KGCI: Real Estate on Air - From Corporate Climber to Fashion Entrepreneur: Raven Hudson's Journey to Financial Freedom!

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Welcome to the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group podcast. Here we're all about breaking free from the 40 to 50-year work grind and accelerating our journey towards financial freedom. Join us every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to financial independence. We serve as a hub for connecting with fellow members during our sessions so you can share successes, ask questions, and keep the momentum going. Good evening, everyone. This is Ni Yi Adewale, a host of the Akaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Group, and I'm so excited to be joined by our first repeat guest, Raven Hudson, who is an MBA-educated business strategist at a Fortune 500 MedTech company, as well as the CEO and founder of a closing and accessories company, the Shrew Closet. At this MedTech company, she has a dual role of leading strategy development, portfolio management, strategic planning, and competitive

of Intel and serving as chief of staff for the general manager, Raven, thank you for joining us tonight. I'm excited to be here. Come on now. And it's been a minute since we connected a little over two years since our last podcast. And I really just want to catch up, right? Last time we connected, you were in a strategic program manager role. And now I'm seeing director, chief of staff, talking to general managers.

What has happened since then? Yeah. So definitely a lot has happened in regards of just, you know, how it is with the org structure. right? When they start restructuring organizations, they start thinking about where people sit, if they should advance people or not. So about six months ago, my boss that I reported into for over four years of my five-year tenure at this company I met today, did move to another part of the business. And so due to his good graces, he promoted me right before he left. And so I was already acting as somewhat of his chief of staff before, but it was never in my job title. And so he was

able to get the promotion put through to director by having me having the dual role of strategy plus this chief of staff for the new general manager that's in our company. Come on now. Hey, nothing like it. And that director title? I know it comes with that director pace. It does. Unlimited PCO, which is great.

But you have to get super creative about when you take off, right? It's all depending on the day of the business. But that's actually the biggest perk that I found was just being able to take off and I wanted to as long as it made sense. So to that point, I've always had a little bit of difficulty with the unlimited PTO because it almost makes you take off less. It's not like, hey, I got 20 days I need to use. So are you using more time off or less would you say? I think right now it's definitely probably less just because when I'm getting used to the dual role that I have now. So I feel like I am trying to, you know, learn as I go. But I'm starting in 2025, I want to be more intentional about taking time off, even if it's just one. or two days to do self-care in the area, right? So I'm going to start being a little bit more intentional, but I definitely say it's still work in progress for me when it comes to just taking the days off. Come on now. And that's 100% agreed. I'm actually of a similar vein. And so I literally

have to schedule it out almost a year in advance. Like, okay, I'm taking a trip. I don't know where yet, but I'm blocking off these days so that, you know, at this point, I'm going to take a trip and kind of make it happen from there. And so it's a daily struggle. Not getting a lot. Yeah. But one of the other pieces that you were doing that you're still continuing to do is build out a company as well. And as the CEO and founder of Shrewd Closet, a clothing and accessories brand, that takes a lot of time and energy. And I can tell you, I did the both hats thing, right? I made it to director level at Baxter while also building out the entrepreneurship gains. And I personally couldn't make it happen.

I had to make a decision. I was like, listen, I'm going to drop a ball one way or the other. but you found a way to do both successfully. How's Shrewd Closet been since the last time we connected? Yeah. It's definitely growing as far as just overall customers and engagement. But just like you mentioned, right, it's tough to balance both. And I'm choosing to prioritize more of my corporate journey because it's more of my passion.

What I loved about Shrew Closet is two things. One, it just allowed me to kind of understand if I can make money outside of corporate. And I actually had strangers that bought for me, right? So let me know that I can make money outside, which is great to have various forms of income. You shouldn't just depend on your job to give you income. And then, too, it just gave me more of the entrepreneur spirit. I was able to be creative, try new things. Sometimes within the corporate structure, you have to follow, which makes sense,

a standard protocol about how they do things. So I was able to really kind of test things and try things. So I definitely learned a lot, you know, along the way with it as well. And plus during holidays, it's always fun because people are looking for. new items to buy. So I would say my busiest times are really during holidays. It's when I have, you know, sales and things like that for different customers. Absolutely. And I think some of the best businesses are the ones that you actually participate and utilize. And we know that while you're setting the trends in the corporate world, you're also setting the fashion trends, right? And you make

