The Effects Of Social Media And Mental Health At Work

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's Be Diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones supporting me through this journey. Today, our topic is the effects of social media and mental health at work. My guest today is Shonta Hooks. Welcome to the show, Shante. Thank you so much for joining me today. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Thank you. Excited to be here. [00:00:33] Speaker B: I'm excited to have you on here. How are things with you? What's going on in your world? [00:00:38] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. So many things. You know, I specialize in belonging and mindfulness, and so I teach people, particularly organizations and in corporate spaces, how to navigate the corporate experience, the leadership experience, with a bit more presence so that they feel more connected and feel a greater sense of belonging at work. And, you know, I say that to set up the answer to how things are going. It's going really well. And the reason, I think, is, you know, post Covid, we have all experienced a bit of an uptick and, you know, really appreciating and valuing mental wellness, which has really opened the door for people like me that have a passion for, you know, really elevating mental wellness in the workspace and dealing with, you know, life such as the impacts of social media and how it affects us at. In our personal lives and our professional lives. [00:01:30] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I think too, that what Covid did is it made us think of the things that we felt were so important. So I know that you're pretty similar to me. I am very much a social be. I'm a social butterfly. I like to be around people. I like to talk to people. I see people. And it was just not allowing me to see people. And that was kind of one of the things that was kind of bothering me the most is that I wasn't able to see the people that I cared about and that I loved. And it was really, was really hard. So something. Something that we had to deal with. So getting a chance to be around those people again is super. It's amazing, and it's a lot different. And it gives us an opportunity to. To say the things that we probably, you know, maybe that maybe not have had the chance to say. And which is. Which is really nice. I'm one that says. That says what's in my heart. And I, I. If I can't say it, then it. It kind of. It's like a stick in my craw. It's like, I just hate it. [00:02:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, I can relate. [00:02:36] Speaker B: Well, I, I'm glad to hear that things are going well and things are buzzing for you and things are going smooth. We had a little bit of a conversation before, before we be get going here. I like I always have a fun thought provoking question to get things going. Are you ready for yours today? [00:02:56] Speaker A: I am. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Okay, your question is, is it acceptable to eat pizza with a fork and a knife? [00:03:05] Speaker A: Absolutely. I'm from Detroit. I'm originally from Detroit, Michigan, which means I have close proximity to Chicago. And you know, Chicago is known for its pizza, but Detroit is actually also known for their style of pizza, Detroit style pizza, which is gotten popular nationwide I think over the last like 10, 10 years or so. And it is a thick crust pizza, more like a Sicilian similar kind of like a hybrid between Sicilian and Chicago style. And so sometimes you absolutely, you know, don't mind eating it with a knife and fork because it's so thick. But yeah, as Michiganders we don't mind that, that eating pizza with the fork at all. [00:03:47] Speaker B: I see a lot of Canadians I think are okay with it. There are a lot of Canadians that will eat it and for fold it it's. Yeah, a lot of people have do the fold thing where they fold it in half. Yeah. I will admit to you and the listeners I am a fork and a knife eater of my pizza. I like to eat it all the way until the crust and I will eat the crust with my hand. But okay, the rest of the pizza, I will eat it with a fork and a knife. But you talk about Chicago pizza. I had the opportunity to, to travel to Chicago many, many eons ago and I did have a chance to have a Chicago deep dish pizza. And man alive, it was a just to die for. It was something that I will remember for if I ever get back there. I will definitely go for one. But yes, it was a memorable experience. So good, so tasty, so thick. It was absolutely delicious for sure. [00:04:45] Speaker A: Agreed. [00:04:47] Speaker B: Well, thanks so much for having fun with me. That was pretty quick answer. I loved it. Why don't we get things started with you telling us a little about you, your story and your why Shanti. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Sure. So what I do now is very different from what I started out doing. So you know, I started out my career 20 years ago working in public accounting. As a matter of fact, I was a CPA. I worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in an external audit and then after a few years there I transitioned into internal audit. And for the next 20 years I really worked in corporate compliance, governance I did some risk, a lot of risk management also. I was a transformation leader mostly within the financial services industry. And probably about five years ago I started to. It was like two things were happening at once. One, I was starting to get more opportunities to speak and was really enjoying it. I enjoy, I've always enjoyed, you know, I always enjoyed like public speaking, giving presentations. Like I've never really been afraid of it like most people are. And so I was starting to ask for those opportunities in my career. At the same time I was also really getting into meditation from my personal life. I was experiencing, this is about 2018, I was experiencing a lot of stress from being a new mom at the Sun. At the time my son was one year old. I had also been in the midst of really grieving the death of my father, who had been sick for the prior 14 years. And so a lot of trauma considering what I experienced with my dad, who I was very close to. And I was in this new