Episode 39 Creating and sharing content that can bring community closer with Hafsa Rana
In this episode of the Naptime Is Sacred Podcast we talk with Hafsa Rana. Hafsa is a
mom that found a way to succeed from home using the internet. Hafsa is a blogger and
content creation strategist. She focuses on sharing content that helps moms be happy,
love themselves and also leverage the power of content creation to serve others and
transform lives. Hafsa talks about how she started writing and blogging, touches on the
challenges an ordinary mom faces in order to overcome difficulties and succeed as
more than a great mom and shares tips on how to gain self confidence and love
towards yourself.
Hafsa does a weekly Instagram live every Friday at 2:30 where she shares information
on blogging, content creation and building a small business as well as mom life, beauty
and other fun stuff
In this episode
● Creating and sharing content that can bring community closer and help each other
● Success opportunities for stay home moms through the internet, blogging and social
media
● Overcoming negative self talk and gaining confidence despite body image, learnign to
love your self.
● Redefining what is beauty what is success what is fulfillment.
● The collaboration over competition mindset
● Hafsa’s blogging, content and self help and group coach courses.
● Hafsa’s future plans
● Iftar recipes suggestions
Contact Hafsa
http://www.instagram.com/happilyhafsa
Hafsa will be launching a group coaching program for beginner bloggers early March. If
you’d like to learn more about it, you can download my free Beginner Blogger Checklist
and get on her email list: bloggerchecklist.happilyhafsa.com.
So many women feel like they lose their identity as an individual when they become
moms and she wants to help those women find their way back to themselves, regain
their sense of self and pursue projects that bring them joy and financial security.
Full episode 39 transcription
Fousia: Hey guys. "As-Salaam-Alaikum thank you so much for coming on the Naptime is Sacred Podcast. I know you guys have been eagerly awaiting another episode and today you will not be disappointed. I have with me Hafsa Rana from HappilyHafsa on Instagram I know a bunch of you follow her because I see you guys commenting and I know you guys listen to this podcast as well. So Hafsa welcome to the show.
Hafsa: Thank you so much for having me. I am so so excited to be here.
Fousia: I am even more excited. I've been following you for a really long time. So I know who you are. I know what you do but Inshallah give us a little introduction to yourself for those people who are joining the podcast and may not have seen your page already.
Hafsa: Yeah absolutely. So I am a blogger and a content strategist. I am also a mom of two little boys and we live in Chicago. And essentially what I do through Instagram through my website through my courses and everything else is I help moms be happy loved themselves and also leverage the power of Internet and content creation to serve others transform lives and build businesses that bring them joy. And it's something I'm super passionate about. I love collaborating with other entrepreneurs and I also love just building bridges and getting to know people from different backgrounds from different faiths because I believe that you know the more we get to know each other the more we break down all the barriers that stand between us.
Fousia: Yes for sure and I'm so glad that you brought up breaking barriers because I feel like there's a whole community out there online that is filled with moms of other faiths specifically like I follow a lot of Evangelical moms, Mormon moms and they have this huge amazing community and I feel like that's something that you and a couple of other sisters are actually working towards not just having content but serving our community as well.
Hafsa: I feel like you know so many of us and I see this a lot. Like the Muslim mom blogger community as so many of us you know we simply create content that really only serves our community and it kind of doesn't do as much of the outreach aspect of it which I think is great. I think we need people who are focused on serving just the community serving their needs making sure that you know they're sharing content that their audience needs. But I also feel like there need to be people who are also working on building those bridges right? I have a huge community of bloggers who are of all different faiths that I've connected with through Instagram through Facebook and I'm always amazed by how much we have in common. And just like by getting to know each other and by talking about our struggles as moms and as business owners and as women in 2019 United States we realize that you know what unites us in our struggles is so much bigger than anything that divides us.
