Episode 98 – Unstoppable Social Impact Strategist with Prisma Garcia

Prisma grew up in Dallas Texas as a first-generation American not really knowing much about the U.S. much less the rest of the world outside Dallas. As you will hear she went to college in Indiana at Notre Dame for no more significant reason than she saw the movie Rudy and then applied. Her parents let her go off to Indiana since as Catholics they felt that Prisma could go there and grow. Grow she did. She received her Master’s degree in Science and Entrepreneurship in 2010.
 
Since graduating Prisma has worked in marketing jobs analyzing company’s data looking to learn how to market to them. After two years she left her position to move into more social oriented opportunities she will tell us about.
 
Prisma makes it quite clear that she is a social kind of person and very people-oriented.
 
During our conversation we talk about a variety of issues including discussing Trust, what it is and how we can better learn to be open to be trustful.
 
I hope you enjoy my time with Prisma. I believe you will find her fascinating and engaging.
 
 
About the Guest:
Prisma Y. Garcia joined MoneyGram International in August 2021 as part of the Social Impact team. She was the Director of Capacity Building at Social Venture Partners Dallas from July 2017 to July 2021.

Prisma worked at The Concilio, a Dallas nonprofit, as a Program Director. She also previously worked as a Fundraising Consultant with Changing Our World, Inc. based in New York, NY.

She received her Master of Science in Entrepreneurship as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Science-Business with a minor in Latino Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Most recently, she completed a Certificate in Social Impact Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Prisma is a board member for Refugee Services of Texas, Community Does It, and other community organizations. She loves traveling and spending time outdoors with her dogs. She resides in Pleasant Grove (Dallas, TX), where she was born and raised.
 
How to connect with Prisma:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/prismagarcia/
https://www.prismagarcia.com/
https://communitydoesit.org/
 
 
About the Host:
Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.
 
Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.
 
https://michaelhingson.com
https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/
https://twitter.com/mhingson
https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/
 
accessiBe Links
https://accessibe.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe
https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/
 
 
 
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Transcription Notes

Michael Hingson  00:00
Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I’m Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that’s a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we’re happy to meet you and to have you here with us.
 
Michael Hingson  01:21
Well, and a gracious Hello, wherever you happen to be today. I’m Mike Hingson. And yes, you are listening to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. I love the unexpected part, I get to meet all sorts of people. And sometimes we even get to talk about diversity and inclusion and such things. And today, we get to do some of that, among other things, we get to speak with Prisma Garcia, who is a social impact strategist at money, gram Prisma has been involved in a variety of different kinds of diversity things. She has worked with a number of social venture and nonprofit firms. She’s done a variety of things that I think will be very relevant for us to talk about. And I’m really looking forward to learning more about what Prisma has to say. So we’ll get to it. Prisma Welcome to unstoppable mindset. How are you?
 
Prisma Garcia  02:19
Yes, I’m happy to be here. Michael, thank you for having me. I you know, everything you mentioned, as far as the work, you know, people ask me what social impact? What does that all mean? And you know, really, I’ve worked mostly with nonprofits, some social enterprises and done some consulting work. But I’ll stop there, because I know you’re gonna ask me some questions. And you can just let me dive in once we get there.
 
Michael Hingson  02:48
Oh, sure, we’ll do that. Well, let’s start with tell us a little bit more about you growing up and what you did and how you got into sort of the field that you’re in from school, and so on? What, what made all that happen? So tell us just a little bit about young Prisma.
 
Prisma Garcia  03:06
Young Prisma? Well, you know, it’s interesting, because I, you know, I don’t know if this is really a career that at the time was taught in school, or people said, Hey, this is a potential career, right. And so, I think that’s what I find most unique. And I, you know, I grew up in Dallas, Texas, I am, you know, first generation American first generation college student, I’ve, you know, essentially, you know, had the whole American dream, right, my parents came to this country, you know, probably, you know, in the 80s or so, and then, you know, I was born here in Dallas, Texas, and spent most of my life in Dallas, Texas, in a neighborhood called Pleasant Grove. And really, like, even though it has a very nice name, Pleasant Grove, really, it really shaped me because it was, you know, it’s a primarily Latino community, African Americans as well. And, and really, you know, I lived in my bubble, growing up, and, you know, my parents were hard workers, and that was the, the ethic, right, we work hard to try to get to where we want to be. And so, when I think back, and you mentioned, what was young Prisma I think young Prisma was, you know, very similar to now in some ways, but, you know, just wanting to help people and give back and so, I was wanting to be a doctor, I thought maybe that was the only way and I went away to school, I went to Notre Dame, which, you know, it was very uncommon for a person like me, you know, that looked like me that had parents like me to, to go to a school with such prestige. And so, you know, coming back home, I started to realize had even been there, right? It was a culture shock. And so, you know, I think a lot of the career and the drive comes from that. It comes from, you know, having challenges along the way. And then also finding spaces that sometimes you feel like you don’t belong. And so, you know, young Prisma is definitely still here. And, you know, I moved back to the community where I grew up. And so that’s sort of the backstory, you know, we know, I work at MoneyGram, I do a lot of social impact work there. But a lot of what has driven me to have positions like this is because of my background,
 
Michael Hingson  05:34
what prompted you to choose Notre Dame to go to,
 
Prisma Garcia  05:37
you know, I mentioned I was a first generation college student, I, I didn’t actually know anything about the college admissions process. And when I was in middle school, I saw the movie Rudy is not anything in particular that I was like, looking for at the time. And I said, you know, I’m gonna check that out, because I was like, one of the only exposures to college and so I just so happened to, to read about it. And I grew up Catholic, and I’m still Catholic, and it’s a Catholic institution. So I, I thought, what a great place I’m gonna apply there. And so really, if I didn’t know much about it, love the place now. But you know, that’s how I ended up in Indiana.
 
Michael Hingson  06:17
So is this the time to tell you that my wife got her master’s degree at USC, and we intend to make sure that Notre Dame achieves its rightful second place at the football game in November?
 
Prisma Garcia  06:30
Well, you know, Michael, we didn’t we didn’t kick off saying that before this interview. But, you know, I’ve heard a lot of good things about USC, obviously, when we’re on a football field, I always cheer for Notre Dame.
 
Michael Hingson  06:43
It’s a fun rivalry. And that’s what’s really neat about college football, although the more and more money’s getting into it, but the college rivalries that are real rivalries, where people take them seriously as rivalries, and deal with football as a fun sport in college are, are always good. So it’ll be a good game. as they as they all are this year, USC is doing pretty well for a change.
 
Prisma Garcia  07:09
So we’ll see. We had a rocky start, Mike,
 
Michael Hingson  07:11
you did. You did. And you’re doing you’re doing better. But the tough teams, to some degree are coming. So we’ll see. We’ll see. Yeah, but you. But you knew it was a Catholic college when you went there, I assume?
 
Prisma Garcia  07:24
Yes, I did. I you know, I think that was actually when I think about it. People were like, how do you go from not knowing college to like, your parents, I had never even flown on the plane. And they let me go to Indiana. And I said, You know what, it was a counseling college. And they were like, okay, that they felt like they belonged in some way.
 