position at my job where I was just really in sort of a toxic work environment in a way that I had never experienced. And there was like this perfect storm of stress that literally led me to meditation. And prior to this, I was not a believer in meditation. I didn't understand it, I didn't believe in it. But in around 2018, I started to hear about it a little bit more and then I started to make decisions that I wanted to learn it. You know, like setting New Year's Eve, New Year's goals and or New Year resolutions and setting goals. I'm going to start learning how to meditate. And then sometime in 2019, I started to take it seriously. Meaning I took some classes, I read some books, I watched a lot of videos and documentaries. And within six months of really going on this journey of understanding, I became a practitioner. So much so that I was meditating every day for around 20 minutes a day. And it was really starting to affect my life, my personal life, but specifically my career problems that I was having prior to meditation where suddenly I was able to see solutions as well as relationships that I was struggling with. Suddenly I saw path for a path forward to connection. But also I felt for the first time in my, I don't know, 15 year career at that time, I finally felt connected to the work that I was doing. I no longer saw it as I'm not supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be doing something else. I started to see like, no, I actually like this work. I enjoy understanding these processes. I have an analytical mind. I love numbers. All these things were starting to make sense. So my attitude was improving, which meant that my work product was improving. This is right before COVID So we're talking leading up to 2020, and then Covid happened, where we were all forced into this seemingly sense of disconnection and hard work. Hr. I was working closely with HR teams at the time, and they were some of the most stressed teams in the organization trying to mobilize resources, send people home, and do all the things that they were doing. And people were really, really stressed. And I wasn't. I had a very, like, sort of Zen demeanor. I was still sort of operating at a high performance, high potential. And people started to ask me what I was doing. And that's. That's how the story started to unfold, with me just sharing. Well, I really got into meditation. Have you tried it? And one conversation becomes another conversation to where I started to be asked to give talks to my team. And after a couple talks, I said, I like this. You know, this is what I asked for. I wanted to start, you know, speaking. I didn't think it would be virtual in this way, but I like doing this. I would love to have a space where I can do this on a continuous basis. So me being, you know, deeply into meditation. What happens when you meditate? Your prefrontal cortex, which is the decision making area of your brain? This is through studies, a lot of studies, one being a Harvard study, where they showed how the prefrontal cortex, which controls decision making, gets bigger and stronger, and the amygdala, which controls your fight flight, freeze responses get smaller, meaning less, less strong. And that was happening to me. So I started a community. I was like, I went from literally giving a few talks to saying, hey, I'm going to start a community. Anybody want to join, raise your hand. We'll meet the third Friday of the month. Let's get together and talk about mindfulness and how it can improve our workplace experience and help us reduce stress during this extremely stressful time. Five people showed up at first, and after more, you know, consistent. Having this consistent community space, after about 18 months, the community grew to, like, over 500 people. And I had, yeah, I had developed, you know, dozens of workshops, I had facilitated courses and all the, like, this whole new career bloomed. And so I, you know, after about a year or so in that space, I started my business, Mindful Culture Creators, while still serving as a governance vice president at a Fortune 100 bank. I had my business, I had my mindfulness community, I had my corporate job. And Then life got really like, I experienced one of those sort of ego shattering experiences where, you know, it led to me saying, you know what, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. So last November I quit my job, I resigned from my corporate job to pursue my business full time. And the intention behind my business, whether I'm speaking or teaching workshops is really the same, is to help improve the employee experience, the workplace experience, by stimulating a sense of connection and belonging through neuroscience backed mindfulness practices so that we can all have better experiences at work. [00:11:07] Speaker B: Phenomenal story. Like so many things that resonated with me. First of all, congratulations on figuring it out. I, I, I feel like we don't, a lot of us are not figuring it out and, and you figured it out. So congratulations on, on that. And what I love about your story is the, the meditation process and, and figuring out mindfulness and getting together with people. And I just love that story that it turned to like from, started from five and went to 500 people. That is amazing. That just means that whatever you were doing began to resonate with people and what you were speaking, people were, were buying into it and they were probably telling their friends, oh, you got to come Shante. You got to see, hear Shante speak. And you gotta, you gotta hear this, you gotta be part of this. You're gonna, you're gonna love it. And then not, those people told people and it just was a continuing, continuing thing. So whatever you did, kudos to you because it sounds like it is a very up, uplifting thing. I saw one of your videos that you had on LinkedIn the other day and it just looked like such a fun, uplifting experience, fun time. And that's exactly what people are looking for these days. I, I think yes, we want our money, we want to make money, we want to, we want to pay, we have to pay our bills. But I feel like the important things are things that people are looking for now. Especially people who are working in companies are looking for more. They want more. They want to have, I call what I call a safe work environment where they can go into work every day and not have to worry, is something gonna happen? Or what's my day? You know, waking up in the morning going, oh my God, what is today gonna bring me, right? You want to be like, you know, I love to say the word, I get to. So I love when, you know, when I can think of, I get to do something and when people can get to say, I get to go to work today and I get to do this Or I get to do that, or I get to go to a meeting with Shantae today and speak with all my friends and everybody that goes, like, stuff to look forward to for sure. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. And, you know, the funny thing is, as you were talking, I thought about the fact that the community and I did have a team. It wasn't me by myself. Like, I ended up recruiting a team. It became a mini, like, micro business within my life and myself with the team. It was all organic growth. We didn't have a social media engine behind us to promote this. We had a teams chat that still continues on to this day, even though I've exited the company. We had, like you said, word of mouth. We had people that were showing up that were really serious about their own mental wellness and their personal and professional development and really just frustrated with feeling stuck. And we were able to grow this into a community that really transformed the organization's point of view and strategy around mental wellness. So much so that since I've exited, they've made massive investments beyond me into resources and companies and experiences for the employees, because that's how much impact that this work had on this. Again, Fortune 100 financial institution. It's a pretty incredible story. [00:14:37] Speaker B: It sure is. Sure is. So that's a great segue. So again, our conversation is social media and its effect on mental health in the workplace. So how does social media affect mental health in the workplace? [00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it is a very complex tool, what we have, you know, created with this engine called social media. And I think, you know, with everything in life. And again, I have a risk management background, so I always equate these kind of questions to risk. Social media creates a huge risk, and it also has tremendous rewards. Right. I mean, we see organizations, you know, I think of. I think of like, Wendy's, right. You know, and how their social media appears to be very engaging. And the way they run their social media, even if you're not a burger fan, you kind of want to check them out because it seems fun and cool and. And it's like, it's a vibe, right? So that's what social media can do. It can, you know, especially for an organization, it can provide a vibe that is, you know, much more lighthearted than what we're able to show in our workspaces. That's the reward. But the risk is the same risk that we all have. It's a distraction, you know, and it creates. And I mean, more so from the employee experience. I mean, the reality is we're all addicted to it. And the funny thing is, as much as I love LinkedIn, you know, and that's the primary social media tool that, you know, that we sort of use in the workplace. And it's sanctioned, right? You know, like now this is, we're in this interesting space where employees are posting on behalf of companies, you know, big time tagging companies in LinkedIn. And the idea or the thing that I want to really speak to from a mental wellness perspective is that we're all just already so distracted and now we have this extra layer of distraction in a tool like LinkedIn which has really fit into the workplace because now we turn back into children that need that star. And we're promoting. And it's great, especially for a business owner, promoting where we're speaking and where we are and our promotions and our awards and shaking hands with the CEO, but the reality is those are the experiences that create that imposter syndrome and comparison syndrome. And those that are viewing it, not that it's the person that posted it, it's not that it's their responsibility to not post because of someone else getting imposter syndrome or a comparison, but it's just here, right? No different from Instagram and the risks and the implications to society at work. And so that's why my answer really, because what we're talking about is distraction. And the answer to distraction is learning how to notice when you're distracted. And it seems so simple and it seems almost like too obvious, but it's extremely difficult because that is what distraction is. You're not present. And so it's like, how do I be present when I'm not present? Right? It's a bit of a paradox. And the reality though is that when you practice mindfulness, when you practice meditation, that's what you're practicing. You're practicing awareness, particularly mindfulness, as I define it, is non judgmental awareness on purpose, right? You know, paying attention on purpose without judgment. And the more you practice that in the container of meditation or in the container of a, of a, of a practice, you know, meaning a 10 minute sound meditation or a guided meditation or yoga movement practices. When you practice being aware now, you suddenly are changing your brain chemistry in such a way that you're more, you have a higher probability of noticing that moment of distraction. So when we are mindlessly picking up our phones, which I am 1000% guilty of, I am not healed from this. None of us are. You know, when we mindlessly pick up our phones and we just wanted to check, I have a LinkedIn notification right here, right now on my phone, I'm looking at my phone. I just want to check this LinkedIn notification. It should take me two seconds. But now I mindlessly ended up on Instagram and then navigated to an article and then navigated to a YouTube video. And it could all be related to work, but I'm still not present in the work that I'm doing. And not being present creates internal stress and frustration and that's what leads to the poor mental health. So it's something that companies really need to be aware of and be willing to invest money in really helping their employees learn how to minimize