I recently received an email from the VoyageMichigan Magazine that seems to be doing a series on the "hidden gems" of entrepreneurs and they asked Joy Makers Project to participate in an interview process for one of their articles. I was shocked & stoked in the best way!
With that, I wanted to send a piece of the story of how Joy Makers started and where it seems to be headed. Joy Makers Project started out as what I believe to be a "God given vision" and I believe it will continue to grow and hopefully flourish into whatever would bring Jesus the most joy, this is my prayer!
Read on for a bit of backstory on Joy Maker Project. Here it is:
Joy Makers Project was born out of my experiences 7 years ago, traveling the world for 11 months pursuing non profit volunteer work (thank you Adventures in Missions and Seth Barnes!) Each country volunteered in, I noticed something in common: the world is hurting and people need more joy in their lives.
Upon return to the United States, this conviction of people needing more joy led me on a mission to do everything I could to spread joy to the individuals and communities around me through random acts of kindness, starting with Holland, MI. Seth Barnes, the Smith family, and several friends were a huge encouragement in this endeavor.
At first it looked like picking creative ways to go out and spread joy, then creating videos for social media to inspire and encourage others to go out and spread joy, too. Sometimes that would entail buying basketballs, soccer balls, and frisbees, handing them out to kids at the park. Other times it looked like dropping off random notes of encouragement at the airport, stores and other sorts of random acts. The response was positive, impactful, and the receivers of these random acts of kindness raved about it.
Over the years, I kept noticing how people’s faces would light up when they would be receivers of these “joy gifts” through random acts of kindness. There was something about the sparkle in people's eyes, that felt captivating to me. I just wanted so badly to see more of that in others. And, when I started posting these "random act of kindness joy stories" over social media, I had several people message me, explaining how my impact of spreading joy in some ways, helped keep them away from suicide or further bullying at school. I was dumbfounded!
As Joy Makers Project progressed over the next several years, I sensed there must be more to the concept of joy than simply doing random acts of kindness but wasn’t really sure where to start with doing a deeper dive of studying on the significance of joy. But God! In 2022 I met my now good friend and Mentor, Chris Coursey, president of Thrive today, who introduced me to the concept of studying the significance of joy from a neuro-theological and psychological perspective. This profoundly expanded my world view on joy, which allowed me to understand in greater measures how joy in individual and community lives was necessary for positive mental health outcomes, human development and growth, and healthy cultures.
This captivating revelation led me to study, practice, and apply practical brain and relational skills in my own life, which was profoundly transformational. My capacity to manage difficulties increased, my relationships grew in greater measures of joy and appreciation, I felt consistently lighter on the inside, more energized, and even strengthened. My attachment to God began to grow leaps and bounds. I felt happier and healthier than I ever had before.
Because of how transformative it was in my own life, I started implementing practical brain skills and relational skills gauranteed to increase joy into my clinical practice, Joy Makers workshops, and all over social media. I started to emphasize to my clients and social media followers, if practiced and applied, these joy building skills would increase joyful living personally and increase relational/emotional health in individuals and communities lives with those around.
Today Joy Makers Project focused on both continuing to show up with kindness and generosity and also intentionally training individuals and groups of teams on increasing their capacities for joy. Today, it's a fusion of both learning to experience joy and spread it wherever one may go.
I do my best to share generously what i’ve learned from my own experiences, schooling, and mentorship from Chris Coursey and am dedicated to spending the rest of my life studying the significance of joy and helping others experience its transformative potential in their lives, too.
Though Joy Makers Project continues to evolve, it continues to seek to be an leading voice in individuals, families, business, and church lives, being a living example of the power and importance of experiencing and spreading joy in one's everyday life. I also seek to emphasize the importance of never underestimating what one act of kindness can do, one act of "glad to see you smile" can do, to impact someone, or even change the trajectory of someone’s life for the better.
Thank you for being part of this project simply by being connected in big or small ways.
With gratitude,
Kailey with Joy Makers Project
I continue to be so grateful learning about Joy from Chris with Thrive today andThe Life Model on building joyful relationships and communities.
Learn about Joy Makers Projecthere
Check out where I've been getting all kinds of Joy training at Thrive Today
About Joy Makers Project
Joy is deeply involved with Human Development and Positive Mental Health Outcomes. Joy Makers Project leads with an uncommon solution for the devastating Mental Health problems our world is experiencing today. We train communities of people to maximize their experiencing and spreading of Joy one individual and group at a time. It’s that simple and has profound transformative potential. Clickhereto get started!
Joy is for the inside and the outside of the margins, for the weak and for the strong, the healed and the broken, the young and the old, all are invited into a more joy filled, satisfying life (adapted from The Life Model).
