Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Aliyah Kisik. I am an entrepreneur and financial literacy advocate focused on empowering consumers with the ability to make choices in purchasing decisions and career.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Wow, that is incredible, Kind of a big, important thing in somebody's life, right? I'd like to know what is the importance of financial literacy?

Speaker 1: 0:51

Wonderful Financial literacy essentially empowers individuals to make decisions. Wonderful Financial literacy essentially empowers individuals to make decisions. Financial decisions are decisions about everything, and so when you gain your financial literacy, you gain the ability to take control of your future.

Speaker 2: 1:07

Yeah, I love that. And why do you think that it is important for people to know about financial literacy? What kind of doors could that open for somebody?

Speaker 1: 1:12

Absolutely the importance of knowing about financial literacy. As of right now, 33% of the world population and about 42% of the US population are currently tested at financial literate, which means, if you look at the inverse, about 66% of the world worldwide are essentially financially literate. And so, if you look at having a global economy that puts two-thirds of the world at a disadvantage making optimal financial decisions, I'd like to know your backstory.

Speaker 2: 1:39

How did you get started? I also know that you were Miss Chicago. I was Miss Illinois. Oh, I'm sorry, miss.

Speaker 1: 1:44

Illinois Miss.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Illinois, united States, 2023. Gotcha, correct me, girl. I'm so sorry and I would like for you to give me a backstory about yourself and how you got into your industry.

Speaker 1: 1:52

Wonderful. So I started my first business when I was 17. That was in part because I was in the talent industry starting at 11. I worked as a model and an actress. I had to get a work permit. When I was 11 and everyone at my school was a little concerned about child labor. We explained everything was okay, but I started working at a very young age and I was exposed to the talent industry. I had modeled clothing for a while and a big driver behind that. I loved fashion and I realized that I could get more value out of my work if I did it all myself. So I could take the photos, I could model the photos, I could edit them, get them online and it was a really fun summer break project that I had between the ages of 16 and 17 starting. Wow, yeah, you got your early start, girl.

Speaker 2: 2:38

How do you feel about that Like starting so early?

Speaker 1: 2:46

I don't really think much about it. I think that most people could if they were given the right resources, the right connections and the right circumstances. So I don't think that I'm special in that, since I think everyone could.

Speaker 2: 2:52

Okay, what do you believe led to your success as an entrepreneur at a young age?

Speaker 1: 2:58

I think that success as an entrepreneur in general is a very delicate dance between tenacity and flexibility. So you have to be in a position where you don't want to give up, but also know when you fight or lose the battle to win the war. So I can give a couple of examples. I was 20 when the COVID-19 pandemic had hit and I had two brick and mortar locations. At the time, I had just invested quite a bit of money into a grand opening. My grand opening was January 1st 2020. And then my second location and first location had to close down March 17th 2020.

Speaker 2: 3:38

Oh, my goodness, yes.

Speaker 1: 3:39

So I was put into a position where I had to figure out what do I need to do in order to prolong the longevity of the boutique, and I also had multiple goals as well. I used the time during the pandemic to enlist, so I joined the Illinois Army National Guard during that time. Wow, yes. So it was heartbreaking to close my brick and mortar stores, but I saw it as an opportunity to serve my country, to improve my education, because at the same time as serving in the National Guard, I completed my undergraduate degree and I also run my boutique online.

Speaker 2: 4:11

Wow, and how do you balance everything and do you set boundaries for yourself? Talk to me a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 4:16

Yeah, I'm actually a. I'm going through my girl moss area, as they say, yes, yeah. So I work only when I have to. I read the four hour work week back when I was 20 and it changed my life. So obviously, as an enlisted soldier, even in the National Guard, you don't necessarily get to do four hour work weeks right, because you still have to keep your physical fitness, you have to maintain readiness. But in other aspects of my life, including school, including the boutique I am very productive in the way that I manage my time and I make sure that when I do allocate time it's 100% deep work, wow.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Yeah, and again, with like the boundaries, what kind of things you like to do to, like, I guess, reset yourself, because mental health is so important. I'd like to know, like, what are some of the things that you do to like, I guess, take time?

Speaker 1: 5:03

for yourself and reset. Most of my time is for myself. I guess I don't have an issue with setting boundaries because I step into work, I'm not consumed by it and because of that my default state is very relaxed. And yeah, I guess it's a hard question to answer because I don't really feel some of that. When I was 20, I did have some burnout and I think that that's part of the reason why I set those firm boundaries. When I was 20, I was working. I went to college full time, so I was at college from 8am to 12pm. I would open my boutique from 12 to 8. And I was managing two locations, so I'd be going back and forth between two locations I could. That was not sustainable. I could not do that, and so moving the boutique online was in part because of these circumstances, with the COVID pandemic and wanting to reach all of my goals at the youngest age possible, but also as a way to maintain flexibility. So you can. Sometimes I work at two o'clock in the morning Like it's. It's fine, because I can.

