LinkedIn Top Voice 2024 | Building LinkedIn (content+outreach) engines that make founders visible, credible & booked, every week | Ghostwriter | Personal Branding Strategist

Let’s make your LinkedIn a flex, and your most profitable GTM channel. 

Drop a line, and we’ll build something worth talking about. 

Best part, it shouldn't take more than 30 mins/week.

Reach out via DMs or connectdiksha99@gmail.com! 

Diksha Burnwal

You think you got Opus 4.6 and now you can replace, exchange, return your writer. Hold my kombucha.  

Sure you can prompt a few things and make Claude or Chatgpt spit long paragraphs that have the resemblance of a linkedin post and then you see, wow it performed decently. 

And start typing, "I replaced my ghostwriting team with Claude." Good for you, but you don’t just hire a writer to write. 

You hire them to understand: 

- Your business
- Your way of speaking, pacing, sentence structures
- The right anecdotes that can build or break your brand 
- The pattern recognition 
- The storytelling that makes your customers remember you

Offlate writers are being treated as "just writers” especially by founders and C-suites. They think let’s replace them. 

On the other hand there are tech giants, and the biggest companies out there paying hundreds of thousands to find their Chief Storytelling Officer and surprise surprise they aren’t looking for Chatgpt 10.0 or Claude Opus IDK. 

They’re hiring writers, writers who know what they’re doing. And the value they bring to the table. 

Also kombucha because I hate beer. You get the drift right?

I have been on a mission to regain my attention span. And here's everything that I have been doing-

Fox context: I wouldn't call myself an addict, but when you work in the social media space and you are chronically online it just makes the matter a whole lot worse. So... 

1. Reading fiction and in general reading more. It's been 2 weeks now and I already see a higher clarity and more intentional writing. You consume rich, you create rich. Simple. 

2. Putting my phone on grayscale. So, I'm not the kid in the candy store looking at colorful candies. 

3. Stopped consuming short form content. Better for impluse control and getting out of the cycle of receiving cheap dopamine hits. I am focusing more on reading substack articles, YT videos, and more. 

4. Keeping my phone away while I'm working. It gets 10X easy when you don't have a distracting af device at an arms length. 

BONUS: Started watching Ghibli movies, they're so pretty and doesn't overstimulate your brain. 

The whole reason why I'm running this experiment is to make more time and energy to do things I always wanted to instead of being on autopilot. 

And eventually being able to truly live analog. 

I'm curious what do you do to protect your attention span? And what has actually worked? Let's talk in the comments.

If I wasn’t worried about hurting your feelings, here’s the personal branding advice I’d actually give you:

10. If someone can’t tell what you do and who you serve in the first 3 seconds of viewing your profile, you’re losing leads.

9. Your banner is prime real estate. Use it to signal authority, with a clear value prop, a result, or social proof. 

 8. “Founder | Dreamer | Innovator” tells me nothing. “Helping D2C brands 3x retention via lifecycle emails” tells me everything.

7. Your ‘About’ section isn’t for you. It’s for the reader. Write like you’re answering: Why should someone trust me, follow me, or reach out?

6. One post a month won’t move the needle. If you’re serious about inbound and oppurtunities, show up at least twice a week, with intention. 

5. People don’t buy from the loudest voice. They buy from the clearest one. Show your thinking, your process, your results.

4. Thoughtful comments build visibility and reputation faster than cold DMs. Most people ignore this. You shouldn’t.

3. You don’t need to go “viral.” You need the right 100 people to trust you. 

2. Even a simple text post can convert. If it sounds like you, and carries a point of view. 

1. LinkedIn is a leadership channel. If you're not shaping perception here, someone else will do it for you, with less context and more assumptions. 

There you go! Peace out :)

No alternative text description for this image

Running a business is not one emotion. 

It’s a thousand layered on top of each other. 

