Business Innovators Radio - Championing Financial Literacy: Larissa Reed’s Mission for Community Impact

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

A rich narrative unfolds as Dr. Tamara Patzer engages with Larissa Reed, CEO of In the Black Business Services, in a profound exploration of resilience and entrepreneurship. Larissa’s journey, marked by the challenges of motherhood and the triumphs of business ownership, serves as a compelling case study in overcoming adversity. From her early days of managing a burgeoning business amidst the complexities of raising twins with special needs, Larissa demonstrates how necessity can fuel innovation and drive success. The conversation reflects on her evolution from working at her kitchen table to establishing a thriving accounting firm, underscoring the critical importance of education and financial literacy in empowering small business owners.As the dialogue progresses, the focus shifts to Larissa’s contributions to the anthology ‘Alpha Queens Rising’, where her chapter stands out for its insightful discourse on self-mastery and legacy creation. This segment of the discussion highlights the emotional depth of her narrative, particularly when recounting her son’s heartfelt reaction to her becoming an author. This moment encapsulates the personal stakes involved in her professional endeavors and illustrates the significant role that familial support plays in one’s journey.Larissa’s aspirations extend beyond individual success; she aims to impact 111 million lives through her advocacy for financial literacy, particularly among women and children, fostering a legacy of empowerment and resilience. The episode culminates with Larissa discussing her forthcoming speaking engagements, including her participation in significant events aimed at uplifting women and communities. Her experiences reflect a broader commitment to creating a supportive network for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and education. The conversation encapsulates the essence of resilience, illustrating how personal experiences can inspire collective empowerment and drive societal change. Larissa Reed emerges as a powerful voice for women in business, advocating for a future where everyone has the opportunity to rise and succeed.Takeaways:The podcast features Larissa Reed, the founder and CEO of In the Black Business Services, who has significantly impacted her community through financial education.Larissa’s chapter in the book Alpha Queens Rising emphasizes resilience, self-mastery, and the importance of building a legacy while supporting a family.Through her unique experiences, Larissa aims to inspire women by demonstrating that it is possible to overcome obstacles and achieve one’s dreams.Larissa discusses her journey from a challenging personal life to becoming an award-winning business owner and community advocate for financial literacy.She emphasizes the importance of education and mentorship, aiming to impact 111 million lives through her initiatives and teachings.Larissa’s commitment to her community involves teaching financial literacy to both adults and children, fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and empowerment.Read the book: https://www.amazon.com/ALPHA-QUEENS-RISING-Where-Purpose/dp/B0GCVDSRRBWomen Innovators with Tami Patzerhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/women-innovators-with-tami-patzer/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/championing-financial-literacy-larissa-reeds-mission-for-community-impact

Women Innovators. Interviews with women with big messages and big missions, sharing their stories to inspire you to live your passion and step up to make the world a better place. Here's your host, Tammy Patzer. Hi, this is Dr. Tamara Patzer. I'm really excited today because I just had the privilege of working with many women. including our guest, Lores, Loh, okay, stop. Hi, everyone.

This is Dr. Tamara Patser, and I'm really excited because today we're speaking with Loresa. Why are we getting your nils wrong? That's okay. That's okay. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tamara Patser, and I'm really excited because today we're speaking with Larissa Reed,

and she is the founder and CEO of In the Black Business Services. And she was one of the featured authors in the book Alpha Queens Rising, which is a brand new hot release on Amazon right now. And it has been climbing the charts even in pre-release. Now it's a full-fledged, full-color book. And let me just say Larissa's chapter is one of the most, I think this iconic might be a good word for it. It's a beautiful, well-written chapter, and it really helps people understand what it really means to be resilient, to have self-master, and what it means to build legacy while being responsible for. or a family being an asset to your community and making a big impact.

