that's why branding the activities that you're doing to build said brand this can be an act of worship as well like for example this is also this is also the reason why for me as a graphic designer uh I wouldn't take on a project that um goes against my principles as a Muslim never would I do that never would I dare to do that why because I would be building a legacy for a company that their entire brand or the entire legacy is to go against the commandments of Allah subhana wa ta'ala and that's why the action that we are any any action that you are uh doing any work that you're doing if you're going to have a difficult ility to translate it into or into worship. This is not something that you should be doing. Then either you're wasting your time or you're damaging yourself. Meaning if whatever you are doing doesn't really yield a net positive impact on yourself or on what you're trying to build is going to be a waste of time or maybe it can even give a net negative impact like the sins. when your intention is clear first of all it's about clarity and then when you're clear about what intention you are having or what you're intending to do when that intention is pure only then will you be able to act on it and do it excellently. You won't be able to perform excellently when your intention is anchored to something that is limited. You may be able to perform adequately and well, but it won't be in excellence. It won't be inan because has already been defined to us that it is worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as though we see him or that the the worship is so excellently done that we know that this is being seen and spectated by God Almighty. So we put our effort into it. That means your nia needs to be anchored to Allah subhana wa tala. It needs to be anchored to Almighty God. that being said, uh let's talk about some uh practical uh strategies here. Uh what brand are we like what are the components of a brand that we're building? This the purpose of this is not to be a professional uh workshop or seminar. By the way, actually now that I think about it, even though I am dressed like this, I am going to an event after recording this. But uh uh even though this is not meant to be a professional seminar, uh this is more of a an internal reflection of mine that I have. Uh so let's talk about the components of a brand. The components of a brand are what? the visual presentation, the um what is it called now? Uh your tone, uh how you speak, uh how you show up and how you interact with your audience. Your audience can be your immediate close audience or it can be your extended indirect audience. and how you solve problems. why I'm saying all of this is because as you can see these components put together the moment you understand what components go behind the brand that is when you will carefully consider your strategy. For example, why do you need to consider how you speak? Why why do we need to be uh careful when thinking about the way we speak to people? Does it isn't it just what words you're presenting? Shouldn't that alone be enough? Now the answer is no. Because the way you speak is the way you are perceived by people. For example, if the way you speak is monotone and uh let's say dull and boring, people won't listen to you or rather your words are not going to be as impactful. You may be perceived as someone who doesn't care or someone who I just want to get this over with. Right? And that is why the way you speak says a lot about well how much you care about what you're trying to present to people. Similarly, the way you present yourself be it in clothing, in appearance or whichever it is. And I know this sounds very contradictory what I'm saying right now. But what I mean with all of this is you need to consider now very carefully why you're doing all of this. For example, why am I why do I care about the way I speak? Why do I care about the way I present myself? Now, why I'm saying all of this to you guys is because I also want you to understand that uh you see how this gets very very dangerous for someone who's building a personal brand. Why? Because it's very easy to fall into the trap that you're doing this for people. And I feel like this is something that I have been under for a for quite some time unconsciously or sorry what unconscious subconscious I've been conscious. Alhamdulillah. But subconsciously I've been doing this. I feel like it at least. Maybe there are people who are watching this who will directly agree with me and can even pinpoint particular situations perhaps. Maybe. But what I mean with that is you see how easy it is to consider the people and the people only. This is not something that will give you success. Even if it may give you numbers at an instance, I still look in focus. That's good. uh even if even if they even if that measures up to certain metrics that you're uh considering or KPIs that you're measuring, it won't give you success because ultimately your brand doesn't please Allah subhana wa tala because what you have considered what you have been fine-tuning is only for the people and not for God almighty because the version of you that you're building for people is not going to be the most sincere one. For example, you're going to be focused on being a people pleaser. Subconsciously, even at best, it's going to be subconsciously you're going to be focusing on that. Why? Because you want the content that performs the best. Which content