Some days are heavy. Some knock the wind out of you.
And then there are days that remind you exactly why you chose this path. Days that fuel you so deeply that even the hardest nights feel worth it. 

This week was all of it. A full plate of flavors.
The chili, the spice, the sweet, the umami. 

On the chili side, there were 2 net negative moments that did pushed me to the corner.   

But then the sweet showed up. Twice.
An old client reached out after 2 years to say, “We worked so well together, I want to connect you with someone who’ll truly benefit from what you do.”   

And a one-time project that was supposed to end turned into something more. The client told me, “You nailed my tone perfectly. How can we work together in the future?” 

Those are the moments you breathe a little deeper and think, yes, this is it. This is why I’m doing this.

Owning a business means showing up no matter which flavor the week serves you.

And this week, I tasted them all.

I have been a writer for the last half a decade of my life. And as a service provider, you have to make peace with these 8 things. 

TW: they might stink a lil. 

1. Happy clients leave all the time. It’s not on you. 

2. If your mechanism is to doubt your own skillset even after considerable proof you have a self esteem issue there. Fix it. 

3. If you do not speak up, you’ll be taken for granted by your clients. 

4. Learn to overcommunicate. You're not being too much.  

5. Saying no to bad-fit clients is how you make room for the right ones. 

6. Your rate is not up for debate.

7. Nobody is coming to organize your business for you. The admin is part of the job.

8. The client who haggles the most will also be the hardest to please. 

That’s all <3 

Stay hydrated.

I’m gonna get a lot of hate for saying this, but every creator out there is a little bit of a narcissist.

Honestly, you kind of have to be.

You have to believe that what’s happening in your life is worth paying attention to. That the small, ordinary things you experience carry meaning that deserves to be said out loud.

Most people don’t think like that. They live, move on, forget.

Creators pause. They replay things in their head, trying to understand what it says about them, about the world, about the work they do.
And no that’s not arrogance, that’s awareness.

But awareness looks a lot like self-obsession if you don’t know how to use it.

So, if you’re someone who wants to post online but doesn’t know what to say, you don’t need a new content strategy. You just need to start noticing your own day differently. 

Here’s what I mean: 

(1) You’re a founder. Your product glitched. You sat with your team, found the bug that’s been hiding in plain sight, and fixed it. That’s a post about leadership and problem-solving.

(2) You’re a coach. A client finally had that breakthrough you’ve been working toward. Write about what shifted, that’s a post about transformation.

(3) You’re a service provider. A client ghosted you, and you figured out what red flag you missed early on. That’s a post about boundaries and systems.

(4) You’re a marketer. You launched a campaign that tanked. That’s a post about feedback loops and creative judgment.

(5) You had a hard day managing your team. That’s a post about people, emotions, and trust.

(6) You read something that challenged what you believed. That’s a post about growth.

The ideas aren’t hiding in some fancy framework. They’re sitting in the middle of your own day, waiting for you to notice them.

So yes, maybe every creator is a little bit of a narcissist. But the good ones turn that self-focus into something useful for others.

And that’s what separates a post from a reflection, it starts with you, but it doesn’t end there. 

Thoughts??

Hi, I’m Shobana.

Before I started building business systems, I worked in biotechnology research.

My job was studying how complex biological systems behave and how to fix what isn’t working.

One of the areas I worked on was drug discovery for PCOS, where a single imbalance in a system can create widespread problems.

And that’s when I realized something interesting.

Businesses behave the same way.

When the backend systems are messy

Everything starts breaking.

- Customer support piles up.
- The team keeps asking questions.
- Founders get stuck in operations instead of growing the business.

So I shifted from studying "biological systems" to building "business systems."

Today I work as an Online Business Manager (OBM), helping founders step out of daily operations by creating simple, scalable backend systems.

I primarily work with:

• coaches
• creators
• digital product businesses

to streamline operations through:

• systems
• automations
• project management
• team coordination
• operational strategy

So the business runs smoothly - without the founder doing everything.

