We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Venida Hudley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Venida below.

Venida, appreciate you joining us today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

It was December 2020, and I was sick of watching Netflix, so I began reading books, I ended up reading nine books in nine months. One book was about traveling to Africa and volunteering. After quietly contemplating what I read, I felt a very strong and unrelenting pull to retire from the job I loved, go to Africa for a year, by myself, and volunteer. After a couple of days, I surrendered, then took the next two years to plan my trip.

Preparing for the Journey
Now committed, I began reading and researching everything I could about Africa, I saw myself there. I asked everyone I knew if they had contacts in Africa. Although well-traveled, I had never traveled to Africa or traveled alone anywhere by myself, outside of work. I began setting goals, articulating aspirations for what I wanted to accomplish, gained clarity on results I wanted to create, and what I needed to achieve those goals, documenting everything.

First, I had to notify my employer of my plans to retire December 2022. I gave my employer 6 months heads up notice. As a leader I knew I would have to groom my replacement to properly transition work assignments.

Next, I needed a solid financial plan. Initially had no idea where the money would come from or how much would be needed. Remarkably, five years prior,
I invested $5,000 in the stock market which had ballooned into $30,000, this became my sole source of trip funding. I began to look at how to reduce my existing monthly expenses; eliminating subscriptions, reducing phone and cable bills, consolidating and even eliminating monthly bills, and setting up autopay for monthly utilities.

My greatest concern was my two dogs, although my brother lived with me, I didn’t want him to alter his work schedule to care for my dogs. I began investigating dog sitting, home stays and the like. I settled on installing a doggy door at home with a portable dog pin so dogs could go in and out to the backyard at will. Everything was starting to come together.

The Plan
First, I needed to come up with the 12 countries I would visit for one month each, then identify innovative businesses, universities or nonprofits to volunteer. I contacted one of my girlfriends who was married to a Nigerian, he put my map together which included the East African countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Rwanda; West African countries of Liberia, Senegal and Ghana; and the Southern African countries of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Madagascar, Eswatini and South Africa. I validated the map by talking with others, researched each country’s climate, best time to travel, safety, innovation, dollar value, travel documents needed, vaccinations required, and places I would like to visit and volunteer. By then the word was out about my travel plans and friends began to share their African connections, I reached out to everyone to help solidify plans.

As I began to research, I created a database of my findings by country, determined what each country offered that aligned with my passions, looked at YouTube videos, and documentaries on each country, this really helped me identify the universities, businesses or nonprofits to volunteer.

Next, I branded my trip, I came up with a name and logo, “Venida Discovers Africa 365”, created t-shirts, a website, and LLC with the same name.

Engagement
Now it was time to speak with people from Africa and since most time zones were 4-6 or more hours ahead, I got up every morning for one year at 5am, to speak with someone from Africa. I set up zoom calls, sent emails to businesses, universities and nonprofits that I wanted to volunteer. Those conversations gave me insight on budget, cost of living, what was needed, and best time to come.

I also reached out to the African Tourism Association and after months of trying, met with the CEO who provided Tour Operator contacts for each of the countries. I met with each countries tour operator who advised the best time of year to visit, suggested a travel budget of $3,000 per country, listed places I should consider visiting and offered a month long itinerary.

Validate
Once I created my schedule of travel by month for each country and finalized volunteer locations, I was able to come up with a definitive travel budget which I validated with tour operators. I looked for lodging and decided to use self-catering places versus hotels to reduce costs and successfully negotiated lodging pricing as much as possible.

Prepare for Execution
It was now time to purchase items needed for the trip, I created a list of must have items, determined what I needed to purchase vs borrow. Laptop and phones were the most expensive items to purchase. Packing for a year was very difficult, I looked at lots of videos and settled on two very large suitcases with compression bags and repacked at least 5 or 6 times, eliminating items each time, before finalizing.

I developed my communication plan; family members and close friends had my yearlong schedule including tour operator contacts for each country. I was able to get friends who were good at social media to create an Instagram and Facebook page that chronicled my year long journey.

I figured out what credit cards to take, how money would be extracted by country, and added family members to my financial, business, and household accounts.

Lastly, I created a comprehensive will including irrevocable trust, power of attorney, and healthcare power of attorney documents, and reviewed with all family members.

March 1, 2023, I departed from JFK International airport for a 13-hour direct flight to Nairobi, Kenya. I traveled through the continent Africa 335 days, by myself, visited 12 countries, volunteered in 10, and returned to the United States, Jan 31, 2024.

I successfully created opportunities and awareness for many innovative African businesses, discovered incredible and wonderful things about Africa we never hear about in the states, learned so much about myself, and inspired other baby-boomers, and youth to go to Africa and volunteer. I just finished a book that chronicles the journey and my Venida Discovers Africa 365 website has been updated with all the places I visited and volunteered by country.

What a journey and unbelievable experience to come from reading a book, proper planing, and steadfast execution.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Venida Hudley Bio – 2023

Prepare to be impressed by Venida Hudley, a 67-year-young retiree who recently left a billion-dollar software company to pursue her dreams. After over four decades in the technology sales industry, Venida made the bold decision to retire in December 2022 and embark on a year-long adventure across Africa, traveling to 12 different countries and dedicating one week of volunteering in each.

Venida Discovers Africa 365 was born to discover and showcase unknown innovative, creative, and socially impactful businesses in Africa, learn effective approaches to doing business in Africa, and gain better understanding of the culture.

To pursue her dreams, Venida left her esteemed position at Informatica LLC, a billion-dollar software company, and even gave up her restricted stock compensation. At Informatica, she excelled in her role as North America Alliance Manager, where she not only drove sales but also fostered mutually beneficial partnerships. Before joining Informatica, Venida enjoyed a well-deserved break after retiring from a 30-year sales career at IBM. During this time, she helped small businesses reach their revenue goals and led fundraising initiatives for various organizations in her community.

Venida’s time at IBM was marked by success and adventure. She took on European assignments, traveled extensively throughout the United States, and led a team of managers and sales representatives to achieve annual sales targets exceeding $150 million. Her outstanding performance earned her accolades such as the 100% Club and Golden Circle awards, recognizing her as one of the top 5% sellers in the country.

A graduate of Clark Atlanta University, Venida holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science. Raised in a family of strong Christian leaders, she is proud to continue their legacy of excellence. In her free time, Venida enjoys snow skiing, traveling with friends, watching movies, and entertaining guests in her home.

Despite her achievements, Venida remains focused on giving back and using her gifts to empower others. She is divorced and currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, has a son, who proudly works as a Sports Sales Executive. He too has followed in his mother’s footsteps, earning a B.S. degree in sports management from the University of Georgia in 2016.

Get ready to be inspired and captivated by Venida Hudley’s extraordinary journey and dedication to making a difference.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Awareness and giving back. All my life I have volunteered and given back to the community in which I lived. When presented with this assignment I wanted to uncover things about Africa we never hear about. That is why I focused on innovation in businesses, universities, as well as NGOs to volunteer.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I am new to posting on social media but learned very quickly how to get up to 8,000 followers. People like learning, not just looking at pictures. My best posts were videos that told a story, provided the viewer with facts about the countries visited, great pics of new and different food, beautiful locations, and asking questions that encouraged engagement.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.venidadiscoversafrica365.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/venidadiscoversafrica365/
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/vshudley