Living the Life – Islam Channel TV

A lot of fun so I want to come and a very warm welcome to another episode of live living the life tonight inshallah now then before we start to introduce our guests inshallah just a few of what the weather's like the weather's been amazing but it's going to start to disappear very very shortly some handler tonight we've got a number of guests Subhan Allah, I'm going to introduce them one by one, but our first guest tonight inshallah is Dr. Haifa Yunus upon Allah who Mashallah is from the US of A originally came from America. So we're going to meet her first and then I'll introduce our guests later on for the rest of living the life so let's go to Dr. Haifa units in the USA as and I

want a GM widely considered

lucky for having Baraka. Listen, every so often. I get folder, a video on my WhatsApp on social media NSU Subhana Allah shala Mashallah. Now look, you've you've, you've had quite a long journey. Iraq was a start.

Yes, exactly. That's where I was born, grew up part of my life, finished medical school. And then off to London, believe it or not, I lived in the UK in London specifically did some of my training. Then, to the US when I joined my family, did my training, did my strong studies, finished my training, start some work, private practice as an OB GYN as we call them, here you go, you call them gynecologist in the UK. And then as I was starting my Islamic Studies journey, I decided I need to go and study properly. Same way I studied medicine. So I packed and moved to Saudi Arabia, where 100 litre brand I mean, it was a life changing journey, studied, finished my and perfect if I want to

use the word, my online memorization learned a lot met amazing female scholars. And from there, I came back with the plan of what I want to do. Literally, I wanted to duplicate or replicate what I went through and made it much easier to the woman living in the West. So Paola, a lot, was it something you always wanted to? Because obviously, the medical field in itself is quite intense. And was the Islamic study site, something you were always quite passionate about? And, you know, did you do it side by side? That was the medical element first, and then you thought, right, it's time to get into this now. I'll tell you what,

you know, we live with in our life, this things happens. And for everything, that is a reason. And I did not like when I was very young, I wanted to do Islamic Studies. It was I think I was about to go to medical school. And there we had the time off, like in the summer. And for some reason, I decided and Don't ask me why I honestly don't remember.

I decided I want to start memorizing the Quran.

Why Japan a lot. And I memorized, I remember very well short medium. And again, I don't know why I started with that one, how long up to now it's the most the easiest chapter for me. Then, of course, you go medical school, you know, life takes you. Score is not very easy as you you probably many of your viewers knows that. He goes through training. But I always had this feeling I had this inclination I love to read, specially reading Islamic books, and especially books of Islamic studies that has spirituality has philosophy and has connection with Allah, they used to fascinate me. And then once I finished my training here in the US, at that point, that decision was already made. I

was like, I want to study this. I this is I always tell my friends. Like I studied medicine. I want to study static studies.

And of course at that time, you're talking about just after September 11. So you can imagine in the West, being a woman and there was no internet, it was easy whatsoever. The first thing I started with, it was stomach online university, which basically which was not online, rather, it's actually you communicate with them, and then they send you the books you read and then once a week you communicate with your teacher. That's the only thing was available.

Then I loved it. But I kept saying no, no, no, no, I want to be in a class sitting in a class and there is nothing like that when you sit in a class with with the other students

It's amazing Subhan Allah and Allah opened it up for me after five years span.

So that must be quite a patient journey. Subhan Allah, Allah was that was that also the kind of thinking behind the agenda Institute because having people together learning whether it's online or in a classroom is that whether the institute idea came from as well. Actually you will be so surprised how the general Institute idea came in. And I this is what I now most of my teaching, surrounds or engulf this letter law plan for you. He's the best planner. It's amazing. So I literally was in South Africa and I you up to the COVID I used to go every year amazing woman their love for Los pantalla. And their what my host, they she what they were asking me, what do you think

we would like to start a woman Institute so I was giving them you know, what my experience I was still at that time in genda. So I came back and I came for a visit to the state and I was talking to a couple of my friends and immediately their response. Why don't we start one here? And I said, Really? I live in Jeddah I'm still in the I haven't finished yet is still on the studies. I was so much in my corner. And at that point, they said, don't worry. You tell us we'll Let's go. And Allah Pantanal make it easy. We will see what we need to do. The rest is history. So I mean, there has been recent I mean, at the time when you started out you were the only Learning Institute in St.