So far, I’ve:

• Worked with 55+ digital businesses
• Built systems that save founders 10+ hours every month
• Managed remote teams of 5–10 members
• Set up operational infrastructure using Notion, Airtable, Zapier, Slack & GoHighLevel

Some examples:

1️⃣ Wellness Business - Streamlined backend operations and customer workflows to reduce manual support and improve client experience.

2️⃣ Digital Marketing Agency - Built a centralized Notion workspace for projects, SOPs, and team collaboration.

3️⃣ Business Coach - Set up automations for onboarding, customer access, and communication — eliminating repetitive manual work.

4️⃣ Growing Digital Businesses - Supported hiring, onboarding, and team management systems to help founders scale with the right structure.

What founders usually tell me:

1. “Everything finally feels organized.”
2. “My team knows exactly what to do now.”
3. “I finally have time to focus on growth.”

If your business is growing, but your backend systems feel chaotic

Let’s fix that.

Book a Backend Systems Audit Call

https://calendly.com/shobanaayyachamy/backend-systems-audit-call-with-shobana

Shobana Ayyachamy

There’s a role in every business that prevents collapse, and almost no one talks about it.


 
This is an appreciation post for ops specialists who work quietly.

The ones who:
- Prevent chaos before it becomes visible
- Catch gaps before they become crises
- Clarify ownership before confusion spreads
- Make leadership easier without needing credit

They’re rarely the face of the brand.

- They’re not announcing launches.
- They’re not writing visionary threads.
- They’re not “building in public.”

But behind the scenes?

They’re:
- Following up when things stall
- Translating vision into timelines
- Holding structure when emotions rise
- Noticing patterns, no dashboard will show

I’ve been in rooms where everything looked smooth.

- Launches running
- Clients are happy
- Revenue growing

And I knew exactly who was holding it together.

Not with noise.
Not with ego.
But with quiet competence.

Sometimes that operator is an OBM.
Sometimes a COO.
Sometimes, a senior team member who deeply understands the system.

And often, they don’t get applause.

Because when operations work well,
nothing dramatic happens.

No fires.
No escalations.
No public hero moments.

Just steadiness.

This work matters.

Even when it’s invisible.
Especially when it’s invisible.

So here’s to the ops specialists who:
- Build clarity.
- Protect energy.
- Reduce dependency.
- And make leadership feel lighter.

You are the quiet backbone of sustainable growth.

If your backend feels steady, who made that possible?

#appreciationpost

Shobana  Ayyachamy

FOUNDERS: Escape Backend Chaos With Simple Systems & Automations | OBM For Coaches & Digital Businesses | 55+ Global Clients | DM “AUDIT” To Book Your Backend Systems Audit 👇🏼

The calm you’re looking for isn’t hiding inside a new tool.

Every time operations start to feel messy,
The first instinct is usually:

“Maybe we need better software.”

- A new CRM.
- A new project management tool.
- A more advanced dashboard.

And for a few weeks, it feels better.

- Cleaner interface.
- Fresh setup.
- New automations.

But then the same tension returns.

Because tools don’t create calm.

Design does.

I care far less about which software you use
and far more about:
- Who owns what
- How decisions flow
- What gets escalated and what doesn’t
- What happens when you’re offline

If your team still waits for approval,
If decisions funnel back to you,
If nothing moves unless you’re watching

No tool will fix that.

You don’t have a software gap.
You have a structure gap.

Tools execute.

Design determines independence.

And calm only appears when ownership is clear enough
that the business doesn’t need your constant supervision.

That’s when Slack gets quieter.
That’s when meetings get shorter.
That’s when you stop feeling mentally “on” all the time.

Calm isn’t installed.

It’s architected.

If you removed yourself for 48 hours, what would stall?

The best leadership lesson I keep seeing, across every team I work with:


Clarity is kindness.