it happen on a day-to-day basis, which is awesome. And so one of the pieces that you've mentioned before, right, is that fear has no place in the success equation, right? And so taking on a whole venture where you're building out a business while climbing that corporate ladder is something that can scare a lot of people. They might think like, hey, I'm not going to have the time to do these both. Or if somebody finds out, maybe it's going to be an issue over here. How were you able to get over that piece? And where did that knowledge come from? Yeah. I definitely think the push for entrepreneurship really came from my family. So my father has been an entrepreneur since I was born. He owns a very successful barbershop in southern Indiana. And so I always kind of saw him, you know,

go to work, owners on business. So it was always something I was interested in, but I wasn't quite sure about, you know, how to do it. I would also say, you have to give yourself grace, right? If you're working full time or maybe you have children and you're full time, you know, mom or dad, you know, you have to realize that it's going to take longer for you to be successful in your side venture because you are managing multiple different responsibilities. So that's kind of the first step. Then too, I really just think it's like you have to just try. And I think this day and age with everything being digital and online, you could create an online business pretty easy. Nowadays, they can help you build the website. You can have products. Sometimes people even

do things like drop shipping or they don't even have the product like in-house. So there's definitely the opportunities that you can leverage to start your business. But I think the most important part is really just to start and understand that success doesn't happen overnight, although social media makes it seem like it does. A lot of people don't really hit their win until after a number of years. So he's got to kind of keep that in mind, you know, through your entrepreneurship journey. What you just said is spot on. It literally takes a while. And the best example that I can think of and it helped me is athletes, right? When you see athletes that were amazing in college and they go to a professional level, those first couple years, most people kind of suck. It's like, man, this is, this is,

it doesn't look the same as college. They're trying to figure it out. But at year like four, five, six, they start to hit their stride. They've caught up with everybody and now they start to excel. We just tend not to do that in the business world for some reason. We don't give ourselves the grace, as you said, to make the mistakes and get better. Absolutely, absolutely. And I think it's always great to pivot, right? So what you may find out is through your entrepreneurship journey, you may find out, you know what, I like this, but I think if I pivot a little bit to the right, I really be deep into my passion. And that's what I really see Shrewd closet as. At least today, it's, you know, accessories, it's clothing. But I think a really big piece of that is just around

entrepreneurship, financial literacy, which is why I named it Shrewd Closet, not something else's closet. So I do see over time me pivoting from kind of the standard clothing to more. more things around like education, whether it's classes or if it's events or speaking engagements. Like I really want to kind of really pivot into what I'm super passionate about. And then outside of health care, it's really just financial literacy, debt-free, you know, steps. That means I want to be a financial advisor. But I definitely feel like there's tips I can give just based on just going through my

own experiences. And to that point, I for one would second you being a motivational speaker. and or consultant for people because your journey has been amazing. And one of the things that you said even on our last podcast together was you wanted to be debt-free by 33. And that was a goal that you kept repeating. I saw the hashtags coming up. And I guess the question that everybody's been asking is, were you able to achieve this goal?

Are you debt-free by 33? Exactly. So November 22nd, I paid off my remaining balance. So I paid off a total of $130,000 in about six years. Wow. That is incredible. That is absolutely nuts. And it's one of those things where when people are burdened around with some debt,

whether it's school debt, whether it's medical debt, and you're looking at it from that first year, it's very difficult to see a way out. How did you come up with that acronym and that vision and that drive to make it happen? Yeah. So again, for me, I was blessed to give. a partial fellowship to attend the University of Rochester for my MBA. But even if I got a full fellowship, right, you have to pay rent, you have to go to events, you have to pay books. So a lot of

people do take out loans. So I just, you know, I looked at the U of our website. I saw what the ROI was in year one where most of their candidates go post-college. I saw the amount of loans that I have to take out and I realized I can get my ROI in year one. So I'm going to go and risk it knowing that I should get my return back as long as I do what I'm supposed to do within the program and ended up really working out. The reason why I created the hashtag was because I just need to give myself motivation. Instead of just making the payment every month, I really wanted to make almost like a competition out of it. And so I set up a date, which at the time, I wanted to pay off my debt before the 10-year standard time frame that they make you sign up for. And I was like,

