Produced By - The System Is the Message: How Structure Became the Brand | 135: Noor V. Barrage

Starting point is 00:00:00 The most people who run businesses or who operate as solo founders or sit in a CEO capacity are what we call visionary entrepreneurs. They're very creative. They have all these great ideas. They really struggle with execution and follow through. And that's why someone like myself comes in. I have visionary tendencies. I'm much more of an operator. So my execution abilities far outweigh my strategic, visionary, creative ones.

Starting point is 00:00:28 visionaries have been led to believe that structure infringes on their freedom, but it's the opposite. So if you are trying to film a video, write a piece of content, you work on your marketing strategy, that is type of work that requires part of your brain that does not do well with constant interruption. So those creative, strategic work, that is something that you can only really do to the capacity that you want to do. if you can reach something called flow state or deep work. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:01:10 Hello, No, No, thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. So, Nor, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself? So I'm Noor and I have been running my own business now. for about a year. I started my LinkedIn journey a year ago, yeah, a year ago now. And essentially what I do is I go into businesses and work with senior leadership teams and CEOs primarily and help operationalize their business. So work closely with the teams to ensure that the right structures are in place to allow everyone, including the CEO, to succeed with less stress. And, yeah,

Starting point is 00:01:56 And the byproduct of that tends to be an increase in revenue and a reduction in stress and overwhel. Something that really stands out to me with your profile on LinkedIn. And as we have been connected is that, of course, there are many people on LinkedIn. And you can see all kinds of titles such as LinkedIn branding expert or personal branding and stuff like that. But I think you've got actually very unique title that fits perfectly to what you do. And I haven't really seen it with anyone else, which is the Systems Girl. Yeah, so I guess that came about kind of by accident. So when I was new to the platform and I was looking at setting up my profile and what I wanted to be known for, essentially, I had a look around and everyone had very, like, generic, the longer word title.

Starting point is 00:02:48 So, you know, personal branding expert, I help you X, Y, Z. and I wanted to have something short and succinct that I could be recognized for. And it kind of happened by accident. I was looking at a few people who operate in a similar capacity to me. And I found someone who is self-proclaimed the systems guy. And I had it as, that's really cool. That's really interesting. And it just kind of stuck with me.

Starting point is 00:03:18 And I started researching as to is there a systems goal? I could find anyone who had taken that title. So I thought, I think this is a space for me to kind of move into and hopefully become known as that. And it stuck, and people seem to have really liked it. And so it's the only thing that I've kept consistent from the very early stages, so 12 months ago till today. I don't think I'll be changing that anytime soon.

Starting point is 00:03:49 As I said, I think it's a great idea, because you see all kinds of experts, I don't know anything, but when there is specific and unique one like this, automatically that person comes to your mind, so I think it was a great decision. Thank you. And you said that you joined the platform one year ago, which to me is quite surprising because you've got big following,

Starting point is 00:04:09 you know, great engagement, community, and great numbers for such a short time. So maybe in the first place, why did you actually join the platform? So I've been doing the work that I've been doing for about five years now. And at the time, when I decided to step away from the company that I was at previously and build my own thing, I knew that I couldn't do that and stay invisible. So I'd sat behind the scenes of a company in the online space for four and a half, four and a half years.

Starting point is 00:04:41 And I knew that I had to create visibility for myself if I was going to have any semblance of success. I have always been very put off by traditional social media and how businesses leverage social media platforms because it's never felt authentic to me. And this is coming from someone who has sat behind the scenes and worked with a lot of influence-led brands and top creators. And I know that everything tends to be scripted. Everything is very, you know, artificial and there's a big Yeah, there's a big production behind all of this. And so I naturally gravitated away from Instagram, TikTok, video style content and moved more towards writing. My first degree is in literature and philosophy. So I love reading. I love writing. LinkedIn felt the most natural. And I thought, okay, if I'm going to do this and it's going to be successful, I have to be consistent with it. So I have to choose something that's more aligned to. myself and what I enjoy. And so LinkedIn was the natural option for me. Yeah, and I've, I've dabbled in video content and I'm still, if I'm being honest, trying to find my footing.

Starting point is 00:06:03 And I think I will explore video content more in 2026, but I'm trying to find a way to do that. That feels authentic with me and that I don't dread. So I don't like reading off of scripts. I find that really challenging. So I'm just trying to find. where I fit into the video content. But yeah, LinkedIn for me felt like the most natural choice. Speaking of video content, is it more like that you're trying to find the right angle, how to approach the video, or stepping out of the comfort zone by recording yourself on the video? I'm fine to record myself, so it's not that I don't enjoy being on video. It's more so I feel like when you're speaking things and you're thinking about,

Starting point is 00:06:48 the hook and how to capture people's attention and all of this, it feels a lot more. Like challenging maybe? Yeah, and like artificial than your writing. So I think that's the, perhaps it's just a mindset thing that I need to like overcome. But that's the challenge for me because when I write on LinkedIn, I don't, and this is controversial, but I don't gear everything towards the hook. and that's because, again, performance for me on LinkedIn, I'm not that obsessed with the metrics and the numbers.

