Working Well: Anthony Dippolito Of The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers On How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness

An Interview with Karen Mangia

Mindfulness and meditation are important to include in corporate wellness programs because they help reduce anxiety, reduce implicit race and age bias, increase body satisfaction, improve cognition and help the brain reduce distractions.

The pandemic pause brought us to a moment of collective reckoning about what it means to live well and to work well. As a result, employees are sending employers an urgent signal that they are no longer willing to choose one — life or work — at the cost of the other. Working from home brought life literally into our work. And as the world now goes hybrid, employees are drawing firmer boundaries about how much of their work comes into their life. Where does this leave employers? And which perspectives and programs contribute most to progress? In our newest interview series, Working Well: How Companies Are Creating Cultures That Support & Sustain Mental, Emotional, Social, Physical & Financial Wellness, we are talking to successful executives, entrepreneurs, managers, leaders, and thought leaders across all industries to share ideas about how to shift company cultures in light of this new expectation. We’re discovering strategies and steps employers and employees can take together to live well and to work well.

As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Dippolito Chief Wellness Officer The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers.

With a background in neuropsychology, NLP, executive coaching and health/lifestyle coaching, Anthony Dippolito has been serving The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers team for a year and a half with culture-driven initiatives that support the overall well-being and performance of its staff. Helping Liberty team members find a greater connection to themselves, each other and the mission of Liberty at large, Dippolito provides individuals and groups opportunities to those ready and willing to strive for being the best and healthiest version of themselves possible. All members can receive one-on-one coaching to discuss strategy, performance and emotional, mental, or physical aspects that when addressed could optimize their lives. Dippolito also leads Dream Circles, a unique opportunity for Liberty teammates to experience the power of group transformation by joining 10 of their colleagues once a month to practice mindfulness, breathwork, meditation, discuss dreams and aspirations and receive coaching.

Thank you for making time to visit with us about the topic of our time. Our readers would like to get to know you better. Tell us about a formative experience that prompted you to change your relationship with work and how work shows up in your life.

I believe that we need not look any further than our very own body as a diagnostic of where we are as beings emotionally, physically and spiritually. I had a wake-up call in my relationship with work in my early thirties because of physical health issues that were a by-product of living a life out of balance due to excessive work, and the habitual mentality of achieving more. The holistic approach to healing that I eventually took incorporated much more than just addressing symptoms — I had to really slow down and go through a dedicated process to address the root cause of what was going on within my mind, heart and spirit and as a result, manifesting in my body as disease. Now on the other end of that experience, I know what works to create a successful and fulfilling life. I turned a very painful experience in my life into an empowering one to serve others.

Harvard Business Review predicts that wellness will become the newest metric employers will use to analyze and to assess their employees’ mental, physical and financial health. How does your organization define wellness, and how does your organization measure wellness?

Liberty’s mission and values support the belief that true wealth is derived from optimum health. When we are feeling clear in our minds, open in our hearts and limber and strong in our bodies, we can easily handle the ever-changing rigorous demands that this industry can present us. We don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching our team, but rather ensure we communicate the importance of taking daily breaks, hydrating, eating real whole food, getting in the sun, taking 15–20-minute walks a couple of times a day, meditating and breathwork. These fundamentals are constantly being discussed and reinforced in the work I do as a Chief Wellness Officer. We make sure our teams are taking care of themselves by having weekly conversations with them about these matters, and check-ins to ensure that they have good self-care regimens in place and that these practices are not only discussed but rewarded when lifestyle goals are achieved.

Based on your experience or research, how do you correlate and quantify the impact of a well workforce on your organization’s productivity and profitability?

Mental health issues are among the top five reasons U.S. workers file for short-term disability (excluding pregnancy). Therefore, it is important that we remove the stigma around having conversations regarding mental health. In fact, we encourage our employees to bring their mental, emotional, or physical issues up to their managers and me, so support and resources can be allocated when needed. We are actively messaging the benefits of fully using our great health plans, which include chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, dieticians and nutritionists. If someone is going through a period of overwhelm, we offer them resources and encourage taking advantage of time off when needed.