Michael Hingson  07:45
So they, I guess, you would say are risk takers, they they let you take risks, they let you do things that might be daunting in some way? did? Did you have more of those kinds of experiences growing up? Did they let you and I don’t mean it in a negative way. But take risks? Did they let you stretch the envelope?
 
Prisma Garcia  08:06
You know, I think so in some ways, you know, obviously, they were, in some ways, you will always have that Catholic guilt. And we have the, you know, very, in some ways due to the environment, the neighborhood and some of the issues, you know, they had to be strict right. But I will say that in terms of risk taking, I have found, you know, and even growing up that, you know, some things can be scary and that and then usually that’s why I want to do them.
 
Michael Hingson  08:36
Well, I guess risk taking in risk taking in the sense. Did they allow you to be adventurous? Did they allow you to explore and I can appreciate strict, my parents, I think were strict in a lot of ways, but at the same time, and I use the term very deliberately, they were risk takers. They told the doctors when I was born, and they were told no blind child could ever grow up to amount to anything. So you should just put him in a home and they said, No, we’re going to let him grow up. And we’re going to teach him that he can do whatever he wants. And they left me for five years, well, not five, because we were five when we moved, but for the time, I was able to walk, walk around the streets of Chicago in our neighborhood and then ride a bike out here in California and other things. So they allowed me to explore and develop while keeping an eye on what I was doing. Needless to say, so probably risk taking is is accurate, but they allow me to explore and I’m gathering they must have allowed you to do something of that because you develop that spirit.
 
Prisma Garcia  09:43
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I always remember there were things that they were not 100% comfortable, right? Like they knew that they would, you know, like take letting me go on certain school trips, letting me you know, We’ll visit Notre Dame, when I was a senior, I mean, things that were sort of outside the box of work traditional cultural values, you know, especially being a girl. I mean, I hate to put it in that way, but I mean, it’s, it’s just, you know, as a Latino family, you know, that there’s that protection, and we want we’re very collective. And I think in some ways, it was like, well, you also have to be an individual, and you have to find these things, you know, and explore, explore things that are sort of out of our comfort zone to, to be able to do great things,
 
Michael Hingson  10:38
but they they let you do that, had they gone to college? No, you
 
Prisma Garcia  10:42
know, they didn’t, they didn’t go to college. You know, my parents probably have a, I would say, probably like, elementary school education. My, my dad, he’s, he was in this country a lot longer than my mom, actually, when he was like, 15, he was already working, and you know, working a job here in in California, and then Texas. And so, you know, the idea of college was very, you know, very, almost distant, my older sister hadn’t gone to college right away. And, you know, it’s, yeah, so it was definitely risky. But I think that they saw the value in it, you know, to be able to do that, especially not understanding, you know, what, what I had to do, right. And, and even, I would say, even in high school, you know, my parents couldn’t help me with some of my math with, with with English, you know, a lot of the things that they were trying to learn themselves, right. And so, I, you know, I think a lot of it was, was realizing like, they also took a big risk, right, coming to a different country is a huge risk,
 
Michael Hingson  11:52
of course, but again, they had a dream, and they wanted to fulfill it. And I hope they did what, what kind of work did your parents do?
 
Prisma Garcia  12:00
Yeah, so my, you know, what, I was blessed to have a mom that stayed home. Um, she was a homemaker. And I, I think growing up, I always felt privileged in that way, because a lot of the students, they, you know, we were working class or maybe even below that. And so, you know, some of their parents of my friend’s parents had to work, you know, a couple jobs. And you know, my mom always got to stay home with me, my dad, he, he was working at a lumber company for about 20 years, and then transitioned into owning his own construction company. And so really, you know, he was, he’s been so focused on on the next thing, so sometimes I’m like, Oh, my parents didn’t go to college, but they have goals, even if they don’t call it them.
 
Michael Hingson  12:48
Well, and that’s fair, the, the reality is not everybody goes to college, and it is always still about what you are inside, whether you go to college or not. And obviously, your your parents had dreams and goals. And they found ways to achieve them, which is as good as it can possibly be. They supported you and your siblings, which is, which is also good. Has your older sister gone to college now?
 
Prisma Garcia  13:17
Yes. You know, what she, she was actually a great inspiration. You know, she, she says that I was an inspiration because she went to Notre Dame, and she said, Oh, my gosh, all these young people have, you know, are have goals, and they’re at school. She had, she was a teen mom, essentially. You know, and a lot of people in my neighborhood were, and continue to be and, you know, she went back to school, and she became an attorney. And so now we have an attorney in the family as well. And so, you know, I think everyone sort of has their own journey, and is what I’m finding in life. And, you know, there’s sometimes there’s no right or wrong, but you’re right, not everybody goes to college, and maybe they do, they don’t, and then they go back.
 
Michael Hingson  14:01
And we’ve been seeing even on the news, more and more instances of significantly older people. I think there was a recently a report about a woman she was in her 60s or 70s, he was a grandmother or even a great grandmother. And she went back and got her doctorate, I think. But people do that. So if they choose to do that, then great because they’re, they’re satisfying their own ambitions and, and proving something to themselves as much as anything else. We can call it an inspiration to us, but really, it’s internal more than anything else, and they’re inspiring themselves. And that’s what really makes it makes it a good thing. When you said you wanted to be a doctor.
 
Prisma Garcia  14:47
Yeah, you know, I didn’t growing up. I didn’t know very many careers. That was the other thing. I I said, Oh, you know, you go to the doctor, you know, and I felt lucky because not a lot of people in my neighborhood even did that and And, you know, I thought, well, doctors seem to be, you know, they’re always helping people. Right. And so they’re helping them feel better. And that was sort of a common theme. And I, I agree that sometimes it’s not so much about, you know, proving things to other people, it’s about being fulfilled for yourself.
 
Michael Hingson  15:20
So when you went to Notre Dame, what did you major in?
 
Prisma Garcia  15:24
You know, what I came in, I was I stuck to it, I was a science major, I was a science, it was a very unique major called Science business. So I actually took some of the introductory coursework in business, and then took a lot of science, so like, a lot of biology. And, you know, I think I was very, I don’t know if it was determined or stubborn. And I said, you know, a lot of people change their major, and I was just like, Well, I’m gonna finish this major. And, you know, I would say, I probably would have done better another, you know, social science or something else, or even just business. But, you know, I think it was the, you know, starting something, I want to finish it. And so I did finish that I stayed at Notre Dame for a master’s and, you know, really was more focused on the business side of things. And, you know, I think I got further and further away from the doctor. But I found other other dreams.
 
Michael Hingson  16:22
Yeah, I hate to use the pun, but you were like me, you wanted to be a doctor and didn’t have any patients. Right. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, so you got your master’s degree? And then what did you do?
 
Prisma Garcia  16:37
So I got my master’s degree. And, you know, it was at the height of the recession, in some ways, like, I graduated college in 2009. And then can’t, you know, was like, you know, there are not any, hardly any jobs out there, right. And so, I really jumped to a master’s because I said, you know, what I’m gonna do, I wasn’t getting too many interviews. And that was a tough experience. Because when you’re, you know, a student in high school, I was sort of the big fish. When I went to Notre Dame, you know, it’s a very prestigious and rigorous academically. And so, you know, I don’t think I was used to rejection rejection, but when I was in the job market, I just wasn’t seeing it. And a lot of times, you’d have students who had jobs before they graduated college. And so I was like, if I’m not getting a job, or, you know, I was always sort of curious of like, well, I’m not sure why I’m a science major anymore. So I thought I’m gonna get a masters. And so I explored careers in public health, and then decided to go with more master’s level business, since I had already taken some of those introductory courses. And so I stayed at Notre Dame for a very intense year, and, you know, intense cold to Michael, I know, you know, what that’s like, over there. Yeah.
 
