We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shmeka Gibson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shmeka below.
Shmeka, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I left the workforce full-time in April 2019 to pursue my dreams of helping people change their thoughts to enhance performance and create positive life success. Changing the Mindset™ was founded in 2018 in Memphis, TN. Changing the Mindset started as a Health and Wellness initiative that provided workshops and support for those who wanted to modify their lifestyle choices. After the work completed with the Health and Wellness program, the team developed another initiative called Systems 8, where 8 free workshops were conducted in the community centered around 4 content areas (Health/Wellness, Mental health/Trauma, Professionalism/ Leadership, and Empowerment). The initiative provided an opportunity to gain information and develop systems and processes to enhance an individual’s personal and/or professional skill set.
After implementing the workshops and the positive feedback, Changing the Mindset Inc. was chartered as a non-profit organization that offered minimal to no-cost services to consumers, focusing on empowerment and bringing awareness to mental health/trauma, professionalism/leadership, and health/wellness. Since its pilot and launch, CTMS has provided over 150 workshops and program opportunities to over 500 people.
In 2020, Changing the Mindset was impacted greatly by Covid-19, and discussions were held to close the nonprofit. Jaylah Whittaker, currently the program implementer, decided to participate in a bullying initiative at her church. After hearing her story and how she moved her pain to purpose, Dr. Gibson decided to pivot and make CTMS’s primary focus on youth and adult bullying. Tennessee is one of the top 10 places for worst mental healthcare. At the time, the greatest need was bullying (workplace, cyber, physical, and emotional), and the organization decided to pivot. The team held a virtual press conference with the community and other non-profit leaders to gather much-needed information to help develop its program model and structure. The team gathered that bullying and harassment should be our focus. In 2022, Changing the Mindset launched a second location in Texas, the number 1 state with the worst mental healthcare.
Shmeka, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Shmeka Gibson is an author, international speaker, business owner, and college professor. Shmeka is the Executive Director and Founder of Changing the Mindset Inc. Dr. Gibson has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Master of Science in Psychology and Counseling, and a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology/Focus in Inferential Statistics.
She has over 17 years of experience in clinical/counseling psychology, database management and technology, data analytics, grant writing, HR, project management, business coaching/consulting, and organizational development. Dr. Gibson is well known for her community service work, professional grant writing, success in managing over $50 million in grant funding, and her ability to help over 60 businesses upscale and sustain during Covid.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
In 2021, Jaylah participated in a bullying initiative at her church, where she shared her story of bullying, suicide, and depression. When I saw the video, I asked what she would like to do moving forward. We discussed the non-profit and its current state, and she suggested we rebrand it and create a model that focuses on bullying. She also suggested that she led the youth programming, and I agreed. Jaylah felt that there were no resources available for her, so she thought that having a non-profit where youth could connect with a mentor with similar life experiences would be great. So, we rebranded the business and changed the program model to focus on youth and adult bullying. We held our first focus group in 2021 to gather more data and information before we finalized the model. As of today, we have helped 110 youth through anti-bullying workshops and mentoring, hosted and attended several events to educate the community on bullying and its effects, and offered over 20 workshops that discussed workplace bullying, trauma, and how bullying affects people’s mental health.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Workplace culture is critical. I have not always been a great boss, and I can recall how my workplace behavior was unacceptable and impacted morale, retention, and employee happiness. I can also recall some bad experiences that I’ve had with prior bosses and how they affected me. I look at managing teams in the work environment as a collaborative effort. We all are there for the same thing: to serve or help the community. It takes many people to accomplish this role, and we spend significant time with our coworkers. Companies should invest in executive professional development and coaching for their leaders. I would encourage the organization to offer Motivational Interviewing for all its staff to increase communication with each other and clients. Lastly, provide workplace trauma training to encourage staff to avoid creating an environment that can be toxic and damaging to their peers. Sometimes, it’s not about gifts; people want to know they are respected, doing a good job and are included in the company’s growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.changingthemindset.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changingthemindset2019/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067160520043
Image Credits
Carolyn Castillo-Mason Jamaal E. Photography