performs the best? The content that pleases people the best or the content that triggers the most reactions. Mo most times, I mean, you want to have uh an audience that um reacts positively to what it is that you are. Um let me see here if another one. I think that's better like this. Yeah, perfect. uh you you want to have an audience that uh responds to what you uh what you I mean like for example if you want to lead them down a certain path or get them to purchase a particular product most most likely you would like to have an audience that is somewhat supportive okay so what I mean by all of this is when you're building for that sole purpose you won't be you won't build an authentic brand you will build a brand that is people pleasing. Ironically speaking, the the brand that people are the most attracted to are the most authentic and honest brands. And you won't be authentic or honest unless you're doing something for sake of God Almighty. So, we are roughly 30 minutes. So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to move forward to practical shifts and I'll go through them very quickly before we terminate today's session before I go to my next event. So practical shift number one purifying your intention. For example, before you and now that I think about this subhah I was in such a rush that I uh just wanted to get the camera up to film this particular episode that I didn't even consider purifying my intention before this. The first tip that I was going to give you is make dua that this benefits people and that this pleases Allah subhana wa tala. something that I haven't even done. Again, let letting you in on on a key struggle that I've had. Maybe as I'm filming this, I'm actually figuring out the reason. So, the first thing we do, and again, I ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala the content I am providing. Ya Allah, if this video benefits uh anyone, make that benefit be for your sake. And ya Allah ya Allah help me cause a net positive impact and benefit for our umah through this uh content or through the material that I am spreading and we ask Allahh to purify our intentions especially for the actions that has a an audience. We ask Allahh to purify our intentions for actions that only have him as an audience like our salah for example, our salah at home. Are we doing this just to get something out of the way or are we doing this to please God Almighty and to actually follow his commands to do this with excellence? it gets even more dangerous when the the audience grows in number and it's even more important to have a supercomposed and controlled image and a a pure intention. So we ask Allahh to not let our ego lead us because ego is the enemy and we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to purify our intention to do our actions with excellence and to please uh him accordingly. Secondly, when you build something, you build it for service and you don't build it for self-promotion. This is something I really need actually. It's good that I'm giving this because I'm I'm I'm giving advice to myself. A brand that is built on ego will collapse even if it gets high numbers. Ironically, a lot of the brands that are materially successful right now are brands that are built on ego. But this this collapses like a like a bubble or like a house of cards. The brands that stick and now I'm talking about the brands that will benefit you in a forget. Sure. in dunat it's it will also be beneficial because uh the most authentic brands are those that are going to be the most successful in the end or at the end right so when you don't build for ego or for the sole purpose of ego you build you you end up building brands that will uh that will service the people that this can be for example by um doing your absolute best to provide content or to build content or to build a product that solves problems that actually benefits people that yields a net positive impact on people's lives or in your community or in your ummah for example. But if you do this solely to promote yourself this is when you're ending up in the danger zone. That is why the Sahabah for example never never sought positions of leadership. Even after the prophetat wasam passed away, there's no sahhabi that was or no no companion that was power hungry and that really wanted to have the leadership over all of the Muslims because they realize the danger behind this. They realize there is a thin line between doing something for people's service or to service the nation versus doing something to promote yourself as the authority figure. And this also falls into two of the points that we mentioned in the hadith earlier where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that two of the three things that will benefit you after you after you die. Continuous charity and knowledge that will benefit people. It could be something that your brand is creating. Could be the product or the content that you're building. If this is for service and if this is for benefit and if it ends up benefiting and servicing people it could be your it could be the one thing that gives you and reward after your diet. This is the best form of ROI not just the monetary gain and benefit. So that's why it's very important to now tying that into um tying that into point number one which is to purify your intention. If this is done for the wrong intention and it benefits people, it's not going to give you any is not going to give you any