Michael Hingson  17:59
Oh, yes. So, you, when did you get your Masters?
 
Prisma Garcia  18:04
So I got it right after I’m technically a double dome, or as we call them, and I have a master’s and it was 2010 Whenever I graduated, and it’s a Masters of Science and entrepreneurship, which, at the time, I was like entrepreneurship, like, I feel like you have to go build a business, right. But I think, now I’ve taken a lot of what I’ve learned, and sort of that mindset, and applied it to other things. Well, what is mindset, Mike?
 
Michael Hingson  18:34
Oh, there you go. What, what does entrepreneurship mean to you,
 
Prisma Garcia  18:39
you know, for having the background and in terms of like, these courses, having read a lot of case studies and things like that, I can only tell you, now that I’ve had years of experience, that really, to me, it’s more of this mindset of like, you know, we you know, we live in a world where there are things that exist, and I think that we are in a can be more innovative in some areas, right. And that can apply to diversity, equity, inclusion, business, and, and so many areas of work and including nonprofits. And so I think it’s more of that innovation, having that critical thinking mindset to apply new solutions to problems.
 
Michael Hingson  19:23
But you got your masters in 2010. And by that time, we had started to, I think, really come out of a lot of the recession. So what did you do? What?
 
Prisma Garcia  19:35
So I got out and I said, you know, I thought for a little bit there, I thought that I was going to follow my friends and move to Chicago and do all of that. But you know, I think once the winter came, I was like, you know, I’m from Texas, maybe I’ll go back home. So I made my way back home. I started working in a marketing company, it was marketing analytics. I think when I looking at my resume from the time I had done a lot of service learning, I had spent time on the border, I had done research, I it seemed like it was not very related to my master’s. And almost then my Bachelor’s was in science. So, you know, I got this job. And I can tell you, it was, it was maybe not what I want to do for the rest of my life. Right. But it was, I did have a great manager. And so that was a big plus. And so we did like, you know, all that tracking, call tracking analytics things that were I think up and coming in that age. And I mean, now everybody does it. Right. And so, I spend a little bit of time there.
 
Michael Hingson  20:45
So when you were there, what is it basically you did? You You got information about companies? Or? Or what did you do? Exactly.
 
Prisma Garcia  20:53
So I actually would, you know, would work on these innovative products that I actually wasn’t so sure about, you know, I had actually had a program where we would identify new business through phone calls. And so, you know, a lot of these products were getting built right in house. And then, you know, I would look at a lot of data, you know, I think whenever people see a science degree, they even if it’s in science, or you know, biology, or, you know, it could be it could be any of the other STEM degrees, they think, oh, this person must, must be analytical. So, I was doing a lot of a lot of the backend things. You know, I worked in a lot of databases, I mean, very different work from from what I do now.
 
Michael Hingson  21:43
But what kind of things did you do for companies? So, what was the benefit of your work, I guess, is the best way to put it.
 
Prisma Garcia  21:49
Yeah, the benefit of the work is was, I mean, looking at marketing analytics, for example, we had call tracking numbers placed on advertisements, you know, you see numbers on billboards, you see numbers on websites, and you don’t always know like, what the return on what’s the ROI, right. And so, you know, if there’s a number on a billboard of any deed, number one 800, you know, eat pizza, I don’t know, I’m making this up. But the, it could be anything, we could identify how many people call them number, we could identify where they were calling from, we could identify, you know, just different things that were sold from that number. And so it was very interesting. I even got to be the voice of state farm for a little bit there. When you call one 800. State Farm, I would sort of I would even do the voiceover. So I would say, you know, whenever you if you’re a new business, click one if you’re, you know, existing customers click do so we did it all, essentially, it was a small company, but it actually blew up, it grew.
 
Michael Hingson  22:56
Well, back in those days, that was long before Jacot StateFarm came along. So you probably didn’t know Jake, huh? No, no, no. You know, who Jake is?
 
Prisma Garcia  23:06
Yes, yes.
 
Michael Hingson  23:10
He’s, he’s evolved. It’s been an interesting, interesting run for him. So you, you gave companies information so that they could see whether what they were doing was effective, and meaningful? Or how they could tweak it essentially?
 
Prisma Garcia  23:28
Correct. Correct. And, and, you know, I think, as the company evolved, and I wasn’t necessarily a big part of that anymore, but, you know, they start to do a lot of search engine optimization, a lot of things tied to digital marketing. But at the time, you know, and I can tell you even now, like, you know, we use our phones, right, and so we, we could track, you know, how many times somebody, you know, called from a cell phone versus, you know, at the time there were still a couple of health phones, but um, you know, it’s just, it would tell you all this interesting information. And so I was pulling a lot of that helping collect on a lot of that and analyzing a lot of it. And, you know, a lot of that was, was helpful for the companies to see, like, where do I need to invest more of my marketing dollars?
 
Michael Hingson  24:18
So how long did you do that?
 
Prisma Garcia  24:20
You know, I didn’t do for very long, it wasn’t like I said, I had a great manager that I still keep in touch with and, you know, I was there probably for about a year and a half, two years. So it was very early on before I you know, ran into somebody else and decided to jump to that.
 
Michael Hingson  24:39
So, what did you learn from that job? What did you take away that helped you in your career?
 
Prisma Garcia  24:46
You know, I think back and I have mentioned mentioned the Met my manager many times, but I noticed that he was very much about the person right. And so he wanted to build a relationship with me and People ask me, Why do you stay at the call tracking so long? And I say yes, because of the people. Because because of the manager, I and I think I’ve carried that with me throughout my career, I especially now working in a very social oriented, you know, position, and even the nonprofit work. And so the biggest thing I learned was, you know, that while that we’re always being watched Michael, but then, but then I also learned that, you know, it’s about people,
 
Michael Hingson  25:30
you know, you said something just now, that’s extremely interesting. That strikes me we’re always being watched. And as a as a person who happens to be blind. Intellectually, I know that I can be walking down the street. And don’t even think about the fact that I’m probably always being watched. And a lot of times people may wonder, how does that guy do that? Or does that guy need help or any number of different things. But the reality is, we’re always being watched. And it doesn’t necessarily mean electronically, and it doesn’t necessarily mean in a negative way. But one way or another, we always interact with other people. And I know when I’m walking down the street, I’m listening to what goes on around me, and I hear conversations, or I hear how people are doing what they’re doing, and getting a lot of information and drawing conclusions like the next person.
 
Prisma Garcia  26:24
Yeah, yeah, it’s true. And, and the thing about it, and, you know, I, it’s beautiful, how you relate it to your experience, but I also think it’s, you know, it’s not always people that you would expect, I mean, sometimes, sometimes you get opportunities, because someone was watching the work that you were doing, or or heard you say something or, or you know, and I don’t know, it was just an interesting thing. Like we’re not, even if we’d have felt, were on our own. We’re not,
 
Michael Hingson  26:59
if we would only take advantage of all of that, and maybe engaged some of those Watchers or find ways to develop better relationships, that would probably be really valuable for us to do. But we, we hide too much from that we’ve been taught to do that we’ve been taught not to trust. And the fact is that most of the time, there isn’t really a hidden agenda that we have to worry about.
 