To your team.
And to yourself.

It sounds simple, but I’ve watched how much tension in businesses actually comes from the absence of clarity.

I remember working with a founder who kept saying,
“My team is capable… I just don’t understand why things keep stalling.”

When we looked closer, the problem wasn’t effort.

The team didn’t know:
- who actually owned certain decisions
- what “done” looked like
- when they should move forward versus ask for approval
So they hesitated.

Not because they lacked skill.
Because they didn’t want to get it wrong.

I’ve seen the same pattern in smaller moments too.

A founder says,
“Take ownership of this.”

But inside their mind, they still have a very specific expectation of how it should happen.

The team doesn’t see that expectation.
So they move in a different direction.

Then the founder steps in and corrects it.

And slowly the team learns:
Better to ask first.

That’s where clarity becomes kindness.

Because when expectations stay unspoken, everyone starts guessing.

- Teams second-guess their decisions.
- Founders feel like they’re carrying everything.
- And simple tasks start to feel heavier than they should.

Clarity changes the atmosphere of a team.

When people know:
- what they’re responsible for
- what success looks like
- what decisions they can make without checking
something shifts.

Conversations get shorter.
Work moves faster.
And the founder doesn’t have to hold everything in their head anymore.

That’s why, in almost every business I step into, the first step isn’t adding new tools.

It’s simply bringing clarity back into the room.

Because clarity doesn’t just improve performance.

It gives people breathing space.

And that’s a quiet form of kindness we don’t talk about enough.

Where in your business could more clarity remove tension right now?

Productivity isn’t a discipline problem.

For the longest time, I thought it was.

If I felt behind, I assumed I needed better habits.
Better planning.
More discipline.

Maybe wake up earlier.
Maybe use a better productivity app.
Maybe just “focus harder.”

But over time, especially while balancing motherhood and my OBM work I realized something important.

The problem usually wasn’t discipline.

It was the system.

There were seasons where my days felt fragmented.

- A baby needing attention.
- Client messages coming in.
- Team questions waiting for answers.
- Multiple moving parts across projects.

And in those moments, no productivity hack could fix the real issue.

Because everything still depended on me.

Every decision.
Every clarification.
Every “quick approval.”

I see the same pattern with founders I work with.

They say things like:
“I just need to manage my time better.”
“I need to be more productive.”

But when we look closely, the real issue is different.

- The team waits for them.
- Decisions bottleneck.
- Ownership is fuzzy.

So their brain is constantly switching context, holding everything together.

And that kind of load isn’t solved with a new planner.

It’s solved with better design.

Clear ownership.
Decision pathways.
Systems that keep moving even when the founder steps away.

Because productivity isn’t about squeezing more output from yourself.

It’s about removing the invisible dependencies that keep pulling you back in.

Once the system changes, something interesting happens.

Work feels lighter.

Not because you became more disciplined.

But because the business stopped needing your attention for everything.

What in your business still depends on your input more than it should?

I’m a hardcore systems person but motherhood humbled me real quick.

When I had my baby, it honestly felt like all my systems just collapsed.

Everything I had carefully built stopped working.
My routines, my workflows, my structure - all of it.

And suddenly, I had to rebuild everything.
But this time, around my life. Around my baby.

Even while writing this, I checked on her twice.

That’s just how it is now.

And it made me realise something important:

Your business isn’t static.
It has its own ebbs and flows - just like life.

What worked in one season won’t always work in the next.

And if your systems aren’t built to support your current reality,
they don’t just feel messy

They break.

And when I say “systems,” I don’t just mean tools and tech.

I mean:
- the way your work flows
- the clarity your team has
- the support you allow yourself to receive

Because just like it takes a village to raise a baby

It takes a village to run a business that doesn’t burn you out.

If your backend feels like it’s barely holding together right now,
you don’t need to work harder.

You need systems that actually support this version of your life.

