Blog Posts

Tiki Clean-Up Campaign 2022 Complete – December2022

Corporate social responsibility is not just a buzzword, it is a vital value for any business nowadays. At Tiki Services we strongly believe that we need to take care of ourselves and equally important to take care of our environment.

In the past two years, since the inception of Tiki Services, we have always been encouraging people to take care of themselves and to EXERCISE. Our favourite way to exercise is running; running along the lush countryside in Ħaż-Żebbug to be exact.

Every time we take off on our run, we cannot overlook the incredible amount of trash laying on the wayside. Tin cans, bottles, empty wrappers, empty cigarette packets and much more. This is a sad sight for anyone who has a minimum respect for his surroundings. How can people just throw their rubbish into the street with no regard for the environment especially with all the awareness campaigns going on in schools and on the media. Is the message really reaching everyone? Or is it a case of lack of values where certain individuals just don’t care and litter the place around them with no regard for others. This is total disrespect!

How can we go about tackling this issue?

Do we need stronger awareness campaigns among children?

Do we need to strengthen values among our youth?

What can we do to improve this underestimated problem?

At Tiki Services we try to do our little part. By no means can we clean up the whole countryside where we exercise and even less are we capable of cleaning the countryside day in day out. What we try to do is raise awareness. We hope that our clean-up initiative gives our followers an example! We’re not asking followers to go and pick up the litter found in our streets. No; we are trying to encourage people to keep their surroundings clean… practicing basic respect for the environment and for the people in your neighbourhood. Respect for values.

In actual fact, is there a larger problem? Is there a problem with VALUES?  

In this day and age, where everything is available at the touch of a button, where we are accustomed to use and discard products at will, are we loosing our values of moderation and respect?

Moderation and respect are two important values which ensure that people interact in harmony and that we minimise our negative effects on the environment.

We now turn towards 2023 and we have a clean slate in front of us. Let us all make an effort to treat our environment as well as the people around us with RESPECT.

Happy New Year to all our followers 🎉

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#RunToThink … Visions, Eurovisions and More – February 2022

Trevor Naudi’s personal experiences en route to entrepreneurship

So we are in February and we have now moved up a gear as we travel along the events of the year. We start making visions of the year ahead, hoping that life will treat us better than it did last year.

The covid pandemic seems to be subsiding and people are slowly returning to their normal routines. This allows us to plan ahead and set targets for the coming months; hopefully, we can get back to planning our lives in peace without the limitations brought about by mitigation restrictions.

It’s been quite difficult getting up for my Sunday morning runs these past few weeks… it’s been really cold! Going for a run at 7am with 7°c is not exactly the best thing in the world however if you keep your target firmly in mind, it helps to get past this obstacle. It requires considerable strength to set your goals and to stick with them.

Despite the cold in the past month, I have managed to get a good few runs under the belt, and a few 5-a-side football matches too 😊. One thing I came across were cyclists. Every time I run in the morning, I see cyclists rolling by; be it in twos, in threes or even in larger groups, they roll by easily as if without strain. Am I wrong, or is cycling less strenuous then running? All the cyclists I come across seem to be taking the ride easily, going at a relaxed pace and usually having a good chat. Please do get in touch if I am missing something here…

During one of my runs, I also came across the thought of going back to old projects. My son, who now turned 12, started piano lessons when he was 4 years old. He spent 2 years learning piano however, at that point it was becoming very frustrating for him to cope as his hands were simply too small to manage the notes that needed to be played. Seeing the level of frustration, we explained that it is ok to stop if he was no longer feeling up to it (the last thing we wanted is for our son to start hating playing piano). So he stopped. We as parents were obviously sorry that he stopped, as we wished to see our son developing this great skill however, it was our son who had to enjoy it and believe in himself. To our joy, 2 years ago, our son told us that he’d like to start piano again. It had worked! We had helped our son to keep good memories of piano… and he now decided to get back to it. He has now been playing piano for another 2 years… and we as parents are over the moon every time we hear him play!

This little life experience teaches us a few things…

1. It is ok to stop when you feel you are no longer up for a particular task.
2. If you are not enjoying doing something, the chances are that you will find it difficult to do it well.
3. It is ok to restart an old project. If things have changed and you now feel ready to take on an old project… simply take it up again!
4. Just because you don’t succeed the first time round, it doesn’t mean that you will never succeed… you can always try again (keeping in mind the experiences you made the last time around).

