Carol Cone:
I’m Carol Cone, and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact.
Every so often you meet a leader whose career seems to have been preparing them for one extraordinary mission. Well, today’s guest is one of those people. Joining me is Sharlene Kempler. She started her career at the Peace Corps, then went to Ben and Jerry’s, and worked at Burton Snowboards and at Viacom, and at each one she learned such extensive new insights to being an amazing professional, to solving problems of the people her organizations were serving. Well today, as CEO of the Loveland Foundation, she’s bringing those experiences to one of the defining social issues of our time: mental health. Across virtually every major study, including many of our own, mental health ranks as the number one social issue facing our society today. Yet, for women and girls of color, access to quality care remains deeply unequal. There’s cost, availability, cultural understanding, and trust in therapists and the therapy process itself.
Those all continue to create barriers. Well, the Loveland Foundation is working to change that, not simply by funding therapy but by strengthening the entire ecosystem of mental health care. In her conversation, Sharlene shares a compelling vision for lasting generational change. When BIPOC women and girls get the mental health care that they need, they become stronger, they become more confident, they become more resilient. And in terms of her vision, she invests not only in those seeking care, but also—this is so important—also in the therapists and future mental health professionals who make that critical care possible.
You can see how excited I am about this conversation. So, whether you lead corporate purpose, philanthropy, sustainability, employee engagement, or simply believe that business can be a tremendous force for generational change and for good overall, this conversation will leave you with so many practical insights and genuine inspiration. So let’s get started.
So welcome to the show, Sharlene.
Sharlene Kemler:
Thank you so much for having me. It’s an honor.
Carol Cone:
Oh, it’s — no, it’s my pleasure. So I always love to start with my guests with a brief introduction of yourself, and really looking back, even when you were a child — what did you learn from your parents? Many of our guests were very much molded in their youth, as I was. So I’d love to hear a little bit about that, because you have a fascinating, really, career arc.
Sharlene Kemler:
It really stems from my mom. I’m first generation — my mom is from Trinidad and Tobago, and that’s where my family’s from. I split my time between Trinidad and the United States growing up, but one of the things I really loved and learned from my mom was the importance of having a community and community support. And one of the things I always remembered in the back of my head was that my first experience of philanthropy was through her. It’s a very random experience, but it was through my mom. And one of the things I was raised with, growing up in West Indian households, there’s something called a susu — groups of people who come together and they put a pot of money.
So each person says, “I’m going to give $100.” And at the end of that month, one person in that group gets to take home that pot of money — each person gets that pot each month. That’s how my mom actually paid for all of my summer activities, all of my tutoring, and it was a beautiful thing. I understood the collective power of giving, and that really kind of ushered me into my career — whether it had been going into Peace Corps and doing international development work there, then also moving into Ben and Jerry’s and doing social cause marketing there, and then moving to Viacom and working at MTV, still doing cause marketing, but on the nonprofit side of things. It’s one of those things where I’ve always been able to see the collective power of individuals and what we can do, and I think that’s always been my joy. It was such a beautiful thing that I said, that’s the world I want to live in. That’s the world I want to continue living in.
Carol Cone:
And you’ve done it so well. I mean, the organizations you’ve mentioned, they’re all gold standard, and we’ll get into a little bit of, especially, your Ben and Jerry’s background. But you brought up the word “joy,” and in our prep, you said that some of your colleagues at the Camp Loveland event gave you a nickname. What was that nickname?
Sharlene Kemler:
So for every biannual, we do Camp Loveland for our therapists, and our therapists gave me the name of “the joy guru.” They said, “That’s who you are, Sharlene — you understand how to bring out everyone’s inner joy.” And that is something I hold dearly, and I take a lot of pride in that — that I’m able to bring that joy for folks.
Carol Cone:
And I think this is a first for Purpose 360 — we’ve never had a joy guru on the show. So I’m very excited about that. So let’s pause, because people really don’t know the Loveland Foundation. So why don’t you tell us the story of the founding of the organization, and then about its mission, and then we’ll carry on.
