with a
Listening to Candice is like getting a warm hug, followed by a gentle push. She created a safe space and I felt seen! But then I uncovered a whole bunch of stuff to talk about with my therapist.
- Mara M.,
Building Graceful Resiliency
Listening to Candice is like getting a warm hug, followed by a gentle push. She created a safe space and I felt seen! But then I uncovered a whole bunch of stuff to talk about with my therapist.
-Mara M.
attendee
The Belonging Revolution
Join The Women's Movement To Create Inclusion From The Inside Out
Women are always at the forefront of social transformations, and this one is no different. The Great Resignation was the tipping point for employees: we will no longer work in toxic workplace cultures! But the recent mass layoffs have left us figuring out how to proceed.
During Women's History Month 2024, let's discuss the simple yet powerful ways you can join the chorus of women building inclusive cultures, beginning with their own teams.
Featured Topic
Let's get to work!
Creating Inclusion
Build a rockstar team culture of belonging
Recent turmoil is causing many leaders to scramble for ways to keep their teams focused and grounded. You can't afford to lose more talent, but you feel as much pressure to hit your targets...which feels like opposing efforts. Let's discuss the simple yet powerful methods you can use to bring both peace and productivity back to your team.
Featured Topic
Let's get to work!
Who defines culture? You do.
philosophy
Culture is Constantly Changing
Corporate Culture is Now Team Culture
People Create Great Workplaces
You can drive the change.
DEIB programs often begin with Equity, but the only way to make a lasting impact is to start with Culture.
Cultivate Empathy partners with organizations to identify their challenges, define key priorities, and make a plan to shift the culture to one centered on community.
We operate with these core tenets: Self-Awareness, Curiosity, and Accountability.
Create a Culture of Inclusion in Your Organization
Learn More
Grow & Do Better
Curiously Care
Self-Aware
Workplace Inclusion: How to Combat the Great Resignation
SUBMIT INQUIRY
Submit an inquiry with your specific needs. We strive to make the experience ideal for your unique audience!
The Great Resignation has taken everyone by surprise. Due to the current economic climate, many businesses have fewer resources and so cannot offer financial incentives to retain their talent.
But, according to an MIT Sloan study in 2022, employees report that toxic workplace culture is the number one reason to leave their current company. It was 10x more statistically significant than desiring a higher wage!
Workplace culture, like the country we live in, is an assimilationist one by default. While more and more evidence shows that a diverse workforce has massive business benefits, the pressure to hide, shrink, or contort ourselves to assimilate is expressed as "toxic culture".
During this inspiring and empowering session, audiences will learn how to create a workplace culture of belonging, where every single person feels safe and supported. Let's get to work!
There is a little-known secret to keeping the most talented and cultivating rockstar teams: become a leader with high emotional intelligence (EQ).
According to research in 2022, employees report that a desire for “belonging” is in the top 5 reasons to look for a new job. Earlier studies show that employees are 400% less likely to leave a company when they work directly with a high-EQ leader.
Every leader can learn how to create Belonging and to build their EQ skillset. During this inspiring and actionable keynote, we will explore how EQ impacts yourself, your peers, and your team. The audience will learn simple but highly effective ways to cultivate a rockstar team!
KEYNOTE
Moderator
A great moderator knows how to both manage panelists and keep the audience engaged.
workshops
Workshops turn inspiration into action. Empower everyone with inclusive hands-on activities, and tools to continue the work at their own pace.
speaker
Stories to illustrate and science to explain complex human experiences. Every talk is designed to both inspire the audience and give them practical tips to affect change in themselves and their culture(s).
Inspiring and Engaging
Discussions
Let's talk about the messy and seemingly un-solveable. Encourage each person to contribute their labor, resources, or experiences to create working solutions.
More samples available on desktop view
our work
Candice's journaling process enabled me to put a name to a difficult emotion I had not been fully aware of, and discover the meaning I attach to that emotion. By orienting me to a place of compassion for myself instead of blame, the journal cleared a path for me to work towards wholeness.
–Karin G.
Building Graceful Resiliency
attendee
Candice provided great insight on how to create a high Emotionally intelligent inclusive culture in the workplace. By providing real world examples, she guided us through observing and different ways to identify, create belonging and improve situations. She also provided a list of resources to develop these skills through learning and practice. These tools will be valuable for our members as we return back to the workplace in the near future and also in everyday life situations!
–Mitra, Healthcare Businesswomen's Association
As a Project Manager leading project teams, Candice provided me with great insights to continue to motivate my teams and create an inclusive environment. She gave us a list of resources and key areas to hit to create an inclusive culture within our teams. This workshop really helped me to identify any gaps I have and to improve. I would recommend her workshop to anyone new or experienced
with leading a team.
