He invested the last twenty years nurturing businesses, people and emerging technologies. He had coached over 3000 professionals and built 12 companies, globally. He grows your brand mindset so that you can take your business to the next level. A man with vision and philosophies – let’s get to know, Babak Kazemi.
Your name is very unique. I am sure many are curious; who is Babak Kazemi?
I would like to begin by sending my greetings to everyone. Thank you for acknowledging my name. I will start by giving a brief history of my name; it comes from one of the most favourable Persian kings in the 10th century. He was born in 798 AD. King Babak was one of the main Persian revolutionary leaders of the Iranian Khorram-dinan, a local freedom movement.
Back to me, I am Babak Kazemi, born on July 30, 1978 in Tehran, Iran. I am a Leo, symbolised by a lion figure. Behind my name stands a fierce, energetic and strong drive that respects the strength in others and has no time for subtlety. People tend to resemble the characteristics of their zodiac signs on some level; I can proudly confess that mine happened to be similar. I am passionate about advertising and looking at life through an innovative futuristic lens. When I was eighteen, I started my business, and after a year of hard work and creativity, it gained a reputable label as the nation’s top advertising and media exhibitory, so-called “Art-Bank”.
It takes less than a year before the agency you set up with a team of people catapulted to be ranked the 1st in the country. That is so very impressive. Tell us all about that 1st year.
Yes, I was inspired by my capabilities at a very young age. It was an impressive start to my career. Through a starting point, the top six companies including mine in the nation, created a sole trade union organisation for the advertising and media industry in Tehran, Iran. I was named one of the Board of Directors of the organisation. When given this extraordinary opportunity at just the age of twenty, it gears your mindset toward maturity and success. My mind always encourages me to fly to the clouds of my dreams. Roads of many extraordinary opportunities were slowly carving for me and I was ready to take off. When I opened my eyes to reality, I woke up to see the boundaries set by my nation around me, restricting me from ever being able to pursue my dreams.
After about seven years in Malaysia, Babak Kazemi or B.K moved the base to California, USA. Walk us through the services you currently run, Bob.
In 2016, I moved to the United States with my family to facilitate my visions even further. I continued my journey with event organising and life-coaching. I started my collaboration with a world-class Arabic event organising company. We planned three Royal Caribbean cruises with 4200 passengers and planned Persian/ Arabian music festivals on the cruise. We had them in Spain, Australia, and the US.
Now I spend most of my days life-coaching and training. I am now a life coach, motivational seminars promoter and trainer, business consultant, business start-up consultant and innovator, financial advisor, and video training content creator. I am also working on a futuristic trade business idea, that once complete, will be open for the world. Of course, I’m also enjoying life.
You were in the creatives while in Malaysia. How was that seven years stint in KL?
At the beginning of 2010, my family and I departed from Dubai to Malaysia. Again, this meant starting from scratch. Being the third time I’m attempting to build a new life from scratch, one of the most important skills that helped me through was the knowledge of marketing. This helped me build a very well-connected network for myself. Because I knew that the media industry had lost its popularity in the Middle East, I did a little research about it in East Asia and found that the Persian community did not have access to Persian TV satellites. I created TV boxes that connected to 180 TV channels with access to the internet, and named it “Multi-Box”. We were the sole TV provider to the Persian, Arab and Turkish communities in East Asia.
On the side, we continued with our event organisations but noticed some changes. People’s tastes changed and they prefer to travel to beautiful locations by the Mediterranean Sea like Antalya, Turkey instead of Dubai. Using this knowledge, I decided to move our concerts from Dubai to Turkey. I signed a contract with one of the best venues in Antalya, Turkey, which was a new start to my events. I organised a 15-week Persian summer music festival. Every Saturday, during these 15 weeks, we had different concerts. I also started organising these events in Malaysia as well. In 2011, I continued my event organising journey with the support of my community. The Persian BBC channel, called BBC Farsi, sent one of their representatives to create a three episode documentary on one of my events.
Tell us about the time when you were based in Dubai circa 2002.
To gain access to a more open-minded business setting and freedom in 2002, I decided to move to Dubai. My entry to Dubai meant a new beginning, however this time with limitless expectations. In Dubai, I started my business as a media buyer and TV production company. I was the first individual who brought the idea of online commercialising and advertising to the private Persian satellite TV channels and made an exclusive deal with two of the highest viewing satellite TV channels, broadcasted in the United States and worldwide.