Sharlene Kemler:
Yeah, so this actually all stemmed from our amazing founder, Rachel Cargle. She had this experience in therapy, her first time actually having insurance and money to actually experience therapy for the first time. When she walked out of therapy, she felt like she was on cloud nine. It was a feeling that she felt everyone should have — if they have the access to it, they should have this feeling. So for her birthday, she decided, “I’m gonna do a birthday fundraiser, and I’m gonna raise funds to be able to provide therapy sessions, cover the cost of therapy sessions for Black women in need.” And in over, like, forty-eight hours, she really was able to raise well over $250,000, and we were like, “Oh, that’s great, this is amazing.” But our first cohort, we had to be very strategic about it.
And really how that ended up happening was we were able to bring in — do a landscape analysis and really see where the needs were out there, because starting up something new isn’t always necessarily the answer to every problem. I’m a firm believer, if someone’s out there doing something amazing and phenomenal and great with it, partner with them — that’s sustainability, partner with them. So that’s what we did. We partnered with therapy directory partners nationwide, because we knew we wanted this to be a national organization. I brought them in with large BIPOC therapy directory partners. But one of the things we were noticing during our landscape analysis was that there were so many programs out there for younger adults, there were programs for Black men, Hispanic men, but there wasn’t really that many programs out there that was focusing on mental health, particularly for Black women. So that was the gap that we saw, and we knew this — if we built it correctly, we can actually be able to destigmatize mental wellness and provide more access to folks to therapy support. And that’s what the Loveland Foundation has been able to do for the last six years — really try to destigmatize mental wellness, provide access to therapy sessions for those in need, but also support the ecosystem of the mental wellness ecosystem with our therapists, ’cause at the end of the day, they are our DNA and we need them.
Carol Cone:
So you’ve reimagined mental health care, through an entire ecosystem for Black women. And I think that that is a very sophisticated approach — you’re not just saying, “We’re going to advocate for,” or, “We’re gonna provide a few scholarships.” I mean, you surround — you know, the entire system.
Sharlene Kemler:
So when we really were building out the Loveland Foundation, what we wanted to do was create a different ecosystem from a nonprofit setting. We wanted to do it in a way where the community felt like we were listening to their voice, that we were taking their input and putting it back out. Everything that you see that we built on the Loveland Foundation side, which you can go to the website to find out more, every single one of our programming was built with the feedback of our participants and our therapists.
And the reason why we are able to get that real feedback is because — when we’re releasing, and we do, we give twelve vouchers per participant in our program, but we release them in increments of four.
Carol Cone:
Now, what’s — what’s in a voucher? Tell us what that is.
Sharlene Kemler:
Yeah, so the voucher basically is the amount that we will cover per therapy session. So we will cover $120 per therapy session, and it goes through our portal system. It’s a voucher number that our therapist submits, and we pay them out that way. And within those vouchers, as we do it, it’s increments of four that they’re released. When they request their next set of vouchers, we ask them, both the therapist and the participant, a quick question.
And then we’re kind of tracking them too, to see, is this working, are the sessions working? We know it’s working because one of the things our therapists kept telling us through this feedback was, “Hey, Sharlene, that first cohort you guys had — that pilot cohort for therapy sessions — is not enough for that generational change you want to see. Eight to twelve.” I said, “Okay, we went up to eight.” We only got to eight. Overwhelmingly, all the therapists came back to me and said, “Hey, sure, love that you guys went up to eight, but twelve is that magic number for the generational change you want to see.” We went up to twelve. Now our therapists say, “Thank you, you listened.”
Carol Cone:
Oh, that’s so fabulous.
Sharlene Kemler:
And I think that’s what sets us apart from everyone else — that we truly do have that real-time feedback. We want to hear from our therapists: what can we do better? Because they are the ones we look to for guidance. But we also want to hear from our participants: what can we continue to do better, what do you want to see, so that you are getting exactly what you are asking for, versus people assuming what you want? And I think that’s what sets us apart.
Carol Cone:
They must be surprised by the level of sophistication of how you present yourself.
Sharlene Kemler:
Oh, yeah, we get a lot of surprises. A lot of folks are, one, they’re like, “But you’re so small — you guys are so small, but how are you doing so much?” And I always say, because we’re not reinventing the wheel — we decided to partner with organizations. We decided that in order for us to reach on a nationwide level, we couldn’t be in an isolated bubble in ourselves. But we also realize, if we want to create a change within the mental wellness ecosystem, it can’t be in isolation, it must be through partnerships. And I think that’s really — when we’re talking with corporations and showing them the numbers, because even so, as an organization that’s only been around for six years, we’ve spent over $13 million directly to BIPOC therapists and therapy sessions.
