Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Thomas Helfrich. I'm on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success, and that success better be defined by you. Otherwise you're chasing somebody else's dream. Today, I'm joined by Faris Alami. I hope I pronounced that correctly. I crushed it. Thanks, Faris. Faris, thanks for coming today. Take a moment, introduce yourself and what it is you do.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Thank you so much, Thomas, for having me. I'm looking forward to having this conversation. Faris Alami, founder of International Strategic Management. We support organization launching entrepreneurship and small business development programs in the local community, supporting the entrepreneurs starting or scaling their businesses.

Speaker 1: 0:39

I like that. I mean, it's kind of really like core to what we love to see and do. So thanks, Sub there are, though there's competition always in that space right.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Why do people pick your organization? Well, I think the journey that I personally have taken to get here, as well as the people that we, you know, deploy to deliver these programs, represent the communities that we work with. So we usually try to make sure that we have an amazing diversity of people working with us to represent the world that we live in.

Speaker 1: 1:11

So you guys are just very representative. Do you stay very niche to who you help and that way they know you got the back kind of idea?

Speaker 2: 1:18

Yeah, I mean 90% probably of the people that we work with are in the underserved, underrepresented communities and that includes, like little town and Michigan to. You know the big cities as well as you know the little town somewhere around the world, so we try to stay close to that niche, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:37

And I think that's great because you know, you know there are, there are plenty of groups in this world that are definitely, uh, they're just under advantage for real of, and when you're in a position of advantage or just that was your life growing up uh, you, you don't have that perspective and you never do. And because you can always look up but it's hard to understand down sometimes, right, so a very smart niche to get into. I have a guess it has to do with your journey a bit. So, uh, before we get into your journey and have the ties, so to speak, that you cut, uh, let's let some people stalk you while you're talking. So give them just a one line address, not 10, just one place you want them to go check out why, you know, so the adhd can go look you up while you're talking. Look, you guys die so big he gets bone balls in the middle of a.

Speaker 2: 2:23

I'm available on LinkedIn and, of course, on our website. So myisaminccom would be one place and, of course, linkedincom and Ferris Alamy.

Speaker 1: 2:36

I'll keep it simple with you, all right. Linkedincom slash N-I-N Ferris M-I-R-R-A-L-A-M-I. All right, how do you define success?

Speaker 2: 2:49

I have challenged that question right, because I always say you should not let other people define success. You should define success yourself. And for me, success is just when we deliver a program where someone becomes really excited about the idea, about their concept, about their business, and they go for it. For me, that's success. Meeting, I usually say meeting the entrepreneurs where they are. For me, success is really being able to provide for my family.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Well, I like that, so, and those are tied, and I think I asked this question to everybody because it does change over time, but you defined it in terms of success in your customers. So when they're successful, you feel successful, but that actually feeds your personal mode of success, which is providing for family, and it sounds like, if I'm sitting here and it's right, you can't do that unless you're successful for your customers.

Speaker 2: 3:39

I agree.

Speaker 1: 3:42

You know what? Do you know what people say? You want various types of cars. You're. You know what. Do you know what I people listen. You want barristers. Your car is gravity. My sister listen. As the year goes, I get cheekier and as the day goes, oh man, I'll be full cheek mode by you know, december 20th in the evening, or people I don't know, recognizable at that point. All right, tell me about your journey a bit and what was the biggest thing you had to cut to get that success.

Speaker 2: 4:08

Well, I think there are lots of cuts that I took. I'm going to say not because intentionally, thomas, it was really unintentional, right. So I'm Palestinian, growing up in Kuwait. There are lots of ties already there that were cut by default from my parents and then I had to escape Kuwait to save my life because of the Gulf War back in 1990. So that's another tie that I got cut right. So there's just so many ties that I cut, not necessarily because I was planning to cut them, but you know it just happened. And then, while I'm sleeping in, you know, slash homeless running around, I was in a meeting and in the meeting they discussed creating T-shirts. So that's really where I cut my tie, from wanting to pursue, at the time, becoming an electrical computer engineer to, you know, trying to just eat and have a place to stay.

Speaker 1: 5:03

It sounds like the life of hardships, right, it's, is it fair to say it was. It was giving up on some dream that you thought you had at some point and just surviving to what's next.

Speaker 2: 5:14

I would say that way past survival.

