IAM335- Podcaster and Co-owner Helps Businesses Grow Their Customer Base and Increase Sales

Co-Owner of Spotlight Revenue and when she's not working on her business she also runs her own podcast called The Warriorz Podcast where she interviews top producing CEOs and finds out what drives their success and what impact they want to make!

• CEO Hack: Gratitude journal
• CEO Nugget: Listen to your intuition, do what you love and be patient, it's a journey
• CEO Defined: Open-minded, loving and understands people around him/her

Website: https://www.spotlightrevenue.com/

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/SpotlightRevenue/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Full Interview

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE.

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Hadeel Ghaida of Spotlight Revenue in the Warriors podcast deal, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Hadeel Ghaida 0:40

Thanks for having me Gresh. I'm really excited to be on here.

Gresham Harkless 0:43

Definitely super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about her deals so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Hadeel is the Co-Owner of Spotlight Revenue and when she's not working on her business she also runs her own podcast called The Warriorz Podcast where she interviews top producing CEOs and finds out what drives their success and what impact they want to make. Hadeel, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

Hadeel Ghaida 1:07

Yes, I am.

Gresham Harkless 1:08

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off. I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Hadeel Ghaida 1:15

That's a great question. What led me to summer business, was actually a soccer injury. That's what led me to start my business. I was growing up, I really wanted to be professional women's soccer player for the national team. And when I scored the winning goal, that was the game that was going to recruit me for college and then lead me to go into my profession of soccer, right? I scored the winning goal. And I completely like, well what happened was when I scored the winning goal, I celebrated and all my teammates came running with me when I jumped up to celebrate with them.

One teammate of mine, who actually assisted through the goal of her knee hit my knee when she jumped on me, oh, no, then that just tore my ACL and ruined my career. And I was like, Okay, well, what's the next thing want to do? It lets me actually look at entrepreneurship and a series of events happen, I started an app company, didn't work out. And then that led to my marketing agency. So started off with an injury.

Gresham Harkless 2:11

I'm sorry to hear that. And it's funny enough, when I started my blog, and all this stuff, I wasn't nearly as close as you were to getting a college degree. But I was playing basketball and actually tore my Achilles tendon, and made me stuck in bed. And I was doing a bunch of stuff with a blog, but it was largely because of that because I probably would have been able to steal any other way. So hate when those things happen. But sometimes they happen for great reasons.

Hadeel Ghaida 2:33

Yeah, it's the worst feeling. But you know what, they're a blessing in disguise. So that's exactly.

Gresham Harkless 2:38

Exactly, exactly. So I wanted to drill a little bit deeper here a little bit more about what you're doing with your business and your podcast, of course.

Hadeel Ghaida 2:45

Of course. Yeah. So with my business, I mean, we focus mainly on helping businesses grow their customer base and increase their sales revenue. A lot of marketing agencies either focus on branding or getting you more followers, whatever it may be, there's always a different type of marketing specialty each agency does. But with our company, we really heavily focused on lead gen. So we actually recently niched down to roofing and we've been really focusing on roofing roofers. And it's been fantastic I mean, when you focus on an industry specifically, and you figure out a problem they have and then find a solution. It really helps not only the business side but also just your product itself, we were able to really perfect our product to the point where now our clients are just extremely happy working with us. And you learn a lot.

And I mean, obviously, we provide other services for any other industry that comes our way. But Roofing has been our sweet spot recently. And it's been a lot of fun learning about that industry and what goes down within the home improvement world. Alongside that, we also ask about my podcast, the warrior's podcast actually has been one of the best networking for me, I love it so much because I get to meet not only CEOs, but I also get to meet leaders, any type of leader in any industry, whether it's for a nonprofit, or maybe an organization to trying to establish for building schools or just any type of leader usually I get to run into hit lately has been someone who's trying to tackle world conflict and trying to find solutions for it. And it's been really cool. Meeting all these different phenomenal people. They have amazing stories and the reason why it's called the Warriors podcast is because well, I always mean like I'm a huge Krav Maga. I do it a lot during the week it's a type of self-defense if no one knows what it is.

And zero is really self-defense. It keeps me on my toes. I mean obviously, self-defense allows me to protect myself, and when you put yourself in something like that you constantly getting beaten up and so it's not a very friendly sport. I guess not. I wouldn't say sport but martial arts, right? It's not very friendly. It makes you feel fearless.