Fousia: Yes for sure. I want to talk a little bit about how you got started. I know you talked about this a little bit online where you know you had this kind of world one life you're traveling you know you and your husband have lived in several different places then you had little kids and you relocated. How did you start blogging and why do you think that you chose blogging as your initial kind of content creation that you were going to share with the world.
Hafsa: Yes. So when Adam our oldest was born my husband and I had just moved from London England to Ann Arbor Michigan which was an incredibly huge transition for me specifically because you know I went from being like this person who lived like in London like one of the most exciting cities in the world that had a job. I was working I was flying all over the world for my job and all of a sudden I was grounded for the first time since I was 16. I didn't have a job. And you know I really wasn't doing anything like my husband was doing his MBA and I had gotten accepted into a law program as my husband had gotten accepted into the MBA and the deal was that we were gonna do it together and then we found out that Adam was on his way. So I was like Let me just defer that. So there was a lot of regret. And like the sense of missing out that I was experiencing living in this little apartment learning to be a mom and I thought you know what could I do that didn't require me leaving Adam because you know we were students we really couldn't afford childcare and we didn't really know anyone in Michigan like our whole family is from Toronto Canada. So I thought you know let me look to the Internet. And I looked and I found this thing called blogging and all these ideas for like you know building your online business. So I actually started two things. I started a blog called The Nomad Mommy and I used to call myself that because I felt like a nomad. We just moved every few months. It felt like and then I started a small business called princes and fairies which is where I design children's bedding and blankets and all this personalized stuff. It's really interesting because Princes and Fairies... I realized very quickly that I was not a maker. I found it very tiring and frustrating and I burned out and now I actually use that brand to design bedding for a company that gets sold like Macy's and J.C. Penney and you can find it online. And I lost my blog. Yes I lost my blog the nomad Mommy when Zaid was born because I had like created the domain for like five years and it came up for renewal when Zaid was born and he was in the hospital and he was sick and I kind of you know like I was just overwhelmed with everything else that was going on I wasn't checking my email and basically I lost the domain and one day someone picked it out like someone who just picked it up and parked it and that was really devastating for me because it's like five years of work had gone into that blog like that's everything.
Fousia: I can imagine. And especially with everything else that you were going through that I left feeling wow..
Hafsa: That was like losing a child. But in retrospect like kind of like I look back and I realize that a Allah has a plan for us and I know that like even though that the Nomad Mommy was my pride and joy and I'm so happy with it as like a content creator who really does know what she's doing now I look back at it and I realized that was my opportunity to learn everything and because I was able to have those experiences and learn everything about building the website and creating a blog and SEO and all this other stuff I was able when I launched Happily Hafs that I knew what I was doing and I was always meant to do Happily Hafsa. And that was just Allah was preparing me for this experience.
Fousia: And that's awesome shall I like. I'm glad that you were able to like... there was something positive that came up after like that heartbreak. And now we get to enjoy everything that happily helps has to offer. So let's talk a little bit about this thing called social media. Content creation right. There is like a love hate relationship we have with it a little bit. What does it mean to you to be a blogger or to create content like what is the message that you personally want to send. I know everyone has a different like. I guess a different goal for their own projects.
Hafsa: Absolutely. So I get into that mindset to where I'm like I hate the internet and I hate Instagram and I hate social media. I want to go live in a box and at the end of the day you know like something like the internet or a social media isn't inherently good or bad. It's how we use it. And one of the most incredible things about social media specifically and content creation is that it has given women an incredible opportunity because prior to the internet being around and blogging being a thing and influencing being that thing women didn't have a lot of option when it came to wanting to be home with their kids. Right. You had to make the choice you were either home with your children and you know you did other things like baking a cookie or hosting a Tupperware party if you will act.
Fousia: I was about to say blogging is the new Tupperware party.
