Rapid Fire Feature: Otelia Hudson of Organized By Oh

Hey Everyone! Join me for a conversation with this week's Rapid Fire Feature guest, Otelia Hudson, as we chat about her new business, being open to transition, and (of course) the importance of community!

Takeaways: 

• Otelia emphasizes the importance of stepping out of comfort zones.
• Gratitude for unexpected changes can lead to new opportunities.
• Building community is essential for personal grounding.
• Transitioning to entrepreneurship requires getting out of your own way.
• Effective time management is crucial for balancing multiple roles.
• Embracing adventure can lead to unexpected rewards.

Follow Otelia:
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TikTok- organizedbyoh
Linkedin- Otelia Hudson and Organized by Oh

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Transcript

All right, well, hey, everyone. I hope that all is well and that your week has been amazing. I'm excited to bring you another rapid fire feature guest today. Otelia Hudson is joining us. She's a corporate project manager and the owner of Organized by O, which she'll share more about today, but we'll hop right in. So welcome, Otelia.

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Marsharelle. I'm so excited to have you on, Otelia. Thank you for joining me. All right, describe yourself in 30 seconds or less.

adventurous. It's how I think I can has really been a theme and how I can sum myself up.

I love that. I can definitely.

I wanna channel some of that in my own life. Perhaps I can take some of that into 2025. Now, when we met, you had just relocated to Philadelphia. That was a few years back at this point, but you've always been someone who hasn't shied away from big moves. Not only that, but you've also managed to immerse yourself in the communities that you've moved to and develop new longstanding relationships.

Can you talk a little bit about your experiences moving and creating relationships as an adult? And also like, what is it that has made you feel empowered to do that?

I think.

I will say I was initially forced out of my comfort zone. I was living in Memphis at the time where I went to college and lived many years after graduation. I was in a place where I wasn't happy. I didn't want to leave because my friends were there, my family was there, but it was me losing my job. it took maybe three months.

for me to get a call and I was interviewing, interviewing, nothing was opening up for me. I moved back in with my parents for a short stint and I was really spent some time trying to figure out like what's next. So I got a contract opportunity in South Carolina and I had people kind of close by. So even though I was by myself, I wasn't by myself. If I needed to get to someone.

And I packed the trunk of my car with what I could carry because I had like two weeks to move. Yeah. so I made the quick move and I just remember sitting, I took myself out to lunch. I'm sitting in this restaurant and I just remember being grateful for my boss that let me go because I never would have left.

Even though I was so unhappy and was ready for a change. Yeah. And so and this is probably going to sound who or, you know, cliche or whatever. But at that point, I just remember praying. I was like, God, whatever door you open for me, I'm going to walk through it. Yes. In terms of like getting myself immersed in new environments, new communities. I'm a sorority girl. So I always start my sorority.

I hit them up on social media, hey, I'm new in town, you know, to connect there. And again, not to sound boo-boo again, but I pray. I'm like, Lord, just send me the people that I'm supposed to be connected to, send me good people. I pray about my colleagues. I pray about just friends because I need community. I need attachments for me to feel grounded and to feel, and I have that sense of belonging.

Yes. Isn't that funny how we will get forced out, right? When we get comfortable and how we'll be so comfortable in that old uncomfortable shoe. We know we need to let it go and we won't let it go. Like we are hindering ourselves, but that is, that is so wonderful. So with all of that, you know, I know that you're a mother as well. How has motherhood influenced the choices that you've made in your career or making these big moves as well?

Yeah, so again, I've been fortunate, really, really fortunate. I've always had a very strong village that supported me with my kids when, you know, going back to me getting laid off and making that decision to to leave. I had a really good girlfriend at the time who I'm going take a step back. So my son was in this charter school that we absolutely loved. Yeah. The owner of the school was like,

We have got to find you a job because you need to stay here. I don't.

We love time. And he needs to be here in this school. Well, that didn't work out. But my really good girlfriend to help with that transition, like my son lived with her for that following school year. wow. Yeah. At that time, I had just dropped my daughter off at college. So she was in Atlanta. She was close by. And, you know, the biggest thing I've always wanted to be in the position where

I had enough money to support my kids. So my mother told me I was going to be an engineer. I did what she told me, we're kind of engineer adjacent, but, you know, but the main thing, you know, at being a young mom, being a single parent, I didn't want my kids to not have opportunities because we didn't have that dual income or that, you know, in the household. So.

yeah, so every opportunity, every move was probably a work was the catalyst for that move, but it was also for me to be positioned better to support my family. Yes. Yes. That security. and what a testament to just like, again, being open, right? Like if you stay stagnant where you are, would you be able to do that? Right. Sometimes that, that continuous like, I got it. I got a study check. have that support.

I know that that's a short thing, which it's not, because you ended up losing that, right? But also just keeping ourselves in a box when we can flourish and try other things, which brings me to my next question about your new business, right? And so you recently started Organized by O.