like, you know what? I'm going to do it in about half. So originally I thought I'd pay it off within five years post-grad, but reality hit and I realized, you know what, six is just as good. So my hashtag used to be debt-free before 33, but then when I realized I didn't quite meet that milestone, I went ahead and made it buy. So I was able to actually become debt-free the same year that I turned 33. But I really think just building a hashtag and kind of some type of marketing campaign behind it, it not only keeps you motivated, but also other people root for you because they know your hashtag. So you mentioned the hashtag. There's other people, too, they're aware of that hashtag, and they kind of kept me accountable

throughout the process, which is really, you know, beneficial. Absolutely. And they say that, and I forget exactly who says this, so please don't quote me on that. They say that if you know your goals, right, and you write them down, you're a lot more likely to achieve those goals. But if you now go and tell somebody or tell the world, you're even more likely to achieve those goals. And so setting that hashtag, something that you can talk about. I mean, it's something that I distinctly remembered. And so the fact that you achieved, that's incredible. And it's just a testament to

your drive. And what you talked about earlier, being willing to delay gratification, because I know there had to be some things that you were like, man, I know I could buy this, but I got this goal. Like, how was that trying to delay that gratification over those couple years? Yeah, it was definitely a struggle. When I first left, you, of art, I moved into a studio apartment versus a one bedroom just because I was like, you know what? The biggest expense that most people have is what living, so whether it's a mortgage or rent. So I was like, let me try to reduce that as much as possible. I was also living in Chicago, which isn't the most expensive city, but it's pretty high up there. Right. So I immediately

just started thinking about what I wanted to do long term. And while my friends and peers were getting Benz's and buying Chanel, I was like, you know what? I'm going to. I'm going to going to get all those things, which I have started some of those things now. But I was like, you know what? I'm going to take my time because those companies are always going to be there and those things are always going to be there. So you really just kind of vision, where do you want to be in the next five to ten years and then understand if I, again, do more with less and live off of at least half of what I make or somewhat close to it, you can live out your dreams in the future. And now there are three years old. So now I can kind of do whatever I want, right?

in theory because I made that debt-free milestone. Which is amazing. And they said there would be signs, right? There would be signs that she had achieved their goals. I ain't going to say anything. I was like, hold up. I can see it clearly. But that's awesome.

And honestly, you deserve it, right? You want to be able to walk that delicate line. Because some people go to the extreme to where, you know, they're eating, you know, peanut butter and jelly, you know, two slices of bread with cheese, trying to like save on all this stuff. If you hit the big expense items, like what you just said, like housing usually takes up 50% of people's expenses. If you can cut that down, you can go and have your gourmet sandwich, right? And you're going to be fine. It's just being consistent with the big things. And then when you're getting those bonus checks and things that nature, not going out

and blowing it on a car that you don't need, but using it to achieve your goals. Exactly. Exactly. And I would say I did benefit from COVID, as you know during COVID they had you know zero interest they weren't requiring you to make payments so everyone else was pretty getting cut up on bills and taking advantage because I had the extra money I just started putting a ton of money down on those loans that were zero interest so that accelerated my path I definitely say it's probably something that hopefully won't happen again but I think the same rigor and kind of structure about how you go about selling off debt is beneficial to that too but I definitely benefited from the zero interest. I did find that my peers weren't paying off their loans or,

you know, taking advantage of kind of not paying them. But I decided to, again, if I want to be debt-free by 33 to just go ahead and do it. Yeah, absolutely. That was a definite, weird time in the market that you could take advantage of just knocking out straight debt with no interest, as you mentioned. And a lot of people did not. A lot of people racked up more debt on top of that. And now they're looking at it like, man, I wish I had taken advantage of that piece. And so one of the things that we talked about before, right, is the promotions, being able to find a way to continue to increase your income along the way to make it easier to have more go toward that debt to achieve your goal. And so you gave a lot of gems last time. And for those who haven't seen the last episode, episode 21 with Raven when she was talking about negotiating salary and navigating the corporate world, you've got to go back and check it out.

