This week, we're sitting down with Maya Ozokur. Maya is the owner of U&I BTQ. Listen to this week's episode to hear her story.
Produced by Blue Fish in Mobile, Alabama.
Transcript:
Maya Ozokur
Hi, this is Maya Ozokur, I am the owner of U&I Boutique.
Marcus Neto
Yay, Maya.
Maya Ozokur
Yay. All the fireworks.
Marcus Neto
Exactly. It's great to have you on the podcast. So full disclosure, Maya and husband Naz, who was on a previous episode, are good friends, but she's also a business owner and we wanted to bring her in and talk to her about all of the things that she's learned over the years of running U&I. So thank you for being here.
Maya Ozokur
Thank you for having me.
Marcus Neto
Yeah, absolutely. So tell us the story of Maya. Where are you from? Where'd you go to high school? Did you go to college? If so, what'd you study? Married? Backstory.
Maya Ozokur
All right, so let's start. So I'm originally from Bosnia. I left Bosnia when I was six years old and moved to Germany, lived there for seven years and then immigrated to the US. I did go to high school here. I went to Murphy and graduated from Davidson. I continued my education at South Alabama. I studied foreign languages with a concentration in German. Do not ask me what I planned on doing with that. I thought I could teach. I tried that for one day and thanked the teacher at that time immensely and told her that that just wasn't my calling. The next option up was I was going to go to law school and do international law because I do speak three languages and I thought I would put that to use, and all along I really had this burning desire to do something in fashion. My mom says since I was literally a year old I knew what I wanted, and if I didn't want to wear that, I wouldn't wear it, and I would pick my own clothes. So they say you're born with a character, and apparently mine was fashion. Here we are.
Marcus Neto
Very cool. Now, married?
Maya Ozokur
I am married to my wonderful, incredible husband Nazmi. He is truly the inspiration behind U&I. It's actually are saying, it's you and I against the world, that then translated into the customer aspect of U&I, the intimate relationship you have when you walk in and get to meet me or my staff, my managers. And we have a beautiful daughter named [inaudible 00:02:16]. she's five. She is the light of our lives. And yeah, that's it.
Marcus Neto
So, I know all these things, but I want to make sure that you had a chance to brag on Naz a little bit because I know how much it means to you. So now going back to high school and college. Studying languages, it was kind of an unfair thing because you know these languages, but would you consider yourself a good student?
Maya Ozokur
I am not a good student in the sense that I was never really attracted to academics. It always came very easy to me. I have a photographic memory, so school was always a breeze. My brother's just like it. We always made straight A's. We'd never really had to apply ourselves heavily to make good grades, but I was just never very interested in a setting of sitting in a classroom and listening to a person.
Marcus Neto
Instead of doing.
Maya Ozokur
Correct. So yeah, it was definitely an advantage. I mean, I studied German and I spoke German fluently. I grew up in Germany. But it was still hard. I mean, literature, grammar, if you know anything about languages, German has to be one of the harder languages when it comes to grammar. But I really thought that I could apply myself and use that, but I just didn't find the interest in that.
Marcus Neto
Teaching wasn't the application.
Maya Ozokur
No, absolutely not. Absolutely not.
Marcus Neto
Well go back in time to your very first job, and I'm talking about the first job that you maybe had in high school, or maybe even sooner than that, or earlier than that. Were there any lessons that you still... So what was it, first, and were there any lessons that you remember from that?
Maya Ozokur
Yes. So obviously I just told you guys that we moved here, so it was just my mom, myself, my brother, and my grandmother. It was really hard. My mom was basically the only income. My brother ended up leaving for the military. So it was just three women, and I needed to learn really quickly how to make a living for myself, even at the age of 13. So my mom worked in Morrison's Cafeteria, she was cutting pies, and I ended up getting a job, just a summer job, literally 13 years old, I wasn't even legal to work, as a waitress. Sorry, go back. I was helping my mom cut the pies. I ended up falling that summer, 4th of July, breaking my ankle and they couldn't bring me back to the kitchen because it was just too much of a liability. So at that time, the manager, I'll never forget him, Mr. Will Smith. Yes, his name was Will Smith.