Prisma Garcia  27:29
Yeah. And one thing that you mentioned was trust. And I, I think about you know, I was reflecting before our conversation, and I thought the one thing that I think, you know, I can say that it’s also something that’s helped my career and helped me in my current position is, is really building that trust with people, because even in the nonprofits that I’ve worked at, or have helped start, you know, it’s been a trust factor,
 
Michael Hingson  27:59
which talked about that a little bit. How do you develop trust? How do you deal with that trust is so much under attack today? In so many ways? I mean, we see all the polls for what they’re worth about. We can’t trust politicians, we can’t trust what they’re doing. One party doesn’t trust the other party both ways. And there are so many ways that trust is under attack. How do we deal with that? How do you develop trust?
 
Prisma Garcia  28:28
You know, I think, in my work, Michael, it’s a lot of it has been recognizing the stories, the journeys that the people have experienced, listening more, right. And then valuing the assets. You know, I’ve worked with several nonprofits, in the community. And sometimes we’re trying to tackle things that, you know, that maybe some of the leaders haven’t even experienced themselves. And so, one of the biggest things for me, and even in my corporate job, well, you know, I come with, you know, sort of this background. And, you know, I frame a lot of things just as everybody doesn’t, in terms of what we know, but I realized, like, even when we’re doing volunteer, you know, groups, and we’re taking them places that they haven’t been, I think, you know, just listening, right, listening to the stories and listening to the people and also holding the value, right? It could be, it could be any group of people, but recognizing that we have all these assets, right, because I think, you know, especially in the communities where, you know, I’ve worked in with different nonprofits and even my own community growing up, sometimes you look at it, and you’re like, what, you know, and you could look at the facts and figures and think these communities don’t have a whole lot going for them. They don’t have anything good, right. And that’s not always the case because we haven’t heard from from the people and that’s been common experience for me. And, you know, I helped co found a mental health clinic here in the neighborhood called community does it and the way I’ve built trust there is, is really, you know, coming as a very authentic person and then listening to people.
 
Michael Hingson  30:17
So if I could summarize what you’re really saying is that you listen, and that you’re open to the possibility of trusting.
 
Prisma Garcia  30:29
Correct? Yeah, I mean, I think, open to the possibility of trusting and recognizing that it’s not going to be a one time thing. Right. And, and I think sometimes we want to go into communities. You we want to, you know, do things instant, right. I think our recent culture is instant gratification, especially for younger people. And, I mean, I think creating trust takes time and you it’s something you have to continue to guard. Because even in the community work I’ve done it’s, you know, we’ll always ask myself, you know, what is what, what is the community thing? What should I, you know, I can’t make decisions on my own, I need to have these conversations,
 
Michael Hingson  31:18
I’ve maintained for years that I’ve learned a lot more about trust, and teamwork by working with a guide dogs than I’ve ever learned from all of the experts in any of the related fields, because dogs while they love unconditionally, and I think that’s absolutely true, their their psyche is that they’re, they don’t trust unconditionally. But the difference is that dogs are open to trust. So every time I get a new guide, dog, it’s about developing a new relationship, it’s about developing a new team. And we both don’t trust each other. At first, we have to get used to each other, we have to see how the other is and reacts and works. And we have to develop that feeling that we know the other member of the team is going to support us, and that we can support the other member of the team. And it is so true with dogs because dogs don’t have hidden agendas. And their expectation is that we don’t either.
 
Prisma Garcia  32:24
Yeah, it’s true. And, and also making sure that that we put it you know, I think it’s hard for us sometimes to know what other people experience, you know, and I found in my corporate life that, you know, I’m Latina, I’m my parents are born and raised in Mexico. And just because, you know, me doesn’t mean that, you know, every single Latino, right, and a you know, and so, really, our experiences are so, so unique to our, you know, just our being, and, and I know that it’s not, you know, the openness of trust is definitely important. And but it’s not easy, right? It’s not easy in some of the environments that we find ourselves, and especially like work in the workplace.
 
Michael Hingson  33:15
Have you ever had your trust betrayed by someone?
 
Prisma Garcia  33:20
You know, I could definitely say yes. You know, I can’t think of a specific example. But I think I think about family, right? There are times where, you know, we have certain expectations, especially in my family, we have certain expectations of what we should do, and what we should be and collective in some ways, you know, working toward some of the same goals, right? Like, if I have something my sister, that’s, you know, we’re all going to be happy for one another. And it’s all of our success. But I think, you know, sometimes having these expectations does let you down. Right? And it does, sometimes it is the trust factor.
 
Michael Hingson  33:59
Have you ever had a situation on the job where you worked with someone and you thought you could trust them, and you trusted them? And it turned out that that ended up not really being the case?
 
Prisma Garcia  34:10
You know, I can’t think back and realize, like, there have been times where I think, and probably this is a common human experience, where sometimes we want what we put into it, and we want that other person to give us as much as we’ve given them. And so there have been times where I have felt like, oh, I will do anything to support this person, right. And my colleague and I want them to be successful. But then I don’t always see them recognizing or doing that for me, right. And, and, you know, I’ve had to really think about, you know, myself and realize, like, Well, who do I want to be and, and there are moments that, you know, I realized like maybe that other person isn’t gonna help me in the same ways that I might help them. And, and I either have to be okay with that, or, or you know, or I change my perspective completely, but I definitely have had my trust broken, especially when it comes to competitiveness, I think people, you know, unfortunately in a corporate structure or even even just trying to climb the ladder, right, I’ve met a lot of young professionals or younger professionals that, you know, I can recall, like, you know, they’re looking after themselves. And, and you know, you can’t blame them, right. But at the same time, I realized, like, there’s a part of me that felt like betrayed.
 
Michael Hingson  35:44
Yeah. Unfortunately, all too often, they do get blamed. And that that’s part of the issue, of course, that starts to send you down the rabbit hole of distrust. But it sounds like what you do is a lot of introspection, and a lot of, to put it in the scientific terms, I guess, analysis and you, you’ve made some choices about trust. If somebody betrays your trust, you don’t go down the path of I’m going to hate them. It does tell you perhaps how you’re going to work and react with them to some degree. But hatred isn’t part of what apparently is, is the psyche that you’ve chosen?
 
Prisma Garcia  36:27
No, it’s not, you know, I can say that there are moments where you know, you want to you’re it’s almost like you are called to hate that person, right? Like, oh, I wish they wouldn’t have reacted that way. I wish they would have helped me in this way. But I think it actually I tried to make be positive, right. And it doesn’t always happen right away. Sure. Sometimes you feel deflated. And you’re like, That person could have helped me or could have recognized me or could have done this for me. And I would have done it for them. Right. And they’ve known that. So maybe that’s where the material is. But the for me that I mean, it may not be instant, and I may not hate him. But at the same time, it is a thought process of like, well, you know, I need to be careful, right? So you want to be careful, but at the same time, like, at the end of the day, right? The decisions you make affect you and who you want to be right. And so I’m more focused, internally, right, what am I comfortable sleeping with? Right, like, at night that I hate 10 people? Probably not that maybe I’ve created some distance, some boundaries to where I found trait found betrayal. Possibly, right, that that might be the case.
 
