MadeYou Think Back On The Challenges and Triumphs

With 2023 on the horizon, we’ve asked the team to give us their highlights from the year. It’s been a special one, with a website re-vamp, many new courses being added to the roster and of course our emergence from the pandemic allowing for more face-to-face time with our clients. It’s truly been a year of change and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way.

Kelly

From a coaching perspective, I’ve had the immense pleasure of working with some incredibly talented people. I’ve accompanied some on their journeys to more senior positions and worked with executive groups to understand how they can find deeper synergies to achieve their strategic goals.

One of my favourite experiences this year was working with BetFirst and their Senior Management Team. We ran a face-to-face session to help them define their mission statement and company values. The opportunity to be involved with such a dynamic team to help them shape their future was great fun and hugely rewarding.

We were also invited by Heidi Lofthus (a sensational human being!) to speak at the iGaming Next HR Connect Conference. We had a two-hour slot to bring together all the learning from the day and, kudos to Luke Todd for building an epic session. We had over 100 people mixing with each other and getting stuck in with the interactive workshop.

Receiving feedback about the delegates enjoying the experience and how much they appreciated getting to network and speak to people they wouldn’t ordinarily have the chance to connect with was epic. I have to say that it was great fun for me and Luke to be on stage, helping everyone learn and have a great time doing it!

Luke

As a Coach I have loved working with some amazing individuals, helping them tap into their potential to be better leaders or managers- including some first-timers. I’ve also enjoyed the mix of clients we’ve worked with from all over the world this year.

There are so many standouts for me from a training perspective, but two, in particular, come to mind- both of which are leadership programs, but very individual for each business.

GiG Leaders’ Program has been amazing for me. Getting to build specific courses for their business leaders has been a brilliant opportunity to tailor-make courses; really adding value. The teams there have been so engaged and responsive to new and reaffirming learnings too.

The other stand-out was the KafeRocks’ leadership program which has been a mixture of training and business coaching for Leadership Development. I have met some amazing and unique individuals and worked closely with them to deliver some real penny-drop moments for their personal development, all delivered remotely.

Although Kelly has already mentioned it, I thoroughly enjoyed turning a conference on its head with our session at iGaming Next HR Connect Conference. Actually getting people out of their chairs (and their comfort zones) to talk to each other, so they don’t just learn from us but learn from each other, was amazing. The energy in the room was infectious and hearing people talking about Rabbits, Tortoises and Horses for weeks after brought a big smile to my face.

Richard

As a Trainer, it’s been great to get back to working face-to-face with clients. As much as the ‘new’ ways of remote training can be just as effective in bringing teams from around the globe together, meeting up and interacting with them in person has been great.

Vistajet is one of those companies that have utilised both face-to-face and remote training to service their staff here in Malta, Dubai, UK, Philippines and USA. Being invited back to run a 2ⁿᵈ and 3ʳᵈ program based on the feedback they had received from the 1^st program was a great boost. It’s always lovely to hear that the work we do is having a great impact.

My highlights as a Trainer have been leading the Team Leader Bootcamp and Management Programmes, which incorporate both training and coaching. The programs run for around 6 months and in that time you really see the attendees implement and develop what they take on board. The feedback received from those attending and their managers is fantastic to hear.

As a Gallup Accredited Coach, I have also been able to connect with so many clients- working with them to identify key areas for development and growth. Their involvement and contribution to these sessions has really demonstrated the fulfilment they get from them, and that for me is another positive confirmation that progress is being made- even to the point of new roles being achieved and difficult decisions being tackled.

Personally, feeling valued in a great team here at MadeYou gives me the drive and passion to continue helping others perform to the best of their abilities, and I’m really looking forward to great things in 2023!

Erika

In 2022, I stepped into a more marketing focused role and the first thing on my agenda was to give MadeYou a soft rebrand- specifically to revamp our company website. I am very grateful that Luke believed in me enough to hand over the reins and entrust me with running this project.

My vision was more than simply changing the theme of the website, I wanted to rewrite the whole thing. I wanted it to be helpful and convincing, consistent and professional. All while ensuring our unique, quirky personality shines through it all.

Granted, this project took a lot longer than I had initially anticipated – I was, after all, the sole member of the marketing department for half of the year. Luckily, I was able to outsource assistance. Thanks to Diane from Bring It, we were able to develop the website as she patiently listened to my ideas and handed out suggestions like “pastizzi” (for the unaware, these are delicious Maltese pastry snack). Later on in the year MadeYou acquired one hell of a talented graphic designer. Jason has since been doing tremendous work with our brand Monsters and other graphics. I find it quite remarkable that for someone who likes to work in a small home office alone, we (all remote workers) were able to pull off some pretty awesome teamwork!

I am incredibly happy with the results and appreciative of the challenges I’ve faced and the lessons I’ve learned. All of which will undoubtedly help me progress my role further in the upcoming year.

Jason

As a Graphic designer, it has been amazing to work from home. Avoiding traffic alone is enough to sell me on the idea, let alone working from the comfort of your own space. However, this has not stopped us from socializing in any way- we still find the time for quality team bonding activities. Apart from being highly entertaining, I find that these activities help us grow stronger as a unit.

One of the many projects I enjoyed working on this year is our new website. Creating the images for the site and all the courses was both a learning experience and a lot of fun! I’ve had the opportunity to create a wide variety of images and I just can’t get enough! Each image I am tasked with creating brings with it a new challenge and helps me to further expand my creativity and knowledge base.

These past six months have been a blast! I am very grateful to be part of a team of very talented, amazing individuals and can’t wait to see what 2023 will bring!

As you can see, the team have had a great year full of transformation, moments of post-pandemic joy and great success with our clients. We feel so strong as a team and can’t wait to see what 2023 brings for us and our amazing clients.