But having been a corporate girlie, what made you decide to start dipping your toe into entrepreneurship when you've been able to flourish in your career, you know, on that, that straight line, I guess I'll call it as opposed to veering off on your own. Yeah, I've always had like the entrepreneur spirit. and I actually had owned a couple of businesses before. I always say that I'm a terrible entrepreneur because I give away more than I

I'm of my clients for. Terrible entrepreneur. growing up though, my grandfather, he, well, we grew up in, I grew up in Michigan. My grandfather worked in what they call the shop, the auto shops. But he also had their own businesses. So growing up hearing stories about my grandparents having restaurants, my grandfather, he literally owned our block.

Mm, sounds like my grandfather a little bit, yeah. Yeah. But a little bit more wasn't necessarily as clean, maybe some bars and some other things, but barbershops and things like that as well. yeah. and I always wanted to have my own business, but was afraid of really kind of stepping out there. I was accepted into a leadership program at work.

and they had a summit and it was all about living in your passion and being happy. And so after that summit, I really started digging into and thinking about like, what are the things that make me happy? And instead of like focusing on improving my weaknesses, just really positioning myself to.

operate from a position of strength. Yes, Otilia, you're speaking my language. Yes. And so, you know, with that reframing though, it opened up this whole world and it was so funny and I'm getting to the answer of your question. But when I bought my house well, a couple of years ago, like my family would leave, come home and I've reorganized everything. Nothing was ever in the same spot.

But I just realized it was really therapeutic for me with all of the moves that I've made. I say that I've lived out of storage units like I was in Philly, but still had a storage unit in D.C. You know, and doing the whole back and forth living here in Philly, living in the northeast, having smaller spaces, getting creative with how you utilize your space.

And then just growing up in a big family, are you going to get so much space, right? You got maximized. Like going to college is nothing, the little dorm space when you have a big family, you know? Exactly. And so when I really started thinking about it, I was like, I really enjoy this. It's a service that I didn't know so many people needed. Yeah. But it was just really born out of, would.

call it therapy for me. Yeah. And well, what did that transition look like for you then? when you took it from just like, it's a form of therapy into like, I'm really going to, you know, start to explore what it could look like as a business. You know what? So when I, relocated from Philly to Atlanta,

one of my girlfriends who I met through another friend at her going away party, she was like, I'm moving to Atlanta. And so before I moved, I reached back out to her and she's like, you got to hire this organizer. She's amazing. Like she unpacked my house. She's amazing. And so I hired her twice. Initially moved. She unpacked my apartment and then I moved into my home. She helped me transition.

And so when I thought about it, like I reached out to her, I was like, hey, you know, this is something I'm thinking about. And now she's like my mentor. She's introduced me to other people. She's brought me into her group. So for me, the transition was.

easy once I got out of my own way. Isn't that the key? Getting out of our own way. I mean, I think that that's at the root of so much, but we don't we find other excuses, which is really just us like, I don't have the time or I don't have the money or I don't have this. It's really us. Right. And we can like, you know, reconcile that then we're able to move forward in ways that we haven't imagined. Right.

All right, well, what advice would you share for anyone that's teetering with the idea of like starting a business while maintaining a very full career, whether it's in corporate or some other avenue?

This is gonna sound cliche, but really get organized. Like, I...

I live by my calendar because I have to. I have to give 100 % to my to my career, my corporate career. That's paying my bills. That's paying for my son to go to college right now. but I have to be very structured in my time, in my time management. And so not only like allotting time to work on my business, but also

My business is growing much faster than I was really prepared for it to grow. So sometimes that's getting off work at five, six or whatever time I close the laptop for Google. I roll right into organized by, and I'm working, you know, another maybe four or five hours in the evening. Asked for help again. I've been very blessed and fortunate.

I have a good friend who is a photographer. She's gifted me a brand photo shoot. I have another friend who's doing my website for me. I had another friend who let me, who loaned me her assistant to do my logos and branding and ask for help delegate. Even though it might be something simple, if you pay a person that specializes, it's gonna go so much quicker. Yes.

Yes. And like you said, that time is so valuable, right? By the time you spend 20 hours figuring out how to edit five minutes worth of material, you know, you could, what could you have done with that 20 hours? Exactly. You probably could have done a project to make some money for you. That and grow your business in the process. That is so true. my goodness. All right. Well, I know we're coming up on time, but like, please tell the people where they can find you.

Share your handles and anything else you want to drop and share before we go? Yeah, so I am organized by on tick-tock Instagram Pinterest and Actually LinkedIn also. I primarily right now am using Instagram. So that's where you can find me Organized by old comm is in the works. So coming soon. but I'll be making announcements as on Instagram

on tip for some of these other platforms. but in the spirit of just adventure, the only advice I will give is just literally just do it. Just jump out there because what's the worst that can happen. What's the worst that can happen. And if you do nothing, nothing will happen. Nothing is also not good. Actually, I want to flip that.

It's what's the best that can happen. What is the best that can happen? What's the best that can happen? I think that's a lovely note to end on. Thank you so much, Otilia, for joining us today. And we look forward to seeing organized by Oh, flourish. Um, and thank you all for listening. Bye. Thank you. Bye.