3 Keys for Your Journey
Business and Community Leaders sharing key principles.
3 Keys for Your Journey
Empowering Change: The Inspiring Journey of Raven Crisp and the Selfless Hands Foundation
Join us as we uncover the remarkable journey of Raven Crisp, the inspiring founder and CEO of the Selfless Hands Foundation. From her early involvement in organizations like Jack and Jill and the National Honor Society to a life-changing experience during a disaster relief project in Baton Rouge, Raven's story is one of selflessness, discipline, and tenacity. She shares her insights on balancing a demanding career as a financial manager at Tinker Air Force Base with her tireless commitment to community service. Discover how Raven’s supportive family and personal experiences, including overcoming bilateral hearing loss and lupus, have fueled her passion for helping others in times of crisis.
In a heartfelt conversation, we explore the power of faith and resilience in overcoming life's challenges. Raven emphasizes a no-excuse mentality, drawing strength from her supportive parents and unwavering faith. Her dedication to personal growth and making a difference in the community is truly motivational, and she offers an open invitation for us all to stay connected and support one another's endeavors. Be inspired by Raven’s story of perseverance and the meaningful impact her foundation is making, as we look forward to more updates on her incredible journey.
Thank you for listening! YouTube - @3KeysforYourJourney -Tune in for a new episode every Sunday. Connect with us at www.ocfo.info
Welcome to Three Keys for your Journey podcast, where purpose, service and leadership come together. Today, we meet Raven Crisp, founder of and CEO of Selfless Hands Foundation, community advocate and dedicated leader. From her early experiences in volunteerism to receiving the NextGen Under 30 Award, her journey has been about uplifting others and embracing every opportunity one step at a time. Join me today as we explore stories of resilience, service and success, as well as inspiring young women and communities to thrive. Let's build something meaningful together.
Speaker 2:Are you ready to unlock your potential? Tune in to Three Keys for your Journey podcast, where business owners share invaluable insights and empowering strategies to guide you toward success. Based in Oklahoma City, our host, greg T Jones, will inspire and motivate you every week.
Greg Jones:Get ready to join our conversation as we build community together All right good afternoon, good afternoon. We have Raven Crisp in the house. How are you today?
Raven Crisp:I am blessed, I'm good you know what.
Greg Jones:This is a really awesome opportunity for our listening audience. I got to meet Raven.
Raven Crisp:Do you know when we first met man? I want to say a couple years ago at Spiked.
Greg Jones:Okay, okay, we met a couple years ago at Sp spike coffee and it was something about raven that I just like, wow, this young lady is just phenomenal. I mean you just move and ebb with the flow, always willing to be around and help and do and all this kind of stuff, and just made, I mean just got me excited. And then, like I want to say, it was like last summer you were doing a back to school badge and, um, I said I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna try to come, and I think I got there right at the end and I look up and it was your mom that I went to school in college.
Greg Jones:Yes, oh my gosh and I'm like, oh gosh. So it's kind of incorrect, indirectly, kind of cool, that I've known about you but didn't really know you through your mom. So anyway, I thought that was really kind of cool. So, well, raven, for our listening audience out there. You know, here in the local area a lot of people know who you are and the work that you do, but for a lot of other people around the world they don't know who you are. How would you introduce yourself?
Raven Crisp:lot of other people around the world. They don't know who you are. How would you introduce yourself, okay? So Ravencrest, born and Raised Oklahoma City, oklahoma. Man, just started a non-profit.
Raven Crisp:Really, before it became a non-profit, I went backwards into my love for service, back when I was in Jack and Jill in Oklahoma City so Jack and Jill doing a lot of service. And then going into high school where I did National Honor Society, which was a lot of service, and I really just fell in love with just giving back, even down to being at the regional food bank. I remember thinking like, man, this would be so cool, we could do this locally, but like for us, you know. And when I went to Oklahoma State University, I had an opportunity to do my first disaster relief project for Baton Rouge Back in September 2016,. Baton Rouge was hit with floods, so from there, I was able to actually realize that man floods.
Raven Crisp:So from there, I was able to actually realize that, man, I love helping people in times of crisis. I love helping people recover from the things that are just out of their control. So from there, I really was able to just really identify my purpose and realize that it's just bigger than just me. So coming back home and being able to get back to my roots, get back to my family and realize that I'm a family woman, that I just enjoy spending time with my family, I enjoy hanging out with friends, like you said, just helping people, supporting people by day, I'm a financial manager at Tinker Air Force Base. By evening and weekends I'm serving my community in any way possible, wow.
Greg Jones:I think that's number one. I think that's incredible by day, and then by evenings and weekends, I mean. So it sounds like you're at it almost 24 hours a day.
Speaker 2:It feels like that.
Greg Jones:It felt like that Wow, what, what? What inspired you? I mean, you talked about Jack and Jill, you talked about your experience at Oklahoma State. What inspires you to just keep going? What inspires you to?
Raven Crisp:just keep going. What inspires me to keep going is seeing so many people who didn't have the opportunity that I have. Still keep going, so to be blessed where I'm loved, I'm supported. My family made sure I never had to really go without, so who am I to take advantage? So if I can see people that did not have the same blessings that I have, keep going. It's no excuse. So that's what inspires me.