the risk of distraction and learn how to improve their sense of presence and awareness so that they can better risk manage all of the implications of social media today. [00:19:13] Speaker B: What really resonated with me when you said that you're talking about a presence and worrying about, you know, being children and we're worrying about who's looking at our stuff. It made me think of first off, the LinkedIn people posting. I've seen so many people posting on LinkedIn, all the algorithm must be off because of what I'm posting. Last couple of weeks, nobody's commented on it. So people are saying that and, and I think of myself, who's been a podcaster for over a year now and worrying about, you know, when I first started worrying about, oh, how many people are listening and you know, and that. And I, I think we need to just, we have you mentioned aware. I think we have to have awareness of what's going on, but we also have to be aware that even though somebody's not maybe commenting or somebody that's not, you know, if they're not saying anything about your post, they're, they still might be looking at it. There's a lot of what I call LinkedIn lurkers. They don't comment on anything. They just search. They look through what people are posting, they look and see what thing, but they don't comment and they don't post anything. They're just out there looking. And you can tell that those people, because I myself have tried to have conversations with some of these people and they didn't wanna, they. I didn't hear anything from them. So for me, that tells me they are, which is okay. They just don't want to be in a conversation and that's all right, that's okay. I'm not hurt, I'm not disappointed. I totally understand. So what, when we, when we're aware of what's happening, I think we understand what's important. I mean, I've gotten people that have messaged me from, from India, from Thailand, from Germany, who I've never met. I've never been to any of these places, but ever in my life. And I've never spoken to these people, but yet they were messaging me saying, I checked out one of your episodes and I really enjoyed it. And you're like, wow, I've. I don't know, this person never spoke to them. So I think we have to understand the effect of what we're, what we're putting out there and that it's going to hit eventually, the people that we're going to. To hit. If you were worried about algorithms when you were starting what you were starting, I think, you know, maybe you may not be where you are today, or maybe you never would have got to 500 people going to those meetings. But you, you guys, you were not worried. You thought, listen, I have a good program. I have good content, and I have good people who are here, and we're just gonna grow it just like that and continue to grow it and continue to grow it. And I think that's the message that we have to understand. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And it's amazing. The feedback that I get, you know, is, you know, especially now that I'm doing this as my business, under my brand, Mindful Culture Creators, and mostly through keynoting, through giving workshops. And typically, I work with HR organizations, learning and development leaders to really help people see what you just said, that when we start to look inside ourselves, when we start to be more present, be still, we create greater clarity in our brain, in our head, in our emotions. And with that clarity, suddenly things that used to really bother us, you know, such as algorithms and how many people are liking my post or if you're even just translating that to the workplace experience, you know, I didn't like the tone of that person's voice in that meeting, or I don't like the tone of this email. And then suddenly the description of your team is, I'm in a toxic team. Right, because you have concluded that this tone, right, it bothers your nervous system in such a way that your conclusion leads to you having an unpleasant work experience. And what my attendee, the attendees of my sessions, which I think I quantified it at, like, over close to 8,000 people that I've spoken to through webinars and keynote speaking. And in my communities, both in and out of corporate environments, what people always tell me is that when they start to actually take stillness seriously, when they Start to actually do what I did, you know, take a beginner's mind on this, enter a place of study. Whether you show up to my sessions, whether you find a YouTube video, whether you hear me on Hear Me or other thought leaders in this space. On podcasts like this podcast, go, you know, be curious, go down this rabbit hole of understanding, of getting to understanding, of how you can practice more stillness in your life so that you simply aren't as bothered, you know, and that's what social media does, it creates this. It's like it's really improving or, I'm sorry, increasing our collective angst, you know, and it's really throwing our collective nervous system off. And there's two parts of the nervous system. I'm a nerd about this stuff. So I like to understand it from the, from the, you know, sort of physiological perspective. But you know, there's the sympathetic nervous system which controls your fight and flight, your stress, your cortisol, and then there's the parasympathetic part of your nervous system which is the part of you that gets to relaxation and calm. And one of the. If you were to google, because obviously if you hear that from someone, if someone tells you there's two parts of your nervous system, the part that controls stress and the part that controls rest, the next question should be, well, how do I activate the part that controls rest? Like if I'm in a state of stress, how do I get to the rest? That should be the question. Well, if you were to Google that, how do I activate my parasympathetic nervous system? Do you know what one of the number one things that comes up in the search is? [00:25:25] Speaker B: No clue. [00:25:26] Speaker A: Deep breaths. [00:25:27] Speaker B: Wow, There you go. [00:25:29] Speaker A: Deep breaths. I mean, and there are other things too, but almost every single list that you look at includes deep breathing. That's how important it is to our, to our physical, mental, emotional well being. And all you have to do to activate it, to go from a state of anger and frustration, intense and stress literally cortisol shooting through your body simply to keep you safe as a human being, the only thing you need to do to go from that to a state of rest and calm is take deep breaths. [00:25:57] Speaker B: Amazing. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And so to know, but to learn that because we, most of us weren't taught that. So if you don't know that, then it behooves us to get curious about that and learn how we can make that a habit. And those are the types of classes that I teach in the workplace. [00:26:11] Speaker B: Amazing. So Shanti, I think we Kind of, I think we kind of talked about a little bit, but I want to kind of dig in this a little bit deeper, especially for our listeners here. What is the stigma around social media and mental health? [00:26:27] Speaker A: You know, the stigma one is, is the distrust that people have. You know, with social media, there's a lot of information. It's a free marketplace of information. And so how do you know what's right? How do you know what's correct? How do you know what's accurate? But then even beyond that, even when you're on a mental wellness journey where you are intentionally choosing to improve your mental health, your mental wellness, your habits, your lifestyle habits, and let's say you clean up your social media so that all of your content that comes into your feed is personal development, professional development, so on and so forth. Well, the risk stigma is that now you can become addicted to that content, right? And so you find yourself on this interesting hamster wheel where you are getting content that helps you improve, that helps you learn, rather. But now because of the algorithm, because it's literally, I mean, it's literally designed to keep you on the device, to keep you on the application. And the social media works hand in hand with the device itself. They're sending each other data to make sure that you keep that device in your hand. And, you know, it's really kind of ominous if you think about it. You know, if you think about the dopamine rush, which is really not that different from, you know, certain drugs that are literally illegal, you know, because of their addictive nature. Yet this whole system is not only legal, it's a part of the way we live, it's a part of the way we work. It's, it's not something that we're going to get away from or end especially anytime soon. So as I said before, what we really need to be doing is risk management. You know, we really need to be risk managing the risk of these stigmas, which is addiction, you know, and that addiction leads to a negative impact on your self image, on your self worth. As I said before, you know, you're seeing this content that is literally neurologically putting you into states of unworthiness and states of imposter syndrome and states of comparison syndrome and states of frustration and so on and so forth. And again, it's happening, right? You know, most of us are on it, most of us use it. And what we need to do is again, be aware, have some better habits, start to replace the tool itself with other forms of self development, other forms of wellness. Other forms of connection. Social media was never meant to be our soul sense of connection. We allowed it to morph into that. There are so many different ways to enhance, stimulate and experience connection and belonging. And once we start experiencing those outside of the devices, suddenly we have a more holistic way of approaching our lives and we don't even realize we're not using the phone as much as we, as we were used to. [00:29:11] Speaker B: When you said we talked about distress the thing that made me think of that is somebody automatically like having a rough day at work. They, and they're like oh what do I do? And they don't have anybody really to. They might ask a friend or two whatever but automatically that's the first thing they what do I, you know talks what do I do if you, if I'm in a toxic work environment and then they, they plug it in and yes, you might get some good ideas on what to do and not. But I agree with you as far as the, you know, there's a little bit of distrust there. So I think we, we can't just let it be the be all and end all of the solutions. I think we have to find different ways to figure out what to do in those situations. Yeah, absolutely. We can Google it, we can use, we can use it for tools and stuff. Absolutely. I Google stuff when I don't know something I'll google it doesn't necessarily mean that it's right but I'll google it to kind of have a little bit of familiarity to it because I don't know when as a leader I, I believe that I don't want to say something that I don't know so I'll, I'll learn as much as I can of it doesn't necessarily mean that I am a full on expert on that topic but you know to have a little bit of understanding on it is, is what I do. That's how I use it as a tool but I don't use it as a. Oh well Google said this so this is what, this is what it is because there's different ways of looking at things and different ways of seeing things. So we have to kind of look at different. There's like this way, this way but there's never any like this is the absolute waiter is always different ways of looking at things. For sure. [00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah yeah. And you know and actually another thing that I thought of and I think it would be really important to mention as it relates to the stigmas with social media. So another thing that I was thinking about as you were talking is it creates these echo chambers, right? You have these echo chambers, and one employee that's having a bad day, you know, before, they may just share that in their, you know, small cubicle area. And we know how that energy spreads, right? You know, one employee having a bad day can now mean the whole team has a bad day. But now with social media and to your point, you know, people will put that on social media, ask for advice, and they. And the risk that we have is that we sit in our echo chambers and it can really, if you think about it, it can have a huge negative impact on organizational