Louis.

Actually system.

Wow. Yes. Yeah. It's the only way I live in St. Louis, Missouri, and the like in the Midwest, we call it here. And we are the only Islamic Institute not only woman, Islamic Institute, the only Islamic Institute in the whole Zodiac for the men.

Okay, having an attorney, what the man who May Allah give them dignity for those everybody, all

the moms, they teach in mosques, but to start to have an institute, and I will share this with you and all the viewers, it's not something easy. There's a lot of legal things, you have to go through passion, sacrifice, patient, ups and downs. I can't tell you I mean, if I if I share with you the journeys, and I keep reminding myself and all of us, I was like, do you think you will go to Geneva without a lot testing you, it's part of the deal. And, and the amazing thing is power law. We were I will say, the first or maybe the second when we when we started our Islamic classes. This is before the COVID 2017. We started online on site at the same time.

So we had to, we had classes in St. Louis. And we're at the same time we had online and we were using zoom.

So the call started, nothing changed. Let me ask you a question from your your wonderful knowledge. Mashallah. Do you think that everybody knows what their test is? Because some people's tests are very obvious. It could be, you know, illness, it could be loss of equity, poverty, it could be family, do you think everybody knows what that test is? I'll tell you what, I'm glad you asked this question. Test is not the only the difficult things. And the thing we don't like. And it's just this is 50%. For analyst. This is not my words, or my experience.

This is Allah has word. He said it's also what will MBR the profits when a glue come with surely while Heidi pfitzner what you learn, I told him told john, I will test you with Shawn. Things you don't like all what you mentioned. And well, higher blood

test, and you will come back to us. And it's an amazing concept. I always tell everyone was like, don't you think when you are healthy is not a test. Or when you are sick? That's the only test both? So hon Allah how Allah will how we will respond when I am inhaled in good times. I'm grateful. That's what he wants from me. And when I am going through the difficulty, whatever the difficulty is, that he wants me to be patient

does not look Jenna institchu obviously because it's online, it's accessible to anybody, I assume. Tell us a bit about the kind of courses and what can people expect. Okay, we started in 2017 was was giving only courses online once a week Islamic studies so we choose Usually, we call it full semester, eight to 12 weeks and we choose a subject and we did twice we did one on Saturday one on Sunday, and we

Always had Quran memorization for the woman, this was the other. Sure. And then you grew up. And we started to offer more, we started to offer youth. So currently, we have youth boys, and we have youth, girls, and 100 out of galantamine, Yanni I cannot be grateful enough to Allah pantile my passion was still to fought to do something, organize the structure in the same way I studied. And and hamdulillah now it is Allah allowed it to happen. We're starting in two weeks, we have the whole year of knowledge, what every Muslim woman should learn. And we chose the five basics that every Muslim actually not only every Muslim should learn, what do we believe? So what is the Quran? What

is the sooner? What is testier? purification of the heart? And

we are all and we have arcada we have Hadith we have

how do we so I this is how I say it, I need to know what I believe. I need to know where I get my sources are on inshallah. And then how do I do it? And how do I take care of my heart? This is starting in sha Allah in two weeks. And I can tell you, the overwhelming response we got, we closed it less than three weeks after we started the wrong list. waiting. Yes, I'm sorry. Sorry. Do you have Do you feel that on the back of COVID people have made a greater connection to the deen to Allah to the Quran and a greater thirst for knowledge? Or do you think this is something that's been always bubbling there, and we're now at a point where people are more aware of learning, I tell you

what, it's all of the above. Number one, I call it the blessings of the internet.

