73 Facts About Me | VlogMas Day 8

Hi, my name is Zakirah of zakirahnayari.com. I'm here to talk about, uh, 73 questions or facts about me. I'll be talking about, uh, my favorite things, and be sure to like and comment on this video. All right, so I wrote down a few things. I've kind of gotten a bit of inspiration from questions that I've been asked before on my Instagram As well as other questions when I've done Twitter chats and Q&As and things of that sort. So I kind of gathered about 73 questions, and feel free to leave a comment as well of your favorite fact and your favorite fun fact and one fact about you. So I'm using my hand, my little notebook. I wrote down— I'm kind of old school, I love handwriting— so I wrote down my favorite facts in the notebook from Notiq. I'll link it in the comments. That's spelled N-O-T-I-Q. All right, so here we go. So, um, all right, so I think the first question is, what do I do for work? So I am an entrepreneur, um, self-employed freelance creative. So I'm a photographer first, and then I also am the founder of a creative marketing agency called Phocus with a PH, where I also do personal branding and consulting for other creative Black women creatives to help them to grow their brands. Um, where was I born? I was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Where do you live now? I am a global nomad, let's say that. But I have lived in, um, lots of U.S. cities. So the Chattanooga area, Tampa area, Dallas, Texas, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Georgia. I think that's it so far. Um, Let's see what else. Favorite place to travel to? I really enjoyed my trip to South Africa. I went in 2016. I guess I'm answering another question that's on here too with the last place I traveled to, which was also South Africa. Like internationally? The last place I traveled to internationally was also South Africa. I went for the Essence Music Festival that they have there in Durban specifically. And that's amazing. I love the beaches, I love music. Um, all right, my favorite music, which is actually another question here. Okay, let me start checking these off because I would get distracted. Okay, yeah, my favorite music is actually all things R&B. Um, my top artists from the year, like according to Spotify Wrapped, I guess, With Brandy. Um, I love B7 and I listen to Borderline, the song, all the time. And how old am I? I am about to be 29 because my, my— the next question is when's my birthday. My birthday is December 20th, so this is being filmed December 8th, so I'm about to be 29. Um, Where did I graduate from? So there's 2 questions on here. What did I graduate from and then where did I go to high school? I think I'm gonna answer that one first. I graduated high school in Fort Lauderdale. It was a technical high school, McFadden, William T. McFadden Technical High School. And I got a certification in commercial photography. And then where did I graduate from? I did continue my education a little bit. I got another certification from the Center for Digital Imaging Arts in Washington, D.C. It's a part of Boston University. So I got another certification from there. But I've been certified a bit more. I guess I also got to attend eCornell, Cornell University online, for the Women's Entrepreneurship Certification. And then I also studied diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility From USF's online certification program. So I'm never not learning, let's say that. What's my relationship status? Single. Divorced. Not really looking, say that. Siblings? Yes, I do have siblings. I have 3 older siblings, 2 sisters and a brother. So the other question was Are you the youngest or the oldest or the middle? And I am the youngest. Do I have any pets? I do not have any pets now. I did have cats when I was younger. I'm a cat lady. And so what's my dream pet? Um, I mean, it's hard to really have pets now because especially if you don't have your own house, which I don't, you have to pay a pet fee. But I think any, any animal that's small works for me. But I do love cats. I feel like, you know, I'm pretty independent and I love the fact that cats are also self-independent as well. So I prefer cats. I think those are my dream pets. And I do really believe that in another life I probably was a cat as well. Um, uh, okay, so what are your signs, your astrology signs? So I think this is a 3-part question. So what is your— what is your sun? My sun is Sagittarius. What is your moon? My moon is Scorpio. What is your rising? My rising is Capricorn. So if you know anything about astrology, you know that that's November, December, and January. So like, this is, yeah, my time of year. Um, favorite hobbies? Um, traveling. Uh, so I think there's another question that was also asked of When the last place I went to internationally, but also when the last place I went to domestically. I'm always taking road trips. I'm always on road trips, whether it's for medical appointments or just to see a new place or just to see some friends or family. So the last domestic place I traveled to that was new, that's not something that I always go to, was New Mexico. Well, it was a road trip from Arkansas to Oklahoma to New Mexico. I feel like most