So with that, Larissa, where are you now in terms of who do you help and what are you doing in your community? That's a cool thing happening. Well, first I want to say thank you so much for having me on your podcast, Tammy. me, I have been looking forward to this interview for like four months since we started working on the book, five months, six months, however long. When you said we were going to be on your podcast, I was like, I cannot wait to be on Tammy's podcast. So thank you so much for this opportunity. So where am I now?

Well, right now I'm actually sitting in the office in the building that I bought last year for my business. So I'm super excited to be an owner of commercial real estate and be able to say that I've, I actually bought real estate in the commercial space years before. I thought that it was even going to be possible. So it was something that is super exciting. And I can't want to teach others how to do it. I own an accounting firm in the Black Business Services. I'm the founder and CEO.

And we offer tax preparation, tax strategy, bookkeeping, all the number stuff. So we do all of that. However, I am really big on education and the educational piece of the numbers. and understanding your finances and your finances for your business. I specialize in small businesses. But what makes this different stand out is that I am huge on education. And I want people to understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it with their finances. So purchasing this building was another learning experience for me where I could learn everything

I can about the experience and then pass it on to others and pay it forward and teach others how to do what I did. how to do what to do and not to do because nobody taught me you know what not to do so i just did the thing but now i'm like oh i have all i have all the juicy tips to pass on to the next person made by their piece of commercial real estate but that's where i'm at right now sitting here and just trying to bask in this and we're getting ready for tax season well not getting ready actually started on monday so we're in tax season in the beginning of tax season so getting all of our stuff out to our clients and making sure that they know that we are here for them and able to support them and get their tax preparation done. And a fun thing that I'm actually getting ready to do is I'm running for

Ms. Baker's Field right here in my hometown. Well, it's a city town. Whatever. It's a hometown. And so I'm really, really excited about that because being Ms. Baker's Field will help me to have an even bigger impact on my community, the local community. And then also with our online presence, I feel like we can impact people around the world and show you that you can do and be whoever it is that you want and desire to be. Wow. So Alpha Queen's Rising. You wrote a book. And now that I'm remembering, didn't your son have a big reaction when you, you're going to be? And now that I'm remembering, didn't your son, you received Alpa Queen's Rising in the package? Oh my gosh, yes. When we did the unboxing, I just was so excited to open the first box of books. I had two. So I was excited to do the first

one. So I was like, I'm not going to record this. I'm just going to go in my room and open this box and look and see what this book looks like and just hold it and have a moment. And so I didn't think to do what I normally do and that's gather my family. Whenever I do something big, I gather my family. But this, I was like, let me just have a moment. While I had gotten the book, out of the box and my son walked in to ask me a question about something. I don't even remember what it was now, but he came in to ask me a question and he's talking and in mid-question, so mid-sentence, he sees that I'm holding the book. And he was like, oh my gosh, mommy, you did it. You're an author. I'm so proud of you. And he started to cry. He's 12.

And he just started to cry and was just so excited and hugged me so tight and wanted to look at the cover and find me in the book and started to read my chapter and seeing my bio in there and seeing my photo on the back of the book with the group of women. He just was so elated and excited and proud of me and that moment brings tears to my eyes now because of him being so proud. And I do everything I do, number one, for my family. I have five children. He's just one of the many, but he had the best reaction, the best, and it was so natural. It was just a moment that he and I get to. share and have and just reflecting on it. It brings so much joy to my heart and was probably the highlight of this whole thing. Like whatever happens next is amazing, but knowing that I made my child

proud and knowing that I've already had an impact on him and showing him that you can do whatever it is you set your heart and desire to do has just been a great, amazing highlight for this whole experience. Well, that is really phenomenal because I remember when you told me that that that made my day to hear that your son had that reaction to that book because sometimes, you know, people, they publish a book and, you know, you don't ever hear about what happened next. And I'm excited to hear because just for everyone listening, and I wasn't going to bring this up until later, but I might as well bring it up now. Larissa is actually this book where she is one of the key authors, she will be speaking at Elfa

