Today we’d like to introduce you to Gloria Chan Packer.
Hi Gloria, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I joke that I began my career becoming an expert in stress before becoming an expert in mental wellness. 🙂 Before I started my company, Recalibrate, I started my career spending about a decade in management consulting as a Senior Engagement Manager focusing on technology strategy and implementation for Fortune 500 clients. I had a really fulfilling career but what I didn’t realize is that among my overachieving tendencies, I had some sneaky burnout behaviors that often reached unhealthy points. In 2017, I had an unexpected battle with chronic migraines that forced me to stop and re-evaluate my relationship with stress, which was a tough time, but gave me the opportunity to do my own mental health work and learn more about the science behind so many of our shared, everyday mental health experiences — from stress to anxiety to pressure to perform and self-doubt. At that point, I discovered there’s a big gap in our everyday mental wellness learning, especially for busy professionals and high achievers that live in a culture where we glamorize stress and stigmatize mental health… this unsustainable model that I had burned out on and watched many colleagues do the same… so that’s where Recalibrate came from. I founded Recalibrate in 2018 to deliver a more modern, science-backed, and realistic approach to mental wellness for busy professionals. Since that time, our team and work has grown significantly and we have worked with over 20,000 employees at client organizations across the globe such as Atlassian, Everlyhealth, Indeed, SHI, Whole Foods Market, and several of the “big 3” consulting firms.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Has the road to building and owning a business ever been smooth for anyone?! 🙂 One of the biggest initial struggles was that back when we opened in 2018, workplace mental wellness was a basically non-existent industry and even though tides were starting to shift, mental health was still pretty stigmatized. It was challenging to not only build a business but trailblaze building an area of an industry that was not well-established. Finding ways to prove, measure, and track our value with our clients was an important hurdle to navigate — and I will be forever grateful to some of our early clients who were willing to partner, invest, and trailblaze prioritizing workplace mental wellness with us. Pandemic was also a challenge for us, but ended up being kind of a blessing too, which I feel really lucky to be able to say. Prior to pandemic, we were only in-person and on-site with our clients. We had no virtual events or services. So, shifting to a fully virtual world meant facing a lot of scary uncertainty and adapting quickly. All that being said, I think pandemic somewhat magnified or forced us to prioritize mental health more which has helped destigmatize and empower more mental health learning, and I have very much appreciated again our clients’ willingness to prioritize, invest, and lean fostering mental health that for their people and organizations. All in all, we are a small company that works primarily in the “big business” world and even though the road is not always smooth, I am grateful for our incredible clients and amazing team that helps us keep driving the change toward mental wellness for all.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Recalibrate?
Recalibrate is a leading workplace mental wellness provider that delivers a uniquely modern, science-backed, and realistic approach to mental wellness learning for busy professionals. Since its establishment in 2018, Recalibrate has worked with tens of thousands of employees all over the world at client organizations small and large. What sets us apart is not only our deep experience but ability to fill the subclinical gap in translating mental health into everyday workplace situations and skills – whether that’s stress management, burnout prevention, team connection, people management, or conflict navigation. We ensure our learning appeals to busy professionals using three core pillars: 1. education that is science-backed to appeal to our analytical thinking and to destigmatize mental health, 2. application that translates concepts into real-life work and life scenarios and actionable, easy-to-learn tools, and 3. connection that allows people to reconnect with themselves and others during our sessions and programming. We meet clients wherever they are in their workplace mental wellness journey, whether that’s sparking change with just a few mental wellness events or investing in long-term cultural shift by providing a turnkey year of mental wellness learning and curriculum that’s guided by a customized mental health strategy that aligns to business objectives. At the end of the day, we think of our work as helping sustain people and organizations. Previously, I think we as a world have accidentally gone so fast that we’ve created a pace toward success that is unsustainable, that results in burnout or turnover loss — and now, we are learning that sustainability is not only about our environment and impact, but also about sustaining our people as whole humans so we can sustain our organizations and work.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
One of my favorite books for life is Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It applies design thinking to our lives, inclusive of but also beyond our careers, which fills such a gap in intentionally designing and holding ourselves accountable to building lives that are actually nourishing and aligned to what we want. I received this as a gift from a dear friend when I most needed it and have since recommended it or gifted it to so many. I joke that I should start getting a royalty for it so if you’re out there, whoever publishes this book, call me!!!
I wish I was a podcast person! I can’t explain it, but I just haven’t gotten as into them as most people have. The two podcasts I have loved that have been very influential to me are Esther Perel’s “Where Should We Begin?” series and Brene Brown’s “Unlocking Us” series.
My biggest resources for my life, however, aren’t necessarily books or podcasts but the people in my life. My husband and our relationship and partnership. My close friends and our decades-long relationships that I can always count on for anything from clarity to advice to love to a hard truth. My amazing team, clients, and mentors who make all of this work and impact possible. And my individual therapist, couples’ therapist, and therapy trainers / educators / mentors who help me maintain my own mental health so I can keep doing the work with others too!
Pricing:
- Our workplace mental wellness events start at $1,075
- Our meditation classes start at $175
Contact Info:
- Email: info@recalibratemind.com
- Website: recalibratemind.com
- Instagram: recalibratemind
Image Credits
TEDxUTAustin, Sandra Dahdah Photography, Brittany Jean Photography
