Today we’d like to introduce you to Latoya Tenise.
Hi Latoya, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started as a teen mom and a single mom. At 18, I graduated high school five months pregnant. I had my second child 6 years later. Since then my motivation has been to provide and raise them in a life they don’t have to recover from. We relocated to Georgia in June 2013. As I started building and rebuilding my life I went from being a Staffing Specialist (at a Staffing company I walked into, looking for employment) to being a Regional HR Manager within 6 years. During this time, I was posting on social media randomly and created a small following. While working in HR, I took classes to become a real estate agent. I was licensed shortly after in 2020. And I did all of this while raising honor roll students. I never gave up and I’m never going to give up. I just believe there is more and that it’s possible for me. I had an Amazon store where I sold books, I was a Beachbody fitness coach, I sold shirts on Etsy. I’ve done personal thrift shopping. My story has so many twist and turns and I’m happy to be going in an upward motion currently. My oldest daughter is going into her junior year of college, an HBCU where she is a cheerleader and just crossed, AKA. My youngest is going into high school, a straight A student who picked up a basketball a few years ago and happen to be naturally talented. She played for Ja Morant’s first AAU team last year. And I am not a full time agent and a steadily growing social media presence.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not! To start off, I had to get out of my own way and fully accept where I was in life without letting the statistic make me insecure. Another single brown woman with children. Finding confidence to say, this is where I am but I have control of where I’m going. Then, to even get close to that with a great job and to lose it, multiple times. I had to pick myself back up so many times and tell myself to keep going so many times. In hindsight, I think it’s all been not only worth it, but maybe necessary to get me to this place. My passion is helping women build lives they love and lives they want and I think I’m in a much better place to do that because I had to build my own, even after it’s been knocked down several times. I’m currently writing a book, Ms.Fortunate because I know I’ve taken misfortunate circumstances and made the best out of them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
After ten years of human resources, I decided to become a full time real estate agent. And I love people so I loved human resources, but now – work doesn’t feel like work. I love what I do. I joke around and say that I dress up and show beautiful homes but really I help people make one of the biggest purchases in life. And I do it with professional and friendly communication, care and knowledge. I would say I specialize in people, if that makes sense. I like to get to know them, how they want you to speak with them, what they need from me. I would hope I’m known for being positive. At one point, I tried to make “the Beyonce’ of positivity a thing. I also hope I’m known for authenticity, but it might just be for selfies. lol. I’m proud that I keep going, like Snoop Dog thanking himself. I know it’s been hard for me and always easier to give up. I’m proud of me for always looking for another way. I’m not sure that I’m set apart from others. I don’t want to be in some aspects. I think if anything I would say social media can get really unauthentic, really fake. And I’m being honest about me and what I’ve been through.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I don’t have a lot of memories of me growing up. I think I was genuinely traumatized from being a single mom to two kids and the situations that came from that. The memories and the pictures that I do have, I think I was shy and talkative at the same time. I wanted to be the black Britney Spears but I’m not a singer. I always loved aesthetics though and I always like being different in fashion. I had to find my confidence and not I love myself so much. I know the child me would be so happy to be the woman that I am right now, even before I’m finished achieving everything I see.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/latoyatenise
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/motivationbarbie