Speaker 1: 5:18

So maybe talk about that moment, cause I I do. I usually I don't dive in somewhat, I try to peel an onion or two, but this is really important, because I think in anyone's life, you feel like you're in survival mode, and it could be, um, you know you get laid off, and for the three, four, five, six months you can't find a job, but you know you feel like oh my God, I'm gonna die. But you're, you have a house, you have thingsles you, and for you that's significant unsettling. It's like, hey, I grew up playing outside in this one country. Then a war breaks out over stuff that you had nothing to do with, and you're moving, and now you're homeless, and you're like we're anyway. At what point, though, could you trust? It sounds like a tie is when could you trust to feel like you felt safe?

Speaker 2: 6:02

Reflecting back, thomas, honestly, I mean and the truth is it took me years to even acknowledge even the word homeless, right? Because I used to tell people, oh, I've stayed in the mosque or I stayed with people's houses or cars for a while, and then it was really an interview like this, another podcast a friend of mine and he said, oh, you mean you were homeless. I'm like, oh, I guess I never thought about it that way. So I think you know, so it was really maybe.

Speaker 2: 6:32

So, looking back to what you're asking me to say, you know, when did I cut the tie or how did I cut it? I don't think I was intentionally planning to cut my tie, right, I was intentionally trying to finish my school, to get my electric computer, but in the process I had to survive and for the surviving mode I had to find what I could do with whatever I had at the time. Not necessarily that I was smart enough to think that way, but this is how I acted and it could have been to your point to just try to put some food on the table. And I was lucky that I was surrounded by good people that trusted me and gave me that opportunity, and I was lucky that I was able to deliver the goods that I promised for them to do it again and again and open doors for other people to do the same with me.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Do you have a moment when you realized the business you have today? That's what you were going to do? The same with me. Do you have a moment when you realized the business you have today? That's what you were going to do.

Speaker 2: 7:29

I think, on a daily basis, when I see the spark in someone's eye, especially when I'm working in remote places or with people who are really not necessarily that they're underserved or underrepresented for a lot of reasons, right?

Speaker 2: 7:43

Sometimes it's geographical reasons, sometimes it's political reasons, sometimes it's something else I see me in them, right, I see the spark in me, and I see that because of the statue that it comes with what I do today, it allows me to say something, for them to open up their eyes and see the power that they already have wherever they are today. For them to open up their eyes and see the power that they already have wherever they are today, for them to move forward. And to me, that always just sparks more excitement in me to, you know, kind of like what you said earlier, thomas, to get up and do it again and be psyched more about it, because, you know, although I might not get anything out of it, right, but just seeing the spark and the opportunity that they have in their life, it sparks me to be excited about what they're going to do with, uh, with, with the knowledge or with the spark that they just got that moment the, the, the trust and skepticalism of someone who's underserved is very high.

Speaker 1: 8:40

Uh, because of just a mindset of scarcity and just growing up and just everything you're always getting the shit kicked out of. It seems like right relative to the world served is very high because of just a mindset of scarcity and just growing up and just everything you're always getting the shit kicked out of. It seems like right relative to the world around it. It's not not any easier. Social media and you can see all these wonderful things, everyone's the greatest life. And you're like I'm homeless, yet I have a phone which you need. Even homeless, everyone bears.

Speaker 1: 8:59

Um, like this homeless guy has a better iphone than my kids do. I'm like how anyway I'm, you know, I told like he, he has cash, he has no debt, you don't anyway. So anyway, the point being is they can trust you right off the bat. They can be like, hey, listen, I, I know where you're at, I'll even throw one on. You can have, you know, bombs exploding all around you, like you had more important ones, but you had real ones yes, I have real ones and I've lived through ones and I had to escape one several times actually.

Speaker 2: 9:27

So the last one was the life-saving. But I'm very lucky to have that. I mean, you know, very lucky to been able. You know the person. It was a. What I actually just blogged about this couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 2: 9:40

I said someone in a bad situation chose to do the right thing because it was a soldier who called up and said you better leave because they have better attention for you. So I think there are lots of great people that just happen to be surrounded in the wrong spot, that if they choose to, or if they awaken their senses as a human, then you will realize that they could save someone's life or something better and bigger than themselves. And I feel that probably spark that was given to me intentionally or unintentionally is what has carried me through, to be able to pass it through to others. And I agree with you, mark Thomas.

