Advertise on podcast: Behind Marketing Lines

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Khalid Farid, CEO and Co Founder of AdKraft AI and former marketing leader at Procter and Gamble. His journey started with tutoring neighbours and working while studying, before a rejected marketing application sent him to LUMS for an MBA, and then P&G came calling, changing the direction of his professional life. Years later, he shares what he has learned about running a startup, driving AI powered marketing and staying true to the fundamentals in an industry that never stops evolving. Khalid shares how his P&G background shaped AdKraft AI, why passion beats intuition almost every time, and what marketers risk producing when they let AI do too much of the work.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Paweł Świędziewski, Head of Enterprise PMO & AI Transformation at Commercial Bank International. His journey started with a part time job making collections calls at a local bank before a career in Lean Six Sigma and project management at GE Capital changed the direction of his professional life. Years later, he shares what he has learned about running projects, driving AI transformation and staying honest in an industry that never stops evolving. Paweł shares how his GE background shaped his thinking, why being straightforward is better than sugarcoating, and what project managers risk losing when they let AI do too much of the work.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Mohamed Al Tajer, a marketing and transformation leader with over two decades of experience across FMCG, aviation, banking, and governance. Engineering taught him how to build things. Marketing taught him how to sell them. From Bahrain to London to Munich and back again, Mohamed has spent his career chasing whatever challenge felt a little uncertain. In this conversation, he talks about the leap from engineering into marketing, the airline campaign he built for a country still grieving a tragedy, and why he believes AI will only replace the marketers who never had an opinion worth having.

Why does one recommendation feel like a brand truly gets you, while another feels like it's been listening in on your private life? In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, host Zeeshan takes apart hyper-personalization and the psychology behind why relevance feels good until, without warning, it doesn't. The line between being understood and being watched is thinner than most brands realize. Using real examples from Netflix, Amazon, and Starbucks, Zeeshan shows exactly where personalization stops being helpful and starts feeling invasive, and how the biggest brands stay on the right side of that line.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Elias Qarut, founder of Eyeconyx, a marketing and events agency. His career started almost by accident, an uncle in marketing whose work looked more interesting than the alternatives on the table. Agency life came first, years on the client and corporate side followed, and eventually came the decision to build something entirely his own. Inside this episode: •The Movie of His Life: Rock Water, hard enough to hold your ground, fluid enough to bend when it counts •The Book Chapter: Unexpected Turns, the chapter he's writing right now at Eyeconyx •The Origin Story: An uncle who worked in marketing, and a professor who said his outgoing streak belonged in advertising •The Plot Twist: Trading a steady paycheck for a business where his team's paychecks now depend on him •His Routine: Kids to school by 6:30, a workout if the morning allows it, then straight into the inbox •The Hard Truth: Give yourself grace, you don't have to carry every burden alone •Advice to Future Marketers: Listen more, talk less, assume less, absorb more, stay humble •The Habit That Keeps Him Sharp: A morning prayer and a lunchtime check-in with someone going through a hard time •Rapid Fire: Performance over brand, both data and creativity, human intuition over AI, campaigns that bring money over campaigns that win awards •The Marketing Cliché He'd Bring Back: Storytelling, the thing that turns a pitch into something people actually believe •The Billboard Message: Where Imagination Comes Alive •His Three Words: Resilience, Adaptability, A lot of learning •His Tagline: Dream on A conversation about ownership, responsibility, and the quiet cost of building something from scratch, told by a marketer who still trusts a good story over any algorithm.

