Deen & Sales

Shahryar Khan
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Deen & Sales is a podcast for Muslims who want to grow in their faith and in their sales careers, without compromising either. I’m Shahryar, an Account Executive in tech sales in Toronto. For years I’ve been trying to figure out what it looks like to be ambitious, close big deals, and build something meaningful while staying true to my deen. This podcast is where I share what I’m learning along the way. Some episodes are just me talking through an idea, a lesson from my own experience, or something from a book that changed how I think. Others are conversations with Muslims in sales and tech about their careers, their faith, and how they balance both. I strive to become the greatest version of myself and inspire others to do the same. If you’re on that same journey, I’d love for you to join me. shahryarkhan7.substack.com

  1. Sep 8

    Episode 14: You Are Only as Good as Your Problems

    Most of us grow up thinking that a good life is one with fewer problems. We all want less struggle, conflict, and discomfort, but the more I reflected on this over the last few years, the more I realised that it’s actually quite the opposite. The quality of our life is actually defined by the quality of the problems we solve across our lifetime. Meaningful problems point us towards progress, productivity, and overall societal gain: things like building a company, raising a family, or even just getting into shape. These problems help us become a bigger version of ourselves, and they pay us back in growth, meaning, and purpose. When we don’t have meaningful prompts to solve, something strange starts to happen… Our mind starts inventing prompts just to fill the space; constant worry about what other people think, feeling like a victim of circumstances that are actually in our control, and an overall sense of dissatisfaction with things that just don’t matter. These manufactured problems drain us without ever making us better, and the more comfortable our life becomes, the more our mind produces these sorts of problems if we don’t give our mind something real to work on. In this episode, I talk about the difference between problems worth solving and problems that our minds simply create that are meaningless, and why the happiest people I know have the hardest challenges. If you liked this episode, drop a like below, tell me what you’re thinking and subscribe if you haven’t already! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 14: You Are Only as Good as Your Problems

  2. Aug 24

    Episode 13: The Answer Is Smaller Than You Think

    For about eight months, I was feeling pretty sluggish, low energy, and just tired in a way that I couldn’t really explain. I’m normally the opposite. People who know me describe me as high energy. Self-motivated. Someone who doesn’t need convincing to work out or make things happen. But something was off. And I couldn’t figure out what. So I did what I usually do. I tried to fix it with big changes. More sleep. More cardio. Cleaner eating. Cutting sugar entirely. Nothing worked. Then one day I finally decided to just get a blood test. The results changed everything. What I thought was going to be some complicated diagnosis turned out to be a severe vitamin D deficiency, which is apparently very common in Canada. The fix cost me $30 or so. Two months later, I’m waking up without an alarm, working out consistently, and feeling more focused than I have in over a year. In this episode I talk about why we assume big problems need big solutions. Why the real answer is usually much smaller than we think. And how this shows up again and again in relationships, career, health, and every other area of life. If you’ve been stuck on something for months and you keep reaching for the big fix, this one is for you. The change might be much smaller than you’ve been telling yourself. If you liked this episode, drop a like below, tell me what you’re thinking and subscribe if you haven’t already! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 13: The Answer Is Smaller Than You Think

  3. Aug 10

    Episode 12: AI Is Giving You Permission You Never Needed

    For years, people thought that in order to be taken seriously online, they had to look polished with correct grammar and the perfect punctuation. This was the standard for LinkedIn posts, emails that you sent out, blog posts, and basically everything out there. Now, exactly the opposite is true. LinkedIn just launched a “Seems Like AI Slop” reporting feature because 40% of long-form posts on the platform are now fully AI-generated. People are now actually engaging with posts that look more like text message posts... unpolished, slightly imperfect, and clearly written by a human being and not AI. In this episode, I talk about what this actually means for all of us and why we have permission to stop performing and just truly be our real selves. If you’ve ever felt pressure to sound a certain way or hesitated to post just because your writing or your thoughts weren’t polished enough, that pressure is gone, and you can just be you! If you liked this episode, drop a like below, tell me what you’re thinking and subscribe if you haven’t already! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 12: AI Is Giving You Permission You Never Needed

