What I wanted to know is there are two things that matter, whether it's life or whether we are getting on our career journey.Number one thing is is the exposure. And exposure, what I want you to take away from it is possibilities. The more you see, the more you know what is possible in your journey, in your life. And then the second thing is role models. And often we look at our role models and we put them on a pedestal. But what I want you to take away from it, role models actually are not someone that we should be just seeing and thinking, oh, they are something outside of us. Role models are often reflecting back to us what our souls desires or inspires in them. So I see role models as mirror.

So think about there are about 8,000,000,000 people on this planet Earth. And if I were to ask you, pick two or three role models, who are these people that come to your mind? And the chances are the people that you pick, the qualities that you admire about them are the qualities that your soul is seeking to develop, foster within yourself. So So think about that for a second as we talk about more on what's on this journey. So the agenda today is going to be simple. I'm gonna talk about my story first. We all have a story, but my story is going to be about how I got on this journey and should give you a blueprint for you to get on your path of greatness.

So let's talk about couple key points. I turned 42 this year, and I can talk about so many different things. But what I wanted to highlight, few key milestones that were the defining moments for who I am, how did I become what I've become, and I'm still unfolding, blossoming into what I'm going to be in this lifetime. So I was born in Karachi, Pakistan and growing up in a society where not a lot of women were working, I had very limited role models. So going back to my earlier point, exposure was limited. Seeing role models, were limited. So growing up, I did not really know exactly what can I be or who can I be? But I knew that there was an inner knowing that there is a fire within me, and that fire was very hard to put into words back then what exactly it was.

But as I grew older, I realized I wanted to be a person of value. Titles, positions, those things don't define me, but I really wanted to see how can I create an impact? All these things came later on, but that was the first moment when I realized I don't see a lot of women around me, and I wanna change that for myself. Then came a turning point, around 30. What happens is, even if we know early on how do we wanna start our journey, we all get stuck with life and as things happen. So, got busy with schooling, got to high school, got married, had kids, and it didn't happen until I had my second daughter around 32.

That's when I realized I have a good life, good family, good support system, but there is still something that's not fulfilling. And what is it that's that's seeking my attention? And that was the time where I realized the outer success is no longer making me happy. And I remembered that feeling of creating impact, creating value. And full transparency, I started talking to therapists. I started talking to people around me. I'm like, what's wrong with me? This this apparently, everything is fine, but there is something deep inside that is seeking more. And that's why where my self discovery, the journey to self discovery started. I started meditating. I started talking to a lot of people that I call now my soul tribe, and that journey was going inward.

The more I went inward, the more I realized what I was seeking outside of me was always within me. And I can tell you now, the more I do the work on myself, all these things outside of me come directly to me. So instead of chasing, now I'm in a position of attracting. And that's where my journey for accelerated growth happened. This was a time and for full transparency here, so around when I am talking with Turning Point, I was a senior manager. And then from senior manager, I skipped head of security, director, all the other titles, and I became a CISO and then a CIO. And this is an ongoing journey. But what I would say two things that happened was, one, the intention of my energy, and second, how I started investing in others.

And those two things led to clarity, purpose, and alignment. And today, I can tell you, not only that I feel fulfilled, I feel so energized. Everyday, I feel like there's so much that I can do with my life, and how can I just keep unfolding and blossoming into what I am? You know, like, people often talk about, falling in love with with other people. This journey is falling in love with yourself, realizing would you have come here to acknowledge who you have been, who you are here to be, and that journey will lead to all the other things that you want in life. A good love story, a happy family, a fulfilling career, the impact, the value, whatever that is. So let's keep going, and then I'm gonna show you few other things. For all of you, congratulations for making this far. And if you haven't if you have made this far, what does that mean? You have all been persistent.

But then the second thing is if you are in this session, there is still more that your soul is desiring, and that means awareness. And if you have that awareness, I want you to ask this question. And please feel free to, I wanna see comments and stay on track. So tell me, what do you think is next on your leadership journey? While you guys send me some answers, I'm gonna get to the next slide. And often the common response I hear getting to the next level. Depending on where you are in your career, many people talk to me about, hey. How can I get to c level? Or how do I get a board position? Nothing wrong with it. But what if I tell you the better answer is portfolio of impact? What does that mean? I'll talk about that in a second.

