We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Larissa Gregory. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Larissa below.
Larissa, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Overcoming imposter syndrome is an ongoing journey for me. While I haven’t completely conquered it, I am actively working towards that goal by authentically engaging with my true self and understanding who my people are. Embracing authenticity involves recognizing and appreciating the aspects of myself that I love, as well as acknowledging the areas where I am still growing. It’s about accepting that I am a work in progress, and that’s okay. By owning my strengths and areas for improvement, I am gradually building a more genuine and confident version of myself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
So where I am in my journey right now is a place that I never imagined for myself in a multitude of ways, like both in successes and in grief.
I’ve been married to Dee Gregory for 14 years. We have three boys: two to hug,
and one forever in my heart. Jackson, Lennox, and Houston. And my oldest oldest – Victor Tate.
I really think my story comes from, like, several different seasons of life. But I
think the part of my story that sits with me the most has been since
Houston was born. 3-25-19, changed my life in ways unimaginable, both
with joy and pain and with his unexpected, premature birth. Needing to
resign from a job that I loved and enjoyed and thought was my purpose
from henceforth. Being in the hospital with him, having two older boys,
having a husband that was in graduate school, that’s when I
think maybe the second or third leg of my story started.
And that’s when I actually started paying attention to what my story was
teaching me or what my journey was teaching me. And I think that’s what
has brought me. Not I think. I know that’s what brought me to who I am
today and how I think and how I believe and what I like and how I dress
and what I think beauty is and what I think peace is, well, not think again-
Know and believe those things to be true for myself. And so through the
journey of his life and his sickness and through the journey of our family’s
life with him and alongside him, it’s really brought me to where I am now.
I can remember thinking that professionalism looked and sounded a
certain way; I can remember that being a mom looked and sounded a certain way- or I
thought that it did; or being a wife or being a friend. Someone that I love dearly says that
life is the best teacher. And I think that’s what this season has been for me.
Like, I’ve stopped trying to showup for other people in the ways that I think
that I should, including family, including friends, including coworkers.
And I’ve started showing up for who I know myself to be. And I’m learning
and trying to figure out daily because I do think it’s a daily practice of what
that needs to look like and sound like because that feels like the most
authentic me. And I feel comfortable being authentic because it’s hard trying to fake it.
And not that I was faking it, but I was trying to be something that I
imagined myself being, not being who I actually was or who I actually am.
So that’s a little bit more about me and my story. And there was Houston’s
journey of his life and his sickness and his illness and all the joy that he
brought. And there has also been a journey in his death and knowing that
he has rest from that sickness, but also the grief that comes along with
that. And so that’s been the second part. And that’s what brought me
to LITE Memphis. I knew that I didn’t have the emotional capacity to go
back to my first love, which is education and counseling and social
emotional learning.
And through all of that, I had started a consulting firm that had become
relatively successful and enjoyed that. But when Houston passed, so did
that passion and so did those desires. And so I had to make a really
difficult decision to move into the next part of my journey. And it was hard.
It’s hard to choose something different when you don’t know what it’s
going to look like on the other side. But I think it’s one of the best
decisions that I’ve made. And so I started applying angrily, if that’s a word,
to different jobs, because I was like, I am a smart human. I have a lot to
offer the world. I believe that I hold promise to do big things. And so I had
to coach myself up and a part of our journey is that we sold our house and all of our
belongings and bought a travel trailer initially. And then went from that
travel trailer to a 42 foot hauler. And so I can remember sitting at Jelly
Stone park and angrily applying to jobs because I knew that I had some
badassery inside of me and that I was ready to put that part of myself
back to work. And I was able to recognize that it was not going to be in
being a dean of students or a school leader or counselor. It was going to
be by leading something.
And so I came across LITE Memphis, and it uniquely combined my heart as
an educator with my belief that black and brown youth deserve access to
good things and my love for counseling and behavior and our community
with my own entrepreneurial journey. And, yeah, I was shocked when I got
the email that my application went through the next round because it was
one of those things of, like, this is my shooting for the stars application.
And, yeah, I got a callback. Callback is probably what people say when
they’re, like, auditioning for a play, but I got a call. I think it was actually
an email, and I was shocked. And then I went to the interview, which was
on Zoom, and then they invited me in person, and so I was, again,
shocked.
And I was like, are you all sure you know who you’re getting? And I think
at that point, they were more confident in me than I was confident in
myself. But I decided to believe them, and I’m so glad I did. LITE Memphis
exists to close the racial wealth gap in our city, and it is a good work. It is
a hard work, and it’s a work that is seeing not only success, but impact.
And when I talk about impact, I mean, on the lives of black and brown
youth in our city, we often hear about bad things that are going on with
youth. But having the opportunity to sit and watch teens invest in
themselves and evolve over the course of 16 weeks is truly a gift. To see
their ideas become a reality is a treat.
And, LITE Memphis, gets to be a part of journeys, gets to be a part of
transformative experiences, and that brings me a lot of life. And I have an
amazing crew of people that I get to work with every day. And we get to
go into different pockets of the city, neighborhoods where a
transformative entrepreneurial education is something that some folks
may have never seen if LITE didn’t pop up. And so we’ve been around for
ten years, and I’ve been there for a year and a half, and I’ll take a little
brag moment to say that we have doubled our impact, not only in
numbers, but also in funding in the year and a half that I’ve been present.
And I’m proud of that.