What actually separates the brands that survive a public crisis from the ones that never recover? Surviving a crisis has nothing to do with how big you are or how bad it looks. It comes down to how fast a brand moves from damage control to real reputation recovery. In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, host Zeeshan takes us behind the crisis war room to break down the anatomy of a global PR crisis and the exact moment where brands either rebuild trust or lose it for good. From Johnson & Johnson's handling of the Tylenol poisonings to Samsung's Note 7 battery fires and Volkswagen's Dieselgate scandal, he unpacks what worked, what backfired, and why the public reads silence as guilt every single time. Inside this episode: •Damage control and reputation recovery are not the same thing, and most brands never realize they are only doing the first one •The four-stage anatomy of how a crisis unfolds, including the silence trap most brands never escape •How Johnson & Johnson turned a deadly crisis into a masterclass still taught in business schools •Why Samsung's back and forth messaging cost them more trust than the original problem •How Volkswagen's years of denial turned into thirty billion dollars in fines and lasting damage to a reputation built over decades •A five-step framework to acknowledge, own, and rebuild trust after a crisis hits A conversation about what happens when everything is on fire, and why the brands that handle it with integrity often come back stronger than before.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Walid Cherfaoui, Regional Group Brand Manager (Middle East, North Africa and France Overseas Territories) at Colgate & Palmolive. His marketing career started with a cousin who worked for a big car company and made the job look like a life worth chasing. Business school followed, then an early break in Algiers, then a series of moves that Walid now calls the real education, the kind you only get by leaving your comfort zone behind.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Sabahatt Habib, Chief People and Culture Officer at The Giving Movement. She came to Dubai from Kenya on a partial scholarship, got rejected from every role she actually applied for, and fell into HR by accident. Every single no she received led her exactly where she needed to be. What started as filing paperwork and delivering bad news slowly became a two decade long mission to bring the human back into human resources.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Pamela Bou Zeid, Customer Experience and Shared Services Head. She started two months after graduating valedictorian, working in a cardiac intensive care unit where the silence was louder than the people around her. That experience never left her, even after she left healthcare for insurance, then a masters in Paris during an economic crisis back home, and finally the UAE, where a managerial role found her faster than she had planned for.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Mohamed Gamal, CEO & Founder of Gambra Digital. He didn't take the easy path. From working 14-hour days at an agency to becoming a Director of Growth Marketing, and then walking away from it all to start his own performance marketing agency. His story is honest, raw, and deeply inspiring.

What if building a personal brand didn't have to feel awkward or braggy? What if it could actually be the thing that sets you apart? In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, host Zeeshan breaks down exactly how marketers can define, build, and scale a personal brand that opens doors. From Neil Patel's authority building to GaryVee's relentless authenticity, he walks through what works, what doesn't, and why your story matters more than your resume.  A conversation about showing up, standing out, and building a brand that truly represents who you are.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Rupal Nagvenkar, CEO & Founder of Rumae. She didn't follow the traditional path from biotechnology to MBA to corporate to entrepreneur. She built a food wellness brand from scratch, survived a life-changing accident, became a mother, and came out the other side with one truth: don't wait to feel ready. Just start. Her story is honest, raw, and deeply inspiring. Inside this episode: • The Movie of Her Life: Me Versus Me — inspired by The Pursuit of Happyness • The Plot Twist: A serious car accident that changed her entire perspective • The Origin Story: From biotech to MBA to corporate to entrepreneur • The Aha Moment: Workplace nutrition is not a luxury, it's a performance tool • The Daily Ritual: Gym, kids, cafe, marketing huddle, emails, repeat • The One Lesson: Your hard work is not directly proportional to the outcome • Practice Detachment: Be obsessed with the vision, detached from the results • The Purple Cow: Stand out or be invisible • The Underrated Tool: Intuition, customer feedback, behavior patterns A conversation about resilience, self-belief, marketing with soul, knowing when to pivot, and a woman who's finally unleashed.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Nabeel Javed, founder of Sygma Innovation. He didn't follow the traditional path from computer engineering to corporate to entrepreneur. He built seven companies, closed some, learned from all, and came out the other side with one truth: slow down, build right, win long. His story is honest, raw, and grounded.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Raja W. Abuljebain, CEO of Essentially. He didn't follow the expected path. He built a brand bottle by bottle, shelf by shelf, sunrise by sunrise. His story is gritty, honest, and far from over. He shares why discipline beats motivation, why presentation matters more than people think, and why after all of it, he's just getting started. A conversation about grit, presentation, discipline, cold-press juice, flying first class at 40,000 feet, and a man who's just getting started.

In this episode of Behind Marketing Lines, our host Zeeshan sits down with Aaryan Kapur, Group Head of Digital Marketing at Aster DM Healthcare. He never took the straight path. He started somewhere else, took leaps others called crazy, moved across cities, and never looked back. His story is messy, beautiful, and completely real. He shares why resilience matters more than talent, why people skills beat technical skills, and why the only way to live is to experience it all. A conversation about risk-taking, resilience, challenging the status quo, and staying curious in a world that never stops changing.