Adam Torres and Sarah S. Hughes discuss FII PRIORITY.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Listen to FII PRIORITY coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Sarah S. Hughes, Acquisition Sales at Quadient, explore challenging self limiting beliefs and overcoming them and FII PRIORITY.
About Quadient
Quadient is a global automation platform powering secure and sustainable business connections through digital and physical channels. Quadient supports businesses of all sizes in their digital transformation and growth journey, unlocking operational efficiency and creating meaningful customer experiences.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today I have Sarah Hughes on the line and she’s acquisition sales over at Quadient.
Sarah, welcome to the show. Happy Monday. Adam, pleasure being with you today. Ah, good to have you on. And this is for everybody listening. This is part of our FII Institute series where I’ve interviewed attendees and guests and participants of FII and Sarah specifically was over at FII priority in Miami.
And so first thing, first, sir, I have to ask, how was the event? I was there and it was for me, it was a pretty remarkable event. How was your experience? It was pretty incredible, wasn’t it? It was very nice to be there to attend that event. I personally attended FII because I see that we’re witnessing a historic shift.
Mm-hmm. One where the Arab world is taken center stage not just in business. But in innovation, technology, global leadership for too long brilliance in our region was just overlooked, to be honest with you. Hmm. Not because it didn’t exist, Adam, but just because the world wasn’t paying attention.
You know I feel like now with initiatives like Vision 2030 and what MBS is doing, the conversation is definitely changing. Saudi Arabia, is literally the center of the world right now. It’s becoming the center of progress for the Arab region. And to get back to the FII, I believe it’s not just another conference.
Mm-hmm. It’s really a statement that the future is not being shaped by the west and in the West anymore. The Arab world needed validation, but this is, it didn’t need validation. Mm-hmm. But this is really powerful to see that the world is finally recognizing the talent, the vision the leadership that we’ve always had.
Mm-hmm. What was some of your favorite parts of the event? just in general, whether it was the programming, the talks, the networking, the relationships. I don’t know, like what was your favorite part of the event? Just the lineup, the lineup of incredible leaders. Everybody in one room exchanging ideas, and you could feel it in the atmosphere.
Just people were just very focused on every word that was coming out of these people’s mouths. It was incredible to have all that power, all that knowledge. Everybody in one room focused on the, same thing. Hmm. I like that you mentioned like how the shift to the Arab world and all the things you’re talking about, and I’m always curious about this because I feel like there’s certain lies that we’re told in different societies, just period.
Like, or, we overlook. And it could be western, could be Arab, could be a lot, a of different like lives or myths or, I don’t know how we wanna word them. That. Right. What are some of the biggest myths or lies or something that society tells either, I don’t know, young Moroccan or just Arabs in general?
Like, what have you found or what have you seen? For me it has to be that we always get told that success is predetermined. So the biggest slide society tells Arab, I would say, is that success. Is predetermined. So either you’re born into the right family with the right connections in the right place at the right time, or you’re doomed to.
Mediocrity. Yeah. And we’re told to play it safe, to follow the traditional path, to not dream too big because it’s not for us, or that it’s not safe. Mm-hmm. Um, But that way of thinking is just false. It’s not just false, it’s actually dangerous. Mm-hmm. There’s a lot of brilliant minds that are just trapped in fear.
They’re waiting. For permission to succeed instead of just creating their own path. Mm. And being Muslim, we believe in risk, which is sustenance and Qatar, which is destiny, and both are written. Mm. But we forget. The action is part of fate. Even the prophet Mohamed Salah said, tie your camel and trust in Allah.
You have to take action and take control of your own life while believing that what’s meant for you is gonna come to you, but it won’t come to you if you just sit and wait. Interesting how that works, right? Yeah. Right. What, so what kind of advice would you give to and I hate to say the, next group of entrepreneurs or anything like that because it could be for present day people age.
I don’t think age matters, right? I think mindset matters. So some entrepreneurs may not, or, investors, or. active business people might not start until later in life. Some may start younger. what kind of advice would you give to people our age or younger who maybe feel stuck and who are in some of those positions that you mentioned?
I feel like if you feel stuck, it’s a feeling from within. It’s not because you’re out of options, it’s because you’re out of movement. Mm-hmm. Being stagnant, staying still is a choice. And you are never truly stuck unless you decide to stay where you are. Mm-hmm. The, the, the way the world is today is, is changing faster than ever.
The opportunities available are limitless. We have internet. The world is a small village nowadays. you’re never gonna see someone wait for the right time or someone’s approval. You just have to go for it. If you want something, just start moving towards it. Mm-hmm. It doesn’t have to be in full gear, full force.