February was also the month of another vision… the Eurovision! In fact, we had the Eurovision Song Malta show between 17 – 19 February and what a show it was! First of all, it’s great to see events of this size being organised once again; it’s a great breath of fresh air following the past two years of restrictions. It is also great for the events industry who have been going through big hardships as their earnings were limited due to the limited events they could organise due to mitigation measures. This leads us to appreciate a few important values:

• Perseverance: when the situation is difficult, you need to be strong and believe that there is going to be a good tomorrow.
• Positivity: ok, restrictions limit the actions you can take however, a positive mindset will allow you to find different paths to carry on… always believe that there is an alternative.
• Planning: it’s not easy to plan for unforeseen circumstances however, it is always good to have plan B. When your main sources of revenue suddenly get a hit, it is useful to have alternative ideas which can lead to new revenue streams.

So well done to all the participants of the Eurovision Song Malta and Good Luck to Emma Muscat for her performance in Turin for the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2022!

I’d like to end this piece by mentioning the Walk with Jerome event which took place between 04 – 14 February 2022. The Smiling With Jerome Foundation supports many families who are diagnosed with cancer and other serious illness (also families whose kids have special needs). Let us support these noble causes as they make our world a better place.

In the meantime, I’ll keep running.

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#RunToThink …out with the old & in with the new – January 2022

Trevor Naudi’s personal experiences en route to entrepreneurship

2021 is done and dusted. A pretty crazy year it has been. A year characterised by the covid pandemic and its effects on our social life as well as the country’s economy. We have had to change the way we socialise, the way we act in public places, the way we interact with our loved ones… but also the way we do business. A number of threats have arisen however, this also gave rise to the possibility of turning threats into opportunities!

2022 must be the year when we grab hold of these threats and do our best to turn them into opportunities. Throughout the past year there is a very important keyword I rediscovered thanks to my good friend Alex Falzon, and that is MINDSET. If you have the right mindset, you can achieve anything. I also came across two other valuable character traits while I was reading a biography of Sir Winston Churchill and these are DEFIANCE and PERSERVERANCE when all else around seems to be falling.

Exactly a year ago, I embarked on my new venture of Management Consultancy and despite the various hardships presented by 2021, I believe that defiance of the current circumstances and perseverance in achieving success helped me get through.

Have I achieved my target? Probably not yet.

Are there still challenges to overcome? Of course!

Is the road easy? No, however I accept the challenge with confidence

So in with the new year. If there is a piece of advice I can give to anybody who is thinking of starting a new project, it is TO START. Don’t start next month, or next week, or tomorrow… START NOW. Nobody is a pro when s/he starts off… you become a pro as you go along.

Speaking about being a Pro, I remember a curious incident I had a few years back when I was buying a pair of running shoes. While I was taking a look at the selection of shoes, a salesman came along to give me his help. I was looking at shoes costing €40/50/60 and then also took a look at shoes costing €100/110/120. At that moment, the salesman told me ‘those shoes are expensive, they are for PROs, not really for you’. Silence. It felt bad. I knew I wasn’t a Pro runner but why did that salesman have to point this out. In the end I left the shop with a pair of shoes costing €60 and a bad feeling about not being a Pro. I still have those running shoes till today.

What do you do when faced with a situation of this kind? At that moment I was dumbstruck and my reaction was to silently agree and accept the salesman’s words like a schoolboy accepts his teacher’s advice. However that episode made me stronger and after reflecting on that incident several times, I now know how I would react if it were to happen again. I would turn to the salesman with fire in my eyes and tell him ‘I am not a Pro right now, but I am going to do my best to become one’.

In December, I didn’t get out much to run. I should have done better. Having said that, the few runs I did where meaningful and I also cleared a few thoughts in the process. My runs were religiously carried out early on Sunday mornings. The best time for me to run is at around 7am when the rest of the family is still asleep. In my case, weekdays are too hectic as I get up at 5.30am to start getting things done, so waking up early on a weekday to run is not an option. However I always admired those who wake up early during the week (especially those who wake up early everyday to do some exercise) to start off the day on an energised note. Also, I don’t really understand how some prefer to do their exercise at the end of the day, especially after a tiring and often stressful day.

What time do you usually do your training?

And do you prefer weekdays or weekends?

The important thing is to always dedicate that little bit of ME TIME per week for exercise and for regeneration.