Even though most leaders have good intentions when it comes to employee wellness, programs that require funding are beholden to business cases like any other initiative. The World Health Organization estimates for every $1 invested into treatment for common mental health disorders, there is a return of $4 in improved health and productivity. That sounds like a great ROI. And, yet many employers struggle to fund wellness programs that seem to come “at the cost of the business.” What advice do you have to offer to other organizations and leaders who feel stuck between intention and impact?

By creating a culture of well-being, we are experiencing an amplification of our core values and feeling the viral positive energy from it. The empowerment and engagement of individuals taking their health and creativity for their roles in the organization into their hands is priceless. We have seen employees uncover a new zest for life after joining dream circles for everything in their lives and have the support they’ve always needed. We witness many new employees at Liberty in a state of disbelief when they arrive to work with us because they feel we honor and respect them beyond their title and job description. We are experiencing deeper engagement, retention and higher quality of work product because creators in our ecosystem feel like they belong to something positive and much larger than themselves. We have deep engagement by our employees in the overall culture, and our incoming partners are sharing with us that they feel like they made the best decision, not only financially by joining the growing Liberty team, but also for the culture that truly cares about the well-being of them and their whole team. The ROI of creating a community-based culture driven by our core values is priceless, and we are seeing this in the talent we attract, retain and engage on a deep level.

Speaking of money matters, a recent Gallup study reveals employees of all generations rank wellbeing as one of their top three employer search criteria. How are you incorporating wellness programs into your talent recruitment and hiring processes?

We believe that every member of the team is a composite of the overall culture, so we encourage all members of our team to join a Dream Circle and be the best version of themselves that they possibly can be. If they are averse to doing this type of inner work in a group, we encourage them to still find ways to strive for being better in life in all areas. All our touchpoints with current and potential employees have the language of well-being, teamwork, excellence and fun woven throughout. Our talent recruiters receive one-on-one coaching to be the most magnetic versions of themselves possible, so when they connect with potential new employees, they radiate our values and mission. They ask deeper questions about lifestyle, dreams, goals and desires for work-life balance. Our culture is embodied by everyone, especially by external-facing members, so they can shine and attract like vibrational talented individuals. During a time when we hear our competitors talk about this being a “tough job market” to attract talent, we haven’t had that same experience. All our departments have at least doubled in size with some of the best open-minded, wildly creative and team-oriented individuals that we could imagine.

We’ve all heard of the four-day work week, unlimited PTO, mental health days, and on demand mental health services. What innovative new programs and pilots are you launching to address employee wellness? And, what are you discovering? We would benefit from an example in each of these areas.

• Mental Wellness
• Emotional Wellness
• Social Wellness
• Physical Wellness
• Financial Wellness

In our Dream Circles and one-on-one coaching, we address the following bullet points (mental wellness, emotional wellness, social wellness, physical wellness and financial wellness) and are always building new programs to address and dive deeper into understanding employees’ evolving needs. These are all a byproduct of our DEI & ESG strategy, and we are tethering all of these to our core values, engagement calendar, employee gifts, awards and recognition. In addition, we are building a Learning & Development Platform where these wellness topics will have videos and useful corresponding collateral materials to support those interested in learning more and taking action. Our new intranet has a space centrally focused on discussions of holistic well-being that also addresses these areas of wellness, and all our in-person events have these aspects woven through them as well. For example, we start every partner and executive meeting with a few minutes of syncing up our breath and visualizing and feeling how successful and useful that meeting is going to be for everyone involved.

Can you please tell us more about a couple of specific ways workplaces would benefit from investing in your ideas above to improve employee wellness?