Michael Hingson  37:38
Yeah. But you can deal with it. You’ve learned how to deal with it, then you’ve learned how to do it in a positive way, as opposed to a negative way.
 
Prisma Garcia  37:48
Yeah, and it might not be not might not be instant, right? It might take some time to process and reflect.
 
Michael Hingson  37:56
It takes thinking it’s a process. It’s absolutely a thought process. So you did call tracking and so on. And then where did you go?
 
Prisma Garcia  38:06
You know, I I realize now that I have a tendency to to talk to all people, right. i
 
Michael Hingson  38:16
i what you said, you said you met someone and then and then jumps and
 
Prisma Garcia  38:19
everything else. Yeah, I met someone I met a woman named Mary. I had met her at Boston Market, right. I submitted an application to a job and she said, meet me near your job. I said, Well, I’ll the closest thing I could think of was the Boston Market. So I went there. It was, it was funny, because I thought oh, like we’re I’m having this very serious conversations that at a Boston mark, a busy Boston Market, they’re going to lunch hour, but the you know, we had a moreso conversation about just people right and how I would approach different situations, you know, regarding people, and she specifically worked in fundraising, right. And so I knew it was that type of job, but it wasn’t really a formal interview. And so you know why I met her and then I just really loved her. I was like, she seems great. And so she said, You know, I’m hire, I’m going to be hiring. And she, she hired me to be a fundraising consultant. And I spent probably about four years or so working with her. And we did a lot of fundraising, we fundraise for bigger nonprofits, we fundraise for the Catholic Church, which is a whole other experience that you know, had its pros and cons, because I have grown up in a Catholic household went to Notre Dame, we talked about that. And then now I was fundraising. Right. And the church was a part of it. And it was the first time where I recognized like, wow, this is a
 
Michael Hingson  39:52
business too. Yeah. Very much. And it’s it’s interesting You talk about Boston Market. Many years ago, I decided for a little while to sell some Amway products. And I went to a major meeting, where there was a diamond distributor who was talking. And they were giving what I’m, I’m sure well, what there was an inspirational speech and was encouraging people to do more. One of the things they talked about was board meetings for their company. And the board was primarily the husband who was speaking and his wife, who was also speaking there. And one of the things that they said was that when they do board meetings, they go to a restaurant, they go to a neutral place. And it forces them to not be volatile, and to actually have better discussions. So I’m not surprised that you, although it was certainly something that seems strange that you found Boston Market was a an interesting place to have an interview.
 
Prisma Garcia  40:58
Yes. And it wasn’t, I would say, it wasn’t a very formal interview, it was a very different type of interview, you know, it was more about me, and how I would react to all these different situations. That didn’t quite seem, I didn’t know what it would entail, right? How does this relate to the job? And, you know, I would say, I was glad that I had a lot of energy. And I was able to do all these meetings. But when I, I essentially turned into a consultant, and I traveled around the city, around the country at times. And I did a lot of fundraising. And I realized, like, the one thing way they that people can feel comfortable and have the trust to to give me money for an organization was always because they felt felt that it was I was going to a good cause. But then also that, that it was going to be in good
 
Michael Hingson  41:52
hands. Yep. Trust again.
 
Prisma Garcia  41:56
Yeah, exactly. It came back to that.
 
Michael Hingson  41:59
Did you ever ask Mary, what she was looking for, or why she was comfortable having an interview in a place like Boston Market?
 
Prisma Garcia  42:09
You know what the one thing I remember from that day was that she said, there were going to be moments that we were going to be in settings that we’re not able to control. So we’re we were potentially going to be meeting with someone for coffee or dinner, and there were going to be so many distractions, but we still had to keep the meeting on pace. And, you know, that was somewhat of her rationale for just having me pick any place that was nearby. And you know, when I suggested that place, I didn’t think that she was going to go for it. Because I thought, well, I don’t know if this is the I don’t know if she wants me to find some more quiet. I don’t know if she wants me to find a coffee shop. But you know, she said, No, it has to happen anywhere. Because you have to be able to control the meeting, even if you’re in an uncontrolled environment.
 
Michael Hingson  42:59
And that’s, of course, the point she was looking to see how you are going to react in a situation you couldn’t control. And I’m sure the very fact that you suggested Boston Market must in one way or another have pleased her at least a little bit.
 
Prisma Garcia  43:17
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, she’s very comfortable. And she was very season. So she knew she knew all about the business. And essentially, she’s in the business of relationships.
 
Michael Hingson  43:31
And besides, the food was good. Yeah, the food was great.
 
Prisma Garcia  43:35
Yeah, we had a good time. She became a great friend.
 
Michael Hingson  43:39
So you did work with her for about four years. And then you switched again, huh?
 
Prisma Garcia  43:44
Yeah. You know, I think people of my generation, Michael, they, they just switch very often in four years. They seem like an eternity at the moment.
 
Michael Hingson  43:54
What did you go next?
 
Prisma Garcia  43:55
So, you know, I started at the end of the job, right, I started to just fly a lot. And I remember running a few campaigns in, in St. Louis, actually, I ended up back in the Midwest. And it came to a point where, you know, I took so many flights that last year. You know, it was like every other week, you know, or every week that I truly start to think why am I in this work? Why don’t why I mean, I just happened to run into Mary right. We connected everything worked out and I was in the space and I said I I do actually really love nonprofits and social work, right social impact work. I wasn’t calling it that at the time. But I, I left there and I went to work for an organization called the Concilio, which I still you know, support in some ways and it’s local here in Dallas, working with primarily immigrant Latino families, to educate them on on health and the school system. And so I had I’ve known of the organization I saw, they had a job opening, I wasn’t quite sure I was going to be a fit. And I knew would be also taking a pay cut. And so, I, I was, you know, there were a lot of ifs, and I can tell you that I took the job, I decided to come back to Dallas, when I took that job and be here full time and primarily, you know, focused on, on on really just working in the community.
 
Michael Hingson  45:32
So this was probably what about 2016? or so? Correct? Yep. So you, you did that? And what did you do for them?
 
Prisma Garcia  45:43
You know, I came in as a Director of Community Health, and that’s a big change, you know, I’ve spent Yeah, I spend time in marketing, I went to be a fundraiser, and then I was back in the health space, so not as a doctor, but as a community health advocate. And so I had a team of staff and they we work together to, to essentially like, you know, provide information to the Latino community and giving them the tools they needed to be successful. And, you know, it was a lot of work, because when you do that, you were, you know, my role was really, you know, I had to look at staff, there were programs out in the community, there was fundraising to do there, you know, including some grant writing, and, you know, just a lot more things than then sticking to just the fundraising or just the marketing. And this was, you know, you have to be good at working with people, and not just people that can give you money, people that are in the neighborhood that may not have a clue of, you know, what, what their potential is, and I can tell you that it was a great position for me, because, you know, I was finally able to put all the pieces together, like, you know, this, it related, like, the families that I saw reminded me of my own family. And so, to me, that was that was the work that I was most interested in doing at the time.
 
Michael Hingson  47:18
How long did you do that?
 