Starting point is 00:07:26 I just fight because I enjoy it, and I recognize that it's a way to give value to people and connect with people, but I'm not on LinkedIn to try get 100,000 followers and to go viral. I don't think I've ever gone viral, but I haven't needed to as well. I think that's actually the right message

Starting point is 00:07:46 and the right approach, because as I mentioned before, that from my perception, as you said, you joined like a year ago, but you've got good numbers, but you just said that you're not chasing virulity. So it's like a paradox that sometimes people chase it by doesn't work, but actually if you don't focus on it instead, you enjoy the journey and you deliver value, that's actually what's the most impactful and what in the end yields the best results, doesn't it? Yeah, and I think success is really relative. So I've had to have. had people say to me that my numbers are really good and I don't think I have an opinion on that because I think when I started on LinkedIn, I naturally fell into, because I'd never been on

Starting point is 00:08:28 the platform, so I naturally started following people and one of my clients was a pretty big name on LinkedIn. So I naturally fell into the like LinkedIn personal branding, how to write, how to go viral. And I think I've slowly moved away from that and moved more towards just like not caring about the rules and the white's face and the short sentences and the hook words and all of this stuff and just written for the sake of writing. And my numbers have gone down, but my engagement has stayed where it is. So I think that's a good thing. And I think as well, if we think about, I don't know anything about the algorithm,

Starting point is 00:09:09 but my logical brain says, if you think about the content that LinkedIn, the algorithm wants to push, It's going to be things about how to get on LinkedIn and how to grow. So people who post about that are going to naturally have a better performance than people who are posting about completely different things. My area of expertise is nothing to do with LinkedIn. So I never thought like, here's how to go viral on LinkedIn. Like obviously that's going to do significantly better than something about how to delegate or how to structure a calendar. So I think it's, I've learned not to compare myself to what other people are doing. And it is really hard because a lot of these LinkedIn creator, influencer people, personal branding.

Starting point is 00:09:58 Gurus. Gurus, great what. They post their metrics. So when you look at that and if you compare that to yourself, we're never going to do as good as those people because the algorithm is not going to favor us as much as it favors them. So I've learned to stop looking at that and I've I've tried to curate my LinkedIn feed as well. So I'm not seeing that sort of content because it is hard to like see that and go, well, I must be doing something wrong because I get, you know, X amount of impressions and this person's getting 150,000 impressions. So yeah, it's a weird relationship like with LinkedIn. But I think ultimately just keeping your head down and just continuing to do what you do and put out what you want to.

Starting point is 00:10:43 put out and hopefully that resonates with certain people. I really like it and I can only agree and I think really well said. And another thing that stood out to me is that although you do not follow like topics that maybe others follow or that are like trendy on LinkedIn, it's actually something that I think is advantage because if you've got so many people who post about this same type of content, for me it's one out of many. But as I said before, as a system girl, like something that is unique and specific, and even what you post about, it's actually what's going to stand out to me because it's different than all those many out there. And it's just unique, different, and USP, and people often look for ways how to stand out.

Starting point is 00:11:27 So now they've got the answer and perfect example. Yeah, I think that's fair as well. And it's challenging because you kind of exist in your own little echo chamber. So I see obviously like, you know, I create all of my stuff and I'm in that like cycle. And so sometimes it's, I think, important to step away and see people like yourself and just get other people's perspectives on your work and how you're doing. Because in my head, I'm like, how many times can I talk about a calendar without people being enough? But new people see that stuff all the time. And also the way that LinkedIn works is, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:06 I don't think most of my followers see my stuff daily. So they're not seeing, like, I'm seeing it daily, but like no one else is seeing every single post of mine. And I think that's something that I also remind myself of, because otherwise you can get in your head and think, oh, maybe I shouldn't post this. But I think what's good about how I've structured my content is very early on. I was very clear as to what I wanted to talk about and what I wanted to share. and I haven't really strayed from that in the 12 months that I've been on the platform. I'm very happy that you say this because I'm thinking the same things, you know, once in a while, because I feel like that maybe I keep talking about the same thing too frequently,

Starting point is 00:12:48 or I may be repeating myself, so people may be tired of it. But then you don't know if they see it, and sometimes you read the comments, and they actually see it for the first time. So it's great actually to hear someone else's experience and point of view as well. Yeah, for sure. And then when you joined then, LinkedIn, did you have some kind of strategy already in mind? You said that you knew what you were going to post about. But our experience, how are many people's experience, is that we joined the platform