And in this season of my life, I’m learning to be proud of the things that I
do, proud of the people that I do them with, and proud of the decisions
that I’m able to make. And I think those decisions come from some really
great life experiences, but also some really hard ones. And, yeah, I found
my voice to where I’m honest in a different way, where I’m authentically
myself, whether I’m out to dinner with a friend or I’m sitting with the
board, like Larissa Gregory is what you’re going to get on all sides. Now,
there are some sides of myself that I do reserve for my village, which are
my close five friends. But otherwise, what you see is what you get. And I
love living in that space.
So I’m an executive director. I don’t think I said that, but I’ll insert that.
I’m an executive director, and that still sounds funny to me.
But I’m also super proud of that. And LITE Memphis has three different
areas that we focus on. One is our 16 week programming, which takes students,
a black or brown youth, entrepreneurial hope, and we move them from ideation
to actually selling a service or product and generating revenue. We also offer community
workshops, which are for all students all throughout the community. And
that’s something that shifted in the last year and a half. We can’t build
good things in our city and expect people to come to them. Access is a
huge barrier, be it transportation or even coming outside of a space where
we feel safe as people. And so going to people matters. And so those are
our community workshops.
And then we have our alumni engagement program, which is sticking with
kids until they have a high wage job or have made a post secondary
choice. And when I say high wage, like right now, minimum wage is like
seven something. The livable wage is 15 something. And a good wage in
Memphis, Tennessee, is like 18 to 19. I want my kids to be making $30
plus an hour. That’s a high wage job, well above the poverty line and well
above a livable wage. Our alumni, we support them. We work to support
them. For those who want to engage in that and want to achieve that and
want access, we’re here for that.
I think the last thing I’ll add is that we’re expanding into schools next fall.
So Fall 2024, we’re expanding into schools locally,
and I’m really excited about what that will look like and sound like for our
impact.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
There was this day. This sounds so random. I love a good bubble bath. Like, I love to soak. And I was soaking in the tub, and I was literally
daydreaming about what life could look like or what I wish life looked
like, and how I wish that I could dress a certain way that felt more
comfortable to who I was, and that I could be friends with people that
reciprocated friendship in ways that were meaningful to them and to me.
And I thought about what I dreamed our family life could look like and
sound like, and travel, and my relationship with my immediate family, and
just so on and so forth. And I had this moment, and I was like, why not?
What is keeping me from these things? And the very thing that was
keeping me from those was myself.
And not only myself, but my fear. And it was that moment that I decided
that I wanted to be someone who wasn’t afraid to take a risk. And albeit
some of my risk taking has come with consequences, but those
consequences have been both positive, and I’ll give him his credit. Just like
Victor Tate says, life is the best teacher. That was a moment where life
became a really good teacher for me as I was sitting in that tub, and I was
like, I’m going to make these things happen. When I think about the
qualities and skills that it took sitting still and relearning myself. I didn’t
know the things I liked. I didn’t know the things that I loved. I didn’t know
the music that I truly enjoyed. I didn’t know the colors. I’m talking basic
stuff.
And I started to fall in love with those things and surround myself with,
yes, things, but also moments to where I started to see the beauty in it, like
experiences, whether that was talking to a friend or sitting still outside
and letting the breeze hit my face or whatever it was. And I entered into
that journey while I still had Houston here, while we still had Houston
here. And so as I was taking care of a terminally ill and medically fragile
child, I was also discovering myself and so on. A little bit of a ramble. But
the qualities that I think it takes and that it’s taking because I’m not
anywhere where I want to be. And I’ve also settled myself that I never will
be. And that’s why it’s a journey, because there really is no destination.
It’s just enjoying it while you have it, while you have time. But the skills
have been letting go of worrying how people perceive me. The skills have
been creating my own inner calm and peace and not allowing anybody or
anything. And this is the part I still struggle with, and I’m still in a journey,
but I don’t want those things to be shaken. And it’s also taken a lot of
conversations. It’s taken me closing LG, which was a very hard thing to
do. It’s taken me being open to my own grief journey and putting myself
under the care of a psychiatrist and a counselor and learning about
medication. And that for me, it was a good choice. Yeah, that’s a ramble.
But I think there’s skills and things there. There’s qualities.
Like, I choose to show up every day. I choose to get out of bed even when
it’s hard. And sometimes I choose to stay in bed when it’s hard. I choose
who gets a front row seat and I choose who I want a front row seat with. I
choose where I work and who I work with.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Well, here, I’ll hold that up. It is my people. And when I say my people, there’s a group of women that I met at Cornerstone prep when we first
moved to Memphis. And they are still the people that I lean on, laugh with,
cut up with, have drinks at the end of the semester to celebrate that we
made it, even though most of us are not even in a school anymore. But
those are my people. And then I have my village. They’re my roots. They
are the folks that keep me grounded. I have five of them and they know
who they are. My people is my family. My mom, my dad. The legacy and
memory of my grandmother and my son. My in
laws. And my people are my boys. And my husband, Dee Gregory
is a force in my world, one that I’m very grateful for. He is a
choice that I will choose again. And I absolutely love Jackson and Lennox.
They keep me going. They keep me grounded. They are hilarious. They are
full of flaws, just like I am. And I’m so glad that they, especially as they get
older, they’re ten and twelve. That they’re beginning to share their flaws
with Dee and I and talk about them. And I don’t take that for granted. Yeah.
So my people, they’ve been helpful. My oldest, Victor Tate, he means the
world to me. And he’s my people.
Image Credits
Emily Holmes