  4. Jul 27

    Episode 11: You Don't Need Anything to Happen to Feel Good

    I went to the coffee shop this morning to sit and read, as I usually do every weekend. I felt really great. There was nothing special that happened, like any big win. The day before any milestone I’ve hit, it was just a Sunday morning with my coffee and my Kindle. Yet I felt really content, and this got me thinking about how strange this actually is. Most of the time, we treat feeling good like something we have to earn. We think of feeling good as this feeling we get that’s triggered by an outcome.And unless there is a specific outcome, we accept feeling bad or neutral as our default state of being. Here is the truth I have learned over the years… You don’t need something to happen to feel good. You never actually did. In this episode I break down what I’ve been learning about how we feel on a given day. And how we unconsciously set the bar too high to feel good and too low to feel bad. If you liked this episode, drop a like below, tell me what you’re thinking and subscribe if you haven’t already! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 11: You Don't Need Anything to Happen to Feel Good

  5. Jul 13

    Episode 10 - You Can't Plan Your Success

    We spend so much of our lives trying to plan our success. Believing that if we do the right things in the right order, the outcome we want will follow. With the world going on, there are so many examples of how success doesn’t actually work in that way, or success doesn’t always work in that way. In this episode I share what I’ve been thinking about while watching this World Cup. Four different stories from four very different players. Some of the greatest to ever play the game. And one you’ve probably only just heard of. Each of their journeys says something important about how success actually works, and why the people who plan the hardest are often the ones most disappointed by what they get. I also open up about my own long-running obsession with success and how I’ve been trying to unlearn some of the pressure I put on myself along the way. If you liked this episode, drop a like below, tell me what you’re thinking and subscribe if you haven’t already! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 10 - You Can't Plan Your Success

  6. Jul 3

    Episode 9 - Why You Keep Being Who You Don't Want to Be

    Most people spend their lives trying to change what they do. Trying to improve goals, routines and habits. But nothing sticks. Because underneath all of it is a belief they never think to question. The belief about who they are. In this episode I break down one of the most powerful ideas I’ve ever come across. It comes from Atomic Habits by James Clear and Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins. Your identity is the foundation for everything. Every goal you set, every habit you try to build, every version of yourself you try to become gets filtered through the belief you hold about who you already are. If that belief is stuck, nothing else can move. I talk about why we cling to negative identities even when they’re hurting us, why replacing an identity is much harder than we think, and how to build a new one that’s realistic enough to actually take hold. I also share a personal story from when I was younger about why I couldn’t stop eating sugar no matter how hard I tried, and the small identity shift that finally broke the pattern. If you’ve been trying to change something for years and it just isn’t working, this episode might explain why. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 9 - Why You Keep Being Who You Don't Want to Be

  7. Jun 24

    Episode 8 - Why I QUIT Instagram for 3 years...

    In 2020, during COVID, I decided to run an experiment. I’d been spending too much time on Instagram. Scrolling endlessly. Posting daily stories. Consuming content I couldn’t even remember an hour later. After watching The Social Dilemma, I decided something needed to change. Especially with Instagram. So I gave myself a challenge. Seven days without Instagram. No exceptions. After the week, I’d come back and see what I had actually missed. What happened next surprised me. In this episode, I share why one week away from Instagram turned into three years of deleting my account entirely, the conversations I had with myself about what social media actually adds to life, and how this decision shaped the way I think about every app on my phone today. If you’ve ever wondered whether you actually need the apps you’re spending hours on, this one is for you. Welcome back to the Inspiration Inc. podcast! If you liked this episode, drop a like below, tell me what you’re thinking and subscribe if you haven’t already! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 8 - Why I QUIT Instagram for 3 years...

  8. 06/27/2022

    Episode 7 - The path to "Winning"

    In this episode I talk about concept on the idea of winning mentioned by Tim Grover in the book "W1nning". The book is written with 13 principles that, where each principle is the basis of each chapter. There is one principle in particular that strongly resonated with me and which also seems to be one of the most controversial ones in the book. Tim says "Winning is not a marathon, it's a sprint with no finish line" Would you agree? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shahryarkhan7.substack.com

    Episode 7 - The path to "Winning"
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About

Deen & Sales is a podcast for Muslims who want to grow in their faith and in their sales careers, without compromising either. I’m Shahryar, an Account Executive in tech sales in Toronto. For years I’ve been trying to figure out what it looks like to be ambitious, close big deals, and build something meaningful while staying true to my deen. This podcast is where I share what I’m learning along the way. Some episodes are just me talking through an idea, a lesson from my own experience, or something from a book that changed how I think. Others are conversations with Muslims in sales and tech about their careers, their faith, and how they balance both. I strive to become the greatest version of myself and inspire others to do the same. If you’re on that same journey, I’d love for you to join me. shahryarkhan7.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Shahryar Khan
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Shahryar Khan
  • Show Website
    Deen & Sales