reward. So it's it's it's going to be a waste. It's going to be a waste of time and waste of space. But if you're doing this the the service that ends up benefiting people after you die, if this is done for the sake of Allah subhana tala, that is when you have won. That is when you've hit the jackpot. regardless of how much money you got from this particular service. If this ends up benefiting people, then you you you're going to be the you're you're going to be the grand slam winner because it will keep adding to your account of good deeds before you meet Allah subhana wa tala on the day of judgment while you're in your grave. And this takes me to the final point before I end which is to um connect everything that you're building to your to the account and to the brand that you're going to be presenting to Allahh on the day of judgment. Therefore one when you're building something build it while focusing on the impact. what impact are you going to leave behind you and not doing it solely for the visibility. Again, as you're noticing right now, those of you that are paying attention, this information actually helps you even for building brands if you just want to succeed in dunya. Now, if if you don't care about your and you're following these steps, this will actually help you to build a brand that will resonate with people because you will be able to build a movement. the the these these tips that I'm giving you, these are tips that will help you create movements and masses of people that will just eat up everything you are buying. You can use this for manipulation as well. But what you're seeing here again, when this is implemented correctly, this can be something that ends up winning you or gaining you the pleasure of Allah subhana t and paradise. And this is what we want. We don't care about building a cult like this. This this is not our fight. This is not our intention. Our intention is to build for God Almighty to be pleased with us so that he gives us paradise. That's it. This is the goal. We want the easiest way to So focus on impact, not what is visible and not what pleases people necessarily. For example, as I'm I'm thinking I'm hope I'm hoping y I pray that blueprint is is this example. Uh as you can see I don't have the highest visibility and this and you see that I'm still continuing. The reason why is because I am very convinced that at least one thing that I am providing may transform people's lives or may actually help people and impact their lives positively and impact their positively. That's why consistency continues. Alhamdulillah. But if you have a 100,000 people following you and there is little to no impact, then ask yourself which of these two examples is the net positive. Secondly, when you create, create with humility as we call it in Arabic. Even if you were able to build something successful, at the end of the day, you are dust. All of you come from Adam or all of you are the offspring of Adam and Adam is from dust and mud. That's it. You're nothing special. Anyone could have done what you have done. So remember this and don't think of yourself as something that you are not. And remember that everything that you have gotten is from Allah subhana tala. For example, Allahh says in the inah chapter number four is about to forget the numbers. Whatever benefit that has has gotten you and that you are putting out to the world, all of this is from God Almighty. It's not from you. You're not the originator. God is the originator and he remains to be the originator. And thirdly, analysis paralysis people. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Stop. Really, this is this is the this doesn't help anyone. Does it benefit anybody? So before I let you guys go, remember uh this particular point. Don't compare yourself what other people are doing. Don't compare your metrics, your impact, your none of this. This is your own journey. This is your journey with Allah subhana tala. You will stand in front of God Almighty alone. He will judge you alone. He won't judge you based on what other people have done. It's based on what you have done. God Almighty says, "All you who believe, focus on yourselves. Those who are misguided will not harm you and affect you if you are guided." Similarly, those that are guided will not harm you and affect you if you are mis or they won't benefit you and affect you if you are misguided. So it's ultimately everything is between you and Allah subhana wa ta'ala and we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala when he judges us and when he does uh give us our our account of judgment that he does it when he is pleased with us and that he grants us paradise and that he accepts the good that we have done and he forgives us from our shortcomings. So that being said, Baraka Blueprint episode 37 I think. Yes, should be is concluding. So stick with me to in the next episode inshallah where I may actually continue on this same theme. I think this theme has been very very beneficial for me. So people, if you like what you've seen, remember to subscribe, remember to follow, remember to like, remember to uh turn on the bell notifications to be notified for every video that is being released on this channel. Soon we're hitting the season finale, inshallah. I think this has been a very successful season. Uh so that being said, thank you for tuning in and remember to build your brand withan with a pure intention and in baraka style. I like her to what?