But what other tips do you have over the last two years that have been beneficial for you to continue moving up? Yeah. So again, I think if you really love the company, I would say the best way to increase your income is promotions. Because I think historically, the raises right now have been, what, 2 or 3%, maybe 5 if you do very well. So that's really not satisfactory if you want to pay off, you know, extensive amount of debt. So promotions is really the way to go about doing it. like I said in the previous podcast, you know, you want to make sure you always keep your receipts. That's emails of people saying, hey, you impacted this project by X or, hey, I really liked how

you mentored, you know, one of my employees. Like, you want to make sure you keep receipts of like good graces and the great work that you've done. Because once you get into that mid-year, annual review, you want to be able to pull that out as almost like evidence of the great work you're doing. I'd also say you need to be straight and transparent with your manager, right? let them know what you want to do if you want to advance. Have those career conversations because you want to understand if there truly is a gap between where you are and where you want to be, you want to make sure you have a clear,

defined pathway to get there. They may say, hey, you're not as analytical. I will love for you to either take a course or perhaps work with a peer that's analytical. There's a lot of development and trainings that are in companies nowadays. So maybe they'll put you in some type of development program. But I think in order for you to really get ahead, you have to be one, transparent until you just have to make sure you keep track of all the great things you've done. 100% agree. Keeping track of everything you've done, it works both within the W2 and outside of that, right?

And trying to build that social capital, we'll call it, to where you can trade that in for a new role. And then also having the difficult conversations up front, right? It's not comfortable to walk in and say, hey, what can I do to get better? or what are things that you see as weaknesses within me. But if you're willing to go and have those conversations up front, now you know, now you can adjust those things and get truly to the next level. Exactly. And another big piece, or at least what I learned along the way, you know, when I was a senior

manager, always said, you know, I'm director level ready. I'm director level ready. I have a tough conversation with my manager. And I was like, what am I missing? You know, I have good graces. I'm cleaning my projects on time. I have good results. And he was like, Raven, what you're missing?

is actually impact. And someone might step back and say, well, what would a boss mean when they say impact? But it's really about the impact you're making beyond your role, your function. Because as a director, now you have to direct. Sometimes it's not just your individual teams, but it's like you have to indirectly manage people. So what are you doing to make sure you're driving alignment and cross-collaboration across the business? That's the impact that I want to see. They'll make me confident that you can do the role. So that full time that we spent, I had a roadmap of how am I making impact with everything that I do, right? And I ended up actually being able to show that. And when it went to my annual video review, she actually said, you know what? Since I spoke to you, you have made impact.

I'm seeing that change. It's not always about what you do. Because I have found when I've mentored people that they tend to do a checklist. Okay, I need to do a business case. I need to make sure I create a PowerPoint. I need to make sure I do X. It's not about what you do. in corporate and entrepreneurship as well, it's about how you do it. How do you make people feel? What's your reputation like? It's really that how, that's soft skill, that's really going to make sure that you move up in the organization. Because the further you move up, it's less about what you do. It's how you do it and how your team does the work. What you just said is spot on. And I'm so happy you hit on that because a lot of people think, hey, if I could just be the producer and I'm out here just getting it on my own, that that's how you move up. And honestly, that's the opposite, right? You do need to produce. You do need to show that you can carry the bag, quote, unquote, and get it done. But when you start moving into those director levels, there's no way you can cover this whole business by yourself. Like you would literally not sleep. There'd be no trips. There'd be no vacation. Right. And so being able to work through others, motivate others, problem solved and also empower the individuals that are under your lead is so critically important. Both in entrepreneurship,

and as you move up that corporate ladder. 100%. And again, as you span in your business, you may be a solopreneur, but over time, you'll have to have that team, right? So it's really about can you develop people even outside of just a 9 to 5. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I want to shift gears a little bit and talk books, right?

So one book that comes to mind, what we're having this conversation, is this book, so good you can't ignore me. Have you ever read that book or heard about that book? I have not, but I'm definitely. going to take, go to Amazon and see what it's about. I think, I think you embody that, right, to where you just become so invaluable at your workplace that it's like, hey, we need to promote this person. But I wanted to get your take. What books have you read in the past that have influenced you? Let's say like a top three books that you would say, hey, these things are ones I would

read again. Yeah. So my favorite author and probably favorite person just in kind of corporate, Her name is Carla Harris. She is a managing director at Morgan Stanley. I was inspired by her for a few reasons. One, she's been in corporate America, an area of finance for a very long time before it was, you know, as diverse or even accepted of women. So just her being able to navigate and get to one of the highest levels in corporate is also inspiring to me. But she's also an author and a public speaker. So I've had the pleasure to see her live at least twice and attend any type of virtual event she has.