Queens Rising in Omaha, Nebraska in March. So not only as this taken her from being an author, but she'll be speaking at an event and I just found out, as you heard, that she's going to run in for is it Ms. or Ms. Bakerfield? What is the name? Ms. It's Ms. Baker's Field. So it's a Ms. Baker'sfield page and so there's four different categories and I'll be running for Ms. Bakersfield. Okay. Well, that's, that's exciting in itself because it's funny just to let you know, even though it didn't happen when I was a teenager, my dad went to Bakersfield to look at a job opportunity. I guess they had a sawmill. Don't ask me why Bakersfield would have a sawmill. My dad went to look at a job in Bakersfield, California. So heck, we could have been neighbors,

you know. I know. Wow. And now we're on opposite coast. Yeah. I'm in a cold Florida today. So that's very interesting. I want everyone to know about your journey because obviously, you know, you're the CEO and founder of this accounting and tax firm. And you just bought your very first commercial building and you have this business. How did this all start? Oh, my goodness. It all started at my kitchen table. I was talking to a friend about needing to work. I had twins that were born at just 25 weeks and weighed one and a half pounds each when they were born. So they had special needs, which I actually like to call their superpowers. So, but with their superpowers, they had to see a lot of specialists. So we were at the doctor's office at least three times a week. And it was usually a doctor's

office. I had to drive an hour and a half to two hours too. It wasn't local at that time. And so I needed to have income to take care of them. And there was no way that I could work for anyone else. And like with the schedule needing multiple days off a week or if they had a sick day and they couldn't go to daycare. So I had a friend come to me and say, hey, let's start a business. You do taxes. I do taxes. Let's start a business. I had no idea that I could be a business owner. I thought you had to be rich to be a business. And so I was like, what do you mean start a business? And she's like, yeah, you don't have to be rich. And so she started teaching me about business. So we started our business in November of 2018. Unfortunately, that partnership did not work out. So about after

nine, ten months of us being partners. We dissolved our partnership and each went our own separate ways. And so from that moment, I ended up at my kitchen table doing taxes, having people come and meet them at a office space that I would rent by the hour, or we would just meet over the phone. It was right before Zoom became popular when this happened because it was right for the pandemic happened. And literally one month, maybe two months later, the pandemic happened. So COVID happened and everything was shut down. So then I started using Zoom to meet with clients and people were wanting to apply for grants and funding that came with COVID. There were different opportunities for that, but their financial statements weren't in order. So I used that as an opportunity to expand my

business to offer bookkeeping and other accounting services so that I could help people get their documents the other so that they could get this money that we also desperately needed at the time because of the unexpected shutdown from the pandemic. So it started off there at my kitchen table, expanded my business. I had another home office after I moved from there and moved to a couple other places and then ended up here in my business and still offering all of the accountant services and actually have a team now. So it's really exciting to see the growth and allow my team to support me and know that I have support and can lean on them in order to keep growing the business into what my vision is for. Wow, that's actually pretty fast growth when you think about it.

2018 to 2026, most people, they may never even get to the place where they have an office and own a building, let alone have a team working with them unless they're part of a franchise or something like, yes. No, you're absolutely right. Pretty phenomenal. But didn't she- And for it to have happened too with a huge setback.

My partner, I know I've kind of like breezed past it, but my partner and I dissolving our partnership was a huge impact to me and my business because she knew more of the business back-end and I understood the service that we offered. And so I had to go back in and learn about everything that needs to be done on the back-end of business. So marketing, figuring out my ideal clientele, different software for like CRMs and stuff

like that. So I had to learn all of these things. So I actually went to the Women's Business Center and took some classes. So it wasn't just a smooth sale. Like, let's just grow. Like it was my, I had my own trials and tribulations through it. But every single time, it's kind of like what I did with purchasing this building is I looked at it as a learning experience and let me take in as much as I can So then I can go out and give it back to the community and teach. So I actually became a consultant for the Women's Business Center. I'm a community partner for three different organizations here, the current Women's Business Center, current inclusive entrepreneurship hub,