Comment or DM me “AUDIT" and I’ll walk you through a FREE backend systems audit.

#obm #systems #motherhood

Founder: “Why isn’t the team proactive?”
Also founder: Approves every decision.

I see this more often than people admit.

A founder wants initiative. Ownership. Independent thinking.

But at the same time:
- Every decision routes back to them
- Every draft needs approval
- Every experiment needs permission
- Every mistake gets corrected immediately

And slowly, something happens.

The team stops taking risks.
They stop deciding.
They wait.

Not because they lack capability.
But because the system teaches them that safety lives in approval.

Autonomy can’t exist without trust.
But trust alone isn’t enough.

Autonomy also requires structure.

Clear decision rights.
Defined ownership.
Agreed on review rhythms.
Boundaries around when to escalate — and when not to.

Without that structure, “be proactive” becomes confusing advice.

Because proactive about what?
With what authority?
At what level of risk?

When autonomy fails, it’s rarely a motivation problem.

It’s usually a design problem.

Teams mirror the systems they’re placed inside.

If everything still points back to the founder,
initiative will always shrink.

Real proactiveness isn’t encouraged through words.

It’s designed into the operating system.

Where in your business does everything still funnel back to you?

“Do I need an OBM or a VA?”
 Is usually the wrong question.


A founder once asked me this after months of feeling overwhelmed.

She already had support.

- Tasks were getting done.
- Emails were answered.
- Systems were set up.

And yet she still felt stuck.

Every decision routed back to her.
The team waited for approvals.
She kept saying, “I’ll just do it — it’s faster.”

On paper, nothing was broken.

But the business still depended on her.
That’s when the distinction became clear.

If tasks are the problem → you need a VA.
If decisions and dependency are the problem → you need operational leadership.

A VA executes within a structure.
An OBM designs the structure.

A VA asks, “What would you like me to do?”
An OBM asks, “Why does this still require you?”

Neither role is “better.”
They solve different problems.

But most founders wait too long to make the shift.

They keep adding support
when what they actually need
 is clarity around:
- Who owns what
- Who decides what
- What no longer requires founder approval
- How execution flows without supervision

And until that shift happens, the business grows, but dependency grows with it.

The real question isn’t: “Do I need more help?”
It’s: “Why does this still depend on me?”

What still funnels back to you daily?

#obm #onlinebusinessmanager

Most founders don’t realize how often their business still depends on them.

Not because the team isn’t capable.
But because the system quietly keeps pointing back to them.

Over the years, working as an OBM, I’ve seen a pattern.

A founder hires great people.
Sets up tools.
Documents processes.

And yet…

Every few hours, someone still asks:
- “Can you take a quick look at this?”
- “What do you think we should do here?”
- “Just need your approval before we move.”

The founder isn’t trying to control everything.

They’re just trying to keep things moving.

So they step in.

Again and again.

And slowly, the business learns something:

The founder is the safest place to land.

That’s what creates dependency.

Not incompetence.
Not laziness.

Just a system that keeps routing decisions upward.

When we start redesigning operations for founders, we usually focus on three things first.

1. Clarify decision rights

Teams often hesitate because they don’t know what they’re allowed to decide.

Once people understand:
- what they own
- what they can decide
- what actually needs escalation

Things move much faster.

Not because people changed.
Because clarity did.

2. Install weekly review rhythms

Without structured check-ins, founders feel like they need to monitor things constantly.

- So they stay in Slack.
- They check every update.
- They jump into conversations.

Weekly review rhythms change that.

The team knows when things will be reviewed.
The founder gets visibility without hovering.

And the day-to-day pressure reduces.

3. Stop being the safety net
This one is the hardest.

Founders often jump in to protect quality.

“I’ll just fix it quickly.”
 “I’ll handle this one.”

But every time that happens, the team learns:

If something feels risky, wait for the founder.

Removing the safety net doesn’t mean abandoning the team.

