Rana Shahbaz | Enjoying learning to simplify, automate & optimize life

Thank you for checking out my blog, I hope you are having a good day.

I’m enjoying learning to simplify, automate & continuously optimize my life and the lives of people around me to seek happiness, fulfilment & satisfaction.

Rana’s Story

The power of the Internet inspired me since I first started to use it in early 2000. You upload something on the Internet, and literally, the whole world can access it, this phenomenal power of the Internet always fascinated me.

I always believed that the Internet has levelled the playing field and success depends on your “GAME”.

However, I had two challenges in playing this game.

How to upload and manage content easily on the Internet
What to upload that can make the world a better place

Moving forward to 2009, I stumbled upon WordPress while looking to market my business online. WordPress solved my 1st problem, i.e. how to upload and maintain content easily on the Internet.

I loved WordPress so much that I started a WordPress agency, which has now taken over my other business.

However, like most solopreneurs, I struggled with:

After years of trial and error, I learned that all ideas are great usually, and inspiration + lifelong learning is = mastery.

Also, online success is the by-product of doing something remarkable. I have shared my years of blogging learnings in this simple content management plan, which finally solved my second problem, i.e. what to upload that can make the world a better place.

My Three Steps Formula to Achieve Better Results

Following three steps formula always works for me to solve any problem I’m facing or needs to improve anything in my life.

Step 1. Simplification

Step 2. Automation

Step 3. Continuous optimization

For example, I stayed fit by playing regular cricket throughout my life. However, since I stopped playing cricket for the last couple of years, I was struggling to work out regularly & I’m not a gym person.

This is how this formula helped me overcome this problem in my life.

Step 1. There were numerous options, however, I picked cycling to keep it simple.

Step 2. Automated it once a week every Sunday between 10.00 am – 2.00 pm.

Step 3: My first ride was 10KM & I was knackered for several days. However, I kept optimizing it regularly with better gears, improved cycling tracks & increased mileage. At the time of writing this, it has been over a year now and my best ride so far is 62KM & I do 40KM once a week without any problem. On top of that, I have lost over 6KG weight without any other major lifestyle changes.

How this formula is helping me in blogging?

Step 1. I aim to write at least 500 words every day.

Step 2. Automated it by dedicating my first hour of the day to blogging/content creation for my business.

Step 3: Because of this simple & automated blogging formula, most of my daily energies are spent on optimizing my blogging. I don’t have the exact numbers, however, I can safely say this formula helped me write at least 50,000 words in the last 12 months.

Being intentional and consistent are the foundation of this process.

My Guiding Principles

Treat others as you would like to be treated
If my people (team, customers, family & friends) are growing I’m growing
Learners are the earners
Everything is figure it out able
Systems are the key to achieve goals
Don’t forget to enjoy the journey

My Dream Team

I’m a strong believer that “teamwork is a dream work.”

My dream team is a small team with a big impact.

Working together towards a common vision
Have empathy for each other
Enjoy learning & growing together
100% responsible for their own success
Believe that everything is figured it out able
Respect the systems
Have fun on the journey

I’m so blessed to have an amazing team around me. Without my team’s hard work and support, I would not be able to accomplish anything significant.

My Work

I believe if you are inspired and have a lifelong learning mindset anything is possible to achieve in life.

Blogging is my passion, and the central question I explore while marketing my businesses is, “How can you blog better with a lifelong learning mindset?”

To answer this question, I explore ideas and try to explain them to simplify blogging.

Results bread happiness, fulfilment and satisfaction.

On this blog, you’ll find me writing about:

Please note, most of the concepts I write about aren’t my own. I’m a lifelong learner and enjoy sharing what I learned through continuous learning.

My Inspirations

I’m a curious person and seek inspiration from all fields of life and try to share the best ideas in an easy to understand, simple, and actionable way.

My Childhood Cricketing Inspirations

Imran Khan: He is retired from Pakistan’s national cricket team, captain and led Pakistan’s cricket team to World Cup Cricket victory in 1992. He has also become the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2018 after 22 years of political struggle.

His confidence of winning in any situation and against any team always inspired me.

Sir Vivan Richard: He is the retired West Indian’s national cricket team’s captain and is regarded as one of the greatest and destructive batsmen of all time.

Growing up watching his fearless batting without wearing a protective helmet always inspired me to improve my game.

Martin Crow: He was a New Zealand cricket team’s captain as well as a commentator. He played for the New Zealand national cricket team between 1982 and 1995 and is regarded as one of the country’s greatest batsmen.

His courage of helping his team single-handedly to victory was an amazing inspiration.

