Why I Moved to Tulsa Oklahoma

Welcome to another episode of the See life different podcast. The See Life Different podcast is a podcast for women by women but also for promoting diversity and accessibility as well. So this episode is being livestream and I'm going live for the first time and I'll admit that I'm scared because I haven't used technology in a very very long time. But I felt for those who have been listeners of the podcast, watchers the podcast, supporters of my photography journey, supporters of my author journey.... want to know an update. Right. So I definitely wanted to make sure that you all get an update. So definitely save this video, share this video, watch this video with others. As I really tell you what's new what's new in the world. This episode is being recorded the month of May which is also mental health awareness month. So I want to give a shout out to Silence the Shame. Silence The shame is an organization founded by Shanti Das. And you can learn more about dialect the same right now.

all right. So May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we are all about mental health. Silence the Shame was founded by Shanti Das. And to learn more about Silence the Shame visit silencetheshame.com and silence the shame has a podcast, YouTube's, apps, you name it. You may also donate and support the nonprofit cause by donating and texting silence to 707070. I have been a huge advocate for mental health since I've been a cancer survivor. Pretty much since I've been an author, since I've been divorced. So many things that I've been through that I know you all have been through and especially with the pandemic, we need to prioritize our mental health. So learn more about Silence the Shame by going into silencetheshame.com

All right, moving on from that. Yes, if you can see from the title, I currently live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but to get a little bit more specific with you. it's Muskogee, Oklahoma, Oklahoma?! That what would you say Oklahoma?! what are you doing at Oklahoma? So here's the back story of Oklahoma. August 2021. I came home from Dallas, Texas. If you're listening if you listen on a podcast and if you follow me on social media, you know that I moved to Dallas, Texas. And I went home June 2021 For my dad birthday - he's a summer solstice baby. And while I was home, they were like hey, we want to go on a road trip to the West. We wouldn't we just want to go west. So I'm like okay, cool. You know, I was raised to love travel by my mom and my dad. So then I I went to several several states on my YouTube page did a few clips from each day, but the one that really really stood out to us was Oklahoma. Now Oklahoma was was something that was not even supposed to be hat was not even supposed to happen. Right? We it was it was June 2021. Of course, June 18. And then the 100 commemoration 100 year commemoration of the black wash the massacre. And if you don't know about the Black Wall Street massacre, that can be a whole nother video, but I wanted to learn more about it. Right. I wanted to go there and learn more about it. And so I said that to my parent. Let's go to Oklahoma. Let's stop over to Oklahoma and go with New Mexico and Mexico. So that's the end goal. Right. So we went from Tennessee to Arkansas to Oklahoma to New Mexico, Texas. We kind of had to stop and Texas for a little bit Brownsville, Texas, then we crossed over the border to Mexico for about two hours right if you count the time hanging out in customs, you know border line, but we went to Mexico, but the biggest part that stood out to us was Muskogee Oklahoma. And why why Muskogee Oklahoma right? You probably like where is that? What is that? Muskogee Oklahoma is actually 45 minutes south of Tulsa. It's a huge part of the Cherokee Nation, the Muscogee Creek Nation, though native is truly they advertise it as the heart of America and truly at the heart of America. Because it's right smack in the middle of the US. So if you look on Google map, you'll see that for yourself but it's also truly still the heart of America. There's still so many Native American land not Indian Native Americans. They're called Native American because they were here fish, right. So we learn our history and picking up learning history. I've been so wrapped up this last year, especially since the pandemic my own identity, but who am I the Muslim woman who wear the headscarf as a cancer survivor who had the pathetic eye and also as someone who had Cherokee Native American in her blood as well. So it's been a great journey here to learn about myself. And that was another thing that we were excited about when we moved here and next and probably one of the most important act but there's a lower cost of living here.