And so, I think for them, they’re able to see the impact we’re able to have, and I think for some people it’s being able to see the numbers. And I think I’m a data nerd, and I think at the end of the day, we can dance around different issues, different causes, but at the end of the day, numbers don’t lie. So if we’re showing you that folks are showing up for this and are utilizing it, why would we ever cut it off?
Carol Cone:
Yeah.
Very well structured, and very thoughtful and sophisticated. Why is culturally competent care so essential for the success of both the foundation, but more so your recipients?
Sharlene Kemler:
Culturally competent care is important for our participants, because one of the things we wanted to do was create a soft landing space. Entering into therapy sometimes may seem, for some folks, a challenge, and that first step is really hard, especially if it’s something you’re not used to and you’ve never been exposed to. We want you to feel like you got to do a great exhale, and felt like you got supported in that exhale.
Carol Cone:
How do people find you?
Sharlene Kemler:
A lot of our participants find us through our therapy directory partners, through our social platforms, word of mouth. A lot of it is through family members — it’s very fascinating on that part. We have seen multiple generations come to us saying, “You’ve changed our entire family dynamic. My sister got vouchers from you, she told me to go get vouchers, I got vouchers, and then we made our mom go get vouchers, and now the way that we communicate as a family has completely changed.” And I think for us it’s a lot of word of mouth.
It’s marketing. And as much as we want to shout it from the rooftops what we do, we also understand that therapy is still considered a luxury item, and a lot of our participants sadly are having to choose between one week’s worth of groceries versus one hour of a therapy session, and we don’t want anyone to ever feel that way. And if someone is feeling that, the nice thing is that even if you can’t get the therapy vouchers from us, if our cohort is closed or anything like that, you can still go onto our website and go onto our National Therapy Directory resource page, and no matter where you are in the United States, there’s a resource you could be able to find — on top of additional resources, because I’m going to say something very taboo, Carol, which is, therapy is not for everyone. What works for me doesn’t necessarily work for you. Our organization, yes, is to destigmatize mental wellness and therapy in general, but it’s also to give folks the tips and the tools, and to curate — because there’s so many resources out there — curate what is available out there, and allow people to be able to learn how to use those tools and pick which tools work best for them.
Carol Cone:
Yeah, you’ve mentioned multiple times about creating generational shift and growth. When people think about mental health and therapy, it’s like, “Oh, I’ve got this immediate problem, I can’t get a job, I’m trying to get a relationship,” etc. But you’ve got even a broader view. Where did that come from, and why is therapy so important as an accelerant for, you know, generational success?
Sharlene Kemler:
It really comes down to my own past experience, to be fully transparent with you. I have lost both of my parents at different phases of my life. I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer when I was nineteen years old, and I was going into my sophomore year of college when she passed.
Carol Cone:
Oh, I’m so sorry.
Sharlene Kemler:
And thank you. But I didn’t go to therapy, and the way that I grieved for my mom was very different than the way I grieved for my dad, when I actually did go to therapy and had those tools. And knowing that I had those tools, it made the grief even easier — it allowed me to process it. It allowed me to be gentle with myself, and I think one of the things a lot of us struggle with is just being gentle with yourself. And I think that’s what I’ve learned through therapy.
Carol Cone:
So the therapy fund, the vouchers, is like the heart of what you do, and then you have these great directories. I assume the directories are for the whole country, so you’ve invested in creating those. But you also support your therapists, and that’s another part of your secret sauce. So if you could explain that part, because it’s creating this wellness in your whole ecosystem, per se.
