Mentorship that matters: how BPeace shaped my leadership at Pixo

I’m sure your inbox is like mine: 

Endless emails of people claiming to want me on their podcast, telling me they can get my book (that doesn’t exist) published, webinar invite after webinar invite, promises to sell me that magic customer target list to bring business in … and occasionally, something in all that noise calls out to me.

That’s what happened in August of 2024 when I encountered an email from the NGLCC (National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce) announcing a program outside their auspices. What caught my eye wasn’t a buzzword; it was the number—one. The possibility of one-on-one mentorship.

It was enough to get me to an information session, and there I got the sense that this program was different—and maybe just what I needed: BPeace promised one-on-one mentorship, six months of intense learning through online coursework, peer discussion, and presentations by “skillanthropists” (accomplished business leaders who donate their time to helping others succeed).

• Getting to know a small group and learning together? ✅ That sounds like me, especially the “small” part.
• An intense schedule with homework and required meetings? ✅ Yep, also me. Always willing to pile more work on!
• Create a business pitch and receive judges’ feedback? ✅ That terrifies me, so, of course, facing my fear seemed like a good idea at the time.
• Being matched with a mentor for one-on-one sessions and individual advice? ✅ That was the most enticing.

After a rigorous application process, I was among eight business owners selected from hundreds of applicants to participate in the Bpeace Supplier Diversity Maximizer program sponsored by PwC.

I won’t go into all the details of the six-month process, but will share a few highlights and takeaways.

(Spoiler alert: I did not win the final pitch competition. That honor goes to the incredible Dr. Carol Parker Walsh.)

For me, creating the pitch was much more about the journey than the destination. We’ve recorded it here with some professional videography work by our friend David Needham. David did his best to help me look and feel natural, and although I had misgivings about being in front of the camera, I’m proud of the content.

And the content represents six months of work with my mentor, Yvette Franco. The chance to have one-on-one mentorship through this program was definitely the biggest draw for me. And even with all my high expectations and hopes for what that relationship would be like, Yvette far exceeded anything I could have imagined.

A retired marketing executive from companies such as the McDonald’s Corporation and Mary Kay Cosmetics, Yvette cheered me, supported me, and challenged me through a process of defining my vision for Pixo and articulating why I lead this company, what is special about it, and ultimately why a client who might resonate with those points should choose Pixo.

It was downright magical to have Yvette’s help in excavating the ideas and sentiments at my core—the less obvious things that drive and fuel me, and that I share with my fellow Pixonauts. 

And as a former journalist who would prefer to do anything but toot her own horn and was trained to share others’ ideas, not her own, I sorely needed Yvette’s marketing brain and sensibilities to lead me through that process of deconstructing and rebuilding with words that feel authentic and inspiring to me.

Here are some of the most important outcomes of my BPeace experience, which you’ll hear echoes of in the video if you watch it:

My mission for Pixo:

“We believe you should expect more from your tech, so we thoughtfully design and build custom software that offers a digital experience that is easily accessible, useful, and usable for every human — You, Your Team, and Your Customers.”

To unpack this a bit:

• “Thoughtfully designed” means to me that we match how people think and work, we strive to understand their context (work environment, etc.), we reduce friction/improve ease of use, our designs create comfort and confidence for users, and we model the importance of equity in our research and design.
• Behind the phrase “custom software” is our practice of creating tools tailored to our clients, their industries, and their end users (internal, external, or both). Our clients own what we produce; they don’t pay us licensing or subscription fees. We use highly professional engineering practices to build for value, longevity, maintainability, and extensibility. Software is expensive, so we make it to last and to be malleable enough so we can adapt it as organizations change and grow (new workflows, new products, etc.).
• “Usable for everyone” is an idea that we’re always thinking about at Pixo. You’re most likely to hear us talk about this concept related to accessibility, which means meeting or exceeding the WCAG guidelines to ensure digital products work with assistive technologies and support people who are blind, deaf, have limited mobility, or have cognitive impairments. But usability goes further—it means accounting for clarity of language (within an industry or across cultures), making it easy for users to find what they need, providing multilingual support, and following established patterns that promote comfortable use.
• And finally, I want to make “useful” software. That may seem like a low bar— but is it? How many of our digital tools that we rely on every day really aren’t that useful, or aren’t useful enough? One of the things I love about my fellow Pixonauts is that we all want to make things people will delight in using and that will improve their everyday lives. We want to save people time. We want to minimize frustration. We don’t want people to feel helpless or confused. As I said in the video, we want the people who use what we make to be able to “get shit done.”

And, of course, there was so much more. The BPeace team—who captured a different facet of my reflections in this blog post—noted how my participation improved my confidence and clarity as the leader of Pixo.

I’m so thankful to have had this opportunity. BPeace is a truly special organization, powered by amazing “skillanthropists” who volunteer their time and share the wisdom they’ve gained from long and distinguished careers. I feel forever changed by this experience and the people I met.

And those changes are manifesting across Pixo, too—bringing clarity, alignment, and boldness to how we communicate about our company, purpose, and values.