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Shine On Success
Shine on Success is a dynamic, story-driven podcast where extraordinary entrepreneurs, visionary leaders, and resilient change-makers share their journeys to success, revealing both the challenges and the strategies that led to their breakthroughs. Each episode offers a unique blend of inspiring personal stories, practical business insights, and actionable advice, allowing our guests to connect with an engaged, growth-oriented audience ready to be motivated and uplifted. By joining us, you’ll not only have the opportunity to showcase your expertise and inspire listeners but also to be part of a powerful platform that celebrates ambition, innovation, and the courage to turn dreams into reality.
Shine On Success
Turning Adversity into Impact: A Journey from Entrepreneur to National Advocate
In this inspiring episode, we dive into the remarkable journey of Arman, founder of Arev Media, whose mission extends beyond business success to making a profound impact on his homeland, Armenia. Arman shares how his entrepreneurial spirit led him from a humble start in advertising to working with industry giants like Grant Cardone and Frank Kern. Despite facing global challenges like COVID-19 and a plateau in his business growth, he persevered, building a thriving agency that now empowers local talent and supports over 13 families in his community.
We explore Arman’s philosophy on success, not just in financial terms but as a holistic pursuit encompassing family, community, and country. He candidly discusses the challenges of being a young leader, the responsibility of supporting his team, and the drive to create opportunities for those around him.
Arman also opens up about the devastating loss of 5,000 young men during the war in Armenia and how this tragedy has fueled his relentless pursuit of excellence in business, with the ultimate goal of rebuilding and empowering his country. His story is one of resilience, dedication, and the transformative power of purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
Join us as Arman reveals his secrets to navigating tough times, the importance of mentorship, and how to stand out in a crowded advertising space, especially during volatile seasons like elections and holiday campaigns. This episode is a testament to what it means to push beyond personal success and strive for something greater.
Connect with Georgia here:
Website: https://arevmedia.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armanngu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arevmedia
Connect with Dionne Malush
- Instagram: @dionnerealtyonepgh
- LinkedIN: /in/dionnemalush
- Website: www.dionnemalush.com
- Facebook: /dmalush
- LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/dionnemalush
Welcome to today's episode of Shine on Success, where we learn about the journey of Armand Ananian, a visionary in the world of digital advertising. Starting from humble beginnings, Armand spent hundreds of dollars running ads without a clear return. It felt like a gamble, but his persistence paid off. By mastering the intricate algorithms of Facebook and Google, he cracked the code, catching the attention of marketing legends like Grant Cardone and Frank Kern. In 2019, Armand was hired to run ads for the powerhouse agency. Led by these industry giants, His success was undeniable, leading Frank Kern, the revolutionary marketer, to personally bring Armand onto his team in 2020. Since then, he has launched his own media company, creating successful ad campaigns for over 200 companies and solidifying his reputation as one of the top paid ad strategists in the industry. So stay tuned as we explore his strategies, insights and the lessons learned from his incredible journey and it's not without adversity. This is an episode you won't want to miss. So welcome Arman. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm doing amazing. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad we finally get to be on here together. It's been a little while, but thank you for joining me today and I want to get to know you more, and I want our audience to get to know you, because you're a very cool person and I know you have a good story in there somewhere. So my very first question I always like to ask is what is one thing you would like people to know about you?
Speaker 1:Threw me off with the first question. I mean that's the point, Like see if I could catch them in the first time, and I know there's got to be something that you would like people to know that they don't know.
Speaker 2:I think if more people actually got to know me, they would see my true intentions, which are impacting the world, changing as many lives as I can really like, making history for my country. And a lot of people see my intensity and they confuse it for other things you know.
Speaker 1:So I mean, I think that you're just overall, a good person. I haven't seen anything that I would judge at all. First of all, it's not even my job to judge. So there's that. So you know. I think you're right and I think that happens to all of us.