of the time was spent in New Mexico. Favorite food? Favorite food, like cuisine, is actually Italian. I love pasta. Favorite meal to cook? Pasta. Italian food. I'm like really, really good at making Italian food. I learned from a friend who was from New York who was also in the military. But at the same time, like, that was the first meal, I believe I was like 7 when I first learned how to cook. And that was the first meal that my mom taught me because she's also from New York. So when you live in Little Italy, you know exactly how to make pasta. Religious views? I am a practicing Muslim. Dream job. I think I'm technically doing it. I've always wanted to be creative. So I think the only thing missing is I still want to incorporate my love of music and photography. So I've never actually got to be like a music tour photographer. So I've photographed musicians at events. I've attended concerts, but I've never— I've photographed music festivals, but it's never been the combination of being a tour music photographer. So I think that's still what's left to be my dream job. Everything else I feel like I'm doing. I'm writing, I'm teaching, kind of. I teach women how to take better photos and utilize social media. So yeah, I'm pretty much living my dream job. Nice. Now, another question that's on here is, what was your childhood dream job? So as a child, I thought I wanted to be a psychologist. Too much schooling. But the good thing is that with everything that I do now, I kind of still utilize psychology. I took like one psychology course in high school, and I've been using psychology ever since. Why did you start a YouTube? YouTube, I've actually been on YouTube for about 10 years now. I think I first started YouTube around 2011. I started that, if you look back at my oldest video, the very first video was like my photography portfolio. So it was my way to promote my photography work. And then I tried to keep it up and then I just got distracted. And once I went to school for professional photography and learned about videography and learned about copyright, and I just was like all in my head the rest of the time about YouTube. For a while, Yeah. I actually wasn't using YouTube, I was using Vimeo because then I was learning about film, um, and I have a film background. And then I was uploading like the documentaries and stuff to the Vimeo account. But then YouTube, it kind of ended up growing more publicly than Vimeo, so hopped back over to YouTube by the time it came time for me to start a podcast. Which is actually the next question, why did you start a podcast? So I have a podcast called See Life Different. It was previously called Living Legacy. Yeah. And I actually started it really to tell my story. That was another way to tell my story, the same way that you would tell your story on YouTube. So I actually started blogging first and then after procrastinating and, you know, looking at a few of my other favorite influencers, I then started a podcast to talk about my story as a cancer survivor. I think I'm the worst part about this is I'm answering all the questions. I need I need to be interviewed next time. Next time, I'm going to actually do it like a seventy-three questions like you see on Vogue because I'm just answering all the questions because I know that it's here. Anyway, I started a podcast to tell my story as a cancer survivor, and I officially started it in 2019. So originally, it was called Living Legacy, but I still use the term legacy. I let I let that be the question that that's asked at the end of every podcast interview. But then I changed it to See Life Different because My mom and I wrote a book about living life as a cancer survivor. This is distracting you, isn't it? About living life as a cancer survivor. So then it's called To See Life Different. So basically to tell my story. And the other question on here was, why did I start blogging? I actually first started blogging, I think I was— it was all the same time. It was— I started a YouTube channel for photography, then also in 2011 I started a blog. Because my first— no, there's another question on here. This is bad. Okay, I'm just answering all the questions without answering all the questions. So I hope y'all are able to help out the listeners and count them. Okay, so another question was, what was my first out-of-country trip? My first out-of-country trip was to Costa Rica. I went in 2009. And I was with other Deaf and hard of hearing students. We were learning about sign language and it was also like an eco-tourism trip. But I started blogging in 2011 when I got to study abroad, volunteer abroad rather, in Ghana, West Africa. But by that time I had finished high school. I finished my my commercial photography certification. So I finished high school and then I was blogging about my experience of being in Ghana, West Africa for 2 months. Okay, backtrack. There was another question on here that said a fun or interesting fact about you. I am actually hearing impaired. I wear hearing aids in my ears. Then I'm also Vision impaired because I'm also a cancer survivor. The type of cancer is called retinoblastoma. I've been a cancer survivor since I was 6 months old. And, okay, I think I just