Moving Beyond Excuses That Hold You Back Part 4: Realizing You Are Good Enough With Sayyam Shahzad

When we believe we’re not good enough, that stops us from pursuing what we can be. In this episode, Just Simple Creations founder and CEO Sayyam Shahzad joins Dr. Kim Grimes to discuss why we tend to create a masquerade of excuses and limiting beliefs. Tune in as Dr. Kim Grimes and Sayyam try to figure out how we can move beyond the excuses that hold us back so we can start to allow ourselves to move forward into the next phase of our lives.

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Moving Beyond Excuses That Hold You Back Part 4: Realizing You Are Good Enough With Sayyam Shahzad

I have a special guest that I can’t wait to introduce and for you guys to meet. With that, I want to say thank you so much for being here. This is the episode about moving beyond excuses that hold you back, just so you know what we are talking about. The easiest person to deceive is the person in the mirror. Deceiving ourselves is another way of saying that we are lying to ourselves.

We are probably good at catching other people when they are lying but we are not very good at catching ourselves when we are lying to ourselves. I believe that the one reason that we are so good at deceiving ourselves is that we do not want to call it lies. We do not want to tell ourselves that we are lying to ourselves, and that is why it is so easy.

Instead, we make up or recreate excuses and disguise our excuses as reason because we want to be reasonable. Who does not want to be reasonable? This is what we do. We dignify the lie we say to ourselves by calling them reasons. We can come up with thousands of reasons why we do not do what we should do, why we behave the way we behave or did what we did.

We have reasons why we won’t encourage ourselves or why we do not love ourselves. We have reasons for doing a number of things. What are the reasons you are telling yourself about your work? What are the reasons you are telling yourself about your value? We find dignified reasons to stay stuck instead of being open and honest with ourselves. Reasons are masquerade excuses, and excuses are limiting beliefs.

What are those excuses that are keeping you from having a face-to-face with yourself? What are those excuses that keep you from having to face the truth about yourself? It is easy to find a reason and excuse instead of telling ourselves the truth. What is it? That is the discussion that we are about to have.

It is the excuses you have in your life that are keeping you from moving forward in life, being who you were created to be, in school, in your career, in living your dreams, and keeping you stuck in toxic relationships. What are those reasons? What are those excuses that you have? We can spit them out one after another in an attempt to save faith and to shift blame even when we know better.

Let’s jump into our discussion about our reasons, masquerade, excuses, and limiting beliefs. Let’s talk about how we can move beyond the excuses that are holding us back. That is our topic for this episode. I have a spectacular guest. All of my guests are spectacular, to say the least, but I want to introduce you to this guest because of, 1) The way we met, and then, 2) He is a brother from another mother. Before I bring him on, I want to share with you how powerful and amazing he is. I am not even going to say anything else. I am going to let you agree with me as I share with you his bio.

Sayyam Shahzad is the Founder and CEO of Just Simple Creations. He is touted as the next generational leader of the future in helping people build their businesses online. His raw, fresh, and direct approach to teaching others about the real foundation of what makes a proper online business is unparalleled and has never been seen before. He was born and raised in London.

Sayyam worked on his passion since the age of twelve, learning technology and the online world as well as mastering software, web development, design integration, automation, marketing, advertising, and more. His philosophy and motto are, “Life is simple.” I love that because it is. It is why he is creating a new category called Online Businesses. This is because no category in the world encapsulates all the entity that creates a business online such as domain, host, website, SEO, social media, email, etc.

Sayyam is here to rewrite the false misconceptions of all entities that create a business online with scammers, selling these services separately at top dollar without providing the necessary education and genuinely wanting to help another human being. He educates and coaches business leaders after setting up their business foundations to best position them for growth. He has helped countless leaders worldwide, including one individual who made their first million under his leadership and simple direction.

Sayyam does not hold back anything because he dedicates himself fully to helping those who work with him and giving truth and transparency in his work and teaching. His true desire in life is to be the world’s helping hand because he wants to provide hope to those who were scammed, robbed, and heartbroken by cowboys and fake gurus that exist on this planet in the real and online world.