Because we all complain about internet and there's a lot of fitness test in the internet, a lot of hair so what COVID did they do what what Allah allowed COVID to do two things made online learning norm who could imagine we will we will do a zoom meeting. Sure, a professional zoom meeting all for me in our profession, virtual consult. So this becomes norm so people accepted the idea of the online teaching number one, number two, it is much it's very accessible, it is less expensive in general than you go yourself and it's way more convenient added to it. The fact that the classes are recorded and when they have an access to it later on so it's all combination also the more the

internet and the classes people are more interested. I have to say we doubled our the number of our students since COVID. Started

every class whether we have Quran memorization we have Quran Tajweed we have on reading we have oral Arabic we have used the Islamic Studies all and actually we have a very small classes usually get full very quickly because we want to give the best if without laws help of course on the best quality in small sized classes. What would you say were the main objectives or generated you Where do you see in five years from today? You're on Vianney you're on be I mean I used to make and I still make this vlog your alma mater Jenna Institute, one of your soldiers on this earth. john doe means you know when India had you know, do some Allah to Allah, Allah.

Allah has his soldiers. And what does this soldier do? Every soldier does an action. Our goal is not to graduate scholars. Our goal is to have current mothers mothers of the future know their Deen one and they are the first teachers of course, yeah, and you will well not know it by culture or the way my mom taught me May Allah bless all the mothers but learn it properly. Number one, number two in a simple way, but original and number three, that's to me practical, how do I apply it in my daily life? I always in my classes I say to the woman so this is the Hadees and you will learn it What is this gonna do to me in 2022 I am or 21 now living in the West because that's always been a major

issue hasn't it is trying to apply the deen to our current scenario

and making a very applicable because of course the dean is for all man for all time.

So I'll give you an example. We do youth classes. We just finished it and the youth

class for the boys was sure that use of live saw reduce of. So the idea is not yes know the story because it's a beautiful fat and the best story, but this is the continuous question every class what are you going to do? If you are saved know yourself and you or your brother or your sister is very jealous of you. She hurted you. So what are you going to do?

That's what you learned from him.

Your father really loves you. And then their father was taken away from you. What will you do? This is the practical application This is what I always tell the mothers and the woman is you need to bring this Deen to my daily life not only liquor and read on Salah but in my daily every moment action.

But Mashallah, you've been very fortunate in being able to pursue the medical arena and obviously the area of Deen and knowledge and you're still practicing both Mashallah. And not everybody gets these opportunities? What would you say to somebody who's trying to balance the books so to speak, they've got a professional career, professional vision, but they also have love for the dean What would you say to them? How would you advise people to get round it? If I can tell you this is the most common question I get. I'm not exaggerating. This is the number one question this is how I answered it all the time. And this is how it helped this has always happened in my life. Number one

is do you ask a lot you ask a lot to give it to you and facilitated to you it's not me it's not us it's not my ability or I'm very smart or I'm professional, or I am efficient. That's not that's not it. Because there's a lot of smart people there a lot of efficient people number one you ask a lot pantalla to make it happen number one, number two you put your priorities so when I am in the office, my service to Allah pantalla take care of my patients for one so I cannot neglect my patients because I am studying and that's not pleasing to them. Then when I come home, or in my time off, then comes this study number two, number three, you need to be

patient patient i can't i can stress on this point. You have to don't give up Don't give up because shaitan will work on you your nefs me my naps why I'm doing this Why do I need to do that what I'm going to get out of it that's very common and people a lot of people around you will win especially if you're a professional person, they will tell you why you are doing this however once you start fast in the Latina Allah Robin Allah Mr. amo one of the verses I live by the one who said my lord is a lot and they steadfast on what we make too easy you will be so surprised how one hour I was able to do all that and

I'm not saying I'm sorry but I'm not saying this theory. So this is this is really

talking about reality. If people want to get in touch with yourself get ready for the next semester starting in September the 12th was the best place to go.

If they if you want to reach me personally reach me by email Dr. hypha at gender institute.org and they want to find they want to find gender Institute

agenda Institute they go agenda institute.com and you will find all what we offer everything including those one service also we offer because again you mentioned that some woman can do it they really don't then we offer something called web stream where all our classes are there it's a nominal monthly subscription and we get all the classes you need inshallah well doctor averages I cannot care for taking out time. We wish you all the very best for the year have inshallah, and we look forward to bringing you back on at some point jazak Allah

would you all like calaca salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato absolutely phenomenal while Jenna Institute is ready to go September 12 is a next semester was not for the whole year inshallah. For you to get more of that knowledge of the day we're gonna take a short break, we're back with more living the life

is alive.