and the Bakersfield BC Launchpad. So I get to go back and give back to the community and teach workshops to educate people around their finances and their taxes. And I even got an opportunity for about two and a half, three years, to go and teach at our local high school district. And I taught 7th through 12 graders about entrepreneurship. So I took everything that I had learned in that tragedy, in that huge trial and reframed it and brought it back and took it and taught it to these children

so that they could know that they could be entrepreneurs far before I ever knew and grow into whoever they dreamed to be, started a business for whatever they wanted it to be what they understood, the back end of it, and then they could take it and figure out what they wanted to offer from there. So being able to not only give it back to adults, but I was able to give back to children through this experience. So I think that's a very important part of my journey because education and helping and supporting community is so big to me that I don't want to forget that part that now I get to help and impact other lives because of the things that I went through. that is really phenomenal because financial literacy and financial education, I think, is sorely lacking for most people. I remember even when I went to school, we had a little bit of budgeting and how to balance your checkbook, but nothing in terms of what you're talking about, like how to become an entrepreneur, how to,

you know, balance, you know, business and work because, again, times have really changed a lot, but that is phenomenal that you've been able to give back into the community. So you, a lot of, a lot of this, you had all this, I would say, ultimate success, right? Yes, for sure. But what? I know that you said that your son who's now 12 years old, that he had that strong reaction. You said that you had, is it five children?

Yes. And then you had the twins. And then you had your fifth child. What happened there where it sounds like you nearly lost your life? And I'm thinking about that, oh my God. But if you had all those babies and who would have taken care of them? Right. Yes, absolutely.

What happened with that? And what did it end up revealing about you to you? So with my daughter, I developed what was called placenta acrita. So my placenta during my pregnancy fused into my uterus. and I had to have a C-section about four weeks early to deliver her because there was a chance that I could hemorrhage at any time. So they wanted to break and deliver. So they knew that I had it. And in the operating room, when they scheduled the C-section, they had a machine called a cell salvage machine.

So we were being prepped and ready and making sure that we had everything that we needed just in case I hemorrhaged. And I ended up hemorrhaging. After they delivered her, I lost somewhere between seven years. and 90% of my blood volume. They don't know exactly how much it was. One nurse said 75, one nurse said 90. But in order to save my life, they had to do an emergency hysterectomy. So they had a surgical team, Russian.

I was put under, so I didn't see it. But I got the secondhand account from my mother who was standing there. They called her back because they said that I was bleeding and they didn't know what was going to happen. And so they called her in the back. And so she said it was kind of like what you see on TV when the surgeons and doctors come running in. And it was nurses and everything. This huge team came in throwing on their surgical gear and came in and ultimately saved my life. So they were able to recycle my blood back into me with the cell salvage machine.

And they said that that was a thing that actually saved my life was being able to do that, clean my blood and put it back into me. Because they said they wouldn't have been able to transfuse blood fast enough. because it was coming out too fast. So being prepared was what saved me. So one, it taught me that I need to be prepared. But two, it also taught me that I needed to learn how to love myself. I was given a huge blessing and surviving. And the anesthesiologist that was there during the whole thing, she was amazing.

I wish I could remember her name because I still, to this day, daughter is six, so this was almost seven years ago, we'll never forget the way that she comforted me when all this chaos was happening around me. And then coming in to the ICU when I woke up and saying, you scared me. I've been doing this for many years and no one has ever scared me like that. I thought I was going to lose you. And you survived. So I know you have a purpose on your life. There must be a calling over you. And in that moment, I was overwhelmed by what was happening. I just had a baby.