Marcus Neto
Getting jiggy with it.
Maya Ozokur
Getting jiggy with it. He had told me... It was kind of crazy because working at Morrison's, you would have never thought that people were making the money that we were making at that time because it's a cafeteria. But we were making more money than waiters and waitresses that were working in Ruth's Chris. I know it sounds really crazy, because we don't have a full service. It's just basically refilling cups and taking dishes. But it was very family oriented, a lot of elderly would come through there and just needed companionship, somebody to talk to. They would really tip well. Anyhow, so he had given me kind of a test, it was a very difficult customer. Nobody wanted to wait on her. It was in the smoking section at that time. So here I am 13 years old. And he said, "If you pass the test, if she ends up liking you, I'll put you on payroll and you can do waitressing after school in the afternoons."
Maya Ozokur
Anyhow, so I ended up working with this particular person and she was very difficult, very difficult person, but she ended up going afterwards and telling him that I was definitely worth staying on staff, so he ended up hiring me. And the biggest lesson from him that I learned that if you want something done, you roll up your sleeves and you do it yourself. And I will never forget that because on Sundays when we would literally see like 8,000 people come through the line, I know it sounds ridiculous, he would roll up his sleeves and he would literally be pushing the line, getting people out.
Marcus Neto
It sounds like there was also the beginnings... Because I know how you view and we'll get into it in just a minute, but how you view customers at U&I, and your difficulty with that one person was foreshadowing for how you treat your customers at U&I. Because I know that that's something that's extremely important to you. The experience that they have.
Maya Ozokur
I was talking to my manager today about that, just talking about our employee handbook and everything. In our employee handbook we never refer to customers as customers. They are our friends. And truly when you walk into U&I, whether I'm there, whether my staff is there, it's very reflecting of the atmosphere that we've created, which is we want to make you feel like you're a part of this. When you're walking into the store, you are a part of our family, you are a part of our circle, you're part of our tribe, and that's how every single person gets treated. We can't always get it right. It's impossible. But we nearly try to the best of our knowledge to make everybody truly feel like they matter, which they do.
Maya Ozokur
I think that if you teach the old saying, treat others how you would like to be treated. I've had numerous occasions when I've walked into stores and I look like a bum. I mean, I just rolled out of bed, I needed to run and get something. And people might not want to attend to you because they judge you or they're making assumption of the way you look or whatever. And I always said that's probably my biggest pet peeve. You don't know me. You don't know my story. You don't know my background. So when every time somebody walks into U&I we're giving you a red carpet experience. I know you've been there with Chrissy when she walks in, when she comes to shop, and genuinely it truly matters to me. That's my ultimate life mission is to transform women, truly make them feel their best, but also look their best.
Marcus Neto
Absolutely. And I can attest to that. So going going into U&I. So how did you start U&I Boutique and give us a picture of what that was like, that experience.
Maya Ozokur
So prior to starting U&I Boutique I was a regional manager for six years for a local boutique that grew here out of Mobile, Alabama. Unfortunately they are no longer around. But I just developed just this drive. I really just wanted to see how far I could take it. And we grew, at the time when she hired me just as an assistant manager, we had two locations. We grew within four years to 10 locations. And it was really cool to see that growth. So a year after I got married, Nazmi, my husband, he was opening Island Wing Company and Tropical Smoothie in Auburn, Alabama with then his business partner, and we realized that it was going to be really hard for us. He was going to have to spend a lot of time up there and we were newlyweds, and we really didn't want to be apart. So he said to me, "What if you do something on your own? Why don't you just open up? You've been doing it for so long. You have so much knowledge. You're so good [crosstalk 00:09:05]."
Marcus Neto
Just start a business. This is so Naz's way of operating.
Maya Ozokur
Yes. And I said, "Great. And tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up and there's going to be a mysterious amount of money in my bank account that's going to give me the ability to do whatever I want to do." And he said, "Yes, that is correct." And at that time I just knew we were broke. I mean, I was like, "Sure, it sounds wonderful, but how are you going to make it happen?" And he said, "If you are committed to it and if you want to do this, I will make it happen." So literally that's how it came about. There was one more space that was right next to Island Wing Company, which was the restaurant he was opening at that time.