Speaker 2: 10:19

I mean underserved, underrepresented or under-resourced community could be a little person you know I live in michigan, as you know a little person out of a little small town in kalamazoo or battle creek that has just no, no access to the resources that I may have in the city of detroit or the bigger city, in troy, or a bigger city, uh, you know, like new york, right? So the idea would be is just you know, or if they're somewhere around the world, because I've been lucky to do that. So that's the idea here that you know, let's find a spark. So for me, you know, when you asked me that question, I would have to reflect a little harder, and I watched a few of your interviews. So it's, you know, I knew that was coming, I thought it would be easy, but of course it wasn't easy did you pre-run onions on your eyes so you guys I had I'm start crying a little.

Speaker 1: 11:10

Now you get where I'm. I buy advertisements if you start crying on camera, just so you know, you get way more time well, it's funny because you know, uh, it was.

Speaker 2: 11:20

It was the same when I did some of this another interview with another, another interview with my friend Gary and I said when he asked these questions and these are really powerful questions this is where I tried to really brush him off. So my wife gets mad at me because she's like you're laughing, this is serious and I'm like I agree, it's just one way to overcome it.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Yeah Well, you developed the walls you need to in life to survive, right, and I'd rather have the humor ones than the aggressive ones. Talking a little bit about the impact, you know I think I got the how you know, you grinded through it and maybe just changed in the conversation a little bit and I'm going to like flow with this. I want to know about the impact, not so much on your life, which is interesting, but I want to know the impact you've done on other people's lives, which is the measure of cause. I'm using your measure of success to understand the impact. So do you have, like a representative of the story of like this one, like you know, twist the heart every time you hear? You think about it?

Speaker 2: 12:26

Yeah, I mean I'm lucky to do it over and over every day, so the stories compile so I can dig deep through one story from the past, but I think you know I could share just one story recently where you know I one of the method I teach is the resiliency canvas and you know I have a slogan called start where you are, and the gentleman told me that that alone just saying start where you are have reshaped how he think, because he used to think I don't have this, I don't have that, I don't have this, I don't have that.

Speaker 2: 13:02

And once he heard me say start where you are, wherever you have, it kind of like shifted his mindset and allowed him to really kind of like almost fly to do what he wanted to do versus what he has been coming up with excuses, not intentionally right not to do them. So start where you are has been my model as well as like slogan for a long time and I don't know if you'll potentially been affected by it, but I will say that daily basis. I'm lucky enough to hear from people that have been touched by it to tell me what has happened in their lives.

Speaker 1: 13:42

If you cry, I'm going to love it. I'm just going to know. I'm going to go full screen. Hold up for me. I can't do it right. If you do it, I'm going like this Full screen mode.

Speaker 2: 13:53

No, this is why I'm going to try to fight it. You keep asking questions. You're drilling. He's trying to get me to cry. I'm going to void it, if I can.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Real men cry. Well, I cry. Don't worry, I cry, it's just right over here there's a perfect size area for a pull-out IKEA couch and I don't put one there because I would be on it every day bawling. It's like why did I do this to my life?

Speaker 2: 14:22

I know it, right it.

Speaker 1: 14:24

I mean literally there have been days like every other. You know you go from top of the world to crawling corner and I think when you've gone through such trauma and hardship growing up you're like why am I worried about this one client? Why am I worried about this content post? It doesn't freaking matter that much. It matters a little, but not really, and so you can get through shit differently. I don't quite have that trauma, so I have to manufacture it through others.

Speaker 2: 14:50

That's why I I'm going to disagree, thomas. I think this is one of the things I usually say that we all have our own personal journey of pain and suffering and, whether we see it or not, sometimes it's a choice that we get to make, intentionally or unintentionally. And the second I'm going to say that, because you get to talk to other people, you choose to suppress the stories that you have yourself, and I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 15:21

oh, yeah, I'm public. But listen, you don't cut the tie and do that without saying, hey, I had to address ad this year. I had to get on men's testosterone stuff. Last year I had to quit drinking three years ago. I go through my own. Yeah, I'm public. Yeah, that way, and you have to be. So there's, there's, certain things you don't share publicly. But I am one that says hey, if I can say I quit drinking without a drinking problem, cause I thought I would have a healthier last 10 years of my life, I'd have more energy If I said hey, I might live at testosterone's alone. So I started looking at it and it's like, wow, it is. And I start feeling better because I start getting. I'm going to share that with men because I think a bunch of us are boiled frogs and we're just accepting it as normal and that's bullshit. We don't have to be so I'm out there with it. That's you. You don't realize there could be something different. What are you most grateful for right now?