Sharlene Kemler:
Yes, and thank you for asking about it — it’s one of our programs we’re really proud of. It has evolved, again, through the input that we’ve had from therapists. One of the things we realized was that during the pandemic, when we thought that was the height we were going to see in terms of folks coming to us, we noticed we had this vast network of folks — the imaginary lines that were up before were down. So now, if someone’s in California, they could see a therapist in Florida. It was beautiful. But what we also realized, about a year after the pandemic, around 2021 going into 2022, we started getting emails from therapists saying, “Hey, I’m feeling really burnt out, I’m gonna be taking a one-year sabbatical.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be coming back, but I’ll let you know.” And then we started realizing our numbers started going down. As a team, we all sat together, and I was like, there’s a problem and we gotta figure out the solution, because if we lose all of our therapists — and there’s already not enough therapists registered in the United States already — and if we start losing the current ones that we have, we don’t have a program. At a certain point, we’re going to be doing more harm to our participants than good, as we’re telling them, “Come get therapy,” and then you can’t find a therapist. So with that, we asked our therapists, “Hey, we’re noticing a lot of you are burning out, what can we do to support you?” Such simple things that it made me feel like, why hadn’t anyone thought to do this before. The number one thing was, “Hey, can we get therapy sessions too?”
Because the healers need healing as well — we hold a lot. Great for us to be able to have therapy sessions also, so we offer therapy sessions to our therapists. The other thing was group therapy sessions — they said there’s something about healing in numbers, being able to hear other people talk about what they’re going through, and we said, “Okay, let’s make that happen.” So we do that — we offer up group therapy sessions to our therapists. The other thing they said, “Hey, Shar, continuing ed programs are really expensive, and some of us are still getting our clinical hours completed.”
“If you were able to offer us these clinical hours, or these continuing ed programs, at a reduced rate, if not for free, that would save a significant burden financially.” And we said, “Great, we now know what we got to do — we will go forward and make these partnerships and bring it to you.”
We have well over 5,000 active therapists in our network, and we’ve trained over 9,000 therapists within our network. And it’s something that we’re really proud of, because one of the things we’ve been able to do — and we’ve seen it through our data — is increase the number of therapists, versus the decrease that we were seeing before. Because one of the things people don’t talk about is that burnout takes about two to three years to really fully recover from, for your body to fully recover from it.
Carol Cone:
Ah, okay. And then you do some fun things — talk a little bit about Camp Loveland, because I think that’s — we — that’s surprising that you even do that.
Sharlene Kemler:
Yes, we have something called Camp Loveland. It is a biannual event — its first event was actually last year. And it is a time that we invite BIPOC therapists within our network to come and frolic and enjoy and take a moment to just kind of network with each other, have fun with each other, have a moment to just breathe. But also, there’s something about not being in isolation, and feeling like you don’t have to truly fully explain yourself to folks when you’re amongst folks who understand what you’re already dealing with. There’s something about it that just brings a lot of ease. So for me, one of the things we’ve realized is that our therapists work real hard when it comes to Q3, Q4 — as we’re going into the holidays. Some years we will cover close to $2 million within the seven weeks leading up to the holidays.
Carol Cone:
Mm.
Sharlene Kemler:
Because folks are feeling the anxiety of the holidays — holidays bring a lot of emotions and feelings for folks, and our therapists take on a lot. According to our statistics, BIPOC therapists are supposed to handle well over 600 participants. That’s a lot — that’s truly a lot. So for us, it’s understanding, how do we sprinkle in the moments of joy so that they’re feeling like they’re getting reset, instead of — as they told me, and these are direct quotes from our therapists who have said to me — “Sharlene, it is so nice that you didn’t just give us a stress ball.”
Carol Cone:
Okay. And tell a story — you told me the story about some of the fun things that they did that created lots of excitement. Can you tell one of those stories?
Sharlene Kemler:
Oh, I can’t — it’s been one of the things I always say, my favorite thing at Camp Loveland
Carol Cone:
The camp story.
Sharlene Kemler:
is waking up in the morning and falling asleep. Sounds really weird, but I’ll tell you why. Waking up in the morning, there’s nothing more magical than hearing folks — grown folks — laughing and screaming as they’re going down the cold plunge slide into the lake in the morning time. There’s something about hearing people’s inner joy that makes you feel — to then going to bed at night, seeing folks in their little different camp spots with their little fire pits, having these amazing deep conversations, but it’s also the giggling.
Carol Cone:
Yeah, the giggling — that’s lovely.
Sharlene Kemler:
It’s the giggling. For me, that’s the joy.
And I think that’s what we all want — those moments when you can just giggle so hard your stomach hurts, your face hurts, and you just feel like, “I’m grateful for this moment.”