Greg Jones:Wow, I think that's incredible. Well, obviously part of our mission here at Three Keys for your Journey is to have community leaders like yourself kind of share things that have been inspirational over their life. We call those keys, and I call those keys purposely, because when I think about a key, a key unlocks a door, but you got to use the key and so you can have keys, but if you don't do anything with that key, it doesn't unlock anything, and so I like to always ask our guests what are three keys that you have learned about, experienced that you would like to share with our audience?
Raven Crisp:The three keys. I would say selflessness, I would say discipline or structure. I'm kind of in between discipline and structure. Mainly structure, um, in tenacity. Okay, that's the three that come to mind.
Greg Jones:So so selflessness, discipline, structure really, you're thinking about structure and tenacity. Okay, where do you want to start? Which one do we take first?
Raven Crisp:I guess we can can go order. I guess, selflessness, so tell me about that.
Greg Jones:What does that mean to you?
Raven Crisp:So really, selflessness to me is just thinking outside of yourself. It's thinking, you know, not just about me, but thinking about the people around me, thinking about the people that comes after me, really removing yourself from that equation to think about the overall better good of the situation, whether it benefits you or not, thinking about the long term goals. So, for me, being selfless has always been a goal of mine because sometimes, you know, it's not always about the blessing you can receive, it's about the blessing that you could be for others so that they can pay it forward. So that's kind of what being selfless made me think about.
Greg Jones:And is this where you get the name of your foundation from?
Raven Crisp:Yeah, yeah, it was. It's actually not even. It's funny because with the story, if I came up with it wasn't even really to me like a super deep one. It was just like oh okay, it needs to be a foundation. I'm very hands-on and it's selfless. You know, you're not thinking about yourself. You're thinking about what needs to be done and what do we need to do to get the job done. Regardless of whether it's an inconvenience to you or not, it needs to get done.
Greg Jones:So selfless hands wow, I think that's incredible. Wow, wow, your second key you you talk about structure and discipline. Yeah, what?
Raven Crisp:does that mean to you? So, growing up, military parents, that's one thing my parents have always put is structure, the importance of having structure, having an order of how you do things and not having things all over the place, because a lot can happen when you don't have structure, if you don't have a layout, if you don't know how you're going to operate throughout the day. So I realized that the lack of structure has been can be a downfall for me, so that, on the flip side, having structure and having the discipline to maintain that structure has done my life very well.
Greg Jones:Well, it's interesting because, as I hear you talk about, you know working during the day and the things you do in the evenings and weekends to be efficient and to get things done would take, obviously, structure. So for somebody out there that's listening, you know, and at times even in my own life, when I don't feel like I have structure, how do you get started? I mean, you grew up around it so you kind of saw it. But if you were to explain this to somebody that's really struggling with developing discipline and structure, what advice would you give them?
Raven Crisp:So the first thing that kind of helps me redirect myself, because I fall short at times with structure at times too. So I have to go back to say, okay, what is important, what is like my main priority? So it goes work, selfless hands, household. And the reason I do that is more so because for me, the first thing I do when I wake up is get ready for work, and then after that I'm doing everything for my nonprofit. Then when I get home that's my time to wind down and focus on what all needs to be done. So I guess in some people's eyes it could go household work. You know, just depends on the time that they get started.
Raven Crisp:But from there I line out my priorities. So when I go to work, I know in my mind time management is everything. So I'm going to spend the first few hours knocking out everything that I need to do for work, and then at lunch or whatever, strategically, I'm making sure I'm still handling my tasks for self-defense. When I get off work, every minute counts, however that looks. And then when I get home, all things is off. Now it's time to take care of laundry, whatever, because that helps get my mind together, when my mind is clear most times because my house is clear.
Greg Jones:So wow. So I I love it because, as you describe it, I was visualizing it right, understanding what your major tasks are. Those were in priority and then, while you're in those tasks, you are really thinking about that, executing on that and then, when you're in that next task or grouping, you're really there in that task and then, like you said, when you get home, here's all the other things that are necessary to do to make sure, and then the day starts all over again. Wow, ooh, that's good, that's really good.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, thinking ahead.
Greg Jones:Ooh, that's another good dive. We should be thinking ahead. Okay, your third task, or third key, you said, was tenacity. Talk to us about that Tenacity.
Raven Crisp:That's one of my biggest things that I love about myself is that I push through regardless. So when I was a kid I had bilateral hearing loss, so I wear hearing aids. My parents didn't really afford me the opportunity to soak in that, so I was still involved in everything. I was still playing basketball and all these different sports and that was probably my first, I would say, obstacle. So I don't know if you're familiar with basketball like AAU, where you know you're playing on multiple gyms and you know the whistle blowing. You don't know if you're familiar with basketball like AAU, where you know you're playing on multiple gyms and you know the whistle blowing, you don't know where the whistle is blowing at. So for me, you know I'm young, I can't tell. So I used to stop in the middle of the game and I'll never forget how humiliating it felt because it was like my teammates didn't understand they were young, they're like Raven. Like Raven, like pretty much you messing up or you just stopped. And my dad I'll never get. My dad told me when you see everybody else stop, then you stop. He said, but until then you keep going like don't stop.
