"Switch'd Hustles": Aaron Smith From Freedom To Financial Freedom
In this 1st interview on his platform Aaron Smith sat down the co founder Yasaman Hadjibashi of Stretch finance( www.stretch.money) which is an online bank that provides banking/Full time employment to the formerly incarcerated about his life and all things finance. Aaron Smith is a native of the South Side of Chicago and lived in the Dearborn homes public housing and the South Shore area. He earned a bachelor degree in business Management from Columbia College of Chicago. It wasn’t long after that he began his journey within the criminal justice system. In 2009, He was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for Distribution of Heroin/Fentanyl resulting in death. Aaron led a Heroin operation making upward to $15k per day while attending college and after. The business sense was there, but as he likes to say “ I was selling the wrong product, so I had to switch hustles” Aaron admits he loss himself in the streets and God used his incarceration as a way to gain freedom from his warped mindset. Aaron says, “he began to dream again and get back to the essence of who I was” while in prison. He was released from federal prison after 9 years 5 months in February 2019. With his belief In God and a lot of hard work his focus was to live out his passion of entrepreneurship and make an impact through his Media company Escaping the Odds.In December 2019, Aaron launched Escaping the Odds Podcast as a way to build his social capital and tell amazing stories of redemption through business. He interviews the formerly incarcerated who are now successful entrepreneurs. His story has been featured on Fox 32 Chicago, the Wall Street Journal, Minnesota Business Journal. He’s the Recipient of 2021 Media for a Just Society Award in the podcast/radio category. escapingtheodds.com [email protected] , @iam_aaronsmith instagram --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aaronesmith/support