Our Legacy is Our Map

Legacy is the through-line of my life. It began long before I was old enough to name it. 

My grandmother, Evelyn G. Anderson, and my mother, Gayle Alexis Smith Lacy, co-founded Alexis Temporaries, Inc. in Washington, D.C. during the 1980s. They created opportunity where there was none, hired with integrity, and showed me that work can be both ministry and movement. ​I can still see myself as a child in those spaces of home-business work... sitting in innocent awe, surrounded by the quiet hum of purpose. I didn’t yet understand the depth of their intention, or the elegance hidden in the incorporation of a dream that carried my name. But I felt it. It was legacy in motion. God is amazing. ​That was my first model of business as calling: faith and family bound together through structure and strategy. 

And then there was my father, Carlton K. Thompson, whose entrepreneurial vision gave form and fire to that foundation. He was the first example I ever saw of "money in movement". ​He envisioned an international land, air, and sea charter company; and named it accordingly. He designed and ordered double-sided, folded business cards (with pictures!) and a full-color tri-fold brochure, which was a big deal for a solopreneur in the 1980s and 90s. And then he simply got to work. ​He built a network of service providers, managed his own fleet of vehicles, and when necessary, he put on the chauffeur’s cap himself: driving the hired limo, opening doors, greeting clients with dignity. He even collected autographs for his daughter as small reminders that every room he entered, he entered for us. ​He even returned to school, studied computer science, and earned certifications in multiple programming languages... years ahead of his time. Though he passed suddenly in 1994, when I was only 14, I have no doubt he would have continued to innovate in technology and business.

He bought me my first computer (a TANDY) ... with that blinking green cursor... and encouraged me to “play” with it until we could afford the rest of the components. I didn’t know then that he was teaching me systems thinking long before I had words for it. ​My father worked with his hands, his mind, and his gift for connecting people. He built a community of service that, in many ways, aligned with what I now call safe passage and protected travel—a living metaphor for both his business and his belief. He loved his parents, loved his three children, and believed deeply in the power of legacy. I miss him every day, but I see his imprint in everything I build.

Their courage seeded what has now become an entire ecosystem: 

• Anderson Thompson Foundation, beginning in March 2026, our family will extend that same heart into the Seeds to Your Strategy micro-grant initiative; helping others plant what’s been placed in their hands.

• Chef Rayven, LLC: my daughter Rayven’s creative expression through food, community, and faith.

• Evelyn’s Vanity: Self-care and wellness grounded in stewardship.

• Golden Aura: Herbal blends and restorative teas, cultivated by my daughter Alissa.

• Good Trouble Collaborators: a growing "family" of partners building together, not alone.

• Safe Space Strategies, LLC: The "legacy version" of the independent consultancy Alexis created and operated for since 2006)

• And more to come 
  

Every one of these branches is a page in our living Green Book. Each represents a stop along the road where legacy took root.