We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alyssa Banks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alyssa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I’m a pastor’s kid yet I’ve always been a creative. When I wanted to create a business name, I thought it was important to find something that merged my two worlds. So I combined the words Sanctified and Fly—SanctiFly.

I use it as proof that being a Christian doesn’t put you in a box of mundane; we can be fly too!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been a creative my entire life but it wasn’t until high school that I realized that I could make a career out of it. I went on to college and pursued my bachelor’s of science in graphic design and a master of fine arts in Media Design.

While I do believe that one can become a designer without formal schooling, I also can speak proudly about the benefits a formal education as a designer provided me with. I could put language to why I was creating the way I was creating. My professor told us, “In art, you have to learn the rules before you can break them.” That stuck with me!

I’ve spent the last 8 years building a business that merges creativity and sophistication because no one should have to choose between the two. I believe it’s important to know that I’m not a creative because I can’t do anything else and it’s never been my desire to be a starving artist. I built this brand to give the next generation a little more freedom to explore the arts as a career.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot I had to take was at the start of the pandemic. It was the ultimate pivot if you owned a business because everything was changing.

I made the pivot to set systems in place that would work for me, while at the same time continuing to tell my story of building a brand. For most business owners, it’s a fine line between transparency and discretion so I learned during that time how to give enough so that people knew I was human but withhold enough that people still respected me as a business owner.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I funded my business with personal money. I still work a 9-5 (that I love) so I used savings to start the business. From that point, I’ve been strategic about putting any money the business earned back into the business until I was at a good place to pivot.

Recently, I switched to The Profit First model. It breaks down your earnings into different pots to strategize about how you spend.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesanctiflybrand.com
• Instagram: @thesanctiflybrand
• Facebook: The Sanctifly Brand

Image Credits
Joel Sutton of Joel Onais Photography