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Designers of Change's Podcast
Employee Wellness in the Workplace | Corporate Wellness & Mental Health at Work - EP 33
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In Episode 33 of the Designers of Change Podcast, Simoneese Williams, founder of The Self Care Bar, discusses the importance of employee wellness and creating healthier workplace cultures.
This conversation explores:
✔️ Corporate wellness strategies
✔️ Mental health in the workplace
✔️ Burnout and stress management
✔️ Employee productivity and engagement
✔️ Self-care for professionals and leaders
✔️ Building positive workplace culture
As businesses continue to evolve, workplace wellness has become essential for productivity, retention, leadership, and overall organizational success.
Whether you are a business owner, HR professional, manager, entrepreneur, or employee, this episode offers practical insights on improving well-being at work.
🔔 Subscribe for more conversations on leadership, business, mindset, workplace culture, and personal growth.
#EmployeeWellness #CorporateWellness #MentalHealthAtWork #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #BusinessPodcast #DesignersOfChange #SelfCare #BurnoutPrevention #JamaicaPodcast
Coming up on this episode of the Designers of Change podcast. Okay, cool. So I'm driving down and I'm on the phone and we're chatting. And then the next thing I know, when I woke up, I was at Cornell Regional. Yes. And they did everything from the blood works to the MRI, the CT, they did everything that they needed to do, and they couldn't find an issue. So I um by the time I left there about 7 p.m. 8 p.m. And the last conversation I had with the doctor was like, You are fine, but you're extremely exhausted. That's the diagnosis, extreme exhaustion.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the Designers of Change podcast. We are at episode 33. I'm super excited because today I have a special guest with me. And you are going to love her. But of course, first we have to say a huge thank you to our amazing sponsors, Jace Myra Media, Mind Food International, Super Letive Auto, Grace Creates, Amanda's Kitchen, The Self Care Bar, Jesse's Home Decor, MAGS247 Wrecking Services, Regional Consulting Services, all the way from K-Man. Also, Proactive Lifestyle here in Jamaica. And as well, we have so many others that are looking to come on board, and we are excited to have you as we share great things on this amazing platform. And you know, we are currently in an era that speaks to living the soft life. You know, I've never really truly lived in my soft girl era, and I'm hoping, I'm really hoping that my special guest is going to share with me. She is none other than the uh corporate wellness architect. Um, her name is Simonese Williams. Thank you so much for joining us, Simonese. Happy to have you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Nastasia. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Now, Simoneese is the founder of the self-care bar. So you see how important it is and relevant that you know we have individuals who are actually walking that talk, right? They're not just talking, but they're actually living that life. Simoneese, it's a pleasure. And you know, one of the key things about being in this seat here on the designers of change is that I get to interview individuals that I have witnessed their growth. Yes. I have watched Simone's growth over the years, and I'm happy to be a part of her journey and to see what she has been able to do over the past few years. And so I'm excited to have you, excited for our discussion. Simone's I want to start off by asking you, and this is something that it's an it's a buzzword now, but I want you to tell me what is wellness, especially as a corporate girly. What is wellness?
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's a great question, um, Nas. And the truth is that wellness has been so overcommercialized. Yes, just like the term self-care is overcommercialized. And when we talk about wellness in the corporate space, most people think perks. What can I do for my employees? We're going to have pizza day, we're going to have yoga day, we're going to have this day. But that's not what wellness is. Wellness is really the intentional support that you provide to employees to meet their emotional, physical, social, and professional needs so that they can perform at their maximum capacity without sacrificing their humanity, their health, and also to make sure that they are um maintaining that um in internal capacity that they have. That's really what wellness is. So it's deliberate support.
