Catching up with Nisar Qureshi
The time we spend at our desks can take up a lot of our time. And while what we do to make a living is important to our lives, it isn’t the full picture of who we are.
So we've set out to discover how our team spends their time during the work day and once they clock out.
Nisar Qureshi is TurnkeyZRG's Chief of Staff. He leads our business development efforts with prospective clients and assists in supporting a select number of search processes. He also helps manage some of TurnkeyZRG’s internal operational processes and transactional items.
Read on to learn more about Nisar.
I like to start my day with a workout. The biggest thing to get my day going is getting my body up to speed with my mind and vice versa. Even though I'm out on the west coast, if I end up having an early call, I'll try to get up and get a run or lift in before my day gets started.
I just find that I'm mentally sharper throughout the day when I get that time in first thing in the morning.
To me, having that time is almost meditative, where you get some time to think and reflect on the day that passed and the day ahead. It allows time to focus on the meetings and tasks that you have on your plate before heading into the day. That's probably the biggest thing for me to start the day. From a to-do list standpoint, it really starts the day prior for me. As I wrap up my previous day, I have a structure where I'll go through and outline tasks and meetings, before the next day even starts.
It allows me to get into the rhythm of my day once I get started the following day - I can just hit the ground running. So, say I don't have a meeting until noon. I already know kind of what tasks I want to knock out, what my priorities are, what can fall to later in the week, things like that. It also allows me to build in time between meetings for small tasks that might pop up in a given day or week that I need to complete.
I think the fun thing about the role is that there is no normal day.
From interacting with various constituents, whether that be internally within TurnkeyZRG or externally, with professional teams, leagues, colleges, conferences, or in the music space. I really enjoy that my role allows me to interact with a lot of different stakeholders.
I think being able to outline key priorities going into a week is important – it can be easy to lose sight of the broader picture when you’re chasing your day-to-day tasks and to-do lists. For me, those tasks and weekly priorities really stem from big-picture goals and priorities, as well as regular check-in meetings with the team.
Living on the west coast, particularly with a lot of clients, entities, and constituents based on the east coast, requires me to make sure I’ve got things organized. I kind of touched on this, but it is just making sure I have my day planned ahead of time. Knowing, for example, if I have an early meeting, that means that bumps up the time I'm waking up and the time I'm working out even further. If there are deliverables that need to get done before an early meeting, I need to make sure I have them wrapped up the day prior. Being a morning person by nature, I enjoy living on the west coast and having those early hours – I appreciate that quiet time in the morning.
The biggest thing about staying on track is remaining organized and prioritizing.
Heading into a week, I'll outline what key tasks and priorities are to make sure I know the things I need to get done for the week. I'll try to front-load the key tasks and priorities early in the week. From there, I like to go back through my notes, remove what I got done, prioritize what I didn't, and recreate that list for the following week.
Nisar and his wife, Rachael
Nisar’s dogs, Otis and Red
Out in the elements
My mindset has always been focused on being where you are and doing the best you can in the position you’re in at a given point in time. If you do that, generally, everything else takes care of itself.
Be a sponge and learn as much as you can.
Don’t be afraid to be intellectually curious and dive into topics that interest you, regardless of if they’re career-related or not. I really believe as people, we're a product of our interactions with the people and things we consume. Whether that be the people we surround ourselves with, or the digital media, articles, books, or other forms of information we’re consuming. I think it’s important to have an open mindset, and being intellectually curious is important. If there's somebody that you really enjoy listening to or is thought-provoking to you, dive into their podcasts or interviews, dive into their writings – for me, that helps spark a lot of new ideas and thoughts.
I'm a big reader.
I frequent the Multnomah County Public Library here in Portland, Oregon quite a bit. As I dive into more books, it leads to more things of interest that I want to learn about.
I don't really have a prescribed reading list, per se. I have books that are on the list, but I might read one book which might lead to another thought, concept or subject matter area that I'll dive into as a follow-up read.
I do have consistent podcasts that I listen to that I find thought-provoking. The biggest thing for me is just continuing to grow my understanding of the world around me; whether that be broadening my perspective or learning about things or people I find interesting.
I listen to a lot of different podcasts, all focusing on different subject matter areas. I enjoy business-based podcasts, as well as ones that dive into more philosophical approaches on workflow or mindset. I also have some sports-specific ones I enjoy listening to regularly as well.
I'm a bit old school in my approach— I do like to have a physical book.
I feel like having a physical book is a nice way to get off the screen and just disconnect from your day.
I enjoy learning about different topics and history. I love documentaries and docuseries. My big one that I've always loved is any Ken Burns’ content. I've always wanted to go back through his productions sequentially and start from his first documentary, which was about the Brooklyn Bridge – I’ve wrapped up his first three, and am currently working my way through the others in order now.
I love being outdoors.
I love getting out into nature. It can be meditative, for sure, and it's nice to disconnect. Living out in Oregon, there are a lot of places to hike and find adventure – whether that be in the mountains, forests, or out on the ocean. We can get inundated with the noise of the daily grind—notifications on our phones, daily tasks, the news cycle. Getting outdoors serves as a nice reset and certainly helps provide me a broader perspective on things.
My wife and I have two dogs, Otis and Red, so we like to take them on hikes. They enjoy the outdoors and exploring as well. Given my love of reading and being outdoors, sometimes I’ll take a book with me while hiking or kayaking.
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ABOUT TURNKEYZRG
Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment, music and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model.