Speaker 1:In fact, I know I do a lot of positive posts and people see a lot of the good side of me, but sometimes they're judgmental of what I'm doing, saying hey, you're doing too much stuff, so you don't have time for me. But you know what I'm doing stuff because I love learning, I love being the best version of myself, but I get chastised for that. So you would think that it's all good, right, Until someone has something to say about it. And it just happened to me last week where someone said you're just doing all these other things and I'm like, well, I'm just bettering myself so I can be better for you, Like that's the whole point, so I can be the best version. So I completely understand that. So let's talk a little bit about your business. Tell me how it started. Tell me a little bit about that. I think you have two businesses. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am, the main one is the agency, though main focus. So how did that start? I just started running ads for myself and I thought I was going to get rich by running ads, you know, and all that stuff. That didn't work out, but I learned how to do ads paid advertising very early on and, you know, started doing that. And then in 2019, I got hired by, you know, grant Cardone and Frank Kern's marketing agency as a media buyer, running ads, as a media buyer, running ads. So then I touched hundreds of accounts across the US and Canada and even selling land on an island was a project that we were doing for people in Africa and stuff like that. So, yeah, that happened. Then COVID happened and I started my own agency and ever since COVID literally been running my own agency, rf Media and our goal is to take that same level of high-level professionalism and care and just keep serving people through marketing.
Speaker 1:So what exactly? So you do Facebook ads for people and social media, right? So what else do you do in your company?
Speaker 2:Facebook and Google ads. Dionne, we have two packages. One is we do it for you. There's people who have a lot of money to spend, are very aggressive, and then I recently learned I'm very surprised we have I don't know how many coaching clients we have 30, something like that more. We also coach. We also coach people who real estate companies, chiropractors, all kinds of local business owners on how to do their own ads themselves, because typically you have that barrier of entry to work with an agency like ours. You got to pay like five, 10,000 a month to just to work with people like us, and now, with less than a thousand bucks a month, you or someone on your team learn how to do ads and I'm so happy seeing some of the transformations we've been able to make for some of these businesses.
Speaker 2:You know, for example, becky Brand worked with agencies before. They all took a lot of money, did nothing. We taught her how to do Facebook ads. She started getting amazing returns on her store. His son was about to give up the business that his son started. She taught his son how to do the ads. Based on what we taught her, his son started even getting better results than the mother, so we literally saved the business because of what we've taught, so that's one of my favorite stories ever.
Speaker 1:I love that. So let's talk about business, because I know, like myself, I've been an entrepreneur for a long time. Has there been any adversities that you've run into since owning your business?
Speaker 2:I mean right Dion, like I was talking to my mentor, like last week. I mean right Dion, like I was talking to my mentor, like last week. I mean election season it was COVID and then election season right after that For advertising. That's crazy, like, so like first of all, I had to transition and launch my own business and I didn't have any other option During COVID. Understand, like trying to sell advertising, trying to tell people to keep pushing while everybody's shutting down and closing, and being conservative, that was like really a big test for me. It was very, very interesting. It really like showed me what I was and what I could do. But it was a tough time. I didn't know what I was doing. That was one.
Speaker 2:Then obviously, like presidential election and what's going to happen now, which we can talk about it. How can people prepare and how can they get more attention, because everybody in November and after they're going to be all focused on the election. Then also comes Dion. It also comes like Black Friday, cyber Monday. How do you stand out? I don't know. Can you even stand out? You know?
Speaker 1:I'm not sure. Can you, can you stand out we?
Speaker 2:can talk about that, but to answer your question, yeah, those were tough times. Those were toughest times, honestly. And then, just after that, yeah, we got some traction, but I had like a plateau for two years, and it was not really a plateau, but it felt super painful. I'm sure you've gone through it, I sure have. You're trying, you're pushing every day, but you don't see any progress. And it's like this and it was like this for two years, maybe three, and then it started skyrocketing like that again.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm going through that right now. I feel like we're, you know, as a company we're at, you know we're stable, we're at a stable line and that's not a line you want to be on. I want to be increasing in business and doing more business and helping more agents, and you know we have an incredible model that helps people to make more money. But, to be honest with you, money's not a driver for many people, which shocks me, because it drives me. I can tell you that it is definitely a driver for me, and so you know what can you do with a lot of money? A lot of things, right?
Speaker 1:You can change a lot of lives with a lot of money. So before you were an entrepreneur, did you have a different business? Did you work a job? Tell me about your previous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've always been and I wanted to reply on what you. I think that plateau season is kind of like where transformation happens, right. We don't see a lot of things happening, maybe externally, but that's when we build ourselves, we create that breakthrough, right? I think that's what was happening for me, definitely doing that, although I didn't see it. That was I was just, you know, just training, becoming better, serving people better, honing my skills. Anyway, I think, dion, it's always been something to do. I sold websites, delivered them, sold bikes, you know stuff like that, basically.