My Personal Development Inspirations

Jack Canfield: He is an author, motivational speaker, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur. He is the co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which has more than 250 titles and 500 million copies in print in over 40 languages.

He is my first personal development mentor, and I learned a lot about personal development from him since I started my personal development journey.

Simon Sinek: He is the author of multiple best-selling books, including Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together is Better, and The Infinite Game and an unshakable optimist.

I stumbled upon his Ted Talk, How great leaders inspire action back in 2010, which changed how I think and communicate forever.

James Clear: He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, which has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.

His work helped me immensely over the years to simplify and optimize all aspects of my life by improving small daily habits.

My Business Inspirations

Michael E. Gerber: Inc. Magazine calls him “the World’s #1 Small Business Guru” — the entrepreneurial and small business thought leader who has impacted the lives of millions of small business owners and hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide for over 40 years.

He is the author of the NY Times mega-bestseller, for two consecutive decades, “The E-Myth Revisited” and nine other worldwide best-selling E-Myth books concerning small business entrepreneurship, leadership, and management.

I was lucky to read The E-Myth Revisited at the start of my entrepreneurial journey, which always helped me to create and improve systems to run my businesses.

Matt Mullenweg: He is the co-founder of open-source software WordPress, which has democratized the digital publishing industry. Over 39% of the web is built on WordPress at the time of writing this.

Matt Mullenweg - Co Founder of WordPress — Matt Mullenweg – Co-Founder of WordPress

WordPress is an inspiring piece of open-source software, which has changed many lives in the last few years for good.

Brian Gardner: Brian is the founder of Studio Press Themes, which is now acquired by WP Engine. WordPress & Genesis Framework has impacted my life greatly in the last decade. I got the chance to meet Brian at the Word Camp US 2019 to share my gratitude.

I asked him the following questions:

What inspired him about WordPress?
How WordPress has impacted his life?
What is his best advice to those who are just starting their career with WordPress?
What is his best advice to finish the WordPress website project efficiently?

Syed Balkhi: He is an award-winning entrepreneur. He was recognized as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by the United Nations. Over 15+ million websites use the software built by his companies.

Syed is an inspiration on how to build and grow software businesses for all WordPress community and entrepreneurs.

Joost de Valk: He is a founder of the Yoast SEO plugin, which is one of the most popular plugins in the WordPress plugin repository with over 9 million downloads.

In this short interview, I have asked Joost the following questions:

1. What inspired him about WordPress?

2. How did WordPress and Yoast SEO plugin changed his life?

3. How did he get the idea to build a Yoast SEO Plugin?

4. What is his best advice for those who have the plugin idea and looking to build a WordPress plugin?

Yoast SEO plugin is an inspiration on how to create a solution in the WordPress ecosystem.

My Blogging Inspirations

Chris Brogan: He is a sought after keynote speaker and the New York Times bestselling author of nine books and counting.

He is one of the first bloggers I followed when I started my online journey and learned the solid blogging fundamentals.

Brian Clark: He is the founder and CEO of Copyblogger, host of Unemployable, and curator of the midlife reinvention newsletter Further.

“Copyblogger is the bible of content marketing.” – VentureBeat

Copyblogger started as a simple one-man blog and evolved into a highly 8 figures in annual revenue company.

Brian achieved this success using the power of useful content, smart copywriting and exceptional products and services. He didn’t use any advertising, venture capital or outbound sales team to grow his businesses.

He is an inspiration on how to build a lean business using the power of online content marketing.

Seth Godin: He is the best selling author, entrepreneur, speaker and most of all, a teacher. In addition to launching one of the most popular blogs in the world, he has written 19 best-selling books.

In 2013, Seth was one of just three professionals inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. In an astonishing turn of events, in May 2018, he was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame as well. He might be the only person in both.

Seth is an inspiration for effective marketing, how to spread ideas and leadership.

Neil Patel: He is a Co-founder of Neil Patel Digital. New York Times bestselling author, top 100 entrepreneurs under 30 by Obama, and top 10 marketers by Forbes.

Neil is an inspiration for all youngsters out there on how to turn your challenges into your strengths. He achieved great success online in the last decade by taking 100% responsibility for his success.

Mehdi: He is a weight lifter, strength trainer and the founder of Stonglifts.com. Since 2007, he has been helping people with their training, technique, nutrition and motivation.

Mehdi is an inspiration for turning your passion into a fantastic online business by creating and managing content exceptionally well to build authority and dominate the rankings in SERPs.

Do you need ideas to simplify blogging to grow your business?

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