Aya Hojadova - Business & Real Estate

09/17/2026

This week, I’m wearing Rise + Rebel to my Goldman Sachs program meeting, and I am so excited. ✨

This is exactly what I love about these clothes. They work for the businesswoman who wants to feel polished and powerful, but also needs to survive the South Carolina heat…and the freezing AC waiting for her when she arrives.

Comfortable, expressive, and easy to layer. Pieces selected with intention and real women in mind.

Because we already have way too much on our minds. Let getting dressed be the easy decision.

Classy. Sassy. And a little badass-y.

You can discover Rise + Rebel locally at Look Up Charleston, 128 Meeting Street in downtown Charleston.

No one is you, and that is your power.

09/09/2026

Tonight, we go live. 🎙️✨

Art of Energy: Spoken Word is happening tonight at 7 PM ET, and I’m so excited to open this virtual space for poetry, expression, witnessing, and the voices that are ready to be heard.

We’ll be joined by a beautiful lineup of poets, including Tony Aldarondo and Haven Morningstar Greer, with more voices sharing throughout the evening.

If you love poetry, spoken word, storytelling, or simply being in spaces where people are willing to express something real, come spend the evening with us.

You do not have to perform.
You do not have to be a poet.

You can simply come listen, witness, and let the words meet you where you are.

Art of Energy: Spoken Word
📅 Tonight, September 9
⏰ 7 PM ET
💻 Livestreamed Online

Register / join here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSesvLFAATa2MOhzissd4SaWc8Kzf7l2h_AeCOoJ6U-bjz52Ew/viewform

And if you can’t make it live, don’t worry. We’re recording the evening and will be sharing the replay on Sunday, September 13.

One last announcement before we hit record...

Come as you are.

Let’s see what wants to be heard. ✨

08/25/2026

The little details matter. 🖤

Getting the Rise + Rebel tags ready and smiling at how perfectly this moment fits:

**“No one is you and that is your power.”**

Wearing CharlestonHacks in the background, building something rooted in creativity, community, and becoming more fully yourself.

Feels pretty on theme. ✨

08/23/2026

One of my favorite things about Haven is the way she **sees** things. ✨

While we were preparing for 8.8, she pulled out this little ticking piece she had found from a large clock and immediately began telling me what she envisioned creating with it.

And I just listened.

Because this is Haven the artist.

She sees beyond what something *is* and into what it could become. She finds stories, possibility, and new life in things other people might walk right past.

I loved capturing this little moment of her creative mind at work. 🖤

There are so many layers to the woman behind the Haven Center for Healing Hearts, and I’m excited for more people to get to experience them.

Sometimes art begins with simply seeing differently.

08/20/2026

Big news... I’ve been accepted into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in South Carolina. 🎉

This feels like a full-circle moment. Nearly 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to intern with Goldman Sachs while I was in college. Now, to be selected as a 10KSB Scholar as I continue building my commercial real estate advisory business feels incredibly meaningful.

As a Commercial Real Estate Advisor, I work with small-business owners, property owners, investors, and entrepreneurs who are making important decisions around leasing, buying, selling, and growth. I’m excited to use this program to strengthen my leadership, operations, marketing, and long-term growth strategy — not just to build a stronger business, but to better serve the people and businesses shaping our local communities.

I’m honored to be part of this cohort and grateful for the opportunity to learn alongside other entrepreneurs across South Carolina.

Here’s to building with more clarity, discipline, and impact.

08/16/2026

Cute doesn’t have to mean complicated. ✨

A little **Rise + Rebel** for the days when you want to look put together and still feel completely chill.

Easy. Comfortable. Still you. 🖤

Like the look?

You can now shop Rise + Rebel in person at **Look Up Charleston**. Woo hoo! 🙌

Get it while it’s there. Pieces are limited.

08/14/2026

A little glimpse of something beginning. ❤️‍🔥

Rise + Rebel is slowly finding its way into the Haven Center for Healing Hearts.