Speaker 1:I get you. I've always been entrepreneurial. I tried to work for a couple of places and I knew that I was not meant to be that person. But that doesn't mean that everyone's like us, right, we're different, we just do things differently. It's a roller coaster ride too, and it's not always easy. And although sometimes social media makes it look like everything is perfect and easy, it's just because you know we want to share the positive side. We're those people, right. We can't share as much negative as there goes on in a lifetime. There's a lot of negativity, but it's entrepreneurs like us that push through the other. It's taking time to find it. So have you ever written a book?
Speaker 2:No, not, unfortunately no.
Speaker 1:No, but if you had, what would that book be about?
Speaker 2:I mean probably about my life. You know, dion, we unfortunately lost. You know I'm Armenian. We lost 5,000 young boys in 2020 due to war. You know the enemy like occupied our lands and we lost 5,000 boys like my age. It didn't hurt me, specifically because these people were my age. They looked like me and I felt powerless and, honestly, ever since then, I've been on a fight to, just through my company, make sure that I do what's in my power to make sure that doesn't happen again, that we don't lose such amazing young people that you know never lost. You know like never barely lived above 25. I think the book would be about achieving that, about my it's. It's the money is good and everything, but the reason for the money is to build something that can make my country great again make Armenia great again.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. So I think maybe you should work on that book. I think that would be a good takeaway from today. It would be awesome to hear your story, so let's talk about.
Speaker 2:You're like. You know like you should connect with someone who sells book publishing because I should. It's a great idea, I agree.
Speaker 1:It is a great idea and you know there's, you know it just makes you feel good when you can share your story. And I'm in that part of my life, now that you know I'm 56, and I want to share. I want to help people that have gone through some of the things that I've been through. Obviously, I haven't been through something as bad as you know what 5,000 people in your country you know that's just horrific, the whole idea of it. In fact, I don't understand why it's still happening. Like why is war still happening? I don't know. But at the end of the day, you know we have to do our very best job to be good, positive people so that we can help other people that are going through a lot of loss and sadness in their life. So let's talk about a mentor. So you said something about working with Grant Cardone and with Frank Kern in their company, who has been the most important mentor in your life.
Speaker 2:I mean, if I exclude anybody, they're going to get pissed. So it's a hard question. I've had so many mentors but I mean honestly, I'm so grateful. I mean, you know, like Andy Frisella is one, sean Thomas is another, but who got me in the advertising game is a gentleman called Hernan Vazquez. I just started what like how crazy this story is. Dion, let me tell you, I just saw this guy. I was broke, dead broke, and I saw a story of a guy on this entrepreneurial pages and this guy was a marketer. I started following him on YouTube, just following him, liked his content. I liked his marketing content, whatever.
Speaker 2:A year later, something like that, two years later, I think it was like two or three years later he posts a story about hey, we're looking for media buyers. I reply to that story. I get a job and I go from Spanish salary to making American salary and I start, you know, working with Grant Cardone, frank Kern. So, like you know, imagine it's crazy. The difference is abysmal. You know it's huge because of that. Then I started my own agency and comes back full circle, because we're now paying him to help us scale our marketing agency to the next level. So he got me in a marketing position as an employee in an American company, which is huge. Anybody that gets a job that's anybody outside of the US that's not like Canada and stuff like that that gets a job with an American company and that gets paid in American, like American, salary, is huge for them. So that was huge. And then now Full Circle now he's helping us scale our marketing company and grow it to the next level. It's incredible.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So does your family live here.
Speaker 2:They live in Spain, which is where I typically live in.
Speaker 1:No, that's amazing. I've never been any. I've been to Canada and I went to Dominican Republic and other than that I've never left American soil, so we have to get you. I know I would be. I would love that. Are you in Spain right now?
Speaker 2:I'm in Armenia, where my team is.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's where you are. Oh, that's so cool. I get to find so many cool people all over the world. So for you, what is the definition of success?