Fousia: Exactly. But it has opened this incredible opportunity for women to work from home to basically share their lives and make an income doing it right. Most bloggers who are extremely successful are successful because they're very clear on who they're speaking to and how they can help them and they help them by sharing their personal experiences and they succeed at curating content that helps them do that. And so when I started my goal was that I felt like there was a gap in this space where I didn't see someone like me who was a Muslim mom kind of raising my kids both you know in a way where I was able to make them feel like a part of the larger American community. And then at the same time hold true to their roots as a Muslim and still be someone who has drive and passion and wanted to build something for myself. And I really felt that gap as a mom who isn't like you know the conventional beautiful Instagram when I said beautiful I mean like you know we have like this societal understanding of what beauty is like you're thin and you're tall and you're perfectly dressed them not all of those things and I'm perfectly happy with the life I've found my groove and I'm happy in this space.
Fousia: One of the things I love about you is that you're very open about this topic right about body image and being body image positive. What does it mean to you to have so many Muslim women like myself who like I fluctuate in weight all the time especially after kids and with my thyroid problems and to see you and to see that you're posting your sharing where you buy your clothes you're sharing your feelings like your deepest feelings about it not just like the great stuff like oh here like you know look at me. Here's a picture. But this is how I felt when I took this picture. This is what I wanted to do to this picture to change it but I did it. Talk to me a little bit about that and some of the feedback that you get from other Muslim women.
Hafsa: Yeah. So you know I am a moderator of one of the largest Muslim mom groups on the Internet and I found like since I became a mom that one of the questions that would get the most engagement would be questions around weight loss and you know like quick ways to lose weight are getting your pre baby body back or whatever. I know this is something I've struggled with for some time. Like I am what you would consider like a plus size woman and it's been really hard for me to kind of embrace that identity because again like you know as a society and I think specifically as a culture especially in the South Asian culture people are very petite and all of a sudden here I am almost six feet tall and definitely not petite. And it was really hard and you know I talked about this a lot on my page like last year I went home for a trip after a long time and it was hard because I basically had everyone tell me how I had gained weight and I didn't look good. It was just really devastating for me. It was like basically everyone laying bare my whole insecurity about myself and kind of being like know you have to look in the mirror. You have to look in the mirror. Even when I wanted to look away and I drove back with my husband and I was basically crying all the way from Michigan to Chicago because that's when the kids fell asleep and he said something really profound to me and he said it before but I think I was just in the right frame of mind to hear it and he said to me that no one can make you feel bad about yourself must you let them. And I realized that for the longest time I had been feeling bad about myself. And so any time someone else said something about me it just validated how I looked at myself. And so because I looked at myself as being overweight and unattractive and unworthy when someone else said it I believed it.
Fousia: That was like You're self-talk. Exactly.
Hafsa: That was the negative self talk I had been engaging in for years not just for the weeks or months but like for years really. I mean it was a huge shift in the way I looked at myself. And you know it took a lot of time and I have to say that the first time you know like I tagged like a plus sized brand as being where I bought my clothes. It was kind of embarrassing right because I stopped and I was like you know people who know me like my family and friends are here and now they're gonna know that I have to shop. I'd like a plus sized store. But the reality is that you know if we keep looking at our bodies especially for someone who struggles with weight if we keep looking at our body as something that we despise and that's something that's you know awful and terrible and needs to be changed then our change whatever change we try and implement is going to come from a place of fear and hate and that emotion is not sustainable. You burn out even if you try and create change it's not going to last very long but if you start loving yourself if you look at your body as a blessing. If you look at it and think look at everything this body allows me to do whether it's carrying my children and having a healthy pregnancy whether it's getting up every morning and you know being able to move around and like live my life the way I want to live this body does so much for us and we need to love it. And so that change the wanting to get healthier needs to come from a place of self-love and not self-hate. And I feel like ever since I did that and I started focusing on like you know loving my body and loving myself and respecting everything I did for me I am so much healthier I'm definitely still plus sized but I'm so much healthier in the way I look at myself in the way I nourish my body and the way I'm motivated to exercise and move and try and make changes. And it feels almost like a gift because I've stopped looking in the mirror and hating that reflection. I look at myself and I see myself as a creation of a lost Allah who is perfect and everything he creates is perfect and I'm just one of those things. And it's up to me to like appreciate myself and take care of myself not because I want to look a certain way to fit a societal understanding of what beautiful is but because I want to do right by this gift.