Even if you don’t have a full plan. I don’t know. You want a job, apply for it. Mm-hmm. you want the business to start it. You wanna reach out to someone, just send a message, get on the plane, or whatever it might be. Yeah. Most people never fail because they tried Adam. It’s just because most people fail because they never started, they never tried.
Mm, that’s true. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I, I mean, I can understand fear, fear guides us all in all of our decisions. Oh, for sure. But it’s I feel like fear is just excitement. Just take a deep breath and just do it. Hmm. I’m so curious. Were you all, did you always have this type of energy? Like, where’d you get this from?
I’m just so curious. I had it. But like I said at the beginning, it was the condition. Mm-hmm. The conditioning, the where you grow up, what you grew up listening to. So I always had that within me. But it’s only after having moved to the US. Having to rely on myself, do things on my own feeling like I’m in control of my own path, that nobody is gonna do anything for me, that I have to create the things that I want.
Mm-hmm. So I really embraced this thinking those past few years being in the US and, and knowing that you have no choice. You, you either wanna do it or you don’t wanna do it, gotta take the steps. How did you, how did you kind of overcome those, beliefs? Like, because easier said than done, like how, what are some of the things that you feel kind of helped you do it?
Honestly, just being far from the noise, blocking off the noise. Wow. Blocking off people that tell you you can’t or you won’t, or, oh yeah, this is just a dream. Just being far from the people that not necessarily add value. Positivity. Mm-hmm. Encouragement to you. So just blocking off the noise. Locking off the people.
They can be very close people, but you have to focus on mm-hmm. What’s going to drive you and whatever is gonna make that ship go, then that’s what you need to surround yourself with. Mm-hmm. So if it means cutting a couple of family members, friends, acquaintances coworkers at work, whatever it might be you have to surround yourself with.
The right people. And if there’s nobody around you, then just be by yourself. Take the time. You need to be in habit more than move on. Funny is, that’s always been my thought process. I’m like, I’d rather be alone than like surrounded by some negativity, whatever. I’ll read a book, I’ll do so something else, like I can hang out by myself, but I’m an only child, so I don’t know.
So I’m used to that. So whatever I, I totally agree with you. Oh, that’s great. So I wanna spend a little bit of time talking about your work in the US and maybe, what you’re doing over at Quadient. Maybe tell us a little bit more , about your current role and what you do. Absolutely. So I’m with Quadient.
We are a technology company. We’re present in over 90 countries, I believe. Mm-hmm. So we have direct operations offices as well as distributors, dealers, et cetera. We specialize in mail-in related solutions and business process automation. So what I do is I handle our Canada side of operation for MRS and SaaS solutions, which in our business goes hand to hand.
Mm-hmm. I worked very hard to get here and I feel extremely blessed to be able to do this every day, Adam. Mm-hmm. That’s amazing. Yeah. Sarah, I have to say this has been a lot of fun having you on the show to get to know more about your beliefs. Also, some of the, like what helped you overcome and like, and changed maybe some of the challenging limiting beliefs that maybe you had in the past, that now how you overcame them, how you’re now doing great work over at Quadrant.
And also I love the participation with the FI Institute and the FI priority events. I mean, I was newly introduced to this whole ecosystem over the last. At FII, priority, a really good friend of mine Christopher Kai was like, Hey, you gotta, you gotta come out to the, like, you need to be here.
You need to be covering this. It’s important and it’s going to be the future of what’s happening. And I went and I saw it, and I, once you go and you witness it for yourself, you’re like, oh, wow, okay. Yeah. That’s, that was my feeling. Yeah. Yeah. I had that feeling. I was like, yes. So I’m. Pretty confident that’s gonna, at least the Miami event’s, gonna be one of my yearly staples.
And who knows, maybe one day I’ll make it out to Riyadh if if I’m invited or something. I don’t know. I’ve, I’ve never been, but it’s, I’ve heard some such amazing stories, but maybe that’ll happen in the future. But in the meantime, Sarah, if somebody’s listening or watching this and if they wanna follow your work or follow your journey or connect with you and your team, how do they do that?
LinkedIn, Sarah Hughes that’s about it. Okay. Wonder will be for this girl. Okay. Okay. Easy enough. So check it out on LinkedIn and just so for everybody that’s listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put links , in the show notes so that you can go connect with Sarah. And speaking of the audience, if somebody’s listening to this and this is your first time with us, don’t forget, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new in. Ation to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Sarah, thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you for having me, Adam.
Let’s chat.