answered like a million questions. Let me, let me check this off. Okay, got that. And okay, first international trip. My dream trip. My dream trip is actually Lamu Island, Kenya. I learned about it when I was in my professional photography course. I don't remember what we were doing, but there's always time to research for our assignments, and I just randomly came across it and And the beaches were beautiful, the people were beautiful, and it was just so much history around. And I was like, I cannot wait to go there. I feel like I was like, I want my honeymoon to be there. But then life happened. It may or may not be a honeymoon, but instead a just want to go, you know, maybe I'll just photograph. Okay. I think I'm Doing like a different intersection now. There's kind of like a this or that. I think there's a couple of this or thats. Okay. So one question is, do I have a small or do I have a big family? I have a semi-big family. So on my dad's side, at the family reunions, there's at least 50 people. On my mom's side, I haven't even attended the family reunions yet because there's that many people. Introvert or extrovert? Ambivert, if that's the word. Because like right now, I'm sure that you see a lot of extrovertness, you see a lot of confidence, but honestly, behind the cameras, I am— I keep to myself as much as possible. iPhone or Android? Android. Team Android. But funny enough, I will use my computer to be Apple, but I'm not crossing over to the iPhone. I'm one of those people. Yes, I'm one of those people. Okay, now we're asking about a few favorites. Okay, favorite Influencer. Influencer. Um, okay, so I am— I'm not, as you can tell, I'm not really beauty. I'm not really, uh, I'm not like— I'm not a beauty, that's for sure. That's not my category. So the influencers that I follow are mainly business related. Sometimes it incorporates travel, but because of my love of Africa, they are all women of color with African descent. So it's, um, Maya Elias, Elios, E-L-I-O-S. She has Liberia in her, she's Liberian descent. Gloria Atanmo, or also known as Glo Atanmo on social media, she's Glo Graphics, and she's actually of Nigerian descent. And then Nicole Waters. Nicole Waters is also of kind of decent. So those are my favorite influencers. You can find them on YouTube, but most of them, they're posting like, you know, a day in the life of on their Instagram. Instagram's their favorite platform. Um, what's next? Favorite soda? Um, anything carbonated. Like, not, not like, um— okay, I take that back. Favorite soda: ginger ale. Like ginger ale, Sprite, LaCroix, Fanta Vaso, anything that's carbonated like that. Favorite restaurant? So every year on my birthday, I love to go restaurant hopping, fast food kind of restaurant hopping, because you get to get free food on your birthday. So lately, the past 7 years almost, I think this trend's about to die because there's not that many restaurants everywhere, but I love getting the free veggie burgers from Red Robin. And then another question on here was, are you vegan? Because I think I often post to my Instagram stories about the healthy food that I eat. You know, just being a cancer survivor, I try to eat healthy. So I'm a flexitarian. Flexitarian, meaning, uh, I will eat turkey sometimes, I will eat chicken sometimes. I don't eat pork because I am a Muslim, but most of the time I try to just stick to having a Plant-based diet. Favorite book? I have a lot of favorite books. They're not near me right now, but I'm currently reading up on a lot of marketing books. So I think I'm really just revisiting, although I've been— I've had them like— because there's a trilogy at this point, but I've had the books since like 2015. I think one came out in 2015, another came out in 2017 or '18, and the other came out in 2020. But they're the trilogy by Russell Brunson. The first one is DotCom Secrets, the second one is Expert Secrets, the third one is Traffic Secrets. So I've been kind of revisiting those books. So business book, but I'm a book lover. I mean, I think most writers start— kind of start off that way. So I am a book lover. And I guess it's hard to really give a favorite, but that's the one I'm revisiting right now. Favorite color is blue, actually. So even though I wear purple a lot and you may see purple on my YouTube page, it's really because it's supposed to brand with my book. That was another question I was asked on here. Why did I write a book? Well, I wrote a book because I'm a survivor of a rare childhood eye cancer called retinoblastoma, and there is a very low percentage rate of adult retinoblastoma survivors that still have their vision, still have their hearing, and don't let the fear or the survivor's remorse get in their way. So I was blessed to have parents that really didn't— that were intuitive to catch the cancer early on and also not let the doctors that have the wrong opinions— how do I say this? My mom and I wrote a book because we had a story to tell as cancer survivors. Let me just say that. All right. Next is, what did my name mean? Zaakirah is Arabic for afterlife or hereafter. Naya is my middle name, and it's also Arabic for, um, light. Um, I think we're losing track here. I don't even know if I'm answering