In this dynamic Verses in Service episode of No Boxes: Just Verses, we're joined by sisters-in-law, sorority sisters, and business partners, Felicia Mayo and Mica Mayo. Are you a leader trying to align personal values with wealth creation, navigate a major corporate pivot, or figure out how to fund the next generation of founders? Felicia and Mica's journey is a powerful testament to work-life integration, the strategic value of authenticity, and their mission to "lift as they climb" through their angel syndicate, Untapped Investing. Tune in for a double dose of Silicon Valley grit and purpose-driven leadership.

Mica Eades Mayo is an executive operations and finance leader with over two decades in the high-tech sector, including roles at ServiceNow, Juniper Networks, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems. After earning her MBA in Finance from Cornell, she focused on Go-To-Market functions, where she was instrumental in accelerating revenue and expanding contract value, notably driving ServiceNow's internal lead-to-cash digital transformation, which fueled its growth from $2B to $10B ARR. Currently, Mica is an industry luminary, investor, and CEO advisor for Aviso AI, and a multi-unit franchise owner for The NOW, while also serving as vice chair for the American Leadership Forum-Silicon Valley and board director for Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2). She is additionally a member of BLCK VC, a limited partner in female and BIPOC-founded VC funds, and founding Managing Partner of Untapped Investing, an initiative dedicated to closing funding and wealth gaps for people of color and women.

Felicia Mayo is a distinguished executive and human capital strategist with over two decades of experience at leading companies such as Block Inc., Nike, and Tesla. As the former Chief People Officer at Block, she was responsible for the Global People organization across brands like Square, CashApp, and Tidal, driving innovation through equity, inclusion, and leadership development. Her career is marked by a consistent focus on aligning business growth with people-centered strategies across diverse industries. Beyond her corporate achievements, Felicia is a passionate advocate for generational wealth, early career development, and inclusive leadership, co-founding Untapped Investing and the Executive Crew, and serving as Board Chair of Facing History & Ourselves Northern California Advisory Board. With her unique blend of Southern roots and Silicon Valley grit, Felicia offers authenticity, strategic insight, and a legacy-driven approach, fostering ecosystems rather than merely building careers.

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Key Takeaways:

• The Power of Purpose-Driven Wealth: Discover why Felicia and Mica founded Untapped Investing to tackle the startling statistic that Black CEO founders receive only 0.4% of venture funding, proving that you can do good and make money simultaneously.

• Work-Life Integration, Not Balance: Hear why Felicia Mayo rejects the elusive idea of "work-life balance" and instead focuses on "work-life integration," intentionally bringing her family along into her professional world.

• Strength Through Vulnerability: Learn how Mica Mayo navigated postpartum depression and a challenging corporate acquisition by finding strength through vulnerability, even commissioning an abstract art piece to reflect those deep emotions.

• The "Keep On Moving" Pivot: Find out how Felicia Mayo left a top corporate job for love in Silicon Valley and had to continuously "Keep On Moving" (Soul to Soul) through a series of pivots that ultimately led her to iconic companies.

• Family as a Strategic Network: Understand the power of their sorority sisterhood and the matchmaking efforts that made them sisters-in-law, showing that your personal network is your greatest asset for both family and business ventures.

Felicia and Mica’s journey is a powerful reminder that your purpose must be at the center of your professional life. How will you strategically open your aperture to ownership and access for your community?

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CONNECT WITH GUESTS:

Felicia Mayo LinkedIn

Mica Mayo LinkedIn

Untapped Investing

The NOW Boutique

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CONNECT WITH SHANNON:

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LinkedIn Shannon | LinkedIn NBJV

Theme Song: Pedal to the Medal by Martin Luther (Spotify | Apple Music) 

The COO’s Guide to Turning Pain into Purpose

Have you ever hit a rough patch in life—maybe a tough breakup or a health scare—and felt like your professional success was about to fall apart? It’s easy to think that successful leaders have it all figured out, but the truth is, everyone struggles. What if your greatest professional success came from facing your biggest personal challenge head-on? The key is learning how to stop masking your struggles and start using that negative energy to fuel your purpose.

In an interview on the No Boxes: Just Verses podcast, executive leaders Felicia Mayo and Mica Mayo shared their powerful blueprint for achieving work-life integration, finding strength through vulnerability, and building generational wealth. This article is for you if you're ready to look at your personal struggles honestly, stop chasing a false sense of "balance," and use your entire life story to propel your career forward.