SPEAKER_02I love that. That sounds like like the text, the perfect textbook definition of wellness. And it's important because you know, when you are working your 95, even as business people, let's say the 95 out of it, even as business people, if you do not understand the concept of your health and your well-being, you are going to find yourself in some serious roadblocks.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. And a lot of times that's what we do. We sacrifice our health so that we can meet, you know, what whatever goals that we have, whether personally or professionally, and we see it. If you check a lot of companies, they'll tell you that their health utilization rate is so high. If you know if you really have that discussion with HR um individuals at the different companies, I guarantee you that most of them are pretty close to their health utilization. Why is that? People are overworked, they are overstimulated, they're overfunctioning, and they're not taking time out to rest, to reset, and to recover. And recover is not something that we hear about a lot, it's not something we talk about. We feel that we have to keep moving. Yes, yes, yes. You know, and if you're not moving, you're not being productive, and rest is actually productive. So I think um a big part of what companies are missing is that recovery aspect of being an employee.
SPEAKER_02I'm I'm loving what you're saying. And you know, I want to ask Ishimonese do you have a story of your you you getting that epiphany that boy, I really need to rest, I need that self-care. I want to hear that story of that great epiphany that somehow catapulted you in your business.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and it's something that I like to share because when I talk about self-care and when I talk about wellness, I tell people it's personal. Yes, and it's personal because I've lived it. So, you know, there are some of us who are high performers naturally. We were just built that way. You know, and everything that we touch must be done with excellence.
SPEAKER_02Like it's uh is not a blessing, it's a burden.
SPEAKER_01Listen, it can be both. Most for most people, it's a burden because we don't know how to manage that. But the truth is that for me, I was one of those persons. And then when you grow up with certain trauma as well, you learn to pour everything into what you do, how you show up. So that's because that's you that has become your identity. And a lot of us are walking around where our jobs are, our identity is the only place that we really shine. So, you know, we just pour everything into that, and for me, that was how I operated for years. Yes, you know, people knew me as if spanies can't get it done, it cannot be done.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01So I'd moved down to Mantiga B and gotten a new role, and I loved it. It was my passion. I loved everything about it. So I was like, man, this is what it feels like when you're operating in your purpose and your passion, you know. And I remember I was serving um the company I was with at the time, I was managing their largest portfolio customers down in the West. And it was one of those jobs that had that you had to be constantly on, or I thought I had to be constantly on. And I would meet every call, every obligation I was meeting them. I was excellent. I was good at what I was doing. I was great actually at what I was doing. And one day I got up and I just didn't feel like myself. So I called my friend, my teammate actually, and I said, Hey, you know, I don't feel like myself. It wasn't that urgent, but I've learned over the years how my body operates. So I knew something was off. And I said, I think I need to go to the doctor. And he said, Is it that bad? I said, not really, but I feel off.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01I said, can you take me though? Because I was living like five minutes away from my office at the time. So he said, No, I'm not feeling too well, but tell you what, drive to the office and I'll let one of the guys take you. Right. And he says, but stay on the phone. So I was like, okay, cool. So I'm driving down and I'm on the phone and we're chatting. And then the next thing I know, when I woke up, I was at Cornell Regional.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And they did everything from the blood works to the MRI, the CT, they did everything that they needed to do, and they couldn't find an issue. So I um by the time I left there about 7 p.m., 8 p.m. And the last conversation I had with the doctor was like, you are fine, but you're extremely exhausted. That's the diagnosis, extreme exhaustion. He says, You have to take better care of yourself. So he after he asked me what I did, you know, how I've been functioning, and I said it to him, he says, Yeah, that's the problem. And he says, You're lucky this time. It could have been while you were driving, it could have been at the stop, it could have just been way worse than this. So consider yourself lucky, count yourself blessed. And he gave me about two weeks off, I believe. And I took the time off, and I was like, my goodness, that time my son was probably around seven, eight. And I was like, wait, no, he's my only child, and I cannot imagine my son not having me around. And I said, mm-mm, this has to change. That's always a kicker, you know. That's always a kicker. What was the point of me being great to everybody? But I wasn't being great to myself, and I wasn't being great to my son either. So that was a big change for me in my life and how I functioned and how I saw, how I took care of myself, how I began to operate. It was just a big shift for me. And that was how I really got into the self-care space. I was like, it's my responsibility to take care of myself, not my employee. They they are supposed to provide the conditions, but at the at the core of it, you have the full responsibility. I have full agency over my life, you have full agency over your life, and you have to exercise that agency.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that is so powerful, guys. I feel so guilty. Like I'm hearing Simone E's story, and I feel so guilty because I know that I have worked myself to that point many times, and it is just so unfortunate that we believe that we are going to win some elusive prize every time we're tired. We're at the point of nothing is in the tank, and we keep going.