Carol Cone:
Okay, so mental health today. What recommendation do you have to our listeners, especially a company who says, “You know, boy, this is a great organization, I want to partner with them” — but others who are, eh, you know, it’s a little bit like mental-health-washing? But how do you know, as a company, that the organization they may partner with is the real deal?
Sharlene Kemler:
I think it really comes down to mission alignment — that’s the number one thing I say to folks. If the company mission doesn’t really align with the nonprofit mission, it’s not gonna work, and your audience is able to pick up on it immediately.
Carol Cone:
Good for you. Good, good for you. Okay, I want to give a shout-out to your current partners, because it’s always nice to mention them. So do you want to mention some of your current partners?
Sharlene Kemler:
Yes, we are fortunate enough that we’ve had partners like OLLY, UGG, we’ve had Teva, we’ve had, you know, HOKA — we’ve had a couple of other large ones, Maybelline, Sony.
Carol Cone:
So that leads us to the major challenge that we all have right now regarding DEI, and the current administration, and the executive order, day one, et cetera, caused a lot of companies to, you know, terminate roles and terminate programs. What are you seeing right now?
Sharlene Kemler:
Oh, it’s a mixture. There’s fear — there’s a lot of fear behind it. And I think one of the things people always ask me is like, “Shar, how are you coping with this current environment? And one of the things I always said to folks was — again, every situation we’re in, it’s like a pendulum, everything swings one way and then it swings the other way. Right now, I know we’re on this side where it just seems like it may be doom and gloom, no one’s ever going to support DEI — I don’t believe that. I do think there will be a change, and there will be another swing, and I have to have that hope. But in the meantime, right now, what we are seeing is that we’ve lost well over $2.5 million in corporate partnerships, in money, because some of them are being sued, and some of them were afraid that if we continue to support Sharlene, we may be targeted or seen as not upholding the current administration’s stance on DEI programs.
And the wonderful thing about technology is that we have these amazing platforms that let you know what charities are doing great, where the money is going — that you, as an individual, can go in and type in the causes or things that you care about, and find out, “Hey, where do they rate, how do I impact it?” And I think that’s where I’m having joy — having this conversation with folks, where I’m like, if you’ve ever wanted to make a name for yourself, or a dent, or have some form of saying, “I actually was tangibly able to create X, Y, Z change” — now is the time to do it. And the fun part about it is you’re not going to get penalized for it.
Carol Cone:
Okay. Let’s turn to the promotion and the amplification of your cause, or others, which is the whole rise in creators and influencers.
Sharlene Kemler:
I think you can use influencers and folks who have a large platform, in strategic ways — and I say this, like, not everyone should have a platform, also, I’m a firm believer in this. But I do think that there are certain people who have an amazing ability to get people to listen. And that was something I learned at MTV — where it was amazing hearing, you know, I had Snoop Dogg have a whole conversation — like, we did a sex-ed segment with Snoop Dogg once, and I sit there and tell kids, “It’s important to wrap it up, this is the reason why,” but they’re not gonna listen to me the same way as if Snoop Dogg is telling you, “Hey, this is the reason why STD rates are going up” — they’re more willing to absorb it.
And then I always say it’s also making sure that person is truly, really aligned with your mission, but also making sure that nothing they do in the future may come back and bite you also.
Carol Cone:
Yeah, that’s smart. We’ve got a fair amount of our listeners who are in early-stage, mid-stage professional roles, and they’re sitting there going, “Wow, Sharlene is amazing, boy does she inspire me” — but she was in the Peace Corps, and then she was at Ben & Jerry’s, and Burton, and Viacom — she’s had a lot of great experience to start her own thing. What advice do you want to give to young people saying, “I really want to bring my values to my work, I don’t want to leave them at the door working for the man, or the woman”? What advice do you have today, because it’s not that easy to get a job.
Sharlene Kemler:
It is not, but what I will say is my best advice is never limit yourself. I think sometimes we think we need to fit into this particular box, and sometimes when we limit ourselves to that box, we’re closing doors. So I always tell folks, don’t limit yourself — allow yourself the opportunities that maybe you didn’t think would be aligned with you. Try it, you never know, it may actually align with you.
Carol Cone:
That’s super. Okay, so we’re unfortunately winding down here, but I’m gonna bring you back in the future, because you’re so fab. We do these rapid-fire questions, and you’re not supposed to overthink them. So let’s just start with: what’s one word that best describes your work?
