Our surroundings play an integral role in our health and well-being. This holds true for workplaces as well, wherein a majority of our time is spent collaborating with different people. This has made many organizations rethink their priorities and focus on building healthier and happier work cultures.
With the air of chaos around workplace bullying, it becomes a challenge to break the stigma attached to it. However, there are a few leaders who have over the years stood up to create awareness and erase toxicity from workplaces.
Sarah Fritz, Founder & CEO of Yes Queen, is one such inspiring personality who created a peer-to-peer anti-bullying initiative that focuses on scooping out workplace bullying, especially for Millennials and Gen Z. Her mission is to transform the future of workplaces by nurturing the mind, body, and spirit of people.
First Impressions
Sarah’s passion for evolutionary action stems from her childhood years. She saw her parents happily invested in their careers and it made lasting impressions of business in her mind. She recalls, “I always looked up to their work ethic and feel it has guided my own journey.” Her parents’ unwavering support towards her desires in education and work, including her decision to leave corporate life and start her own business, played a significant part in shaping her life.
Moreover, her commitment to learning from people who inspire her has played a big role in her journey to become a transformational leader. Sarah believes, “A transformational leader is someone visionary, a forward thinker who anchors into their wisdom with humility and creativity.” She also thinks that having a perspective for the future has helped her create purposeful content and curate resources that will be of service to the current and next generations.
Saying Yes to The Queen
The name of the company has a captivating thought behind it. The name comes from the pop culture phrase “Yassss Queen” which originated from 1980’s ball culture. In Sarah’s last corporate job, her peers used the phrase “Yas Queen” to encourage each other. Respectfully, it was changed to “Yes Queen” which is a fond reminder of the wonderful people that inspired her mission.
An effective and healthy workplace can only exist when individual and organizational factors positively affect the employees’ welfare. In Sarah’s experience and from community feedback, she realized that the toxicity is either from the executive leaders or their complete neglect at addressing it.
Along with this, her experiences in toxic workplaces led to the formation of this innovative social enterprise. She says, “I went searching for resources and discovered everything in the workplace bullying arena was quite clinical and set up for a victim of this behavior.”
She saw a unique opportunity to launch a platform that is hyper-focused on self-development and holistic wellness with a different perspective – the prevention approach. This means people can feel safe to express any concerns they may have in the workplace, with the promise that their feedback will be actioned.
Creating Trailblazing Impact
As the Founder and CEO, Sarah Fritz is responsible for the strategic direction of the project, which is approved by the board of directors. She also loves working with her extremely smart, dynamic, and dedicated team. Her only intention is to continue to make a positive impact on businesses and employees with her motivated team.
Her company also takes notable steps in educating employees and employers about workplace bullying. Her company website explains bullying behavior in the workplace and what an employee can do if they are experiencing this. “As a prevention platform, our education is centered on holistic wellness and self-development – we believe in a commitment to increase self-awareness and cultivate safe, positive, and inclusive relationships and environments,” she asserts.
Additionally, with the cross-platform content and free events in this space, she ensures the community has access to wellbeing. Sarah has also expanded her brand’s presence in the YouTube arena where its channel ‘Home Rituals’ curates perpetual videos that offer self-guided healing meditation, self-work, breathwork, and yoga workshops along with soundscape journeys to complete them in the comfort of your own home. With over 2,000 sessions so far, this has helped in inviting calm energy to employees across the globe.
Besides this, Sarah’s most important resource at this stage is the ‘YQ work kit that is implemented by the leaders in workplaces. In the simplest sense, it is a ready-to-implement file that is full of insights and tools that any business can use to take crucial steps towards workplace bullying. This zero-tolerance approach proves to be a game-changer for not just the employees, but also the employers. She adds, “Since our inception, we’ve had 27 businesses roll out this resource to become a ‘Yes Queen Approved’ business.”
Beating Discomfort with Grit
Sarah’s conviction, her team’s talent, and the community’s robust involvement has truly transformed several workplace cultures. All it took was a social media platform like Instagram to start the conversation about workplace bullying and within no time it resonated with countless people and grew exponentially. She adds, “We created the brand strategy after the social media launch. I would always recommend doing the brand strategy first, from DNA to values to creative direction.”
With the Millennial generation making up about 70% of the workforce, it is important for businesses to recognize and respect their opinions, values and perspectives. Sarah also believes that this cohort is very open to new and innovative health and wellness practices.
Her advice for young and emerging leaders to establish a healthy work environment would be to think outside the box. While yoga and meditation are incredible as a baseline, Sarah states that transformative practices like “sound and energy healings, tarot readings and shamanic ceremonies would really cut through to engage employees.”
Even after impacting lives through her dynamic initiative, Sarah and her team’s biggest roadblock is funding. “As a not for profit we rely on volunteers and donations,” she says. However, she understands that important causes take their own time to blossom. This will only help to create a truly pristine and well-thought-out brand in the coming years.
Mapping a happy and healthy future
Riding on the waves of uncertainties and achievements, her journey so far has been enriching. She takes every opportunity to credit her professional development and achievements to her incredible mentors combined with the rituals and resources she commits to.
Her curiosity to seek knowledge, particularly in the spiritual space, has changed her personality. She adds, “I have found these practices to be the most expansive to my growth, shaping the kind of leader I want to be – conscious, purposeful, and inspiring.” She aims to lead by example – doing the work and then advocating it to achieve this.
Going forward, Sarah Fritz’s goal is to transform her platform into a go-to workplace wellness hub for employees. She wants to incorporate a rife wave of positivity and wellness while making it accessible for all. She has big goals in the pipeline for her passion project and her biggest lesson has been to accept a slower pace and celebrate the small wins.
On a personal front, she hopes to return to her digital nomad life where she’s blissfully tapping away at the keyboard while running her two businesses – Yes Queen and St Dakota.