Speaker 2:I've seen a lot of people monetarily, financially successful, but not have a family, not have someone to share it with. I've seen a lot of people. So for me it's the financial to provide for me and my family, but it's also the families like another whole thing, like having kids and all that stuff is very important to me and it's also giving back, just like others have given back to me. It's giving back to others and then impacting my country. You're making me realize that's it. It's like financially successful, successful as a father, as a husband, helping my country and helping others around me. Just actually find out what set the example and help them succeed as well.
Speaker 1:So the next level of that is what are you most proud of?
Speaker 2:I'm 27. I could have bought fancy cars by now, but I have a staff of 13 people in my country that were developing careers Like these people came. Some of them don't know anything. I have a girl that's like 17. That's like she's 17. She's talking to clients, our clients in US and Canada. Like what is going to happen with that girl when she's like 22, 23?
Speaker 1:Yeah, add five years to her, yeah, and see what happens. What is going to happen.
Speaker 2:This girl can run a freaking company like in five years. She's doing this now. What is she going to do in five years? I have guys that came in with barely any knowledge and now they're running our clients accounts in the US and Canada. Makes me so proud, so my team is the proudest accomplishment.
Speaker 1:So you talked about her in five years. What does it look like for you in five years?
Speaker 2:Five years will be 32. Hopefully I have a kid or two beyond That'd be amazing. And hopefully we have way more people that we hire and provide careers for and hopefully we do more impact in our communities and for our country. That will make me very happy. Those all things that would happen 13 people.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of people. So I, my graphic design company I had prior to owning this, I, we had 11 employees and I remember how much I loved it. Like I loved it. It was incredible and we were growing steadily and all of that happened, but I remember some of the things that kept me up at night when I was doing that. Now we have almost 200 people and it's a totally different life, right? Because 95% well, 98% of the people are independent contractors. So it's not the same right, it's not like. But I still worry. I still worry every day of you know what happens if they're not successful.
Speaker 1:You know, one of them is actually pregnant and she's due any day and I've been checking in with her and yesterday I said, you know, like I really seriously think about her and think, is she okay today? You know, is she okay Because I know the baby's about to come and I feel like I've given so much of my heart to everyone and unfortunately it doesn't always come back, you know. But if I keep giving and that's what God wants me to do is just keep giving, you know that's okay. It's hard for me sometimes because I sometimes I just want the same thing back, like I want to be appreciated, but it doesn't always happen. So, even as tough as I can be some days, that does hurt and it does keep me up at night. So what keeps you up at night? There's something in the middle of the night that you think yeah, I mean I uh same.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing. I mean these are one guy has uh two kids. I have uh no more people. I have uh one lady has two kids. They're under the age of five. The other has also two kids under the age of three. That's they're trusting me to keep growing this. And uh, someone just got engaged, the other are about to get engaged. There's so many. I mean these are young but, like tip, still, that's on me, dion, that's all on me. So it's, you know it's a privilege, I think it's a privilege, and but it's also a huge responsibility and you know that's, that's what it keeps me at night yeah, I totally understand that.
Speaker 1:I've spent a lot of sleepless nights, literally. I'm double your age, so, as you can imagine, I spent a lot of nights worrying about everybody else, and some of those nights don't include me, you know they don't worry about me, so you know. Have you ever read the book Thinking Grow Rich?
Speaker 1:I've read a lot of recaps and not really the book in in in it itself so one of the things in thinking which is one of my favorite things is seeking expert counsel and finding out from people that are in the same business, or a successful business, and learning from them. Do you find that that's helpful in your field learning from other people?
Speaker 2:absolutely. I mean, you and I are part of our day and I look forward to learning from you. First of all, how did you grow from? We will do that. How did you grow from? We will do that. How did you grow? That's our next step. You're teaching me. How did you grow from zero to 200 agents? That's a very rare feat. You know in your space and continuing that growth? You know I interview business owners there all the time. That go from 5 million to 18 the second year, to 30 the next year. I'm like what's happening? What are you guys doing? So, yes, it's super. It's been a huge part in my life and I need to keep doing it, Dion.
