Acacia Hogue

I attribute my success to my grandmother and my brother. My grandmother had about a 5th or 6th grade education, but she literally went back to school in her 70s, went back to college just so she could be a home attendant and take care of other people. She was the foundation of my upbringing. My brother and I did not have a relationship with our mother that was very healthy and positive, but my grandmother took us in and loved on us. Without that, we would be very different people. One of the most important lessons my grandmother taught me was to be proud of who and what you see in that mirror every day, because at the end of the day, there you will be. She had all these amazing nuggets of wisdom. One of the things she would say was, 'Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.' She couldn't necessarily help us with homework and everything of that nature because of her limited schooling background, since she grew up in Southampton, Virginia, back in the day when she had to work in the fields and help take care of her many siblings. Education was not something that they necessarily could focus on. My grandmother was a talented seamstress who made and mended clothes. She also had a tea for everything - whatever you had ailing you, she had a tea that could fix it. She did not see the inside of a hospital until three days before she passed away. She never lived in a nursing home. She lived on her own until right before she passed away at 84. She never drove, she didn't have a car, but she had me. My brother got the entrepreneurial spirit earlier than I did, and now I have the entrepreneurial bug myself. I have a small tutoring business and an e-commerce business. I'm doing a lot of things to help and serve others, being proud of who I see in that mirror every day, honoring myself and my grandmother every day.

The best advice I can give, which reflects what I've learned, is to find a mentor - someone that's 5 or 10 years down the line from where you want to be. Not someone that just started with you, but someone that has been established in whatever that field is. Network with them, see if they will be willing to sit down with you and talk to you, and you can ask all your questions and seek their advice. But I would caveat that with the understanding and knowing that their experiences may not necessarily be your experiences. I would say, know thyself - know who you are as an individual. I call it the supermarket mentality: you take what you need, and you leave the rest. The advice given and potentially implemented should not be an all-or-nothing process, following given advice to the letter utilizing what their experiences and pitfalls as the end-all be-all, because people who do that, they stop being themselves. They may try to become somebody that does not accurately reflect their authentic selves, subsequently hindering their personal growth and their journey.

Passion and a calling to serve others for a greater good helps to help burnout at bay. Know your values and find what aligns with those values. Maintain healthy boundaries - those that have benefited from your lack of boundaries will become upset when your boundaries no longer serve their interests. Seek to understand before you can be understood. Be comfortable being uncomfortable as some of the most profound lessons are learned outside of your comfort zone. Do not be afraid to ask for help when needed but follow your instincts on who to ask. Be sure to check the fruit on the tree of those you seek advice from as their perspective could eventually become your own.

In my field, one of the biggest challenges is the decline in accountability and meaningful communication, where people may avoid difficult conversations, disengage without explanation, or fail to follow through on commitments, which can weaken trust and collaboration. My professional philosophy is grounded in accountability, honoring commitments,P and following through on what I say I will do guided by my grandmother’s principle to “let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.” I also follow my CURTH framework (Communication, Understanding, Respect, Trust, and Honesty) as the foundation for strong relationships. I see a real opportunity for individuals and organizations to strengthen culture and performance by returning to these core values, and I strive to model them through clear communication, reliability, and ethical responsibility in my daily work.

Accountability is absolutely the most important value to me. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in this ghosting culture where instead of just saying, 'Hey, that may not be for me,' or 'I'm gonna remove myself from the situation,' people just disappear. Being accountable means, to me, when you say you're going to do something, you do it. My grandma had all these amazing nuggets, and one of the things she would say was, 'Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.' You have to be accountable. I tell my friends about what I call the CURTH Rule - C-U-R-T-H. It stands for Communication, Understanding, Respect, Trust, and Honesty. I don't care what type of relationship you have, if you do not have those core 5 things, you have nothing. Those five things must be there and must be present to have a healthy relationship, regardless of if it's professional, romantic, or otherwise. Meeting new people is also very rewarding for me. I love reading, and reading helps me understand the phrasing that my mentor told me: when you start to change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. I love bringing people together. Even though I'm 3,000 miles away, I still have friends that I've known since junior high school and beyond. I tell them my friends are my life, because they're chosen family. I have family that are friends, and friends that are family. Everybody's got the blood of your heart.