We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Latrisha Barr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Latrisha below.
Latrisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
The idea for Social MPact came directly from my experiences as a mother and as someone who has spent over 20 years working with youth and families. At home, my oldest son loved having family discussions during dinner, so I started writing conversation topics, putting them in a bowl, and pulling one each night. Those talks brought us closer, sparked honesty, and created moments we didn’t expect. One evening I realized, “This should be a game.” That simple routine became the spark for Social MPact.
At the same time, in the classrooms and youth programs where I worked, I noticed how many young people struggled to express themselves and how many families and staff were searching for ways to build stronger communication. Nothing out there blended real conversations, reflection, and fun in a structured, judgment-free way.
Once I prototyped the game with my family and later with students, the response confirmed everything, kids opened up, stayed engaged, and felt safe sharing. Adults said it filled a real gap. That’s when I knew it wasn’t just a game; it was a solution.
Social MPact excites me because it creates connection. It helps people talk, listen, reflect, and understand each other—something every home, classroom, and community needs. That’s why I knew this was worth creating.
Latrisha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Latrisha Barr, and I’m the creator of Social MPact, a conversation-based board game and workshop experience designed to help youth and families open up, communicate, and build stronger relationships. I’ve spent over 20 years working in education, after-school leadership, and family support, and I’ve seen firsthand how much young people want to express themselves but don’t always have the tools or safe spaces to do so.
Today I offer interactive workshops and small-group sessions, but organizations don’t need me present to run the program. I also provide a detailed Facilitator’s Guide so staff can confidently lead Social MPact on their own, with optional introductory trainings available if needed.
What sets me apart is my ability to blend real conversations, fun gameplay, and structured SEL skills in a way that feels natural and engaging for both kids and adults. I’m most proud of the moments when a quiet child speaks up, when families connect in new ways, or when educators say, “We needed this.” Social MPact is more than a product, it’s a tool for building communication, confidence, and connection in any setting.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
A story that truly reflects my resilience is the journey of creating Social MPact itself. I started working on this game more than 14 years ago. It began as simple dinner-table conversations with my son, and over the years I kept refining the idea, rewriting questions, redesigning the board, and imagining what it could become. But life, work, and responsibilities kept pushing the project to the side. Still, I never let it go.
There were many moments when it felt easier to stop or convince myself it wasn’t the right time. But something in me knew this idea had purpose. Even when I wasn’t actively working on it, I was thinking about it, improving it in my mind, and holding onto the vision. It took over a decade of starts, pauses, learning, doubting, and restarting, but I stayed committed.
Now, after 14+ years of holding onto this dream, I’m finally bringing Social MPact to the world. To me, that’s resilience: believing in something long before anyone else sees it, continuing even when the process is slow, and trusting that the right moment will come. My journey shows that persistence, patience, and purpose can turn an idea into something powerful.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was self-doubt. For years, even though I knew I had a powerful idea, I kept questioning myself, Is this good enough? Are people going to understand it? Who am I to create a board game? That mindset held me back more than any external obstacle ever could.
The backstory goes all the way back to when I first created the early version of Social MPact over 14 years ago. I knew the concept worked, I saw it with my own family, and I saw the need in every youth program I worked in. But instead of fully believing in my vision, I kept putting it off. I told myself I needed more time, more confidence, more validation, or for life to “slow down” before I could really move forward. Looking back, none of those things were actually stopping me. It was me doubting myself.
The turning point came when I realized that the only thing standing between this game and the people it could help was my own hesitation. I had to unlearn the belief that I needed permission or perfection to start. Once I let go of the self-doubt and trusted my experience, my purpose, and the impact I was already seeing, everything shifted. I went from thinking about the game to building it, testing it, improving it, and finally preparing to release it.
Unlearning self-doubt taught me that confidence grows with action, not before it—and that sometimes the biggest barrier to your dream is the voice inside you saying, “not yet.” I had to rewrite that voice to say, “Why not you? And why not now?”
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