Maya Ozokur
And his business partner at that time had built that shopping center, so obviously he knew who he was going to be working with. So I started doing extensive research and really understanding what I wanted to get or give, more give than get out of U&I. And the idea of the boutique was born. So we started little by little, pooling things together. I started buying, hiring, et cetera. And yeah, we opened our first store, our brick and mortar in 2012 in Auburn, Alabama.
Marcus Neto
Nice. That is so cool. Now, do you remember the first maybe... I'm going to use it just because it's terminology that most people wouldn't understand, but the first customer that you helped or the first experience that you had where you thought, "Man, there might be something to this?"
Maya Ozokur
So if you know my journey, and I'm extremely transparent, anybody that knows me personally knows that I am a diehard, honest person. I will tell you the truth even when you don't want to hear it. Even about myself. Sometimes my husband thinks I can be ruthless at times, but I'm like, "You know what, that's what I've considered out of friendships and people that I love and vice versa." But I had a lot of growing pains and many times I thought, "This is not for me. This business idea, me being a business owner, I think I'm more driven by working for somebody else than working for myself," because the idea of owning a business is wonderful. It's incredible. But to actually make a dollar, earn that dollar, it's so hard. And I know you know that. You can probably count it as the first startup and the first few years.
Maya Ozokur
Going back to your question, I promise there's a point to this. I remember a time where I was literally in the back of the store, I was the only one there, and I just thought, "How do I tell my husband that this isn't going to work?" Because he's just been such a huge supporter. He is the main reason why I do what I do when it still comes to today. Because he's my biggest cheerleader. And I just kept thinking and kept running that idea through my head. Like, "How do I just tell him that this is not for me." And a customer walked in. It was a young lady. Auburn, Alabama, majority of the people that shopped with me were college students. She walked in, I walked out and started talking to her immediately. We kind of developed a dialogue. We were exchanging stories back and forth. She ended up trying a few things on, liked the stuff that she tried on, ended up buying it and leaving. Didn't think anything of it.
Maya Ozokur
Well, literally like 10 minutes later, she walks back into the store and I'm like, "Oh gosh, she forgot something." And as she's walking closer to me, I can see that she's just been bawling her eyes out. And I'm like, "Oh my God, what's wrong." I am known to just say random stuff. So I'm like, "I probably said something that offended her." And she said, "I needed to come back and tell you something." And I said, "What's up?" Let's call her Ashley, because I don't want to disclose who it is either. But I said, "What's up Ashley?" I said, "I'm sorry if I said..." She said, "No, I need to tell you what was happening 30 minutes prior to me walking into your store." And I said, "Please do tell me." I'm still in shock, something like, "God, Maya, why did you have to say that? Whatever you said, why did you do it?"
Maya Ozokur
And she said that she had gone to another store and in particular, Ashley was... She was just heavier set. There was nothing wrong with her. She just had a different body than the size zero. And she had gone to the store and she had tried on a few pieces and they were unable to help her. And not only were they unable to help her, they made her feel not so good about herself. And she said she had already contemplated for weeks of hurting herself. And she said, "I genuinely was headed home to take care of the deed. I was going to do what needed to be done." She obviously wasn't in a very good place. And she saw U&I, and decided to stop in, and then I ended up talking to her and obviously just made her feel like part of my family. She was my friend.
Maya Ozokur
And she said that she just, at that moment, realized that she was worth something. Whatever that worth was made her feel good enough to where she felt like she can get out of whatever she was in, which was so... I mean, that was like... I mean, if you need God to give you a sign, how much more obvious does it need to be? A person just walked in and told you, "Keep doing what you're doing. You're doing great." And I thought, "This is what life is about." live by the whole idea of giving is living, and the more you give, the better of a life you have, not in the financial, materialistic sense, but just the passion and the love and the drive. So I just knew that moment that no matter what I had to fight for U&I, and I had to fight for my dream.