Sayyam wants to provide a safe haven for those starting a business or in need of help and guidance with their existing business, Just Simple Creations. His mission is bigger than himself, hoping to set standards and safe networks in the future for anyone venturing into the online world for the very first time with their business. His plan in the near future includes building an online academy that the world can afford, helping people learn how to build their business from scratch online with their products and services, and giving them the best chance at creating a profitable and sustainable business. Please help me to welcome my friend, my brother from another mother, Sayyam Shahzad.

Thank you. It is a pleasure to be on your show.

You are welcome. I am so honored that you said yes. I am glad to have you here. Thank you. I want our audience to get to know who you are, how phenomenal, and how much of a badass you are. The only way I can do that is to jump into the conversation and allow you to share. With that, let’s get started with you sharing with our audience how we met.

We met not too long ago. We met through Dr. Virginia who you have also interviewed because she is my wife, and I love her to bits. We sat together on the Youth Vision call, and we were helping you out with a couple of things that you needed. It was such an amazing time because getting to know you as a person, you are incredible. You are such a heartfelt person who wants to help people as I do. It is nice to see that there are compassionate people still in this world, which I am discovering. I am humbled and very thankful for the opportunity you have given me.

Let me share. We were on a call, and Dr. V, you guys met her because she was on our show as well, said, “If any of you need any help with technology, Sayyam is the guy.” I did not wait for the Zoom call to be over. I interrupted. I came off mute and said, “Sayyam, I could use your help. Can we connect? Let me get his email.” I said it right then and there, and we took it from there. That is how open, welcoming, and amazing he is.

It was a warm welcome. He was like, “No problem.” The next day, we’ve got on the phone, and we had an opportunity to share with each other. Sayyam is the bomb dot diggidy. I know you are learning it from me but I will let you know it for yourself. Let’s jump into our discussion. First, here is one of the questions that I ask all of my guests because of the name of the show. What I would like you to share is what does it mean to you to be you unapologetically?

To be honest, it means the world to be me unapologetically. It was not that long ago that I realized I had a soul, and I existed. It was not long ago that I ritually valued or started to respect myself because all my life, I have been people-pleasing and going through a hard life personally. I was always taught that I was nothing but an entity, a cog in the system, worthless, and all sorts of stuff.

I never had the right to be myself in the life I was living. Until one day, when I had enough, I had to look in the mirror and realize that what I needed was myself. I did exist and saw myself. In these last couple of years, I have grown an eternity in terms of wiseness and not relying on other people’s opinions to define me.

That is so amazing, and you are right. It happened with me as well. We will find that in a part of our life, we were living for others. We get lost in that and don’t know our identity or who we are, and it is only time when we no longer become people pleasers that we can then truly get a good glimpse of ourselves and learn how to look inward. You had shared you were told you were worthless and you were not much but share with our audience what was some of your limiting beliefs, your excuses or reasons that kept you stuck. Share with them also what did that process look like for you.

The simple answer that I have always told myself is I was not good enough, and that is key. As a child, you are trying to do your very best to belong. I did not belong at all. There was no place for me. This is why a lot of my progress did not happen. It is because I did not believe in myself. I just believed what other people told me I was. It stops you from being one of that. I went to a very good primary school, and I loved it but we moved to nineteen properties, so I had to move schools. In the second school, the environment was horrible, and of course, having a horrible environment at home and then having that on the outside only destroys your confidence.

I was a person with no confidence at all until I went to college and met the right people who dragged me into their rooms and said, “We are going to teach you extracurricular activities. We are going to get you to do stuff.” When that belief system kicked in, there was a moment of hope that I could become something. I am something. I am good for this world and in my own right. It is all about that constant environment.

I never had a dad who would instill that teaching or knowledge. I learned by myself. I learned the work on my own, and this is why it was not only that I was saying, “I was not good enough.” It was scary. It was frightening to even pursue if I can be myself or be me. It is true. When you work on yourself, you get to realize even more that you are better but it is allowing yourself to do that in the first place.