Fousia: I can't even put it into words but just everything you just said and our bodies like being in a mind like it's a gift. It's a trust and nourishing yourself. I feel like I need you to have like a blow horn and stand on the tallest mountain and gather all the moms and sort of like a law like that just hit me because we don't think about it that way. It's a very foreign concept to a lot of us because we're taught from such a young age it's just how we look at not how any of those body parts function and not anything like that we should be grateful for that. This is something that Allah has provided for us.
Hafsa: You know I mean I can't tell you how much of my life I spent disliking my body for various reasons right. Like I said I'm almost six feet tall and I remember growing up we would go to like random ballots and people who didn't even know me would go to my mom and be like oh you know you need to like make sure she doesn't get too tall because how is she going to find a husband. And I mean like my husband's like 6 3 so haha. In your face! you know like things like that. I think we say these things much in front of young girls and I mean young boys like I'm very careful when I speak around my boys about this stuff because I feel like these minds and these children are still impressionable and things they hear a day. They internalize and then it becomes a part of their entire narrative. Right. And I see this all the time because my oldest has like a more like olive complexion and like Zaid our younger one is very like... I mean when he was a baby he used to... like people used to ask me if I was his nanny because he could pass like a Caucasian baby and you know I see people talking about it in front of the kids being like oh how Zaid so light and how.. what happened to Adam. And yeah you know I always have to make a conscious effort to make sure I stop them and say we think Adam is beautiful. Like I always say I wish I had Adam's skin tone because it's so beautiful and I just... like I think people don't realize it. There are so many things that we have like you know these post-colonial ideals of beauty that we've internalized and we don't even realize we're saying it. But for a little kid hearing this can mean the difference between loving themselves and looking at themselves as something amazing and incredible or looking that themselves in the mirror or trying to hunch over because they didn't want to get too tall because God forbid they don't find a husband.
Fousia: Listening to aunties I'm just kind of like what do you want her to do. Like this is not something that you can stop. And I know there's like an ancient Asian like thing where they would tie the woman's feet together and stuff but I'm just like this is ridiculous you guys. Like we're not going to stay out of the sun so we don't get darker. We're not going to magically become shorter because like for some reason you think that's possible like these are not real things in life that should be something we aspire to.
Hafsa: You know I think that's the biggest thing I feel like so much of my youth and even young adult life was spent wishing for things that I just couldn't change right? Like I wished to be shorter so I could wear heels but I mean really like who wants to spend their life in heels. I'm perfectly fine wearing flats now especially as a mom of two where I think if I wore heels I'd fall in my face you know like I think we create these ideals and people's minds about what beauty looks like and what success looks like. And you know success is finding a good husband as opposed to building your own business and becoming like you know being someone who was on Forbes list of 30 under 30. We really need to redefine what is beauty what is success what is fulfillment. And I think that conversation needs to start with us as the new generation and we need to make sure that you know we're kind of sharing these ideals with our kids and those around us and our friends so that we can change the narrative and kind of you know take the conversation to the next level.
Fousia: Yes for sure I love it and I'm glad that like there's so many places we can find you on your blog we can find you on Instagram and you're sharing these stories Insha'Allah. Like these are places where people after us could reference Insha'Allah in some way or for about it all how they're going to archive things.
Hafsa: Lets just not lose this domain.. Laugh...
Fousia: No Insha'Allah you know we're all going to cry with you if it goes away. But OK so let's talk a little bit about collaboration over competition right. We talked about how you got started blogging and the things that you share on your blog. What does it mean to you as a Muslim woman when you say collaboration over competition.
