Episode Transcript
Hello. My name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is really my superhero.
That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
perspectives, and emotions about this world. In these difficult times in human history,
we need to bring the people of the world together. And when we hear the voices of women,
when we listen to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our cultures
without differences or stereotypes, and we get inspired by their stories to live a better life.
That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Aydai Ismailova. Aydai is a certified
international makeup trainer and makeup artist living in Dubai, the UAE. Originally from Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan, Aydai loves travel, pets, and books. Aydai, how are you today?
Hello, Aziz. So excited to be here and thanks again to have me on your amazing podcast with
your amazing job. I'm so excited. And how are you? I feel blessed. I feel positive. I feel
glorious. And I'm very excited to know much more about you. So I'll begin with this nice
first question. Aydai, if your friends and the people who know you best could describe
your personality, what would they say about you? For sure, first thing they would say,
they would say, I think. No, honestly, I had a few situations where my friends had to describe
me and the common thing they all say, it was strong, even bully and independent. Yeah.
That's the three common things I would highlight. I love that. And since this project
is about inspiring women's confidence, that's one of the tenets. I will ask you in particular,
you're strong. You're someone who is able to take risks, etc. What gives you this strength?
What allows you to take responsibility when many people would be too afraid or too stressed
or have too much anxiety if they have big responsibilities for their own lives?
Well, that's a really good question, you know, and it took me like my last five, seven years,
I would say, to understand where am I, what I want from life and how my brain works. And
yeah, with all this manifestation and working on myself, I realized that this life is one.
You're never going to go back and fix things. So I would say me taking risk and doing everything
and being strong in my life, it always helps when I think like, this is my life, I'm
responsible for my life. I cannot blame anyone what happened to me, no matter how bad like,
and I wouldn't say my childhood was easy. That also one of the main aspects why I
strong because I couldn't rely on anyone since I'm a child, you know, and yeah, being strong is
definitely one of the good qualities of human being. But unfortunately, it comes from
really rough past and experiences in life, which I wouldn't brag to anyone and say like,
yeah, I had a tough childhood. Obviously, each and every aspect in our life on a daily
base affects our future. So I would say pretty much my 31 past years affect me
and keep affecting me to become the way I am. And no matter how many tears I had in the past,
I would not change a day because I am happy with the person I become these days.
I love that. That's very inspirational. Thank you for sharing that. I die. And to ask you,
some women when they have difficult times, they might become depressed and jaded. How or
what did you do? What was your thought that may allowed you to become better and become a
better person because of the difficult past rather than become broken because of it?
It definitely comes from choice, but I would say if girls, you'll ever feel down or you feel like
you don't want to do anything and it's okay to be lazy. It's okay to be down. It's okay to
be in the bed for a few days and cry. It's totally fine because in my past, I was thinking
like I shouldn't let myself to go down. I shouldn't let myself cry and I should be strong
that's exhausting. Like I would say, so sometimes now when I want to cry with
no reason or if there is a reason, I just let myself cry because
we women build from such a strong energy with men never understand and you shouldn't like
try to explain any man, neither your husband, boyfriends, brothers, any men next to you.
You shouldn't try to even explain because they will never understand it's not in their nature.
I'm not saying like we are better or they are better, but we build differently. So I would say
just like listen to your intuition, listen to your own gods and like just do what your body
asks you to do. Like if it's need the rest, if it's need to be in the bed for a few days
and feel miserable, then let it do it because this is how we recharge ourselves because
our energy is like a resource which sometimes gets low and sometimes it's overcharged. So
it's totally fine, but the only thing you can control in there is just like
how I'm going to react on it. Am I going to be miserable because I don't want to do anything
or I feel down or I'm just going to let my body have the rest it needs and then I'm going
to go back and like be normal because life goes on and I have to keep it up.
So the only thing I would say again, you can control is your reaction on the circumstances
which happening around you. So be strong on your mind and sometimes listen to your body
and let it rest when it needs rest and let it work when it needs to work. And yeah,
just feel what you want to do. That's all pretty much.
Thank you. That's really, really insightful and I know it will resonate with many of the women
listening and part of you or your intuition guided you to move to Dubai. So how was that?