SPEAKER_01And one of the things that after that, when I it's changed my perspective so much, I would get annoyed whenever there was a company function, and I heard somebody say he's always at work, she's always at work, even when she's sick, even when he's sick, and that we have got to stop rewarding those things.
SPEAKER_02Simone, you are so right. Last week we were in a corporate retreat with some senior executives from a large corporation here in Jamaica, and somebody got up and said they admired, you know, this leader because even when the leader is sick, the leader is coming. And I'm like, cut it out. I was like, listen, stop. Listen, I were so shocked. I'm like, stop it, please. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01I now understand. It is terrible. I want you to reward me because she takes time off to rest. Yes, she understands her boundaries and no, don't send this to someone is after certain hours. She's not gonna look at it.
SPEAKER_02And it's not about it's not about being rigid. I we're not saying we're not preaching rigidity. What we're saying is that you have to honor your body, yes, you have to honor your body, absolutely. You know, and you know, it's so funny. We use scripture for everything else, and then we we dismiss our own well-being when it comes to treat your body like a temple. Exactly. Why are you running yourself down? Don't you know that after you slave yourself over the job, they're going to call me to find somebody to replace you?
SPEAKER_01Don't you know that? And you know, as you say that, one of the things I noticed too, because if you look on the roads, a lot of new cars are on the roads now. These they don't miss the service in deadline. No, they don't miss it. And if they pull up to a gas station and it don't have this the gas that they want, they're not putting the 87 in there. If it's the guy, if they're a car user, 90 or whatever the case. They're you're they're so intentional about what they put in the car, so intentional about when you take the car to this to the dealer to get its service. Why aren't we intentional about how we take care of ourselves? And that is a big part of what I do. We have to be intentional with our recovery.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm so convicted throughout this conversation, Simonese, and you know, I'm I'm happy that you got that experience because it's coming from personal revelations and this is your testimony, and it was so powerful that it led you to want to help other people to change their life. And so, from that experience, you decided that you wanted to start the self-care bar. Yes. And so initially, now you started the self-care bar to do what?
SPEAKER_01So initially we started out as because the self-care bar really evolved into that. So the the vision was the same, but how we started, we actually started as a thrifty style box, and I think you would have probably remembered our packaging then. But this the idea was the same, you know, and over time I was like, I don't think this is landing the way I wanted it to land. And so I sat I took a I took a little break and I said, okay, this is what I'm packaging. These are the people who I want to serve. And so we started off just curating these boxes that would help people to slow down and and recover and regulate their system. And we started targeting corporate people because those are the people who suffer the most. Absolutely, we are the ones who are always on. And we rush through our showers, we rush through our breakfast, we rush through everything. Everything, everything, except the assignments that are on our desk.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. We rush through everything else. Absolutely. And I can speak to it as HR. I'm not afraid. Like we, you know, those are the things that we go slow on. However, um, it's important to note that some people will say, Oh, when you have a desk job, it's not physically um taxing um as someone who is on a construction site. But statistics, statistic and science proves that constantly using your brain is equally, if not more, pressuring on your body. So we'd like to debunk that theory from early. So you do have persons who are out there, you're constantly using your brain. You know, Simonese, I can tell you sometimes Jammer and I, when we have training, all day trainings, I mean, God forbid, especially if you travel, God forbid you have to drive yourself to a hotel because you don't even have energy for that. You don't even want food, you just want to stay abed because you would have given everything out. Yes. And so we have to really spend some time on ourselves. We want to go and take a really quick break. We'll be right back when we come back. We want to talk some more because I think society has completely misconstrued this whole thing about self-care. Oh, yeah. Let's talk some more about that right after this break, guys. Stick and stay. She is the corporate wellness architect and the founder of the self-care bar, and she shared with us our her testimony and how she founded her own company out of the need for sharing with others the importance of taking care of themselves. Now we are just um learning so much. We were just talking about how sometimes people think that when you're in corporate, you don't do as much work as the man out there in construction. But I like to tell people that whether physical or mental, it's it's the same work, it's the same amount of pressure on your body, and we cannot take it for granted.