So I'm gonna come Well, welcome back to living the life Now our next guest is Salma Khan, who was in it for many years before COVID impacted her indices. sama soon realized that they have given an opportunity to set up her own business and as a life coach helped women along the way so Selma, welcome to live in lifestyle and they come with your story's a little bit unusual.

Yeah, well, COVID I mean, COVID is not being obviously favorable for a lot of people. Absolutely. Yeah. But you managed to turn it around.

Yes, I try it for many years, well for over 20 years is everything I'd known since I left University.

And I really, I enjoyed it. It wasn't, you know, it was a great career I had. But I think COVID presented me with the first opportunity to actually think about where I wanted to be in 10 years time. So I I was furloughed quite early on in COVID, I was working for a large retail company. So obviously, our stores closed down, a lot of our projects were shelved. And then soon after that I was made redundant. And in some ways, it took away my identity, it was the only thing that I knew to get up in the morning and

get to work. But it also then presented me with an opportunity to think about where did I want to be in 10 years time? Did I want to wake up and be in the same place that I was now? And I think I'd been thinking about

changing careers for a very long time, but never been brave enough to step away from a desk job, you know, the security that jobs most people can when they're stuck in a, I was in a civil service? 20 years? Absolutely. And there was an opportunity. So how long was that Kashmir earthquake? Oh, wow. And that's what gave me that inroad to get out. Yes, 2005, I mean, something negative. And again, something negative happened in your life, that give you a chance to turn into something positive. And I think at that time, I needed something to occupy my time, I needed to, I mean, we were sort of, you know, right in the middle of COVID, you know, jobs were scarce, to say the least. So I

thought to myself, I need to do something with my time, because I'd always spent my life being busy having something to wake up. And that's when I thought, right, I'm just, you know, it's now whenever I have this opportunity, now, I'm looking at potentially six to eight months before I may even be in a position to look for another role. So why not use this time to, you know, start retraining, and see where that takes me? And Alhamdulillah? It's,

I feel like I'm a much happier person. I thought I was happy before. So you picked up on something else that happened in your life, you were divorced? I did, yes. And what your What year was that? Or about eight years ago now, right? So eight years down the line, that was something you picked up on. It's something that I've thought about a lot over the years.

I suppose in my own situation, I kind of felt like I had the ideal scenario, if there is such a thing when it comes to divorce. You know, it's incredibly painful period of my life. But I had the support of my parents, I had a good job, I was financially independent. I had family and friends around me that really carried me through that period of time. But even then, I found that on a personal level, it completely destroyed my self esteem, my confidence, everything that I thought that I was up until then. And in the years that followed, I think that's what really always niggled at me that.

I know, in our community, it's still you know, divorce is a big stigma, lots of women and men, you know, are forced to stay in relationships that I have broken down due to their circumstances. And I often thought about people that actually maybe did not have the support that I had, I mean, what you've mentioned is quite your kind of ideal if I could use that word, to be able to go through a sister's traumatic period, but for many years, it is something completely different. Yeah, even just to have the space to put your emotions aside. You know, I mean, as a as a coach, it's not my role to you know, I don't advocate divorce, what I do advocate is that if something is not right in your

life, then you need to look at the options to how can you move forward from that? How do you fix things? And that may be, you know, sometimes, you know, even with the best effort, sometimes divorce is the only option. Sometimes it isn't. But it's about recognizing what the problem actually is here, and what can you do to fix it as a couple, because no relationship breakdown is down to one party, we all have to take responsibility for the part that we've played in that breakdown. But it's very difficult when you're angry and upset, and resentful, and all of these emotions that take over. Sometimes it's very difficult to actually see past all of those emotions, and almost be able to, at

some point, put them aside, even if it's just for the hour that they spend with me to actually be able to look at the options and bring in a little bit of rationality into a situation that's quite emotionally painful. So are you then kind of putting yourself in a position where you're able to, because divorce can be amicable? Absolutely no, from an Islamic point of view, it should be

shouldn't be.