Starting point is 00:13:14 and it was like trial and error without like any structure or system, etc. What was the experience for you like? Yeah, so when I joined, I wanted to build the habit more than anything. So when I joined in, I think towards the, so it's been a year now, towards the end of November, beginning of December, I said to myself, I'm going to post every single day for 30 days and just write what I want to write and then take it from there. And I think there was definitely an element of trial and error. But my big goal there was I just want to build the habit because I had not been writing daily at all. So that was really new for me. So I did that for 30 days. And I think, again, I don't know anything about the algorithm. This is just my experience and what I, like, logically am putting pieces together.

Starting point is 00:14:10 I think that the algorithm favoured me because I was doing something slightly different in the things that I was sharing. I was sharing my, like, journey and what I was doing day to day. And I was very consistent. So I think at the time I was very consistent. posting, it was either 8 or 10 a.m. UK time, but every single day at that time I would come on. I would like try connect with people and speak to people and have conversations, post, reply to the very few amount of comments that I had and then continue to like read other people's posts. And if I felt like I had something to share, I wanted to say something, then comment on those

Starting point is 00:14:52 people's posts as well. And so for me, yes, it was trial and everything. At the time I was working with Lara Acosta, so she was a client of mine. Oh, wow. Such a big name already. Yeah, she gave me some advice as well, so told me to think in kind of buckets. So more broad educational content and then more storytelling, like narrow, niched content. And so I had those kind of two like categories in my mind and would post like three, four, four, educational pieces a week and then two to three more like storytelling and I just kind of did

Starting point is 00:15:32 that for a while and then I I ultimately knew that what I wanted to talk about was systems leadership and productivity and so that felt very like natural to me and the things that I was experiencing day to day with clients and with conversations with people all centered around those three kind of buckets of pillars whatever you want to call them and so that I guess I never like formalized that I never like wrote it down but I set up my content system around like broad educational and more narrow storytelling and just kind of like alternate to visit that and then for me a really big part and I guess like naturally because I'm like about systems was building infrastructure around me because I knew early on that what I was doing in those first

Starting point is 00:16:22 30 days was not sustainable and as I got busier so as I built my business and got more clients and was doing more client work, I couldn't spend two to three hours on LinkedIn every day. It just was not feasible. So I built structure around me and around content creation and, you know, batch writing and putting that in my calendar and like making sure that I reduce the time on LinkedIn to, I think, post the 30 days, it was an hour and a half. and now it's 45 minutes, maximum an hour, and that's been consistent. I mean, now I post six days a week. I don't post seven, but I post every single day, I think, for the first four to six months.

Starting point is 00:17:05 And then after that, yeah, I felt like it would make sense to move that to six days a week, which I'm very happy doing still. I was expecting that you had mentioned that you reduced it like three times per week, but still six days per week. It's very good frequency, especially considering so quality content. It's not like repurposed branding advice that you hear all the time, but it's usually a good frequency considering the quality. Yeah, thank you.

Starting point is 00:17:29 I appreciate that. I do think I've ever repurposed content, which I know is a controversial thing, because I think the gurus tell you to do that all the time. I just haven't felt like I've needed to because I don't, I've never run into an issue where I don't know what to write or I have a lack of ideas. I have a system set up to capture ideas

Starting point is 00:17:50 because they usually pop up at random times. In the shower on the walk. I'm looking at the dog and I'm like, oh. So I have that and that really, really helps. But I just think there are constantly things happening in conversations that I have day to day that allow me to kind of take leadership as a general subject and go, okay, this is what I experienced on a call with a client.

Starting point is 00:18:17 Or I read this thing and it sparked. this thought. So I haven't, I've never gone back and looked at my content and gone, how can I use this rejig it? I've reused images because I'm not taking images all the time. That's kind of

Starting point is 00:18:34 it in terms of the repurposing. I think just as we're speaking about images, you post, I think, some good photos, like from your life, whether it was something recent I remember from Christmas or something else. It stands out to me because it feels more personal. And you know, before LinkedIn used to be like more formal or corporate, but now when you see kind of

Starting point is 00:18:55 behind the scenes and pictures like from your life, I feel like that is more relatable and more interesting. Yeah, I think it's a weird, I don't have like formalized thoughts on that yet. I just, I think it makes sense to post certain images. So like a photo of me with a Christmas tree is like, I'm very big on Christmas. I have my Christmas tree up November 1st. So already. Yeah, so it's been up for like over a month. I'm big on Christmas and I love Christmas. So that to me feels like natural. I have seen people post personal photos that I don't understand. Like I'm like, I don't know why that would be a photo that you attach to a certain post. So I don't know. I think personal photos are great because as you said, you can learn things that you may not be able to learn,

Starting point is 00:19:43 especially my content, I would say like 90% of it is educational focused. It's like how to do this, how to do that, or like a story and like a light bulb thing, like a light bulb moment that I had with a client, things like that. It's very rare that I do like a reflection post or anything like that. So for me, having like the majority of my images, my sat at my desk or like professional headshots, like that stuff makes sense. But I do understand that it is good to have a mix in that. I post a lot more personal photos in the comments.

