Jawaad Ahmad Khan

Note: I found this in my drafts and wondered why I never posted it. It was originally to be part of a video series that unfortunately never got recorded, but the content I feel is still good enough to publish. This is just an introduction, based on what I learned as an intern at Leechon Films.

Episode 1 – What is Marketing?

Marketing is the strategy used to effectively communicate a message, usually about a product or service, and get it “sold”.

AN ASIDE: Why do I like marketing so much? Well, let’s take this back to the basics for a second. I am a Muslim and believe that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his final Messenger. As a Muslim, I believe I was created for the purpose of worshiping Allah and benefiting humanity. An informal form of doing this is through the process called Da’wah.

My definition of Da’wah is this: to market Islam. So that’s why I like marketing.

On the practical level, if one knows the ideas behind marketing strategy, then they have the power to get their message out.

We all have a message. Sometimes it takes the form of this:

“Come one! Come all! Everyone in Florida! Let’s meet up at Orlando for a double-weekend seminar with Shaykh Yaser Birjas. It’s the Divine Link! Fiqh of Salah! Answer all those questions you’ve ever had! Last two weekends in May! Register today!”

Or it may even come in the form of:

“Mom, Dad…Umee, Abee…Mama, Baba…I wanna get married.”

But the point is that some time in your life, knowing the basics of strategic marketing might come in handy. So let’s get into the lesson.

Marketing strategy can be broken up into 3 parts/levels:

1. Advertising

This is the fliers, the announcements after Friday Jumu’ah prayer, the facebook event invitation, and, if you have money, the billboards and the T.V. commercials.

In essence, this area of marketing is where no one really knows about your product or service and it’s up to you to spread the word.

You: “Come to my restaurant!”

Note to try to apply “permission marketing” in this area as opposed to spamming people.

2. Branding

Branding is when people begin to know about your message. Your message/event/organization becomes known, and people might just check it out based on that fact. You’ve built up a brand name, one that people recognize and know about. It’s the golden arches at McDonald’s, the Nike swoosh, even the “Crescent & Star” that usually is supposed to represent Islam.

It’s the:

Consumer: “I hear this is an awesome restaurant with delicious food at affordable prices and I wanted to come in to check it out.”

You: “Oh yes, come in, we have good food for you!”

It’s hard to describe this as specific strategy, as it’s more vague of a concept. However, when you finally reach the peak of it, then the consumers will know and understand the message that you want them to understand. An example would be like FAYM (the Florida Association of Young Muslims). In my area, when you see a FAYM logo on a flier, you’d think: okay, it’s FAYM, it’s going to benefit the youth, be professional, and has an Islamic environment. And that’s exactly what the leaders of FAYM want people to think.

3. Publicity

This is when you have others advertising for you. As in, regular people, who you may not even know (who’ve attended your event, read up the flier, or heard your message) are telling their friends about it. This is the most effective level. You don’t have to do any work. It works by itself. It’s the:

Consumer: “Hey, buddy, I went to this restaurant the other day. Dude, amazing food and it was cheap, too. You definitely should check it out.”

Friend: “I gotta check this place out.”

When you get people to start talking for you. A lot of Islamic organizations I know don’t get to this level. You usually see the same person that’s associated with that one organization, and whenever you go to say Salaam to them, you just know it in the back of your head “He’s gonna tell me about the next event they have.” And then he tells you. And then you don’t go.

There’s other people, where, after Jumu’ah on Friday, they just hand out the fliers, and we all take the fliers, fold them up, and keep them in our pockets. And we walk away, as they chase down every single person that doesn’t get a paper. And nobody goes.

However, it’s different when the Khateeb giving the Friday khutbah (sermon) mentions this organization and the awesome event they’re gonna have. And then afterwards, everybody talks about their positive experience with that organization before (branding) and how awesome this next event must be (publicity). And in no place do we see the president of the organization begging you to come.

No, the people are talking to each other about your event, your website, your class, your initiative, your message, while you sit silently and watch them with a smile. That’s publicity.