So are you really trying to bring that rationality and amicability into the scenario to look at a realistic picture? Yes, yes. I think what, definitely, from a lot of the clients that I have worked with, it's sometimes it's about deciding what do you want the end goal to be. Because you know, when your life suddenly turns upside down, nobody goes into a marriage thinking, I need a game, I need a backup plan here, because it's my end in divorce, we don't think like that. So when we find ourselves in that position, very often, we haven't got a backup plan. And it's very important at that point, to actually look at the long term perspective, because those decisions that you are

going to make at that point in time, they may be based on, you know, do you want to get back at the other person, that person's hurt you or, you know, but actually, is that going to serve you in, in the longer, wider perspective, because it is decisions you make today are going to rest of your life, they're going to impact your children, they're going to impact you know, your family. So it's really important to actually sometimes be able to see past all of the hurt and the pain, and be able to make the decisions that are going to be right for everyone's future. And that includes both parties and the children if there are children involved. So would you say your clients are the

couples or the women who are on the verge of do I walk away from this? And if they have done so, how do I pick my life up now? Yes. So I don't work with couples, because I'm not a relationship coach. So I work with individuals,

clients come to me at various stages of their journey. They may be contemplating divorce, they may not know what direction they want to go in it, you know, divorces, nobody ever wakes up and thinks that you know what I'm going to file for divorce today, it's usually a culmination of lots of incidents that have happened. And usually the final incident is, you know, almost like the straw that broke the camel's back. So sometimes they you know, women come to me, they're incredibly distraught, they're in a really bad place. And they need to be able to look at where they are, where they want to be, is there something they can do here to fix their, you know, own behavior work with

their partner? Because it this is a two way You know, he both parties have to meet each other halfway, in order to fix this. And if there's not a commitment from both sides, that it's very difficult for simply one person to be working towards a fix, I usually attend to at all, is it a certain issue that's leading? Are there certain things that are popular at the top of the list that are leading people to divorce?

I don't think it's a trend as such, I think one of the issues that I come up across time and time, again, is communication, and the ability to be vulnerable and honest with each other. Because very often, what we're what we're doing is where we have an expectation that just because we are married, that the other person will automatically know what we're thinking or what we're assuming, or they should know what to do. And that's not always the case, I've been there.

So, you know, advice always. Yeah, we've all been there we go there every day. And we do that with our parents, we do that with our children, we don't only do it with our husbands or wives, we do that in a lot of our relationships. And I think it's really important that, you know, if something's not working for you, or something has upset you, or something has, you know, needs to be changed that you need to be able to voice that. So you need to have those conversations been able to do that as well. Absolutely. And you need to be vulnerable and be able to,

you know, put your ego aside sometimes, because very often in these situations at age, your ego that's taken hold, is that test, isn't it, where you stand up and you lean back and you hope the other person's gonna catch you? Yeah, it's making sure that even when you're vulnerable the person is they're gonna be there for you. And that comes through communication, of course, and we'll open it if people want to get in touch with you, because it's obviously a very specialized area.

I mean, my wife's in relationship counseling and many other aspects. But this is something quite unique. How do people get ahold of you? I'm available on Instagram. So I do daily tips. I do. I reach out to a lot of experts in the field, solicitors, mediators, all the people that are equally a part of the journey as I am. And we do sort of lives to answer questions for the followers just to educate and give them an ideal what out there to help them through this difficult time. I can also be contacted through my website, and we do I do a variety of either one to one sessions. I also run a group program

To help women with issues around self esteem and confidence and resetting their boundaries and just really looking forward and deciding where do they go with their life from her whatsoever is it sama Khan coaching dot code at UK? Well listen keep up Keep up the good work but it is good work because it's very much needed salutely and and you know, it's it's something that gives me huge

because his good work is great work because it's nice to be able to support you know, men and women through such a difficult time in their life is always a pleasure. Sure, yeah. Brilliant. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. All right, that was Omicron living the life Our next guest after the break inshallah are a couple that we'll be talking about media trust vlog star challenge. We'll see you on the other side of this.