Wellness has to be a cultural endeavor that is embodied by your leaders. Period. I can’t give a prescription that will immediately change the course of your company’s cultural direction other than it has to be a natural extension of the leaders on your team that make the biggest impact and influence on the organization. We attract leaders to our teams that believe and practice the virtues we are discussing in Working Well. This is who they are in and out of the workspace — they care and make their mental, emotional and physical health a priority — it’s just a natural extension of who they are. We work out together and practice yoga, meditation and other natural ways of living to help keep us as healthy as possible. All our touchpoints with our teams have the language and practices of wellness as the foundational principles. When we have work retreats, we start the mornings with mediation, yoga and breathwork. Additionally, we use every meeting to talk about these virtues. To be in integrity with our core values, our leaders get to be beacons of wellness, and they need to be honoring their own practices of mental, physical and emotional well-being. Our entire c-suite team receives one-on-one coaching and is enrolled in Dream Circles. They also start their meetings with moments of silence and breathwork. This has to be a mindset embedded into the fabric of an organization because it won’t work if it is not genuinely adopted and nurtured full time. We have been building the spiritual and energetic equity of this company since its inception — this isn’t something we created overnight — and this can’t be copied or replicated.

How are you reskilling leaders in your organization to support a “Work Well” culture?

Creating opportunities for our leaders to feel the life-altering experiences that happen when you start to sleep well, eat well, move well and learn critical stress-reducing and mental-enhancing techniques is my JOB (joy of being). I light up when I see others thrive and overcome perceived limiting beliefs. When I see our leaders show up to calls with more energy and focus because they are taking better care of themselves, I receive so much joy. I know they will share these practices with their teams, and their teams will share that with others, and this is where a culture of wellness spreads throughout the community to make an even greater impact. We live by the motto that as it gets better for one of us, it gets better for all of us. We have a team unity mindset where nobody is left behind that doesn’t want to be. For those that don’t want to do the inner work, it will reflect in their energy levels and overall work product, so we create a culture of inclusivity to encourage everyone to be their best self.

Ideas take time to implement. What is one small step every individual, team or organization can take to get started on these ideas — to get well?

We believe that it’s in the baby steps to ingrain these ideals into the fabric of an organization. Although I’ve been a part of the team for over a year and a half, these virtues and values have been a staple of the organization since its inception with our CEO and Founder, Bill Johnson, who is a plant-based mindfulness practitioner himself. It starts from the leadership and cascades down into every position. By simply beginning our meetings by acknowledging others and giving positive affirmations, we set the tone of the meeting to be as inclusive, safe and engaging as possible. Every piece of material an employee receives imbues these feelings. Every one of our partner meetings (regional and national) starts with guided meditations to get everyone synced and slowed down, so they can focus and come with their whole self to a meeting. To add, we do not encourage or support multi-tasking while we’re in meetings. We recognize that only when we are fully present with the task at hand will we have access to higher levels of cognitive function, and synergy with others in the group, for the best ideas to emerge.

What are your “Top 5 Trends To Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness?”

