A big 'Plus'
Business is a family affair for Wendy Gladney and Pasadena-based Personal Services Plus
By Joanna Beresford 04/09/2009
Wendy Gladney says she started her Pasadena-based business, Personal Services Plus (PSP), by accident. She was an at-home mom raising a toddler, but she was known for her robust competence in management and organization. Her friends, recognizing what Wendy describes as a “unique skill set,” began to solicit her help in arranging their professional events.
“And a door opened,” she says. She officially established PSP in 1992 and the company has since grown into a multifaceted event management operation that includes major efforts to strengthen and unite communities, individuals and corporations.
“So much of my past really laid the foundation for my work,” explains Wendy. As a student at UCLA she served as an intern in Washington DC for a California congressman. Later she did some work as an actress, and she grew up in the church —both her father and brother are pastors.
These experiences immersed her in different worlds, allowed her to foster relationships with a variety of people and ultimately enable Wendy to link diverse but fundamentally interdependent entities. Her client list includes philanthropic organizations like the Magic Johnson Foundation, Operation Hope, and Ability First (formerly the Crippled Children’s Society), as well as major corporations like Nike and McDonald’s, and networking organizations that serve the community, such as the National Action Network, the California Center of Public Health Advocacy, the Association of Black Women Physicians and California State Parks.
Wendy herself is biracial, a fact that she thinks has benefited her. “My mother was white, my father black, and my grandmother taught us love for all people. That prepared me to be a conduit between ‘mainstream’ America and what we call minority or ethnic groups.”
PSP and its affiliate programs are a family business. Wendy’s mother — as all mothers should or naturally do — serves as chief operating officer of the company, and Wendy’s daughter, Courtney Gladney, manages media and communications. Other family members contribute in various ways to the organization.
Courtney, who graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, then spent several years in the corporate sector in New York City before returning to PSP, describes both the obstacles and benefits of working with family: “In the corporate world you can leave your job, go home and not think about it again until morning. Working with family is much closer to the heart … We get connected with each other in a different way, and you always go the extra mile to make a difference in each other’s lives.”
“We learn from each other and every challenge makes us stronger,” adds Wendy. “I know Courtney and I can be rushed, or short with each other. We can have a disagreement, even a major blow-out, but at the end of the day we put the business first, and I know she’s got my back. And vice versa, too. She knows I have her best interest at heart at all times.”
So whether at the office in Pasadena, or out in the field, they’re always kind of at home, because they’re always together — two generations learning from and supporting each other, and making vital connections in their world.
Forgiving for Living, Inc., a nonprofit organization, is PSP’s most ambitious outreach program, and it’s Wendy’s passion. The organization is designed to offer solutions for people who struggle with issues of hate, anger, bitterness and inability to forgive. The mission is to “inspire and empower individuals who have experienced abuse, violence, abandonment, discrimination and/or low self-esteem.”
Wendy encountered abuse, abandonment and violence in her childhood, in ways that could have stunted or crippled her personal and professional life. She has not only overcome odds, overcome bitterness, and preserved herself; she has flourished in her endeavor to help others make their own lives beautiful and meaningful.
On Saturday, PSP and Forgiving for Living, Inc. will celebrate the 2009 Plus Awards, an auction and award ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. It’s their most important fundraising event and includes brunch, live music, plush décor and an opportunity to honor community advocates.
On the PSP Web site (www.personalservicesplus.com), Wendy captures the spirit of her company — and her family, and her life — with a few verses from an old song:
“If I can help someone as I pass along, If I can cheer someone with a word or song … Then my living will not be in vain.”
Contact Joanna at truewrite@yahoo.com.
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Thanks Joanna!
~From all of us at Personal Services Plus, Inc.