Hafsa: So when I started blogging as in the Muslim niche I found something very quickly and that was people were terribly territorial. You know we had this scarcity mindset as a community because I think you know we've grown up seeing you know representation being down to like being picked as that one person of color or that one Muslim who's in the room. So I think what ended up happening is that we bring that kind of mind set to our presence on social media right. Like if L'Oreal is going to pick Muslim influence or they're only really going to pick one. And so everyone's kind of vying for that position and they want to be Muslim authority. And coming from a background where I've always worked with a lot of diversity and worked with different types of people that was a really difficult thing for me and sure this story. I think back in May or June last year where I had an Instagram friend and I was applying for this amazing collaboration that was super excited about and I told her about it and then she asked me all these questions and I was very transparent and it ended up being that I found out that I didn't get the collaboration and then the brand reached out to me and said.. But you know we received a pitch that was almost identical to yours and it's from this person. And I was just devastated right because I had shared everything in good faith as you know kind of like oh well this is something you can use in the future. And so you know I had this idea then. And even after that I had many experiences where I lost friends as I started doing better who felt like you know I was kind of encroaching on their space or reaching into their audience. And yeah like I just decided enough was enough like I really believe that we have to have the mindset of abundance that there is more than enough out there for everyone. I mean there are 1 billion active users on Instagram and so just recently I started something called Rise Together Tuesdays because one of my favorite quotes is by Maya Angelou which is "like air we rise together" and so every Tuesday I feature a female entrepreneur and not necessarily a Muslim one but I just want to feature female entrepreneurs who are out there doing amazing things. I want to learn from their experience. I want my audience to learn from their experience and just give people this opportunity and kind of lead by example because I want other people to start doing things like this. I want all of us to switch the way we look at scarcity and remind ourselves that there is more than enough room for every single one of us at the table that we can all do really well. Even if you know we are working in the same field that if we feel that the pie is not big enough then it's incumbent upon us to make the pie bigger rather than trying and grabbing like that little sliver of the pie that is available and you know I feel like when we work together we all grow stronger. We all learn. We all develop and we can all make a bigger difference and a bigger impact. And what better legacy is there right to make someone's life better even if it's just one person. Like if I can reach one person and make their life better. My work is done I can go home I can go to bed I can read Jane Austen if life is good.
Fousia: That's awesome.. when I'm thinking about this and the way that we are I feel like it's the way that our communities are and the way that our mescits agents are. We're very much like this is my mescit. I'm in charge here. Like you know we have these conceptions like we we can see things like in this weird way I think and I look at like you know other moms in the same space that they hang out together you know they collaborate with each other they all go to the same conferences and all these kind of things that they're actually friends like that's a good concept I guess in our in the Muslim blogging kind of world. But these other moms are actually friends. They hang out they help each other out but we're like butting heads over like the craziest things and like well you know I don't want my followers to go follow you and all those kind of things that it doesn't make any sense. It's like we're back on the school like playground all over again.
Hafsa: It is a lonely space at times right. And I think you just really have to be very cognizant of who you're befriending and who you're following and because you know we're constantly being bombarded by this information. But I do want to say that as someone who has a background in psychology and anthropology I think so much of the way our communities are and the way we carry this to Instagram and Facebook and our social media existences it's defined by the fact that you know we have always had to struggle for for representation. Right. Like there's only one guy who's gonna get interviewed by CNN when something happens and everyone wants to be that guy. We want to be seen. We want to be heard and for the longest time we haven't had that opportunity right. Our voices have been silenced like from a cultural perspective. We felt the need to express who we are and just never got an opportunity and social media gives us that opportunity right. That's why you have so many keyboard warriors every single time I share something about my hijab or my clothes I will get at least one message from someone telling me how a woman should be how a Muslim woman should act or how a Muslim woman should dress because we've been silenced for so long. And finally we've had this chance and we've just don't know how to manage that right. And I think that comes with time and that comes with experience and that comes with the idea that it's not just about you or me. It can be about you and me and succeed you and we can grow you and me can become incredibly successful bloggers and content leaders and business owners. And it doesn't have to be either or situation.