Finally, back in December, I decided to take action on an issue which has often crossed my mind. Cleaning up the countryside. During my runs, I often thought to myself ‘how could the countryside be littered so badly? Why do people keep discarding their trash carelessly this way?’ This is one of the basic values we learnt when we were children: keep your country clean! I still remember the Xummiemu adverts on TVM which drummed the point home. The actual adverts were of debatable quality however they sure drove home the point of cleanliness with people of my generation. With this in mind, I decided to dedicate one of my mornings to cleaning up the road in which I run. So armed with rubber gloves, mask and garbage bags, I set off to clean the countryside all alone, because I believe in the principle of keeping your country clean. My appeal to all my friends and family is ‘do your part; keep your country clean’.

I’d like to end this piece with my best wishes for the new year. May 2022 bring you health, happiness and prosperity.

In the meantime, I’ll keep running.

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#RunToThink … While you’re stuck inside

Trevor Naudi’s personal experiences en route to entrepreneurship

I am writing this blog piece during a quarantine period. Stuck inside.

Not the bestest thing in the world you would say. Well, you’re probably right. There’s so much you can do when you can roam around freely outdoors. But there is also quite a lot you can do when you are stuck inside. Actually, while I have been in quarantine, I took the opportunity to catch up on things that I have been putting off for a while; writing this blogpost for example!

Let me start with a thought that occurred to me this morning. When I am free to roam outside, I am usually trying to organise my family’s schedule to spend time outside and meet friends… especially for the kids. I am one of those who tries to fill the kids’ time with activity so that:

1. They get off their gadgets
2. They meet friends (and build some social skills)
3. My wife and I can have a coffee and a chat with friends 😊

At this stage, 2 thoughts came to my mind:

1. Am I really planning outside activity just for the kids? Or am I doing it also for myself?
2. Isn’t it important to allocate time to spend at home?

After some thinking I came down to the conclusion that, the answer to a. is yes, I am doing it for the kids, BUT also for me. Sometimes we underestimate the importance of ME TIME and just focus on doing ‘what’s important’. My suggestion is to carve away a little time for yourself every week, even if it is a couple of hours. But do it! It’s good for you and you will feel much better after you do this.

Regarding b. yes, it is actually important to allocate some time to do things at home with your family. If like me, you often get that urge to organise something outdoors with friends, stop for a moment and think. It is actually good to spend an afternoon indoors with your children and play board games. During quarantine I realised just how much I missed playing a game of chess against my son or a board game (we actually played Jumanji) with my daughter.

Having said that, I was lucky enough to get a few runs under my belt in November and it helped me Think. Quite a lot actually!

I often thought about being OVERWORKED. I find that when someone is overworked, s/he becomes less productive. Instead of producing the best results possible s/he tends to struggle with the workload, trying to meet deadlines and just concentrating on getting things done rather then bringing out their potential. So this brings a question to my mind:

• Do you agree with the phrase: employees work best when they are under pressure?
• Or do you agree more with the phrase: ensure that the work environment is such that employees are in a position to give their best performance?

I often find that when you concentrate on fewer tasks, you manage to do a better job (and very often quicker), which means that you can get onto the next job quite quicker too.

Kids and Sport. I believe that sport must be an essential element in any child’s life. Even if a child is not ‘sporty’ I believe that s/he should have exposure to sport, even if it is only a few hours a week. Sport not only provides for healthy exercise but also helps develop social skills as well as self-confidence.

During the month, I saw a lot of posts relating to The Grid Kids and I think this event is an excellent initiative. I believe that it is very good to encourage children to participate in such sporting events HOWEVER there is one very important value we need to observe. HELP CHILDREN CHALLENGE THEMSELVES TO IMPROVE THEIR PERFORMANCE RATHER THEN CHALLENGE THEM TO WIN.

My fear is that many parents put unnecessary pressure on their children to be successful, TO WIN. Let us keep things in perspective, it is good to train children to be competitive, and if your child’s performance is above average, then it is good to seek professional training to ensure that your child develops into a true athlete who can compete at higher levels. However, not every child is a Messi. Not every child is a Sharapova. Your child might be enjoying playing and is not necessarily AS AMBITIOUS AS THE PARENT. Whatever you do, speak with your child and make sure you’re on the same page about involvement in sports.

One more week to go and I will be free to roam around again in public. Should be quite fun as December always brings along a number of good lunches / dinners / drinks. However, let me make one last suggestion for this blog piece: during this month, think about someone who might be feeling alone, perhaps an old friend or a relative who is living alone in an old people’s home. Call them or visit them. You have no idea how much this means to that person.