Prisma Garcia  47:19
You know, I did that officially for about a, maybe under two years, maybe a year, in eight months, or nine months. So it was it was not a one time, but you know, I stuck it out with them. And, you know, now I hope that I still help them in some ways with some of their special projects, and, and really have given some time and, and even through money, Graham have helped sponsor some events. So, you know, I tend to have this, this pattern of not leaving places, I should carry some of it with me to the next place.
 
Michael Hingson  47:54
So did you go from there to MoneyGram? Or Did ya, you know,
 
Prisma Garcia  47:57
I had another job. So I lent it at Social Venture Partners Dallas, after the Concilio.
 
Michael Hingson  48:08
And what did you do there? So,
 
Prisma Garcia  48:11
you know, SVP, as they call it, is an international group, right? International Organization, they’re different chapters around the globe. And the focus really is on on bringing philanthropists together, essentially, you know, providing the space for philanthropists to learn and grow. And then we were addressing organizations or supporting organizations that were addressing root causes. And so, you know, my work there was also very relational in the sense that our quote unquote, partners, they were individuals in the business community that wanted to give back with more than just their money, they want to give back with their time, and not so much with the clean cleanups, for example, or packing a box, it was more so giving back their skill set. So it was a sort of a pro bono consulting organization. And so I spent a lot of time there, you know, a lot of time being for years, right? That seems to be my, my traditional my long term job. And I left there about a year ago, and that’s how I ended up at MoneyGram.
 
Michael Hingson  49:28
You ended up with MoneyGram. Yeah, which is, which is where you are and your associate, you deal with social impact and so on. I want to understand a little bit more about what that is and also, how did you get to become involved in the whole concept of diversity, equity and inclusion? Yeah, so interested in both of those.
 
Prisma Garcia  49:48
Yeah, so anyways, I at SVP, Social Venture Partners, I spent a lot of time and capacity building capacity building of organizations connecting the He’s business partners to different organizations, and in Dallas, primarily nonprofits, but also some social enterprises and, and really getting projects off the ground because we realized, like, let’s amplify their impact, right? Let’s give them more tools, more resources and get them to do more. And, you know, in that work, we found that, you know, at least it was our theory of change or logic that a lot of our community was struggling, and it wasn’t so much the poverty factor, as people think, you know, they think, Oh, well, it’s because these people are poor. And maybe that’s why they need all these things. And that’s why these nonprofits exist, it was more so a factor of a racial injustice. And so we looked at it everything from that lens of like, their issues, and even in our own city of Dallas, right? We know that redlining has caused a lot of disparities. And, you know, you have certain pockets of communities that are going to be concentrated in poverty, because of, you know, past racism, and they’re still, you know, we all still have some implicit bias. And so, so, you know, coming from that, I, I think, I really start to dig deeper, and like, what is diversity, equity and inclusion mean? You know, we can say, we’ll bring all these people to the table, but will we give them let them speak? Right. And so, the equity part was a big component of my SVP role, providing equity, you know, in terms of like, a supporting these organizations that were doing this work, and so, so that’s really how I ended up moving into this more dei focused space. And, you know, I could say, at SVP, it was always thinking bigger, thinking, you know, I’ve done the grassroots stuff, and I still do some of it as a volunteer. But, you know, looking at these issues through a systemic lens, and so, fast forward to money, gram, you know, it is a big, it’s a big part of my role. And also, the strategy that we’re working on was approved during the height of the pandemic, right, we know that we saw my, we saw George Floyd, the murder of George Floyd was a big conversation starter, and it, we saw it right. And so MoneyGram adopted the strategy in 2020. And so I’ve come on board along with two of my colleagues to, to bring it to life.
 
Michael Hingson  52:41
So what does dei mean to you?
 
Prisma Garcia  52:45
So to me, the the biggest thing would be, I mean, obviously, there are different ways to track it, there’s different ways to measure it, their companies are doing all of this right. But I think, as an employee, and when I really put myself in that position, I think a lot of is belonging, right. And unfortunately, our corporate structures and capitalist viewpoints don’t always allow for people with differences or that don’t look the same or, or, you know, come from diverse backgrounds. We don’t always feel like we belong, right. And so for me, it is broader than having, you know, people that fit certain descriptions, but it’s more so the cohesiveness of the culture and below and feeling like you belong.
 
Michael Hingson  53:34
So you come to that environment from the standpoint of being a Latina, and clearly you’re dealing with the issue of, I guess, in a sense race, which is, which is fine. But as I got the honor to talk to a number of people about diversity, equity and inclusion, and so on, one of the observations that I make is the problem with talking about diversity is we rarely if ever discussed disabilities. You don’t see it you you saw the Oscars do it this year, at least because Coda one, but you don’t you don’t hear about blind directors or really blind actors. You don’t hear about persons with disabilities in a lot of the major kinds of conversations that you hear or participate in when you’re discussing diversity. How do we change that? The fact is, most everyone leaves out disabilities even though we’re a much larger minority than any of the races. I suppose if you add all the race differences together outside Caucasian that that’s a larger minority, but the the number of persons with a disability, according to the CDC is somewhere around 25% of all Americans. How do we change that conversation? Or what are we going We need to do to recognize that we’re also part of what’s being left out that needs to be included and addressed.
 
Prisma Garcia  55:09
Yeah. And I know, I didn’t touch upon that. But you know, I think and I know that October is is National Ability Awareness Month. And not every corporation, not everyone is talking about dei in relation to disabilities. Right. And I. Yes, yeah. And and I think it’s time to start. I mean, I know that even in my role I have made been very intentional not to just focus on race, because, you know, coming from a global company perspective, I also realized, like, it’s different in Europe, it’s different in Africa, it’s different in these some of these regions, right. And so I don’t want to be just US centric and focus on race or ethnicity. And obviously, you said, you know, there are many disability out there, right. And so, the, looking at things that we cannot see, right, we you know, and so I think for me, it’s, it’s being humble and learning from individuals. I know that last year, I was able to United just started the job, I was able to connect with a group called Best Buddies, which you might have heard of heard about, and just really started having conversations, how do we, how are we equipped to develop or bring more people and, you know, make sure that they have the comfort here and MoneyGram? And also, and also have what they need, right? Because I think what happens is that sometimes we’re not compassionate enough and don’t realize, like, you know, even in benefits, like if I don’t need something, I’m not probably looking for it. And so how will we know that is by by being more intentional and deliberate about what we’re doing, and how we’re hiring and what we’re offering.
 