You said it is allowing yourself to do that. It is giving yourself that permission to do the work on you. Can you share some of the work that you did on you that helped you once you allowed yourself to be? What were some of the work that you did that helped you to move forward or even catapult you into the next phase or next section of your life?

I am going to go a bit deep here. The simple answer to that is having a strong will, and the reason why I mention that is because I lived 28 years of my life through domestic abuse coming from my father. Culturally, it was quite bad. That is what that was. Growing up, I was manipulated and controlled. In comparison to other people, it can break and destroy them.

They go through depression quite early. For me, I have been through that depression. The only difference was I was too stubborn to give up, knowing that I have a place. I always was one of the kids where people say, “He is different.” My dad always told me, “I hate you. You are different.” Everyone was trying to conceal me. They called me the devil’s child whenever I asked a question about life and how I had a right. They go, “You do not have a right.”

It is having that strong will of being a protector and being the older brother as well of the family, knowing that my mom went through a lot of abuse, and I witnessed that. As a kid, you have no power but I had the strong will in me that one day, I would stop him, I will give my mom a better life, and this will not happen.

To be honest, in the world that we live in, you only think there are 1 or 2 people that are telling you you are worthless, which for me was my father. You are hoping that the outside world will give you a different perspective but when the outside world is giving the same perspective as your parent, that is when you think to yourself, “Do I have a place?” That is what it is.

I was way too polite and kind. It is the kindness God has given me, and I have never ever misused or abused that. I have helped people for free. I have carried people and helped communities. I have done my own bit but I still did not believe in myself. The only time I believed in myself was when I had enough of suffering. I felt I always had enough but there was this one time that I had enough.

As I hear that, it is like you have reached your lowest low. When you’ve got backed into the corner, you had no choice but to fight your way out of that corner.

To follow on that, it is not even free will. It is the strength of your will. Here is the thing. At the age of five, I could have jumped out a three-story window from school and landed on my head because I wanted to sleep longer because I did not want to go through the pain of going back home. There was another time of my life when I was searching for unconditional love, which I’ve got through a relationship, and that ended up being a misused relationship because I was not mentally prepared and I did not know what the world was like because I lived in the world with four walls.

People had the chance. People the same age as me had more of the chance to explore what the word was. At one point, when I was fourteen years of age, I felt that if I walked down at the end of the road, there was a tipping point where I would fall off the Earth. That is how limited my mind was. I had to learn from things like TV and God knows what was in the house. Those really helped me to understand that there was another area. When I was fifteen, I rode a train to another area. I started crying because I was thinking, “Where am I? This is a different planet. How do I get home?” People were looking at me. That is how behind I was in life.

I have a single mom, 2 brothers, and 1 sister. I am trying to give them the life that they always wanted and the freedom that they always deserved. When I realized that the goodness of my heart was only hurting me even more in the business decisions when I knew I couldn’t feed them. I was scraping pennies to get pasta. I nearly sold my soul at the age of 27, completely knowing that I was going to get £10,000 every week if I did what they said.

Here is the thing. I was so low that at one point, I looked up, cried, and said, “Dad, you won.” I was fighting all my life to have a place on this planet, and I fell until God gave me a revelation. He said my dad did not give me permission. He did not tell me that. He told me I was worthless but I listened to his opinion when I should have listened to the universe.

When God gave me that revelation to say, “I am good enough,” and that vision that came to me at that time was me standing at the age of nine years old when my mother was on her knees next to a door bleeding. I stood in front of him and said, “One day, I will grow up and show you what a real man is like.” It was that simple concept of me showing him that I will be strong enough to take him on. When I realized at 27 that no one had strings on my back anymore, I realized how free I was. That is when I changed my life forever.

What an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing. Our audience needs to know that. Thank you for your transparency and vulnerability because it is important. I know that being vulnerable helps and serves other people. It attracts them as well because one of the things that we do not want people to feel is being alone.

We do not want people to feel alone, and that is one of the reasons behind the show. We want to share with the world that whatever it is going on in their lives or whatever it is that they are dealing with, they are not alone. I want to thank you so much for being transparent, being here, and sharing the way you did because I know that it will help our audience. Even if it is just one, that is all that matters. That makes it priceless.