Raven Crisp:And I really applied that into life where being young and even now, as an adult, having to still press through with hearing loss. That's a disability a lot of people don't know I have. That's hard like not being able to hear but still have to be at it no excuse, like my parents didn't allow my disability to cripple me. So that actually translated over to every aspect of my life where it's really no excuses, like if I'm breathing I can do it, and if I can't do it, I know somebody that can teach me or however I need to outsource, but the job gets done no matter what I'm going through. So as I got older, I have lupus. So that's another thing. You know, hearing loss, lupus, vision impairment, so it's like I have all these different things that could be handicaps, but I don't let it bother me, I still keep going yeah, you ever thought about writing a book or something a devotional?
Greg Jones:uh, are you a singer?
Raven Crisp:no, a poetry writer. I'm a poet, yeah man?
Greg Jones:yeah, because I mean when I say I took my time, you know, dropping these dimes and quarters and dollars like these are the things that are encouraging to people Like you might not understand my situation, or maybe disabilities or whatever the case is, but this word you talked about tenacity and pushing through meaning. There are no excuses. I can still do it.
Raven Crisp:And.
Greg Jones:I just have to imagine, through all that support from your parents has given you strength over the years. All that support from your parents has given you strength over the years. So for any of the adversity that you've come up against, things that you had to face, you had that already built in you. It's in me. Well, I'm not going to get on the track to race against you.
Raven Crisp:I'm just going to tell you that right now.
Greg Jones:I appreciate it. Wow, raven. So this is awesome. Now you're a young lady that has followed you on social media, tons of awards in various categories. You're getting recognized for your work that you do in the community. You're getting recognized as a leader in the community. You're driven with purpose. But when I talk to you, you know that's not the first thing you talk about. You talk about the work. You talk about wanting to help other people. You're really giving yourself to what it is that you're called to, and I just want to let you know that I really appreciate that about you and how you carry yourself and just as an example for so many other and I won't even just say young women, but just people in general.
Raven Crisp:Thank you.
Greg Jones:Older or younger. So I mean, keep it up as we've been talking today. Has anything else come to your mind that you want to make sure that you get a chance and opportunity to share?
Raven Crisp:Man, I would just say faith that's been the biggest thing within the last year is faith, one thing that I remember someone telling me a good friend of mine, actually. She told me this quote, just to summarize it that you know, faith is you. When you jump off the cliff, you're either prepared to learn how to fly or you trust that there'll be something to catch. You had that perspective. That's really helped me with a lot where, um, it's a lot of times that you know I'm not perfect, I don't got it all figured out, so there's some days I'm just like man, I don't know. I don't know how this is gonna happen. But one thing I can say when I look back that everything that I said, I wanted, um, and I believed in, I got it. I may have not gotten it the way I thought I was gonna get it, but having that blind faith to know that, you know, you put it out there what you want, and then you let God do the rest.
Greg Jones:So, really, that's talking about yielding your faith to God and letting him really lead and guide your life.
Greg Jones:Yes, wow. So if you're hearing this, I just want you to know and believe that you know Raven's saying and I'm saying it as well that you know in times such as these, and you know what those times are for you. But it's awesome to hear that there are people striving to do not only what's right, but having faith, to believe, and I love the quote that you talked about. That's a really good. I call it a parable or example of you know which choice is it? You know I use that example too, but I use it. You know you get pushed off of buildings like who going to catch you and sometimes you can't even see the bottom because you're so high up.
Raven Crisp:Yeah.
Greg Jones:But you got to believe.
Raven Crisp:Yeah.
Greg Jones:And having faith does that. Wow, raven. This has been a great conversation. Most people ask on a podcast. I get comments later. Oh, my gosh, raven was so encouraging. How do I connect with her? So somebody wants to connect with you connect with the foundation.
Raven Crisp:How do they do that? You can connect with me through wwwselflesshandfoundationorg. I'm on Instagram at Official Raven Crisp, facebook, raven Crisp, linkedin, raven Crisp really everything Raven Crisp. Or, if you want to contact me through my nonprofit, you can contact me through the website, through any of the nonprofit pages. Yeah, or by phone 405-652-9181.
Greg Jones:And I love that, and you have a foundation. You're doing great work in the community and so somebody might be listening to this podcast and is inspired. I'm sure there's several ways on the website that they can get in contact with you. They can give You're doing great work in the community. We want you to keep it up Now, Raven. I mean, you know, I guess maybe one of the next things you might get is an Academy Award or Grammy or something. But just you know, think about the little people over here at Three Keys, for your journey and just check in with us.
Greg Jones:Yeah just just check in with us every once in a while. You're welcome to come back anytime you want to check in. I love to have you back on the podcast and hear about more great things that are happening in your life and happening through your foundation and the things that you're the difference that you're making in the community. So we really appreciate you coming on and we hope that this has also been a joy for you as well thank you for having me all right.
Greg Jones:We'll talk to you soon on three keys for your journey.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining Three Keys for your Journey. Tune in next time for another episode.
