International Women’s Day 2021
International Women’s Day is an opportunity for us to celebrate the incredible and talented women who are part of our team.
We are proud and privileged as a group of companies to have women working across all of our businesses and throughout all of our departments. They are all individual assets to our organizations and we are reminded throughout the year, the importance of having these women onboard.
From 7 Elite Academy’s soccer coaches who inspire the next generation of female soccer players – to women in the marketing team whose creativity is instrumental to the businesses’ growth, we as a group could not be prouder of their commitment and dedication. We have asked some of our team what they feel their proudest ‘Really Epic Dog’ achievement has been.
Lauren Reynolds, Head of Marketing at The Homestead said: “I’ve worked for Really Epic Dog Group for 7 (8 years in June) years now, starting off as a Marketing Intern. The group has supported me with my career progression over the years and allowed me to gain experience across the group in different areas of marketing.
There’s so much to be proud of! I think my proudest moments would have to be planning and delivering marketing activations at MIPCOM, which is the biggest global content conference taking place in Cannes every year attracting the biggest studios from around the world. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare and execute our fun and disruptive ideas, but we managed to create truly unique experiential marketing exhibits that were talked about throughout the 4 day long conference.”
Kelly Forshaw Group Marketing Manager of Really Epic Dog Group said – “Being part of the Really Epic Dog Group team for over six years has allowed me to do things I never thought I’d do. My proudest achievement would probably be delivering a talk at Social Media Week conference in New York, to an audience of hundreds of delegates. It wasn’t originally planned for me to do the talk, but when my colleague couldn’t attend, he trusted me to take on the task on behalf of the company. It’s great to work among incredibly talented women and men, feeling supported and encouraged to move outside your comfort zone.”
Haley Shieck, Office Manager said “Some of my proudest moments are not based in big accomplishments, but rather in the little things that I get to do on a regular basis. I often plan events for the Salt Lake City team—catered lunches, holiday service work, birthday celebrations, and so on. I take a lot of pride in bringing my community together and making people feel special. Creating experiences where everyone has the opportunity to set their respective work duties down, let loose, and have fun are the moments I feel the most grateful for and proud of my job. When I see my colleagues smiling as they eat a catered lunch during a football game, cracking jokes with one another as they carry boxes of donations at Christmas, getting to know one another over a Mocktail, or learning about the accomplishments of their colleagues through the monthly newsletter, that is when I feel I am really making a difference. I appreciate that I have been given the creative freedom to implement my duties as Office Manager in a way that helps create the close-knit, caring, fun-loving culture that RED has. I am proud to be a part of it.”
Zoe Hewitson, Marketing Assistant at Really Epic Dog Group said –
“I’ve worked at Really Epic Dog Group for around a year and a half, and its amazing the work opportunities I’ve been given so far in different industries and projects! My proudest moment would be travelling to Utah to capture content for the 7 Elite International Tournament in Feb of 2020. It was an amazing but challenging weekend, learning and adapting to capturing such a large-scale, live-action event, where you couldn’t ask someone to re-score a goal. I’m really proud of all the great work that our team was able to accomplish during the event.”
Amy Cowap, Marketing Assistant at Really Epic Dog Group said “I started working for Really Epic Dog in summer 2020 during lockdown. Although working remotely and not getting to meet my colleagues in person has been a challenge, figuring things out for myself and adapting to the new conditions has been very rewarding. My proudest moment has to be everything we achieved during the 7 Elite International Tournament in February, marketing an event you can’t attend yourself is always going to be a challenge, but with great communication and team work we did a great job. ”
Stacie Mortimer, Digital Workspace Specialist at Laduma said – The Laduma concept is extremely relevant to the changing world so I am proud to have joined during this time and to be able to contribute to getting this out there and helping people readjust to the ‘new normal’ way of working. The onboarding process was remote so I’m happy to feel like I’ve already integrated well and part of the team and I’m looking forward to the months to come.
Sandy Yatham, Project Manager at Laduma said “I am very blessed and grateful to God for helping me to start the testing side of the team up from the scratch. The ability to work beautifully with my DEV colleagues. Being a woman in the IT sector in Engineering is not the easiest. But for me, my team makes it smooth and easy. Good communication, trust in me to do the job and a helpful team allows you to achieve more. Laduma is nothing but a big whole “Laduma Team effort.” I am glad to be part of it.
Samantha Johnson Executive Assistant to Wayne Scholes said “I’ve been working for Really Epic Dog Group for just under a year and a half. Although the majority of my time at RED has taken place during lockdown, I’ve been given opportunities to help support the company as both Wayne’s Assistant and marketing. As Wayne’s EA, my role consists of a number of things including organizing travel. I’d have to say of one of my most rewarding times was organizing the group trip to South Africa in January 2020. I’d only been working for the company for 2 months at that point and wasn’t confident in my role yet. It may not sound like much, but I found it super rewarding that my boss trusted me (someone new) to organize a trip of a lifetime for a large group, as well as making sure it ran smoothly our entire time there. It was a great experience we’ll never forget thanks to Wayne. I’m lucky to work for a supportive company full of opportunities!
Sascha Powell, Hospitality Manager of The Homestead said: “I have been with The Homestead Group for about 10 months now (On May 1st 2021 will be a year). This Project has come to life in such a short amount of time that I still find myself asking if this is ”just a dream”. I have had to learn a lot of new things which I am so grateful to have such an inspiring team to help me with. I would have to say that my proudest moment with The Homestead group so far would be that I got to be part of the groundbreaking ceremony, which was pretty incredible, although we had to deal with insanely strong wind on the day, we got through it with very big smiles. I cannot express my feelings for this project. I am not just proud to be part The Homestead, I am honored.”
Shaylee Wilson, 7 Elite Academy‘s Head of Youth Development said – “I have had the opportunity to work with 7 Elite Academy for the past 3.5 years. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with professional coaches who truly have the players development in mind & who consistently support myself, & our fellow female coaches & players. I have the best job ever – It’s hard to beat being able to play soccer every day for your career! I have learned so much in the past 3 years & attribute that to the many experiences I have been fortunate to have with our players & coaches while traveling all over the US & the world. Probably the most memorable was having the opportunity to support 4 of our female players to Liverpool to train with the U21 Liverpool Women’s team. Seeing our 7 elite Academy girls grow & perform in a completely different competitive environment was inspiring.”