Friendship and connections are one of the most valuable aspects in life. Having spent these last few weeks working at Tasty Mates, this has only highlighted it even more.
The idea of Tasty Mates is based on different flavours portraying various personality traits found in a friendship group. More than this being just a message that the company perpetuates, a nice message to be associated with and a purpose for purpose’s sake, from the moment I stepped foot into TMHQ and met the team, I realised MATES ran through the core of everything the business and people within the business did.
From minute one I witnessed people genuinely engaging with one another, not a boring how was your weekend conversation around the kettle, but people actually wanting to know what each other were going through. The team, though small, have a dynamic of being genuine mates, not just colleagues. The atmosphere created by all those in the office is one that reminded me of hanging out with my friends. Every brainstorm became more creative because everyone felt comfortable (even me by Monday lunchtime!), the office chatter happening made the environment more collaborative, and in turn more successful because of it. Even the shared music playlists being played throughout the day.
Throughout my time at Tasty Mates I repeatedly heard the phrase ‘meaningful moments with mates’. At first I wasn’t totally sure how this played out in a real way to the audience we were engaging with, outside of the office, but from being involved with social media content, PR campaigns, new product launches and a little brand refresh (spoiler alert), I realised pretty quickly this message was something that is the lifeblood of Tasty Mates. Even the relationships the team had with suppliers, customers and partners was a real relationship – not just a ‘yeah you’ as Joe specifically tries to avoid.
Everything I experienced really emphasised the message of enjoying the sweet moments, as they make life worth appreciating, and these moments are often created whilst making memories and having meaningful moment with friends (whilst eating Tasty Mates at the same time!).
I was always aware of the importance of networking, and networking with the Tasty Mates team was great, but my time here showed me that networking is more than a one off conversation and who you know, it is about building genuine connections with people, who one day will remember me and I’ll remember them and hopefully support each other in whatever direction the future holds.
I think the biggest thing I have learnt with my time at Tasty Mates, is not necessarily about how a supply chain works (as interesting, and stressful as that may be), it’s not about how to come up with a punny social media caption, or about how to use CRM etc. it is about the importance of people and connections and those meaningful moments with mates.
