CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Aaron Smith, founder of Escaping the Odds media, told WBBM that as someone who grew up in public housing on Chicago’s South Side, he saw only one clear path for using his natural abilities, but then:
“Well, I spent close to a decade in federal prison,” Smith said. “I’ve always been this entrepreneur, but I was selling the wrong product. I had to switch hustles, as I like to say.”
While Smith was locked up, he said, he met a lot of like-minded individuals who were driven and had business sense.
“The ingenuity behind those walls, you wouldn’t believe, right, just making something out of nothing,” Smith said.
More importantly, he said, they had the desire to play it straight.
“So, I thought, ‘OK, let me create a media company,’” he said. “It started with a podcast to be able to just tell those stories of the formerly incarcerated who are now successful entrepreneurs. It changed the narrative. People think once you go away to prison, your life is over.”
That’s not the case, Smith said.
These stories not only highlight the potential of the formerly incarcerated to prospective business partners and employers, but Smith said he often gets feedback from listeners that are inspired to put their own experiences to better use.
“It provides that hope to a person,” Smith said. “They can see someone who looks like them, who’s been where they’ve been. If I can change, they can change, as well.”
Smith wears a lot of hats nowadays, host of the Escaping the Odds Podcast, owner of U Turn Transport company, and acting as a community liaison for The Cook County Safety Justice Challenge, helping the incarcerated not only transition back into society but also aiding in re-arrest prevention.
“God used my situation because he knew that I would be a difference maker or change maker in this space,” Smith said.
Aaron Smith, escaping the odds and making a difference.
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