Speaker 2: 5:58

How has obtaining higher education in business affected your?

Speaker 1: 6:02

career trajectory. It has opened so many doors for me. Like I mentioned, I started going to school full-time when I was 19. I went part-time at community college when.

Speaker 1: 6:12

I was 18. I had some pretty good scholarships. I got a full ride after I was 19. And so I thought it was too much of an opportunity cost to pass that up. So I did get my associate's and bachelor's degree. My associate's degree is in business, my bachelor's degree is in agricultural and consumer economics with a focus in financial planning, and so I got to work in ag, which was great.

Speaker 1: 6:31

I grew up in the country, a town of 2000 people consumer economics, which is what led to my passion in financial literacy and then also that financial planning. So not only did I become a better business owner, but I became better with managing my own personal finances, and I can help other people do that too. In terms of how I see my leadership, growth and career trajectory, right now, despite the fact that I've moved across the country with my new husband, I am still in school. I'm currently a graduate student at Geese College of Business and getting to be around all of these people even if it's virtually, it's still opened so many horizons. There's a wide group of people in the program. It's an international program and so, looking at a global economy, it's allowed me to make my small business position to be marketed globally Beautiful.

Speaker 2: 7:20

Where do you see yourself in the next five years? It sounds like you're already so busy and accomplishing so much. I have no idea.

Speaker 1: 7:26

I have no idea. No, every single time I've tried to make those five-year plans, they always go so much differently than I anticipate. So my big thing is I'm just going to prioritize that flexibility and growth. At the same time that dance that game and see where life takes me, because there's so many directions it could go.

Speaker 2: 7:44

All right, I like that answer. And then, as far as marketing goes for yourself and your brand and your business, what are you doing to get your name out there? Is it more word of mouth? Are you an avid social media user? Talk to me a little bit about that, absolutely so.

Speaker 1: 7:55

For AK Boutique, I was holding a sign on the side of the road. I did that for a few days until someone came actually in my little garage sale operation and bought a shirt. So the Saturday Evening Post covered that story. So that's a really good one. I don't want to necessarily talk about that in detail.

Speaker 1: 8:12

Okay, now I have multiple different channels that I have to market. So there's AK Boutique, which is the clothing store. The Financial Literacy Diaries is the financial education initiative. Then I also work as a freelance model and actress as well as being signed to an agency. So not only do we have to market the two businesses, we also have to market the services in public speaking, acting, modeling, and all of that Because there's such a wide array of services and products. I love traditional media. In the last year I have had interviews with Business Insider, forbes, yahoo Finance, and it's been a very valuable asset. It's really helped with some of the website views and boosting search engine optimization. And one thing that I really think helped me is I started with local media, so I reached out to all of my local newspapers, even the ones that were like 2,000 people a ton of 2,000 people. I reached out to them, I saw if I could run a story and from there I was able to build and establish that credibility.

Speaker 2: 9:14

Wow, I love that you're such a go-getter. You're like I'm able to build and establish that credibility. Wow, I love that you're such a go-getter, Like you're like I'm gonna make this happen. Like work, I love it. That's like the hustle that everyone should have, Like when they're doing their stuff. I just love it. And then I would like to ask you what have been some of the challenges for you as far as running your boutique, giving people financial literacy and power? What have been some challenges that you would like to share with other entrepreneurs?

Speaker 1: 9:34

Absolutely Challenges with entrepreneurs. I definitely think the burnout was a big part. Luckily, I'm four years detached from it. I live a very calm, peaceful life now, but it did wreck my life for a little bit. It made it so difficult to do anything. I literally saw basic training as kind of a vacation away from my life, and that's not normal. So I definitely think that, managing that burnout, you should be definitely working to live rather than living to work and prioritizing your own family. It doesn't even necessarily have to be yourself. I'm a very like giver. I give a lot, I do a lot of free services. I provide a lot of resources to people, but it's all about just giving your time generously in a way that makes you light up, as opposed to scheduling out your time in a way that you are tired and stressed because it's going to cycle.

Speaker 2: 10:30

Yeah, absolutely. And then for your boutique, do you have any employees currently, or is it just you?

Speaker 1: 10:35

Not currently. No, I moved across the country back in August.

Speaker 2: 10:38

And so, okay, yeah, you're still like working on that, yep.

Speaker 1: 10:42

So one of the things that I can confidently say is Lean Six Sigma changed my life. I don't have any belts or anything, but when I was going through training, I met a couple of women who did, and they were able to teach me. When we had a little bit of free time, I was able to change the way that I worked to the point where I could replace my three employees, which I love having employees, I love stimulating the economy. It was really empowering, though, to be able to take that into my own hands and say, yeah, I can do that, I can do that and I can do that.

