Frequently (and not-so-frequently) asked questions
Last week I finally launched my personal website HamzahMoin.com… it was nice to re-connect with old friends, past co-workers and random acquaintances who saw the posts announcing it …
Some folks even DM’d me and asked some great questions and wondered what I have been up to these past few years. I decided to compile all the questions people asked in what will be my first ever “blog” entry for this website (this is for the eight of you who want frequent updates on all things Hamzah Moin).
So top six questions:
Cool website! So what have you been up to this whole time?
No one told me having a family with three young kids would be a bit of work. Apparently kids need a lot of attention… as does my wife. Family life + work life has been a primary focus these past few years but the creative itch never went away so this site hopes to satisfy that itch while at the same time getting myself back out there.
Also I have been into fantasy basketball and I’m quite amazing at it.
So is this a full-time thing? You’re going all in with this?
I still work full-time (my LinkedIn is up-to-date) and enjoy what I do. This site and the services I’m offering are nothing new really, I never actually stopped emceeing / consulting… it was just super sporadic when I did it. This site will make it easier to contact me and get in touch.
Weren’t you writing a book… were you writing a novel this whole time?
I did write a novel and proud of it. It hasn’t been released (it was on the third draft) and for the time being is currently shelved. The theme of the novel is a little dated and I’ll likely re-write large portions of it to make it presentable but not something I’ll do anytime soon as my focus has shifted towards children’s books (but that’s an entry for another day.)
What about your social media presence? I liked all your posts.
Up until recently, social media duties were a large part of my day-to-day routine for my daytime jobs. It was enjoyable but could be exhausting. I value my privacy and since a large part of what I do is family-oriented, I tend to keep that part of my life private and out of social media. This new site means regular blogging which means a content calendar is being crafted so you’ll slowly start seeing more of me (if this annoys you then my apologies). Hey, maybe I’ll be a regular on TikTok too!
Are you still writing and doing anything under Maniac Muslim?
Ah, my ol’ pen name / stage name: Maniac Muslim. For the uninitiated, Maniac Muslim was a comedic website I ran from 2005 to 2017 to help break stereotypes of the Muslim community. It served a unique niche at the time and likely needs to be reformatted a bit to fulfil the tastes of audiences today (the global attention span is shrinking) so the long-form articles I used to write will have to be re-jigged. You can still Google and stumble upon my old articles.
I can’t do a Michael Jordan-esque “I’m back” memo just yet for Maniac but it’s definitely a permanent part of my identity that I can see myself getting back in.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Well, wait what? How did a random unsolicited interview question from LinkedIn sneak in here? My apologies.
The real answer is: growing.