I want to take a moment to say thank you so much for sharing that because that was amazing. For you to be able to come on and share, it speaks volumes of not only the work of your healing but also the work that you did because it requires work. It requires you to work on yourself to get to you being who you were created to be. I know it because I did it on myself. That is why I am where I am. With that, I would love for you to give some advice to someone who is reading, who is still trying to find themselves or please other people. How can you help them to be truthful with themselves?

They should know that they have a place on this planet. That is as simple as it comes. Everyone has a place and a duty on this planet. We want to please people because we want to make them happy but they have to change pleasing into serving and know how to serve. That is all they need to do. At the end of the day, life tells us everything.

It dictates how we move and walk, and it teaches us to become employees or cogs. Do you know when you are seeing machinery, and there are cogs? We are all cogs in a machine. That is what we are. No one goes to a person and says, “You matter. You are worth something,” but we go through institutions and academies that tell us, “You are good for one thing.” It is one of those things.

I worked for a currency company once as a Director of Marketing. There was this one guy who was lovely. He sat there next to me and went, “That is what you are doing. You are doing websites. You are building businesses.” I said, “That is what I am doing. I am helping the marketing of things.” He goes, “Can I sit down and learn with you?” I said, “Of course, you can.”

I was teaching him exactly what to do. I was like, “This is what you do. Does this make sense to you?” I was showing him different techniques, and then he said, “I wish I could do that.” I said, “Why do you say wish?” He goes, “I am only an accountant. I can only be an accountant. I am already built to be an accountant.” I looked at him, and I knew where he was coming from because we go into systems that filter us into one role or position.

I said, “What do you do when you go home?” He goes, “When I go home, I cook for the wife, and then I need to sort out my finances. By the way, I have got this new TV system I need to connect together, so I need to make a phone call to the utility company to talk about the electric stuff.” I said, “When you told me that, you have four more skills including the skill you have now.”

He looked at me and said, “What do you mean?” I go, “You can cook, right?” He goes, “Yeah.” I said, “That is a skill. You can connect a home cinema system. That is another skill.” We do so many things at home that we forget in life that we are more capable to do what other people tell us. We are more practical, and that is the thing. You are like, “I am only an accountant.” Do you go home and only do accounting? You do not. People keep thinking that because you have to focus on one thing, you can only become one thing.

I used to get in trouble all the time in primary school because they couldn’t get me off the computer. I was so into technology because I did not have any of these at home. When I was going into a new world where I was seeing these things, I started to learn everything about it. I started to learn everything from development design, marketing, and other stuff. I grew into jobs where it was not just based on technology, for example, software engineering. I also worked for the NHS for about 4 or 5 years. I was not doing what my passion was but I learned all of these things altogether.

When I had enough of the workplace because I was overused and overrun, working 18 hours a day for nearly 4 jobs to just feed a family, when I volunteered and helped people, I understood why they were failing and struggling in business. Some people even had up to £100,000. I look at them, and they are in tears, and they go back.

One lady wanted to start a cake shop. She had to abandon the dream and had to go onto the street, sweep the streets, and go back to a normal job after spending nearly her life savings to do something. It was because someone saw the SEO for about £4,000 or £5,000, and a website for £8,000. She spent £24,000 of her money and got nothing in return. I looked at that and thought, “Why did you get those separately?” I started to research, and then I saw that everything was sold separately.

People can have their own craft. People sometimes are specialists in certain areas. That works in the real world and in the online world. That is fine but where is the, “I need to start. I need my help?” A person went to me saying, “What do I need? Do I need a website? Do I need SEO? Do I need an email? Do I need social media? Do I need eCommerce?” I said, “You need all of it.” He was mindblown. He sat there in front of me and went, “Do you know how expensive that is?” I said, “Do you know how essential that is?” Also, it shouldn’t be expensive. Here is the thing about my teaching as well. I teach that having a physical business is no different from having an online business. You know this.

You go back 1990s and 1980s when we did not have internet, and you had to start a business. Would you buy a shop without a door, a counter or a window? You will not want to do that. In my explanation for SEO, it is like having a telephone directory. When we went back in the days with the payphone, we had a telephone directory so that we could find the numbers. That is what we call Google now.