culture, right? Even if we're not even talking about people that work in the same company, it's really about their experience. So, you know, for example, you know, myself as a black woman, I absolutely have experienced toxicity at work. I've experienced microaggressions. I've experienced, you know, things in the workplace that at the time I concluded were happening to me because I am because of my race, because of my gender. Right. Or because of my appearance. And let's say that I put that on social media. I put the experience on social media, and now I'm getting so many people that are validating that experience, and now my perception is just going to get worse, right? I'm going to continue to see more of that because I'm seeing more of it outside of my work environment. And again, it's not to say that the organization has a responsibility to do anything about this because we're sort of in this space where we're all figuring it out together. But what the individual employees need to understand is that whether you're using social media in your personal life or your professional life, do understand that it is an environment of everything, right? It's like you have this massive set of data, and I used to work in data analytics, and you just have like all types of data. It's like so much data. Until you make sense of that data, not only is it meaningless, it's confusing, right? And so when your social media is sort of similar, it's everybody's opinion about everything. It's a bunch of data. So don't take it too seriously, right? If you have problems with your work environment, you know, talk to your teams, indulge in some of the workplace tools that companies, if you're working for a good company that they're investing in, you know, take some leadership development courses, don't use social media in a way that is going to negatively sway your perception of your organization, because that's just a lot of data. Use your own experiences to shape your perception of your organization and absolutely use real human and connected ways to solve some of those problems. [00:34:06] Speaker B: So we talked about the effects of social media and mental health in the workplace. We talked about the stigma. How do we talk about social media and mental health at work? How do we have those conversations? [00:34:25] Speaker A: I think just like we're having them right now, you know, I think setting up fireside chats, you know, meeting employees where they are, you know, if your organization is used to having fireside chats, then, you know, have those conversations, you know, and organizations, you know, hopefully they're paying attention to the, you know, to the vibe of employee social media. Right. You know, and it shouldn't, I don't believe it should be policed. I'm totally against that. But we need to have a really good sense of, you know, of how it's impacting the employee experience. And the only way that you can really get that information is by asking your employees, you know, and making sure that social media is included in the mental wellness discussion. You know, we often talk about stress in a really broad way, but we now know, especially post Covid, the impact that social media specifically has on our mental health, particularly in younger demographics and how it is impacting their self image is impacting their self worth. Filters are impacting the way that they physically see themselves, and it's creating a whole mess of social media problems. So when we talk about mental wellness, we have to start getting really specific about what some of these triggers are beyond the workplace experience and burnout and work life balance and parenting and all these other things. Social media needs to be a part of that conversation because in my opinion, I think that it really has created probably one of the biggest mental health crises of a lot of generations. And I think there's a lot of data to support that, which is again why I do the work that I do. When I first started doing this work, I was seeing how people were really suffering because they couldn't have that connection and because of the stress of COVID because of the impact that it was impact, the impact it was bringing on their work lives. The burnout that it was causing at the time, the racial stress that was happening in the country with the George Floyd murder. There were all these things happening and people needed safe spaces to express themselves. And sure, you can do that on social media, but that's information and data. The real work is when you get together in community and you can actually learn. You can't learn from 90 second, sound bites. And that's what the algorithm favors. When all of your knowledge comes from sound bites, the quality of your knowledge will be sound bites. Right? And you never really get to understanding. And so investing in people like me that speak and teach and really are passionate about transforming workplace experience through these types of conversations and through community, I think it's probably the number one thing that we can all be doing to ensure that we mitigate the risk of mental health as it relates to social media. [00:37:15] Speaker B: Ten years ago, I had a friend of mine who came to me telling me that some sort of issue at work, them and their teammates were, or co workers were meeting with the manager on a specific day and they were talking about these things that were going on and the mental health and the struggles that they were, that they were having. The manager at the time was just asking them what was going on, and they were answering him, telling him their feelings or thoughts. He was dismissing it. He was basically telling them how they were feeling. So I always talk about this a lot, Shantay, and it's being seen, heard, valued, and understood. And that particular situation, he. He wasn't doing any of that. He was basically telling them, asking them what they were feeling and then telling them, well, this is why, or this is why this is happening, and this is why this is happening. He wasn't actually taking the time to listen. So I love when you talk about getting together and talking about those things, and I feel like when we have those discussions, then it can turn into be a beautiful panel discussion where people can kind of voice their thoughts and their feelings and their. And what they're going through. And there's so much support that can come from that. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's so common, right? You know, that experience of you have a problem and you try to go about it, you know, in a connected way and having a conversation, but you receive, you know, sort of a shutdown energy where you don't feel seen, valued, heard, understood, which really is a definition of belonging. Right. You know, to really feel seen by your team, by your peers, by your community. Community and that. And there's. There's a ton of research that shows how not feeling a sense of belonging at work and in our personal lives impacts our mental health, that people that have a strong sense of connection and belonging to their environment have better rates of mental health, of improved mental health. And so these conversations go hand in hand. You know, we need to continue to prioritize mental wellness, I think, in different ways too. You know, like, it often is done in sort of ways that I think people are kind of, we get it right. We know we need to eat right. We know we need to exercise. We know we have access to therapists. We know we have access to, you know, EAP and wellbeing coaches and all these things. People know what to do. You know, for all intents and purposes, the solutions haven't changed for thousands of years, right? You know, you do certain things and you get a certain output. The formula hasn't changed. People know what to do. What they don't know is how to train their brain to get into the habit of doing it, right? And so mindfulness is one of those tools. It solves that problem, right? It solves the problem of how do I allow my brain to be in a position that when I interpret a problem, I now know that I can pause. And one of my mantras that I teach my students is honor the pause. You know, and I say it all the time, honor the pause. When you know to honor the pause. And you know this through practice, through repetition, you practice that, you know, as opposed to practicing. I mean, you can still work out and eat healthy and all those things, but introduce something new into your habits, such as practicing the pause. And the more you practice that pause, the more it'll show up in those interactions to where suddenly, instead of concluding that you already have the answer about this employee's problem, you actually listen, right? And you listen. And so when you listen, you get data, you get information that you didn't get when your ears were closed to it. So you literally just get more information that you can use to make a different decision. Or if you're the employee that's having the problem, you don't necessarily just run to social media or run to your echo chamber to have, you know, your feelings validated. It's one thing to have your feelings validated. It's another thing to have an open community and safe space with someone that can actually do something about it. So now you practice the pause. And instead of just running to the social media site, maybe you actually do go to eap, or maybe you do talk to that manager. Maybe you do take this more connected path to resolving this problem. And now if we have 500 people or if we improve that in an organization, right, by 5%, think about the implication that means to profit. Think about the implication that means to retention. Think about the implication that means to brand reputation and employee morale. It's. It's massive. And that is simply by honoring the pause. [00:42:17] Speaker B: And when you talk about honoring the pause. I love that. It's. It's all about being vulnerable, I think, and because years ago we weren't. And like you said before, these things were happening years ago, but nobody was talking about it. And now we're putting titles, we're putting things to talk about these things. I mean, I never started working. I never heard about mindfulness or toxic workplaces or, or anything like that. I never heard anything like that. Now I'm hearing it, which is so great for me to hear that stuff. Every time I hear people talking about it, it puts a. It just lights me up. It puts a smile on my face because it means that it's. It's. The importance of it is growing. And the more that we talk about it, the more it's gonna grow, the more it's gonna happen. So I, I agree with you 100 even. Like you said, if we just do it 5% even do, 2%, like just a percentage, just do it a little bit and it's. You're gonna see a total difference for sure. Shantay, how do you think the hometown, your hometown or city that you grew up in molded you into the individual that you are today? [00:43:34] Speaker A: Oh, I love this question so much. You know, as I said before, I'm a proud Detroiter. And Detroit is a really interesting city because on one hand, it's extremely industrial and, you know, the home of the automotive industry. Really a blue collar town, very down to earth, where people really are very authentic. Detroit people are extremely authentic. We have a lot of pride in where we're from. And we've been through a lot. You know, we've been through a lot of public sort of humiliation even, you know, really a rise and fall story. And so you have that aspect of it, but you also have this side of Detroit that's extremely creative, that is, you know, the hub of so many musical forms and genres, and a city that was really, its reputation was really rooted in the creative, in the arts on a massive level. And that is who I am at my core. Like, there's a part of me that is very. I won't say blue collar, but very quantitative. You know, the accountant side of me and the part of me that speaks in risk and neuroscience and, you know, very logical, and you have that blue collar, authentic brand to myself. But then there's a part of me that's extremely creative. You know, I'm writing a book and I'm actually a performer at heart. I love to sing, I love to dance. I love to bring those elements of myself even to the stage, you know, which, you know, creates a more connected experience with the audiences that I really serve. You know, whether it's virtual, in person, small group, large group, it doesn't matter. I bring all of that, all of