We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Larissa Assam a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Larissa, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
At a very young age, I was sexually abused and without realizing, this caused me to see myself as “Damaged Goods” for several years. I had a facade and convinced myself that \i was fine in spite of what had happened to me. I was determined that that incident would not define me, except it had, hence the self-description as Damaged Goods.
After several years of therapy, I noticed that I was srtill
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Dr. Larissa Assam is a Family Medicine physician, entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist. She is the Founder of RopheMD, a global concierge medicine private practice on a mission to keep millions in excellent health beyond 100 years of age, by providing Presidential-level comprehensive primary care and holistic health services. She is also the Founder of Rophe Beauty, the only physician-founded and formulated all-natural international beauty and pageantry enterprise producing luxury all-natural skincare products and hosting events that celebrate women who have overcome a history of trauma through biblical principles.
She was born and raised in Cameroon wherein she was called into medicine at age 7 after her father was involved in a ghastly car accident and the passion for entrepreneurship was fostered.
She is an alumnus of SUNY Oswego, SUNY Upstate Medical University & Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed Family Medicine Residency at the Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center Family Medicine program where she received several awards for outstanding patient care and teaching Georgetown medical students. Dr. Assam worked as Strategy Consultant at McKinsey & Company helping Fortune 500 companies solve complex business problems.
She is passionate about beauty, entrepreneurship, teaching biblical principles to help people prevent and reverse chronic disease, and raising the next generation of physicians.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three attributes which have created the most impact in my journey are: resilience, focus, and faith.
Resilience: I cannot overemphasize the importance of resilience in my life. Life has not always been easy but learning how to compartmentalize, process quickly, and recover quickly have helped me along my journey in medicine. This is the differentiator between people who are good and people who attain greatness. My father taught me that the only differentiator between him and his peers who gave up would be my ability to push through. Sometimes, that looks like pushing through in tears but regardless, I have pushed through and the beautiful testimony of a little girl from a tiny country called Cameroon now thriving as a highly trained medical doctor in the United States speaks volumes for itself. The journey has been my training ground.
Focus: Medicine requires utmost visual acuity and precision. It is important to understand what your why is otherwise, you will be easily swayed. Through my journey, I have encountered many challenges: financial constraints, prejudice, death of family members, amongst others. I had to keep the main goal in mind, fulfilling my dream of becoming a doctor in spite of what life threw my way. I could not get distracted with friendships and sometimes had to make hard decisions when people were not aligned with the vision. I can attest that focus is imperative and will help you attain your dreams of becoming a doctor.
Faith: Of all three qualities, I would say this is the most important attribute. Specifically, developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ enabled me to stay focused on His plans for my life. I believe that I am on earth sent on assignment by God to fulfill a specific mandate in medicine. This is more than a career; this is a calling. There were times when I was confused about what medical specialty to choose and after periods of prayer and fasting, God would make it perfectly clear what decision to make. Even through the tough times, this has made my journey through medicine peaceful and purpose-filled.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
My ideal client at RopheMD is someone who desires to thrive in excellent health well beyond 100 years of age. I have a personal assignment from God to do everything possible to keep every patient entrusted into my care healthy, vibrant, and thriving. My ideal clients want to learn how to optimize their health through lifestyle medicine interventions such as nutrition, fasting, and exercise. Several of my clients attest to losing weight (10-15 pounds within a month) without medications or fad diets, learning biblical principles about health, wellness, and longevity, preventing and reversing chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, fibroids, and migraines through the virtual RopheMD Health Reboot program.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @dr_assam
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larissa-assam-md-mph-97295640/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_HODIjv1zZ8GESOBJ2lRig