But ever since I started doing that, it's taught me what it truly means to be a warrior. Right. My instructors are really adamant about, hey, listen, we're teaching you to fight, to kill, but you're not going to kill. Like, that's just not allowed, we're teaching you how to fight, if it does lead to that point, they don't know how to protect yourself. But the whole point of all this is just the hit and run and go find help because then the killing is not the solution to any of your problems. And when I really started digging deep into it, and then spiritually and everything, I really realized what it means to be a true warrior, and to fight and to fight for things for a good cause and a good reason.

So I called the podcast, the Warrior's podcast, and now I just interviewed a tonne of warriors. And they tell me their story that which is phenomenal, and I get to share it with my viewers, and they get to learn something, it's something that means a lot to me because I am able to give back to the community in a way where it's not just giving them money or clothes, it's giving them inspiration, or an idea, a thought that allows them to achieve their own version of greatness.

Gresham Harkless 5:55

Absolutely. I love that. And I love definitely the name of it, especially because I think a lot of times whenever you're training, whether they be like Chroma or anything in business, whatever, you always want to have a more intense training regimen so that it prepares you for whatever happens in life. So when you are able to prepare, if it comes to extreme situations where it is life or death, you're prepared for that, but even the smaller things you're already prepared to be able to handle just because you've been through the most intense training period, it sounds like.

Hadeel Ghaida 6:25

Yeah, it's 100%, I'm with you on that. It really puts you in a place to describe it. It's just that I'm with you. 100% with everything you just said.

Gresham Harkless 6:37

Yes. That makes perfect sense. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or your organization, you might have already touched on this or your podcast, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique? Is kind of like your secret sauce?

Hadeel Ghaida 6:51

That's a good question. My secret sauce. To be honest. It's something that everyone can have. But it's going to be different for everybody. So what I mean by that is it's knowing who I am. Now, I may not know who I am fully the most right? I'm still learning a soul journey. But being able to constantly be aware of myself and what I like and what I dislike, what are my strengths, and what are my weaknesses, and really focusing on that.

That's my secret sauce, a superpower in my business in my life, and my anything that I'm trying to achieve, because what people fail to realize, and I was one of them, I would read a tonne of self-help books all the time, any spiritual thing immersing myself in the faith, everything right? And what I found to be true was that no one truly knows how to fix themselves. If they don't know anything about themselves, they do so much research on how to be a better conversationalist, how to be happy, how to live a life of peace all these things that how-tos, I call them.

But what you fail to really research and study is yourself. How can you improve yourself if you don't even know yourself, right? And that really requires sitting with yourself that requires maybe stopping what you're doing sometimes and just like allowing yourself to have that time and moment. And then when you have an idea, then you'll note you'll figure out your purpose through that right. And then from there, it's I think, personally, that's the driver for most people if who you are, you figure out your purpose in the process of that. And then going to the source, right, so I actually stopped reading a lot of self-help books, I call them self-help. But just books in general that are focusing on that side.

And I actually started reading more philosophy and science like physics. I'm been immersing myself a lot in this because I would have found, especially the greats like Albert Einstein, just all of them like Plato, or Mays, like Aristotle, these guys, they really understood how the world works, and the universe and how it all started. And they really had a good understanding of science itself to then bring in philosophy and wisdom, right? And with what's so beautiful about what they teach, or what it's all facts, it's never really telling you what to do. It's really just questioning yourself. They really actually say a lot of questions, they put you in a place of questioning, right?

And reflecting and that's I think, what's my superpower my secret sauce, because it's knowing who I am and putting the work to figuring that out, then being able to say, okay, maybe now learn how to be a better CEO how to do this, how to do that, because it becomes easier because you know who you are. And if you can catch yourself in any way. You're lying to yourself, but you're not.

Gresham Harkless 9:35

That's very true and very powerful. As he said, I love the fact that you said that, in order to improve yourself, you have to know yourself and we somehow always gloss over that part where we're actually understanding who we are, what we like, what we don't like, what we're good at what we're not good at it and never ever seems to be a time where it's dedicated, or there's a point in your life where you're supposed to learn about yourself. You sometimes just have to create that space in order to do that. So it's great to hear you're doing in that integrated area, they're reminding us to do that as well, too. I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you about what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have. But it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Hadeel Ghaida 10:13

It's actually my gratitude journal, things actually, that really allow me to be the best. Theo's like I can be right? It's my gratitude journal, l in my journal in general, where I write down my thoughts or poetry, I really spend a lot of time writing poems. Because I have a hard time articulating myself, if I'm here, trying to write a journal, short and sweet and allows me to bring my creative brain out. So I really like to buck stuff.

