ABOUT ME

Hi, my name is Joséphine—second-gen Congolese immigrant from Canada, living in the U.S.

I am a systems thinker, cultural steward, and strategist.

I’ve founded five businesses. While my last two made me profit, my early ideas didn’t work — and honestly, that’s how I learned. With each attempt, I became more skilled, more discerning, and more financially grounded. The real question I kept returning to wasn’t whether I could build a business, but how to do it in a way that actually felt right.

I’ve always cared deeply about people, culture, and the earth, and I wasn’t interested in reproducing systems driven by greed, over-extraction, or burnout just to “make it.” I wanted to work for myself and still be able to stand behind how the work was done, without asking me to abandon my ethics along the way.

What I learned is that this path is progressive, not immediate — and very real. It requires firmness, clear boundaries, and leadership that doesn’t rely on domination or chaos. It also requires business practices that are transparent, human, and aligned with what they claim to value.

Alongside entrepreneurship, I’ve spent years working inside the wellness industry as an employee. I’ve seen thoughtful, values-led practices done well — and I’ve seen where things quietly fall apart. I pay attention to these details: what builds trust, what erodes it, and where good intentions fail without the right structure.

That mix of lived experience, observation, and care is what informs my practice today. I take the work seriously — without taking myself too seriously.

*I am fluent in French & English, with limited fluency in Lingala.

Why I created gina

My work exists to protect integrity — of people, culture, land, and ideas — while helping organizations become clearer, more coherent, and more sustainable.

I do not extract insight from communities and resell it stripped of meaning. I work with vision, lived experience, and cultural context to reorganize chaos into structures. In this way, I help businesses turn confusion about how they work and grow into clear strategy that respects people and land, and supports long-term growth.

GINA stands for Growing In Newfound Awareness.

As you grow as a business leader, your business grows with you. New levels of awareness emerge — about your values, your structure, and how your work actually operates in the world. The core principles remain steady, but the model and strategies are not meant to stay static.

GINA reflects a belief that businesses should evolve with integrity. When awareness deepens, structure adjusts. This keeps the work grounded, responsive, and alive — not rigid or stale. Click below to discover GINA’s values 👇🏿

A business’s operations and how its leader(s) make(s) decisions should reflect its stated values in real, operational ways — not just through appearance or positioning.
CommunitycCare is not branding; it’s built into systems. I work toward business practices that protect people, communities, and land without relying on burnout, exploitation, or invisible labor.
Leadership comes with responsibility — to people, culture, and the future. I believe businesses should be accountable for their impact, not just their outcomes.

I’d love to offer you a sample!

Download a Sample Mini Brief

TESTIMONIALS

Hear it from the grapevine

• Hear it from the grapevine •

Thank you so much for making things clear to me. That session grounded me and showed me all I've been overlooking, including everything I truly have to offer. Just getting all of this info, especially honing down on who my target audience is, is so helpful because it' has been hard for me to pinpoint on my own. You could tell from my website. I was just so flustered! Thank you for seeing my vision.

— S.I.
Thank you for creating structure around my service ideas and the ones I already have! I feel like my businesses are more organized now and there's less confusion about how to manage everything.

— H.W.
I'm a very community-minded person and I work with sacred medicines to help my community heal. I have a pricing system to accommodate financial needs, but I was losing some revenue. I wanted my pricing strategy and business model to reflect my values in a way that would still allow me to one day do this work full-time, and weed out those who wanted to take advantage of my kindness. Joséphine helped me refine my pricing strategy, marketing, and boundaries with clients so that my personal integrity remained, and I wasn't giving more of myself than I had the capacity for. Today, my business continues to gain more clients, and I didn't have to compromise my values!

—N.I.S.
This was not a surface-level audit. Joséphine approached my business with care, cultural awareness, and precision. She identified structural issues I couldn’t name myself and translated lived experience into clear strategic insight. The work felt respectful, grounding, and deeply useful. It changed how I think about growth, not just what I do next.”

—Founder, community organization