112 Curious about...Supporting Mental Health thru Mindfulness in the Contact Center for Agents w/Beryl Krinsky | Founder of B.Komplete Corporate Wellness
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with me, Denise Venneri. I am a 20 year practitioner in the consumer engagement space having worked for 2 large CPG organizations. My intent here is really to share best practices with particular focus around the specialist and analyst skills and to give back to this great community because CPG CX rocks.
Denise:Hello, my curious colleagues. This week, I'm curious about tips and ideas to support mental health through mindfulness in the contact center and beyond. And to help me do just that is my former colleague of mine from Campbell's, Beryl Krinsky. Welcome to the podcast, Beryl.
Beryl:Hi, Denise. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really happy to be here.
Denise:Of course. It's so good to see you after all these after all these years. And I think what I especially remember about you, of course, I've been tracking you on LinkedIn, is your such very interesting background. And one day, I would like, you know, see you in this division or this, excuse me, function at Campbell's and loved, you know, working with you there. And the next minute, you'd be in a different function, and then it just really was like an early, I think, tribute to what they call rock climbing today.
Denise:And I think it really it worked well for you. So why don't you let everybody know how did you get to hear?
Beryl:Oh, gosh. That's a long story. I know we don't have all day, but
Denise:I should say briefly, top line.
Beryl:Sure. Sure. I I like I'm gonna actually share something that one of our our fellow former colleagues at Campbell's said to me and I thought it was very thoughtful and it was as if she kinda knew what I was doing. From a very, very early age, I knew I either wanted to run a business, start a business. I I just had that vision, business leadership.
Beryl:And so when I had the opportunity to join Campbell's, I started off in product development, which was awesome. I loved it. But I wanted to keep going into different departments to teach myself about business leadership. And then I picked up a job in project management, which which was I actually for it was in supply chain, but it was project management. And then when I finished my MBA, I moved over to marketing.
Beryl:And so I kinda got from concept and development into managing the project, into marketing and understating consumer behavior. And then I quit. And I started B Complete which is my first business which is corporate wellness. My background is in nutrition, food, and let's see, also just general health and wellness. And I thought about how can I make a big impact in the world?
Beryl:And I met with some health insurance brokers, and they said, you know, if we were you, and we we had your background, we would do corporate wellness. And I started looking into it. And it was incredibly rewarding. I loved working with populations of employees, and helping them with their stress reduction, their mental well-being, their disease prevention. I hired a team of wellness professionals, and we were able to help thousands of people.
Beryl:And it was so rewarding. As I was getting that business off the ground, I worked with many students, students in nutrition. And they were at different schools and internships, but regardless of where they were from, they kept asking me the same question. Beryl, how did you start your business? Where did you learn about sales and marketing?
Beryl:How did you understand the insurance world? And it was like a light bulb went off above my head and I thought I need to start a school to teach students how to become registered dietitians and also business owners and entrepreneurs. And thus, my second business was formed and accredited in August of 2020. It was one of the most proud moments of my life. And I have a school as well.
Denise:Does that have the same name?
Beryl:It's called the complete business dietetic internship. I kept the word complete with a k because that's really my core branding. And I thought using the word business would help attract students who were looking for that entrepreneurial type of dietetic internship.
Denise:Yeah. Well, you know, I remember those days, corporate wellness. And I remember a woman at Campbell's who, like, started managing the fitness center. Do you know who I'm talking about? And then she went on to expand, and I it was like the first time I think I saw someone who was in charge of my physical wellness, you know, starting to tap into that and and beyond.
Denise:And now I'm even further really enjoying this recent focus on employees or anybody's mental well-being, especially at work. I don't know what triggered that. Probably COVID maybe kinda caused that to, to have more of a focus. And one of the reasons I love that is, of course, myself as an employee, but also I've been working with a content center agents, we'll call them. They also monitor social media and all the the sexy channels.
Denise:But, you know, we all know, and I've seen firsthand, how that role is so important and challenging, and at times can be very stressful. Just the the idea that most of my work during the day would be recorded and then evaluated and calibrated would would be enough to, like, you know, get my anxiety going. So I really have to, you know, give it to them for what they do. So what can we do here to sort of emphasize maybe things they've heard? You know, what is this idea of mindfulness, and what are some of the different times in your day or different behaviors that you can incorporate?
Beryl:Yes. It I think that the pandemic brought to life what was already going on. Because mental health challenges affect at least 1 in every 10 adults, which I think it's even more than that. We don't realize always how much stress that we're carrying on ourselves until sometimes it's too late. And stress expresses itself in chronic disease and also some underlying diseases where you might be fully functioning, but you're still struggling.
Beryl:And mindfulness is an ancient philosophy that has a ton of relevance in our day to day now. It seems like an easy concept. However, when you when you first start doing it and even after you've been doing it a while, it can be really, really hard. Because when we are mindful, it means we are fully engaged in the present moment. We chatter in our own heads all day long.
Beryl:And we don't even realize that we're having that inner dialogue because it's so consistent. We also tend to multitask and we're checking our email and we're talking to someone at the same time or we're on social media and we're writing it, you know, it's like a 100 things going on at the same time. When we stop, take a breath, and focus on one thing at a time, it helps reduce our stress. It helps us to start to feel more centered and grounded. Practicing mindful over time has huge health benefits.
Beryl:But just at the baseline, it makes us happier. And I love teaching mindful practices because the cool thing is you can do just like a 1 or 2 minute mindful practice, and you're still gonna get a benefit from it.
Denise:I'm all in then. Sim simplistic simplicity and the benefit. You know, we all wanna be happy. And just a side story, I did not mention this to you. I had started the year saying, oh, I'm gonna be one of those people that have a word of the year and then, like, you know, do whatever around that, or is it, you know, watching all the movies from the 19 forties?
Denise:Whatever it is. And I had picked I'm laughing because I ended up not executing at all. It was being more mindful. That's how I framed it up. And I I realized I didn't really know what I was saying.
Denise:I thought it meant, like, I would stay focused on just a conversation with my son. Like, I knew that was, like, maybe a part of it, but that that was as far as I went. And then things happened, and I never got back to it. So I am selfishly looking forward to some of these tips and tricks and kind of where mindfulness and that word meditation may become together. Meditation scares me.
Denise:Mindfulness, for some reason, I seem to be more open to, and I think it's just lack of knowledge. So let me let you do your thing. Can you share any of the tips or any of the further maybe, scientific evidence you might have up your sleeve to help our contact agents?
Beryl:Definitely. Let's start out with something called the 5 senses practice. And this is something that everyone can do every single day. If you start to feel overwhelmed or you start to feel stressed out or even if you simply wanna get your day started on a really positive note, this is something you can do. Okay.
Beryl:So what I always say is, first, make sure that you are comfortably whether you're seated or standing, make sure both feet are on the floor, that you're grounded wherever you are, and just start by taking a nice breath in through your nose. Exhale through your mouth. Let it all go. Just do that again. Breathe in through your nose.
Beryl:Exhale through your mouth. In the 5 senses practice, we become mindful by focusing on one sense at a time. For our first sense, let's start out with our vision. I want you to focus on one object in the room where you're located. It might be something you didn't notice today or could be something that you enjoy looking at.
Beryl:And for call it the next 10 seconds, simply look at that object and try to be fully present with looking at that object.
Denise:Okay.
Beryl:Now we're gonna focus on our sense of hearing. I want you, for the next call at 10 seconds, simply listen. Okay. Next, we're going to move on to our sense of smell. Maybe you have lotion on your skin or your fabric softener on your clothing or maybe you have nice a nice smell like of your hair or something like that.
Beryl:So simply identify something or maybe you have a candle. Identify something that you wanna smell and just focus on that aroma for the next 10 seconds. Now we're going to move on to our sense of touch. You might be wearing a cozy sweater or maybe a shirt that feels nice or maybe you have a pen, something that you can just feel and just focus on however it feels. Last but not least, we're gonna move on to our sense of taste.
Beryl:If you have a beverage or a mint or food, take a bite or a sip and allow the food or the beverage to be in your mouth for a moment. I want you to be fully aware of how it tastes, what's the temperature is, and then how it feels as you swallow. And I did it a little faster than I normally would for the for the podcast. However, I would recommend when when people do this practice to try to do each sense for 30 seconds if you have time. 30 seconds.
Beryl:And then if it's hard to quiet your mind, which that is normal, if it's hard to quiet your mind when you're doing this, I want you to keep taking those deep breaths. Just breathe in, breathe out as you're looking at the object, as you're smelling the aroma. Just keep breathing and eventually your chatter will start to soften. Though and please don't be hard on yourself when you start doing this. If it is really hard, that means you're human.
Beryl:That's normal. It you kinda have to practice doing it. You have to keep doing it just like exercise. You can't do it once and be healthy. You have to keep doing it.
Beryl:And so after you kinda get into a little routine, you train your mind to calm down and it's easier to get into these mindful exercises.
Denise:I almost just fell asleep. I'm so relieved. That's great. Oh, I bought a podcast. You know, there's just even my first one.
Denise:I'm hunched over here when we started because I wanted to get close to the speaker I have a new setup here. When we just started the first sentence, which was the breath, I intuit instinctively, my shoulders went completely down if you're looking on this on YouTube. I think there's value just in that. Mhmm. Let me get a little into the tactics because I'm trying to you know, now I'm getting anxiety.
Denise:How do I count to 30? Is that my my cell phone I have to count? You know, I have to put the timer on, and is that bell gonna get me anxious? So and then I also already forget the 5 senses Mhmm. That you mentioned.
Denise:So I'm thinking maybe we could just get an acronym going right now. What were they? It was like breath, then it was
Beryl:Oh, so Acronym
Denise:on the 5 sense site?
Beryl:Yeah. So, like, think about maybe, like, go, like, go start so start at the eyes. So eyes let's see if I remember the order I went. And then you can go really whatever order. So eyes, and then I think I do hearing next.
Beryl:So eyes Okay. Hearing, then smelling Mhmm. Touch, taste.
Denise:TT. It smells barrel. No. It doesn't. But that would be something I'd recommend.
Denise:Like, whatever order you like, Is the order really critical that people go down their face or anything? Okay. Was the first one breath, breathe in?
Beryl:Oh, well, when you're starting just to
Denise:get ready?
Beryl:Yeah. It's just to get ready. So anytime you're gonna move into a meditation or practicing mindfulness, it's usually recommended that you, you know, When we're really When we're really really stressed out, we often tend to have short breaths like, you know, and we're not like exhaling when we're really stressed, but when we have, yep, exactly shallow breaths, We're not getting the benefit, the physical and the mental benefit. So when you do take those long inhales and long exhales, you start to change your parasympathetic response and you start to feel relaxed. Research has shown that practicing these, you know, these good focused breaths for about 5 minutes a day, you know, every day of the week, you can reduce your blood pressure by just doing that.
Beryl:It's really powerful. Wow. Mhmm.
Denise:So you said 5 minutes a day. So quick math. Let's say it's 30 seconds per sense, 5 senses. You know, a minute and 50. We'll add 10 seconds on for the breath, so that's 2 minutes to do the whole thing once.
Denise:I think I'm doing this right. And then you just wanna do that at least twice a day or 3, 3 times a day. Maybe it's, like, before when you wake up or Mhmm. In the morning, then definitely maybe before you go to bed, this is what I'm feeling as you're talking.
Beryl:And
Denise:then I think the trick is how do you especially if you're an agent and, you know, think if if things are busy, which which is good, you just need to be able to carve that out. And maybe if it's, you know, in between contacts that you need to care for, let's say you're on
Beryl:the
Denise:phone, maybe you could fit like, can you can you break it up and do 2 of the senses? You're still, like, getting some benefit there?
Beryl:Yeah. That's that's what I was thinking for someone whose job is you're almost always on the phone. If you only have about 10 or 15 seconds, then pick 1ยข and do that. Just do that for 10 or 15 seconds. You're still gonna get a little you'll still feel a little more relaxed.
Denise:Okay. I'll be honest. I was struggling a little bit with the site. Like, I I was looking at a saying I have on the wall over here, and I was just struggling. Again, this is why I have anxiety because I need to get into the details.
Denise:So when I'm looking at it, like, what am I saying to myself? The shape of the picture is square. How it makes me feel or the attributes or whatever comes to me, Beryl, in your in your opinion.
Beryl:Okay. So here here's the challenge. You're not supposed to be thinking anything. Your your your job is to observe the thing. It's to just look at it.
Beryl:Look at it. And and if it helps, if it, you know, if it's really hard to just look at something, which I get it. Again, we're human. You can observe the details of it. You can say, I was looking at a framed picture.
Beryl:The frame is gold, you know, but you wanna start to just look at it, which I know it's it's really hard. It's hard.
Denise:And I think, like, anything that is, like, a muscle to build, as they say. The more you do something, the more I think it becomes more easier. I would like to think yeah.
Beryl:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I would say to, you know, meditation and mindfulness, there are 100, maybe even thousands of ways to practice it. If something doesn't resonate with you, you don't have to force yourself.
Beryl:You just try something else. If, like, for example, if you've tried, you know, looking at well, I'll just share. There's a really cool, I think it's really cool, candle flame meditation. So that's like a mindful meditation where you focus all your attention on a candle flame. And that is a type of practicing mindfulness that people will do for hours, which I'm like, oh my gosh.
Beryl:And I've I've done it probably up to, like, 20, 30 minutes. And it's hard. You have to build up because focusing all of your attention on a candle flame means you don't have all that chatter in your head. You are focusing on the candle flame. Now if you try to do that and you're really struggling, then that's probably not the best practice for you.
Beryl:But maybe you really liked, focusing on the beverage or maybe you really liked focusing on the aroma or whatever it was, then you do that.
Denise:Right. Right. So be be gentle with yourself. You had said something like that. I think that's they're great words of wisdom.
Denise:We are getting to the end. So I have 2 2 more thoughts and questions. One is, as a starter, if I was somebody, which I may just do, is to play this section of the podcast or I'll upload it to YouTube and just do your sort of mini 5 senses. It wasn't 30 seconds. Right?
Denise:At one point, you know, we we didn't want it to be that long for this purpose, but somebody could just start doing that for the 1st couple of days just to get engaged and hear your voice. Because I was doing it with you. I look crazy, but I think that's an idea. That's one idea. And then the other thing is how else can people learn more about what you do and, you know, who you are and what you're all about?
Denise:What are some of the contact points?
Beryl:Well, our website has some really helpful information, especially on the blog. I would suggest going to the be complete blog to get some follow-up information. And let's see. For our for our corporate wellness services, we do guided meditation workshops and stress reduction workshops and different activities to help bring this into a person's day to day.
Denise:Yeah. Well, it's noble work, and I'm I'm grateful for you. I'm not surprised that you, are doing so well in an area that you really love. Yeah. So happy for you.
Beryl:Thank you.
Denise:Thank you again for being on the podcast, Burrell.
Beryl:Oh, it was my pleasure. That flew by. My pleasure. That was fun.
Denise:You have been listening to the My