Michael Hingson  57:03
In a recent podcast interview here, I had a discussion with someone about diversity and disabilities in general, and how they’re treated and persons with disabilities are treated and addressed in other countries. And one of the things that he said was that typically, it’s much more obvious that people in other countries who happen to have a disability are treated as less than equal. And he had, for example, had had been has been in a couple of places where families with people with disabilities would even, in part, possibly shun those people. And there was a lot of trafficking of persons with disabilities. And I asked him, How do you contrast that with what goes on in the United States, and he said something very interesting. What he said was, that in this country, the attitudes are mostly still there. But we’re more subtle about it. Oh, we love those people. There’s the word right, those people, but you know, that we just don’t think that they can do the things that we can do, or we’re concerned about that. It’s much more subtle, because they can’t come right out and say it because there are laws. But then the and the laws prohibit supposedly discrimination, but we still do it. And but in a more subtle way, we see it a lot with things like internet access. And as you know, I work for accessibe, which is a company that manufactures products that make websites more usable for persons with disabilities. And we’ve, in our tracking, found that probably over 98% of all websites don’t include a lot of the coding that would really make the website a lot more usable. And the problem is, it’s a very expensive process to do it, especially if you do it after the fact. But accessibe has, has created some ways to make it a lot less expensive than most people experience. But the gap grows wider every day as more and more websites are created. And most of those websites are not accessible or inclusive as the way they should be. And again, it’s a way of illustrating the conversation that just tends to leave people out. The major companies who really ought to deal with it, whether it be the WordPress is of the world or the Shopify is or Amazon’s don’t, in creating all the little shopping websites that people create to, to be able to market their products. There’s no mandate for accessibility, even Apple on the iPhone. Apple has made the iPhone very accessible in in what it does, but there’s nothing in the app store that mandates or requires accessibility to make sure that products are accessible. That Conversation still isn’t there?
 
Prisma Garcia  1:00:03
I think you’re right. And, you know, I’ll, I’ll mention, I want to tell you a quick story. And also something that I think has put disability at the forefront for me in terms of the work right. When I was at SVP, one of the things that I was responsible for was a young professionals program. And, you know, each year they would we would take a trip to the Dominican Republic, and the one of the philanthropist, he, you know, before he passed, he said, philanthropy is the is, is a game that everybody could participate in. Right? And in other words, right. And he said that the children in the Dominican, you know, we’re playing sports, but there was, there was a student, it was at a, you know, an after school program, that he was blind, or he’s, he’s blind, and, and he couldn’t see. And they were like, how is it gonna play? Right? How is he gonna play soccer, everybody’s playing soccer. And they said, the kids drilled a hole in the soccer ball, and they put, they put beans in, and then he could hear he could hear the ball coming. And so it became, you know, it was a story that we would tell, and we were talking about this philanthropist, because he said, you know, philanthropy is something that everybody can have a role in playing play the game, right. And so, for me, I’ve tried to think of that too, right? We know that we talk, we have conversations of equity in the workplace, I think diversity is only a starting point. As I mentioned, like, if we don’t have these conversations, then there’s, there’s not a lot of point of bringing people that look differently that come from different backgrounds that are have different abilities. It’s not until we start to have these conversations and listen, because like I said, I’m not going to be looking maybe for some things that you would look for. And so I think they’re having that openness to actually have these conversations and, and really calling it out. Because I think, you know, again, from my perspective, as a Latina, from your perspective, from all of our perspectives, you know, we’re gonna find places that we don’t, you know, not having that accessibility on a website, Michael, I can only imagine, I mean, how can you feel like you belong, right. And so for me, I’m, you know, you’ve triggered me in terms of like thinking more about these things. But then also, you know, how do we, I think we just need to keep asking ourselves, like, how can we make the workplace something that we can all participate in, right, just like the story I told I mentioned to you.
 
Michael Hingson  1:02:47
The problem is we have this term disability, and we can change what that means. We’ve changed what diversity means because diversity leaves out disabilities, we’ve changed many terminal terms over the years. But when we continue to say, So and so is disabled, that still comes back to they’re not as able, as I. And the other part of it is the fear. Oh, my gosh, that could happen to me, because most persons with especially physical disabilities are probably persons who didn’t necessarily start their lives that way. I don’t know the statistics. So I won’t swear to that. But the reality is there. There are lots of people in the Vietnam era, a lot of people came back from the wars, needing a wheelchair and having physical mobility issues and so on, or people who became blind or whatever. So there is also that fear, but we’re not disabled. We do have this characteristic that has been generally classified as a disability. But we’ve got to separate that out from thinking that means we don’t have the abilities that other people do. And people always try to hide it Oh, you’re differently abled, not the last time I checked, the brain still works the same, I may use different techniques. So there’s a lot that we really need to change, and words matter. It is something that we really need to start to work on a whole lot more like people constantly say, well, you’re visually impaired. Not really, I don’t think I look different because I’m blind visually, that has nothing to do with it, and impaired. Why does it have to be equated to eyesight? Deaf people are deaf or hard of hearing you would be plastered on the sidewalk by a sledgehammer. If you said deaf or hard of hearing or excuse me, deaf or hearing impaired, deaf or hard of hearing is the terminology that is generally used and I think blind and low vision is probably a more accurate term, but impaired again, words matter and we need to change that?
 
Prisma Garcia  1:05:01
Yes, so much of it is and you know, I think we constantly all of us, right, and even at being in this space, I, you know, I have found places where I can learn more as well. And, and I do think that the vocabulary is important. And, you know, I think so much I think so much about, you know, taking some of these words, take the humanity out of us, right. And that happens so often. I mean, whenever we hear immigrants, some sometimes it’s, it’s now associated to something negative whenever we, you know, people say legal right? Or, or people say, homeless like this, this group of people, and they’re just out there, right? They’re homeless versus, you know, we’re, we’re still hold, we can still be a hole and, and be different. And so, you know, it is you bring up great points my go on, and I know that for me, I’m constantly identifying vocabulary that is inequitable, because so often, and I think about it, especially when I do some of our my nonprofit work and, you know, in the mental health clinic, and then the, you know, with the different groups I talked about, you know, is, you know, we talk about like these at risk communities as at risk children, you know, things that essentially almost like downgrade you, right? Like, I was essentially an at risk kid, right? Just because I’m part of the zip code or that neighborhood. And so, but I’m still child, right, I was still child. So I think sometimes, you’re completely right, the vocabulary, it’s almost like you’re less than
 
Michael Hingson  1:06:44
well, and in fact, it, it becomes that way, because that’s the way people think, Well, you do a lot with social impact. And I wanted to quickly understand what what that means. And how do you measure it?
 
Prisma Garcia  1:06:57
Yes, in terms of social impact, I mean, I think in my specific role, obviously, I do a lot of things outside my actual job. You know, I’m MoneyGram. But um, money, gram is very focused on volunteerism, employee engagement. There’s, we have a foundation and also corporate citizenship. So all encompassing, and I think that that part is very intentional, because, you know, you can’t just do things transactionally, right. We don’t, we can’t just give out money to this nonprofit that’s helping that community and call it a day. Right. And it’s broader than that. And I think it has to align with our what we want to be in terms of our company culture, and, and you know, how we want every employee to belong. And so social impact, I think, broadly, it could be, it could be a nonprofit, it could be a for profit, it could be a project, I think the goal would be that you are going to change something. And I think the I mean, most times, right, we’re thinking positive, positive change, like how do we get kids to stop dropping out? And how do we get teens from, you know, not having early unintended pregnancy? How do we, you know, all of these big questions, and, you know, I learned through the different jobs, even though they’re all over the place, right, in terms of what I actually did. There, I learned that we need to have a lot of different, you know, conversations, but dialogue with different sectors, right. And so coming to the corporate side, I continue to have conversations with nonprofits doing the boots on the ground, kind of work with policymakers, government, and with business leaders. And so I think in this position, it gives me that opportunity to, to really be a driver, and really have that be a part of every single thing in terms of the business, right? Because I think so many times people see it as like, that’s an extra, that’s additional, that’s not gonna make me money, but it really truly is gonna make you money. If you have employees that say, you don’t have turnover, that’s going to save you money. If you have the ability to prove that, you know, you’re not wasting a lot of our resources environmentally, like that’s gonna make you money. And I think more and more we have people that are conscious of where they’re spending their money, especially our millennials or Gen z’s. They’re they’re very conscious of like, where they spend their money, which brands they advocate for. And, you know, I think we’re also very concerned about how they’re treating people. And so, you know, all all of that in a nutshell is my day to day and then obviously, I have this passion in terms of my own community.
 
