Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising?

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Welcome back to "Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?", the show where we dig into what's real and what's just noise in the world of marketing, agency growth and entrepreneurial hype. I'm your host, Adam W. Barney, and today's guest is someone who's built something meaningful over the last 18 months without leaning on big ad budgets or vanity metrics.

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Abu Kamara is the founder of Green Zone Solutions, a company solving real problems in sustainability, logistics, and operational performance. And he's done it through relationships, results, and relentless follow up. Abu, welcome. Let's dive into how trust built your business.

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Yeah, let's do it. Thank you for having me, Adam. You got it. Tell us abou Green Zone Solutions. What problem are you solving and how did this whole thing start? Yeah, yeah. So, let's, let's start from the beginning. So about 18 months ago, when I parted ways, with the last company I was working with, you know, I kind of decided that, I wanted to help other businesses in a different way.

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You know, across the two and a half years that I had been working at the previous company and then having, you know, founded a startup and then business, even earlier than that, I said, you know, I have a lot to offer to different kinds of businesses.

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I've gained a ton of skills, that I'm grateful for, especially on the tech and software side of things. And you know, I was thinking, you know, there are perhaps other businesses out there that could leverage sort of what I've learned. Right. And I know that I'm very passionate about streamlining things in general.

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And so I sort of ended up with my older brother who's even more technical than I am. He's just, he's a senior software engineer and we're very like minded. And we created Green Zone Solutions. All right. And what did the early days look like in building it?

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Yeah, yeah. 100%. Yeah. So, you know, when we started out, because this wasn't my first rodeo in terms of standing up a business, you know, we went through the, typical, setting up an LLC, getting things, getting the foundation set, you know, we kind of casted a wide open net, meaning we were taking in anybody that kind of needed any sort of operational help, any sort of automation, any sort of technical help.

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Right. Which I think in the beginning was a really good process because it was, it was very much so almost like a research phase. Right. We were learning a lot we were learning about, you know, what different markets face, as pain points, as issues, and you know, we make an assessment and then sort of come in and see what we can do.

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So, and with that, honestly we got very lucky because I, was connected to an individual that had a change management organization, that had been doing incredible work. And she, the head of that company, was very passionate about sort of guiding us and helping us create a consulting life cycle, helping us structure some things, identify some opportunity, and simultaneously gave us subcontract work, some of our first contracts, and gave us some introductions to like, different kinds of markets and different paths we could take.

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So, it was definitely, I guess, like, to answer your question, kind of rocky in the beginning because we were kind of like jumping into the abyss of this wide net that we casted. But you know, we've gotten super lucky along the way just through like our network.

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I love how you didn't go straight to paid ads or cold outreach. You sort of built off of referrals, you know, and worked in a network first approach. What's been the biggest surprise in building that way? Yeah, yeah. You know, I guess the biggest surprise is really, I guess the percent of work that we've gotten just through, like kind of organically right through our network.

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You know, it's, you never know what you're going to run into. You know, there are tons of situations where you meet somebody one time or you meet them a couple of times and they recognize that you offer this and they'll reach out to you right at some spontaneous time versus a situation where like perhaps you're like, okay, I'm looking for work now, so I'm going to try to put in the work to maybe advertise some of my services.

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And you know, like, the expectation is that, okay, if I put in money and time into marketing my services, then I'm gonna probably get out, like some pretty good results which, you know, depending on the situation can yield zero results. But I think what was so surprising was, you know, after looking at the various projects that we took on in that year and a half, almost all of it came from these, from knowing people and these referrals and you know, these sort of like warm relationships that we fostered through knowing people or through, through our network.

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So I, you know, and I mean, you know, from a real perspective, I have seen and I've talked to a lot of entrepreneurs who face limitations on relying just on network referrals. Can you talk about any, without getting into the proprietary details necessarily, any systems you've put in place to make those referrals more predictable?

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Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, we're, relatively speaking, still kind of like early on, I think, you know, a year and a half is a long time, but it's also, you know, only a year and a half. As an entrepreneur, it's not much time at all. Right. 18 months is not a long time.

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Exactly. So. So we're still learning. We're always learning. We know a lot more than we did a year ago. A year and a half ago, six months ago. Right. And so with, you know, with that being said, I guess the system that we're putting in place is really trying to hone in on specific niches.