Fousia: We can use it as a way to lift each other up. There is so many people like. I mean there's Don Maxwell there's you know John a couple like they can be on the same platform they can be Ramsey or there could be like Pat Flynn like you mentioned earlier when we were talking or Gary Vila you can have all these people and there's so much to go around and you're all serving and benefiting.
Hafsa: If you want to look at a very amazing example. It's James Wetmore and Amy Porterfield right there in literally the exact same niche. They're both of course creators and their audience is actually quite similar as well but you know they collaborate with each other. Amy sounds James program as an affiliate. James sells Amy's program as an affiliate. James is on Amy's podcast and he's on James podcast and they work with the mindset of abundance. They believe truly that there is room for both of them at the table and because of that they are multiple full time multimillionaires. Amy Porterfield has made over eight point seven million dollars in the last eight or nine years. You know James Webb Miller has made a similar amount and that comes from having this belief that you are good at what you do that you have what it takes to serve your audience. And if you have been able to figure out who your audience is and if you've been able to figure out the right way to serve their needs then no one else can take that away from you. And by sharing your platform and giving someone else an opportunity to show up you are not losing out on it or actually benefiting. And not only are you benefiting the people you are trying to serve are benefiting and that is the ultimate reason why we're all here. We are here to help others and we are here to like you know make a difference and change our lives and create impact.
Fousia: I love that you brought up Amy Porterfield because I'm trying to learn as much as I can about content creation and courses and all of that and I know that's something that you're working on and that you actually like mentor people and you know you have these sessions with the more you're helping them with your business and with their business. And you're doing all this kind of stuff. And I went to this one conference that kind of blew my mind. It was called the Business beauty. It was part of the Dave Ramsey family and Kristi Wright was I guess the headliner Amy Porter was there a bunch of other women and it was like one of the best things that I've gone to even though it was very Christian centric. But I kept thinking to myself the whole time why don't we have something like this. Like why don't we have a bunch of Muslim woman who can all get up on stage one after the other and they can each teach something to like improve our lives to improve our businesses to motivate us to give us actual tangible tools to go back home with and do this work. So I want to talk a little bit about what you're doing and the projects that you have coming up and how you help not just Muslim woman but women in general with their businesses.
Hafsa: Right. So one of the things that I mean I really want to help with moms is I find that so many moms that I know felt like they lost their identity as an individual when they became a mom. You know their identity became a mom before anything else. And that's an amazing thing. But you know even in as we are entrenched in our role as a mom you know we are also individuals and we need to be nourished by both physically emotionally and also intellectually. So what I truly believe is that Internet and blogging and content creation and even if you're like a maker having these online ventures is an incredible way for women to kind of regain some of that control kind of regain some of their individuality to kind of pursue something that they're really passionate about that gives them a sense of purpose and joy and also financial security. So I do a lot of blog coaching I used to do a lot of one on one and I realized at the end of last year that I was having like you know I had like 30 something clients and I was basically having like five or six calls a day and saying the exact same thing and answering the exact same questions. And so I decided I'm like You know what. Once you get to that point you basically have to create a course. So I'm launching a group coaching program for beginner bloggers in Charlotte it's going to be closer to the middle or end of March where I'm going to work with like small groups of bloggers at a time and take them through this entire program I'm starting from figuring out who their audience conceptualizing what it is that they want to write about kind of focusing on key aspects of blogging that I think so many people miss like a CEO and optimizing their blogs to be mobile friendly and all that kind of nitty gritty stuff. And then at the end of the day it kind of propagating their content. So how to get their content out there and get it seen by as many eyeballs as possible. How to use things like Instagram Facebook Pinterest to promote what they have created. That's one of my projects. I'm also working on a podcast that's also coming up sometime in March or April inshalla and it's going to be kind of like an extension of my Friday lives. I do like a Friday live every Friday 2:30 central and I talk about different things whether it's like content creation related or kind of mom life related like beauty and health and all that stuff. So it's going to be like an extension of that and then I am working on a super exciting project but I can't really say a lot about but that's going to be coming up later this year and more about it.