Final Words

I feel compelled to write that these lessons are only a synthesis of the information I’ve received during my internship at Leechon Films. It’s the information incorporated with lessons I’ve learned from books I’ve read and personal observation. Know that I’m no professional in the area of marketing, it’s just an area of self-study right now and I ask Allah to forgive me if I’ve said or written anything that was detrimental or of no real benefit. I’m but a student and I encourage anyone with more knowledge to comment with corrections and extra discussion.

Lately, I’ve been focusing on the first step on my new philosophy and approach to life: Reading.

As my dad begins to read all the books I buy from my new book-reading tribe, Borders (pretty good rewards program), every time he repeats the same notion, “This is a very important book.” Each and every book I get seems to be very important.

Let me just recommend some good ones I’ve read and am reading.

Made to Stick:

Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive

I’ll write now what I wrote in the book itself after I finished: “This book changes your outlook on Da’wah”. It’s a book that breaks down the psychology of ideas, messages, etc. and why we remember them. Then, it introduces you to six elements for you to incorporate to make your idea “sticky”, or memorable. While it’s not a Muslim book, I think it should be required reading for Du’aat (people who give Da’wah, or invite to Islam). Muslims have a perfect message, but not always a perfect way of presenting it, and this book will help you clear that up. It’s awesome with so many examples; plus, they have different aids and things online to further your study in this area (see madetostick.com)

Rework

This is a new-business book. It rejects, basically, all past notions of what you thought business was and flips them around. While it does have some good content in it (and awesome illustrations on every other page), my only real issue is that the author curses once or twice. May not be much of a problem for most, but I just didn’t like it. But, overlooking that, the ideas are solid in changing your mentality, “reworking” it to tell you that investors, big business chairs, large meeting rooms and cubicles are most definitely not required for you to begin and sustain a business. There’s a guy reviewing it that goes as far as saying that he’d hire someone that read this book over someone who has a Master’s Degree in Business. A bit extreme, but it’s that good. What also attracted me to the book was their creative commercials, check them out at the bottom of their book page.

Linchpin

Are You Indispensable?