Speaker 1:I agree, and you know, I was on a call this morning we were talking about that and I thought, you know, in the first 15 years of my career probably till I was 35, I didn't do it as much, like I didn't realize how the importance of learning from other people. Now I literally have surrounded myself with so many successful people and I think the one thing is I'm getting a lot of messages and I really have to learn to filter the messages. What's the most important message for me right now in my life, in my business? So I think that sometimes you'll get all of these things happening, just like marketing and advertising, right? There's a lot of it getting thrown at you and I have to figure out what is the best thing for our company right now in this market, in this world, as things are shifting, so much you know, and it's having people like you that I can talk to. You know, we're different age group, but we still have a similar mindset, right? We both believe in helping other people and helping them to be their best. Therefore, that makes us even better.
Speaker 1:So if I'm trying to live my life that way, in some days it's, it's difficult. I can. I promise that it is, and I promise there's going to be things that you're going to go through in your life still that are going to be hard, but it's people like us that continue to get up and keep moving forward, push through it, and you know that's. That's one of the things I can say that I've been on my butt many times and I've still managed to get back up. It doesn't mean every day is easy, because it's not, but I heard you like I love. I love that you're 27 years old and we're having this conversation. You're affecting 13 families right now, and that's not even including all of your clients. But the fact that you're doing this, armand, is just, it's amazing and I'm very proud to know you. And tell me more. Tell me something else that in your life that is a takeaway that you would like our listeners to learn from you today absolutely thank, yeah, thank you, coming especially from you.
Speaker 2:You're no ordinary person, so it means a lot. We have a long way to go in a short time to get there. Beyond, that's what, uh, you know, first form has that in their walls. They don't. It's a blessing and a curse. They don't have neighbors that are trying to invade them. We do have neighbors that are trying to invade us. So we have a very short time and a long way to go. So that's kind of our mindset.
Speaker 2:But the thing that I wanted to add is again, as I want to be practical for your listeners again, election season, everybody's going to be focused on that, and then everybody's going to be on the shopping season Anybody that's doing paid ads, which is our forte. What am I supposed to do, okay? Well, here's what you're supposed to do. Here's what I would do if I was in this situation. Here's what I'm telling my clients. We have over 40 to 50 clients. Now I need to update the number. I think it's more than 50 now, but let's just say 40 to 50. Here's what I recommend them.
Speaker 2:Election is November. We're on September, september, october, november. So you really have September this month and October to do something, but it's like October is going to be very crazy anyway, like election is the next month, october kind of don't count on it. So you have this month. What are you doing this month, this month, if you're advertising, you're trying to squeeze out as much as you can from the ads, from the cold ads that you have. We have cold ads, warm ads and hot ads.
Speaker 2:Right, you still can kind of squeeze out your cold ads in September, but come October, I want all of you guys to focus more on your warm and your hot people that already know you, because costs are going to go crazy on October, november, december, they're going to go crazy. You're not going to be able to compete. We need to go and find the stats of how many billions, hundreds of millions, are going into political ads right now. But it's a lot, it's a lot, a lot, a lot Like that's just flooding the marketplace right now. That's the reality of it.
Speaker 2:So come October, I want you guys to be focused more on warm and cold audience and warm audiences on one side and also you have an email list. Probably you have other avenues. You have a list of their texts. You have text phone number. Rely more on that during that season. If you can still you still have the budget to do cold do that at a lower level, but rely more on your warm audiences and your own data, which is your email list and like text list and whatever to reach your audience. So that would be my advice. The worst thing you can do is like go on cold during this season and spend as much money on cold because it ain't going to work.
Speaker 1:Okay, that makes sense. So if any of our listeners are wanting to get ahold of you, how can they find you?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. Rfmediacom A-R-E-V mediacom they can go there and also Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is Arman NGU. I post a lot of stuff there, helpful stuff, a bit about our daily life, what we do, trying to put some behind the scenes about our agency and what we do with the team, because I think it's important. I think there's a lot of companies out there that it's hard to create content with the company, with our employees. But I think we're in 2024, you know like we're not going to buy from someone we don't have no information about For sure, just like your realtors. We want to have the realtor who's showing videos around the town, around the city properties, giving advice about the town being the major of the town, being the influencer of the time. We want to be that also for marketing. So that's my answer.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate it and thank you for being on here with me. No, I think you're amazing and I can't wait to get to know you more, and I can't wait to our next conversation, which I owe you one. So make sure that we do that in the next week or two, because I really would like to talk more.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Likewise, it was a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me. I had a blast.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
