How Olyasha Novozhylova turned her passion into a fashion and lifestyle blog to inspire young women to create their own extraordinary style
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Olaysha Novozhylova is the founder and creator of NotBasicBlonde and also a model, blogger, influencer, and a celebrity podcast host of the NotBasicBlonde Podcast. She often partners with nationwide beauty, jewelry, makeup, skincare and clothing brands such as Cartier, Revolve, TooFaced, Tarte, and many more. Not Basic Blonde is a fashion and lifestyle blog dedicated to inspiring young women to create an extraordinary style. The Russian model led an impressive ten year career in fashion and runway in Atlanta and overseas as well as enjoying several acting roles. Now a leading influencer, Olaysha shares her beauty, wellness, and fashion tips with an audience that exceeds over half a million followers.
When she is not documenting her travels through the world, Novozhylova is busy educating women how to create iconic fashion looks with a mix of affordable and designer pieces, as well as offering makeup, skincare, and fitness tips to encourage her followers to live their best and most beautiful lives. Olaysha is Russian and has been a fashionista since she was a child, and has had a unique and extraordinary style since the day she started dressing herself! She came to the US when she was 17 and has been here for 14 years and started modeling when she was only 13 years old. Novozhylova’s parents put a strong emphasis on the importance of education and she graduated from Georgia State University with a BBA in Managerial Sciences. Olaysha had a successful career in IT/Project Management before she became a model, blogger, and influencer full time. The reason she decided to make this switch was because she has always had a passion for fashion and finally decided to share it in hopes to inspire other women. Since Novozhylova had such a unique and lively fashion sense and constantly got questions about her outfits, that is when she decided to start her blog and brand NotBasicBlonde.
Olaysha’s motivation and inspiration for starting her business was her mom who was always a huge fashionista and still is! When Novozhylova was a child, her mother would dress her based on the latest fashion trends. Olaysha always loved an extraordinary style which inspired her to start her brand to help other women dress fashionably as well. Novozhylova started her business over four years ago and doesn’t regret it at all, she only wishes she would have started it earlier. She started her business because she wanted to share her passion for fashion with other women and create a community where women would complement and support each other while helping each other succeed. Once Olaysha got her feet on the ground with her business and established her brand, she was often complemented frequently on her voice which motivated her to start a celebrity podcast, NotBasicBlonde Podcast. The podcast is very successful and includes celebrity guests such as Forbes Public Figures, models, musicians, Bravo TV celebrities and many more. Olaysha says “Launching NotBasicBlonde Podcast in 2019 was one of the most rewarding projects! I get the chance to interview unique guests with inspiring stories. I get a lot of positive feedback, and many people have told me that it changed their life and inspired them, which was my goal!”
When asked what the biggest challenges were when starting a business, Novozhylova replied with “When you’re starting a business you have to remember that it takes a lot of time and effort. The biggest challenge is that you have to be fully dedicated, committed, and be ready to make sacrifices.” Being an influencer and podcast host does require a lot of time, planning and producing content, weekly photoshoots, long hours, and even working during vacations most of the time. “When you are starting a business, you should remember that it requires way more time than just having a 9-5 job, but being an entrepreneur is so rewarding. It is crucial to be ready to invest in yourself, because it will pay off later.” When starting a business, it is always better to have savings or investors to help you jumpstart your business. Another challenge Novozhylova said you have to be ready for as an entrepreneur is to not expect to be paid or profit right away because when you are first starting, it takes time to establish your business and brand to make it well known. Olaysha says it often takes a couple years or more depending on your brand to break even and make a profitable business, so perseverance through these years is what is most important to a successful business in the long run.
A strong mindset is arguably the most important thing to have when starting a business. Novozhylova says “You have to be confident and stay true to yourself, otherwise you will not succeed! You have to not be afraid to fail, otherwise you will not learn from those failures. You have to be ready to educate yourself and constantly want to further your knowledge, because that is how you will grow and bring your business to a new level.” Her advice for someone who is trying to start their own brand is that you have to be willing to work long hours for free, you have to be ready to invest in yourself, and have lots of patience because it doesn’t happen overnight. Novozhylova says “Don’t ever compare yourself to others because it lowers your self-esteem, and you never know all the work, effort, and sacrifice that people have put in to get to the place they are in right now. You have to be flexible, constantly networking and making connections, get feedback from your customers and target audience, and keep learning all the time.” Olaysha’s best advice is to not be afraid of your dreams and new ideas. If you can dream it, you can do it! If you want to start something, don’t wait for a perfect time because there is never a perfect time, just start doing it.
When asked what fear means to her, Olaysha responded with “I think everyone has a fear of the new and unknown, but it is crucial to make it work for you, not against you. When fear works against you, it stops you from moving forward and trying new ways. When you get fear to work with you, it excites you and pushes you to get out of your comfort zone. Fear is what keeps me going and helps me grow, and I take it as a challenge! When you overcome fear, it definitely gives you a confidence boost.” On the contrary, when asked what success means to Novozhylova she replied with “To me, success means to have a goal, plan the steps to achieve it, implement the plan, and finally achieve the goal. Success means to produce high quality work before the deadline. Being successful means the achievement of desired visions and planned goals. Additionally, success to me means when a person is successful in all aspects of life, and not just their career.” Olaysha’s perspective of success and fear is what drove her to build her business with integrity and passion and ultimately lead to her own success.
In regards to how Novozhylova differentiates herself with competitors, she always tries to provide unique and quality content that will stand out for her audience. She says “Branding plays a huge role in establishing exactly who you are and what you do. And through that, comes trust! High-quality, but most importantly, consistent branding can make you stand out from your competition, Your personal touch and your individuality is what makes you stand out.” When looking at what the future holds for Novozhylova, she says she has a few very exciting projects that she is working on, but does not like to disclose details when the projects are still in progress, so very soon we will find out more about what the future holds for her as an individual as well as her brand and business! To learn more about Olaysha through her instagram page, click here.