Meet Aviated Keyaan

We were lucky to catch up with Aviated Keyaan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Aviated, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I would say my resilience came from many factors. The root of those would be my upbringing and culture. My mother was always tried to instill in me a sense of confidence and motivation to chase my dreams. As far as culture, I am an Ohioan to the core, I’m from a blue collar area that doesn’t always present the best opportunities, therefore resilience is a necessary survival skill.
More recently I heavily credit my wife for my resilience. She is a partner and a support system like none I’ve ever experienced in life. When I have doubts or things are going left she speaks life into me. Between those 2 factors, along with my passion for what I do, I feel more secure and resilient than ever.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am Aviated Keyaan, I am a independent hip hop artist and entrepreneur, including designing and operating my clothing line Aviated Clothing and my organic fragrance oil and beard oil brands. Music is the core of my “Aviated” brand, which represents positive elevation in life, self, finances or whatever you hold dear. The fighter jet symbolism represents “The Fighter” in each of us. The coincidence that I am from Ohio, The Birthplace of Aviation, is just a very dope bonus!
This year I have released a EP and a Album with another EP slated for Thanksgiving day. This past summer we built stage in our backyard and transformed it into a venue where we held two very successful “Back Yard Boogie Showcase Concerts” which allowed the audience to enjoy an intimate and up close experience with myself and other artists as well as local streetwear brands.
Currently I am on the path of more independence by releasing my albums directly on my website and online as opposed to through popular streaming services. This is a major bet on myself because streaming services have more reach and algorithms to get you to an audience, however they pay a fraction of a penny per stream, which is very counterproductive and makes prosperous R.O.I. as an artist nearly impossible on an independent level. By offering my music direct, I can more effectively reinvest in myself and continue to offer music and content on a trajectory of growth.
I have also launched two oil fragrances, Aviated Reserve for men and Elevee for Women, which feature hypoallergenic, organic and long lasting essential oils. Each bottle is hand mixed and packaged by my wife and I.
We are also prepping a winter capsule release for Aviated Clothing. You can currently find merch and my music on our website aviatedclothing.com. Fragrances will also hit the website December 1st. The most exciting part of all I do is seeing my visions become reality behind my actions.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Number one and the top of my list, be confident and believe in your abilities. I am hands-on with every aspect of everything I do from music to clothing to fragrances. All is self-taught, self maintained and I continue to learn, which brings me to number two, BE TEACHABLE…..ALWAYS! You can always learn more about something, even things that you may think you have mastered, perspective is precious. Put your audience and customers first, always and provide the best service or product to your ability. You can and will push through any obstacle as long as you have dedication, steadfastness and resilience.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

That’s a good question. The obstacle I’m facing now is looking for ways to gain more traction in out of state areas without using streaming services and continuing to sell my music direct. To combat that I have been investing in targeted ad’s and content that can expand in reach over time. I also have grass-roots type tactics such as physical flyers with QR codes that I hand out at every event to expand awareness.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aviatedclothing.com
• Instagram: @the_almighty_aviated
• Facebook: Aviated Keyaan
• Youtube: Aviated Nation LLC
• Other: For booking, features or songwriting email [email protected]

Image Credits

Reinaldo Delgado Toro
John Vergera