Today we’d like to introduce you to Aïcha Ly.
Hi Aïcha, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am a strategic insights leader in Tech and a global speaker living out my passion as Founder & Communications Consultant at SITB (Start in the Beginning) LLC, where I help people harness the power of their speech to increase their reach, influence, and impact.
The intersectionality of being black, a woman, an immigrant, and a religious minority means that like many others, my story is characterized by adaptation through “social tectonic shifts” and ultimately, a metamorphosis to embrace the strength of my identity.
I spent my most formative years in Senegal (West Africa) with my five older siblings while my mother, Anna Sidibé, made the courageous decision to come to the U.S. She took any work she could, providing for her children nearly 4,000 miles away, hoping to save enough to reunite us. She succeeded three years later and as a result, fortitude, commitment, and resolve were imbued in me: I will never let that sacrifice go unrecognized or unrewarded.
I navigated many culture shocks in the U.S. but remained focused on my education: graduating from High School at 16. I got my BA from Rhode Island College during an economic downturn and without any connections that would help me land a job. It was such a challenging time. Two full-time jobs and three years later, we were barely staying afloat. I decided to get an MBA from Drexel University and thereafter, doors began to open: first at Urban Outfitters, followed by leadership roles at Independence Blue Cross, Comcast NBC Universal, and Opensignal. Love took me to Atlanta, where I became enamored with Smyrna and began to build a new community.
Throughout my experiences, I saw the importance of communicating one’s values through the transformative power of one’s own experiences. I also saw incredible, predominantly BIPOC individuals remain stagnant or, worse, be passed over for opportunities because they weren’t able to do so. So, leveraging the skills I had been honing in corporate settings and on stages for a decade, I founded SITB to train others to harness the power of their speech. I’m humbled to do this amazing work and to serve clients in the greater Atlanta area and all across the country.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a business owner is one of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of my life but the culmination of my experiences have prepared me well. One of my biggest challenges was (and sometimes still is) adapting to my new life in the U.S. Prior to, I had never felt like a “Black person.” I was just me in Africa. Everybody looked like me — doctors looked like me, lawyers, the president, etc. I never felt out of place or like I couldn’t achieve anything I set my mind to.
Moving to America was a big shift for me culturally, racially, and linguistically because I didn’t speak English and struggled with accent insecurity. I did a TEDx talk about accent-based biases because for many black immigrants from the African diaspora, being a minority for the first time in their life is a big adjustment. That’s one of the reasons I loved my experience in cities like Philadelphia and Atlanta: when the world is your mirror, it’s easier to see yourself more clearly.
My core values are what buoyed me through those difficult “social tectonic shifts.” I found that even though I didn’t always know who I am (because that is ever-evolving), I knew what I was supposed to represent and that became my North Star. That’s something I always remind my clients as well: in order to be a stronger communicator, anchor yourself to the greatness that you’re supposed to represent and live that out through your words and your presence.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I get so much joy out of watching people become more confident and transform themselves, their careers, or businesses by tapping into their own strength and using the messaging and speaking training we give them at SITB. Public speaking is most people’s greatest fear. Our goal is simple: help you win hearts & minds and make a lasting impact.
To do that, we unpack that fear through discussion and research-backed exercises. We then help our clients learn how to focus their message, gain approval for their ideas, and ultimately deliver that message in the most impactful and authentic way possible. For speaking coaching, there’s a lot that we teach, including structuring your message , audience analysis, tonality, overcoming accent insecurity, and presence. For message crafting, we primarily serve entrepreneurs with brand messaging and better-written representation of their business throughout their website and other platforms. We help them tighten up their business pitch, and speeches, and have even developed scripts, storyboards, and videos for brand stories.
We pride ourselves on having lived what we teach, so it’s not just theoretical. Not only do I have experience navigating professional and entrepreneurial spaces, I have extensive experience speaking on stages all across the U.S. and testing our curriculum with different audience types. We imbue our training with a lot of empathy because we’ve likely been where you’ve been. We also acknowledge that not everyone has the financial resources to invest in coaching so we recently started offering free content on Instagram, Tik Tok, and LinkedIn. We hope to grow those communities on other platforms as well, so we encourage anyone who’s looking to level up to follow for free, transformational content.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is resilience and that the habits we develop during a process are more important than the destination. I try to avoid the “strong black woman” trope because I’ve realized my mother wasn’t always strong, but she remained resilient. The same goes for me.
That’s one of the reasons why it’s not enough to “trust the process”. It’s hard to trust when there’s no specific destination or end-point. Trust can waiver with highs and lows so instead, I’m learning to “fall in love with the process” so that no matter the go-throughs, I’m patient, firmly rooted, and appreciative of every discomfort, failure, and lesson.
The destination is your cute, boogie friend and while you love them, the process is your friend that doesn’t mind taking the bus when you need to; they see you in the highs, the lows, the inspired, the manic bursts of energy and everything in between. I remind myself and my clients to fall in love with the process. We’re still learning but we’re getting closer every day.
Pricing:
- We offer a free 30 min consultation to assess whether we’re a good fit for one another. People can book it here:https://calendly.com/sitb/discovery
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sitbstudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sitbstudio/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aichaly/
- Other: Watch my Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxgQ0WqV0Zc
