Nabeel Ahmad is the founder and CEO of Vertabyte, a full-service digital media agency that partners with clients to help them achieve their business objectives. After having worked with many companies to handcraft the best marketing campaigns, Nabeel has established himself as an authority and a thought leader in the digital marketing arena. He is also the founder of The Influencer Factory, which is a PR and communications agency that specializes in strategic media placements. Nabeel has partnered with many influencers, entrepreneurs, startups and established companies, and has successfully gotten them featured on major publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, Inc Magazine, and more. Nabeel also writes for some of the world’s biggest and most renowned publications, and his work has been featured on websites like Yahoo Finance, The Good Men Project, Business.com, and many more. At the young age of 21, when most people are still trying to figure out what to do in life, Nabeel seems to have everything figured out. He has managed to build multiple successful businesses in the past 4 years. I had the chance to meet him recently, and got to learn more about his story.
Nabeel’s entrepreneurial journey started very early on during his high school years. He said, “Even when I was 13, I kind of always knew deep inside that I wasn’t cut out for the traditional job route. I just couldn’t see myself following orders from some boss for the rest of my life. The 9-5 job route was just too boring for me. I knew I had to do something more. I knew I had to become something more. I’m always asking questions. I’m always trying to figure out ways to solve problems. I crave challenges. I just would never have fit at any traditional job. So, I knew a long time ago that entrepreneurship was the only path for me.”
While most people in high
school were busy playing video games, or partying, Nabeel says he was spending
his time thinking of business ideas, and planning the steps he could take to
achieve his goals. “All that stuff which other students were spending their
time on just didn’t interest me. I knew I had to plan long-term. I had to be 10
steps ahead of everyone else. That’s the only way you can win in life. You have
to sacrifice in the short-term, so you can win in the long-term.”
By reducing the time spent on various other activities, Nabeel was able to
focus on the one thing he was passionate about: building businesses. Nabeel
realized the possibilities that the internet provides to us, possibilities that
did not exist 30 years ago. He tried his hand at many different online
businesses, facing failure in most of them, but he didn’t give up. After many
months of failure, he tried his hand at freelancing. Nabeel started website
development and social media marketing, providing services as a freelancer on
different websites like Freelancer, Fiverr and Upwork. Even there, he was faced
with lots of failure. For days, he did not get a single order. Being the quick
learner that he was, he mastered the art of sales and persuasion. Once he
cracked the code of freelancing, in a few days, he started selling services
worth hundreds and thousands of dollars. He wanted to scale, and this made him
realize that he didn’t actually have to do all the work himself. In order to increase
revenue, he needed to have a team that does the work for him. He decided to
just focus on sales, and outsource the work to people who were experts in their
respective fields. Always having an entrepreneurial mindset, he then spent all
his energy on sales and hiring the best remote employees. By expanding his
team, and putting all his attention on sales, Nabeel was able to increase his
revenue exponentially.
When I asked him about what allowed him to succeed at such a young age, he said it was all about focus and clarity. “I decided a long time ago about what I wanted. I was crystal clear about my vision, and was prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve my goals. Once you know exactly what you want, and are prepared to do whatever it takes, then success becomes inevitable.”
He started offering PR
services to influencers, and grew that into a successful business. In the past
2 years, he has worked with numerous top influencers, startups and companies,
helping them get featured on publications as big as Forbes. “PR is all about
networking and positioning. You need to know the right people, and you need to
position your story in the right way. But it’s not as easy as it sounds.”
Nabeel had to spend months networking with journalists and editors at top media
outlets before he was able to build a strong network of connections. He had to
test out various different pitches, facing rejection on many of them, but he
finally learned what works and what doesn’t. He says his expertise in PR stems
from all the hours he had to put in building a network and pitching. Each
failed pitch taught him a lesson, which he tried to avoid in the next one. “You
fail enough times, you start to win” said Nabeel.
At the age of 21, he is already running multiple successful businesses, in the
fields of marketing, public relations, cryptocurrencies, e-commerce, and more.
But Nabeel says this is only the beginning. Right now, he is working on writing
his first book, and also launching his own social discovery network which he
says will be a “game changer”. I guess it wasn’t enough to just dominate the
marketing and PR industry. Nabeel now plans to disrupt the social media
industry as well.
Nabeel’s story is an inspiration for many people to follow their dreams, to
always think big, and to never give up no matter how many times you fail.