Fousia: So I just saw one of your other I guess it's not top secret anymore you posted about it.
Hafsa: No not anymore.
Fousia: Not anymore. When you are on I believe it's the Chicago parents.
Hafsa: Yes. So I was featured as like a Chicago mom on the march issue of Chicago parent which was such an incredible opportunity. I was so excited when they reached out to me like they have a huge distribution here in Chicago locally and then like the suburbs and just the fact that you know they would want to highlight me as a local mom but just meant so much.
Fousia: And yes I mean and it means a lot to us because of what I was going through I saw what you posted it's all like Well let me check this out real quick like how cool is it to see a Muslim mom in hijab with her kids on like this motherhood. That's parenting like magazine but so many people can read. I was just like that is such an amazing opportunity. And as an American Muslim as a Canadian Muslim that just like it meant so much.
Hafsa: You know I mean I said to my husband the day they called and when I said absolutely I'd love to do it. I said to him you know when I was a little kid and I would go and look at magazines or look at TV shows or even as I got older and I looked at YouTube videos I didn't see a lot of people that looked like me right? I didn't see myself represented and it just makes it hard. So happy to imagine a little girl in a dentist office picking up this magazine and opening it. I don't know if it's pick up magazine there anymore or they gone. I think of the moment where she flips through and she sees someone who she can relate to who looks like her mom or her and or her sister and she feels like this means anything that is possible. This means if she can do it I can do it. If she can be in a magazine then I can you know be the president. I mean that's a big leap. But you know if this representation matters and the fact that a they gave me the opportunity means so much and then B that I had this chance to not only represent my brand but represent my community as a Muslim woman to show that again you know we may have a different faith and I may dress different play and I may practice my faith differently than you know the vast majority of people in this country. But at the end of the day I'm still a mom. I still have two boys who really do make me feel the way I look in that picture and the things that we have in our shared experiences that we have similar are so huge. And if we start talking about those then those small differences that we have in our faith and in our lifestyle and in our belief system aren't going to matter as much. And I think we really do need that in today's political and social climate.
Fousia: Yes totally and even I feel like like you know the young moms that are coming up right now. When we were first having kids we didn't really have a lot of like Muslim moms that we could look at in terms of like magazines or blogs or when you go or like just Mommys.com or something right. You know we didn't have that but for a new Muslim mom to just open a magazine and see someone who looks like her... like that's the best gift. Marshallah I'm so glad that you were able to take part in that dish.
Hafsa: It means the world. I actually have a couple of other really exciting collaboration is coming up later this year.
Fousia: We eagerly await those inshallah and I know that I'll be gonna be on your Instagram following those just to wrap up because I know you've had a long day. I've had a long day but I really want to talk to you a little bit more light hearted when you're not blogging and you're not taking care of the kids what's your go to place and you can't say Target has to be something other than Target.
Hafsa: And or love Target and Sephora.
Fousia: Ok. We all know about Target so tell us something that we don't know.
Hafsa: OK so my go to place when I'm not working and I'm not with the kids is like we have this couch in our family room and if you ever seen me on Instagram stories you'll see me sitting on it like if I'm ever doing them from there. It's that corner by the window. The window sills there for me to put my drink or snacks on and it is my couch corner a copy of Pride and Prejudice and the office reruns on the TV. Like that is my happy place generally with my husband sitting with a white board on the floor trying to get me to pay attention to him and kind of plan with this but that doesn't always but that's my happy place.
Fousia: I like how you put like the office with pride and prejudice.
Hafsa: Those are my two favorite things. I love pride and pride. I mean I joked about this in my stories. Just recently I have like I think twelve copies of that book. I love it. The Indian rendition of pride and prejudice. I think I don't even know what they were trying to do there but..
