RISING ICON #90: Tru Pettigrew
photo credit: Tameka Pettigrew
What name do you prefer to be called?
Tru
What are your pronouns?
My pronouns are He/Him
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Baltimore, MD. I’ve also lived in Atlanta, New York, DC, LA, Boston, and Minneapolis
What city are you currently based in?
I currently live Cary, NC (just outside of Raleigh)
How do you typically introduce yourself to new people?
Hello, How are you? My name is Tru. What about you? What’s your name? It’s nice to met you “new person” (I don’t actually say “new person”, but you know what I mean…)
What’s one thing you wish more people knew about you?
How funny I am…I’m really a comedic genius on the low. Lol
Who do you help?
I help anyone that I am in position to help, based on how I have been called to serve. I serve individuals, corporations, government agencies, foundations, and everyone in between. My purpose is to serve others by helping them to build bridges across the areas of division that challenge them most. Those divisions could be racial divides, gender divides, generational divides, political divides, or relational divides of any kind.
What are you building now?
Right now, I am building systems, properties, and resources that will help educate, inspire, and empower people and the organizations they work with, to understand how to be better Bridge Builders. I just finished my new book, “We Can All Be Bridge Builders”; and I have a Signature Talk, a Workshop, and an Online Course that all help to serve as a leadership guide to Building Bridges of trust, empathy, and understanding for any organization team, or community.
What were you building ten years ago today?
Ten years ago I was helping to Build Bridges of Trust & Legitimacy between Law Enforcement and the Black Community. It was 2014, and Michael Brown had just been shot and killed in Ferguson, MO. And America was experiencing a lot of the same racial unrest we experienced in 2020 after the Murder of George Floyd.
What do you predict of yourself 10 years from now?
Ten years from now, my vision for myself is to be the absolute best, husband, father, and leader I can possibly be. I want to continue to be living on purpose, reaching my full God-given potential in every dimension of my life, and serving as the world’s most valued and trusted resource when it comes to helping people build bridges of connectivity across the areas of division that challenge them most.
What’s a fact or statistic you wish everyone knew about your industry?
A fact that I wish everyone knew about the work that I do, is that we can all be Bridge Builders. Building Bridges across differences doesn’t require you to be rich, or have a certain degree, or be of any specific race, age, gender, or religion. We can all be Bridge Builders.
Why do you believe the work you do matters?
I believe the work that I do matters, because, we live in a nation and a world that appears to be plagued by the ills of division in every facet of our society. We see it in our schools, our jobs, our churches, our hospitals, our homes… everywhere. And when we can build bridges of empathy and understanding across whatever pain of division we are experiencing, it fosters healthier levels of engagement, improved levels of performance, higher morale, increased productivity, greater profitability for our companies, and overall better holistic well-being for us all.
Who is your mentor and what is the best advice they’ve given you?
I am fortunate in that I have had quite a few mentors over the years. And the absolute best advice I have ever received from one of my mentors was in the form of a question. And that questions was… "do you want to be right, or do you want to be married?” Lol. And just so you know, I have been married for 22 years now! That question/lesson taught me that being right is overrated. The focus should be on the desired outcome for the grater good of everyone involved. I have since, applied that approach to everything that I do. My remix advice that I now share with others is don’t seek to impress, seek to impact.
What piece of content about you or your company are you most proud of?
Right now, the piece of content about my company that I am most proud of is my new book, “We Can All Be Bridge Builders”. I believe I am most proud of that, because I get to brag about so many of the amazing people that have helped contribute to the insights, tools, and lessons that I’ve learned and shared over the years throughout the course of my own Bridge Building journey.
What publication do you hope to appear in next?
I haven’t really thought about what publication I’d like to appear in next, but Forbes, Fortune, Essence, Black Enterprise, New York Times, and HBR come to mind.
Who would you love to be interviewed by (podcast host, journalist, thought leader, political figure, television host)?
A list of people that I’d love to be interviewed by would include Oprah, Barack Obama, Stacy Abrams, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Hudson, Simon Sinek, Trevor Noah, and Malcolm Gladwell. They are some of the first ones that come to mind.
If you had to give a TEDTalk tomorrow, what would the title be?
If I gave a TED Talk tomorrow, the title would probably be the same as the TEDx Talk that I gave for TEDx Minneapolis, which is the same title as my newest book; We Can All Be Bridge Builders.
What award would mean the most to win?
I haven’t put much thought into what award would mean the most for me to win, but thinking about it now, maybe the Nobel Peace Prize. Or the more I think about it, maybe even an award that hasn’t been issued in a few years that I would like to revive. That award would be The Austin Lewis Award. That’s an award that I created and issued in the Triangle area of North Carolina for a few years, to recognize someone that did exemplary work in the area of Building Bridges in, or for, their respective team, institution, organization, or community. It was named after my son, Austin Lewis (Pettigrew), because he was my source of inspiration to get started on my own Bridge Building journey.
What makes zero sense to you?
Hating people or a people group based on race, sex, religion, or any other form of their identity. That will never make any sense to me.
What’s a word in your industry you hope gets re-evaluated?
I hope that the words Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are evaluated based on the true definitions of those words and that entire institutions stop believing that any of those words, based on their definitions, are harmful or a bad thing to employ.
What game are you changing?
It is my desire that when it’s all said and done, that I would have greatly impacted and contributed to the way that people approach leadership. My definition of leadership is the process of influencing people by providing them with purpose, vision, and direction to accomplish the greater good of the entire team. I am very intentional about ensuring that organizations and communities understand that there is a clear distinction between leadership and management. And that being a good people leader requires a level of empathy and understanding that benefits all the people for which you have a responsibility. And that leadership is more of a role of responsibility than a position of authority.
What’s the next thing you’re a part of that you want to invite more people to participate in?
I am focusing on spreading the message around my new book right now, with the hopes that the lessons shared in the book will help everyone who reads it to become much better leaders and better Bridge Builders. So I invite more people to participate in the purchasing of the book. :-)
Where can we follow you online?
You can follow me online at the following website and social handles…
Website - https://tru-access.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/truaccess/
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/tru-pettigrew-100aa62
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tru.pettigrew/
Book Link - https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?IP8OVN7CbZDiS3F4cmslrjoNE3eYmND0C2EomNQeRik
What’s one thing that makes every leader better?
I believe the one thing hat makes every leader better is clarity of purpose. Having clarity of purpose as to why you are doing what you are doing, and why you are making the decisions you are making. And being able to clearly articulate and provide that same level of clarity to and for your team.
Please provide your professional name, company and title here:
Tru Pettigrew, Founder & Chief Bridge Builder, Tru Access
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We’re grateful to each Rising ICON for their transformative work. Thank you, Tru, for sharing your story!
LAUREL is a media relations partner for bold leadership. For nearly a decade, we’ve helped leaders build effective strategies for scale and growth specializing in key opinion leadership and go-to-market strategy for emerging brands. To follow along with the RISING ICONS series, nominate a leader or subscribe to our weekly email newsletter. To accelerate your own rise, get our free guide to elevating your leadership profile, FIT(lite). RISING ICONS is made possible by grant funding from Knight Foundation.
“My definition of leadership is the process of influencing people by providing them with purpose, vision, and direction to accomplish the greater good of the entire team.”
Notice: It’s important for our readers to understand the origin of the interview content. The featured ICON contributed responses that were not edited from the original submission. All claims are made solely by the contributor and do not reflect the views of LAUREL or its partners. Thank you for supporting innovation leaders. We’re convinced, the future is bold.