It means allowing ownership to fully transfer.

Because businesses don’t become independent through motivation.

They become independent through design.

Where does your team still wait for you to move things forward?

#adhd #founders #obm

Postpartum taught me something unexpected about emotional regulation.

For the longest time, I believed emotional regulation was a solo skill.

Give me a journal.
A quiet corner.
Some meditation.

And I’d usually find my way back to balance.

But life looks very different right now.

I have a 10-month-old baby.

Life seems to take twists and turns every other week.

And in between, I’m managing work, household chores, and motherhood.

Some days my emotions feel intense.

Extreme anger.
Extreme sadness.
Extreme happiness.

When I started reading more about postpartum, I realized something important:
a lot of this is biological too. The hormonal crash women go through after childbirth is very real.

But lately, I’ve been noticing something else.

Even on days when I feel emotionally all over the place… I’m still able to show up.

Show up for work.
Show up for my baby.
Show up for life.

And I realized it’s not just because of journaling or meditation.
It’s because of the support system around me.

My parents who care for my baby while I attend meetings and do my OBM work.
My colleagues who, despite working virtually, check in on me emotionally almost every day.
My husband who never hesitates to take on household chores, especially on weekends when I’m caring for the baby alone.

For the longest time, I thought emotional regulation had to happen in isolation.

But I’m learning something new:

Sometimes regulation doesn’t happen alone.

Sometimes it happens through co-regulation through people who hold space for you when your nervous system feels overwhelmed.

And honestly…
That kind of support changes everything.

What’s one form of support that has helped you regulate during a difficult season of life?

#motherhood #postpartum

You can’t bring calm into a chaotic business if you’re chaotic inside.

My routine isn’t about hustle.

It’s not about waking up at 5AM to “win the day.”
It’s not about squeezing productivity out of every hour.

It’s about protecting clarity.

Because I’ve learned something the hard way:

If I walk into a chaotic environment dysregulated,
I amplify it.

And I work with founders in high-pressure seasons.
- Launch weeks.
- Team conflicts.
- Revenue dips.
- Overloaded Slack channels.

I’ve been on calls where:
- A founder is anxious and speaking fast
- A team member feels misunderstood
- Deadlines are slipping
- Everyone is slightly reactive

In those moments, systems alone don’t fix anything.

What stabilizes the room is regulated thinking.

And that doesn’t happen by accident.

Over time especially while building my work alongside motherhood
I realized I couldn’t operate from constant urgency.

There were seasons where:
- My time was fragmented
- My attention was pulled in different directions
- My energy wasn’t unlimited

So I had to become intentional.

Not about doing more.

But about thinking clearly.

My routine now protects:
- Quiet thinking time
- Decision space
- Emotional neutrality
- Reflection before reaction

Because ops leadership isn’t just about:
- Dashboards.
- Ownership charts.
- SOP libraries.

It’s about holding structure when emotions rise.

It’s about hearing “I’ll just do it — it’s faster”
and responding with design, not pressure.

It’s about seeing where dependency is forming
without absorbing the anxiety around it.

Ops leadership starts with regulated thinking.

If I want to design calm systems, I must first embody calmness.

Structure outside begins with structure inside.

When chaos increases, do you speed up or slow down?

#motherhood #routine #obm

TOUGH LOVE: If everything waits for you, you don’t own a business - you own a job.

I didn’t start as a “strategic OBM.”

I started by managing tasks.
- Checking things off.
- Setting up tools.
- Organizing folders.
- Making sure nothing slipped.

Then I moved into managing projects.
- Timelines.
- Launch calendars.
- Follow-ups.
- Making sure the moving parts didn’t collide.

Then I started managing people.
- Delegation.
- Accountability.
- Holding meetings.
- Making sure work actually got done.

At each stage, I got better at execution.

But something kept bothering me.

Even when everything was “set up”…
the business still depended on the founder.

