I used to work at a cool company called Mindvalley.
If you’ve never heard of them, Mindvalley is…
“… an international group of visionaries, rebels, crazed inventors, best-selling authors, quirky artists, and ambitious entrepreneurs working on pushing humanity forward through culture hacking and revolutionizing the global education system.” – http://mindvalley.com
Still a bit vague, but basically they sell personal growth and educational home study courses online. A lot of meditation related products, like The Silva Method.
My previous position at Mindvalley was the mobile content editor for their apps Omvana and Dormio. Basically, I listened to guided meditations and soothing music all day, prepared them for the app, and then released everything to the users.
I left the company on good terms to pursue my own dreams, passions, and online business. I am grateful for every friend I made, every conversation I had, and every lesson I learned at Mindvalley. Five of which I’ll share with you here.
These lessons could apply to your life, your work situation, your purpose, or anything that’s happening around you now.
1. You’re way cooler just being yourself
I began my journey at Mindvalley just out of college. It was my very first job. Every single person I met at Mindvalley was open minded, genuine, and encouraging to whatever I thought of myself.
Meaning they saw who I was, and said, yeah that’s cool, be yourself. That’s a pretty cool feeling when you meet 100 strangers from around the world. Thank you for letting me be myself, so that I could see my own strengths, and shine true to all.
For example, I could share my passion for meditation much more openly with everyone. At home, very few people were curious, and fewer people wanted to know how to meditate. While at Mindvalley, I was able to begin a group meditation circle, meeting daily for 30 minutes to teach and share my strongest passion. It felt really good to just be myself.
I promise, you’ll feel better when you stop lying to yourself for others, and start being yourself for you. After you do that, cool people will surround you automatically.
2. Don’t tell people what you will do. Do it, then show them.
Talk is cheap my friend. If you’ve got a kick ass idea, then try it out. Get results and then show them off. If turns out to be a failure, then say, “Hey, I thought this would work, so I tried it, but it didn’t work. Now we know what doesn’t work.”
Everyone has good ideas. But the real ballers come to the table with results because they took action. I’m not saying to be reckless, but don’t be too timid. Here’s are two examples. One of them you should do. One of them you should definitely not do. Guess which is which.
1. “Hey Vishen (mindvalley’s CEO), I just tried this new social media strategy of re-sharing the most viral content on reddit. Here are 3 posts and their results – notice a 134% higher engagement rate.”
2. “Hey Vishen, I just spent $200,000 in Google Ads testing cats in meditation pose. I thought people loved cats… I was very wrong… *meow*”
You get my point. Try new stuff, but don’t be reckless.
3. Only you can hold yourself back
As mentioned above, people around Mindvalley are super encouraging. You tell anyone an idea and they will generously give advice on how to improve it, execute it, and support it. BUT, no one will do it for you. You are in complete control of your life.
At Mindvalley you will learn there are no limits. There is nothing you can not achieve. The only person holding you back, is you. Everyone else is pushing you forward. You should join them.
4. How to focus
Basically, there is not enough time in the day. Too many emails, questions, articles, tasks, and random stuff to do comes up every day. Stop reading every link people send you. If you do click, then learn to scope it out in 5 seconds to see if it’s worth reading 100%.
You don’t need to reply to people instantly – whether that’s through Skype, IM, or email. In today’s world, when we need to sustain so many social media channels, relationships, and connections, people have will just have to wait. In many cases it takes time to craft a proper response.
NEVER check email or Skype when you’re in the middle of a task. When you check these too often, and reply on the spot, you scatter your focus. This is the worst productivity technique ever. (Seriously, this is for every MV employee reading this right now.)
Try pomodoro, or go offline on Skype completely when you’re in the middle of something. Also, turn off your Skype notifications. They are the bane of your existence.
I learned to set my time, shut everything off, and see what needs to be accomplished – then hammer through it, zero distractions.
5. No work place is perfect, but this is pretty damn close
It all depends who you are and where you’re at in your life. If you’re a single 23 year old guy fresh out of college, then it probably doesn’t get better than this (read: mindvalley – the world’s hottest workplace).
One aspect I loved about mindvalley was flextime (current employees will shake their head, but bear with me). Before mindvalley, when I was at my previous internship, I had to be there by 8 am, and could not leave until 4:30. Watching the clock, and feeling tied down was the worst feeling ever.
Like some arbitrary rule, that I owed them my time. The clock kept me locked inside of an invisible prison. I can imagine that’s what most clock-in clock-out jobs feel like. Mindvalley was different for me.
People generally came in by 10am and stayed till around 6 or 7. In between that time is complete freedom. Walk out of the office if you want. No one’s watching. No one cares. It’s very chill and I like that feeling. The only caveat is that you have to be in your scheduled team meetings and you better get the work done that you need to.
They trust that you’ll manage yourself, but if you begin missing deadlines and meetings, you’ll be questioned. I’ll take flexibility and trust over watching the clock thank-you-very-much corporate America.
6. (Bonus) Mindvalley is an entrepreneurs university
Mindvalley is a university for you to become an expert internet business entrepreneur. If you go there, make the most of it by learning to make a buck online.
Seriously, there is no better place in the world that I can think of to work, live, and breathe online success. If you walk out of Mindvalley after a year with no idea how to make money online then you f*cked up. (I don’t swear often, but this is the only way I can say it.) No kidding, the place is golden, and you would be wise to take advantage of every single moment in their atmosphere.
Transformation towards the future
I’ve been away from Mindvalley for a while now, but I will never forget the friends I made and the lessons we learned together. If you want another sneak peek into life at Mindvalley, then check out my other popular post, 37 Things That Might Happen At Mindvalley [in Pictures].
*Disclaimer: Individual results may vary. Consult your doctor before applying.
If you found this article and are planning to apply for Mindvalley, then definitely check out the Mindvalley careers page to see what they’re looking for right now.
Cheers,
Tharyn
PS. If you want video cover letter advice, just be yourself. It’s not that hard. :)