1. Mental Health & Technology Solutions (will continue to grow). Overall, mental health worsened under the pandemic, and that’s expected to be an area of continued focus for employers, according to a report from Business Group on Health. COVID-19 has resulted in prolonged periods of anxiety and stress, burnout, and the substance use disorder (SUD) crisis. Employers are investing in online resources and digital health solutions to ensure more workers can access behavioral healthcare. At Liberty, we are making a big investment in our intranet, Learning & Development Platform, and corresponding staff that will continue to support our physical health, mental and emotional health endeavors.
2. Mindfulness and Meditation. Mindfulness and meditation are important to include in corporate wellness programs because they help reduce anxiety, reduce implicit race and age bias, increase body satisfaction, improve cognition and help the brain reduce distractions. Moreso, research at companies like Google, has shown that increasing mindfulness in the workplace can decrease stress levels while improving focus, thoughtfulness, decision-making abilities and overall well-being. Mindfulness gives employees permission and space to think — to be present — leading to mental agility, resilience and self-awareness. At Liberty, we include all these aspects into all touchpoints of our staff, from recruiting to onboarding, and through the life cycle of working with us. Our CEO and Founder, Bill Johnson, is a plant-based mindfulness practitioner himself, and consistently leads mindfulness enhancing calls. We have a very open and honest culture when it comes to discussing mental health.
3. Self-Care (as a critical component of overall wellness.). For businesses, it’s important not to make self-care an outside-of-work thing but to naturally incorporate self-care into the process of work. When we see or feel a fellow member of our team that could use some support, we check in with them and encourage incorporating self-care into the day. For instance, by always taking a lunch break, going on a short walk, getting sun and practicing deep breathing, at Liberty, we openly encourage self-care as part of your daily work routine. Additionally, we practice mindfulness, breathwork and meditation as an important form of self-care, so each individual employee can bring their HABU (highest and best use) to work each day.
4. Financial Wellness. A 2021 Capital One CreditWise survey showed that 73% of Americans rank their finances as the most significant source of stress in their life. Poor financial health can cause absenteeism and lower productivity, which makes employee financial wellness important. Knowing and understanding the state of your finances contributes to the mental and physical well-being of your employees, which is why financial self-care is critical. This is another area that Liberty takes seriously and has future-forward plans to invest in financial health solutions for its employees. We talk about money being energy, so we want everyone on our team to feel comfortable with their relationship to money and how it can flow for them in their lives.
5. Work-Life Support. The shift to a more flexible workforce will bring its own set of well-being challenges. However, thoughtful employers will be looking for ways to adapt their wellness programs around this new model. In general, the experience of working from home has produced several advantages for many employees, including less commute stress, a better work-life balance, location independence and money savings. In 2022, many more companies now have employees who work from home all or some of the time, and Liberty is no different in adopting this hybrid work model to support its employees. We are teaching our employees how to create boundaries as it relates to working in their homes, so they have a definitive time and space for work and a self-created space and time for relaxation and rejuvenation.

What is your greatest source of optimism about the future of workplace wellness?

We believe that corporations should serve as an environment for people to have a greater connection to their purpose, comradery with other like-minded beings and creative outlets, and that the abundance that is created gets to be shared in an equitable way where everyone that is a part of the product and service can thrive together. The massive increases in revenue that we are seeing, year after year, are going back into the organization to fund the endeavor of serving our team in the best ways possible. We see the trends at large reflecting the true human essence that is behind all capital-intensive management endeavors. The holistic aspects of individuals are starting to be acknowledged as an important metric and nurtured in a better way. We are breaking down stigmas around mental health and realizing the importance of feelings of belonging. We have been isolated due to lockdowns, and we realize the importance of human connection as a part of our basic nature, so we are always thinking of ways to increase engagement and connection even when separated physically. We view our path of business as a path of service to the whole.

Our readers often like to continue the conversation with our featured interviewees. How can they best connect with you and stay current on what you’re discovering?

Keep an eye out for content Liberty will be releasing about all our wellness endeavors, partnerships in the health and wellness space and our culture. Our website, LinkedIn and social channels are good places to see how our culture is the bedrock of our success and how we are attracting amazing top-level talent and industry leaders on a weekly basis. It is a very exciting time to be with this organization as we will only use our platform to spread these values to a much larger audience.

You can additionally connect with Dippolito directly via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-dippolito/

Optional, (But A Good Opportunity). If you would like, you can include a video of yourself, sharing your “Top 5 Trends To Track In the Future of Workplace Wellness”. Here are a few examples of these videos

Although not related to the 5 trends, we wanted to share a recent culture video titled Between 2 Bells, which provides a fun, satirical outlook on who we are, our current initiatives, and the importance we place on workplace wellness: https://www.libertycompany.com/news/between-2-bells-two/

We created this video for a recent Liberty town hall to share laughs with our now over 650-person team of epic creators! We sought to create a video that would entertain and break the stigma around talking about mental health — and to let our employees know that we are here for them, and they can feel comfortable and that it is encouraged to come to us to talk about anything as it relates to health and wellness.

Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.

About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success A Success From Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.