Starting point is 00:20:20 So like, and things like that. But yeah, I think it's interesting. I'm still trying to, I guess, formalize my thoughts on the whole, what you can attach to a written piece of text on LinkedIn. I know that, like, carousels, like some people love that and post that, and I've kind of dabbled in that. Infographics tend to do very, very, very, very well. And obviously video is like the big topic in 2026.

Starting point is 00:20:46 But again, like, I'm still getting ready. As I always try to remember and tell people, please, find what works for you, what's it sustainable and what you enjoy. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's the best advice, I'm honest. When I started creating, I had multiple tabs open, no system and zero clue what I was doing. So I made a page that fixes that. Templates, kits, tools, carousels, reels, the actual stuff that I use. not fluff. It's at Stenstor slash Tomen, that's T-O-M-M-E-N, or in the show notes. Take what helps, ignore what doesn't. Back to the episode. And then if we move, of course, we could be discussing it for much longer, but from the topic of

Starting point is 00:21:38 LinkedIn, actually, to your area of expertise, which is the systems, to me it's something quite unique because I haven't really spoken with anyone who would be focusing on it, or at least like main area of expertise as you. So maybe in the first place, how did you discover passion for it or got interested in this topic or area? By accident is the short answer. I was a very anxious child. And so people who are anxious do very well with structure and process because you can start to predict things if you put process behind them. So from a very young age, I, just started operating that way. I've always done very well in a routine. I don't like spontaneity. I really struggle with like last minute changes and spontaneous activity. I'm a lot better now.

Starting point is 00:22:30 As a child, like, I would send me into a spiral. So I think from a very young age, I was naturally very like process driven. And then that became more apparent when I went through university and I did my bachelor's degree and my master's degree. I initially wanted to be a lawyer, which, thank goodness, I did not pursue because I don't think I'm very employable and I, yeah, I think it would not have gone well. But the hyper-organized, systematic, process-driven, that became a lot more apparent for me throughout my university years. And then I sort of fell into it. So I, during COVID or like right before COVID, I was working with a business coach and I had my own health and fitness business at the time. And I was working with a business coach and I started kind of implementing what she

Starting point is 00:23:28 had told me to do and I started doing very, very well. And so she basically asked if I could come on board and support with sales. And I thought, okay, I don't have like direct sales experience. So this is a really good learning opportunity. So I moved into that. And then I realized that, there were a lot of things that should have been in place in my head that were not in place. So things like spreadsheets, like tracking spreadsheets, process for doing certain act. I was like, how do we do this? And the response was, oh, like, here's how you kind of do it. And I was like, why isn't this documented?

Starting point is 00:24:04 Oh, like, we don't need to. And I was like, but surely you do because then you can ensure that there's consistency. So I just started doing these things for myself because, again, I work best. like that. And then I started sharing them with the rest of the team. And so performance went up. And then it was a compensation of, oh, this is really cool. Can you manage the sales team? And I was like, I've never done this before. So this is a great learning opportunity. So anyways, long story short, is I moved into operations very quickly. So from there it was, can you manage sales team? Yeah, sales team started performing better than they had ever performed. And then it was, okay, actually,

Starting point is 00:24:40 can you move into operations and just manage the business? I don't know. I don't know how to how to do that, but like I'll learn. And now I know that being a learner and constantly looking for ways to develop and improve myself is one of my strengths. And so again, it just made sense. So I kind of fell into it by accident. And then I started becoming really obsessed with it because I realized that the majority of small businesses and large corporates could make a lot more money with less stress, less people involved, and less time if they had the right structures in place to support the people. And so that became something that I just honed in on and became very, very good and worked with some really big people. And then in October, end of October last year,

Starting point is 00:25:28 I decided to set out on my own and just build my own business, personal brand. And now we're here. Wow. That's really cool. as you said, you've been enjoying that as well? Or is it only because there is a demand, but can you say that you enjoy too? Yeah, I love it. I don't think someone could pay me to not do this. So it's work that I really enjoy, like the level of satisfaction I get from showing people that there is a better way to do business. I think I burnt out multiple times over the last like the four years, four and a half years that I was serving as the head of operations and then the CEO of this company, because I thought that was what was expected. And there was also

Starting point is 00:26:13 limited structure in place to ensure that that did not happen. And I think so many of us think that way, you know, if you look at, so you just have to scroll social media to hear people who are hustling and like, oh, I barely slept and, you know, all of these things. And when I see that, I'm not like, that's so impressive. I'm like, wow, there's a huge problem. Like, you need help. And I think I see kind of like my mission in my professional capacity is changing people's perceptions as to what success looks like because the majority of us don't want a life that is run by our business. We build businesses for freedom, but the funny thing is we build businesses that don't allow us to have freedom.