SPEAKER_01And I would say, NASA the person on the construction site is actually having it. Yes, it's a little, it's a lot more physically taxing, but they are moving, and movement is good for your body. It releases the endorphins, the dopamine, all of that. They are joking. Yes, that's also releasing some of the happy chemicals, you know, and so versus somebody who is sitting at a desk all day mentally processing all these things, three, four, five different requests. They had their own issues to deal with. On top of that, you have um you're you're constantly making these decisions, you know, and then most times when you sit at your desk, you're not eating properly either. So you're struggling with brain fog, you're struggling with decision fatigue, and all of that is taking a toll on your body because your body is really are your body is actually releasing chemicals too, you know, and the cortisol, especially because when you get stressed, you find that your body is releasing more cortisol.
SPEAKER_02More card cortisol, and you are not moving.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. So build up. There's that buildup of cortisol, and you realize why I getting why I putting on the weight. Yes. Why do I feel so dull? Why do I feel so exhausted? It's because you're not moving, you're processing so many things, and and um your brain is not seeing your first of all, your brain is not even built to operate the way we operate. So we think we can just sit down for three hours straight, lot don't know. That the brain is actually designed to operate in sprints, you know, like 90-minute sprints, and you take a break, you have to recover between all of that. So I never recommend meetings after meetings. You need time for your brain to process and to recover. Absolutely. And that is why when you have an all-day training, which I think most times is counterproductive. I think it's best to really have your meetings in sprints and to have breaks between. Because most times it's to check a box.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's usually to check a box, it's a it's an it's a corporate objective, it's it's exactly a department objective. Um, but you know what we do find is that there are ways to be a little bit more creative to break everything up into parts to make it a little bit more uh digestible or palatable, right? But it it is tiring, and then after a period of time, as you mentioned, Simonese, you're getting older. My aunt likes to say you're getting younger, but we know, we know it's not that, right? Uh, you're getting older, and you're saying to yourself, I'm eating less. Why am I putting on more weight?
SPEAKER_01Well, you're not moving, you're not moving, and you're not eating properly, and chances are I guarantee you're not sleeping well either.
SPEAKER_02Oh, oh dear, oh dear.
SPEAKER_01Let's talk about that. It's such a powerful um thing. It's it's uh, it's for me, I think it's a superpower. It is, and everything resets when you sleep. Yes, but the thing is that what's the quality of the sleep that you're getting?
SPEAKER_02That's another thing.
SPEAKER_01And even the other day I decided to start tracking my sleep in depth, and I started wearing a ring, and I was surprised to see that I wasn't sleeping as well as I thought I was. I'm not ready for that disaster. I'm not. And so I started becoming more intentional about how I sleep, more intentional about my wind-down activities before bed, and I realized it was improving. The quality, my sleep quality was really improving, and I started feeling better.
SPEAKER_02Let me tell you like the more aware you are, the more intentional you get about your health and your wellness, the more shocked you become of how reckless you are. Now, since I started my health and wellness journey, you know, Mr. Wright can't tell you. I track my steps, I'm very intentional about exercising, which is walking. You know, I he knows like at some point I'm not answering the phone. The phone could I mean I've had to get to that point. But why did I get that uh strict? Because I I was at a point that I was just totally out of control, to the point that they had to put me on high blood pressure medication, to the point that migraine was just so out, I was having headaches for weeks. Like I got to that point to get to where I am today.
SPEAKER_01And and that's the thing in our body. I always think that our bodies are is such a beautiful machine. Yes, and just like the car has check lights, our body has checklights. Likewise, yes, and the migraine, the the the irritability, all of those things are the signals that hey, you need to take a step back and start taking better care.
