A trip to visit one of the leading companies in the world, with a mission of becoming the world’s greatest workplace by 2020.

Being greeted by a super hero statue, leaving shoes at the door to make you feel like you are at home and standing beneath a ‘I dare to dream big’ manifesto I could only be in one place. Mindvalley. The home of a global education, technology and publishing brand and 100+ employees from around the world. Surround by books and a beautifully designed interior, I had the luxury of a quiet Sunday tour around the office to soak up the atmosphere and ask some questions!

After attending Awesomeness Fest in Thailand, I decided to extend my trip so I could visit Kuala Lumpur and see first hand how they do what they do, get a sense of how they operate and to see what they really believe in.

For people that don’t know Mindvalley, they are a global brand and company that invests in, creates and builds businesses that align with its goal to push humanity forward. Founded by Vishen Lakhiani, Mindvalley grew from a digital publishing company, to build a series of successful businesses in a wide variety of sectors ranging from mobile apps, marketing, technology, personal growth and entrepreneurship, to health and wellness. I have followed their work for the past 3 years as they openly share the successes of what it takes to attract the best talent in the world.

An Interview with Marta Kondryn, Talent at Mindvalley

What makes a Mindvalley employee?

“The kind of people that go to A-Fest. They are our perfect employees. They are into personal growth, read a lot, discover a lot, not afraid to go to silent meditation retreat, who are spiritual beings, not follow any particular, very open minded. Seek balance and health in all areas of life, seek fulfilment. Not just seeking a 9-5 job but going beyond in Mindvalley and in their own projects.”

What are the best things about working for Mindvalley?

1) Freedom

We have a startup environment which excites me. There are many things which haven’t been implimented or done before. You have all the psace to create new thing and impliment them. The talent management team where I work, we are given so much freedom.2

2) People

People from 30+ countires that are not only your collegues ut are your true friends, with whom your share the same values, with who you travel. They are ver friendly and accepting. When you are so far away from your family these people gives you the feeling of family in Malaysia and in Mindvalley.

3) Development

Mindvalley pushes you a lot to go beyond your regular job and to create epic things for yourself. After Mindvalley I don’t think we can go back to corporate companies, we either become aspiring entrprenuers or we go to companies which have the same values as Mindvalley. So during ths experience you are gently pushed to discover what you want from life and go for it.

What does the company do to make this happen?

The culture is amazing. It’s a very strategic area for the company and we all take really good care of it. We try not to mess up, we hire people to be cultural fit, not for skills. There are many great things.

• Awesomeness Report – once per week (to celebrate weekly achievements – a modern team meeting in the Hall of Awesomeness)
• Learn Hour – employees or anyone can run training and teach whatever they want.
• Learn Day – once per month we have learn day, where we just study, read books or do training.
• Library of amazing books – we can order every quarter, books whatever we want. Freedom to study and learn as much as we can
• Mindvalley Products – we are given access to all of the products and we practice them and share them. I’m a big fan
• Great minds – there are so many people to learn from. Vishen is so approachable, if you need, he will educate you or train you. He also inspires!

How do people join Mindvalley? (Most common question)

As I said, we don’t hire for skills, we hire for cultural fit. This is very important. We ask our people to create a video cover letter. People sometime are afraid and think it should eb super fancy, but not, it’s just for us to see if it would be fun to work with the person or not. If you can feel it through the videos then sure you will make it through the interview. We also ask our candidates to be patient because sometimes it takes a long time, sometimes with 6 or 7 different people. This is so we get different opinions form different teams.We try to identify where you will fit the best and if your jouney will Mindvalley will be happy, so we always say be patient. Once it’s done you will end up in the perfect team!

 Thanks Marta for a guided tour and interview!

To find out more about the work of Mindvalley, check out Vishen’s talk on creating the world’s greatest Workplace.