I remember one ex-client I reconnected with recently.
Years ago, I had built her beautiful systems.
Documented workflows.
Recorded tutorials.
Cleanly offboarded.

When I asked her how they were working, she said:
“Honestly, I didn’t use them.”

That moment shifted everything for me.
Because the problem wasn’t the systems.

It was dependency.

I also kept seeing founders say:
“I’ll just do it — it’s faster.”

And they weren’t wrong.
It was faster.

But the business kept routing back to them.
That’s when I realized:
My real value wasn’t execution.
It was removing dependency.

Not just building SOPs.
But defining ownership.

Not just setting up tools.
But redesigning decision flow.

Not just managing tasks.
But making sure things moved without the founder.

That’s the difference between support and leadership.
Execution keeps things running.

Operational design changes how the business runs.
And that shift from doing work to removing reliance is what turned me into a strategic OBM.

At what stage is your business right now - execution or dependency removal?

The hardest part of ops isn’t systems.

It’s holding structure when emotions run high.

Systems are the easy part.

- You can map workflows.
- Build dashboards.
- Document processes.
- Set up automations.

But none of that matters if the moment pressure rises,
structure collapses.

And pressure always rises.

- Anxious founders before a launch.
- Overloaded team members are missing deadlines.
- Unspoken expectations that were never clarified.
- Silent resentment is building under the surface.

This is where operations either hold or fracture.

Because operational clarity isn’t just logic.
It’s emotional intelligence.

It’s noticing when a founder says,
“I’ll just handle it,”
and understanding that it’s fear, not efficiency.

It’s recognizing when a team member is stuck
not because they’re incapable,
But because ownership was never clearly transferred.

It’s holding boundaries calmly
When urgency tries to override structure.

The real work of ops isn’t controlling chaos.
It’s staying steady inside it.

Structure isn’t rigid.
It’s a stabilizer.

And in high-growth businesses,
The person holding the structure often becomes the emotional regulator too.

That’s not talked about enough.

Operational leadership isn’t just systems thinking.
It’s people awareness.
And without that, no process survives pressure.

What usually breaks first in your business - systems or communication?

Online Business Manager for Founders | Helping Successful Founders step out of Daily Chaos to focus on their Creative Vision | Worked with 55 Clients

I came across something this week that genuinely shifted how I see motherhood.


A few days ago, I found Dar Bordiny here on LinkedIn.

Her bio intrigued me, so I started a conversation.

That led me to her motherhood community and newsletter, and I joined immediately.

In one of her newsletters, she wrote something that stopped me.

It was about how motherhood builds skills at an accelerated pace:
- Communication
- Emotional regulation
- Logistics
- Teaching
- Problem solving
- Adaptability

And I just sat there for a moment.

Because most of what we hear about motherhood is what it takes away.

Time.
Sleep.
Space.
Career momentum.
Self-care.
Energy.

We rarely talk about what it builds.

But when I reflected honestly

The skills I use daily as an OBM are deeply sharpened by motherhood.
- Holding structure when emotions run high.
- Regulating myself before responding.
- Managing moving parts without panic.
- Teaching clearly.
- Adapting quickly when plans change.

Many of the abilities needed to build and run a business
are being practiced every single day
just without being labeled as valuable.

And that labeling matters.

Because when you don’t see something as a skill,
you don’t claim it as strength.

I’m genuinely grateful to Dar for articulating this in a way that made me pause and feel more powerful not just as a mom, but as a leader.

Sometimes we don’t lack capability.

We just lack recognition of what we’re already building.

Have you noticed unexpected strengths motherhood has built in you?

#motherhood #newmom #obm

I used to say, “Just document it.”


Early in my OBM work, that felt like the obvious solution.

If something was messy or inconsistent, my instinct was:
“Let’s create an SOP.”
“Let’s document the process.”
“Let’s record a walkthrough.”

And to be fair, documentation does matter.

