We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emad Abdulrahman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Emad, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.
It can seem like we landed our first client pretty quickly after formalizing Gallery Armada. However, it really didn’t happen that way. It was a culmination of years spent participating in the space any way we could; by occupying supportive “behind-the-scene” roles with minimal credit if any, a lot of pro-bono work, and of course learning how we could provide value in several areas of the domain.
At the time, Gallery Armada wasn’t even a business yet. We were just a group of friends who love this line-of-work and were happy to be involved in any project, just to gain the experience that we could leverage in the future.
Through those years, we were fortunate enough to meet and forge strong relationships with successful Creatives and Business Owners in the Washington D.C. region. From Creative and Art Direction, Photo/Video Production, Brand Strategy and Identity Consulting and so forth, we took on these roles for these Creatives and Businesses and delivered.
Ultimately, the word got out that our team was delivering solid work so we started receiving inquiries for our services. That was the “point-of-excitement” for me but not just because of the potential business, but because it made us competitors in the space, “players on the field”, essentially. Since then, we’ve had paying clients in the Fashion/Apparel, Nightlife, Food & Dining, and Music industries.
Last but not least, my talented team was instrumental to the work we’ve done so far, and will continue to be for the growth we foresee in 2023.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Gallery Armada is a multi-disciplinary Creative Services business. Along with the various and expected skill sets a Creative Services business would have, we also closely identify as problem-solvers.
Whether it’s conceptualizing and executing an idea to life or providing business strategy consulting, we work alongside our clients to produce high-quality deliverables that align with their mission statement, no matter the industry or domain. Our portfolio includes creative and art direction, brand identity development, multi-media production, content creation and marketing administration.
In an industry that’s filled with technical expertise, there are few that pair that expertise with quality soft-skill characteristics. With that said, we pride ourselves on not only being a business that will produce the desired end-result, but also being a business that are a pleasure to work with. Delivering what we commit to, communication, reliability, and timeliness are of the core pillars that our business stands on.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
The obvious catalyst for building reputation in this industry is the work itself. Without delivering quality work, the rest of your business’s attributes won’t matter much. So of course, the work we’ve done for clients is the foundation of the reputation we’ve built.
However, it is a competitive space and a lot of other businesses are also producing great work. With that said, we focus on a number of client relationship areas that distinguish us from the rest and make our clients eager to give us repeat business. We earn our client’s trust by immersing ourselves completely in the industry that our client’s occupy to position ourselves as trusted advisors. Due to that, our clients have seen the genuine care and attention we give to each endeavor, treating their success as important as our own.
I think it’s rare to see a services team act with the same amount of enthusiasm and energy on Day 90 compared to Day 1. I’m proud to have seen us not fall victim to a “honeymoon affect” where the attention-to-detail and determination falls off after a short period of a project timeline. It’s important to realize that clients do notice when that happens.
Any advice for managing a team?
At its core, managing a team is working with people of different personalities, skill sets, strengths, and weaknesses. Disagreements and conflicts amongst the team are going to happen but it’s about how you address those instances to find that common ground. It’s a matter of trust, communication, respect, and ultimately the business’s best interest.
My advice is to manage but not micromanage, trusting your team’s abilities to do the work assigned to them. Establish an environment of communication and transparency where your team understands that differing viewpoints and perspectives on a subject are not only welcome but also encouraged. Empower your team by positioning them in roles and responsibilities that also align with their own personal interests, talents, and ambitions. Last but not least, recognizing successes but also failures so that we learn from them moving forward.
To me, high morale can be synonymous with your team’s perseverance. For any business, there will be difficult circumstances and times. It’s important to have dedicated and driven individuals on your team. We live in a world promoting instant gratification so it’s important to have personnel on your team who understand you cannot sow and harvest in the same season. A workplace culture of “we will figure this out” and the patience to see it through.
An effective leader needs to be “in the trenches” with the team during the good times and bad. Leading-by-example is a phrase thrown around a lot these days but I think very few understand what it takes to implement and the effect it has on your team.
Lastly, a genuine camaraderie. Mutual trust and friendship amongst the team is a beautiful thing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.galleryarmada.com
- Instagram: @galleryarmada
Image Credits
Emad Abdulrahman Romin Shahpouri Gurcan Durukan Lorenzo Botero