Episode 25: Be a Disaster AND a Master with Mahrukh Imtiaz

12/16/20 • 37 min

If you are the product of the five people you spend the most time with, then I am a product of Mahrukh Imtiaz. Mahrukh is part of my chosen family and, together with two others, we formed a group called Wednesday Wonders. By day, Mahrukh is the Project Manager for EY’s US Talent Specialist Team and a cricketer for the Canadian Women’s Cricket Team. But by night, she is a prolific content creator on TikTok. Mahrukh is dedicated to creating inspirational content that helps other people be the best version of themselves and the champions they want to be.

Mahrukh joins me today to describe the power of being a master and giving yourself permission to be a disaster. She shares what inspired her to start her journey as a content creator and explains why she chose to focus on TikTok over other social media platforms. She discusses what it means to NOT judge for your audience and highlights how she trains her brain to reframe anxiety into excitement. She also emphasizes the role of action in clarifying your life’s purpose and underscores the importance of sharing your story.

“Be a disaster AND a master at the same time. Having that mindset permits you to produce content without judging yourself.” - Mahrukh Imtiaz

This week on Life in the AND:

Taking control of your life and being open for what’s to come
Our tendency to expect results right away
Mahrukh’s TikTok journey and the importance of attention
What makes TikTok different from other social media platforms
The power of shifting your mindset towards allowing yourself to be imperfect
The impact of allowing yourself to become a master AND a disaster
How to be patient with the macro and hustle in the micro
My 90-day live journey and how you won’t know your message until you speak it
How imperfection can make you more relatable to people
The value of not judging for your audience
Training your brain to reframe anxiety into excitement and how they’re physiologically the same thing
The importance of sharing your perspective and story
How getting into action creates clarity and confidence in your life’s work
Beating worries over doing the wrong thing through having high intentions and low attachment to outcomes

Previous Episode

Encore: Niiamah Ashong (Episode 12)

Niiamah Ashong is a pioneer and outlier on a mission to create a world of true inclusion and empowerment. He is the founder and leader of the World of Joy Movement where he brings his vision of true inclusivity and diversity into life by helping leaders and organizations leverage their uniqueness and strength. Before embarking on leading this movement, Niiamah worked with AppNexus as a People Experience Consultant and a Senior Consultant for management services firm Deloitte Consulting. Today, Niiamah is a dear friend and kindred spirit who continues to inspire me on my mission.

Niiamah joins me today to discuss the Ands we need to create a world of true inclusion. He shares his vision of an inclusive world and explains how he was inspired to make this vision a reality. He explores the paradox of inclusion and exclusion and illustrates how we can become inclusive while maintaining our differences. He also emphasizes the role of outliers, trailblazers, and mavericks in a divisive and uncertain world, and explores the possibility of being fearful and still being authentic.

“ True inclusion is about being celebrated and valued for the things that make you different.” - Niiamah Ashong

This week on Life in the AND:

What inclusion means for Niiamah and why it’s more about difference than sameness
Creating a world of true inclusion and what it looks like in 2045
How innovation comes when people who are different from each other work together
The “Yes And” game and why And is a skill set that could be honed
Where Niiamah’s mission of creating an inclusive world started and how he came to realize it
How inclusion and exclusion go hand in hand, and how we can create a space of diversity that accepts outliers and trailblazers
The characteristics that make trailblazers, outliers, and mavericks, and what makes them important in a world of uncertainty
Self-identifying as an outlier and how we are alone and belonging at the same time
The difference between belonging versus fitting-in
The costs of owning authenticity and uniqueness and why trailblazing isn’t safe
Handling both sides of fear and what it means to be fearful and fear less at the same time

Connect with Niiamah Ashong:

Embrace Life in the AND

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Next Episode

Encoore: Sean Smith (Episode 24)

Sean Smith is someone whom I call a teacher, mentor, and a friend. He is a Neuro-Transformational Coach and Founder of the MVP Success Systems, through which he helps passionate people become successful and authentic life coaches. He recently penned And, a poem about independence, our country, and the world. It is a poem that reflects not only his ability to hold honest and uncomfortable conversations but also his desire to bridge the country’s social, political, and racial divides. Sean is a man on a mission to heal the world - and a person I am glad to have in my life.

In this episode, Sean and I discuss what it would take to create AND in a world of “us” versus “them,” of “we” and “the others.” We explore what could happen to a country if its citizens lived a life in the AND as well as discuss how our sense of belonging informs our decisions and beliefs. We explore the story of a young white supremacist whom Sean met when he was a probation officer, explain how we go into survival mode when our validity is threatened, and contemplate on how white people, including myself, benefit from racism even when we are not consciously racists. We also explore how powerful humanity can become when they acknowledge the existence of both light and dark within them.

“If we can live a life in the AND, if we can look at our differences from a place of love and compassion, all our divides would be healed.” - Sean Smith

This week on Life in the AND:

A reading from Sean’s poem, And
How we are born in the And before we get “Or’d”
What it means for the country when its citizens live a life in the AND
Lessons from improv’s “Yes, And...” game and our tendency to look for what’s different rather than what the similarities are between us
Healing the world’s greatest political divides through empathy and compassion
The pain of being ostracized in the Black community and the need for belonging
How certain conversations and environments force us into survival mode
The story of a young white supremacist and how our mortal fear of abandonment pushes us into bad decisions
Acknowledging that a person can NOT be racist and receive the benefits of racism at the same time
Contemplating on how I have perpetuated racism, whether consciously or unconsciously, as a white person
How we can have compassion for a person and not enable their toxic behavior
The difference between controlling and suppressing an emotion
William the Werewolf and how anger can be a productive emotion
The importance of committing to personal values over validation from other people
The relationship between knowing, trusting the self, and their relevance in politics
The power of humanity when they’re at their AND