Starting point is 00:26:58 And most of us are 3D people. We want relationships. We want hobbies. We want time for ourselves. so we want time to read and learn and actually enjoy life right yeah and i think for so long i was afraid to say that but i thought people would think that i wasn't as serious about my business and the work that i do and i i had to be completely obsessed and nothing else was allowed and i was like that's silly it just it's we've all been brainwashed to think that way so that's the work that i do now

Starting point is 00:27:32 And yeah, to answer your question, I've just gone on a rampage. Yeah, I love it. I wouldn't do anything else. Like, I love it so much. I'm very happy to hear such a passion, and I agree with what you said. It's like a flexing on social media. People usually sharing just highs, you know, successes and stuff like that, but no one really talks about, you know, because it's not always as bright as people share. They are going to show you a number of clients, money they made, this and that, but no one tells you how much. much failure, I don't know, lost money or whatever else is behind it. So that always stands out to me when someone actually is surreal and discusses even these side of negative things as well. Yeah, and I think that's another issue I have with social media because, again, I have worked with, in the last five and a half years, I have worked with some of the, some huge people

Starting point is 00:28:25 on socials. And when I have gone in to look at their businesses, I'm like, horrible. refined because I you know you painted this photo this picture like I'm constantly traveling I and speaking to these people I'm going on all these podcasts I'm smashing it like blah blah blah and then you go in and the founder is about to have a nervous breakdown rather than you as like a constant up and down there's no consistency which means the founder's central nervous system is a complete wreck because they're just stressed thinking are we going to make payroll are we going to be able to like pay the partners that we you know the agencies that we partner with all of these things am i going to have enough money to like do the things that i need to do and like go to this place

Starting point is 00:29:10 and go speak at this event so it's a complete mess and yeah that's something that i i don't love because and i'm very very skeptical so whenever i speak to someone and they're like yeah i have i'm doing this in revenue and i'm like they show me the numbers and usually what happens is they did that one month and then every other month i'm like give me the average of what all you, that's a very different conversation than like flex, how much revenue you've made one month. Yeah, I agree. And it makes me often wonder, for example, when people post about clients, I'm not saying that it's always and it needs to be the case. But you never know if clients that they post with, if it's not one successful client, they had a long time ago and they kind of

Starting point is 00:29:51 keep squeezing that all the time. Yes, it's true. They're success with the client. But it's like, for example, one person in such a long time. So it's just to keep in mind that it never gives you the whole picture and you never know like what actually happening is in the background. Yeah, I advice that I often give people in general, anyone who wants to have an online presence is take everything with a pinch of salt because you never know. And like the reality is the online business service provider consulting, whatever you want to call it, space is completely unregulated. So what you need to be a business owner or to call yourself a business owner, is internet connection and like, I don't know how much it costs to set up like a limited

Starting point is 00:30:38 company, but like it's not a lot. You need internet connection and, you know, a legal entity. And that's it. There's no regulation. There's no one coming in and going, show us the data. Or you can't say this because the perception is why when the reality is X. So you just have to take everything with, you know, a pinch of salt and a majority of what people are claiming to do is not the reality. I agree and I'm completely with you. And based on

Starting point is 00:31:08 your experience and the people that you worked with, are there like any recurring themes or areas like when it comes to systems that you see across the people or the companies that are occurring because they need fixing, they need help and it's something that maybe people overlook or they should focus on more? I feel like I'm going to try summarise succinctly. Too many. I could talk about customer days. It's like, for example, if we have audience that want some kind of takeaways maybe to look at, let's say, there are small businesses or even themselves as they have brands, they grow on LinkedIn. What is it that they can focus on to improve any type of advice or recommendations from you? I would say the first thing is we have, so most people who run

Starting point is 00:31:53 businesses or who operate as solo founders or sit in a CEO capacity. are what we call visionary entrepreneurs. So they're very creative. They have all these great ideas. They really struggle with execution and follow through. And that's why someone like myself comes in. I have visionary tendencies. I'm much more of an operator.