Speaker 2: 11:12

Yeah, absolutely. And then what have been some challenges that some of your clients that you've seen when it comes to having knowledge in financial literacy? What have you helped them with and what are some of the issues that they come to you with?

Speaker 1: 11:24

Absolutely so. The financial literacy diaries is more of an education initiative, so I don't have clients in the traditional sense. It's a curriculum based program, and so so it's not that I have one-on-one coaching I wanted to clarify that but something that I've seen in general during my time as Miss Illinois, united States. I visited multiple classrooms across the state of Illinois and I spoke with the teachers, who did not necessarily feel comfortable talking about money with kids because they didn't know if they were really grasping at themselves, and so I think the biggest challenge that we have to overcome now is mandatory financial literacy.

Speaker 1: 12:01

My ultimate goal is for people like me, financial literacy advocates, to not be needed because there are enough resources provided at the public education level, and I think the challenge right now, in order to reach that goal, is to raise awareness about it, because in the US specifically, 42% of people are financially literate, so that means that over 50% are not. Therefore, if over half the population aren't financially literate, they may not even know what they don't know. We also live in the age of information, and things have moved so quickly. I was born after credit cards started to become popular, but people who are 35 or older they literally saw credit cards go from only being a rich person or business owner thing to now everyone has like five store cards and three regular credit cards. It's a big change, and so that means that our parents are not able to educate children in a way that they're set up for the world that they're coming into.

Speaker 2: 12:57

Yeah, that is such a great way to look at it. I never thought of it in that sense, and it is true. All of that has changed, where it's like, oh, having a credit card, I just like getting a purse online, and it's like, no, that's like your credit score and even getting a purse online would have been considered absurd Back in the 90s.

Speaker 1: 13:12

The people who were venturing on eBay to pick up a purse they were the ones Everyone's like what are you doing? You're going to get scammed. This was back when PayPal was brand new. Oh yes, it's crazy to think about.

Speaker 2: 13:21

We've come such a long way. What do you think we could be doing differently, I guess in our nation, in the United States, to educate people? Do you think this should be added into schools?

Speaker 1: 13:37

Yes, I do believe that it to the school curriculum. A little bit under 50% of schools currently require it and a little bit over 50% provide opportunities to learn about it in school. It shouldn't be an elective, because some people have been arguing with me. Well, yeah, I learned how to write a check in school. I asked them what class did you learn it? It's business 101. You should not have to choose to study business in order to learn how to write a check.

Speaker 1: 13:50

I have a very personal story related to this. When I was 17, I got my first commercial property. I had to have my mom help me with that, so everything was taken care of on the legal end. Everything was taken care of. I was signing the lease and then everyone was getting pictures and I turned to my mom and I said hey, mom, is this where I put my name? And she's like no, you have to write the check. It was where you put the numeric amount in words. So I was about to put my name there and I had no idea how to sign a check. I was so embarrassed. The reason I thought I didn't have to know how to write a check was because everything's on a debit card. Why would I need to balance a checkbook or keep a checkbook? Turns out, a lot of people want checks the first time that you sign rent, and this is true even whenever you get residential properties. So it's super important to learn how to do stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 14:36

Yeah, even if you don't think you need to know how to do it Right. That's incredible, see, and this is information that I feel like people are missing. I feel like you would fare well online. Giving like informational tidbits like this Cause to me I, you know my husband pays the rent. I will say that.

Speaker 1: 14:54

So I've never like written a check first moved to Virginia, my husband, um, we had to have a check and so we had to go across the street to like get the check, because we have everything on our card and it's usually just the first check. Most of the time, after your first check clears, they'll let you put things on auto pay, but it's just that first time. Sometimes you have and it's it's not everyone, but sometimes you have to that check, so we had to run across the street. Luckily it was right across the street. Just those little things.

Speaker 1: 15:19

And yeah, I am trying to build a TikTok right now. It's very hard to fit all of this stuff in short form content, and I'm also. Right now. One of my challenges as a content creator is figuring out how to capture people's attention, because I feel like attention spans as they get smaller. Whereas in the past I might've been considered a captivating public speaker on TikTok, I might be boring. So I'm trying to figure out how to use those hooks, how to get more animated and fit it all together for the modern concentration span.

Speaker 2: 15:50

Yes, don't forget us when you're viral and the content creator of the financial world and famous. How could I ever Love that? And then, is there anything, maybe that I have not touched on that? I'm missing the mark on that. Perhaps you want to get the word out there, whether it's about yourself, your industry, life, you have the floor.

Speaker 1: 16:08

That is a very dangerous place to put me. I could talk all day. I don't quite know what I could narrow things down to. I really think that getting education in any sense is extremely important.