Sharlene Kemler:
Sustainable.
Carol Cone:
Okay. What keeps you hopeful on the days that this work feels heavy, and it can?
Sharlene Kemler:
My son — he’s eight.
Carol Cone:
What’s one lesson you’ve learned from your work that you couldn’t have learned anywhere else?
Sharlene Kemler:
Oh, the importance of listening.
Carol Cone:
Yeah, and then you started out with that, so that’s great. What’s one small action people can take today to advance purpose or create impact in their own communities?
Sharlene Kemler:
Practice investing in causes that you care about. I think that’s one of the things I always try to instill in my little one — I always say practice that art, add that line item in, and practice the art of actually investing in causes that align with your causes, your cause.
Carol Cone:
That’s great. And then last — if you could leave our listeners and viewers with one idea or feeling today, what would that be?
Sharlene Kemler:
Hope. I want them to have hope, because I think if we don’t have hope, then there is no form of action. But if you have hope, you want to be active, you want there to be some form of an actionable step. So for me — hope. I want everyone to still have hope.
Carol Cone:
Okay, that’s — that’s beautiful. So I always give the last word, and thank you, you did a great job in the lightning round, really super. But the last — I’m giving the mic over to you. What haven’t we said, or what would you like to emphasize again that we can leave with our listeners, because it’s been a great conversation.
Sharlene Kemler:
Thank you so much for having me, Carol. I would say the biggest thing I really want to leave on is, the foundation is doing some amazing work, but we’ve got a lot more to do. And one of our things truly is — our goal is that we feel that if we could reimagine this mental health system that we’re currently in, and if we’re focusing on the particular demographic, which is Black women, we really do believe that we can be able to create a more equitable one for everyone. Because at the end of the day, that’s really our biggest hope and goal. And as an organization, one of the things we’ve seen in the last year and a half is we have hit one of our goals, which was, we wanted to destigmatize mental wellness. The reason why we know we hit those goals is based on the thousands upon thousands of folks who come to our website weekly, and where they go on our website weekly.
And it’s a beautiful thing to see. But also, one of the things that no one’s really talking about — and I’m so happy you’re giving me this opportunity to talk about this — is that currently, right now, there are well over 600,000 Black women who are unemployed and are still unemployed, and a lot of them are coming to our organization for therapy support. We are in a time where back-to-school is about to happen, folks are still dealing with summer camps. Any way that folks could be able to support our organization — whether it is $5 and joining our Abundance Collective, which is our monthly giving program — it truly does have a significant impact. I always like to tell people, philanthropy should be the gift that keeps on giving. And with the Loveland Foundation, please understand that the dollar that you donate to the organization — 80% of that dollar goes directly into our programming cost. The other thing that we’re really proud of is that the money we are spending for our therapy sessions — yes, we are providing support for those who are needing therapy support, but we are also providing economic mobility for our therapists.
Carol Cone:
To your therap— yes, to your therapists, for sure.
Sharlene Kemler:
Oh, that’s a beautiful thing to see. But on top of that, we’re also working on increasing those numbers of therapists through a scholarship program, ’cause those clinical hours are not paid for, and those are the ones that folks really need support in.
Carol Cone:
That’s beautiful. So on that, I want to thank you, Sharlene. You know, you have not disappointed. When I first met — I mean, I’m even more in love with you than when I first met you. And you’re gonna be a great friend of Carol Cone and Purpose 360. You are addressing an entire ecosystem of women, and Black women, and it’s not just, “I’m gonna give you therapy” — it’s all of these different elements that you’re supporting. So, you know, I know you’re called the joy guru, but I almost want to say the generational joy guru — maybe we’ll give you a bigger name. But thank you for coming on the show, and I know we’ll have you back.
Sharlene Kemler:
Thank you for having me. It’s been an absolute pleasure, an honor. Thank you again.
Carol Cone:
This podcast was brought to you by some amazing people, and I’d love to thank them: Anne Hundertmark and Kristin Kenney at Carol Cone ON PURPOSE, and Pete Wright and Andy Nelson, our crack production team at TruStory FM. And you, our listener — please rate and rank us, because we really want to be as high as possible, as one of the top business podcasts available, so that we can continue exploring together the importance and the activation of authentic purpose. Thanks so much for listening.