Starting point is 00:32:17 So my execution abilities far outweigh my kind of strategic, visionary, creative ones. So for me, when I have to sit more in my visionary seat, my assistant who's brilliant, she puts on the operator hat so that I can sit in the visionary seat. Visionaries have been led to believe that structure infringes on their freedom, but it's the opposite. So if you are trying to film a video or you are trying to write a piece of content or you're trying to work on your marketing strategy for Q1, that is type of work that requires part of your brain, that does not do well with constant interruption. So those sorts of activities, those creative, strategic work,

Starting point is 00:33:07 that is something that you can only really do to the capacity that you want to do if you can reach something called flow state or like deep work. And that becomes really, really hard, almost impossible to do if you are applying to client messages on Slack or WhatsApp. If you've got your email open, if you've got LinkedIn and you see the notifications popping on. If you are flicking between tabs and doing two or three things at once, despite what people say, our brains are not wired to multitask.

Starting point is 00:33:42 So the first thing I would say is let go of this notion that structure is the enemy of freedom and creativity. Because it's the opposite. If you have structure in place, the right structure, then you can be more creative then the creative work that you do is going to be so much better than you trying to script a video or write a LinkedIn post or whatever and you're constantly being disrupted. So I talk about calendars a lot because this is probably the best way that you can put structure in place for yourself. So I don't take any calls on Thursday or Friday. And I'm very strict about that.

Starting point is 00:34:24 So when clients are like, can we speak on Friday? I'm like, no, we can speak on. like we can speak on Monday. On Friday, like I'm just not available. And I set those expectations from the get-go so they know so they don't ask. Or if they do, I hold the boundary and they're like, okay, like you're serious about that. So build structure around yourself that supports you in the work that you want to do. And maybe you're not a CEO and you don't need creative time. Maybe you are more of like an executor or you're more action-focused. So if you manage a team, typically you're going to be doing more like managerial activities so like one-to-ones like

Starting point is 00:35:02 quality assurance you know all this stuff so maybe you don't need that uninterrupted time as much most visionary CEOs do so that's the first thing I would say don't be afraid to leverage your calendar it is a tool that everyone has access to it's free you can make a Gmail free and you can get access to your calendar a lot of people use Apple devices you've got ICAL. So it's a tool that's there and we should use. And sorry to interrupt, what is your favorite one? Which one do you use? Really good question. I used to be like hardcore ICAL, but I have recently moved over to Google calendar. So that's my preference now. I also have, I think the enterprise level, or not the

Starting point is 00:35:50 enterprise level, maybe it's enterprise level, but I have a G-suite workspace where the only reason that I upgraded twice was to get access to this feature, which is a tool called Insights. And essentially what that is, is I can look at my calendar every week and it's color coded. I have different categories. And Google will tell me how much time I'm spending in each category. Oh, it's really smart. Wow. Which is great. If I know, and I audit my calendar every week. So at the end of the week, I'm like, here's what I wanted to do this week. my calendar reflect that. And so if I had a lot of written content that I wanted to get out or like get ahead of, but I only had three hours of deep work time, that's an issue for me. I'm like,

Starting point is 00:36:43 well, no wonder I didn't achieve that. Like I didn't, you know, plan for that. So that's really helpful. How much time am I spending on calls? How much time? Like, there was a week where I was way too much time on calls that I didn't really need to be on. So again, mindful of that and then modified moving forward. So Google calendar is great. You obviously don't need to pay for like the enterprise level. There's so much you can do with it. You can create categories and my calendar is color coded. So again, visually I can look at it and go, okay, today I've got X many consulting sessions. I've got some deep work planned. I've got this planned. Exceptress. Yeah, it's brilliant. And the second thing I'd say is planning.

Starting point is 00:37:24 Planning is so underrated. And again, it goes back to like structure versus freedom. When I speak to CEOs, I ask them about their goals. Now, most of them don't have very clear goals. So they'll be like, oh, I want revenue to grow. I'm like, okay, what is it now? Like, what has the last year been? What does growth look like?

Starting point is 00:37:46 And they're like, well, just more. And I'm like, but more like, 10% more, 50% more, like, what does that mean? And so if we don't have clear goals, we can't reverse engineer them. So then it means that when you look at the day-to-day activities of a company or a solo founder, what you're doing day-to-day should directly contribute towards those goals. And more often than not, it doesn't because they don't have those goals. So planning is so important. One of the things that I'm doing right now is I'm running a 21-day planning thing where I'm walking people through how to like recap on 2025 and how to put

Starting point is 00:38:28 structure in place for 2026 and plan properly because what happens is you get to end of January and you've done a lot of stuff but you feel like nothing has really moved forward so planning is huge it's something that most organizations just don't know how to do and it's something that CEOs really struggle with. And the response that I get recently is, oh, there's no point in planning because things are changing so fast and AI is growing. So we're going to have to pivot. And I'm like, my response is, yes, you will have to pivot, but the north star should be clear. A to day activity may be different depending on any shifts in the industry, software, etc. but the North staff should be clear.