Marcus Neto
That's really cool. I'm driven much the same way. We do a lot in the business community, just kind of help people out and stuff like that. And that's the rewarding part of this. And we do have to make a living, but we don't just want to make a living. We actually want to impact business owners life in the sense of like, "Hey, I've been struggling with this. I don't know how to execute this, or it's completely out of my realm." And we come and like help them build their business or something. So I get it. If you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, what's the one bit of wisdom that you would impart to them?
Maya Ozokur
I think the most important thing about running a business.... There's probably a few components of it. Find your passion, make sure that you are extremely passionate about that one particular thing you're trying to share with the world. Second of all, have backbone. I mean, you got to have really tough skin to be in business because reality is you're not going to be able to make everybody happy and you're not going to be able to always perfectly present your service, whatever service you're offering, or product. And I think three is make sure that you are consistent in whatever you do. Just like anything in life. I mean, if you're going to start a business, make sure that you are consistent at it every single day, whatever that consistency means.
Marcus Neto
Yeah. Just to add onto what you're saying, Simon Sinek has a number of videos on YouTube about finding your why. So finding your passion. So if somebody out there is struggling with that, they can look that up and it should help push them in the right direction. So is there anything that you're currently working on in your business that you can share?
Maya Ozokur
Yeah, so we are actually expanding. I have a lease in my inbox right now for our third location.
Marcus Neto
Sweet.
Maya Ozokur
Yep, very excited for that. We are working progressively on getting our website better and better and better because obviously ecommerce is becoming more powerful. It kind of blew up. If it wasn't big already during the pandemic, it obviously blew up even bigger.
Marcus Neto
It was a little bit big, but COVID certainly magnified that.
Maya Ozokur
I'm telling you. I still have this beliefs in my heart of hearts that once things kind of settle down and we figured this whole vaccination thing, whether you're getting vaccine or not, and people start moving around and getting out, that brick and mortar, especially small businesses, are going to be on the better end of all of this. I think people are going to feel more connected, they're going to want to get out, and they're going to want to interact. As great as it is to order online, you are not getting that one-on-one experience. I don't care who you're ordering from. So we're working on a website, working on a third location, and then as soon as we open that one up, we will be working on our fourth location. We're growing this year.
Marcus Neto
I'll get to that in just a second. So if you look to the business world, and not just Mobile, but the larger business world, who is the one person that motivates you.
Maya Ozokur
Gosh, that's so hard. So I used to have... My biggest mentor and inspiration was Sophia Amoruso, which was the founder of Nasty Gal. Nasty Gal the brand is still around, but she obviously is not part of it any longer. She actually just DMed me back, which was a really big deal for me, because this is somebody that's... She's pretty known in my circle of what I do for a living. There's a lot of, I guess, companies that I could say that I follow up with and read about, I don't have one specific person, because, again, I know this sounds really silly, but my husband is probably my biggest inspiration when it comes to business.
Marcus Neto
Yadda, yadda, yadda. He's all right and all, but you know, I mean...
Maya Ozokur
I love that about him. He's very analytical, but he understands a lot about business and really understands how business works and he really inspires me to be a better business person. So I would say yeah...
Marcus Neto
Nazmi.
Maya Ozokur
Nazmi Ozokur.
Marcus Neto
Are there any books, podcasts, people, or organizations that have been helpful in moving you forward?
Maya Ozokur
So I just recently... Not recently, maybe, but it's called BOF, it's B-O-F. It's for the business world. It's Instagram related. They do have a lot of really great articles about just what's going to be happening in the near future with industries, manufacturing, import, export, et cetera. So I've been following them a lot lately.
Marcus Neto
Is that a website or...
Maya Ozokur
It's an Instagram, so it's just a page. I'm pretty sure they have a podcast. I know they do. I haven't listened to it yet. You can subscribe to them. It's like a subscription too. It's just really cool. They talk a lot about, again, what's going to be happening in the future and how fast fashion is evolving, brand names, what's happening around the world and whatnot.
Marcus Neto
Just doing some forecasting.
