Today my lovely, lovely guest is Kenz Soliman. She’s here to talk to us about her journey from shy to mighty.
“Hi Nadia. Thank you so much for having me here. Well, my name is Kenz Soliman. I am still a little bit shy. I’m a 33 year old mom from Egypt and I started my first online business locally in my country in 2011 and then I decided after a very long time of being shy to take my business worldwide. In 2015 I started creating online courses on Udemy and I kept creating more and more online courses and I went from zero to 10,000 students within my first 18 months of business. And right now I teach over 44 online courses to over 30,000 entrepreneurs from 170 countries around the world!”
Wow! You have a global empire! You said that you are still a little bit shy. Do you think it’s been easier for you to achieve big success online as opposed to kind of face to face?
“It’s true, actually. It was easier for me to build an online business other than in the real world where I have to actually deal with a lot of people. That’s that’s like my biggest strength. But online it’s different.”
Yeah, I think I find it easier to connect with people online as well. Something I still authentic, still real connections, but somehow it’s less awkward. I don’t know what you think right now you don’t have eye contact thing and just seems easier to pop someone a quick message doesn’t it?
“That’s true and it’s also easier to know in advance if this person is someone who is similar to you who have similar dreams or ambitions or maybe sharing the same kinds of thoughts through what you see on their profiles on social media and it’s completely easier than approaching a complete stranger in real life and trying to talk to them or start a conversation with them.”
For someone who is shy learning online is actually a really comfortable thing to do, isn’t it? Do you think you attract kind of introverted and shy and quiet people because of the format of the online programs? Do you think it suits them better?
“Yes it does. And because the only way to contact the instructor is only through text messaging. It actually is more comfortable for shy people and for introverted people to study online and take online courses instead of like one on one coaching or attending live workshops or masterminds or retreats.
The moment I signed up to become an instructor, so I was shy because English was not my main language. I might have grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes or things like that, that I thought people would laugh at, no one will actually want to learn something from a complete stranger. This is how I saw myself.
And when I realized that in the terms of being a Udemy instructor, I don’t have to be on camera to create the course and I can use just slides and my voice. I decided that I will do this. I will help people, I will teach people and I will be doing this without having to be on camera, which is a plus. And if they decide to not want to learn from me, just because I have some grammar mistakes or speaking mistakes or things like that, well you gotta do what you gotta do. It’s okay. I, I’m not going to be able to please everyone, but I have to do this. It’s like my calling, you know?”
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