But she has a few really good books about just navigating. And, you know, I say the quote, fear has no place in your success equation. I actually came from her. She's the one that, you know, created that quote. And I took that with me with everything that I do. And so I'd recommend any of the books she's came out with. I think she has like three or four now. They're all great.

And they talked about just different tips on how to, navigate corporate, how to be very people-centric. If you want to get promoted, kind of tips and tricks to do that. So I definitely recommend, you know, any of those books that she has. Absolutely. And you are consistent because this was an individual that you talked about last time as well. So that's amazing. It was almost like a test. And I know that you have ambitions to potentially release a book next year. Could you mind talking about that a bit? Yeah. And so, I wish I would have thought of this now, but I also think we're at different stages when it comes to podcast. I've been solely kind of documenting my journey over the past six years. I wish I

would have voice recorded myself. I think that would have been a really good experience to kind of quit like an audio bookout just based on over six years. But I am working on a book that kind of just walks through a few steps for people that are young adults about how to be more financial literate. I talk about how to do college smarter. Yeah, you could take out loans, but you want to make sure that the degree that you have and the school that you're going to, again, you're getting that return on investment pretty soon, right, and not waiting kind of 10 years out to get that. So I am working on the book right now. I'm super excited when that's going to drop. I'll definitely will share it with you. But I think it's important for me to at least kind of document my journey

and my mistakes because I made quite a bit. And then be able to provide that to a young adult or even someone that's not young, right, and just really helping them understand just how to do things smarter and being shrewd. Absolutely. I like that. Yeah, absolutely. And it's one of those things where I think we need that, especially in our community, to be able to see someone that looks like you that has climbed the whole corporate ladder

and is successful and knocking out debt and taking names everywhere. It's kind of exciting. And so I look forward to seeing that book. once you release that, please let me know, we're going to push it out to our community. And one other piece, like this blew my mind when I was just looking back through, okay, where did Raven start versus where she is today? Do you mind sharing with everybody? What was your first job in high school?

My first job was actually at Subway. I was what they call a sandwich artist. So I was just making sandwiches day in and day out. And it's funny now that I think about it because I definitely was made fun of. of a little bit just because, again, there's a strong smell that comes from working at Subway. My hair would always smell like, you know, baloney, right? Even if I wash it, I feel like it was still there. But I was able to grow in that business as well.

I started out as kind of managing sandwiches all the way up to being a shift manager by the time I graduated college, right? So in a way, I was able to also show that I knew how to run a business. I started opening, closing the store. I started handling deposits. You know, they trusted me with the key of the store at any time. So I felt like that was really set in the stage of, one, just understanding responsibility at an early age. Two, understanding how to manage a business. You want to talk about inventory and costs, especially when it comes to food costs.

I learned all that at a very young age all the way from when I was 17, when I got my first job, all the way to when I stopped working at Subway, which was about my early start of my senior year, actually. So I've worked a pretty long time. throughout the process. But I would say any job that you take on, take it seriously because you never know what skill sets can come from. But it's not just flipping burgers or dipping fries, you know, you'll be able to learn along the way as well and increase your responsibility. Yeah. And to that point, just the responsibility that you learned and kind of carried throughout. And then also it builds that hard work and that grit, which you need to make it outside of that.

I've seen a lot of different individuals who did not come up doing, you know, a weird odd-end job. I mean, when I was in high school, when I, I didn't get a job until I was 16. And what happened was it was the whole financial crisis. So nobody was hiring. I went to McDonald's. They went to hire. I wish subway was hiring. I've been right there doing whatever, man, trying to make it happen.