Starting point is 00:39:14 So what I advise is a financial number, so revenue, let's say in 2026, and then a key metric that drives activity. So it might be a number of clients, number of students, number of subscribers, whatever it is. And those two numbers dictate what you spend your time on every month, every week, every day. Those are some great takeaways, and I'm sure it will be helpful for me too. we'll need to think about it after the recording as well. So it's very smart and very helpful. And nor just to be aware of time, I like to ask kind of lighter questions by the end.

Starting point is 00:39:52 So what is it that you enjoy doing in your free time or what are some of your hobbies? I love that question. No one ever asks me this. So I mentioned before. My first degree was literature and philosophy. I love reading and I read, I would say widely.

Starting point is 00:40:10 So I read a lot of personal development business books. I'm currently reading Brunay Brown's new book, Strong Ground, which I'm just telling everyone to read because it's about leadership and it's brilliant. So I'm reading that. I am also a big fiction reader. So again, my degree literature. And so I love reading fiction, novels. At the moment, I'm reading Pride and Prejudice because I haven't read it since I was 14. so good to revisit it as an adult.

Starting point is 00:40:41 And I also love the theatre. So one of the reasons I still live in London is to have access to the West End. I love the theatre. So my favourite shows, I have a lot, but I would say Le Maiz Hamilton at a show called Dear Evan Hanson, which is not currently on the West End.

Starting point is 00:40:58 It was a few years back. But yeah, so those are my, I would say like the two things that I keep busy with outside of business. So you mentioned a few books, which are great recommendations. I honestly have Brenner Brown. I read some of her previous books, but not this one. But are there any other books that have been like influential to you or impact on in your life? Yes. So again, in the interest of time, I could talk about this for years. So there's a book that I read at the very start of COVID and it just completely changed my outlook on life. It's called Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. It's brilliant and essential. the gist of that book is you can have a fixed mindset or you can have a growth mindset. So a fixed mindset is you see a problem and you're like, oh, well, I can't move forward. There's a problem.

Starting point is 00:41:48 You see a problem and you have a growth mindset and you go, okay, this is an opportunity to like learn or to push myself out of my comfort zone. So that, I think prior to that reading that book, I think I had more of a fixed mindset and now post reading that book, it's something where even when bad things happen or things don't go the way that I want. I try to see that as an opportunity to learn or, yeah, to just take something away and go, okay, that made me better or it made me more cautious. So mindset is a brilliant book and it applies, I think, to just everyone. It's a great life. I'm a big fan of Brunet Brown's work.

Starting point is 00:42:26 So Dare to Lead is a book that if I show you my copy, I don't know exactly where it is. It just looks awful because it's one that I. or whack to. I also annotates, so I write in my books. I probably need a new copy because it just looks. But that one is fantastic. Obviously, it's geared towards leadership. But it's one that I think you don't hear very much about when people talk about leadership. That is excellent. And then I read a book a while ago called The Chimp Paradox. I think it's by Steve Peters. I remember the title, but I honestly do not remember the author either. Yeah, the Chimp Paradox. It's really, really good. Again, it's more focused on yourself and how your brain works and your psyche, but it's brilliant. And it gave me a lot to think about.

Starting point is 00:43:21 So that one, again, I think, applies across work, industries, life and is really, really good. And then you've got your traditional business books like Zero to One by Peter Thiel, your sales books. I think. the best sales book I've ever read was Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. On negotiation, right? Yes, so he's one of the ex-FBI negotiators. So he'd be called in for negotiating like terrorist scenarios. Yeah, so that's really, really great one. And again, it's one that looks really ugly because I've like, you know, drawn in it, Britain when it has like sticky, like pages like that porn.

Starting point is 00:44:01 But that's a brilliant one. It's one that I recommend to whenever I am asked about sales, I'm like read that book because it's really. Yeah, those are some amazing recommendations. And then can you please summarize where people can find you, follow you, and promote any of your services? LinkedIn is my, I'm there every day. I am trying to do better with applying to DMs because it is me on there. So my assistant helps me with replying to comments outside of my. like hour on there. So I like to try to get back to everyone, but it becomes harder when you have

Starting point is 00:44:39 more people commentate on. But I am the only one that touches my DM. So again, because it's just me, it's challenging to get back to everyone. But LinkedIn is the place to go. And I've got a few things on my featured section on my, on my profile. So I write a pretty long email every week. And that's just things that have been on my mind. I call it the Sunday system. edit. It's quite new. And it's an email I send out on Sunday about usually one subject that's popped up for me that week. And I kind of dive a lot deeper into that and talk about what I'm listening to, what I'm reading. And it's very value driven. And then hopefully my aim with that is to just get people thinking. Yeah. As always, I will add any links to the show notes. And are there any

Starting point is 00:45:29 upcoming plans or goals that you've got and you'd want to share for people to follow, to be excited about? So there's, if you follow me, you'll kind of have seen semblances of this. I am gearing up for a rebrand. I haven't really given very much thought to my profile. That's probably like not a good thing to say. But it's just I've kind of left it for a while. So I'm having a play around with what I want.

