Words by Jumana 

Follow Yaz on IG!

In a world where actual empires are built and destroyed within minutes in the 2.8 inch small confines of that little box in your hand, knowing your identity is paramount. Any entrepreneur attempting to use instagram for their business or even lifestyle is familiar with the sea of confusion that comes with navigating followers, content, and algorithms. Hours of “research” on Google, Tik Tok and Instagram reels later, and the only thing you may have achieved is a mountain of screenshots and slight nausea from processing too much information within a short period of time. Enter Yazdan Ibrahim, @theyazibrahim on instagram, whose short and precise videos are the remedy for the soul of anyone seeking to grow on these platforms.

This is the story of how a mechanical engineer who used to work day in and day out from 7:00 to 17:00 found his passion – and got really, really good at it. Yaz is now taking what he has learned through social media growth and helping others while earning a living doing what he loves. Aah! The modern-day fairytale!

“When we were younger, you know how we were told, “you should be following this and this career path”.. like doctor, engineer. I didn’t know there were other options out there, I thought I had to pick from these. I was happy to pick engineering though because I was good at math, physics and all these.

I truly admire those who have a passion for engineering though. For example, there was a colleague at work who used to go home every day and try to upskill and read up on different engineering topics and he would try and bring me on board to do that but I was just not interested in that. I’d go home and make posts and youtube videos. I was doing this in my free time. I didn’t know that this could become something. But somehow through this journey and these videos I created and these accounts I worked on, these ended up becoming my CV”. .

~ Social media marketing business owner and content creator, Yaz

The appeal of working on social media for Yaz also rose as borders opened post-pandemic and he was denied travel leave to go see his girlfriend. “I felt boxed-in and I wanted to do some remote work as well. That was not easily possible with engineering”. Yaz noted that although he enjoyed the first year of it, it became repetitive and he felt that he wasn’t learning anything more. “I was driven to learn more and at that time I thought to myself that “Hey, I could open up a youtube channel” because I loved making videos”. Yaz laughed as he thought back to how far ago the initial interest sparked, “Even growing up at home with our old cassette recorders, we would record our own Heyyambo type of shows with interviews and music videos… with me and my cousins dressing up in our parent’s clothes and whatever we could find”.

It was at that point in 2018 when passions collided and the rest is history. Yaz recalls always loving everything football and so he focused his channel on products such as shoes. He said, “I had a friend who played at a really high level, Jonathan. We decided for him to do tutorials while I tackled (excuse the pun!) product reviews. So we would find these products at discount and bring them home and do unboxing videos, tutorials and reviews. Even on weekends we would go out in the cold or heat and make videos. It was really fun”.

The hardest part about any of these follower-based platforms is the inertia of getting started. The same could be said for Yaz. As with every good story, the beginning of this modern-day fairytale also had its challenges.

 “I didn’t even show my face in the first video. I posted one in 2018 where I was talking about this shoe and I got only 3 views. I think they were from friends. So I thought, “Okay maybe this is not for me. I’ll just leave it”. And then a couple of months or a month later I looked back and the video had 300 views and two comments where one of them was “This is really helpful” and even the other comment was positive, so I thought, “alright! people actually are watching this and finding value in it”.

A recent University graduate working in his free time, Yaz and his friend posted over 50 videos within two years. “While also working on youtube, I was heavily managing the instagram account for this page. So we were posting original content but the traction is really slow”, he recalled.

“I think one of the coolest things about working on something like this on social media is that you meet people from all over the world who are passionate about the same things you are. I would speak with people in different countries”

~ Social media marketing business owner and content creator, Yaz

Yaz explained how this network is one that is built with people you can instantly be best friends with. Through all this, what drove him to build an account that reached the likes of 98k followers on instagram is hungrily and avidly learning from anywhere he could. “I would watch youtube videos on how to grow instagram and I would take courses and there was this guy from the States called @bleachfilm mentoring me. We had a few calls back and forth and he helped a lot with instagram”. Anyone who is a fan of Yaz’s insightful and smart reels knows that consistency is key. He noted, “I was posting and interacting during my work breaks. tla there was a point where I was posting three times a day every day”.

It wasn’t long before Instagram became his favorite platform. In the beginning, to go from 0 to 7k or 8k, Yaz recalls slow growth, “It is a long game. So my advice would be.. I think it was Gary Vaynerchuk who said “Document, don’t create”. Don’t let perfecting a post prevent you from posting. A lot of people hesitate and that’s what gets them. Meanwhile it’s in front of your audience for a few minutes of their time. I think this was something that was personally very difficult for me to overcome, thinking “What would friends or family think?” Even my first video on youtube now looking back was a bit cringe but that’s what has got me making a video a week now. Now it’s easy and effortless. But it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t keep posting “

He explained, “I think it’s very important to connect with your audience, to chat in DMs, answer story replies and really engage. It’s not as simple as putting a picture together anymore. To have that spark and build emotion with your audience is important to maintain long term connections”. One of the most essential things we can take away from our insightful chat with Yaz is the difference between quantity and quality, followers and community, fast results and sustainability.

Through his current account Yaz says that he just wants to convey that anyone can take whatever path they want in terms of their career and take on whatever they are passionate about. Today with this account, he is open to anyone who reaches out to him with anything Instagram-related. Questions and thoughts on IG and he is just a DM away. This is one content creator that takes his DMs, comments and reactions seriously.

“I think one thing that fascinates me is that in these current times, you don’t have to stick to one pathway. What you like and are passionate about is  something that you can turn into a career rather than just a hobby.

~ Social media marketing business owner and content creator, Yaz