I just almost died. I had no blood left in my body. So I was weak and trying to figure out just how to even hold my daughter because I was too weak to even hold her. They brought her in. My ex-husband brought her in and showed her to me. And I got to touch her and I have videos of that. And I just was like, wow, I really just was so lucky to even be able to do that. that I wasn't thinking about what the anesthesiologist said about the purpose on my life.

It took me several months to recover. I went home with a walker because I couldn't walk on my own. I had a bedside commode because I couldn't get up and use my energy to go to the bathroom because my body, the blood, was so focused on protecting my vital organs that nothing else really wanted to work. So I had to learn how to live again. and in learning how to live, I realized that I didn't love myself and I wanted to learn how to love myself. So thinking that I'm just learning how to live and walk and take care of a baby, I realized,

no, I needed to work on my mental health as well. So I got myself into therapy and I wanted to do this weight loss program and part of it was a mandatory six months worth of therapy or six months of therapy to be part of this weight loss program because I wanted to lose all this weight. And because I'm like, okay, if I can physically look in the mirror and see myself, then I know that if I look good, I'm going to love myself. So going into therapy, I wanted to go because I was overwhelmed by having all these kids. Like, let's just be real. I have a lot of kids. And I had children with special needs. And I have a baby. And I almost died. My business partner dissolved our partnership right after I got out of the hospital about a month, less than a month later.

So it was like all of these things going on. So I was like, oh, I'm going to talk to a therapist about that. okay, that's fine, and it'll do this mandatory six months for this weight loss. Little did I know that therapy would change my life more than losing 100 pounds, changed my life. Learning to love and respect myself and that I do have a purpose and a calling on my life. And I'm so grateful to be here and now I'm going to use it to support my community and the people around me as much as I possibly can. And that's the number one reason why education is so big to me because I want to pass on all the knowledge that I have as quickly as I can and as far as I can away from me so that I know that I can have an impact.

My goal is to impact 111 million lives in my lifetime. So that doesn't have to just be like people that I actually talk to. But I want to impact women specifically, but women so that it impacts not just them, but then their children and there's children's children and all of that. So I try to use my story of survival. as showing that we are unbreakable. It's not just me. I'm not the only one that can get through this and turn it around. So I want to be an inspiration and show women specifically that we can do this. We can be moms. We can be business owners. We can almost die, come back and be like a phoenix and rise from the

ashes and impact others and love and support each other. Wow, that's really beautiful. I'm sitting here listening to you and I'm thinking about, you know, I always, I don't know for some reason, I keep going back to your son and that moment when he realized what you accomplished and what you modeled for him in taking these actions. And then, of course, a book is a tangible thing. Right. Yes. Actually, say, look, I've got that. Every time I see books I've worked on and I go, oh, my goodness. this started as this idea and now I'm holding it in my hand.

And I wanted to ask you about the legacy that you are creating. And you said it, you want to impact that 111 million women and the multi-generations. Because if you think about it for every woman that you impact now, it is paying it forward. It is moving forward in time because now everyone that if you help this woman and she becomes whoever she's supposed to be, it will improve everything for everyone connected to her, not just your own children, but her entire circle. That number, sometimes it seems overwhelming to think, oh, I could impact millions of people. but the truth is if you start to look at that expansion of the legacy in your lifetime

and then multiply it out beyond your lifetime, you're absolutely right. And I imagine over time it would become billions, not just millions. That would be amazing. Over the time. Yes. So I wanted to ask you about being an elf book. Queen and what does it mean to you beyond beyond the book, beyond the speaking engagements? What does that mean to you and what does it mean for your family and your community?

So being an Alpha Clean, the number one thing that always comes to my head first is that we have a sisterhood. and I have been able to develop relationships with the other women in the group. They are amazing women. I cannot wait for everyone to get to their moment on stage and get to tell their story and impact. Like, I've read the book and they all have stories. We all have great stories. And what I love the absolute most about the book is that we're all different. So that tells me that this book will be able to impact all different women.

