I'm working with a coach on my personal brand right now.
One of the first things she sent me was a chart. 24 hours across the top. Seven days down the side. She said: fill in every hour with what you're actually doing — and assign a color to each identity.
Blue for dad. Black for sleeping. Red for husband. Green for entrepreneur.
I filled it in.
The blue was everywhere — more than I expected. School pickups, dinner time, homework help, putting the little one down, the moments between the moments. A lot of my day is being a dad.
The green was smaller than it felt.
That's the thing about this exercise. The way you experience time and the way you're actually spending time can be completely different. You feel like you've been grinding all day. Then you color it in and realize the grinding window was three hours. The rest was something else.
You can't optimize what you can't see.
I told Shelly about this on our call.
She laughed and said she uses the same concept with piano families.
She calls it the 168-hour chart. 168 hours in a week. She has parents fill it in: sleep, school, homework, sports, meals, getting ready, commuting. By the time they're done, the chart shows exactly what's left over.
A lot of parents come in saying they can't find time to practice. The chart usually proves them wrong — there are pockets. They're just not seeing them.
But sometimes it goes the other way. A family fills it in and realizes they've genuinely overbooked their kid. Four sports, two clubs, private lessons in three subjects. There's no room. Something has to give.
Either way, the picture becomes clear. And once it's clear, you can make a real decision.
I've been an entrepreneur for years. Podcaster for eight. Dad for sixteen.
But until I put it on a grid, I hadn't seen the ratio with that kind of honesty.
The chart doesn't judge. It just shows you what's there.
If you haven't done this with your week, try it. Pick four or five identities — the real ones, not the aspirational ones — and fill in where they actually live.
Then look at what color is missing.
The reason I'm working with a coach on this now is because I'm building something bigger than just a podcast or a software product. The superjunaid.com site is becoming a living portfolio — a place where all of it connects. The podcasting, the home studio work, the platform I built, the writing, the dad stuff.
But a portfolio only makes sense if you know what's in it.
The chart is how I start to know.
That's the funny thing about personal brand work.
Everyone wants to start with the logo or the tagline or the content strategy. But the real first step is just seeing yourself clearly.
What are you actually doing with your hours?
Color it in. Then we can talk.