A Letter from the CEO of EMPWR : The World's First Digital Media Agency in Mental Health

Hey Guys! 👋🏼

I thought it’s about time to start a quarterly/monthly letter series off, stemming from my personal belief that in today’s largest corporations, we frankly lack diversity of thought & transparency. That’s something all stakeholders at EMPWR vowed to change, building this incredible company: leading the way we believe all for-profit companies should operate, in the genuine interest of the end-user. 

As a borderline Millenial - GenZ, I believed in order to do good in the world, one needed to operate an NGO or nonprofit organization, since they strive to tackle real-world problems, at the expense of their time and effort.

Long story short. That quickly failed and my beliefs changed after seeing how corrupt not all, but many “charity” organizations run. 

It's now been 2 years, 1 month, and 24 days since the launch of what was a university grad project into my full-time venture. Just yesterday I was looking at my graduation photo, smiling at how much things have changed. While I must at times admit it can get very isolating, this journey has given me the privilege of meeting some of the most iconic people and incredible minds out there. One can only be grateful for such an experience when the going gets tough, as any entrepreneur can imagine.

The fact is: 1 in 10 startups make it. 

We are very irrational beings. If entrepreneurs made decisions based on numbers, life transformational technologies simply wouldn't exist. There is a thrill about dreaming, but more so, executing on your dream. That is exactly how EMPWR kept going.

After 25 months, today is our first month we generate revenue. And that's like breathing in oxygen after 25 months of no air. 

From 100,000 hits online in a year - week in week out - operating on a volunteer-run team of writers, we started out as the first Middle East’s mental health magazine. However, this proved to be a poor business model given there was little to no capital investment, our limit to reach an audience and convert our model to subscriber-based simply failed. That has prompted me to tap into the world of podcasting to give the magazine a final resort & a chance at surviving.

That decision made EMPWR.

In early 2020, I flew to LA & Orlando to learn the ins and outs of this new digital audio medium - podcasting - at Podcast Movements & Podfest 2020. What I never expected happened. It may have taken months but up after 30 episodes of our mental health & leadership show, which topped the charts in 6+ countries, doors opened and opportunities flooded in. 

Podcasting allowed me to speak at the UN, WHO, and MIT, representing EMPWR. It has proved to be not only a lifeline for EMPWR but a core asset for the business. With our success, we realized the positive psychological impact podcasting can have on communities. 

We, therefore, opted into launching the first Online Podcasting Course in the MENA empowering young creators and businesses to use their voice in creating engaging communities that brought people with similar interests together. That happened with EMPWR and Microsoft for Startups. Today we’re finally launching EMPWR’s Podcasting Network. 

We’re working around a model that allows us to bootstrap as much as we can to build the EMPWR app, with minimal external investment. We can do it.

Wishing our readers a beautiful Ramadan,

Warm Wishes,

Ally Salama,

Founder & CEO, EMPWR