–Nicole, Genentech
“Getting to meet and be coached by Candice is a bright spot of 2022 for me, and the things I learned and how I grew during our sessions will affect me for the rest of my life - no exaggeration. Candice has the uncanny ability to be both comforting and challenging in the same breath - and while she certainly pushed me, it was always just to the point of the potential she saw, not more or faster for the sake of it. I felt seen, heard, supported, challenged, and encouraged during every session.”
- Tiffany, coaching client
Inclusion is not the default culture today, but we believe that it should be!
Our team members each have too many experiences being the ONLY woman and/or person of color in the room. The common thread between these experiences is a constant low-level communication from the majority group that "you do not belong." This is a complex issue that no single approach will solve. So many people, and ourselves included, want to make a difference, but often do not know where to begin.
We set out to tackle a foundational problem: teach the skills required to create safe spaces for people to be authentic and for belonging. We passionately believe that empathy is the most important element to cultivate so that inclusion can become the default culture. We create culture catalysts and give them the tools to change workplace culture. Let's get to work!
Why We are Passionate about Cultivating Empathy
Inclusion is no one's problem.
It is everyone's responsibility.
- Candice, Founder and CEO
about us
Because Inclusion is a Culture of EQ
Vision
Inclusion is not the default culture today, but Cultivate Empathy believes it should be.
Mission
Cultivate Empathy empowers organizations to create a culture of inclusion from the middle out. Our programs enable clients to develop safe spaces that foster authenticity, build trust, reduce judgment, and improve overall employee experience. Cultures of belonging reduce turnover risks by over half and dramatically improve job performance.
Through coaching, Cultivate Empathy helps clients to develop core Self-Awareness & Self-Management skills and use boundaries more effectively to enhance authenticity and connectedness.
Everyone wants to belong, maybe especially at work, but an inclusive work culture is something most have never experienced. Changing the culture to be more inclusive means making inclusive behavior the default and discouraging disrespectful or exclusionary behavior.
- Candice, Founder and CEO
about us
Cultivate Empathy helps people to create and maintain rockstar teams! Through workshops and coaching, we teach everyone to embrace differences, live authentically, and be unafraid of accountability.
We empower teams to apply social science and emotional intelligence (EQ) skills to start with their own team's inclusivity.
Candice Heidebrecht, the Founder and CEO of Cultivate Empathy, spent more than a decade teaching people how to use EQ skills such as social awareness and self-management to build strong, reciprocal relationships. She holds an M.A. in Applied Anthropology with a thesis on organizational change.
What We Do
Everyone wants to belong, but we often mistake it for 'conformity'. True belonging requires more authenticity and empathy, but a whole lot less judgment.
- Candice, Founder and CEO
about us
In my mid-twenties, I found myself sobbing on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, grieving for the life I wanted! I was trapped in the one I had actually built. I thought I had broken the patterns of my mother, but had actually repeated her pattern, this time with an abusive boss. It was suffocating and debilitating.
But there was also supreme beauty in this moment of grief: I finally realized that this situation was entirely my fault. And therefore I could change it.
It set me on a self-awareness journey of to understand my patterns, heal myself, and make healthier choices. I transformed myself from a doormat into a leader. From a person who felt helpless into a person leaning into her full power.
I work with heart-ful badasses to break their own patterns, to heal wounds, open pathways, and to move through the world more authentically!
You can do this too! Stop helping everyone but yourself and stop trying to prove your worth! When you value your peace more than others' egos, you have no time to make them feel good at your own expense. Ready to transform yourself?
Breaking Patterns Gives Life!
You are both the narrator and the protagonist in your story. You don't choose what happens to you. But you do get to decide what it means and then act on your available choices. Take ownership of your story!
why I'm passionate about self-awareness
Candice Heidebrecht, the Founder and CEO of Cultivate Empathy, is a passionate speaker, teacher, and coach focused on helping humans be kinder to themselves and each other.
As social creatures, humans are hard-wired for empathy, but it's not an automatic response. It's a learned behavior, so its capacity is only limited by experience.
Combining research in social science and practical application, she empowers organizations to build stronger, deeper relationships with teams and customers. She has spent more than a decade teaching people how to use EQ skills such as social awareness and self management to be better sales people and customer service representatives.
She holds an M.A. in Applied Anthropology with a thesis on organizational change, and has been intentionally transforming cultures from the inside out since 2010.
Candice Heidebrecht
You are both the narrator and the protagonist in your story. You don't choose what happens to you. But you do get to decide what it means and then act on your available choices. Take ownership of your story!
about our founder
book consultation
Partner w/ US:
create an Inclusive culture
Resilience is often described as peaceful, but the reality is a white-knuckle experience. We will discuss the muddiness of resilience and how to build self-awareness and self-compassion to give ourselves the grace to be messily, anxiously, imperfectly resilient.
Book Your Workshop
Workshop:
Build graceful resiliency
Stop helping everyone but yourself! When you value your peace more than others' egos, you have no time to make them feel good at your own expense. Ready to transform yourself?