Right, our next guest is a 2019 winner of the media trust vlogs challenge Steph Santos vlogs are challenged in the annual vlog training initiative in competition with HD equip young people with the skills to voice opinions on issues that they care about. I think I need to go on that inshallah. Right, Steph sonica in a very good evening. Welcome. Thank you. It's so great to be here. blogged what is blocked well we know a vlog he is basically blogging with visuals with visuals exactly that if you have an iPhone any camera you can just film something. Get your voice heard on YouTube wherever Tick Tock and Instagram is that the same and i think i think they're a little bit

different. I think with YouTube like you can obviously make longer videos tik tok Instagram rules and stories are a bit shorter. YouTube I don't know I guess you can kind of just post It's a place where you can build a community and you can start from scratch like Instagram tik tok, it's more so kind of like who you already know you build from there with YouTube you can just start fresh it's cool. So your your degree at university First of all, I don't believe that you've actually been to university because you look at me for a totally different age. But you were always New Age right now but you've done your degree and there's something completely different. What was it in? I did

biomedical science nothing to do with vlogging nothing so is it something that you're always kind of interested in though? Yeah, I think what happened was as a kid while I was kind of like doing GCSEs and a levels, I was always kind of really into music and media. So the two kind of grew naturally side by side and then I went to uni. I mean my parents were really happy about me going off to the biomed so obviously if you need to do vlogging they're like don't quite understand that. Exactly. Yeah. And what about this the media trust block search and how did you kind of find out about that what happened cool so I was looking for a way into media because going from biomed with no context

it's a little bit difficult but I really wanted to give it a shot and I thought you know what science is always that backup then so that worked out and then I came across creativity work so media trust they run this program and they kind of train you up and Flagstar was a part of that too. So that's how I kind of found out about it and I thought why not I really hadn't edited before for Let me try put a video together put one together and it was just it was really cool. Logging is is really talking about something that you're quite passionate about what was your topic? And ironically it's called I talked to myself

Listen, we can see the on screen right now and you're not talking to yourself you're talking to somebody else

that that's me to

you both the same people that was a skill set that technicality is phenomenal.

Right so what is the context What's happening here? What What are you so I was actually struggling for a topic for the vlog style challenge and I thought okay, well what do I do and I realized that you know, how mental health is such kind of like a big topic.

And I thought I talked to myself a lot like I just go through things in my head, just to kind of you know, spaced out a little bit and that's how the idea came about and then I thought why do I talk to myself? And it's kind of like sometimes it's just a pump you up to give yourself a little bit motivation. Other times you're a little bit confused and you kind of need to have that conversation so yeah, just daily life. Listen, I think somewhat camera maker do some training here.

The rest of the day, that's that's phenomenal. Thank you.

That was a lightbulb moment for me.

It was brilliant. Thank you. How long do they have to be a certain length? And yeah, so they're between a minute and two minutes which you think it's only about 60 seconds? 120? I think that one took me maybe like eight hours to edit to put together Wow, so there's another one coming up.

It's the same part of it as well. Yeah, that's just a little bit extra.

Or this one This took a minute She's so cool. Yeah, do you know I didn't even talk on Instagram I can tell you right now.

It's not brilliant. And this was a part of the training that they gave you. Yes. To learn how to do all this. Yeah, they give you training on kind of like, you know, filming sound, a bit of editing but what I did was I learned a lot on YouTube. So tutorials there was like a 10 hour tutorial on Premiere Pro, which is what I use, and I just sat there. I sped it up to like 1.5 speed because 10 hours a little bit long.

Yeah, just taught a lot of

something like this. Is it a good platform for issues like mental health are generally things that you're either passionate about the awarding you is that vlogging is the right way to go. But I learned a lot from like people who vlog and just YouTube in general. So if I need to do something like I had to change a tire the other day, I was like, how do I do this? I don't even know where my spare tire is. So even kind of like the AIA, they will have like vlogs on how to change the tire. Yeah, but then anything you need, like people do. I did my whole science degree basically on YouTube. There's this guy, his name's Armando something. But yeah, all my lectures, he basically had