But just open your mind to this possibility. And here are two things with that. When we limit ourselves to one position or having that linear approach, we are shrinking ourselves. What we were here what if we were here to do a lot more than what we think we can do? So let me show you something here. What if I tell you all that you can have it all? You can be an operator. You can be a board member. You can be an investor, entrepreneur, author, art artist, adviser, whatever you wanna name it. You can be all these things. And here's my portfolio of impact here. I'm not only a CIO and CISO. I write a lot. I advise many startups. I'm an investor in many, startups and big companies. I'm also a mother and five.

I'm a speaker, executive, and life coach. And why have I talked about many different things? Many times I see that we limit ourselves to put ourselves in a box, and that's where we also get into a situation where our soul knows that we have many gifts. But now we are trying to do just one thing, and we're like, how can we make that happen? So we are getting in our own way. And I see it as there are two, bubbles. If you can imagine two bubbles, one is our personal life, and second is our professional life. And we are often trying to talk about balance. It's like, how can I balance my personal life and then have my career and professional life where I can just go and then be an operator or I can do just one thing?

What I have done, I see these two bubbles and I've marched them. I am a mother and a wife, and I love these rules. However, I am more than that. I am all these other things as well. So I am not looking for balance. What I have done is I have aligned the two, and the keyword is alignment. So how do we get to that alignment? Let's talk about that. So for all of you who are thinking how can I have it all, it starts with going inward? And what does that mean? And I'm gonna talk about three things. One, clarity. Clarity is the why. Mission is the what. And strategy is how do I get to it. Let's talk about clarity for a second. All of you don't only give me a a title or a role or saying this is the next thing in my journey.

I want you to go deeper within yourself and ask yourself, what is the why behind your why? Why do you wanna do it? And I will talk about this in, I think, one of my last slides. Often, I see people do it for the wrong reason, but if you change the reasoning, everything else becomes a byproduct. Second, mission. So many of the people, struggle with, hey. What is the mission? How do I get, get to it? In simple English, what is your value to the world? And how do you decode that? Here are four questions that I want you to start asking. What comes naturally to me? What are my strengths? What brings joy to me? What keeps me going?

If you can answer these four things, you will start seeing pattern of things, which are your gifts, which bring you joy, are your strengths. And when you play to your strengths, you're unbeatable. And now let's talk about a strategy. So if you know why you're doing what you are doing and you understand the mission behind it, often people lack in a strategy. And a strategy could be what framework practices resonate with me. I have tried many different things in a lot of clients that I work with. One that stands out the most is this framework. It's called Ikigai. It's a Japanese concept, and it's very simple to understand. Right in the middle is the area we need to be. What you need to ask yourself is the first thing. What do I love?

When you think about what do you love, think about what comes to you as a passion and what also gives you a mission. So when you are happy and feeling fulfilled but there is no wealth, this is the intersection here. So you need to find something which is aligned with your passion and mission. But then the next question you need to ask yourself is what the world needs. When you combine your mission with vocation, you meet right here. So if you do only one, then again, you're excited and there's self approval but uncertainty. The third thing you need to be asking is, what do I love? What the world needs? What you can be paid for? And that's where you have to look at profession and vocation. And then the last one is what you are good at.

So when you figure out what you are good at, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you are naturally good at, that's when you come in the middle. And that is that is your sweetest spot. That is your strength, and that is going to get you going. So start your engine asking these questions and getting to this middle. Now to have it all, as I said earlier, we have to go inward to go upward. Many time I ask people what is success to you? Often they are like, well, I need more money, or I need influence, or I need fame. But what if I tell you, go after the impact. Go after what drives you. What's your mission, your strength? Everything else becomes a byproduct, and that's exactly what happened to me.

When I figured out what gets me going, what are my gifts, what are my strengths, and how do I align this to my mission, money, influence, fame, they all come to me. So now I'm attracting rather than chasing.