Book your Free Consultation
coaching:
Change Your patterns
Building an inclusive culture isn't rocket science. It simply takes consistent intention to both learn and lead by example. This program empowers mid-level managers to create inclusion in their teams.
The Great Resignation, on top of the latest trend in tech, sometimes feels hopeless for leaders. There is a little-known secret to keeping the most talented people and cultivating rockstar teams: become a leader with high emotional intelligence (EQ).
Book Your Speaker
KEYNOTE:
Cultivate Rockstar Teams
Work with Us
PATTERN-BREAKING Coach
starter pack $800
Schedule a Free coaching consult
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When I was 25, I took myself on my first real vacation ever. I grew up in poverty, so it was a pretty big deal to be able to afford to go to Hawaii! Welp, I found myself sobbing on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, grieving for the life I wanted, but feeling trapped in the one I had actually built.
It was the first time I had let myself really feel how much I had allowed my boss to walk all over me and how little I valued myself. I was his business manager and was supposed to be his partner. Instead, I felt like a doormat.
But there was supreme beauty in this moment of grief: I finally realized that this situation was entirely my fault. And therefore I could change it.
It set me on a self-awareness journey of to understand my patterns, heal myself, and make healthier choices. Over the next 20 years, I couldn't help but share this transformative practice with friends and peers, then as a leader, mentor, and coach.
Stop helping everyone but yourself! When you value your peace more than others' egos, you have no time to make them feel good at your own expense. Ready to transform yourself?
- 4 coaching sessions
- A complimentary copy of The Journal
Keynote:
Cultivating Rockstar Teams
Packages start at $1,080
SUBMIT INQUIRY
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When “we” includes everyone, diversity is normal
Submit inquiry with your specific needs. We strive to make the experience ideal for your unique audience!
SUBMIT INQUIRY
The Great Resignation, on top of the latest trend in tech, sometimes feels hopeless. Less resources means dissatisfied employees and leaders that cannot offer financial incentives to stay. There is a little-known secret to keeping the most talented and cultivating rockstar teams: become a leader with high emotional intelligence (EQ).
According to research in 2022, employees report that a desire for “belonging” is in the top 5 reasons to look for a new job. Earlier studies show that employees are 400% less likely to leave a company when they work directly with a high-EQ leader.
Every leader can learn how to create Belonging and to build their EQ skillset. During this inspiring and actionable keynote, we will explore how EQ impacts yourself, your peers, and your team. The audience will learn simple but highly effective ways to cultivate a rockstar team!
There is a little-known secret to keeping the most talented and cultivating rockstar teams: become a leader with high emotional intelligence (EQ).
According to research in 2022, employees report that a desire for “belonging” is in the top 5 reasons to look for a new job. Earlier studies show that employees are 400% less likely to leave a company when they work directly with a high-EQ leader.
Every leader can learn how to create Belonging and to build their EQ skillset. During this inspiring and actionable keynote, we will explore how EQ impacts yourself, your peers, and your team. The audience will learn simple but highly effective ways to cultivate a rockstar team!
PARTNER WITH US: CREATE AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE
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Custom package
Building an inclusive culture isn't rocket science. It simply takes consistent intention to both learn and lead by example. The Cultivate Empathy Inclusion is a Culture of EQ program empowers mid-level managers to create inclusion in their teams.
We know that the critical skills for inclusion are self-awareness, curiosity, and accountability. What follows is a mindset: "Inclusion is no one's problem; it's everyone's responsibility."
Cultivate Empathy is seeking a pilot partner to run the entire 4 month train-the-trainer program in their organization. We will track success over six months using KPIs such as employee satisfaction, retention, and team performance.
The Inclusion is a Culture of EQ program can be customized to suit your organization's unique needs.
When “we” includes everyone, diversity is normal
SuBMIT INQUIRY
Each Program Package is built to suit the client's unique needs. Please inquire to learn more.
SuBMIT INQUIRY
Building an inclusive culture isn't rocket science. It simply takes consistent intention to both learn and lead by example. The Cultivate Empathy Inclusion is a Culture of EQ program empowers mid-level managers to create inclusion in their teams.
"Inclusion is no one's problem; it's everyone's responsibility."
Cultivate Empathy is seeking a pilot partner to run the entire 4 month train-the-trainer program in their organization. We will track success over six months using KPIs such as employee satisfaction, retention, and team performance.
Resilience has been the word during the massive changes to our daily lives in the past three years. It's written and talked about as a peaceful experience, but many are just white-knuckling it, spurred by the urgency to "just get through this."
During this 60-90 minute workshop, we will discuss the muddiness of resilience and how to build self-awareness, self-compassion, and to give ourselves the grace to be messily, anxiously, imperfectly resilient.
Workshop includes 2-3 active exercises and recommended follow-up work.
Building Graceful Resiliency workshop
Packages start at $1,080
SUBMIT INQUIRY
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When “we” includes everyone, diversity is normal
Submit inquiry with your specific needs. We strive to make the experience ideal for your unique audience!