In a year, we became the major source of TV commercials and advertising on all satellite TV for the Persian communities worldwide. We were able to gain over 88 million viewers worldwide on the content we spread. Because Dubai was very close to Iran and gave me more business freedom, in 2004, I thought it was great to organise entertainment events with Persian celebrities there. This gave Persians the chance to take advantage of our entertainment industry without the restrictions in Iran. This caught people’s attention and was very successful. From 2005 till today, I have organised around 180 concerts worldwide. I had the opportunity to work with all the legends in the industry.
In 2008, with a partnership of the two TV stations we were working with, we got the opportunity to collaborate with the chain of the MBC channels, and created our channel, MBC Persia. With the daily improvements in the world of the internet, satellite TV was becoming inferior. Amid the economic crash in 2009, businesses were falling apart and business owners did not have the budget to continue with their advertising, which crashed the demand in our market. They started using the internet as an alternative way to advertise their goods. Slowly, Dubai turned into a dead city where the flames of the businesses were extinguished.
I am quoting from you, “Yes, I have contributed to the success of many personalities who some would consider famous today, but I have also coached hundreds who began their journey where I did, with nothing – no status, no fame, & no wealth. Today those people have found something bigger than fame. They found purpose.” What do you mean by this statement, Bob?
One day, I was thinking to myself and reflecting on my life. I realised that throughout these years, I rebuilt my life many times, each better than the one before, and I owed it all to my prior experiences and the lessons I learnt from my past obstacles and mistakes. I then decided to add life-coaching in my journey in event organising. I wanted to share the lessons I have learnt throughout my journey. I started sharing a few philosophies that I highly believe in. I could summarise them in five points:
- To get to the highest peak of a mountain, you must pass the deepest valleys and go through the smaller peaks. Life is like a mountain, your achievements are your peaks, and your obstacles are your valleys.
- Anything that doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. To me, this symbolises the pains and struggles you go through in life. It is for us to learn – not to be scared of our fears, but to face them instead and come out stronger. Life is all about learning or experiencing.
- Everything is created by human mindset, and is controlled by the human way of thinking and grows by human attitude. Your mind is the main source of your energy. The immediate moment you think of something, that mindset creates itself in the universe. To be able to attract it depends on your drive to pursue it. After achieving, keeping and growing it depends on your attitude. Because oftentimes, many people can attain different things but are not able to keep it. Therefore, you need to always think big about your desires and create a big vision. Know what you want and take the route to your vision and not allow any detours in your journey.
- Never give up – the root of all successes is how much you believe in them. The one thing that keeps you driven towards your desires is the reasons you are pursuing them. Therefore, if you want what you are fighting for with all of your soul and believe you will be successful, you will not give up even if you have to change your plans and methods many times.
- Gratitude is vital. Everything about this world is defined by energy circuits. If you look at successful people across the world, they are both physically and psychologically fit. You can gain your physical fitness from daily activities and exercise, but to be psychologically fit, you need to be thankful for all you have every day and what you are going to have. It has been proven that people who practice gratitude can attract their desires into reality faster. Gratitude makes you humble and prevents egoism.
My only advice regarding these five points to everyone who is on this road is to never change your vision, no matter the obstacles. The people who were with me along the journey and took away something from my experiences have now become very successful people of their own. I am very grateful to see them where they are today.
You are in the midst of writing a book, “Unleash The Techno-Innovator in You” – very exciting indeed. What is the book all about?
Throughout the years of my life, I have started, established and branded over 20 companies which were successful in their time. Of course, in their journey, they have obstacles and struggles. Throughout creating these companies, I learnt methods and strategies that I call ‘systems’. In my book, I talk about the systems that helped me. For instance, to build a high rise building, you need a very solid foundation (system) and solid columns for the building, for it not to fall apart. The combination of the foundation and its columns are the bases of which businesses are made of. I’m going to explain these bases in my book with great detail. People who hope to start their own business can use my book to help guide them through the journey and learn the shortcuts in the face of adversity.
You have branded yourself very well in the industry. What advice do you have for those starting?
Focus on your desires, work hard to achieve them, be humble. Always be sure to execute your ideas and you will be successful. If the quality of your achievements is high, your success will be the noisemaker. I have always been grateful for all of my achievements but always strived for the next level. Everyone who knows me has always witnessed my work ethic and drive to always move forward.
Bob, where do you see Babak Kazemi five years down the road?
My visions are always set in place; they are limitless. I always plan for the next bigger step. My visions are designed to give me the ultimate freedom. By freedom, I mean freedom in different ways like financial and spiritual freedom. Shortly, I see myself impacting many people of different ages around the world through life-coaching. I want to grow this more and more every day. In 5 years I see myself to have completed all of my current projects and invest my time on the younger generation and help guide their way through their journey.
For those who wish to get in touch with you, what is the best way?
Through my website at the Contact Me section.