SPEAKER_02The dashboard is lighting up, oh yes, and you're ignoring every sign on the dashboard, and so I've had to just like you mentioned, use the tools like your sleep ring, use the tools to track all these different things to make sure that you're taking care of your because guess what?
SPEAKER_01I cannot give you if I cannot give it to me, exactly. And and the thing about that too, Nas is that when you're not sleeping. Well, and you're not able to recover, you're not able to, your hormones are all over the place. You know, it throws off everything, the people around you. You realize it impacts your relationship. You're so irritable. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02You're so irritable. Don't sleep. Go off your hands. And your decision making gets skewed as well.
SPEAKER_01That's crazy. Because you did not get any rest. Exactly. So rest is productive, rest is not something we should negotiate with, rest is something that you should take. And I especially for the corporate ladies and men too, because we tend to forget the men in these conversations. Is that when you go on vacation, you ought to be on vacation. I used when I used to go on vacation, I'd send out my mail to say I will be totally unreachable. Good. Yes. No limited access to email or no, I am totally unreachable.
SPEAKER_02Totally onre. Don't even try. Exactly. Don't even don't WhatsApp me. Right? I'm not, you won't get me to answer anything. Exactly. And and you see, sometimes we call those people unreasonable, but I am now of the perception that they are putting themselves first. And there's a question that I want to ask you. It's so important. Um, so now we're in an era that we are taking self-care to the next level, right? And you know, everybody's talking about a soft life, and we see it on you know Instagram and on TikTok and all these different places. But do you think at some point we have completely misconstrued um this health and wellness intention to turn it into something else?
SPEAKER_01I think so. Absolutely. We've we've overcommercialized it. Um, it sounds nice, it sounds fancy. And so when you talk about wellness, it sounds like okay, we're doing something, and most of what we're doing is really not even the surface of what we're supposed to be doing when it comes to wellness. Because when somebody comes to me and they say, Oh, you know, I live a very soft life, I'll ask them. I say, When was the last time you had a full check with your doctor, a full medical with your doctor?
unknownI love it.
SPEAKER_01When was the last time you did a complete blood work?
SPEAKER_02I love it.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna start using that one, Simone. So I said, Tell me about the software. You know, because the soft life thing is the brunches, you know, the cute dresses, the vacations, and all of that. That's how it looks like there's nothing um hard about it. But that's not what self-care really is. Self-care is intentional work, it's stewardship. It's everything that you do intentionally to allow your body to respond to the demands of life, you know, family, work, your relationships, all of that. Self-care is you assessing the three core things about you how you relate to yourself, how you relate to people, and how you relate to your work. That's powerful. So I think we need to stop this soft-life era thing. Nothing is wrong with it, but it's not aesthetics. Exactly. It's not about the aesthetics of it, it's about the intentional practices, it's about how you really separate your sleep time, your recovery time by being alone, you know, just um resting. How you eat. When you see soft life, all you see the champagne gases and the wine and all of that. And no new traditional. Yes, no, yeah, and putting yourself in debt to live a soft life.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. No, absolutely. I was getting to that, and I was actually going to share a very simple, simple example. I remember saying to one colleague, I was saying to him, Since I've been on this journey of changing my diet and eating certain things and so on, I said, My supermarket bill is so expensive. And he said, Nas, start with what you have. And I use that principle up to this day. So he was saying, instead of going out there and buying the most expensive yogurt there is, start with what you have. What do you have in your house that you you actually know is high in protein, low in calories, low in carbs, and you do that. You love tuna, eat tuna. Sardi, this is a dish. You like you like sardi? Oh, it's my goal. Go and do that. That was what he was saying, and it made a world of a difference. It made a world of a difference, and you know what it did? It forced me to go and research. I am a girl. I grew up in the ghetto, I'm not afraid to tell you. I love kidney. I don't love liver like that, but I love kidney, and I said, hmm, I need to start researching some of these um cuisines. What are the benefits? When I start reading up what they are actually good for, I was like, listen, this is gold.
