Photo Credits: Donovan Silva from Unsplash
This series is all about diverse entrepreneurship, but Jelly Social has a different and broader definition of diversity, one that highlights the uniqueness of individuals. To us, there are two forms of diversity to us: inherit diversity (age, gender, race) and acquired diversity (education, knowledge, skills, experience, values). Using inherited and acquired diversity can help us to realize all the different ways we are diverse. This week, we are talking to expert Sabby BG on his journey as a diverse entrepreneur!
What makes Sabby Diverse?
As a diverse entrepreneur, shed some light on yourself, the work you’re doing and maybe some of the things that make you diverse!
We relate diversity right away to erase who we are but as a YouTube content creator, I’m always looking at who am I talking to; what are the people that I’m communicating with giving value to? When I think about diversity, I don’t look at the black, brown, white, pink, yellow, or whatever colours they are. I instead look at who I am servicing and how can I help them achieve what they are trying to find. One thing that I’ve learned from growing my own business and getting older is that you need to value experience and if you can gain from somebody’s experiences, you are going to shorten the time of your learning and will avoid pitfalls that others have went through.
Road to Entrepreneurship
What was your journey like to becoming an entrepreneur? How has your experience been and who have you worked with?
I’ll shorten this six-year story into less than a minute. I worked in sales positions that ranged management to directing and leading for a long time, all in very large software companies. Three years prior to my last position, I decided to pick up my phone to record and upload videos on YouTube. After uploading, I never checked up on the channel until almost two years later when my friend told me to see how the videos performed. To my surprise, I had 200,000 views on one of the five videos I uploaded so I knew that there was no looking back. The validation, support and love that came from the comments from that one video was enough to spark a fire for me to go ahead and pursue this. I started a channel called TheSabbyBGShow where I do street and celebrity, as well as discussing current and trending topics.
In the last couple of years, I had a lot of time on my hands since I quit my job to focus on YouTube and I couldn’t figure out else to do. I’d make one video a week and wanted to add other projects to tackle so I started a meet-up group called the Republic of Creators where we coach and mentor younger creators which grew to over one thousand members, as well as creating a business over a year ago called “Agent on Tube” where I help real estate agents with YouTube and online video. That one video has changed my life. Last month, my company of 30 members and we crossed $150,000 in revenue! I am so blessed to have decided to take my phone on that date and put myself into a new and uncomfortable position because it has completely changed my life and giving me the chance to grow my brand and give back to others.
Obstacles on his Journey
Thinking back on your journey to becoming the person that you are today, what would you say was the biggest obstacle to overcome? Could be a professional obstacle, a personal obstacle, a mental obstacle, an emotional obstacle.
My mindset, for sure. I believe that your mind is the strongest organ in your body because it navigates the rest of your body. If your mind is strong and healthy, you’re going to have positive thoughts and better relationships since you’re happy. It is no secret that people want to connect with positive people, so your mindset is incredibly important. My biggest obstacle was how judgemental I was of myself, which is also something I see a lot in my clients. They say to me “Sabby, I don’t know if making content is for me or if people will follow me. I don’t think I will ever be successful,” so I tell them that it’s all in your head. Rome wasn’t built in a day; you must start by putting that first brick towards creating your castle which is what I did by making that first video which can potentially change your life. If you don’t have a positive mentality in whatever you’re doing, you won’t put in effort which means you won’t get results. You can be strategically smart by learning from events or by being apart of a great group like Jelly Social to shorten the length of your learning, but the priority is putting in the effort and having the right mindset to get you where you want to be. A lot of people get this wrong which prevents them from doing what they truly want to. When your goal is to get fit, you don’t exercise one time and expect results. You need to do a little every day and slowly build up to your goal which I think is the same as goals for social media.
Tools for Social Media Influencing
When it comes to successfully influencing on media, are there any helpful tools, techniques, or resources that you think might be helpful for that?
I urge people to be mindful that they need to figure out their own strategies on how they learn, observe, execute, and improve. I did this by recognizing the urgency I felt to learn and acting on it. These days, I have three to four hours of typically self-help videos downloaded that I can consume throughout the day whether I am at home or on a walk. Through this, my mind shifted to always chase excellence by learning from the experiences of others.
Sabby's Advice: Chase What's Important!
As if you were to have a conversation with your younger self, what type of advice would you give your younger self?
Chase the important things early! I was chasing the wrong things in my early 20’s but if I started chasing excellence, everything else that I wanted would have come as a result. If you are trying to be a content creator, be on video! People don’t like when I say this but if you’re not on social media, you’re dead. I understand if you don’t do social media for sanity or legal reasons, but social media is the easiest and most effective way to engage.
Influencer Tips
I know that, of course, you’ve demonstrated a ton of expertise in creating content for social media. Taking things from that perspective, we’d love for you to drop your top tip on what you can teach others about conquering their own content creation challenges.
When it comes to social media, you must put yourself out there. Understand what you’re passionate about and future proof yourself to ensure your brand and the content you make will still be true to you later in your life. A couple of my friends started channels discussing being single and having a nomadic life but then three years later, they got married! They got a huge following on social media, yet they shut it down because they’re not digital nomads anymore. When you put yourself on social media, prove yourself and go for it because that’s the only way you will figure out if you will enjoy the journey or not. If you don’t enjoy the journey, go back to what you were doing.
Speaker's Specifics
Sabby BG is a YouTube creator, entrepreneur and podcaster who understands what struggle is and uses it to aid emerging brands. He uses his expertise to improve brands through coaching, counselling, event speaking and more. Check out his main Youtube channel to see his interviews and reach out to him to see how he can. help you navigate the evolving media landscape!
Don’t forget to connect with him on LinkedIn and follow him on Instagram to stay up to date with what he is doing!