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Right. Specific customer segments. I think we think that that's the key right now. Right. Casting this wide net was cool and it was, it was very much so a learning and sort of research phase, as I mentioned. But, the way I was taught, entrepreneurship back in school, was, you know, really focusing on the problem that you're trying to solve and really honing in on the customer.

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Right. So we're in this phase of, you know, focusing, on one niche in particular. We're learning all about the customer, we're learning the lingo, we're learning all the operations. Right. With learning the day in the life around this customer to kind of, you know, understand where they are, what channels they exist in, what their major pain points are and sort of even the lingo that they speak.

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Right. The apps on their phone. Right. That's how detailed we kind of want to get there. And I think that, I think that having that system in place as really it's shown us before, or shown me before, back when I co-founded a different business. I think similarly it will yield, you know, a nice strong channel and, and as a result, funnel of customers or clients.

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Right, right. What do you think people misunderstand about slow growth? Yeah, you know, that's such a great question. And it's so, it's so like, I think I've been a lot enlightened around this question just because I've been in the entrepreneurial space for quite a bit and I have colleagues that have been in the space and have been working on their businesses since day one.

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Right. I think people expect results on day one or day two or day 50 or year one. Right. And you know, they, they see it as almost this linear thing where, okay, if I continue to input, if, if I input a certain way, I'll get a specific output, but the journey is, is really tangled.

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It's all over the place. Right. It's a lot of learning that, that's really, It's nonlinear. It's a nonlinear process to work through. Exactly. So in a lot of ways it could be disheartening because you're thinking like, okay, I'm spending a lot of time here, you know, this isn't yielding me any results, like, should I just stop?

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Right. Or what should I do differently? And so there's a lot of pivoting along the way that happens to get you to understand like what you should be doing. And then, you know, you build up traction, you build up recognition over time. Right.

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In the space of consulting, I, I feel like at least what I've learned so far is it's very valuable to have a network. Whereas in other spaces the network might be important, but other things might be important. Maybe it's about establishing yourself through a specific channel depending on where your customers are.

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I think the biggest misunderstanding is that people expect results early on. Gotcha. And sort of shifting the gear there, about maybe not the slow growth perspective, but say I offered you $10,000 right now to spend on either paid ads or updating in building a new channel for high trust referral engine.

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Where would you put $10,000? Yeah, I think, I think more so the latter. I think, you know, if, if I could, if I could build a strong referral system, that is clear. Makes sense then, you know, I, I think people warm up better to referrals or suggestions and feel comfortable pursuing, taking risk.

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Right. On something that a friend or that somebody else suggested or talked about versus a situation where it feels obvious that a company is trying to sell you something. Right. I feel like we as humans naturally kind of shield up and we're like, oh, okay, like you're calling me about the service.

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What is this about? Or you know, if something is clearly an ad, I'm just scrolling past it. Right. So I personally would rather build that, you know, strong referral engine. Awesome. And I mean, kind of, you know, thinking today, you know, what does your current lead flow system look like?

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Or is it still mostly the word of mouth referral space? Yeah. So we recently narrowed down on a specific, specific segment and we've been learning about them for the past, like, kind of month and have started to engage.

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Have started to engage some of these folks. So we are in the process of building a system. So I feel like I can't really speak on it fully just yet because we need to continue to understand, okay, where do these folks live?

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What are their relationships? Right. What does that whole customer ecosystem look like? Right. We actually. So I guess to be specific, we're honing in more on the manufacturing, distribution, and wholesale space. Even those are like really big umbrellas. But we've identified like, some pain points under there that we feel are very, very addressable, given our automation sort of focus.

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And for example, last week I reached out to my network and tried to see, okay, who knows, folks in this manufacturing, distribution and wholesale space. We had started to engage with some folks, but wanted to discuss with some more.

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And this lawyer reached out and said, hey, our firm actually deals with a ton of manufacturers. Let's set up a conversation, and potentially an informal partnership kind of situation where, you know, if we get folks that might be a good fit for you, knowing that, you know, you care about your clients and you're trying to help them and streamline their processes, we would love to be that value add, for them by making the referral.