I’m still reading this one, but it’s gold. The author, Seth Godin, is someone I follow (on his blog and ebooks and videos). He’s a marketer. However, this book is bit different. This book reveals a new class of people, the artists and geniuses that share their talents with the world: the linchpins. He tries to get you to realize that your gift, your talent is most needed right now. In fact, the only way to have a secure job is to be a linchpin, someone that can’t be replaced because of the uniqueness they bring to what they do. Filled with inspiring ideas and motivating notions, this book definitely keeps you reading and wanting to begin producing. My dad, who I don’t even think finished yet, is already beginning to think of what new business he wants to open. This book was a gift to him, and my way of calling him a Linchpin in my life, indispensable.

~~~

So, there you go. Some of the great books on my reading list. I have more, but still have to read them. Like I said, this is just a first step on my journey, and it’s where you should be too. I’m thinking of making a video on this whole “Read. Think. Produce.” thing; more people use it than I thought, they just use different names for it.

Note that a couple of the above books and many of the ones I read deal with marketing. The reason I love marketing so much is because, as stated in Rework, marketing is everything. It’s not a department or a simple degree. Every single one of us has a message we want to communicate, whether it be “Come to my event!” or “Mom, Dad, I wanna get married”. Knowing how to reach and connect with people is essential and useful in whatever you do, especially when you’re a Muslim.

Check out my new bio page. Doesn’t say too much about me, just this little philosophy of life that I’ve acknowledged.

Here’s what “Read. Think. Produce.” means. (you can try to read just the boldface words, I tried to have it make sense).

Read.

Step 1. I like to read, but more specifically, I like to learn. I learn about video production, marketing, and my religion, Islam. I do this by reading (as well as watching videos, listening to lectures, attending events and enrolling in programs). All of this is captured in the first step, READ. On this blog, I’ll reflect on what I learn.

Think.

Step 2. One has to know that you can’t believe everything you read. Not everything is meant to be taken at face value. Therefore, when I learn and read, I actually try to THINK and contemplate over what I read. This is major part of this blog. My thoughts. This is very important, because I hope this brings me to the status of “oolil-al-baab” (one of those who understand. Reference.)

Produce.

Step 3. So many people do read things and learn. They also think about what they learn. However, most of them don’t get to this step, they just sit on the things they’ve collected. I don’t want to be one of them. So, with the skills and knowledge that I’ve READ, and that I’ve sought to understand by THINKing, I hope to PRODUCE something from it, which will be showcased on this blog InshaAllah.

Wasat Studios just began a series on Surah Yusuf.

(I follow Wasat Studios’ producer, Saqib Saab on twitter, he has some really awesome videos).

It’s called “Not Your Average Joe”.

(Hilarious, because Yusuf in English is Joseph, and Joe is short for Joseph).

Anyway, here’s the first episode:

My thoughts:

I love the style of video. I’ve watched quite a few videos on Surah Yusuf, and I think that this series is going to be one of the best. It reminds me of a PBS-style series.

It’s sort of like how a kids show is presented (talking to the viewer and guiding you through), but it still speaks of higher concepts and more sophisticated language, so it keeps you engaged and doesn’t dumb it down.

On the film side:

The composition of the shots  are really nice. The fireplace scene was awesome. The car footage was a bit shaky, as well as the library scene. Might’ve been better if there was a dolly or something used, but Alhamdulillah it still was passable to the point where an average viewer wouldn’t be bothered at all by it. InshaAllah I hope to see more and more of this series.