Maya Ozokur
Yes, yes, yes.
Marcus Neto
What is the most important thing that you've learned about running a business?
Maya Ozokur
Oh gosh, I learned a lot. I have to say I still have a lot of learning to do. The most important thing. It's business. I think that's the most important thing I learned is that nothing is personal. It's business. And you have to view it as that. Sometimes making some tough decisions. Obviously not everybody's always going to be happy with them, but sometimes they just have to be done. So business is business.
Marcus Neto
For sure. No, that's good. And how do you like to unwind?
Maya Ozokur
I spend time with my family. We just hang out. We just like being around each other. Obviously my unwinding would probably have to be shopping, as crazy as that sounds. So that's when people say when I go to market, they're like...
Marcus Neto
Okay, so I want to go back because I know the story, but I think it's important for people to understand where that comes from. So tell the story about your grandmother.
Maya Ozokur
Which one? There's so many stories.
Marcus Neto
Well just the one where she was always the one that always seemed put together and had her own style.
Maya Ozokur
Are you going to make me cry?
Marcus Neto
No, I'm not going to make you cry, but you're going to tell this damn story because I think it's important to understand that some something drives you beyond just like, "Oh, fashion's pretty." It's not that. There's something deeper than that.
Maya Ozokur
You met me, or we really were introduced to each other more towards the end of my grandmother, because my Nana passed in 2019 and her and my mother have been my biggest inspirations. I mean, truly the epiphany of what it means to be a bad woman.
Marcus Neto
You can say badass.
Maya Ozokur
I can say badass woman. So my Nana married when she was like 17, and my grandfather was... He was going to law school at that time. He was going to be a diplomat. And she was really the Jackie O. I mean, she never... Unapologetic. Was always put together, always looked pretty perfection. And then her sister, her younger sister who really introduced me to brand names and designers and whatnot, her husband was an engineer, but he traveled all over the world and he would go to Paris and Italy and he would buy her these really expensive Chanel suits and pearls and stuff like that.
Maya Ozokur
And I remember as a kid I would go and I would sit in the closet and tried them on and just find the appreciation of it. I sent Nazmi a video the other day, and I think he was thinking I was hinting that I should get a Dior bag, but really, truly it was an incredible video of craftsmanship and how a bag is made. And a lot of people don't understand that when you buy brand name, yes, of course there is a part that you're buying for significance because it's a name that's well known around the world, but just how much craftsmanship goes into it. The hand stitching, the details.
Marcus Neto
It's the finest of the materials, it's the finest in craftsmanship.
Maya Ozokur
It is. It is. And for me it's always so beautiful because it's almost like people that enjoy art, they look at a piece of painting, and when they see it, they can see the story that comes from it. That's how I view clothing, and that's how I view accessories. To me, there's always a story that comes with it. That's how I buy. That's exactly how I buy for the store. And if you've ever shopped with me, you can walk in and you understand how I do my merchandising. Each rack has a rhyme or reason, and it's other color coordinated and then it's matched up with tops, bodysuits, bottoms, whatever it may be. Each rack truly tells a story. Whether you're a city girl, whether you're going on a date, whether you're a business woman, whatever it may be, you really, truly-
Marcus Neto
They may not be the same brands, but they all kind of go together. I just felt like that was important because I think understanding... You said, "Well, I've always been into fashion from the very get go, and I think that people are born with a character and my character just happened to be fashion," but you didn't talk about the, all the formative years of watching this woman that you looked up to and just how she carried herself and stuff like that. So I wanted people to understand, especially when it comes to something like that, because it's not just about pretty things. It's like, "No, this is in my core."
Maya Ozokur
It is. Truly, I believe it. I mean, I believe that God plants a seed in all of us and we end up doing exactly what we're called to do. And again, I always say some people have churches and that's their ministry and mine happens to be U&I. That's how I touch, that's my platform.
Marcus Neto
You're an idiot If you don't think that you can touch people through business.
Maya Ozokur
Absolutely. 100%.
Marcus Neto
As a matter of fact, churches are not the place to touch people. You touch people in your everyday life.
