Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Mayo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sarah , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
I was an athlete my whole life. Through my late 20’s, athletics were really what I poured myself into and found my identity in through a dual-sport collegiate career and then training for and competing at the CrossFit Games in 2017. There was a lot of good that came out of those experiences, but also a lot of self-centeredness. To be a high-level athlete, you almost have to be that way, I think – I was dedicated full time to my goals, which required compromise in a lot of other areas, especially around relationships. In the midst of the peek of my athletic career and while looking for ways to optimize essentially everything about my physical performance, I had a deeply spiritual reckoning moment about my true identity… and realized that it had little to nothing to do with what I was spending virtually all of my time on. My come-to-Jesus moment radically shifted how I perceived myself and my pursuits, realizing that I wanted a life filled with more purpose. It took me awhile to wrestle with how to actually let go of my former self, but that season was what lead me to starting Point One Vision, a 501c3 nonprofit ministry that integrates physical health and wellbeing from the perspective of putting others first. It was a massive leap of faith between where I was and where I am today, but I’m so grateful for everything that God has taught me in that process and I wouldn’t change it now for all of the podiums or medals in the world.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Our motto through Point One Vision is “strong to serve” and it embodies the simple notion that our strength – physically, mentally, spiritually, relationally and emotionally – is fostered best when we utilize it for the good and service of others. The cultural pattern of the fitness industry (which tends to broadly also include the “self help” and “self love” movement) is largely one that promotes the idea that our personal needs, passions and desires should come first. Although I think that most people mean this well-intentioned, I think that the problem is that when you’re focused on “filling your cup before you fill others,” you actually get in a mindset of limited resource in which you actually just become obsessed with keeping your own proverbial cup full at all cost and run out of time or energy to truly invest in others. Because of the example of Jesus that really has come to model my own life and the structure of our organization, I believe that there is a different algorithm by which we are called to live a purpose-driven life that puts others first and, paradoxically, leads to our own greatest self-realization, too. Our events, programs and services are all oriented around giving people the opportunity to actually experience this in a practical and embodied way.
Our Full Armor program probably makes the most direct link between “health and fitness” plus spiritual wellbeing in that we bring together concepts of physiology, psychology and theology to integrate what it means to be truly “well” of mind, body and soul. This looks like integrating strength and mobility exercises, breath work, trauma-informed care and Biblical study, even, to help people of broad backgrounds to experience healing and freedom. The philosophy of this model is made available to our community both through online resources and in-person camps throughout the US.
Our SERVE teams operate in conjunction with a number of other like-minded nonprofit organizations in which we galvanize groups of people to support community-based efforts. This includes a fitness leadership team for young men and women with limb loss and differences, gathering together for an annual Fall retreat in San Diego, as well as a team that helps conduct evaluations for a youth drug addiction and suicide prevention program in Hawaii. We’ve also served in Cambodia, the Middle East and currently have one of our biggest ongoing projects in a remote village of Uganda, Africa, where we’ve built a goat farm, multi-purpose community center with a gym for kids, scholarship program and now fundraising to build a new school.
We also facilitate free fitness-based community experiences as an extension of our annual fundraising event, the Oahu Pentathlon, that currently takes place on the island of Oahu, but will extend throughout other states soon as well. Plus our podcast helps us to feature other people that share with us in the realm of health, healing and ministry, so we stay pretty busy to say the least!
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
This idea actually comes from a mentor of mine who not only runs an incredibly successful business, but has been adored by hundreds of employees in the process. Their advice was simple – “endear people to you” – and elaborated on the notion that when people genuinely feel loved and cared for by you, they’ll be more than eager to follow you. All of the fancy management hacks in the world won’t do what love and respect will do.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
There’s a book called “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert that has largely shaped the way that I run Point One Vision, especially when it comes to our international efforts. It’s a book that I’ve made required reading for anyone joining our overseas SERVE teams and something I’d implore anyone traveling to a third world country from the Western world to read first. The premise of the book is understanding the ironic damage that short-term missions can do and have done to impoverished nations and out of that awareness, reconstructing the ways in which we can effectively impact poverty culture without perpetuating it’s deep, underlying causes or “white savior complex.” I had first read this book after my second trip to Uganda in 2012 and to be honest, it deeply disturbed me to realize I was actually a part of the problem. I went one more time before realizing I had no business going back until or unless I had a much better solution planned out. Ten years later, I’d return with what I’d built through our organization now and it’s been such a beautiful full-circle in which I can confidently say that we’re doing it the right way – or at least the best way that I know how to so far.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pointonevision.com
- Instagram: sarahaikomayo
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-aiko-mayo-76a047230
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pointonevision
Image Credits
Jaime Andres, Dons Enock