For now, that looks like a few of our accessories making an appearance in the space.

But somehow, it feels like the beginning of something much bigger.

Since bringing the Art of Energy experience to Haven on 8.8, Haven and I have continued talking, dreaming, exploring, and asking what else might want to be created here.

I don't have all the answers yet.

And I actually love that.

There is something beautiful about allowing a partnership to unfold naturally instead of trying to define it before it's ready.

Rise + Rebel has always been about becoming more fully yourself. Through what we wear. Through the conversations we have. Through the spaces we enter. Through the experiences that remind us of our own power.

And Haven feels like a beautiful place for some of that becoming to happen.

So today, I'm simply celebrating this little milestone.

A few Rise + Rebel pieces are here.
The seeds are being planted.
And I have a feeling we're only getting started.

So grateful to Haven for continuing to open her doors, believe in what I'm creating, and make room for possibility.

More soon. 🖤

08/12/2026

I asked women to step into their power.

Then I realized I had to do the same.

After facilitating The Art of Energy on 8/8, I did what so many perfectionists do.

First came:

“Holy... I did that.”

And almost immediately after came:

I should have said this differently.
That transition could have been smoother.
Why did I look at my notes there?
Next time I need to...

And somewhere in that mental review, I almost skipped over the most important part.

I did it.

I showed up before I knew exactly how it would go.

I watched women stand up, use their voices, release beliefs that had kept them small, and choose something different for themselves.

And then I had to go home and practice the exact lesson I had just asked them to practice.

So this is the reminder I’m carrying with me:

Messy is better than nonexistent.

Messy gives us something to learn from.

Messy gives us experience.

Messy means we were brave enough to begin.

I wrote more about what 8/8 taught me, clothing as a form of self-expression, the beautiful energy that unfolded in the room, and my own ongoing rebellion against perfectionism.

I Asked Women to Step Into Their Power. Then I Had to Do the Same.

Read it here: https://www.risewithaya.com/post/i-asked-women-to-step-into-their-power-then-i-had-to-do-the-same

And if you’re somewhere in the messy middle of becoming too...

Keep showing up.

No one is you and that is your power. 🤍

08/08/2026

There is something beautiful about what happens when two women bring their own bodies of work, their own stories, and their own way of seeing the world into the same room.

As Haven and I have been preparing for The Art of Energy tonight, I’ve been thinking about how different our work may look on the surface, yet how closely the threads underneath seem to meet.

Worthiness. Expression. Energy. Becoming. The courage to be seen. The permission to simply BE.

Recently, Haven shared a poem with her community about her own becoming, her relationship with the Haven Center for Healing heARTs, and what she has learned about holding space while learning to hold herself.

When I read it, I knew I wanted more people to experience her words.

Haven has such a beautiful gift for poetry. Her writing moves the way energy moves. It bends, pauses, repeats, breaks open, and somehow brings you back to yourself.

With her permission, I shared her full poem on my blog today, along with a few reflections of my own as we prepare to step into this experience together tonight.

One of her lines has stayed with me:

“The Art of the Energy should SPELL YOU.”

Whew.

Maybe that is what tonight is really about.

Not becoming someone else.

Not performing confidence, healing, or power correctly.

Just becoming curious enough to notice what is already alive inside of us.

We gather tonight at 6:30 PM at the Haven Center for Healing heARTs in Mount Pleasant for The Art of Energy. ✨

And whether you are joining us in the room or simply following along from afar, I hope Haven’s words remind you of something inside yourself too.

Read the poem + reflection here: https://www.risewithaya.com/post/thresholds-shifts-the-gift-is-you

No one is you and that is your power. 🤍

As Haven and I have been preparing for The Art of Energy, I’ve been thinking a lot about what happens when two people bring their own bodies of work, their own stories, and their own ways of seeing the world into the same room.There is something beautiful about not needing to make those things ide...