Fousia: Like Bollywood.
Hafsa: I mean guys are a classic somebody but you can't do that. I'm very much a homebody and I like being at home with like my favorite people and kind of just have some downtime because life gets pretty crazy with two kids and a husband who travels and for me like you know just being able to spend time with him when he's home is the best.
Fousia: Well that's awesome, Let's talk about... We have Ramadan coming up at one of the things that I loved about your page was your instapot recipes. I have to ask what it's going to be your go to instpot meal for Ramadan that you got that you can share with the listeners.
Hafsa: So one of the meals that we make basically almost every other aftar because it's so quick so easy so nutritious is the instant pot Mexican style quinoa and it's basically it's quinoa that you cook and chicken broth and it has like black beans and tomatoes and corn and Halapinos for like a little kick and it's just incredibly nutritious because you know quinoa has protein and carbs. It's great for aftar because it's... while it's nutritious it's not super heavy like a Brioni or like a Corma and it's just quick like it takes five minutes to make an instant pot. So our aftar last year a lot of them were like a fruit salad because my husband loves fruit salad like that's a must have on our aftar table with the Mexican style quinoa and I would maybe like bake some chicken or something so that you know like we could have a well-rounded meal my instant pop is a game changer it will transform your life. I'm not a sponsor or like a spokesperson for them simply is not a sponsor. It's not what I do. Oh and like for I'm not joking. I have two that I use regularly and that I have as a backup and God forbid something happens to the do I use all the time. And then for another really great great recipe that I haven't really shared yet but it's coming up is quinoa kere and it's basically like a rice pudding except with quinoa. So it's a normal thing. I mean my mother in law is super healthy and so she doesn't eat carbs. And so one day we were talking about it and she was like You know I've been really missing here and I was like Mom why don't you just try and making it with quinoa. Because I've tried to replace Rice with quinoa too and she tried it and it was amazing. And I've been testing the recipe just to get it perfect and I think it's a great to her idea because again protein there there's dairy in that because you add the milk there is a little bit of sugar. It's quick it's cold. I find it very hard to eat like hot stuff for breakfast. So its coming up soon and I'm super excited to share it.
Fousia: That is awesome. I'm going to wait for that because I like to make a cure and like other kind of desserts for my in-laws when they come. So to be able to give them that to have will be amazing and I'm going to have to hunt down your Mexican style quinoa because I too have to go gluten free. You I've been working on it like 80 percent and my doctor was like Listen lady you had to go the whole way. So I'm gonna like eagerly await those but a ahmadullah I'm so glad that you were able to come on the podcast today and share like your amazing story this journey that you've taken over the past several years the blogging Instagram when I'm thinking about all the things that you do we didn't even touch on card making or stationary like we just glossed over that. But you're totally doing it all or you have done it all that well.
Hafsa: I'm going to say this. I know that like for someone who's looking on the outside it does look like I do a lot ahmadullah I'm very lucky I get a lot done but I don't want someone listening to those podcast going away with this message that you know in order to do well you have to do it all. I really do want to say that I do a lot but I have a lot of support for husband super supportive. We have a housekeeper who comes twice a week. And the biggest message for anyone who wants to start a business who wants to do something wants to blog is that you can have it all you can do it all you can be everything but just not at once. Temper those expectations and make sure that you're giving yourself Grace and you're giving yourself room to be human and be someone who actually does enjoy life at the same time as doing these things that are exciting and fun and bring your professional and personal sense of accomplishments.
Fousia: Yes I totally agree. I think that's a wonderful place to end the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on the show. And inshallah Good luck with all the projects that are coming up. If you guys want to get in touch with Hafsa I'm going to leave all of her information in the show notes you guys can find that when I post the episode on Instagram as well as at Naptime is Sacred. I have to thank you again so much for coming on the show.
Hafsa: Thank you for the opportunity. I absolutely loved having this conversation with you.