About Us

Inspired Beliefs, LLC, is the premier Leadership & Workplace Wellness consulting firm on the Virginia Peninsula.

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Inspired Beliefs was birthed…actually…let me back it up.

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Picture it (insert day and year here), Newport News, VA, I got my first job at 15 years old at a public library (one of my happy places). I had to take a test before getting the interview and when I got the interview, there were three people on the interview panel. Can you say intimidating! All I could think was, all of this for $5.15/hr. Yup, that was the minimum wage back in my day. I had an excellent work ethic, I caught on quick, and I was efficient. One of my best jobs! I went on to have another job before graduating high school and going off to college. I held at least four different jobs during the two years I spent at Virginia Commonwealth University before transferring to Old Dominion University, where I completed my bachelor’s degree in Psychology.

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Fast forward to my late twenties, I had already graduated from Norfolk State University (Behold the Green & Gold!) with my master’s in Social Work and was working on my clinical social worker license. I had already held about 15 or so jobs by that time and the number increased as I got my feet wet in my field of study; working at places such as the Center for Child and Family Services and the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board.

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Since then, I had worked at homeless shelters, Home Depot, Target, multiple customer service telemarketing agencies, Old Point National Bank, SunTrust, Credit Union Service Center and more 😊. It was around this time that I started to truly think something was wrong with me (it probably didn’t help that I was also training to be a therapist so I’m in constant self-diagnosis mode). Why couldn’t I stay at a job longer than three years and why do I always find myself unhappy at my jobs after the honeymoon period? I was always an engaged employee, going above and beyond, aligning my work with the mission and goals of the organization, but it wasn’t enough for me to stay.  

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And then one day, after my 30th or so job (don’t judge me), I finally had my aha moment. Although I worked for some great companies and had decent leadership at some, I also worked for some really shitty (excuse the language) companies. I worked for companies that lacked major resources to get the basics of the job done, leaders who did not know how to lead…at all, hostile work environments, business owners who were out of touch with the day-to-day operations, no employee training, non-existent employee onboarding, and bad customer service…you name it, I experienced it.

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And from those experiences, I began to shift my focus from an individual perspective to an organizational perspective. I became intrigued by the challenges that organizations face when it came to people, processes, and culture. By this time, I had experience in executive level leadership positions for mental health and healthcare agencies as a Clinical Director and Director of Behavioral Health. I provided therapy for Navy sailors and eventually began working for VHA as the Chief of Veteran Experience at a government hospital.

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Meanwhile, in true LaDonna fashion, I went back to school, and obtained my PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology, from Grand Canyon University. Many of those roles required me to revise, revamp, develop, and implement solutions, programs, and/or training materials designed to enhance and improve upon processes within organizations and develop the skills and talents of the individuals within the organizations, primarily leadership. Little did I know, the experiences I had since I was 15 prepared me to be the organizational development expert you are reading about today.

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So, back to where I started. Inspired Beliefs was birthed in 2016 as a result of being inspired to help leaders and organizations create healthy work environments by focusing on the development and well-being of people, establishing work/life balance through processes, and cultivating a strong work culture.