Born in Finland, Radwan Omar is a digital entrepreneur, an influencing public figure, a travel junkie who always travel once in a month right where his passion lies, and founder of 25 million followers media company called “Femanji”.
He entered in this field with the courage to do something through social media. So, he started and dedicated his all struggle in marketing with his steady inclination towards setting up his own business. He said, “Sometime when i am free I used to play golf which makes me fresh.”
He runs a marketing firm that provides advertisement, social media marketing services to the clients. It also provides logo design services, website development, and maintenance, training and consulting.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your best growth advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here?
Radwan: Absolutely. Thanks for taking the time to interview me. I’m a 21-year-old entrepreneur from London. I’m the Founder/CEO of Femanji (a media publishing company), but prior to this, I’ve created a web agency, entertainment company and a few smaller businesses. I was born to a middle-class family in Finland. Growing up, life wasn’t hard. I guess I started my entrepreneurial journey in the search for Freedom. Financial freedom, but also the freedom to create and build based on my ideas and decisions, not being told what to do. My first venture into entrepreneurship was in University. I would sleep late during the nights just to get some work done and wake up a few hours early in the mornings to finish it off. I’ve never actually had a 9-5 ‘job’. I hate 9 to 5 jobs for a number of reasons. If you’re just working solely for the money, over time it can be very soul destroying. Eventually, you come to depend on your job because you have bought into a certain way of living which you don’t want to give up. Not to get dramatic, but the 9-5 routine sets your life in a never-ending cycle that feels like a trap or a prison.
What is the single biggest mistake you have ever made and what did you learn from it?
Radwan: Well, this is a big one. I’m just listing what mistakes I made and hopefully will never make again:
1. Hiring friends & family & friends of friends or similar. They all showed up with a major self-entitlement attitude because they felt they were special and couldn’t be fired. This boils down to the bad recruitment mistakes several people have already mentioned, but it was a major problem for me.
2. Postponing difficult terminations. Who likes to fire people? Not me. Of course, I did it because I had to for my business, but sometimes I would wait longer than I should have. This just allowed the damage to continue. I procrastinated because I discovered how many prospective employers misrepresented their abilities, backgrounds and their work ethics.
3. Not always keeping my eyes on the cash flow. Yes, you need experts to help you run your business. However, you must pay attention to everything. Plan for short and long term challenges. Always have cash in reserve and your funding sources on speed dial. I learned quickly that I had to review the business books on a weekly basis to keep my eye on the money ball. A few things slipped by me and bite me in the rear. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Recruitment was a major challenge.
4. Not realizing you must follow all laws, rules and file all paperwork. Even when you do absolutely everything 100% correctly, the world is full of very bad people who are opportunistic and will do whatever they can to take any opening you give them. Be sure to read every contract, especially the fine print. Then read it again. Anyone can sue anyone for any reason. Be prepared and know your options.
5. Learning to think outside the box. I met an extremely successful billionaire businessman at a large business conference 25 years ago. I asked him for the secrets to his success. He told me he’d followed traditional good business practices which helped him build his business empire. He told me to always keep an open mind and be willing to consider anything within reason which might give me a special business edge or help me overcome the competition.
In your experience, what are the key pitfalls to succeeding in media and how can you overcome them?
Radwan: The key to social media success lies in determining what you want to achieve for your business or your goal. You also have to make sure that your goal syncs in with your marketing strategy. In achieving social media success, you have to consider a number of things, such as your website traffic, increasing your sales, improving your customer engagement and many more. Consistency is key. Post regularly and engage your followers by replying to their comments. Make your posts entertaining and educational. Once you’ve determined those things, you are on your way to attaining your success.
MWhat are your three best tips when it comes to social media growth?
Radwan: Content marketing is surely capturing a lot of attention. Today’s digital marketing environment facilitates a lot of channels of distribution which allow specific content to reach specific readers.
1. Ask yourself this Before you start. Why should someone follow you or your brand on Social media? Define the purpose.
2. Don’t compromise on great designs and videos. Creativity inspires people on social media. It helps you define your class.
3. You sell What you show. So, show things in style. Invest in great product Photography and Videography. Quality visuals help you stay distinguished.
Describe your sales methodology. Have you found that different types of prospects are responsive to different types of styles, and if so, do you adapt your style to the type of customer you are selling to?
