Takeaways from the Direct Entrepreneur podcast with Nina Vaca, CEO, The Pinnacle Group

Nina Vaca, CEO of the Pinnacle Group, views herself not as a Latina leader, but as a leader who happens to be a woman and a Latina. “I’m an entrepreneur, period,” she says.

The IT staffing and workforce company she founded in her living room 25 years ago now has a footprint in four continents and ten countries, more than 4,000 contractors in the US and Canada, and 200 team members at its global headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

Vaca has often been “the only” in the room; the only Hispanic, or the only woman. “Ask yourself: is that happening to you or happening for you? The latter response represents a creator mindset,” she says. “Always choose the creator mindset.”

“If I am the only Latina in the room, then what an incredible opportunity to educate people about my community!”

Being sincere versus being serious

While the topic of diversity is “new” and in vogue, diversity has always been a Pinnacle value. Sixty percent of the company’s headquarters staff are women, and 48 percent are minorities.  

“You can be sincere about diversity, and you can be serious. But you have to be both to take action,” says Vaca. She’d like to see more businesses move beyond sincerity—talking about diversity and putting it on a website—to being serious about it.

 “Being serious about diversity means putting someone in charge of it, optimizing it, and measuring it: are we moving the needle forward? As with anything, achievement is a long game of consistency and discipline.”

To hear the full conversation between DSA President Joe Mariano and Pinnacle CEO Nina Vaca, log in to The Direct Entrepreneur series here.