all the questions. Y'all need to help me out in the comments because I'm like, I'm marking this stuff off, but there's still a bunch more. Okay, hold on. Are we done yet? Okay, did I answer why did I stop blogging? Yes, I did. Favorite snack? Okay, favorite snack, well, it depends on the time of month, ladies, you know what I mean. Um, I love chocolate, but I also love vanilla ice cream, but I also love like, uh, the, the salt and pepper chips. Depending on the time of month depends on the snack, right? What's my ancestry? So I get this a lot, right, of like, where are you from? No, like, where are you from from? So I mean, I am African American, but before that I am also Native American. On my dad's side I have part Cherokee, and then on my mom's side I also have part Caribbean. My maternal grandfather is from the USVI. Favorite movie? So this is hard because I love movies, but I recently revisited Bringing Down the House and it just reminded me that I love anything with Queen Latifah in it. She's definitely my favorite actress for— I love Basketball movies. So I actually loved Jess Wight with the W with Queen Latifah and Common. So I'm gonna just stick with that. I'm gonna just say that answer. Favorite TV show? Right now it's This Is Us. I love This Is Us. I've been watching it since it started. It's sad that it's ending, but all good things do come to an end. Favorite female entertainer? Jennifer Lopez, believe it or not. I'm just inspired by what a multi-hyphenate creative she is. Music, singing, acting, producing, businesswoman, philanthropist, you name it. Favorite seat on an airplane? Window seat. Like, why not? Content creator need to capture that window view. Um, favorite color? Said that. Um, what are you bougie about? There was this— this is funny because I remember there was a, um, a social media trend about You know, pay attention. I think the message was for guys, but it was like, pay attention to what your woman is bougie about, or what she— what's the one thing that she did not care about a budget for. And I'll be honest, it's food for me. Like, the experience of going to the restaurant and not have to be like, all right, you can only spend this amount of dollars. Right, or, um, going to a grocery store, eating healthy, and not have to be like, oh, I gotta put stuff back. Like, I'm kind of bougie about food. Um, your dream car? My dream car is a Lexus. I think that's all I would say. Um, okay, the last place I visited— yeah, I saw that. Luxury brand? Um, so like I said, I'm not beauty, I'm not luxury exactly, but I think the one thing I'll just say— I don't know the name of the brand of the dress, but I know that I got the dress from Nordstrom, right? Nordstrom? Yeah. And it's a black dress, and any woman really should have that one black dress for all occasions. Now for me, I wear it every year on my birthday. Like I said, I go out to the restaurant, go get my free food, but I dress up in my black dress. Um, okay, next is the skincare hack. Again, I'm no beauty expert, but what I will say is that I use Dr. Bronner's for everything. Sleep, drink your water, and, uh, use Dr. Bronner's for everything. Um, do you have nieces and nephews? I do. I have, uh, 2 nieces, 1 nephew, similar to me, right? Um, okay, and I think we're almost done. I think it's just wrapping it up with just facts. Like, everything else has been questions that people have asked me. Um, everything else is just facts. So I think we're almost at 73. That's a lot of questions. Thank you for watching this video. All right, so fun fact, I played the violin in middle school. I won the spelling bee in 3rd grade. I ran track in high school for like 1 year, but mainly in middle school. I was also on the bowling team in middle school. I was I was on the swimming team in elementary school. And I had a skating birthday party almost every year in elementary school. So I'm pretty athletic. What else? I am— my height is 5'4, like right at 5'4. But people wouldn't believe that because of my powerful voice and how professional I am. Um, my Enneagram is Type 2, Wing 3. Um, my favorite smoothie place is Smoothie King. Uh, I love any, any of the ones that I can just— I love being able to mix my fruits and vegetables. Let me just drink my fruits and vegetables. That's just so easy. My Myers-Briggs is ISFP, it's a creative. I don't know, I think I'm answering everything. I'm a night owl, somewhat of a germaphobe, and I'm a descended, ascended, I'm a descendant of Frederick Douglass on my mom's side. I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My dad had a few businesses. My mom also started a few businesses. Then they started some businesses together. So I come from a family of entrepreneurs. I think that's it. Oh, I have PCOS. Polycystic ovarian syndrome. So that's kind of why I avoided any of the popular questions about kids, all of that. I think that was it. I think that was 73. It looked like it was 73. Well, 70. But anyways, thank you for watching. If there's any other facts that you want to know, feel free to leave it in the comments. And, um, tell me a fact about you. And yes, thank you again for watching, and be sure to subscribe so we can— I can see you in the next video. Hi and bye!