to me and it happened to be in the
morning right so normally I wake up to
an alarm clock right how many you have
an alarm clock on your phone
like a rings what happens when it rings
you often like it the snooze button
right so so I hit the snooze button and
um
go back to sleep and then another long
happen right so I’m like okay I put
snooze what’s happening and then I hit a
ping then I have multiple pings right
usually I get emails in the morning so
here’s you know a ping and I had another
thing and another ping and another thing
and now I’m like oh snap what’s
happening right so I jump out got my
boxes on grab my phone looked at it I
was like oh my god Oh dozens of eveness
Huffington Post uh Washington uh the
Chicago Tribune is like and it all said
Ahmad versus Wikipedia like what the
blood clot right so now I’m on I get on
my Twitter feed and I’m trending
I am trending but not the way I want a
trend right hashtag Ahmad versus
Wikipedia hashtag Ahmad selling brands
selling brands selling his brand to
Wikipedia and I’m like and people are
debating people arguing people are
questioning my integrity and I had no
control over it so the one day I could
do is like shut off everything shut off
everything jump right back in my bed put
my you know a blanket over me and I’m
hiding unsure what to do next I was like
what the hell just happened like how did
we get here I’m lying I know exactly how
he got here so um a few months back from
this date I was having lunch with a
friend in Chicago my friend is pretty
famous you know he got he got a few
international bestsellers I mean this
man travels very well and we started
talking about branding
know what you mod you need to be a
Wikipedia I do need to be Omega video
right so I started doing some research
it’s hard to get a Wikipedia they gotta
find you right you just can’t like
submit an application they have to find
you would acknowledge you I don’t like
they should have found me already I’m
famous so I started asking people in my
network people that have a wikipedia
profile and we’re talking about people
that are like New York Times bestseller
like endowed chairs and professors and
Dean’s and all them said the same thing
there’s a company they work with this PR
company that helped them get on
Wikipedia so I’m like okay so I did some
other research about this company they
seem legit like they worked with some
big companies they work with Expedia
Viacom right so they work with some big
companies they work with Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell right so I called this
company and some research on them spoke
with them right we went back and forth
back and forth and then finally they
created my profile I had to pay a few
G’s I had to pay a few can you say a few
G’s a few G’s right so boom my profile
is up and they got the good picture up
there yeah they got the good fiction
right and all of a sudden my you know
the Google Analytics are hitting my
websites hitting and then within like a
week I get flagged like flag like my
name is in red and Wikipedia is
questioning my profile they’re like who
the heck is this dude who put them up
here and there’s like a debate happening
like a debate that I have no control
over you know what they started calling
me someone called me a sock puppet what
the heck is a sock puppet right another
dude said he was gonna soak my name salt
my name I called this company up I’m
like no this is the man people are
calling me sock puppet I don’t know what
that is but I’m ready to fight somebody
hey and what he told me was that it
happens it’s normal right your profile
goes up
they question it they debate right to go
back and forth and it gets back up
it didn’t happen they took it down boom
so we’re back I said what’s going on
they took it down I want money back I
wonder he fun said like no no no we
would get it back up it happens right so
within a few days boom it’s back up and
they got the good picture again right so
I’m happy
things are moving I put on my LinkedIn
profile people excited and it happened
again this time I swore is like you know
when you’re when your teacher takes out
that red marker and like writes your
name you know like highlights it I swear
they highlight everything I’m like oh
this dude is dude this dude right and I
went back to the company I said listen
what’s going on here and they said that
your profile has been hacked
why did my profile get hacked they’re
like no what happens it’s natural you
know it gets hacked you know we’re going
back and forth I’m like I’m not a
Wikipedia person but what if somebody
hacked my profile out of you know the
millions of profiles that out there and
and they said it happens they put my
profile back up and this time it was
gone didn’t even debate they like took
off so now I’m going back and forth with
this company and they told me that if I
want my profile back up there I have to
hire a PR company that they also work
with so I know what’s happening there’s
like a pyramid scheme right it’s like oh
in order to is you don’t you want
something extra here isn’t we need more
money we need more money we need more
money right so I went back and forth
back and forth with them and it finally
you know what I’m gonna get you I’m
gonna get you right so I started calling
around and I connected with Vice
magazine hey bye no Vice magazine so
Vice magazine did an entire profile on
this situation right and that’s what set
it off right but here’s the thing Vice
magazine never got my side of the story
correct they didn’t get a chance to let
me look at the story they posted without
me responding to without me looking at
it and then basically the world took
that magazine and went it went viral it
went viral
I had bloggers going after me
I didn’t know what a blog was at the
time right I had wiki guys going after
me so I felt like everything was going
out of control and I had no control over
my brand my brand was being ruined my
brand was being tarnished right and I
realized something that these bloggers
these people that were writing about me
did not know me they only know me from
what they read right they only know me
from what they saw in social media so I
did something that was revolutionary but
it was actually honest I actually
connected with each of these bloggers I
found their contact information and
called them and explained my side of the
story
got them to know me as a person I got
them to know my situation instead of
just looking at a social media you know
post instead of reading something that I
really didn’t have no influence over and
all of a sudden these bloggers started
coming my way
many of these bloggers took down their
posts right many of these bloggers
started defending me all of a sudden I
became their friend they started
realizing that I was not an opportunist
in this situation I was technically a
whistleblower right and they started
writing good things about me like the
type of things you want something right
about you because they know about you
they know your true story right so what
I learned that day is that in order to
create a true brand if you truly want to
be famous
turn off your computers turn off your
phone do more they connect with people
on social media reach out to that person
get them to know you create meaningful
relationships with people right don’t
just don’t just highlight those things
you want people to see it shouldn’t be a
gallery of your life when it’s only good
right you need to connect with people
you need to get to know who they are and
they need to know who you are and what
you stand for
thank you very much for your time anyone
you [Applause]