Are you ready to stop surviving and start thriving? This content is for any leader who has ever struggled to balance work and family and wants to build a legacy that matters. You don't need a perfect background. You just need a strong desire to find a tribe that supports you and the courage to look at the man in the mirror and accept yourself in totality.

Step 1: Reject "Balance" and Embrace Work-Life Integration

It’s a common mistake to chase the elusive dream of "work-life balance," which often leaves you feeling like a failure. Felicia Mayo, a former Chief People Officer, quickly realized that balance is not attainable and that trying to achieve it sets you up for failure. Instead, successful modern leaders practice work-life integration, which means deliberately bringing your personal world into your professional world. Felicia often brought her young kids along into her corporate environment so they could better understand what "mommy does," integrating her roles instead of separating them.

Conclusion:

Stop setting yourself up for failure by chasing "balance" and start finding strategic ways to integrate your work and personal life.

• Do not feel guilty when you can't achieve an elusive balance; it is not attainable.

• Practice work-life integration by intentionally sharing your roles with your family.

• Understand that you are the one person who controls your focus and energy.

• Remember that your goal is a strong end product (your family and legacy), not perfect daily balance.

Step 2: Use Negative Energy to Propel Your Career Forward

When facing personal pain, like a difficult marriage or feeling like a "failure" as a new parent, the biggest mistake is letting that negative energy send you into hiding. Felicia’s experience proves that you can deliberately channel that negative energy for good. During a period of intense personal struggle, she took the energy she thought was leading to her "break" and poured it into her professional career. She received some of her fastest promotions during that chaotic period, proving that she could take a negative situation and use it to propel her career forward.

Conclusion:

Leaders must learn to channel their negative energy into productive professional action and forward momentum.

• Use negative energy—the feeling of "failing"—as fuel to propel your career.

• Understand that your professional work can serve as a positive outlet during personal turmoil.

• Learn to survive by focusing on what you can control: your professional output.

• Remember that you must look at yourself in totality—the professional you and the personal you—to lead effectively.

Step 3: Find Strength by Embracing Vulnerability

Hard-charging leaders often believe they must be superwomen, hiding their struggles from their teams and network. Mica Mayo’s story proves that vulnerability is actually a source of strength. During a time of postpartum depression, career uncertainty, and single motherhood, she realized the only way to find resilience was to dig deep and embrace vulnerability. She even commissioned an abstract art piece representing "fear and vulnerability," reminding herself that facing those emotions is how you discover who you really are.

Conclusion:

Vulnerability is a profound source of inner strength that enables you to discover your true resilience.

• Do not hide your internal struggles; vulnerability is strength.

• Use personal crisis as a time to dig deep and find out who you really are.

• Remember that facing fear and vulnerability head-on is the path to strength.

• Leaders must be willing to show their full self to their teams to build connection.

Step 4: Invest Your Life and Wealth in Generational Purpose

The final step is transforming personal success into lasting legacy. Felicia and Mica decided their career was not just about accumulating a W2 or a title; it was about Exodus—leading their community into ownership. They founded Untapped Investing to strategically address the stark statistic that Black founders receive only 0.4% of venture funding. They are focused on legacy building and proving that they can do good and make money simultaneously by investing their wealth, networks, and time into their community.

Conclusion:

True success is measured by the legacy you build and your commitment to lifting your community into ownership.

• Shift your focus from accumulating a personal paycheck to building generational wealth and legacy.

• Believe that you can do good and make money simultaneously; purpose and profit are not separate goals.

• Look for ways to open access and invest into your own community of founders and leaders.

• Remember that your legacy is measured by what you gift and leave behind.

Conclusion

You’ve learned that the path to executive leadership and lasting impact is built on unwavering self-reflection and purpose-driven action. Felicia and Mica’s combined stories prove that your biggest setbacks can forge the very strength you need to propel your career. The big idea is that by looking at your struggles through the "Man in the Mirror" and choosing to "Keep On Moving," you transform pain into a powerful, profitable purpose.

Now it’s time to integrate these ideas into your life:

Final Steps to Take:

• Affirm your authenticity: Look at the "man in the mirror" and define what parts of yourself you are ready to own fully.

• Fuel your purpose: What negative energy or personal pain can you deliberately channel into positive professional action this week?

• Practice delegation: What is one task you can let go of this week to free up your mental capacity and trust your team?

• Invest in legacy: What small, strategic action can you take today to support your community’s ownership and access?