Why the Boring Work Gives You the Edge

I want to specifically share lessons from rejection. As in, I had a prospect and we were close to going to the next step, but they ended up choosing a cheaper alternative. But, um the difference between pitch slapping and building rapport is literally that. It's excellence. >> What is your Barakah Blueprint? >> People think like, "Oh, Islam is something you add to your life." No, Islam is life. >> Who are we? >> Who Who are we when no one's looking? >> I I always have to explain my existence to people. [music] >> Why can that not be me? Why can't that not be another Muslim? >> The gold is in the work that you don't want to do. >> You lose everyone. >> [music] >> Don't lose your prayer. >> You can fool people, but you cannot fool yourself. And you cannot fool Allah. >> [music] >> You're reaching for something in the dunya. You're reaching for Allah. >> It does not matter what I want. It matters what Allah wants. >> The ego cannot survive under the light of awareness. >> My Barakah Blueprint is the Quran. >> I love that you called your podcast Barakah Blueprint because the blueprint is Baraka. >> [music] >> What is your Barakah Blueprint? >> [music] >> Bismillah. Assalamualaikum. Welcome to the Barakah Blueprint podcast. If you're listening to this for the first time, my name is Ibrahim Shareef. I am a project manager by profession. I pretend to be an entrepreneur here in Dubai. I have a brand studio called Itqan. And I have my content creation studio as well, the production, the Sharifi Co. Productions. It's a studio that, well, is very remote. I go around to different studios and record. Uh I'm also a hafiz of the Quran. And this is the reason why I do my content creation. Because I think that the difference between a successful life and a miserable life is one's connection to the Quran. And the reason why I made this podcast is to remind myself of that mission. And in turn, I hope I can affect other people to do the same thing. In this podcast, I talk about the path to this particular goal. I also talk about different means to attain that goal and everything that revolves around it. I'll give you an example. Uh I also talk about the um I also talk about some things that have happened on my journey. Like for example, as I said, I built a company that is called Itqan Studio. And one thing that I haven't done for a while is I haven't really gone ahead and acquired clients. I haven't done lead generation or sorry, lead identification is what I should say. Uh and from there reach out to those leads and have a frequent contact. Um it's not something that I've done before. I know it's something that I have to do. And it's something that any entrepreneur has to do regardless. Um but it's all a new area for me. So, I want to share some lessons from that journey. I want to [snorts] specifically share lessons from rejection. As in, I had a prospect and we were close to going to the next step, but they ended up choosing a cheaper alternative. And the thing is, as much as that hurt, cuz I was chasing a uh paying client for a like in a in a very needed and desperate time, if I'm allowed to say this. It taught me something. It taught me something and I want to share that lesson with you. Because the person listening to this maybe is going through something similar. Maybe you who are listening to this are building that one brand, that one future vision that you want to work with. And I can tell you one thing that I think can help is maybe I don't have the answer for how you're going to do it. But a mistake or a experience or lessons learned that I can share for myself, maybe that can help you avoid a pitfall or avoid a landmine to step on. So, the motion that I am in currently for It's Khair is I'm I'm trying to acquire a new pipeline of clientele. Which means what? Which means like a lead identification, which means reaching out to people frequently. It means engagement in terms of like commenting on their content, whatever that means, right? And the thing is there was one prospect who taught me something. He taught me that it gave me some some sort of a warning. Right? That sort of a red flag in terms of like how I dealt with my operations, right? And it's how to build relationships with people. Like I'll give you an example. I was already convinced that I shouldn't be generating stuff through AI and just sending AI messages and just you know, automating everything as much as possible, right? It's it's to do the it's to do the boring work like one of my co-founders say, right? And the boring work is what? To to put all of those hours to actually reach out to people manually, you know, and talk to people. And to put your face in front of the problem. Now, I was doing that. I was reaching out to people I haven't met before and people I haven't spoken with before and I'd barely get any responses, right? The thing is what I learned there by talking to one of those prospects is that people are going to be archiving this anyway because like I'm I'm reaching out and selling something directly. And he taught me the importance of building rapport. What I mean by this is that you you take advantage of the relationship that you can build with that person to actually connect with them like connecting with a human. This is especially important for platforms like LinkedIn. Because LinkedIn is a professional networking platform where people are networking, obviously. Yes, it can lead to an eventual sale, but the purpose of that platform, something that I've also