Speaker 2: 16:17

I'm grateful for a lot of things. One of the things I'm most grateful for is really the trust and the opportunities that are given every day by people or organizations to provide a product or service, and then the ability to deliver these product services. Of course, that rewards me personally of having my wife and children and family friends to be able to be around them, so I'm very thankful for the chances that allows me to be home to be supportive of my family whenever I can.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Give me the one liner, the one piece of advice you'd give to a listener.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Well, I think a lot of times we're holding ourselves back from things because of illusions that we may have created, and some of it is reality. So I don't want to discount that right. So I don't want to discount that I suffered. I can't discount that. But I will say is I didn't have time to think about it, so it's just allowed me to keep moving forward. So the one line would be keep moving forward.

Speaker 1: 17:22

Yeah, if you don't quit, you can't lose. You may not win, but you won't lose. To be clear, you can't lose, you may not win, but you won't lose. To be clear, I'm just saying.

Speaker 2: 17:29

That means you won't lose. Well, you might lose things in the process, but you'll get to the finish line. Let's just say that.

Speaker 1: 17:38

To the finish line. I'll say it that way I'm not the one you thought you'd be at, but it'd be better than the void. I'm going to flip a question.

Speaker 2: 17:50

I usually ask this in positive, I'm going to go negative on it. What's the worst business advice you've ever received? Well, and this is what I usually try not to do right, it's don't do this, don't do that. So the worst business advice is you shouldn't be doing this now and you know, I heard that before, and that's really what motivates me a lot of times is to help the people, to not allow others controlling themselves.

Speaker 1: 18:18

So the worst business advice, from my perspective, is when people try to advise you on things that they don't know. And if you got to start over today, what?

Speaker 2: 18:26

part of your timeline would you go back to and what would you do differently? I would try to avoid all my timeline, thomas. What are you do differently? I would try to avoid all my timeline, thomas. What are you talking about? If it came up to me, I would say I don't think I intentionally would want to go through any wars, right? So I would say I don't know what timeline I would go back to, but I would say I don't. I don't know what timeline I would go back to, but I would say I'm I feel very lucky every day that I am where I am and I am able to do what I do and be around the people that I am around. So if I were to think where can I refresh, maybe? Uh, I don't want to go too far out I'll just say 2020.

Speaker 1: 19:12

Oh well, we could probably do a whole show on that, just on that year. Anyway, I'm going to leave that as a tease, just so people can say why 2020? Now they got to contact you to do that. Before I ask your final question once again, how should somebody get a hold of you?

Speaker 2: 19:29

Just on the website or through LinkedIn. I'm usually responsive. So myisaminkcom or linkedincom, forward slash and forward slash. Ferris Alamy.

Speaker 1: 19:41

Awesome. All right, there's a question I should have asked you today and I didn't. What was that question and how do you answer it?

Speaker 2: 19:49

Oh, if there was that question, and how do you answer it? Oh, if there was a question that you didn't ask me and you didn't, what would that question be? Probably, how did I move forward when I was also fighting for almost 15, 20 years, something like that, from roughly 1993 to 2009. I fought immigration on a monthly basis, going to show up with a little document to prove that I'm here? That would be the question. How did you get up every day and, knowing that you might be removed any minute and just kept going? The answer would be is I'm going to go back to my because I don't want to cry. I wasn't smart enough to figure out that I could lose everything any minute, any second. I could lose everything any minute, any second every time I showed up, but I, at the time, have chosen to be excited at the moment of where I'm at, doing what I'm doing, and not worrying about what will happen if I wasn't here.

Speaker 1: 21:03

Awesome, ferris, thank you so much for coming on today. You've been awesome and thank you for the near cheers we're going to get you next time you come on the show.

Speaker 2: 21:09

Thank you so much, I appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 21:12

No, I appreciate you too and listen everyone you made at this part of the show. Thank you for listening, watching. If this was your first time, I do hope it's the first of many, and if you've been here before, you rock.