Get To Know Mallory Loone, Founder Of Work Inspires

Mallory is a Co-founder and Trainer of Work Inspires Resources Pvt. Ltd. A Company that focuses on Sustainable Results through Interactive and Customizable Experiences in Team Management Onboarding Solutions and leadership and Development. Sharing of her experiences in working with Many Multi-National Companies and her experiences across different countries of the world. Her objective is to work with Different companies to help their employees have impactful learning, onboarding, and Engagement sessions.

Mallory always inspires everyone to learn best when they have a good experience. So with that, Mallory is working on customizing different modules, Structures, assuming that brings out the best results and senses of the participants, which creates the best Experience to learn and grow, individually and as a team to meet customer experience.

Hi Mallory, welcome to Marketing In Asia. I must say you are doing a great job in People Engagement. Tell us about yourself, your career, background, hobbies.

Hello, I am Mallory Loone, currently the co-founder of Work Inspires, a people engagement and development company working with organizations across 8 countries. She is also a 3 times TEDx Speaker, Top 100 LinkedIn Icon in 2020 by Marketing in Asia, and awarded coach through World Human Resources Development Congress.

Well, I enjoy contributing back to society through Tulips Movement, a non-for-profit organization aimed to empower women and youths. Besides that, I also frequently mentor youth and startups. But for fun, I enjoy a good game of golf, watching Formula 1 when I can, and having great conversations with coffee.

The name Work Inspires is a very promising name, how did the idea for your business come about?

My co-founder, Azfarazie and I were brainstorming names that would symbolize a balance between business and people goals, yet brings forward our sincerity and passion to add massive value to whomever we meet.

So we actually did a market survey with mentors, CHROs, CEOs, fellow entrepreneurs, and “Work Inspires” won!

From being employed to becoming an entrepreneur. What is your key driving force?

To be honest, I have never thought about being an entrepreneur even though my study days. However, when an opportunity came about to work under a government agency with the job description given as “promoting entrepreneurship to young people” I jumped on it and to my amaze, landed the job.

With that 1 year of working, I have fallen in love with the idea of being able to build something on my own, make key differences and impact through areas that I am passionate it- people development.

Being an ACCA graduate, I did my “risk assessment” and figured that it was a good time for me to explore this world of entrepreneurship while I can, so why not?

Fast forward to 9 years later, I have no regrets and have been riding on this wave of “the world of possibilities” ever since.

How did you build a thriving customer base?

One of the key things my Azfarazie and I agreed on was to build a business that truly embodies the value that we hold strongly- add massive value

So with that in mind, we focus a lot on client retention rate, results-focused deliverables, going above and beyond to ensure the learning experiences are effective and objectives, as well as goals, are always aligned.

This has definitely helped keep our clients close to us and more often than not, friendships are formed outside of work as well! Hence, through the pandemic, our client’s trust and support, have been among the key reasons for our growth and survival.

What would You say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?

Firstly, you need mental resilience. No, it’s not about being “Strong” all the time or keeping the “hustle culture” but it’s about the ability to thrive when you’re mentally strong and accepting that you too need a break when you’re mentally tired. Being about to ride the “mental roller coaster” is among the main reasons that would make or break an entrepreneur.

Secondly, it would be self-awareness. As an entrepreneur, we tend to keep rushing and growing as fast as we can, to a point that we’re always busy. However, having strong self-awareness is needed to help us reflect, gather our thoughts, find time to unlearn, relearn, grow and practice gratitude. This helps to keep us in check with our “Success” and yet opens up spaces for us to discover more about our abilities and strengths, individually.

Lastly, people skills in summary. Everyone says that “success is a lonely journey”, I beg to differ as I can only make it this far because of Azfarazie and my team, along with endless cheers and support from clients, friends, and families. This can only come when you can manage the expectations of all your “Stakeholders” both at work and at home. This includes the way you communicate, inspire, deliver and grow those around you.

Can you tell us your steps in planning a client’s path to success?

The first rule to remember is “No client is Identical” which means though they may face similar challenges or have the same goals, they each have their own “DNA”. So, the first step for us is to always identify the “DNA” and understand what drives the organization.

Following that has a lot to do with understanding the needs of all parties involved, from leaders to the employees, and being ready to adapt and make changes to fit the organization’s needs and goals where we can.

In your professional journey, you did wonders. What has been your most outstanding achievement?

For me, the biggest satisfaction to date is to see the hard work of planning, consulting, and executing learning or engagement successfully for clients, may it be an entire management/ graduate trainee program, assessment center, virtual team building, and even culture transformation.

Especially during the pandemic, many things have been shifted to virtual or hybrid mode and that has been exciting and scary at the same time. We’ve been innovating the best we can, playing to our strengths, and seeing all of that paid off with impactful results. It is truly satisfying!

On a personal level, I am very happy that firstly we’ve made it 2 years plus despite the pandemic and looking forward to many years ahead!

As you have 9+ years of experience in training and learning, so as per your experience, which engagement strategies work the best?

With the pandemic, learning has definitely changed quite a lot. With that said, the best form of engagement is one that is customized to fit the learning needs of those involved.

From an employee perspective, learning and engagement are effective when they can be seen as applicable to help them make work effective. From a company perspective, engagement works best when the company’s business and people’s goals are aligned, for example, a company’s goal is to drive changes to digitalized operations. With that, the engagement element would be, how can the company ensure that the people are equipped with the right mindset, tools, and skills to do so.

How can readers get in touch with you, Mallory?

They can reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. Can also email me at mallory@workinspires.com and check us out on www.workinspires.com