Detroit to myself. So much so that in Detroit, a very popular way that we greet each other is with the phrase what up, though? And what up, though is our way of literally saying hi. Like, we'll see. You know, I'll see a cousin. And it's like, hey, what up, though? What up, though? And that's how. And it's very popular. So when I do my sessions, I always say that. You know, I always say it. In the last session I did in Orlando a couple weeks ago, they were so into it that by the end of the session, they were yelling, what up, though? And so we have a cool video where, you know, they're all like, what up, though? And I tell that story because that is, you know, I'm saying the word doe, D O E, which is. Which is short for though. I explained it that way because this is like Ebonics, right? This is like poor grammar. This is. This is not something that 10, five, maybe, I don't know. Even more recent five, 10 years ago, I would not have been saying what up, though. You know, this sort of colloquialism and this very informal way of communicating, albeit very close to how I communicate, you know, my language. I would not have been comfortable sharing that authentic side of myself in the corporate environment. And now it doesn't matter, right? It's a phrase that connects me to other people. It is my authenticity. It's a representation of where I'm from. And I never get anyone that says, that's so unprofessional that you said, what up, doe. I've never, ever in my life received that feedback. If anything, they're like, oh, my God, I'm so happy that you're down to earth, because now I can understand what you're saying. More so than, you know, maybe the stuffy PhD, you know, corporate, you know, type of person. Like, I have all that 20, 20 years of leadership experience. I've been as high as a vp. I have a cpa. I have an mba. I have all those accolades. And I still end or start or include the phrase what up, though? In every single one of my keynotes. [00:46:53] Speaker B: Listen, I seen that video. I was smiling the. So the listeners won't see that, but I was smiling as you were telling the story, because I did watch that. And I was Kind of trying to figure it out. And then at the end I'm like, oh, that's what she was doing. And you know what? That is kind of like a, you know, we talk about, I guess you could say it's branding. Like you, it's, it's your brand, it's your thing. And you know what, when people are gonna see you on the street, maybe somebody that went to your to hear you speak, they're gonna say that to you. And that's kind of like a, you know, it's kind of like a connection to them. Be like, oh, you know, oh, they must. I don't know them, but maybe they went to, you know, when they'll tell you, hey, I went to see you speak at such and such a conference. You know, what up, though? And it was so great. And you're gonna, it's. It's that connection that you have with that person. You don't know them at all. You maybe never met them or yet they were there. You didn't get a chance to speak to them. But that's like that connection that it grows in space. Like that is so much more than, than, oh, you know, yes, money is nice, but to have that connection means to the world to me for sure. [00:48:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Agree. Thank you for that. [00:48:08] Speaker B: You're very, very welcome. Any final thoughts today? [00:48:14] Speaker A: Final thought is really, anyone listening to this podcast, please continue to prioritize mental wellness in your workspace. Whether you are a leader, an employee, an entrepreneur, you know, you run an association. Like, whatever you do, make sure that prioritizing mental wellness is top of mind because people are really needing it right now. We're in America, we're in an election season, which is also. We didn't even talk about the political. The connection between the political climates and social media and how that creates additional angst, right? We have all these different layers of angst. And social media is the space where it just, it boils over, right? And we feel it and we're addicted to it, self included. And so we need practical, real world tools, frameworks, techniques that will help remedy and mitigate these risks. So please continue to prioritize it. If you are a decision maker, if you're a person that leads teams, hires speakers, hires facilitators, invest in not just me, but people like me. There are so many amazing thought leaders out there that, you know, that are preaching this brand of connection and belonging. I think the thing that makes me different is that I do have 20 years of leadership experience. So I combine that with my expertise as a belonging expert and a mindfulness expert to create experiences that attack these different problems from a completely different angle. Right. You know, we don't typically hear about mindfulness in this. In this strategic way. And so I'm helping people, leaders, employees, everyone understand how to use this to strategically improve their life. So, you know, to anyone listening out there, continue to invest in resources like that because they really do matter. And I know they matter because my attendees tell me so. [00:49:56] Speaker B: Absolutely. Listen, Shantay, I want to take the time to thank you for coming on today. You have extreme passion for what you do. The listeners can't see it, but you were smiling the whole time that we were talking here. And for me, that means the world to me. That just means that you believe and love and trust what you're doing and you trust in your message and that your message is going to be received. So I love that. So continue doing what you are doing. You are an extremely genuine individual, and I am so happy to be connected with you and to have you on today. So thank you so much. [00:50:33] Speaker A: Thank you. It's been a pleasure. [00:50:34] Speaker B: You're welcome. On behalf of myself and my guest Shante, I'd like to thank you all for listening today. And until next time, be safe. And remember, everybody, that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything you have been listening to. [00:50:51] Speaker A: Let's be diverse with Andrew Stout. [00:50:54] Speaker B: To stay up to date with future content, hit subscribe.