I kind of knew about it because I am an avid traveler, right? I'm an avid traveler who is well connected with others who just travel and have lived in other countries who have traveled to template country like myself. So I found out about this program called Tulsa remote. So what it is they promote and encourage those who work remotely to live in Tulsa and still work remotely. Right. So there's a few of my fellow travelers who I knew were living in the area. And so I found out that there truly is the lower cost of living. That was an added bonus. So we did a U turn. My mom and I are both researchers. We did our research. And now as of this video, we've been here for three months. Yeah, as of May 19, we've been in Muskogee for three months. And so we went from finding out about it in August to working our way to get here. And we've been here for three months. And we were so blessed, are so super blessed because we move here, right before the holy month of Ramadan, which is the fasting month, which is very close to the time of Lent, as well for those who practice Lent and we were able to not only get a two bedroom, two bath with a patio when a washer and dryer hookup for like $800 brand spanking new too, you know we're so blessed to have a brand new apartment. They've just remodeled it. Nobody has moved in. it's been an amazing blessing as well. And I say we because my mom and my dad. My dad is a Vietnam veteran. And so when we first came here, we also noticed that there's a lot of Vietnam veterans here, right so just to give you context the context Tulsa is the city, let's go to the suburb, and Muskogee aid is definitely kind of the laid back super friendly lifestyle. And if you want city live and you want a coffee shop, some kind of nightlife you drive 45 minutes up the toll road to Tulsa, Oklahoma. So we are here in Muscogee. And it's it's like I said low cost of living is super, super exciting. And yet, everybody like but wait a minute, you're right there in Tornado Alley. And I'll be honest, I would say maybe just because it's not tornado season yet. The only thing is it the weather it just as bipolar, and any other place right now. I mean, global warming is probably affecting every other state. So we have not had any problems. And plus I am from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Any natural disasters don't scare me. And my dad is a veteran and my mom's been around the US. It doesn't scare us. We know how to be prepared for for anything that happened. And so that that's basically why why we're in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So if you want to learn more about Muskogee, want to know what else is super exciting about Muskogee, Google it, but here's a little known fact that I will tell you right now because I'm a black history buff Bass Reeves. He'd been portrayed in many, many Western movies, and he definitely been portrayed and the harder they fought movie on Netflix bass weaves, the most historically known, like Sergeant and right Western seargent back in the day before you had when you had you know, the detective and police that you could trust, right? He was that guy. And so it's black history that you need to research and that'd be a whole nother video that I will talk about the history of Black Wall Street the history of Bass Reeves. But right now, I'm just giving you the brief life update. So moving on next.

Yep, I'm here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And really the past year, I've technically been working remotely, believe it or not, for those of you who have read my book seeing life through a different lens, you know that I've had the same car for like 11 years. And believe it or not, I sold my car. I sold my car. For $800 as well. How about that? How am I feeling about that? I'm still grieving. It's still like a death like a divorce as well. Because that that was my baby. You know, we've been through so much together. Why did I sell my car?

Here's another life update for you since June 2021. I've always had this five year plan of how can I travel in and how can I continue to travel long term right? And long term meaning in 2016 when the last time I left the country and I went to South Africa and Germany and I was there all together for a whole month. But while I was there, I really got to taste a sneak peek of God's life for me. So I've been trying to plan, plan, plan and plan and How can I do that again, right. And it just so happened to work out. I've been so heavily into personal development professional development. You know, I've had therapists I've been I've had coaches, I've been in online courses to really get back to me, right get back to who is that creative Z? You know, I've had 11 years as a professional photographer, turn brand strategist, turn digital marketer, turn coach and consultant and all the while my biggest impact has always been portraits of whenever I travel internationally to third world countries or, or places in popular countries that you know, that you may not know. Right? So I know my story has always been my biggest level of impact not only talking to and encouraging and empowering creatives, black, minority creatives, but also travel photography, right? If you've read my book seeing life through a different lens, you'll just see just how much travel has impacted My life. Thanks again also to my parents, thanks again also to my Vietnam veteran dad. So low Behold, drum roll, drum roll, drum roll,

in June 2022 I will be speaking at my first international speaking opportunity at the travel blogger exchange. Travel blogger exchange has been around for over a decade and it is the biggest networking event and conference and content creating event for travel photographers and creators and I get to speak on my story. I get to speak on storytelling I get to speak on branding and I'm going to be speaking June 6 Through June 10 I don't know the schedule yet as of this video, but if you are a travel media person and you want to attend the discount code 25% off the discount code will be linked in the comment and chat in the description. But it's experts25. experts25. If you go to tbexcon.com and search for Europe and when you register your code is experts25. I say all that to say of it's such a blessing also they're covering the flight and covering the hotel they have a changeable flexible roundtrip flight. This is the year of diversity being no longer shrinking in diversity no longer shrinking in accessibility no longer shrinking in your papers. And that's exactly what I'm what I've been doing. I said all that to say really because life has been good, but for the most part life has been good. How have I been doing? really honestly since October 2021 when Instagram and Facebook and Whatsapp had their shutdown for hours. That was my pivot. Like we've all been pivoting technically since 2020 but my pivot was October 2021. I remember clearly there was a

