Mid-South-area businesswoman Caroline Liggins’ Express CPR Memphis becoming a popular Bluff City establishment

DESTINY STEPS UNFOLDING 

At the time, Caroline Liggins was just 10 years old.

But not too young — according to her standards — to become empowered about the significance of networking and how such a trend can greatly give way to one adopting a business-oriented mindset.

“Having a mother who worked closely with the civil rights leaders and political figures, I was exposed to networking, prospecting, and making phone calls early on at age of 10,” Liggins told Making Headline News during a recent interview. “Not knowing that it all was a set up for my come up.”

Boy, did she “come up” in a rather masterful, resourceful way and, to her credit, she’s reaping the benefits of having thought it essential to think outside the box at such a young age.

Approximately 25 years removed from having initially gained an interest in learning the pros and cons of business, Liggins, 35, has managed to work her way up to a rising entrepreneur as owner and chief executive officer of Express CPR Memphis,  which is a CPR, AED (or Automated External Defibrillators), and First Aid training center that is governed by American Heart Association and is located at 2500 Mt. Moriah, Suite H221, in Southeast Memphis.

A licensed practical nurses (or LPN) for the past 13 years, Liggins’ business essentially is in its infancy stages, considering she has been an American Heart Association (or AHA) CPR instructor for a little more than three years.

Still, her immeasurable track record as a medical expert is such that her self-founded Express CPR Memphis establishment is starting to become a fixture in the Memphis metropolitan area.

“My personal mission is to create life savers just like me,” Liggins said. “I was inspired (to start my business) by the nurse inside of me.”

The former mayor of Memphis also played a vital role in Liggins having delved off into entrepreneurship.

According to Liggins, a 1999 Memphis Melrose High graduate, her passion for going into business was heighten years ago when she was hired to work a summer job under former Memphis mayor Dr. Willie Herenton’s Summer Youth Initiative Program, during which she was paid an hourly salary of $10.

Looking back, Liggins, described the summer job experience as a “blessing,” in large part because it greatly provided her with a newfound disposition about the job market and, most importantly, the ever-so-competitive entrepreneurship industry.

“I made $10 an hour to take a basic entrepreneur class,” Liggins recalled. “The seed had been sown at that point. I knew from then on I was destined to be a business owner.”

The rest, as they say, was history.

Thanks in large part to the golden opportunities and resources made available to her through Herenton’s youth summer job program, Liggins consequently is using the knowledge gained to help aid her mightily as a rising, fruitful businesswoman.

Aside from being an accomplished CPR instructor who oversees what is shaping up to be a credible business, Liggins is becoming engaged in the insurance industry, considering she’s currently an independent agent for Primerica, an insurance and financial services company that uses a hybrid model of direct selling, franchising and distribution.

As of 2016, Primerica — headquartered in Duluth, Georgia — was comprised of a reported 116,827 independent representatives and conducts business primarily in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, according to spokesperson for the company.

Having acquired her license in February, Liggins said amongst her notable goals are to help people gain financial independence through investment policies, mutual funds, stocks and bonds.

Talking about having a monumental impact as a thriving, progressive businesswoman, who doesn’t shy away from the notion that her best and brightest days are well ahead of her.

“Growing up in the subdivision, the belt line was a very tight niche, but very few made it out,” Liggins said. “I was blessed to be born into a family who pushed me and exposed me to things many adults haven’t experienced.”

At the time, she was just 10 years old.

But not too young — according to her standards — to become empowered about the significance of networking and how such a trend can greatly give way to one adopting a business-oriented mindset.

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Andre Johnson is the award-winning Founder and Publisher for Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former staff reporter of sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, Johnson covers the NBA Southwest Division from Dallas, Texas. To reach Johnson, send email to [email protected] or to [email protected]. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist or Instagram at @makingheadlinenews.