Conversations with Karen Young Patten

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Young Patten.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am an Atlanta native, and grew up in southwest Atlanta with my mother, father, and I am the middle child of three. I graduated from Westlake High School and graduated from Georgia State University with a BBA in real estate in late 2006, just as the market was beginning to show cracks, and hiring slowed down. I found myself working in different jobs, including property management, furniture sales, and even the Waffle House management program. My career has been a rollercoaster, and I felt lost and didn’t understand a lot of the periods of underemployment, and frankly, being used sometimes, but I think it has informed by world view, made me a better leader, and every role I’ve had has prepped me for everything I’m working on now.

One of my first professional job was in youth development with a nonprofit called Future Foundation in East Point, GA. I loved that job, where I hep run an after-school-program for middle and high school kids at several APS and Fulton County schools on the southside. We were a combo of mentor, teacher, tutor, and advocate. I stayed there for three years and was recruited to RBC Wealth Management as an admin and assistant to a group of financial advisors. I found myself switching from an environment of limited resources to working with the ultra-wealthy. I learned a lot about how the wealthy manage money, investments, generational wealth, and estate planning.

After about two years at RBC, I was hired by Atlanta Housing Authority as a client services manager and underwriter in the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) program. I was processing recertifications and moves for residents with a voucher and I was also in grad school at GSU again, pursuing a master’s degree in real estate, which I completed in 2015. At the time, voucher holders experienced a lot of discrimination in the market, and people’s vouchers were expiring because they could not find a place that would accept the HCVP program. The Housing Authority created role that focused on improving voucher acceptance through recommendations to improve the program itself and evangelizing the program with investors and property owners, improving the program’s image in the community. That role eventually moved into the Communications and Marketing department and after working in the role for about three years, the new CEO actually asked me to lead the department. I was AH’s first SVP, Communications, Marketing, and Public Engagement and was the youngest member of the SLT by at least 15 years. I am grateful to former AH CEO Eugene Jones for his support and belief in me.

After serving in that SVP role for a little more than 2 years, I was recruited to Bezos Academy, a nonprofit launching and operating a network of tuition-free Montessori-inspired preschools across the nation in under resourced communities, founded by Jeff Bezos and funded with a $ 2 billion investment. I was asked to be the national leader of Family and Community Engagement, focusing on inclusive practices in family engagement, including family empowerment, multilingual and multicultural approaches, wrap around services, etc. During my time there, I also got married to Dr. Carl Patten, a minister, and engineer and technology executive from Memphis, TN.

Again, I stayed in the role for about 2.5 years, when John Majors, the founder of The Oughtness Group, a startup, full service real estate consulting and development company, asked me to join him in 2023. We met 10 years prior through a grad school classmate and kept in touch. It has been an incredible experience. The Oughtness Group was asked by Mayor Andre Dickens to launch and operate a city-sponsored real estate development company called Atlanta Urban Development Corporation (AUD), leading the redevelopment of publicly owned land into mixed-use, mixed-income real estate projects. It’s a huge task and John recruited folks he trusted to hold the weight and importance of the work. I currently serve as the COO of The Oughtness Group, and AUD in a dual role. Thankfully, John is supportive of all of us pursuing our own entrepreneurial interests and was excited when I told him I was finally launching my dream- a women’s clothing store, Bourgeois Bohemian. I have sold new and resale clothing online and at open air markets for more than 15 years, but I always wanted my own physical store.

One day, I was visiting Greenbriar Mall in SW Atlanta, speaking to a store owner about my dream and he mentioned that Greenbriar has a short-term specialty leasing program that would be great for a startup business. I reached out to Monica, the specialty leasing director and we negotiated a 4-month agreement that would allow me to pilot the store, and we signed in March and opened in April. I also found out that I was pregnant two weeks after signing the lease! The timing was wild, but I had already signed the lease and purchased inventory, so I decided to move forward with opening. I was going to continue working full times, so I hired a full-time manager and a part-time associate (which was one of my Future Foundation kids, ironically!). I was committed to paying a living wage, and creating a beautiful plush environment for the women and femmes of SW Atlanta, an area that I love so much, and spent my formative years in. The area is truly underserved, but I wanted to offer beautiful, quality clothes, and excellence in presentation, customer service, and care. We did that, and I’m really proud of what we created together. Even with all that work, and thousands spent in ads, the mall struggled with foot traffic and there just was not enough progress in sales to justify resigning a lease at the end of July. That, combined with pregnancy advancing, I decided to close the physical store and pivot back to online only, at www.b-boho.com. The website is just as beautiful as the store, and was developed by Fruition Digital, founded by my friend Kezia Snipe! I was lucky enough to work 100% with my personal network to establish and operate the business and keep the dollars circulating between us. Any services I could procure from my network, I did. With all that, even with the store closure, I could it a success, and I would 100% open another store when I can dedicate more of my time working there.

Personally, things are going great. I am due in December 2026 with a baby girl, my husband and dogs are awesome, and until I can pivot more fully to operating a business, I am focused on investment. I day trade securities and manage my own portfolio and am an investor in several real estate development projects. I also am a huge civic engagement advocate and work each year as a voter registrar for Fulton County Elections Office and run voter engagement for my church. I don’t need another job for now!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
See the first response for a summary of what I do.

What sets me apart is that I have now been a leader and a front-line employee and navigated very political roles, and situations where people exploited my talent to earn themselves the roles and exposure and titles they wanted, while denying me raises and underpaying me, so I think it makes me a stronger leader. I love personal development, personal finance and personal improvement and coaching and helping people discover their genius is my superpower. I do it naturally, both personally and professionally.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
People can buy from Bourgeois Bohemian at www.b-boho.com, and I also do business and strategy consulting. If you need help getting your business started, you need a coach, or even a fractional COO, email me at karen@yimbyconsultants.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.b-boho.com
• Instagram: bourgeois_boho
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenypatten