The Evolution of Evolving Minds and Building Mentally Healthy Retail Workplaces: Executive Director & Founder Anthony Sartori on “The Anxious Achiever” Podcast

Introduction

As a guest on the award-winning podcast "The Anxious Achiever,” Evolving Minds Executive Director and Founder Anthony Sartori delves into the origin story of Evolving Minds and discusses the mental health challenges faced by retail workers. Throughout his conversation with host Morra Aarons-Mele, Anthony emphasizes the need for a culture of caring at work and talks about the ways Evolving Minds aims to help organizations foster that environment.

Anthony’s Lived Experience

Anthony’s journey into the mental health space began during his college years. He tells Morra about his lived experience during that time:

“I personally do not want to see myself as diagnoseable but...I definitely could have been diagnosed with obsessive and compulsive disorder,” he says.

He recalls struggling with the same obsessive thought patterns for hours each day over a period of months and then years. Faced with this experience and inspired by the lack of discourse on the subject, Anthony found his calling in promoting mental health awareness and education. 

From Personal Struggles to Professional Passion

Fresh out of college, Anthony began working in a mental health treatment facility with youth and families transitioning out of inpatient hospital care. He talks about using non-traditional methods in that setting to boost well-being.

“We integrated nature, and art, and music, and dancing, and mindfulness, and meditation. And these were some of the things that were supporting my mental health and my mental health journey…I was drawn to it,” he says.

The Birth of Evolving Minds

In May 2020, in the early months of the pandemic, Anthony, now working part-time in a grocery store called MOM’s Organic Market, founded Evolving Minds. His own dual experience as a retail worker and mental health advocate laid the foundation for the organization's mission — creating a culture of care at work. 

“Retail is often seen as people come and go, the expectation is that people won't stay there in that environment very long,” he says, “But I think if we change that and we built in community and connection and culture, people would stay, people would not be cycling in and out.”

Anthony started by trying to build this culture of care into his own grocery store workplace. In an initial pilot program, he trained 20 managers at MOM’s Organic Market in Evolving Minds’ workplace mental health and well-being model.

The Connected Cultures Framework

That pilot has evolved over time into Evolving Minds’ signature workplace mental health training program, "Connected Cultures." The program is designed with five essential components:

1. The U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being: Leaders are educated on the essentials of mental health and well-being, emphasizing the importance of connection and community.

2. The Work Health Survey: Organizations assess the mental health of their workforce, gaining insight into the well-being of employees.

3. The Work Culture Curriculum: An emotional intelligence curriculum addressing focus, self-awareness, stress reduction, empathy, and resilience.

4. The Culture Building Meeting: 20 minutes weekly or bi-weekly dedicated to creating intentional time and space for building a positive work culture.

5. The Resilience Team: Internal culture champions that lead the continued implementation of the Connected Cultures framework, ensuring long-term transformation and sustainability.

Evolving Minds' Vision for the Future

Looking ahead, Anthony envisions spending the next ten years empowering people with tools to build culture, community, and connection at work. A decade from now he plans to launch an advocacy wing of Evolving Minds focused on disrupting workplace inequality. Even farther into the future, he envisions funding new ideas and nonprofit initiatives that advance social connection and community.

“That's our 40-year vision,” he says, “To build caring work cultures, in a lot of ways we do have to be disruptive in the current working world that we live in.”

Conclusion

As Anthony and Morra conclude the conversation, Anthony acknowledges the immense challenge involved in reimagining the current culture of work. 

“It’s like climbing Everest in a way when we look at the current reality of the work world,” he says, “But ultimately…the reality of the moment is that there is a lot of cultural change taking place and there's an opening to really make a dent.”

Anthony encourages business leaders to recognize the cultural change happening and use this moment to prioritize worker well-being and disrupt workplace inequality.