But long story short, I ended up doing some weird job at this fire company where we would help, like, test fire hoses all up and down the East Coast. not something that a normal 16-year-old would do, but long story short, you learn what hard worker looks like, getting up before the sun, coming back way after the sun's down, tired. I'm sure you had a couple of those nights as well. So it's good to build that early because when you get to the corporate world or you get to the entrepreneurship and you have those tough times, you can push through with a little bit more ease. I definitely think there's a grit that comes from having to do kind of manual or on your feet all day, labor, right? Especially when you go to corporate where it's pretty much you're sitting at a desk or if you're a sales rep, you're in the hospital. But I definitely think there's a grit that comes with

it. And if you have that grit prior to entering in the corporate, corporate becomes easy, right? Because you've experienced so much, you know, even before you got there. So absolutely. And pretty soon here, we're going to transition to those that are on live and start taking any questions in the chat and or if you want to join live, go ahead and click that join live button and we can put you on with Raven. But before we transition over to that, another question from me, what's next? We've talked about the book. We've hit the debt free by 33 journey. I know you're probably already thinking about other goals. What's next for Raven? I love Dave Ramsey, though I don't follow him to a T because I definitely still have credit cards, but I pay them off.

But a big piece that I really like that he does, he's like, after you pay off your debt and you have your emergency funds, you know, three or six years, I mean, three or six months, sorry. It's really about making sure you invest. So starting next year, I want to really focus on what's my investment journey. I have so much freed up cash now that I'm not paying off debt. I don't just want to go blow that on material things, although I, I probably will buy a few things.

But let me have some type of investment profile where every month I'm investing in the stock market or my friends' businesses, right? So that's kind of the next phase of my life. It's just understanding how to invest because, you know, like you always preach about, you should have more streams of income outside of just your job, right? And that's really what I'm trying to do is have my money work for me, although I'm still working. Come on now. And it just gives you that financial freedom to be able to, event. eventually step away if you want to, right? Not saying you have to, but it's good to have that cushion to be able to make that move. And we're going to shift over to our first question in the chat.

And it's taking it back to high school, right? How was the transition on the role of store manager? Did you know how to do the job immediately? How long did it take you to catch on and know how to run that store? Yeah. I would say I was a shift manager. So what that means is that I'm only the manager for my shift. So I'm not over the whole entire store. It was pretty much if I worked at two to nine. I was the on-staff manager from two to nine. But I definitely reported it into a manager. So I will say that call out just in case it was some clarity.

But just really good training. I shadowed our manager that owned that particular franchise at the time. And he walked me through how to do inventory once a month. He walked me through how to manage the deposits, how to open the store and what we need baked and ready to go prior to. Like, he trusted me with a lot of these things, but it was a lot of training along the way. I would say I definitely didn't have that exposure when I was just making the sandwiches.

But I think he saw something in me along the lines of grit, hard work. And so as he continued to increase my hours, I started to be really inquisitive about things. And he eventually took trust in me and kind of helped mold me to be that shift manager throughout the years. That's amazing. That's amazing. And it's one of those things where if you're putting in the hard work,

people take notice because like they say it goes back to Pareto's rule they say that 20% of people are really the shakers and movers and 80% or not and so that 20% you'll notice them if you see somebody shaking and moving it's like hey I want to see that person do well let me see if I can elevate them to another role exactly and it was tough because again because I was a shift manager the people that I worked for sometimes they were like twice my age right so I had to get used to managing when I was a young adult, one that may have been like 40 at the time, right? But again, it's all about trust, relationships. It's how you do things, right?

It's really what's most important. True, true. Any other questions from the chat for Raven? Raven, how can people get in contact with you? I know we're going to put everything in the show notes, but what do you prefer? There's going to be a lot of people that listen to this on replay tomorrow and the following weeks. How can they get in contact with you if they want to support? True Clause. If they want to hear about the book coming out, how can we reach you?

Yeah. So on social media, my personal page is Be More Like Raven, just as it's spelled. So B.E. More Like Raven. My business is www.Thetruthcloset.com. We're currently having a holiday sale where we're doing 90% off all accessories, $5 for clothing. So definitely some great sales to take advantage of those. And my business page is also shop, shoot, closet if you want to follow me on IG. Raven, we cannot thank you enough. It's awesome being able to reconnect. And we can't wait to see you maybe a year from now with the book coming out and be able to kind of celebrate that piece as well.

But thank you for joining us tonight. And I hope you have an awesome, awesome rest of the week. All right. Thank you all. Join us every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to financial independence.