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Right. And so like, so systems like that, that's. That's kind of what we're trying to develop. And that's also what I mean by like, us being early on, because we just learned last week that, you know, that might be a very strong channel, but we're looking to, you know, have more conversations like that.

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Set up more systems like that over time. So it's incredible when you run across someone like that, that you wouldn't expect to be someone that necessarily opens that network, but they've got the right tentacles that extend and overlap from a Venn diagram perspective in the right areas.

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Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's exactly what I mean by like, it's a learning process, you know, and you never know until you put something out there. So maybe the strategy is just putting yourself out there and seeing what happens. Do you see a role in video for more broad sort of storytelling about Green Zone, in how you build future trust?

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You know, and I'm not thinking in the next six months, Abu. I'm thinking maybe in the next year or two years. Right. Is that on that longer term strategy for how you can grow and build that referral network by getting your case studies, your face, your voice out there to the world through storytelling, through video?

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Oh, 100%. You know, people like to see, kind of proof, right, that you understand their, their case or that you'll be valuable to them. And it's so funny that you mentioned that because I am actually working on a video currently that addresses a very specific pain point that manufacturers, specifically face, just to, just to kind of.

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And that video sort of addresses the pain point and then proposes an example solution. Right? So we figured that lots of these folks that are, that are risking, right, Putting, putting risk on the tape, putting money on the table for certain things, they'd want to see what happens.

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They'd want to see like, okay, how does this fit into our current system, our current operations? So having a video that kind of outlines that and gives a visual as to what things would be, we feel increases credibility and trust. And where, where from, a distribution, where do you see that that's going to fit?

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Is that a YouTube play? Is that a TikTok series? Is that, you know, where you have to think about where those ICPs sit? Right. Where those customers sit? Right. 100%, you know, and a lot of it even depends on like, you know, the person that we're reaching out to or that we're targeting within a company.

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And you know, there could be multiple people. What we found is that these folks with leadership roles typically exist on LinkedIn, whereas the folks that might be closer to, let's say for example, working with the system that we may implement in a company, more directly, those folks that play around with that more directly probably exist on different channels; maybe they don't even have a LinkedIn.

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So then it's like, okay, how might we engage them? In terms of where the content sits? We definitely want to, we're definitely going to add it to our website. And then we're going to try to reach out to certain folks and attach a Loom link to "Hey, do you have a minute?

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If you do check this out, we think this would be super valuable to you." I think it's about you can get into LinkedIn DM automation tools possibly there. Right. And that could be one, not paid at the front, but a secondary sort of paid idea to work down getting that, that exposure.

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It's fantastic, Abu. Yeah, yeah. Abu, this was the perfect reminder that consistency, results, and showing up still work even in this hyper-automated world. Where can people connect with you and learn more about Green Zone? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

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They can connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm somewhat active on there. I don't post too much but I'm pretty active. I've actually been playing a lot of the LinkedIn games. Adam, I don't know if you've check them out like Tango and all that. So yeah, you know, they're increasing my ROI.

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So but let's see. It's too bad that those aren't gamified from your network perspective. That's an interesting idea to bring in competition through that avenue. That was kind of a surprise that LinkedIn brought to the forefront within the last year or two.

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I know, right? It's so interesting. Yeah, for sure. And I guess other ways are, through my email abu@gzsolutions.co. You could also go directly to our website GZSolutions.co, and submit a request for consultation.

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Even if it isn't actual consultation, you just want to reach out. Go ahead and write that in the notes, and we'll read that on our end. Fantastic. And for the founder out there who's nervous to start selling or feels pressured to run ads too soon, what's your one real talk piece of advice?

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Go out there and understand people's pain points. Right. I've learned that trying to sell first is important from a business model perspective and from a validation perspective. So go out there, learn about the market and try to sell first if you can.

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And then move forward. Right. I think understanding the problem, customer, and understanding a business model is very important before doing lots of other things. I love it. Well, thanks for tuning into "Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising?", the show where we find the signal behind the noise.

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I'm Adam W. Barney, subscribe, leave a review, and check the show notes for links to everything Abu mentioned and more. Abu, thank you, though, for joining us today. Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.