We were lucky to catch up with Aliya Bora recently and have shared our conversation below.
Aliya, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
It’s essential to stay curious and try new experiences to keep your mind and creativity stimulated. If you work for a corporation or have a business, much of what you produce is likely a small slice of the creative spectrum and usually something profit-driven. It’s crucial to keep activities in your life that bring you joy, even if they fall outside this range.
For me, I love traveling and taking different kinds of hands-on creative classes. Right now I’m loving designing stationery and creating different kinds of wax seals. I’m interested in learning more interior design and jewelry + metalsmithing techniques.
It’s important to push yourself outside of your comfort zone because you can take what you learn and incorporate it back into your profession. For example, I started a blog about my travels and creative workshops I’ve attended across the world. It was all new to me, but I was able to take all the SEO + content creation skills I learned from doing this and apply it to the work I produce for my clients.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have a creative agency and consultancy, Aliya Bora Creative, where I work with Fortune 500, small business, solopreneur and agency clients on their visual design, product and social video needs. I’m unique in that I have a background in graphic design and video production, so I can really serve in an end-to-end integrated marketing capacity for producing brand and social campaigns.
I didn’t follow a traditional career path – my undergraduate major was biology with a focus on neuroscience. I was always studying how the brain responds to certain colors and patterns. It served as a good foundation for the creative work I do now, and I’m always incorporating these scientific facets into my projects.
If you’d like to see more or work with me, I welcome you to check out my portfolio below. I’m excited to say this year I’m launching a stationery shop with custom-designed hand-painted stationery and wax seals. I’m also booking corporate & small business VIP workshops to teach smart brand design & integrated marketing tips + tricks.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I love this question! Here are some crucial lessons I learned that I’d say are valuable to anyone starting on their professional journey:
ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT: This goes for most things – your pay rate, the price of your business subscriptions, credit card points, etc. I learned this lesson early on from a relative who showed me that everything is negotiable and most companies want to do right by their customers – all you have to do is ask.
I remember a particular moment when I was young, this relative walked up to the customer service rep at the store counter and asked if we could buy another seat cover at the sale price even though the sale was over (there was only one in the box, and we thought there were 2 when we bought them). To my astonishment, the customer service rep said yes and honored the sale price for the second seat cover. This was a powerful for me to witness, and it showed me the importance of negotiating and asking for what you want.
REST IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT AS PRODUCTIVITY: We live in a hustle culture where we spend a lot of time in front of screens. If we don’t rest our minds and bodies, there is no space for creativity or new ideas to come in. Take the time for self-care, have a lazy Sunday, spend time in nature, and do what you need to do to nourish yourself. Humans weren’t built to push themselves to the point of burnout.
BE THE CEO OF YOUR DREAM LIFE: Make sure you’re always conscious of and mapping out your skills and where you want to be professionally. When you work for a company, you’re mostly locked into what they need you to be for them, but that might not align with what you ultimately want to do. Make sure you’re pursuing the skills you want outside of work if you’re not getting them from your job, because the only person who will care the most about your career path is you.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
I love working with creative agencies, small businesses, and women solopreneurs on their visual design, storytelling and integrated marketing strategy. I work with a few on a retainer basis and have slots available for one, three or six-month creative consultancy packages. Please feel free send me a message through my website linked below if you’d like to partner on a project.
I’ve also had a reawakening of my love for paper & card design, so any folks looking for high-vibe & personalized stationery can sign up on my email list below to be notified when the shop launches later this year!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aliyabora.com/portfolio/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aliya-bora-creative
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/aliyabora/
Join My Email List: https://aliyabora.myflodesk.com/elistweb
Image Credits
Aliya Bora