learned from um from one of my former guests uh Jasmin Alić, is that it's it's a it's a people networking platform. It's a business networking platform, and a lot of people are not networking, which is very true. People are just uh pitch slapping like Jasmin calls it, which I think I think is a very it's a very funny terminology, right? And this is the one thing that will give you the edge and the advantage over other competitors in a market like a heavy market uh like a heavy AI market like we're in right now. There's a lot of AI slock around us. And there's literally no difference between AI automating and sending outreach messages versus you doing it manually. Um because you're asking for the same thing. You're asking for 15, 20, 30 minutes of their time to pitch them something. Or you're pitch you're soft pitching and then uh you're going to do the real pitch in the call, right? So, there's no difference there. The difference is that when you're reaching out and building rapport, you're not selling something. And this is something that I've learned, subhanallah, and it's very interesting to focus more on building the rapport and building that communication and building that network and [snorts] warming up your contacts before presenting that opportunity to them. And that's a lesson I wanted to share with you, subhanallah. Anyone who is listening to this while building something or trying to build something, I think this is going to be something that is going to be very advantageous to you. And this is something that takes time. It takes energy. It's boring as well. It's very boring to do it. But the lesson I want to derive from this because I I said this before, I [snorts] I focused my content on the Quranic compass. And I want to remind my followers and my listeners of the following. God Almighty values and rewards excellence. So when you're doing your work, do it with excellence. But um the difference between pitch slapping and building rapport is literally that. It's excellence. Because one of them is you very verbally, clearly, externally, whatever you want to call it, try you you clearly show that you want to get something out of this. Whereas building rapport and building that communication and warming that contact up shows you very clearly shows that contact very clearly and yourself as a matter of fact that you want to make a difference. And you actually are interested in that person's value. This is what gets people to click on that message and think about responding. I I I'm thinking about myself for example or from my own experiences. Uh because I've also deleted messages and I've also archived messages and I've also blocked people. Let's let's face it. Um but I've also accepted some uh attempts of communication and requests. And that was the reason, excellence. And the Prophet tells us in a hadith God Almighty wrote excellence on everything and for everything. And this is one of the things. It's one of the many things. So, what I think we need to take from this is that we need to remember that whatever area we're working on, we do our best. We do our best to work within the realms of excellence. So, with that being said, uh I think this serves as a perfect segue to uh end this podcast episode. Like I said, uh the purpose of doing this and sharing this content with you guys is sharing the lessons I have learned from following that compass, you know? Uh my reading of that compass and the flawed observations I have have nothing to do with the completion of that compass. I want to tell you with this piece of content that this compass is necessary. This compass is perfect. So, don't let your misreading of that compass reflect the nature of that compass. Say the word compass so many times that you're going to start zoning out. >> [laughter] >> But what I'm trying to say is that I want to share my lessons and my find findings and my observations so that you don't land on the same pitfalls. And at the same time that you can take those ideas and make something out of it yourself. And I think this is what makes the Barakah Blueprint so much more enjoyable for me. So, that being said, I want to thank you so much for your time. Uh and I would look forward to see you on the next episode, inshallah ta'ala. And those of you that are in the school community, I'm looking forward to have you in the school community as well. And to see your presence on the Sunday calls. And remember, um also before I before I say my last line, um very important thing to understand here. Uh the Barakah Basecamp {slash} Hijra Hackers, my school community had so many names. Right now it's called the Barakah Builders. It's a new community. It's a new mission. The mission is basically a learning path. I give a learning path a 90-day learning path to people to help them get their first $4,000 a month contract by building one skill, focusing on one skill, and acquiring clients to deliver that one skill for a learning path of 90 days. If this is something that sounds interesting for you, for now it is for free. Make sure to join the school community and the link is going to be in the bio. I appreciate your time and remember to renew your intention for every single thing you are doing. Ultimately, everything has to be for the sake of God directly or indirectly. And if it can't be translated to this, then whatever you're about to do, don't do it. So, live your life in Barakah style, people. And I'll see you on the next episode. Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi. >> [music] [music]