What's the story of you moving to Dubai? How was the adaptation? What was the reason?
How did you find your feet and legs over there? How was it?
Unfortunately, I would say when I was 19, I didn't even know how to listen and that I
even have intuition to listen. It was a little bit different situation when I was 19.
My family needed financial support and I could see that instead of having normal days as a
student going to like everyday study and go to university, like I felt like I have to help
my parents. So I had to quit my university and go to work. So basically, and the quick money
would be always abroad because as not everyone knows, Kyrgyzstan has low salaries, which is
enough for a daily base there, but I wanted to support my family in the best way. And I always
knew. No, it's not right to say it, but I kind of felt like I'm a little bit
bigger for that small box. Maybe it's very bad to say, but yeah, I always kind of felt that
I need better life than my country can give me in the way like, yeah, my soul wanted more.
I guess that's the first thing which made me move as soon as I got the opportunity to move
to Dubai. And even though my first job was really low salary, and I would say it was
barely enough for me surviving by myself. I was able to save up some money and yeah,
I would say my first experience was awful. But again, it's I chose to react on it with positive
mindset and be grateful for each and every day because imagine 19 years old girl, first time
moving abroad, not having any family membership next to herself. It was really tough. But
I knew that it's better for me to be here and try to build my future.
Maybe even on that time, I didn't even realize what am I doing. Now I realize that sometimes
you just have to go by flow and trust the ways to take you to the places where you
dreamt about one day when you were a teenager. I actually had a mood board,
which I made when I was 16. And that mood board was hanging on my room for more than a year.
Yeah, more than a year, like two or three years. For sure, I was waking up every day
and falling asleep every day looking at my mood board because I didn't have TV on my room
or any other instructions except books. And funny enough, in the middle of my mood board was a
picture of Burj Khalil Rab, which I didn't even know that it's in Dubai. I just used to
cut all the beautiful pictures from magazines and just have it on my wall just to make
sure that it's in my brain. And my brain actually, I guess, wrote and made my body to
follow the path. It's beautiful how it works because my mood board had cars, which I already
have, all the travels, which I already did. So yeah, that's my first experience.
Thank you. I love how much you're connected with your intuition and you trust
in your destiny. It's very, very important. And you being a makeup trainer, a makeup artist,
how is this something that gives you more meaning to your life?
Do you feel you're giving women beauty and confidence? Do you see it as art and every
day you're leaving a piece of art on it? Or what makes you fascinated, interested in,
and in love with makeup? Well, when I was growing up,
my dad used to draw. He's actually a very good artist. He draws, he does sculpting. So I
grew up seeing my dad doing those things every night in the kitchen. And that was kind of
a joke when people say, make sure whom you're surrounded with. Obviously I didn't have the
choice. My dad was the way he was. But if you now choose your friends and your future husband,
family, then please everyone make it wise because unconditionally,
no, not unconditionally, but in a way it's going to definitely affect and build your brain.
So you're going to see those things normal. So me growing up with my dad, who's an artist,
obviously my heart was always in there, even though I would never think that I would become
artist myself one day. And then my brother started working as a jewelry, jewelry. Yeah,
I think that's the right way to say he does the jewelry, the rings, necklaces. And that
was, that was cool. I was like, I was proud of them, but in my head, I was like,
I don't think I have a talent and thing, you know? So once I come to Dubai, my study
was in finance. So I didn't really guide myself like, oh, I want to be artist, so I'm going to
go there. No, I didn't really have the choice. So my parents couldn't afford my university. So
I just went for whatever government can pay for me because I was a good student in a way.
And so yeah, basically when I come to Dubai, after my first job, I quit. There was really
experience, don't want to even talk about it. But again, thanks for those days, because I can
say I struggled, I hustled, and that made me the way I am right now. So my second job was in
the beauty industry. I started obviously from sales. Then when I start having a little
trainings about how to become makeup artist, and I was like, hmm, that's actually
something interesting. But again, I would always low validate myself in a way like,
I don't know if I can do it, you know? But once I try it, and I remember that a client of mine,
she come to my counter, and I was like, I was like, doing nothing, just like no clients,
nobody. And I was like, kind of bored. And I was like, don't you mind if I do your makeup?