And I gotta finish memorizing Surah Yusuf. Hm…

I’m sure that Saqib Saab would really appreciate your comments on the video, please post them below and I’ll let him know to read them.

A very, very quick, sunset video. Feels good to produce something.

Yes, I am sixteen as of today. And I think that this birthday will bring the most change for me in my life.

1. My sister is getting married and moving away very soon. (InshaAllah)
2. I will be attending college next semester (part of a program in which I’ll be doing the last two years of high school concurrently with the first two years of college).
3. Basically, I think I can mark this summer as the start of my video career.

Projects are rapidly being thrown at me this summer, and the biggest problem I think I’ll have is priority.

InshaAllah I hope I can prioritize my time and activities accordingly.

As far as what 16 years has taught me, this is a special day for I have decided today:

I will be a leader.

I will leave a legacy in this world.

And I will have it speak for me when I meet Allah (SWT).

Bi-idhnillah.

This decision has come from contemplation over the alternative. Now, I’m talking you. (You talking to me? Yes, I am.)

The Alternative

In the 12-13 years of public education that you take, there is no greater skill that you are taught other than OBEDIENCE. You can follow directions well. You don’t learn advanced science, multiplication, and grammar. The answer to “When will I ever use this?” lies in what ‘this’ refers to.

When you leave school, OBEDIENCE will be your greatest asset in following through the system. You can get a degree easily, you can get a low-level job and make good pay taking orders from others. You CAN lead a good life. But, is it enough? Can you live knowing that you’re fulfilling someone ELSE’s vision? That you have no purpose other than to serve others. To be a, as it’s said, cog in the machine.

However, I choose to think differently. I choose to LEAD. I choose to be the best Muslim I can. With a way of living like Islam, excellence is inevitable if you choose to follow it properly.

Know this, dear reader:

You can OBEY, and be amongst those who have obeyed (what are their names again?)

Or, you can LEAD, and leave a legacy that will continue to benefit others past your own life.

Things that come to mind that might’ve contributed to info in this post:

Muhammad AlShareef – Leaving A Legacy

Seth Godin – Linchpin Session

This past weekend was an amazing one.

It was the first weekend of the Divine Link seminar, which I’d attended in Orlando, Florida. Not only was it an amazing experience and awesome class, but we received some great news.

Banu Noor, the name for the AlMaghrib Florida “tribe” (or rather, a baby tribe) became QABEELAT NOOR! (A full-blown tribe that will be having seminars throughout the year!).

For those that don’t know, AlMaghrib Institute is an institute that provides double weekend university style seminars on various Islamic sciences. It’s split up by city and each city is a student tribe (Qabeelah). If a city wants to become a Qabeelah, they apply and become first a Banu (I’ll continue using the phrase ‘baby tribe’), where you’re on a probationary period until your amount of students is seen as serious enough to have regular seminars come to your city and you become a Qabeelah. We did it. MashaAllah.

About the seminar, it’s about the Fiqh of Salah. MashaAllah it’s been amazing. I don’t have much time to write, but I’ll post some gems, one in the form of a video I shot, edited and uploaded during the seminar, and the others below it.

Video…about Ruku’!

Other Gems

The Qiblah (direction to pray, toward the Ka’bah in Makkah) has a sweet significance. It’s a reminder that wherever you are, whenever that Salah time comes in, that’s the time for you to pray. You have to face that direction. It’s a reminder and symbolic of the center of our lives: Allah.