Starting point is 00:45:59 the brand or my brand to look like you'll see evidence of this in my emails with me like playing with fonts and colors and things like that. So there's that happening at the end of this year, beginning of January. And then I have, I'm still waiting for the certificate, but I can say it because it's been approved. But I have trademarked intentional productivity, which is something that I would like to be known for. And so I have started putting that into my content. And And I think productivity is such a buzzword. But for me and my experience, this often just meant busy, like how much you can get done is what people think is productive. But I want to change that narrative and start having people think about being intentionally productive.

Starting point is 00:46:46 So it's not how many things you check off a list. But what is it you're doing? And is that moving you closer to whatever your goal is? So that's something that I'll be formally talking about in the new year. and most of my stuff will kind of align. It already does, but I think hopefully the plan is for all of it to kind of fit into this ecosystem of intentional productivity and for me to really start building a movement and a community around that of people who just, yeah, want to live more intentionally productive lives professionally,

Starting point is 00:47:22 but also live their personal lives with more intention. Yeah, that's actually sounds really cool. I had just one point before when you were talking about a brand. I was about to mention that I really enjoy your design, for example, on Instagram because it feels kind of playful and with color, so I really like it. And with the intentional productivity, does it mean that maybe in the future we can even expect a book as well? I would love to write a book in the future. I don't think I would feel ready.

Starting point is 00:47:51 Maybe this is like a mindset thing, but I don't think I would be ready to do that now or anytime soon. but I would love to and I would really love to cultivate a movement because it's not a common take this movement of like do less but do it better and it's okay to consider yourself successful and a high performer which I do but to have other things outside of your professional capacity or your career that you do and that you're passionate about and that you talk about so it can feel really lonely at times and what I would love to do. do is curate a movement, a community of people who feel really passionate about this and this new way of living and working because I think it's so needed and there are so many people who

Starting point is 00:48:37 are just tired and exhausted and that level of exhaustion doesn't go away when you take two days off or three days off or a week off if, you know, Lord forbid someone takes a week on. it comes back and so yeah I think hopefully this is I don't want to say it's the future because that's a really really big claim but hopefully we can start to move towards

Starting point is 00:49:02 more intentionally productive ways of being rather than yeah being expected to operate a little bit like a robot and just do more more yeah I mean it's a great message and I would only support it I think it's actually a nice message to finish with but the very last one I want to ask is if there is anything that you would like to share before we finish,

Starting point is 00:49:23 or any final piece of advice or anything? I guess the final piece of advice is to make sure that you're defining success for yourself because I had that defined for me from a very young age. I'm not the only one. Most people are told they need to go to university. They need to do these things. They need to be married by a certain age. they need to work really hard to climb the corporate ladder.

Starting point is 00:49:52 And I think the beauty of entrepreneurship, although it's not, we don't see this in practice, but the true beauty of entrepreneurship is you get to define what success looks like for you. And I think that that can be really uncomfortable. But I would encourage everyone to really sit with that question, what does success look like for you? And be really honest with yourself. You know, does that look like three days a week working? Does that look like more time with loved ones?

Starting point is 00:50:22 Does that look like more time to sit quietly on your own and read and one? And whatever that goal is, that's your North Star and reverse engineer that until you're able to kind of get there. That's, I would say, the biggest piece of advice. If someone had given me that earlier, my life would have been a lot easier, but maybe I wouldn't have gotten here. So hindsight is an interesting. thing. But yeah, that's, I would say, my advice to everyone. Yeah, I really like it and I think it's very helpful to me too. And I think we can then finish. I want to say a big thank you, NAR. As I've been following you and enjoying your content. I'm very happy that you join me. And it's been a really nice conversation, some great takeaways. I like the stuff that you do and will be

Starting point is 00:51:08 excited to follow and support because it sounds like there are some exciting things ahead. So once again, thank you for joining me. And I wish you all the best. for the future. Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a pleasure to the chat today. Definitely a highlight of my week, so thank you so much. Thanks for listening to Produce By With Tomen. Check the show notes for all the links.

Starting point is 00:51:30 And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon.

Produced By - The System Is the Message: How Structure Became the Brand | 135: Noor V. Barrage

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