Speaker 1: 16:22

I'm glad that I pursued traditional education alongside my entrepreneurial education. That said, if you are currently a student and you want to learn how to be an entrepreneur, I recommend doing that during college. There's so many resources. If I could go back and quantify every resource that I utilized between the entrepreneurial accelerators and some of the mentor and coaching, it would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars just in entrepreneurial resources, on top of tuition and everything. So I highly recommend becoming an entrepreneur and if you do have a degree in business, becoming an entrepreneur is a great way to learn more about your field, even if you're just doing a side hustle in your traditional industry. So I think that education, in a very well-rounded way, super important and nothing should stop you from pursuing education. That's a huge reason why I'm so passionate about providing free educational resources, because I don't think that in our modern society, where it's so accessible, that there should be a barrier to entry with this information yeah, we just have to know that those resources are there.

Speaker 2: 17:21

And that's where you come in too or we can use you as a resource as well. Exactly, that's beautiful, and what is something that you learned throughout your journey, your career, something new about yourself that maybe you've discovered along the way?

Speaker 1: 17:33

Okay, self-discovery I think the biggest thing that I discovered is how brave I can be. As a little girl, I had a hard time fitting in. I had a hard time finding my place. I did grow up in a very small town and I always loved fashion and being a little bit more expressive maybe, than most of the other students. Conformity was hard for me and I think that was the biggest issue that I had when I was younger. I think that watching myself grow this business from the time that I was, you know, essentially a child, has allowed me to see my potential. It's allowed me to see that I can be brave and it's okay to be different. I'm allowed to be different, yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2: 18:16

I love that message Absolutely. Sometimes it's so hard because we want to conform, so bad that we forget like no, this is what makes us unique and different, like the right people will come into your life, just being yourself and the ones that don't.

Speaker 1: 18:26

That's okay too thing because I realized that it gave some of the women in my community a place to go be. I had people just come in and talk to me all day. I was friends with all of the local elderly ladies and I had a few church groups come into my store. We had a lot of fun. It was all about being expressive and being yourself and having a good time. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2: 18:56

And then, oh, I just had this, really, oh yeah, what I wanted to ask you about your, your boutique was like do you design the clothes, you pick the fabric? Talk to me a little bit about it.

Speaker 1: 19:06

It is resale, so it's all about curation. Okay, gotcha, yes, yeah, all about curation and, um, affordable price points. So I am not a brand snob. I'm a person I think that anyone can look at on a budget. I curate based off of personal style. Therefore, if I would wear it, it's in the store. So it doesn't matter if it's a $5 shirt or if it's a $500,000, not $500,000, but $500 piece. A $500 dress, a $500 dress. That's what I was trying to say $500 dress.

Speaker 2: 19:34

I don't know where the thousand came from it's okay, we were shooting high there.

Speaker 1: 19:39

Shooting high. Yeah, exactly Three big right $500,000. In Illinois that could buy you two reasonably sized houses, Wow, Okay.

Speaker 2: 19:47

Noted. Yeah, it's crazy, yeah. And then I would like to ask you what are some of the differences, I guess, from being in Illinois and then coming to Northern Virginia, that you've noticed and that you're just like, hmm, this?

Speaker 1: 19:58

is different. I am Midwestern through and through. Goodbyes are very short in Virginia compared to Illinois. Now Southern Virginia I met a few people from Southern Virginia and there's that Southern hospitality a little bit more in Southern Virginia. But in Northern Virginia my long dragged out goodbyes are not met with the same persistence as in Illinois and I also think that I smile a lot more than the average person, so I probably look very clueless, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, I'm super smiley. I say like long goodbyes. I'm like how's it going? Let me sneak right past you. Very Midwestern.

Speaker 2: 20:34

They're like why is she smiling? It's Northern Virginia. No one smiles here.

Speaker 1: 20:37

I'm kidding. Did I hit that right on the nail? It's not that people don't smile.

Speaker 2: 20:39

It's Northern Virginia. Nobody smiles here. I'm kidding. Did I hit that right on the nail?

Speaker 1: 20:41

It's not that people don't smile, it's just more fast-paced, right. Like you don't really have time to smile and I'm a very slow-paced person, so I'm adjusting to it. I don't just randomly grin at people at Starbucks, okay.

Speaker 2: 20:54

I was going to say, yeah, we're getting there, All right. And then my final question if you could leave our listeners with maybe a key piece of advice, or maybe a mantra or a saying that has inspired you, maybe somebody told you something that stood out would you mind sharing that with us?

Speaker 1: 21:10

Absolutely. I do think that balance, that dance between tenacity and flexibility, is what's going to allow you to succeed Absolutely. And where can people check you out? Awesome, I have a few websites. I have aliyahkissickcom, for the entrepreneurial website. I have financialliteracyorg for the free financial education resources, and then shopakboutique is where you can see my current inventory Beautiful. Thank you so much for being on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 21:33

Thank you Absolutely.