Radwan: Femanji is our consultative selling methodology. The acronym stands for Rapport, Aspirations and Afflictions, Impact, and New Reality. It’s a blueprint that helps sellers lead masterful sales conversations, run effective sales processes, and create and win sales opportunities. Femanji uses questioning techniques to uncover the full set of buyer needs and desires. Sellers focus on value by bringing new ideas and perspectives to buyers and crafting compelling solutions. Once you master selling, move on to learn how to inspire buyers with ideas, and shape their agendas for action. We call this Insight selling. RAIN is core consultative selling, Insight Selling is advanced consultative selling. They work together.
What do you believe is the hardest step in the growth process and how can it best be navigated?
Radwan: Let’s just admit it. We all say we don’t care about the number of followers we have on social networks, but we all do. If you’re a mature digital marketer, you know that follower count isn’t any guarantee of the value of a social media account. But at the same time, you also know having a lot of followers is far from worthless. Like it or not, people do look at your follower numbers, which affects their decision to follow you. In addition, the more followers you have, the larger the potential reach and influence you have (provided those followers are real and relevant to your business). I’ve noticed that when I post something that gets widely reshared, I almost always gain new followers. So I’ve paid careful attention over the years to the kinds of social media posts that get those shares. The hardest truth about social media is that no matter how popular you become if you stop posting and engaging you’ll be forgotten in no time. You’ve got to maintain a regular presence, but you also don’t want to overdo it.
What are your best tips for improving your close rate?
Radwan: Have a consistent process to plan to win big. There is no one big thing, but discipline on the whole picture is the key. Focus on the right audience. Know their thinking process. Know the value case to win. Anticipate their objections. Make your value case exceptionally strong. Take coordinated, specific actions to set yourself apart and outsmart the competition.
What is your best advice around making the ask?
Radwan: Don’t make it too soon. A proposal should be a summary of what you’ve already agreed to. If you haven’t agreed to the solution or talked pricing, you’re asking too soon. Then, when it’s time to ask, just ask. Don’t use some silly techniques. Be clear about the action you want a buyer to take, lay it out for them, and ask them to take it.
Language is obviously very important throughout the sales process. What are the key phrases or words you have found have helped or hurt your chances of success?
Radwan: Just talk like a regular person. Avoid jargon. Buyer’s don’t need to hear from another seller who brings a “unique blend of people, processes, and technology.” If you have something to say, say it. Long preambles and silly sentence openings like, “In order to drive maximum value” make most buyers want to barf. Decrease your barf quotient with what you say, and you’ll be better than most sellers.
On a scale of 1-10, how important are ethics to succeeding in growth? Explain.
Radwan: An 11. Growing a media publishing company is based on trust. If you don’t build trust between your audience and the company, you don’t have anything.
What is your best advice on how to best manage and stay on top of leads?
Radwan: In your conversations always end with a clear next step. Don’t leave anything squishy. Book the next call at the end of your current call. This will help you to move sales along and stay on top of them. Prune your pipeline mercilessly. If you have fewer deals, but the ones you do have are important, you’ll have more time to focus on them. Also, be sure to log everything in your CRM (including your next step) and to review your pipeline often so no leads fall through the cracks. Boring advice, but if you stay methodical, you’ll stay on top of things.
What is the single best piece of marketing advice you have ever received?
Radwan: Ready, Aim, Fire. Many marketers fire before aiming. They ‘make a ton of calls’ but they’re scattered. Many marketers Aim and Fire, but aren’t ready. They don’t know their audience or offerings well enough. They say the wrong things and then the audience dismisses them as incompetent. Some are Ready and Aim, but don’t take enough action. Get your plan together, make it a good one, then get in the game and get to work.
What are you proudest of? Walk through how you made it happen and its significance.
Radwan: We’ve focused on building a strong team that’s dedicated to our work and mission. Stepping back and seeing how everyone in our company has progressed as individuals and as a team to operate seamlessly and flawlessly together is unlike anything else. I could not be more proud of the team that I work with and the goals we’ve achieved together towards our mission and the future of our oceans.
What is one thing everyone can do tomorrow to become better at marketing?
Radwan: Good news, you don’t have to be tech-savvy to be able to pull this off, but you just need to master the simple trend in the market and know what works for you and that’s is all. What helps, however, is to stay up-to-date and learn constantly. It’s mostly because social media change a lot, and you never know when your content stops resonating with the target audience. You will be needing to read more, invest more time into social media marketing and watch everything else fall into place. You have to take action, test out different approaches, and be willing to try new things. Starting this is the most important step.