Michael Hingson  1:09:51
So for you What are you most proud of in your career thus far?
 
Prisma Garcia  1:09:55
You know, I think for me, even though I mean even though I love notre Damon, that’s a great accomplishment. I think, you know, for me, the greatest thing has been working with, with the community, my own people here in the community to start this nonprofit called community does it. And community does, it is a sort of a collective impact project where, you know, I, I’m working alongside a couple of other co founders, Christina and Raul. And now we’ve created a sort of list network of moms and parents and kids that want to have mental health therapy. And I think, you know, they’ve recognized it, and we’ve recognized it. And, you know, we have, we had, everybody knows there’s a need, that’s the challenge, you know, Michael, with mental health people are, like, there’s such a need, they know where the need is, sometimes they know where it’s greatest sometimes, and, and I think we felt that no one was listening to us. And, you know, I think that was the number one thing that I’m most proud of, because, you know, coming back to where I grew up, you know, after having options of like, moving elsewhere in the country, and moving to a different part of our city here in Dallas, I said, you know, I feel most at home here. And, you know, I think for me, that organization, is really only the beginning, but it’s also basically started because no one was listening. And so we know what our strengths are. And so we came together to, to bring that to this community. And, you know, that really is what I’m most proud of, because, you know, I could have all kinds of awards or, you know, different prizes, different accolades, but I don’t think that any of them are gonna match that, right, because just investing my knowledge, my time and then recognizing the assets that the others are bringing to the
 
Michael Hingson  1:11:52
table. Sounds like you have found your longtime career.
 
Prisma Garcia  1:11:57
Well, I hope so, you know, I still have a while before I could say that I’m, you know, retiring or something like that. But I think in terms of the nonprofit work, you know, though, that’s very close to my heart, but I think the, you know, that specific organization, you know, we did a grand opening, there were a lot of people that said that maybe we couldn’t do it. And I think a lot of it came from the fact that our leaders or our parents, our moms, our, you know, neighbors, our God mothers that are in the neighborhood that maybe don’t have, you know, that or maybe people don’t think that we have power. And so, so to me, it’s been the greatest thing. And we’re continuing to raise awareness and share it with with everyone and so that it can be replicated.
 
Michael Hingson  1:12:46
So what do you do when you’re not working?
 
Prisma Garcia  1:12:49
You know, Michael, everything starts to feel like, you know, when you enjoy your job a lot, you start to feel like, you know, wow, I do a lot of this, and then I do a lot of volunteerism that resembles my job as well. I think, you know, a lot of times when I’m not working and not volunteering, you know, I spend a lot of time with family. I have pets, dogs, I like to you know, spend time with friends. And then also, obviously, watch football. We talked about that a little bit ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I would say, like, you know, try not to be busy all the time. And it’s a hard thing for me, I think I, you probably get the sense that I’m nonstop in terms of some of the stuff that I do. But, you know, really just trying to take a deep breath and, and spend time with people that I care about, because I, I realized that I think back of like, you know, even my parents, they’re getting older and I’m, you know, constantly aware of that, you know, I don’t want to regret it. I don’t really regret not spending as much time with them. So. So that’s what I do. You know,
 
Michael Hingson  1:13:56
are you working towards starting your own family?
 
Prisma Garcia  1:13:59
You know, not at the current time, I think it’s a question that I think that a lot of people might around my age in their 30s or contemplate, especially as our, our birth rates are sort of on the declining factor. You start to think career and all of these things. I think, for me, I realized, like, there, if that’s not the case, if I don’t have my own family, I think there is a way to have family, right. You know, it even with community with the people that I know, I feel strongly connected to them. But of course, I have nieces, so I’m an aunt. One of them is in South Bend right now. Um, you know, so she’s cheering for the Irish as well. And, you know, I’m very proud of that fact. And then I have a little niece who’s six years old and Sasha really, you know, she she really knows how to work the hole and nice relationships. So you know, I probably will, you know, I took her to the state fair, just last weekend, I mean, she pretty much gets what she wants on this side. So, you know, that’s where I spend a lot of my time outside of work.
 
Michael Hingson  1:15:10
Coming from the same level and kinds of experiences. That’s what aunts, uncles and grandparents are for, right? We get to spoil the kids and send them home at the end of the day.
 
Prisma Garcia  1:15:18
That and you know what, Michael, that’s exactly what I do. And I make sure they have a lot of sugar before him.
 
Michael Hingson  1:15:24
There you go. Well, prisma, this has absolutely been fun and enjoyable. And I will tell you right now, we want to hear more from you about how things are going as you progress and have more adventures and more stories. So please don’t be a stranger to unstoppable mindset. But if people want to reach out to you and learn more about money, gram, what you’re doing and so on, and maybe get some wisdom from you. How do they do that?
 
Prisma Garcia  1:15:49
Yeah, so certainly I’m, you know, available on probably every social media platform on LinkedIn, you can find me Prismo Y Garcia, we talked about this before we started you send me is my middle name. So you’ll see me on LinkedIn there. I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, I’m on Twitter. And then, of course, please visit our sites. You know, I work for MoneyGram. So it’s moneygram.com. And then I talked about community does that which you know, is really my pride and joy. And it’s community does it.org. So you can find me there. And I’m always willing to have conversations. I’ve only been at MoneyGram for one year. So I’m sure I’ll have more adventures there. And then of course, I’m sort of in the startup environment with the nonprofit. So
 
Michael Hingson  1:16:36
that is, again, that is community does it.
 
Prisma Garcia  1:16:40
Correct community does it. Our center is actually clock went back on Miko, which is count on on me, right. So you can count on me. And so we’re not alone in this. And so, you know, it’s definitely something that I want others to learn about.
 
Michael Hingson  1:16:57
Well, I hope you’re listening to this and taking notes and we’ll reach out to Prisma. There’s a lot, I think that she has to offer. I really hope that you’ve enjoyed it. So definitely get a hold of Prisma and compare notes and she’ll impart wisdom, and I’m sure she’d like to hear from you as well. So do that. And of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts about today’s episode. And I again ask that you give us a five star rating. After listening. You can reach out to me at Michaelhi at accessibe.com Or go to Michael hingson.com/podcast and hingson is h i n g s o n people like to put a T in and make it Hingston, there’s no t. So, Michael hangsen.com/podcast love to hear from you. And again, prisoner. This has been absolutely wonderful. I’ve learned a lot and I very much enjoyed talking with you. And I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well. So thanks very much for being with us.
 
Prisma Garcia  1:18:00
Thank you, Michael. I look forward to continuing our conversation. And anyone can feel free to reach out to me. Thank you so much for your time, and I’ve enjoyed our time today.
 
Michael Hingson  1:18:17
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