Meeting People Where They Are -- Adapting Mental Health Strategies to Workplace Culture with Monica Kramer McConkey

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Overview

Ever wonder why some workplace mental-health campaigns land flat even when the intention is in the right place?

In this episode, I sit down with Monica Kramer McConkey, an agricultural mental-health specialist who has spent three decades helping rural and blue-collar communities thrive. Together they unpack a truth many leaders miss: mental health efforts fail when we ask workers to enter our world instead of meeting them in theirs.

Monica grew up on a Minnesota farm and knows the invisible weight carried by farmers, construction crews, and shift workers who rarely see themselves in corporate wellness brochures. She shows us that if leaders really want culture change, they need to slow down, listen first, and meet people where they already live, work, and gather.

Two Tactical Takeaways for Leaders

1) Know the Soil You’re Sowing In

Before launching any new initiative — whether it's a training, policy, or awareness campaign — leaders must understand the community they are engaging with. Monica describes this as having the heart of a learner: practicing compassionate curiosity, engaging in meaningful active listening, and genuinely wanting to understand the community’s lived experience.

This is why, in our work, we always begin with a “Listening Tour” – officially known as a Needs & Strengths Assessment.

Instead of guessing what employees need, we run a rigorous, transparent, and non-punitive diagnostic phase that reveals both risks and strengths hidden inside the culture.


Listening well to uncover not just individual challenges but structural barriers like pay inequity or non-inclusive accommodations that directly influence mental-health outcomes.

Listening first sets a solid baseline for every later step, making change with people, not to them.

2) Harvest the Rewards by Showing Up in Their Space

Monica’s second piece of wisdom: “Fish where the fish are.”

Don’t expect workers to travel across town for an HR lunch-and-learn. Bring the conversation to the breakroom, the shop floor, the union hall, the tailgate meeting.

Real trust grows when leaders show up in the spaces where people already gather, especially in tight-knit or underserved communities.
This shift — meeting people in their own context — turns mental-health outreach from a corporate mandate into a gesture of genuine care.

Quotable Quote

“Meeting people where they are means acknowledging their reality—
not dragging them into yours.” – Monica Kramer McConkey

About Monica

Monica Kramer McConkey, LPC, has dedicated more than 30 years to expanding access to mental-health care in rural and underserved communities.

Growing up on a farm in northwestern Minnesota, she understands first-hand the stress that agricultural work places on families and the cultural barriers that often keep them from seeking help. Today, Monica serves as an Agricultural Mental Health Specialist in Minnesota, supporting farmers, ranchers, and their families through crises large and small. As the founder of Eyes on the Horizon Consulting, she travels the country speaking, training, and consulting with employers on resilience-building and culturally responsive mental-health strategies—helping leaders meet people where they are and create workplaces where wellbeing can take root.

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