Gresham Harkless 10:45

Yeah, nice. I definitely appreciate that. And I think that anytime, and I'm a real big writer as well, too. So I think that anytime you're able to express yourself, and to get a lot of things out, because there's, especially when you're running a business, and you have in juggling a lot of things, there's always things coming and going. And there are always things that are moving.

So to be able to take out and have that time to express yourself in a gratitude journal, or even just in a journal itself is definitely a great hack. So I appreciate you for sharing that with us. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And you might have already touched on this. But this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine. What would you tell your younger business self?

Hadeel Ghaida 11:22

Well, that's a question for my younger business. So I would tell myself, just to listen to my intuition and myself more. I think when you're young and you're hungry, you tend to want things to come fast. So, therefore, you reach to tend to study people a lot, right? In the greats, that's what I did. Because I said, Okay, I don't know how to get there. So let me study who's already done it. And I took it to the extreme as a kid, I would like to even have my walls, I would like to research them. And I would try to do everything I was trying to be someone I was basically. And I was trying every way to achieve it as fast as I can. But when what I now know, that I wish I knew back then is that it's going to take time, it's a journey.

So I wish when I was younger, probably didn't go to college, I wish I didn't go to college. And I wish for big, bigger risks. Now. I mean, I'm only 24 now, so I'm taking as much risk as I can, that I didn't do when I was like 17. Right? But if I did tell my younger self, it would be Hey, you know what you really want. Just go after it, don't be afraid of it. Don't do something else. Because you think this is gonna get you there faster. It will you actually love and you're passionate about.

And it will come just give it time, it will come as long as you're doing what you love. And you're passionate about it. Everyone knows that even though when they say they don't know it just takes a bit of time, right? And even if you don't know it's like that out right there clarity, right, just do more towards it, and you'll figure out what it actually is. So I think that's what I would tell myself.

Gresham Harkless 12:51

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. I think it goes back to what you said in the beginning, because I always say, if you are running your own race, you'll never lose because it's your race. But a lot of times, because there's so much noise in this day and age, you're hearing you should be doing this or You should be doing that, or this is the way this person did X, Y, and Z that sometimes you can lose that quiet voice that intuition that you spoke to and maybe even having that doubt into who you are and what you're great at and knowing yourself as you touched on earlier.

But I think when you are able to do that, and it's very hard to lose not be successful because you are running your races staying true to yourself. So definitely appreciate that perspective. And I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Hadeel, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Hadeel Ghaida 13:40

It means to be someone who is open-minded, loving, and understanding of everyone around them in order to be influential. I think that's what a CEO is someone who truly is an internal peace with himself. And you don't find that in many CEOs, by the way. So someone who's successful truly and what I mean by successful is that truly have internal peace within themselves, and have no worries inside them that will stop them from being a great leader. Because what really means being a great leader is someone who can be loving, kind, and understanding of the people that are around them.

And that's to me, what truly a good leader and a CEO, is because that leads to greatness. Because not only you are leading a crowd of people, but you're also leading them with your heart which leads to great success.

Gresham Harkless 14:35

Absolutely, definitely been the theme of what we've been talking about is true to yourself. So it's whatever your heart shows, and a lot of times, the more you rise up or the more people you have, that are in your ear, so to speak, whether that be shareholders, whatever, it's harder and harder to do that. So you have to have that internal peace and that measure by which you should be successful. So I definitely appreciate that definition and what I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get a hold of you and subscribe to your podcast.

Hadeel Ghaida 15:07

Yeah. So I mean, trying to think what extra tips I can give them? Oh, there's so for example, I mean, one thing I talked about is going to the source, right? So I would suggest, I mean, I want to recommend technical books because I just feel like it's not you don't need it, you'll figure it out. But if you want to start small, and you really want to immerse yourself in figuring out who you are, there's this book called Seven Lessons, Seven Basic Lessons of Physics. I think it was called, I don't remember it. But maybe I'll give you the author's name.

So you can probably share it with everyone. For most of us another book it's called Perennial Philosophy. It's a heavy book, but it's a really good book, I think it goes down to the source and studying everything and it gives you a different perspective. And if you want to find me, my podcast is the Warriors Podcast Warriors. Then in my handle is at the Hadeel_, and you'll find me on Instagram. Hadeel is my stage name. And if you want to look me up, my company's called spotlightrevenue.com. So that's where you can find

Gresham Harkless 16:10

Awesome, awesome. I truly appreciate your time. Appreciate all the insights you gave about the deal. We'll make sure to have the links in the show notes as well. But thank you so much again, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Hadeel Ghaida 16:19

Thank you, Gresham. Thank you for having me on here. Appreciate it.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]