Authority Magazine - Vicki Mayo of The TouchPoint Solution: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line
Vicki Mayo of The TouchPoint Solution: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line
Start with your recruiting team. 80% of my recruiting team is diverse — representing various cultures, sexual and gender roles.
Widen your social circles. It’s likely that your social circle looks like you and acts like you. Branch out. Meet and mingle with others. Attend various cultural meetups and groups. Network not for you, but for the benefit of others. Meet with underserved and underrepresented community leaders, non-profit leaders and more.
Asa part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vicki Mayo, Entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer.
Vicki Mayo is a self-made serial entrepreneur and business powerhouse behind the TouchPoint Solution, inventor of a patent pending technology that alleviates stress in 30 seconds. A mental health advocate, Vicki founded TouchPoints to help children and adults regain focus, while reducing stress and anxiety to improve their lifestyle. As of 2020, Vicki has helped 12 Million people press and destress thanks to The TouchPoint Solution.
Successfully finding and selling her first company for profit at the tender age of 17, Vicki has continued to find success as a young entrepreneur and business leader. As a first generation American, Vicki has found her place as a trailblazing woman in the male dominated technology industry. In addition to The TouchPoint Solution, Mrs. Mayo is also the owner of GMI, a relentlessly focused IT Solutions company and Valor Global, a top minority owned contact center headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
Vicki specializes in Six-Sigma business process and creating true representation in the workplace. A thought leader in Diversity and Inclusion, Vicki has devoted her career and personal time to changing the status quo for minority and women leaders in both the profit and non-profit sectors.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
My father immigrated to India with $2 in his pocket. I was born a few years later and grew up witnessing him achieve the American Dream, from working for corporations to entrepreneurship. Inspired by his grit, I started my own successful reservation business at 14 that I later sold for profit at 17. After graduating from college, I went on to run my own hospitality management company before starting and operating the three companies that I own today — GMI, Valor Global and The TouchPoint Solution.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
When I started The TouchPoint Solution, we were touring a manufacturing facility. I showed up in heels with a room full of businessmen. They didn’t want to take me seriously at first. Until I showed them that I was there to talk business. Sometimes people won’t take you seriously or believe in you, but you have to always believe in yourself.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The TouchPoint Solution is in the business of changing lives. Yes, we relieve stress but we also help those with PTSD, Parkinson’s, ADHD and Autism. In 2017, we had this young man with autism. He had trouble focusing in school and taking part in life in general. After using TouchPoints, his entire life changed. In fact, his mother exclaimed that her son hadn’t looked into her eyes in over five years until using TouchPoints. His entire life changed and now, he is in college living a life he never dreamed of.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Right now, we are very focused on a healthy lifestyle. What we mean by that isn’t just physically, but a full, broad spectrum of health from mental to physical. We are continuing to create resources for our users through our app, content and other resources to enhance not only our product, but our overall user experience. We are also building upon our Personalized Stress Profiles (PSP). This is a free tool that can be built in just a few minutes online at ilovetouchpoint.com. The PSP’s help individuals better manage their stress and their stress response with a variety of tools to get a more personalized look at holistically increasing their health and wellness.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
At all my companies, we have a Dream Manager Program. This program was created to help employee dreams come true. And we’re not just talking about going to Disneyland. The Dream Manager helps career path dreams come true, purchase a new home, reunite with long lost siblings, open a non-profit and more. I believe that when we help and inspire those in our businesses that we therefore see our own businesses flourish and thrive alongside with them.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders about how to manage a large team?
Communicate. Don’t be afraid to jump in and take part in conversations with all levels of your staff. When is the last time you ran an orientation for new employees? Jump in, take part so you know what’s going and start the conversation.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Start with your recruiting team
80% of my recruiting team is diverse — representing various cultures, sexual and gender roles.
2. Widen your social circles
It’s likely that your social circle looks like you and acts like you. Branch out. Meet and mingle with others. Attend various cultural meetups and groups. Network not for you, but for the benefit of others. Meet with underserved and underrepresented community leaders, non-profit leaders and more.
3. Promote from Within
We promote 90% of our leadership internally. Each of these promotions come from our entry-level employees that we placed through our Leadership Academy and mentored into the fine leaders that they are today. If we promoted from an external pool, we likely wouldn’t be achieving the same levels of diversity within our organization.
4. Work with Diversity Suppliers
Diversity suppliers have a plethora of benefits for your organization outside of just expanding your diversity needs. Check that the supplier is ethnic represented and expand your knowledge, your reach and innovative needs.
5. Mentor in underserved communities
As noted, I am a huge advocate for youth-at-risk. Some of those youth have come to intern for me and later even become one of my employees.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
When I was in college, I learned of two boys that were abandoned by their family. At the tender age of 21, I became a mother to those two boys and an advocate for foster children. To this day, I spend my free time giving back to those in need, especially youth-at-risk. In addition to our corporate giving programs, I also am a true believer in continuing to serve communities in need. At TouchPoint, we give a scholarship program to give our product to those that need it but may not have the resources to obtain it.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?
“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” — Deepak Chopra.
This quote resonates with me two-fold. Not only as a life lesson to keep true to myself and who I am, but in my great respect for Deepak Chopra and his ability to be American while also staying true to his Indian roots. He is one of the most inspirational people I’ve met and personally engage in his meditations every single morning.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
Outside of my parents, my husband is a large inspiration. Not only are we partners by marriage and in parenting, but also my business partner. In fact, we purchased our first commercial building before a home! We have stood by each other, being our rocks through every single step of this wild and crazy entrepreneurial journey.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this :-)
Deepak Chopra, of course!
Thank you for joining us!
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