Transformations of Coupa Women through MEvolution’s Energy Booster
When one of the women at Coupa, who we’ll call Pam, first met Sarah from MEvolution, she was at her lowest mentally, physically, and emotionally. Pam was depressed, low energy, and feeling alone and desperate. Caring for her small children including homeschooling during the pandemic, plus taking care of her aging mother recently diagnosed with Alzheimers, and learning how to work remotely in a fast-paced technology job became too much. The pandemic was tough on everyone in many ways. But for women in business, many of whom were feeling just like Pam and who Coupa’s Empower Employee Resource Group was created to support and lift up, there was an opportunity to really change people’s lives for the better.
Sarah Deane, Founder of MEvolution, walked with Pam through the eight-week program of learning how to identify and plug up Pam’s energy leaks, identify and remove energy blockers, and really begin to thrive. MEvolution is a science-based personal growth system that measures and systematically increases human capacity by teaching employees how to manage, direct, and optimize their personal energy. When Pam came to the Empower leadership meeting to share her testimonial on the enormous impact and value that the MEvolution program and Sarah personally has had on her life, she literally could not stop smiling. She shared her story of transformation while beaming, saying that by taking care of herself, setting boundaries, and prioritizing her needs, she is better able to take care of everyone around her and is thriving in her career.
Gina Tesla, Coupa’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Chairperson of Empower, was inspired and knew she had the corporate responsibility to offer this service to other women at Coupa from all different departments and timezones. Gina’s vision also included the shared commitment with the recipient women of Empower’s + MEvolution’s program: to be accepted into the program was to also commit to giving back through volunteer service for 2-4 hours, kicked off through Coupa’s Global Impact Week. This is a week each December where Coupa will match monetary donations to charities and is meant to encourage employees to use up to 40 hours of Volunteer Time Off while highlighting and hearing from several charity organizations.
From January through March 2023, 20 additional selected Coupa women went through the guided program with Sarah and MEvolution, starting with a detailed and personal Energy Quiz that highlighted where each of the women had energy leaks, blockers, or opportunities. Through a weekly mix of live teachings by Sarah and group sharing of stories or eye-openers, each woman also went through a “choose-your-own-adventure” type of guided modules based on the Energy Quiz with recorded teachings and guided personal reflections to really dive into the root causes of certain beliefs and therefore actions and feelings. At the end of each week the women would fill out the same “Weekly Pulse” to gather data and trends on their energy, feelings, and intensity of those feelings. The results are undeniable! The majority of women were able to better handle challenging situations, felt less negatively, had less anxiety, had increased focus, and set better boundaries! And half of the participants even felt happier, more fulfilled and engaged at work.
These women, happier and more energized, became even MORE fulfilled by also giving back to their communities through their required acts of service. The resounding takeaway from each service write up was “It really makes you appreciate what you have, humbles you at how great the needs are, and inspires you to serve more regularly.” Some numbers on the impact this small group of 20 women made: 14,000 pounds of food packed, 1,000 Christmas gifts given to children in need, 185 families and seniors served boxes of non-perishables, 40 pounds of trash removed from the beach, 120 guests served a Christmas dinner, and many other wins. The women were filled with gratitude for being prompted and encouraged to give back, not only to help and sustain our world and communities, but for their own self-fulfillment and fun they received themselves.
Supporting each other around the world has never been more important. Coupa is proud of the many Employee Resource Groups it supports, including Empower, whose mission is to break down barriers to women’s success by creating a community working together to unleash the impact of women in business. Empower is thrilled to continue partnering with MEvolution and Sarah Deane to change and enrich the lives of women in business and all people around the world.
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Before working at Coupa, I was extremely dissatisfied with my job for nearly a decade. I felt trapped, imprisoned, frustrated to the point of not knowing whether to burst out bawling or laughing (and did both over the years), and nearly desperate. Why did it take me so long to leave and find Coupa? Before Covid and the social norm of using Zoom or Google Meets, I knew there were no other companies nearby my small, Wisconsin town that could provide a similar income without an hour commute, and as the breadwinner of my family with my husband an elementary school teacher along with our two high school girls, I could not justify trading my happiness to diminish theirs. Being a midwesterner as well as a GenXer, I talked myself into “sucking it up” and grinding for the next 20 years until I could retire for them to have stability. Covid, Zoom and then Coupa changed my life. With the global pandemic changing the way business worked, it was like my eyes were opened up to the entire world of possibilities. I made it my second job to read job descriptions and attend virtual interviews, refusing to settle for a company I wasn’t obsessed with. My obsession with Coupa started before even my first conversation with Talent Acquisition, from the very beginning when I read the job description that included Coupa’s Core Values. Not only did I fully embody and believe in all three values from the start, but I was obsessed with a company that would even have values like this! I had no idea how important and embedded these values really were to this company at the time, but it was the first reason I wanted to work here.
