The path to success can be a winding one and nobody knows that more than Riaz Sidi.
Sidi graduated from Algonquin in 2006 with a diploma in Journalism, but he soon realized that he wanted something else. So he then furthered his studies at Carleton University where he received his Bachelor of Arts, Mass Communications degree in 2009.
Sidi worked for many marketing companies throughout the years including the Ottawa Citizen for four years as a Digital Media Specialist and as a New Business Development Sales Manager. He also worked with Postmedia Network Inc. for over a year as a National Training Manager.
In 2017, Sidi created his own business, Riaz Sidi Performance Marketing, which focuses on creating ads for businesses to promote through Facebook and Google.
As of September 2018, he accepted a part-time job at Algonquin to teach students with undergraduate degrees how to be good brand managers, how to consult companies, understand their audience and brand positioning.
“It helps students to understand their own personal and professional brand,” Sidi explained in regards to the course. “It helps prepare them for the world of brand consulting — which is selling their ideas to companies.”
The course also teaches students how to create a personal brand if they currently don’t have one, how to re-brand, how to make it more professional and how to capture the culture and personality of the business.
“A good brand consultant will do a full needs assessment of a business to understand that brand,” he said. “They will create a strategy based on their findings.”
Sidi believes that if someone is interested in learning how to sculpt a brand either as an in-house marketing or brand manager — or if they are working for a larger corporation that has a lot of brands under their banner — this course will help develop those skills.
“You can’t consult a business on their brand without fully understanding and being aware of your own,” he said.
Sidi explained that the first few weeks of his course are dedicated to personal branding which is to help the student understand who they are, how they interact with the world, how the world perceives them, how society perceives them and how to best position themselves for success.
“It’s a lot of what I do in my business,” said Sidi. “Helping to create brands for small businesses, to market those businesses, to get awareness [and] to get engagement for those brands.”
Sidi believes that his part-time job at the college adds another layer of credibility because it shows other businesses that he was hired in recognition of his experience in the field. He also hopes it will unlock new opportunities.
Sidi is excited to be back at the college meeting new people and teaching — which is a big passion of his.
“It will [also] make me more aware of branding with my clients, managing their brands — I focus on Facebook ads and Google ads — and not always brand management,” Sidi explained. “So by having a part-time gig where I am teaching brand consulting, it brings this aspect of marketing back to the forefront and that benefits my clients.”
Sidi explained that everyone should always keep every door open. Opportunities come out of nowhere and by jumping on them you are able to increase and broaden your knowledge, skill sets and experience.
Those qualities, in fact, are what helped land Sidi the teaching gig.
“He was a guest speaker [a year ago] at the Employment Centre,” explained Nicole Wilson, employer liaison at Agilec. “He [Riaz] told our team about his services for the business side, but because we have a side of helping with employees he actually ended up hiring one of our employees — one of our candidates.”
Agilec is an employment consultant company that specializes in helping and guiding their clients to better organize and achieve their career goals. They offer professional services, vocational rehabilitation solutions and government services.
Wilson had referred Sidi to the job at the college when her coordinator at Algonquin asked if anyone knew someone with experience in marketing strategy, brand marketing and marketing research.
“I referred him because the way that he presented himself to our team and just working with him professionally throughout the year,” explained Wilson. “Because he was a consultant I knew that he knew a lot of people in the industry and that he had a lot of experience when he talked about his portfolio. I knew that he would be a good fit because he already does that with his own business.”
Wilson knows that networking is a big part of marketing and believes that Sidi will be able to further his career with this new opportunity.
“I wasn’t a trained teacher,” she explained. “[But] I became a part-time teacher with an opportunity and am sharing my current experience in marketing. He’s doing the same now and bringing that home for the students so that they are more prepared for the workforce.”