SPEAKER_01It is that's self-care. Yeah, and self-care is about allowing your food to be a medicine. Because for me, one of my goals is not to be on medication. I don't want to be on medication, I want to be around to play with my grandkids and all of that. So medication doesn't correct anything, it helps you to manage. So I have some health goals that I have in mind that I work towards. So even some of the yogurts that you were talking about, if you should read a label, it's filled with sugar. Yes, and sugar is like legal crack. That's how I see it. It is, it is, and I know some people may get offended when you say that, but sugar is so terrible for you. It is, and if you should, I believe that everybody, if you're in your soft girl era, if you're in your self-care, your wellness era, then you must become a label reader. Yes, in indeed.
SPEAKER_02Yes, you need to know everything that's going into your body, into your body, and yeah, and can we also add as well that self-care is not just the food? Oh no, it's and it's not just what we're wearing and the work, it's also what we're digesting in terms of words and and and what we're the environment, yes, yeah, the environment we're in, the situations we put ourselves in, and so it's important that we are evaluating all these things.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. It's also, you know, it's creates it's looking at the different spheres of your life and creating your boundaries around those. I love that. You know, it's um a lot of people tend to miss the environment, and a lot of us thrive better when we remove ourselves from certain environments. It could be your job, it could be where you live, it could be the friends that you keep. So your environment is critical because your environment affects your mood more than you think. You know, sometimes you'll hear people say, I just want to get out of the house, I just want to get out of this place. That's because it's a big part of it, and your spirituality too. Because you can be successful and still feel unfulfilled and disconnected. So it's how you look at the different um what I call columns in your life. Yes. And make sure that when you come when you think of you, when you think of how you perform as your best self, this is what I need to be spiritually, this is how I need to be financially, this is how I need to be physically to be able to function well, and that's what self-care is really about.
SPEAKER_02You know what I'm hearing with this discussion as we have come to the end of it. What I'm hearing is the woman who focuses on the health, um, health and wellness, or let's just say self-care or wellness in general, is an intentional woman. Oh, yes, professional that focuses on wellness is uh intentional, professional. That's what I'm gathering from what you are sharing. It is because deliberate, yes, intentional because all those columns that you have mentioned, you are saying that we have to be intentional about what we're eating, how we're working, our sleep, what we're putting into our mind, yes, and our body our internal dialogue. Yes, that's important. It's it's such a well-rounded conversation, Simonis. What do you have coming up that we can get on board with you on, or what do you have to offer out there to corporate or to other persons? How can we reach you?
SPEAKER_01So I'm happy you asked that. Firstly, you can reach me on Instagram or across all social media platforms at the Self Care Bar Jamaica or via my website at TSBJA.com. You can also reach me on WhatsApp, 551-2020. That's 876-551-2020. In terms of what I have coming up, I have the woman in command um coaching program that's coming up. It's a very powerful um coaching program. It looks at your entire being, and it's not about any inspiration or aspirational thing. It looks deep, it goes very deep, so you can look at every single sphere of your life to determine okay, this is where I am, this is where I need to get. We also have a conference coming up. We'll share more about that. So just stay tuned to our pages at the Self Care Bar Jamaica on Instagram and on our website.
SPEAKER_02Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much for being here with us on the designers of change. I tell you guys, you know, everybody that comes on our uh our seat or platform, they are all designing something to change the world. Simonese is no different, and it's a pleasure to sit with you. Um, this conversation hits home because I myself have had to make some very personal and tough changes. But guess what? I must see my generations later on.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, yes, thank you. You're welcome, Nass. And I just want to close by saying, guys, your highest priority is you. Yes, you because if there is nothing matters if you're not okay, so you have to learn to pour into you more to make sure that you're operating at your best.
SPEAKER_02Powerful. Thank you, Nice for having me. Special thank you to our amazing sponsors, to Mind Food International Super Lative Auto, J Smyra Media, Jesse's Home Decor, The Self Care Bar, Amanda's Kitchen Grace Crates, also to uh regional consulting services, all the way in K-Man, MAGS247 Wrecking Services, and also to SKR, Proactive Lifestyle. We want to say a huge thank you for all who have watched us today, participated over on YouTube, on all the streaming platforms. Subscribe, stick and stay, and we'll be back for more.