When people are like, “Domain and host,” I am like, “Domains are that, and host is the building that you have got.” The way I am teaching them is by using real-life examples as a business. The only misconception was that we were sold or people were sold by these experts saying that if you get an online business, it is way easier than having a physical business, and it is going to make you millions in no time. That was never the case. It was the same difficulty. The challenge was different. That is the only difference but who was there in the first place to even teach them that? No one. It frustrated me so much that I built Just Simple Creations because it should be simple. That is my motto and mantra.

Someone needed to hold their hand. This is why when technologies like Wix and Squarespace were built. They were built to empower people but there was something missing. People still could not do it on their own. People needed someone with them but they did not know who to trust, and that is the only difference.

The advice is finding someone and not just anyone. It is someone who is authentic, genuine, and will be willing to call you out in your greatness when you know that you are not doing what you are supposed to do. It is finding someone that will hold your hand, and I hear that someone is you. This is not promoting but your authenticity is coming through. The story that you shared about the lady that started a cake shop and used all of her hard-earned money, lost it all and had to go back to sweeping the streets moved or bothered you so much that you kicked and engaged.

Here is the other part of it. There were things that you had to do. You said, “I decided that I am not going to give up,” and because you decided that you were not going to give up and you knew that God gave you kindness, you put that in place and moved forward to help people. I am sharing this because there was a question that I was going to ask you about. What were some of those things that helped you to navigate pushing beyond the excuses and limiting beliefs?

I am sharing this because you speak to me and answered the question. I want to reemphasize what it is that you had already said because I did have that question to ask. With that being said, I want to say thank you so much for that. Here is what I want to ask you. How has learning to love and accept yourself for you made your life better?

It is a strong question because learning to respect myself was key. The reason why I understood that is when I started to be rebellious and to help people, their reaction gave me belief. When I helped people for free, what I said was, “I hope it helps you.” I have been protecting my mother. I am very family-oriented. I treat everyone like family.

I never had good family support from anyone. It is just me and my family. There is no one else. I saw everyone like family. I couldn’t see them in pain. That is why I told them that this is why there is no such thing for me as trade secrets. We are here to help this planet. This is a mission much bigger than myself. This is a mission for the Earth.

In the next decade, it is going to be pivotal in terms of what is happening in life. Now, we have followed the bus methods. I had to look at myself and say, “I helped that person. That person turned around and gave me the biggest hug ever.” That is how I knew I was good enough because no one did that. No one has hugged me with conviction and let me know that I did it for them. They are like, “You have helped me. Even though I couldn’t afford it, I appreciate you. I will remember you,” and that is what I wanted at the end. I wanted that love, belief, and respect that I was good enough. That is when I started to believe that I was worth something, and that is when I moved forward.

That is why excuses are something I do not bring up. You can procrastinate now and again from time to time but for me, the reason why I do not think of any excuse is I remember my past. I remember what I have been through and what the pain feels like. To anyone that is reading this, if you have been through pain, rejection, and you think to yourself that you are not good enough, it could be Imposter syndrome or anything, tell yourself that if you do what you do, you love what you do, and you know truly in your heart you can impact a person, then no other opinion matters. If someone is challenging you like, “I have got the qualification,” it doesn’t matter.

If you are simply a human being that does what he or she loves to do and just wants to help inspire and create a positive impact for another person, then you are good enough. At the end of the day, we put excuses that we do not know the skill. You are like, “Sayyam, you know technology and other stuff.” You do not need to understand technology now but keep an open mind that one day you will. Grow yourself. Better yourself. Focus more on yourself because at the end of the day, I wish I had that person that told me I was good enough. I wish I had that person who guided me and who told me, “This is what you need to do, and you would  help the world.” I had to figure this out myself.

Do not be like me and do this in 28 years of your life. Do not spend the next 28 years questioning yourself whether you are good enough because time will fly. I have not lived at all until the age of 29. Do you know when people have their teenage years and their twenties? They would have had amazing memories by that time.