~~~

The Prophet (SAW) had a small house next to the Masjid. He was so humble, never accepting a palace, and even refused a gown with stripes as it distracted him from Salah. From such a tiny space [his house] he built a nation.

~~~

BEST GEM OF ALL: You attend a seminar on Salah because you want to learn more about it. You want to know the strict rules to abide by, and exactly the motions you have to make. You want to know the restrictions within Salah, what you can and can’t do.

However, when you attend this seminar, you become so much more free in your Salah. You learn about talking directly to your Lord in sujood and ruku’, and how many things you can do in your ‘ibadah. Sure, there are certain restrictions and things that have to be exact, but the weight of “Did I just pray right?” is lifted and you begin to learn how many ways there are you can express yourself to your Lord (in Salah!)

‘Ubudiyyah is Freedom. Be a slave, and you’ll attain the greatest freedom.

My friend Abdullah Sabawi, who is currently studying film at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, made a short documentary featuring another of my friends, Ahmed Salih, and his struggles in trying to get married. Check it out below:

Here’s my review of the short doc:

I’m sure that Abdullah would want me to write something about my thoughts on this film.

So, here goes.

Composition

I’ll start off commending the composition of the film. The shots were amazing, and especially followed the rule of thirds in its many interview shots. I also really enjoyed the b-roll footage of the birds flying around. It was, if you think deeply into it, representative of Ahmed, flying around looking for some…I guess, flowers?

Story

The story was, when I first watched it, a bit vague in its progression. However, after re-watching it, I realized that there was a change in the main character. The story was quite well-done beginning with Ahmed, crazy in his pursuit of marriage, and he ends off realizing that when Allah allows it to happen, it will happen. At first watch, which most people will only watch it once, it was a bit hard to look through to find the journey’s end. The change in Ahmed was late in the documentary, so you weren’t sure if he actually did change.

Personal Commentary

Knowing Ahmed, and actually visiting his apartment a few days before this film’s release, I found this actually quite funny. I’m sorry to say it, but much of the documentary was funny to me (except for the serious parts, of course). I think Abdullah did a really good job though portraying Ahmed. And I know it must’ve been very difficult for him as I’d heard that he had tons more footage. (I’d heard that he followed Ahmed around for the entire MSA East Zone Conference weekend with his camera.)

All in all, I’ll give it 7.5 stars out of 10.

So, what’d you think of it? What’d your rating be? Comment and let me know!

This is a very, very short film I made with my friend Jesse Chesla in our high school.

How This Happened

It was a mundane day at school. I had an assignment due the next day in which I had to perform a story in American Sign Language. I decided I wanted to record myself performing the story instead of doing it live in front of my class. So, I asked my friend to help me videotape it during lunch. (Note that this is my friend from T.V. Production class, i.e. he also likes to make video). So, we returned to our classroom at lunch, and lo and behold, the back room (where we wanted to record) was locked. Even worse, I had accidentally left my story (the paper with my story written on it) in that back room, and the teacher with the key was nowhere to be found.

It was 12:55PM. I had a camera and decided that I wanted to produce something. I saw a bottlecap on the ground, and told my friend Jesse to just follow my instructions and I directed him through my random shots.

At 1:00PM the bell rang, so I handed the camera to Jesse and told him “Just take this shot of me quickly!”

Kids swarmed the hallway as we got our stuff and laughed about the short, short, short film we just shot.

I went home and edited together what you have before you.

Why This Happened

In the heat of the moment, trying to think of how to spend the next five minutes, I decided to throw a few things out the window: planning, structure, lighting and other integral parts of creating video. However, I used this as a challenge to produce something quickly. I wanted to just create something. A bottlecap on the ground sparked this, but more importantly was just a yearning to finally make something at school. (You see, our T.V. Production class hasn’t been producing much T.V. lately.)

So, there you have it. A five-minute-short-film (well, 45-second short film). Expect more of these (only better ones) because I think we finally thought of something to do in our T.V. class: actually make videos!

Jannah Network Promo Video

In the past month or so, I’d been working with the Jannah Network and made the above promotional video for them.

The Jannah Network is a vast network filled with sites that serve the Muslim community. These sites (as seen in the above video) include Jannah Studios (a Muslim webhosting & design studio), Halal Press (a Muslim version of wordpress.com, a blogging platform), Jannah Radio (weekly Islamic webcast) and so much more.

The video took about 35 hours total to create. This is one of the first “Project Reflections” posts, so I wanted to share the process I took.

How I Got the Job

I was just searching through the internet, and found this blog: Diaries of a Hafiz and found it interesting. I commented on one of the posts, and as you may know, when you comment on a blog, you put your name, email and your website. A few days later I got an email from the Jannah Network (who runs the blog) saying they clicked on my comment to go to my website, and saw my video page. They asked the price for a YouTube video and the back-and-forth contact began from there.

LESSON: Never underestimate the power social networking. I unintentionally got a job from writing a simple comment on a random blog.

1. Development

This is a part of video production often neglected. Often clients and organizations feel like you just “make” a YouTube video. Pick up a camera and start shooting. That is WRONG.

I emailed Jannah Network back and forth (and even instant-message-chatted with them), and tried to develop the idea of what they wanted for the video. I got down two crucial pieces of information. The (1) Purpose of the video, and the (2) Emotion they wanted the video to convey. With that information, it became so much easier to frame how the video would be set up. I kept my ideas all together in one place. For those of you who like the Taking Better Notes post, you’ll love this:

The above is called a “Mind Map” and I made it using a software called Mindjet Mind Manager.

There, it outlined the purpose and emotion of the video, the overview of what the Jannah Network is, and listed all the websites. Later, I’d added sub-topics to each website and wrote the short description for each one. I referenced this a whole lot in the editing of the video.

LESSON: A great video needs development. Two starting points are the purpose and emotion of the video.

2. Production

The process of making videos usually has this three step process: Development, Production, and Post-Production.

Because this video was a trailer/promotional video, it has a different process. It doesn’t include any live-action footage, so there’s no real “production” aspect of it. I didn’t have to film anything for it, I’ll expand on the visuals of the video in the next step.

3. Post-Production

In this process, I also discussed with Jannah Network about some requirements of the video, one of which was a request to use the background audio from a voice-only artist. I found out that they actually have rights to use songs from this group called Labbayk. I listened to their songs, and chose one called “Ask Him”. With a promo/trailer, it’s often driven by the background sound. Therefore, audio must be chosen first, then the visuals will aid it. Unfortunately, I don’t think I did as good as I could’ve with matching visuals to sound (I actually edited the audio to fit some visuals).

Next up, I listened to the song and decided that I’d begin first off with a series of pictures to match it. The song’s lyrics go:

Gather your hands together,

And send your prayers away,

Whisper your utmost love to Allah,

And ask Him what you may

So, I headed over to sxc.hu (thanks to Brother Arif for pointing out this site to me) which is a free stock-image site and I found some pictures to use. In addition, I also used Stock Footage for Free to find a free video clip.

After that, I decided that I wanted to present the websites in a way to show that there were a whole lot (part of the emotion to convey was for the viewer to feel overwhelmed with how many awesome sites there are). So, I decided that one of the best ways was to use video of someone typing in each site into their browser. So, I recorded myself using CamStudio typing in each site.

Then I used the handy Snipping Tool that comes with Windows 7 (and Vista I believe as well). It’s basically an upgrade to your keyboard’s Print Screen button. I took screenshots of each site.

The process of presenting the work to the client went as follows: the first initial progress draft video, and they gave their revisions. I sent them the final video, and they gave their final touch-ups/small revisions. Then, the final video was delivered.

Project Reflections

This project took about 4 weeks to happen. I actually made this simultaneously with another video which had to be made for an event. That’s why it dragged on so long. In addition to that, Jannah Network had quite a few corrections (they had some uncertainty about exactly what they wanted in the video, so it caused them to doubt some of their decisions and improve and revise). However, the final email they sent to me really made me smile. In itself, this is a LESSON:

I wanted to really express my gratitude on your efforts…you’ve really been able to patiently deliver the final outcome and result in the most efficient of manners. May Allah Ta’ala reward you manifold.

- Jannah Network

The final lesson of this project is that Akhlaaq and Manners is one of the most important concepts in business (in regular business, they may call it “ethics”). If you keep your patience, act responsibly, and always think about the feelings and interest of your client, then that will speak much more volumes for you than just your work. In turn, people will spread your business for you, and that’s one of the best levels of marketing. I did one last thing for this transaction, but I can’ say it publicly.

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve entered a contest from Baba Ali Games on his board game, Kalimaat. I made a video rap for it. (See the video here).

The prize is $1000, which I really hope to win and invest in some of my current and future projects (which includes a short film I’ll soon be working on with Leechon Films, as well as my general video services to many Islamic organizations).

It’d be awesome if you could help me out by voting for Contestant #1 here.

Hey Bloggers!

So wait, why is this post have ‘bloggers’ in it? Well, if you have a blog (or a website), then I need some extra help from you. I’m requesting that you write a post about my video.

“But what’s in it for me?”

I’m glad you asked. As followers of this site may know, I have a series called Tajweed Tangents which is a series of videos featuring Wisam Sharieff going off on random yet beneficial rants during his Tajweed class. I recently released the 3rd episode.

However, that episode is only a little over 3 minutes long. If you write a post, then I’ll give you access to the exclusive extended version (7 and a half minutes long). It’s the content I have to offer, so I’m offering it!

What You Have to Do

1. Write a post on your blog (or website) that features my Kalimaat video. Include:
   • My name, “Jawaad Ahmad Khan” as the author of the video.
   • An encouragement to vote for Contestant #1 at BabaAliGames.com/Contest
   • The video itself (the YouTube link, my post on it, or just embed the video)
2. Come back to this page, and comment below with the following info:
   • Your Post Title
   • A link to your post
   • And the usual required info (Your name, your email) note: this info doesn’t have to be included in the comment itself.
3. You’ll receive an email from me where I’ll give you the info for you to access the exclusive extended Tajweed Tangents video.

For Tumblr Users

If you use Tumblr for your blog, then you can just see my sample post, and just reblog it (the link goes to reblog the post). However, you’ll still have to comment back here to receive the exclusive video.

Final Words

For those who aren’t bloggers, please still send the video around. (If you aren’t a blogger and want the extended video, I’m still trying to think of what you can do for it. If you suggest something (like a provable twitter blast or other mass social media campaign), let me know in a comment, and I’ll consider giving the video to you as well).

So InshaAllah please send the voting page around and spread the Kalimah! (the word, ‘Kalimaat’ is plural)