- Clear instructions help teams move faster.
- They reduce confusion.
- They give people a starting point.

But a few years ago, I learned something that changed how I think about systems.

I reconnected with a former client.
Back when we worked together, I had built detailed systems for her business.

- Everything was documented.
- Processes were mapped out.
- I even recorded video tutorials explaining how to use them.

So naturally, I asked her how those systems had been working.

She paused for a moment and said:
“Honestly… I never really used them.”

At first, I was surprised.

But the more I reflected on it, the clearer it became.

Documentation alone doesn’t create execution.

Because a document answers how something should be done.

But it doesn’t answer the questions that actually determine whether work moves forward:

- Who owns this?
- Who decides if something changes?
- Who moves it forward without checking with the founder?

Without those answers, even the best documentation just sits in a folder.

That’s why my approach changed.

Now when I help founders build systems, the conversation starts somewhere else.

Not just with documentation, but with structure.

- Document the process.
- Assign clear ownership.
- Remove unnecessary approvals.

Because execution doesn’t live inside a document.

It lives inside a system where people know exactly what they’re responsible for and have the authority to move.

That’s when things finally stop depending on the founder.

And that’s when the system actually gets used.

What’s documented in your business but still depends on you?

#obm #sops #systems

What drains you the most as a founder?

Not physically.
Mentally.

I’ve noticed something in almost every conversation I have with founders.

From the outside, things look successful.

- The team is there.
- Clients are coming in.
- Revenue is steady.

But behind the scenes, there’s a quiet kind of exhaustion.

Not because founders are unwilling to work hard.
Most of them already are.

The real drain usually comes from the invisible load they carry every day.

Things like:
1. Team dependency – when progress still waits for the founder’s input
2. Decision overload – when even small choices end up routing back to you
3. Context switching – jumping between strategy, operations, clients, and team questions all day
4. Constant follow-ups – checking if things moved forward instead of trusting the system

None of these look dramatic on the surface.

But together, they slowly eat up your thinking space.

I’ve seen founders say things like,
“I had a light day today.”

But their mind was still holding ten different threads of the business.

That kind of cognitive load is exhausting.

And interestingly, it’s rarely a capability problem.

It’s usually a structure problem.

The business keeps pointing back to the founder as the final decision point.

That’s why I’m curious to hear from you.

P.S I’m always fascinated by the patterns behind these answers.
 They usually reveal exactly where operational clarity is missing.

#overwhelmed #founder

I turned 30 two days ago and it didn’t go how I planned.

I had this picture in my head.

A special day.
A beautiful outfit.
A celebration to remember.

But life had other plans.

My birthday outfit - a white chikankari anarkali arrived in the wrong size.
For the second time.

And on top of that, I got my period on my birthday.

At that moment, it honestly felt like everything was going wrong.

Like the universe didn’t want me to celebrate.

I spent most of the day in bed with pain, cramps, and zero energy.

And while I was resting, my parents took care of my 10-month-old.

Completely.

And somewhere in that stillness… something shifted.

I realised:
This is what my body needed.
This is what my mind needed.

Not a celebration.
Not a perfect outfit.
Not a “special” day.

Just… rest.

I don’t even remember the last time I allowed myself to slow down like that.

And I also realised something deeper.

This kind of support?
This kind of rest?

It’s a privilege.

Not every mother - navigating postpartum, breastfeeding, periods, and life gets this kind of pause.

And that changed how I saw the day.

Maybe nothing went wrong.

Maybe I got exactly what I needed - just not what I expected.

Stepping into my 30s with more intention, more awareness and a little more softness towards myself.

P.S. This is the only picture I took that day - just for the sake of it.
And honestly, I’m just glad I had a new pair of PJs to wear 🤍

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Shobana Ayyachamy

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The Battle

Diksha Burnwal

Shobana Ayyachamy

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Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Diksha Burnwal's LinkedIn Performance

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