in like little YouTube formats. Brilliant. So yeah, anything you want to kind of like, learn more about, maybe get different perspectives, or just get to know. So what did you win? What did I win? I want this technical, you get a trophy? And it's just yeah. And YouTube mentoring. And what is it? What does that mean? I mean, where have you gone to now what's what's happened since then, since then. So a lot of opportunities come through. Yeah, like to the video editing and just production world is pretty cool. And you just you get mentored by some really great people. So they put you into touch with the YouTube space in London. And they're just like, phenomenal people on there. You

get to meet loads of different bloggers, anyone kind of in that media world is such a really close knit community with lobster and just media trust. And yeah, a lot of mentoring, a lot of opportunities come through. So the world is you always have your parents with you now. Do you know as far as they're concerned, I'm still unemployed, because they still don't understand it. They don't get it.

Lot, what tips would you give to somebody out there who's thinking of getting to blogging, because it's been around for quite a while. It has like Not a lot of people. I mean, I think Tick Tock Instagram and all these kind of things I've taken over. And it's quite short and snappy, something every week in religion. But blogging is an art in itself. Really, it is it takes a little bit more work as well. But I think you just have to get over the initial fear. Because when you start it's almost like, oh, who's gonna watch this? Or will people care and I don't think it's about that in itself. Like once you get over that fear. It's just, if you're passionate about something and you

feel like you want to say something, or you just want to express yourself, do it like and don't worry about the views. Like I barely check those stats, because you can get caught up in it, but just start trust yourself, put it out there and have a good time with it. So I would say Are there any kind of famous bloggers that we should be looking out for other than yourself of course.

I really enjoyed this guy. I think she's based in Sweden, her name is Lorna Blakely. So she has very kind of like chill vlogs because you get like the Mr. Beast, you do all these crazy things which are amazing to watch. But line is kind of like, very down to earth, which I love. But other than that, like I get my inspiration from a lot of different people and different things. So it might be a movie it might be an artist or just life in general. So yeah, I don't really have favorites for anything loggers or food even I can you make money out of it. Because if you pregnancy you're unemployed, there's there's a lot of money to be made in the vlogging boat. That's what I was doing.

There's a lot of money in it. It's hard. And other than obviously the the hobby provides very much about mental health talking to you. What other kind of topics have you covered so far? I do a lot of music stuff. So reacts, album reviews, I love that kind of stuff. And then when I go exploring, like many travel vlogs, if there's a difference, I love kind of condensing it into a minute and you get to see a new space or a new city. That's really cool. So how do you monetize that? Then? How do you monetize it? YouTube has a creator fund. Oh, of course. Yeah, indeed. You can take those skills and you can create content for other companies, too. And use your YouTube as a portfolio. Because people

who make money I've opened up a handbag. Yeah, there are people making money out there. Like you just need to go collect your bag, honestly.

You need to do. Fantastic. And look Finally,

people out there watching you basically decision, just go and do it. Yeah.

And the media trust element. If you want to get involved in there, how do you engage with them? So you can go onto their website, and they have a lot of information on that the course I did was creativity works that runs for 10 weeks. And you just apply for that as long as you're not in education or employment at the time. Sure, yeah. And just check it out. But they run like all these other kind of like smaller courses alongside it, but head to their website, everything's on and if people want to see your work, where do they go? My work? So you can go to Henriques on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, it's all the same. So yeah, that's my that's where your work is under that. Why

that name? It's my middle name.

Yeah, well, listen, thank you so much for being with us. And congratulations on winning the comp member the competition. It was 20 there was one in 2019 and then 2020 Okay, so before we finish, I mean obviously we're coming out of a pretty intense and historical moment in our in our lives in the COVID period. How did that help you to, you know, be able to sit and look at things more comfortably and think a bit more. It gave me so much time and then I didn't realize how

point in time was but when you have that much time on your hands where you can sit and think and actually look into these things and teach yourself a new skill, like that was, like, honestly a gift to me. So yeah, brilliant. Well, you're certainly gifted looking at the footage you've seen. And thank you very much for being on living the life. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. Well, that is sadly the end of tonight's human life. Thank you and good luck to all my guests tonight. For me, same time, same place tomorrow, even across Thursday, and it's chef night. So let's see what's gonna be on the menu until tomorrow evening. So I want to

leave