From Clinical Social Work to HR: Jocelyn Singer-Sargent on Building a Scrappy Consulting Practice
- Jack Tompkins
- Aug 16
- 3 min read
Jocelyn Singer-Sargent is the founder of Jocelyn Singer-Sargent Consulting, known as "the work whisperer." She's an HR consultant, coach, and speaker based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, dual-credentialed as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a SHRM-certified HR professional. On this episode of Scrappy But Successful, she and Jack Tompkins talk about the accidental path into HR, what an employee handbook actually reveals about a company, and the scrappy, word-of-mouth way she built her entire consulting practice from scratch.
From Clinical Social Work to Accidental HR
Jocelyn didn't grow up wanting to work in HR - almost nobody does, she jokes. Her path started in a residential behavioral health treatment center, where she was hired into admissions rather than the therapist role she wanted. Talking to insurance companies and people in crisis all day, without being part of the actual solution, wore her down fast. When she noticed how burned out the therapists around her were, she pitched her executive director on creating an HR function, essentially becoming the organization's advocate for its own people. That leap, made with zero background in HR and just a cardboard box of employee handbook forms to work from, set the pattern for how she still approaches new challenges today: jump in, figure it out, and trust that you'll learn it on the fly.
What the Employee Handbook Really Says About a Company
One of the more distinctive parts of Jocelyn's approach is treating the employee handbook as a cultural artifact rather than just a compliance document. She reads it for tone: does it lead with trust and support, or does it read like a list of ways an employee's hand will get slapped? That tone, she argues, directly shapes who an organization attracts and keeps. A rigid, punitive handbook tends to produce employees who color strictly inside the lines and do nothing extra, while a handbook grounded in trust invites people who go further. It's a small lens with big implications for culture, hiring, and retention.
Burnout, a Six-Month Floor Nap, and the Leap into Consulting
Jocelyn's road to starting her own practice wasn't a straight line. After years in corporate HR, including a brutal stretch through the pandemic, she burned out completely, left her job at the end of 2021, and spent roughly six months essentially decompressing before consulting could really begin. When a headhunter called with a new opportunity, she took it (partly, she admits, for the dental insurance), even though it turned out to be a poor culture fit. It took a second false start in an IT project management role before her body gave her a clear signal: she wasn't going back to a corporate role. That's when she started telling people she was an HR consultant, printed business cards for a business that didn't technically exist yet, and borrowed a contract template from another consultant to land her very first client.
Referrals, the Dog Park, and Building a Practice on Word of Mouth
With zero entrepreneurs in her family and no roadmap to follow, Jocelyn built her client base almost entirely through referrals and relationships, including a memorable connection made at the Santa Fe dog park. She's found that speaking engagements, even to small local audiences, tend to pay off later: a talk to 15 people at a local HR association meeting eventually turned into both manager training and customer service training work. Her advice to other consultants is straightforward: take the free speaking opportunities, stay visible in your community, and let the relationships compound over time.
You can find Jocelyn and her work here:
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