And she's like, yeah, of course, that was my first experience. And I can see she's cool,
you know, and she doesn't mind me to practice on her. And once I did her makeup,
her reaction as is, I cannot even explain by words. When she saw herself in the mirror,
and just remember yet, it was my first experience. She's like, Oh my God,
I've never seen myself so beautiful. That's what she say when she look at the mirror and
start crying. I think that moment made me think different. I don't know, it's just something
happened on that second that my first job, my first experience on doing makeup on someone can
make woman feel that feelings. And her having that feelings made me feel something
I can like, can even describe. So yeah, I think that's the moment where I decided,
okay, I want to actually be part of woman's life, where she can like cry from happiness,
where she can say, Oh my God, this is so beautiful. And now whenever I hear that
comment from my clients, I'm like, yeah, that's me, you know, now I can say I'm confident
after 12 years. I love that story. And thank you so much for sharing it. And I'm sure you're putting
huge smiles on women's faces every day. And to finish this, I'm really, really curious
to know more because you're very insightful. And you spoke about that energy and you get into
your confidence. Some women nowadays, maybe because of social media or the isolation of
pandemic or just society nowadays, don't find their confidence, they stay in their comfort zone,
and they don't feel the courage to go out of it. What's your advice for women so that they
find their confidence and live their big dreams and up to their potential?
Well, I would say to all women, girls, ladies, all my sisters, what I want to say to you is,
there is going to be nobody around you who's going to say you are beautiful. There's going
to be nobody who's going to say you're strong enough and you can handle it, except yourself.
So as soon as you start telling yourself, I can do it, I believe in myself, everything
going to be good because I was the girl, small girl who never heard those words from parents,
who never heard those words from family because basically they had no time for all these words.
So I had to talk to myself and tell myself that I can handle everything, I'm beautiful,
I'm amazing. And as I say, those beliefs one day are going to hit your heart and you will
be so strong within yourself. You're going to believe in yourself so much that no matter what
people say around you, you would say, I know what I am. I know who I am. And trust me girls,
they're going to change your life. And what you're going to see on the social media,
Instagram, on TV, it's everything. What people want to brainwash you, I would say,
as you know, sells people, sells the product which they have to sell, not what you need.
It's the same with the world. The world demands to manipulate your thoughts. So if someone says that
beautiful body is this and this is the standard, you need to be 100% sure, make sure that
that is not the truth. Maybe that's the truth, but for that person, because by the time you
tell yourself every day that you're the best, you're the best version of yourself, you're the
most amazing person, you would know in your head that that's not true because the best is my body,
the best is my face for yourself. And that's going to be your truth for the rest of your
life. So you won't be so influenced by others' opinions. If someone like even I had in my
family or around my people who'd say like, oh, you have this and that is wrong, like,
obviously it's going to affect. But again, guys, like it's up to you how you're going to react on
it. You're going to take it seriously and start destroying your mind and body over those thoughts,
over those advertisements and people's lifestyle. Like always remember that you have your own
path and your life is beautiful itself. It's all in your head. Nobody's responsible about your
life. Nobody's responsible about your future and happiness except you. So always remember that and
don't let anyone influence or tell you what is right and what is wrong to do within your life,
because that's your life which God gives you. That's your life which God asks you to make
yourself happy. That's the main and the only thing you have to be concerned about.
That's all I can say. Maybe I missed something, but yeah, that's the main point.
No, it is more than enough. Thank you, Aydai, very much for your wisdom, your insight,
for sharing your voice and participating in this podcast. I'm honored and lucky to have
you here and I wish you to keep growing and to keep supporting women in every way that you
do. Thank you. Thank you so much, Aziz. I really want to show my appreciation and tell you that
you're doing an amazing job and I've listened to a few podcasts which are done by you and
thanks to your mom, thanks to your mom who grows such an amazing person and keep on doing
this. I hope our conversation and the work you do and the way I say my opinion and my life
experience is going to help and inspire a lot of people, which makes the world beautiful a
little bit. Thank you for everyone who listened to that, guys. Sharing my love and kisses.