photography conference called The Photo Cookout. I was a speaker there in 2020. So I decided to come back and watch. Thank you Also to the photo cookout we got a Previous speakers got to come online and watch. I was in the midst of you know online watching you know the conference and I know that Twitter tweeted my most favorite social media network. That's where I go to find out my news. So I'm on Twitter everybody like Instagram and Facebook down. And what did I do? I didn't flinch. I'm like, oh, here we go again. But that was my pivot. Right. I've spent also the last 10 years being on social media. I'm that millennial that was on social media before everybody else was on social media and that millennial that would making little MySpace pages making my music playlist. Right? And here we are almost 11 years later. I'm really kind of finding how full circle everything is. So for me when Facebook and Instagram shut down. I stopped posting. That's probably why it looked like I went nowhere. you're like where's Z? But I'm good. I'm here. I'm mainly on YouTube. I'm on my podcast. I'm all about membership and community. I've enjoyed spending the last 11 years building community. I've valued relationships, I love my people. I think about legacy all the time. I try to treat people the way I want to be treated. I try to treat people as if I were to die tomorrow, right? So I'm always thinking about that when it comes to social media and how social you really want to be. So that's where I've been and that's where I want you to just kind of follow my journey.

And basically how I can still help you. If you are my music community is always gonna be there, right because music had been one of those things that saved my life like literally and I've been so blessed. To also I guess I could say continue to save lives in the music industry as well. You know, I've been making my impact in the music industry and that's never going anywhere. I think for me next is Africa. Right people are finally noticing Africa. I've been noticing Africa since I first stepped on the Motherland in 2011. So that's next to me. And as far as my what other community... photography community. I'm still photographing, yes. But I think I've finally gotten out of my head of imposter syndrome. And knowing that I am known for my travel photography, I enjoy my travel photography. So now that I have acquired all these skills over the last 11 years, you know, I finally have kind of had that pivot. And now just got to take action. I'll still be traveling I'll still be photographing I'll still be working with music, I'll still be having marketing and consulting clients. It's just now it's finally all in one. So if you're wondering like you know how how else can I continue to work with Z? that's it. I've been focused on membership community that I've been focused on communities. And I've been focused on really putting all of that into my woman owned operated digital marketing agency focused media group with a pH. Because yes, they're going to be a little bit of photography yet. They're going to be a little bit of digital marketing yet. There's going to be a little bit of podcasting. as well. So media is the way to really tell your story whether you are still working in corporate or you're you're side hustling, and you haven't quite nailed down your purpose.

So that's me that's how I can help you. That's why I moved to Tulsa. That's what I've been up to. And that's me off to prioritize my mental health. So that was going on. And really the best way to keep in touch is sign up for my email list. If you go to my website, currently, I'm still rebranding myself. So you do have my public speaking and consulting websites zaakirahnayyar.com Or if you want any creative services, branding, photography, design, podcasting, that's focused with the phocusedmediagroup.com Or if you're still trying to figure out where you want to go. There are tons of resources on my podcast See life different podcast with that kid and based off of the name of my book called seeing life through a different lens. It's a cancer survivor's memoir on overcoming adversity with resilience. But if I could republish that book, I would change that subtitle to a positive guide on surviving a life. A positive guide on overcoming any kind of adversity, adversity and finding new Tuesday because back with a journey had been about that what my purpose is to help you to do

the same thing, but I want you to really live your life literally live your life as if you were to die tomorrow and for me, that means I'm gonna you tell me your dreams. I'm asking you what to paint that picture. What is your dream life? If you had no constraint? No limited beliefs, no imposter syndrome. What is your dream life? What is maybe maybe it's too hard to think about the five year plan right now? write out the next 365 days? What does that look like? Do you need help talking and hashing that out? That's where I come in as a consultant. That's where I come in as your coach, your mentor, your accountability partner, so if that's what you want, leave a comment. I'm here for you. I'm very social on social media, so I don't bite if you have me on social media. Have you connected with me on social media? Please do if you're not already connected with me. Please go ahead and connect anywhere. Search for Zaakirahnayyar.com There's so many Zaakirah's that they're now like why I got so many twins, but that can't and I thought it was me. And I look forward to hearing from you and continuing the conversation and thank you so much for watching.