There is not a woman out there that will not be able to find a story in here that she can relate to and then learn their resilience and their strength through it and get through and see what can be on the other side. That is like the most exciting thing about this book and the Rye speaking event on March 19th in Omaha or in Bellevue. I am so excited for both of those things. But number one, it was a sisterhood and showed me that I wasn't alone. And I've developed these friendships with a couple of the women. I've developed close friendships with it.

They were strangers. And I didn't meet them in person for months. I actually met them in person in November. But before that, it was just seeing them on Zoom and being able to chat with them in Voxer or through a text message. And then now knowing that I have a woman that has had this experience with me in writing the book who has their own trials and tribulations in their lives. and the hurdles that we have to jump through in our businesses and all of those things.

And I get to see, I'm not alone and I get to get feedback from these other women. So they inspire me. I inspire them. And in return, in our own lives, we inspire other people. So being able to be that inspiration and not be alone in it and have love and support with no judgment. I have a safe space. Like, that is just everything to me. And as far as the impact for my children, they get to see their mom.

stand on her own. I've been divorced now for, or separated from my husband, we are divorced, but for four years, four years ago was when our marriage ended like almost to the day. And they saw me go through that and still run a business, still take care of all five of them, and be able to take care of my children with their special needs and grow. I've grown my business year over year when people said that growth is not possible. We're going through things. I've grown it. I have grown myself.

Oh my gosh. I am a different person today than I was before. And that's from my life experiences, from being an Alpha Queen and constantly working on my mindset and seeing support and giving myself grace. And I've grown in having

therapy and a life coach, like all of these things. So I've grown as a person. They've gotten to see that. And I am now, an award-winning business owner through all of this. I've won multiple awards, which is amazing, but the most amazing piece of that is the impact that it's had on my family by my children getting to see me do this. They have a front row seat as much as they can to the trials and tribulations that I've gone through. What's appropriate for kids to see? They just know their mom's going through things, right? So they've seen me go through that and then rise from it. And yes, now write a book,

win multiple awards, buy a building, have a successful business, have a great team underneath me and getting to speak on stages. I'm actually even going to Kenya in June to be able to speak on stages in front of women and girls and will be able to impact about 15,000 to 20,000 lives in doing that. So I'm excited for the impact that I get to have around the world and my children get to see it and have a front row seat to that and see that they really can do anything. If mom can do it, they can do it because not only do they get the example, but they 100,000 percent get my support in whatever it is that they want to do. So they have me as a resource to help propel them forward in their lives. And it just excites me so much to have that.

So if you had one message to give to a woman listening to this interview or reading the book, what would it be? I'm really interested in hearing that. You know what? I actually just said this to a woman who called me today because she was struggling and going through some things and was feeling a little bit hopeless and I let her know you did it yesterday. You can do it again today. Just take it one day at a time. You've got this because we all go through hard times. But find your tribe, find your support, but also find that within yourself because you can do this and lean on the people that love and support you and you can go as far as your wildest dreams want to take you. So everyone, you heard it directly from Larissa Reed.

You can do it and you can take it as far as you want to. I think that's a perfect message to end on. And again, Larissa will be speaking at the AlphaQuilett. Queen Rise event March 19th. She'll be speaking in Kenya in June. And of course, Alpha Queen's Rising the Full Color Book is available on Amazon. And Larissa, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed the update. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Running for Ms. Beggarsfield. Yes, hopefully I show up as a beauty queen in Omaha. Oh, yeah. I mean, thank you. it again it just proves exactly what you're saying that if you can imagine it if you can think it

you can become yes become it you can create it you can have whatever it is you want and like you gave such great tips and advice today i really want to say thank you for that i appreciate it thank you tami no absolutely is my honor thank you everyone this is dr tamara patser we'll talk to you soon. You've been listening to Women Innovators with Tammy Patser. To learn more, please go to womeninnovatorsradio.com. And please do subscribe and share to spread the big messages and big missions to change the world.