Maya Ozokur
I believe that. I truly do.
Marcus Neto
Did you answer what you like to do to unwind?
Maya Ozokur
Yes. I said I'd just chill out with my family.
Marcus Neto
Oh, and shop.
Maya Ozokur
And shop, yes.
Marcus Neto
Yes. Poor Naz.
Maya Ozokur
I know. He's come to love it, thank you very much. He's [crosstalk 00:24:19] about it.
Marcus Neto
Where can people find you?
Maya Ozokur
Mobile, we're at Legacy Village. If you are not familiar with where Legacy Village is, it is right off of Dauphin Street, right across from Springhill Hospital. You can also visit us on the big wide web U&I Boutique, so uandibtq.com. Instagram, it's U&I BTQ Facebook. It's U&I BTQ. Again, you can always hit us up, DM, call, whatever, however you prefer to message.
Marcus Neto
Pensacola.
Maya Ozokur
Pensacola, yeah. So we're at Cordova Mall. We are right beside Pandora, so it's a beautiful mall, great location, our store. You cannot miss our window display, so I'm really proud of those.
Marcus Neto
I'm just really excited, because I know that that's a new location for you and it's been received very well.
Maya Ozokur
Very well.
Marcus Neto
And I won't say where, but I know where your next location is going and I think you were also going to be very well received where you're going as well. So I'm excited for what the next couple of years hold for you.
Maya Ozokur
Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm excited too. Thank you for having me.
Marcus Neto
Well hold on. We're not there just yet.
Maya Ozokur
We're not done yet. Okay, just kidding.
Marcus Neto
So this is where I say I want to thank you again for coming on the podcast. To wrap up, is there any final thoughts or comments that you would like to share?
Maya Ozokur
Yes, I would. This is not a sales pitch, but I think it's amazing what you're doing. I think that all of us, any business owner, any kind of business you're in needs a strong marketing agency behind them. For me personally, I just don't know a lot about marketing. I have the idea, I have what I want to accomplish, but I believe that whatever you do, whatever business you're in, you need help. You need help spreading the word and getting your business out there. So thank you for having me here today. I really appreciate it because it gives me also an opportunity to talk about my experiences, my business, but also hopefully encourage somebody else that's thinking about wanting to do something.
Marcus Neto
Well that's why we do this. And for those of you... And just real quickly, because I know we're wrapping up, but the whole purpose of this podcast has been to share the good, positive things that business owners are doing in Mobile, because we hear so much negative. So there's never any charge for people to be on this podcast. The only charge is that they have to give me an hour of their time because they have to come in and get a picture made and then they sit and they record the podcast. But we're going to continue doing this because I believe in the story of business owners and we want to continue to share that with people.
Marcus Neto
But we're also keenly aware that this is an inspirational podcast in the sense that we hear stories many times where people have either moved back to Mobile or they've started businesses or whatever, because of stories that they've heard here. So I want to thank you again because who knows who hears this and decides, "I like what she said." Maybe they liked fashion. Maybe like maybe they liked sneakers. I don't know. And decided to go into that.
Maya Ozokur
If I could add one more thing, I would just say-
Marcus Neto
No, that's it, sorry.
Maya Ozokur
If you're thinking about doing a business, this is the time to do it. When everybody else is crawling into a hole because they're scared, this is a time to put on your Superman, superwoman cape-
Marcus Neto
Your big boy pants or your...
Maya Ozokur
And go do it. I truly believe wholeheartedly that this is a time to grow and this is what will make people... You will be able to create something that's grander than yourself. Just because we are in such a sensitive time right now where a lot of people are not going to be able to make it. It creates a lot of space for everything else and everybody else.
Marcus Neto
There is always a place for a business to be started. It's just a matter of figuring out how.
Maya Ozokur
If you want it bad enough you will find a way. If you don't, you'll make excuses.
Marcus Neto
Yep. For sure.
Maya Ozokur
Nazmi as a quick quote. I'm just kidding.
Marcus Neto
Well Maya, I appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur. It's been great talking with you.
Maya Ozokur
Thank you so much, Mr. Marcus.