I have only but a few memories, so I am super appreciative every time I wake up that I have the opportunity. I get to do something. I get to work, inspire, help people along the way, and hold their hands. In return, they would look at me and remember my name. I felt I would go from this Earth being nothing and non-existent.

You have been such an amazing, informative, and transparent guest and person but it is not only on this show. I want those who are reading to know that what Sayyam is saying is what I have experienced. He is so genuine and sincere, and the passion that he has to serve is so contagious and real. I haven’t been physically in his presence but I have been on calls with him.

I am honored when I know that he is on the call. He, too, is helping me, so out of the genuineness, authenticity, and pureness of his heart, it is finding people like Sayyam to allow them into your life. These are people who want to serve and take care of not only you but the world, and it shows by the way that they are showing up. That is who my brother from another mother is, and I am his sister from another Mrs. or Mr.

What I would love for you to share because I know my audience wants to know this, how can they reach you? Those who are reading and can relate to what you have been through, where you are right now, or they may need your support, your help, or for you to come in and change their business as well, how can they get in contact with you? Please share, and on that, share some closing remarks as well as we bring this particular episode to an end.

For folks who want to know more about me, my business, and the story of Just Simple Creations, all they need to do is go to JustSimpleCreations.com. If you want to reach out to me directly, it is Sayyam@JustSimpleCreations.com. It has been an absolute pleasure to be a part of this opportunity. You have been such a lovely person. I am a humble and simple human being who wants to inspire the world to walk better with confidence. I want to see more compassionate people out there that tell the truth to people and show them exactly how they need to build their online business.

The reason why I am so adamant about pushing this vision and mission is that I want people to start off knowing that they can come to a safe haven where a person who has not started a business before and wants to start a business can come in and know what they need for their product and services to get property started.

When I say foundations, there are no loopholes. You need to cover everything. This is why I do not do anything that is a separate service. It is 1 service and 1 delivery, and that is the key here because remember, in the future, if you start with something simple, you can grow by going to people who are specialists in their craft. You upgrade when you become profitable, and then you have the opportunity to have business reinvestment. It is all about taking simple steps.

We have a staircase without the first five steps. We are trying to jump, and every time we jump, we fall on our face, and every time people fall on their face, they see what they are missing and then they overspend. In life and business, there are risks and hardships. Life is hard but it should be simple, and this is why I try to show people that starting a business is hard. Never take it as an easy ride. Remember, there are things and procedures that you need to go through like when you start a normal business but no one teaches it like that, and that is why I want to help educate.

There is no magic pill, secret or three steps to success. There is nothing like that. Forget about that almost immediately because these are propaganda. These are things that are out there that will distract you and make you lose your way and spend so much money. Why don’t you come to one place where I tell you exactly what you need and help you get started? Your learning begins when I give you the first step.

Thank you so much again for saying yes. I truly appreciate you coming on and sharing the way you did on the show because you are phenomenal. I want you to know that I am truly grateful and humbled by your presence and story. I am so grateful to have you on as a guest but I am even more excited because you are my brother from another mother. Thank you so much for being here.

Also, to my audience, thank you again for being a part of our show. I am convinced and committed to having a guest on here that is going to share about who they are and what they have been through because it is easy to lose yourself in clashing ideas, conflicting beliefs, the flood of information, and COVID-19.

With society’s rigid expectations and endless opinions, self-expression and self-appreciation can feel challenging and daunting. Most of the time, this pushes you to dumb down and hide who you are, so you go with the flow but we are here to put an end to this disparaging mindset and help you begin to own your authentic self.

Join me here in this safe space for the next episode, where I will initiate influential conversations about you being you because you are you unapologetically. What I know is there is no one better at being you than you. Thank you again for being here and tuning in on the show. I can’t wait until the next episode to share with you and introduce you to another phenomenal guest as I introduced you to someone in this episode. Sayyam, thank you again. You guys have a phenomenal day, what is left of it, night or whatever the time is that you are reading this. Thank you, and God bless. Take care now.

Important Links

• JustSimpleCreations.com
• Wix
• Squarespace
• Sayyam@JustSimpleCreations.com

About Sayyam Shahzad