I’ll end this blog by showing you my finish line. Yes, every time I go for a run, I decide on a finish line so that I know the exact point until which I need to give my best. In my case, it’s a speed bump which is at the end of my road 😊

In the meantime, I’ll keep running.

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#RunToThink … do you run for fun?

Trevor Naudi’s personal experiences en route to entrepreneurship

In September and October 2021, I kept running. Not as often as I wished… but I kept running. I also added another form of exercise to my busy schedule and that came in the form of a 5-a-side football match once a week (usually a weekday evening). The feeling of exhaustion at the end of the run or match is quickly replaced by the satisfaction of having done something useful for body and mind!

Back to the running. During my Sunday morning runs, I started thinking about reasons why other people might decide to take up running and I classified runners into three categories:

1. Those who run for fun. That is, the runners who just want to get out and do some physical exercise while clearing their minds at the same time.
2. Those who do it to compete. Whether you want to compete in organised races such as the various 5k / 10k runs or the annual marathons or even if you simply want to beat the time you set in your previous run, you are taking on running to challenge yourself, to push yourself to higher physical goals.
3. Those who run to socialise. There are people who need to run in a group or at least with a running buddy. It’s true that a fair amount of exercise is done this way however, the main objective is actually to share a few thoughts with the running buddy during the course of the jog.

• Which type of runner are you?

The great thing about a run on a Sunday morning is that there is practically nobody on the streets (or in the countryside where I run) so it is nice and quiet… I can just hear the sound of my shoes dabbing the ground as I jog. This is the perfect setting for my thoughts to come out and be sorted. Thoughts about work, about family, about all sorts of concerns that come along in our busy life.

• Do you also clear thoughts while you run?

One thing that gets to me at times is when there are other fellow runners sharing my route. Whenever I spot somebody ahead of me, I get the urge to increase speed in order to reach the runner in front of me and actually take over. Same happens when I hear footsteps behind me… I can never allow someone to take me over, I cannot stand the shame! It is probably the competitive spirit inside of me that makes me act this way… and actually, I believe it is healthy. Having said that, there are times to focus on being competitive and times to focus on just doing something good for yourself. These days I’m trying to shift my mindset on using runs to sort out my thoughts and it actually works. In the past two months I have actually taken decisions that made my daily routine work better and I am now much happier and much more relaxed in the course of my day.

As I mentioned earlier in this piece, I didn’t manage to run as often as I wished as there were a few events which didn’t allow for my Sunday morning jog. But it’s ok. Missing one or two jogs is not the end of the world and I can make up for it with a mid-week 5-a-side match or simply by waiting for the next Sunday in order to get my thinking process sorted.

There is one final point that I’d like to mention. Take action. Running to think is the first step towards a better life. In my case, I manage to get many thoughts sorted while I run however, this does not lead to much unless you take action. You need to pluck up the courage to take decisions, change the things that are not working out and make arrangements to suit your needs. It’s simple, if you leave everything as it is, nothing will change!

It’s actually quite refreshing to know that there is always a way forward… you just need to find the best way to think about your way forward. In my case, I run.

Make sure you take action on the thoughts you sort out during your runs.

In the meantime, keep running.

Ps. While I was running in October, I often thought about Pink October and Movember. During these months we come across a number of slogans but all revolve around the same concept: we support the fighters, admire the survivors, honour those lost to the disease and commend the progress we are making together to defeat cancer. It is so important to raise awareness about the different forms of cancer and to encourage regular checking which can lead to early detection. Take care of yourselves… get checking!

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#RunToThink … the start

Trevor Naudi’s personal experiences en route to entrepreneurship

This story begins on 1^st January 2021. This is when I launched my own venture: Tiki Services^TM (through Tiki Services I provide Management Consultancy and Business Support services). The beginning was not easy and actually, circumstances are still not easy.

Going back to October 2020 when I worked for a company operating in Tourism, the economic situation in the country was not looking good due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, I was made redundant from my job and I was then faced with a difficult decision:

1. Search for a new job
2. Or launch my own enterprise

The thought of opening my own business often came to mind in past years however, being focused on my job and other commitments at the time, I never explored the idea in depth. So this was the perfect occasion to launch myself into entrepreneurship however I had a number of questions about this step:

Was it the right time to open my own business?

Would I manage to earn enough to make it viable?

Where would I get clients from?

There were other questions that passed through my mind however the ones listed above were the main points of anxiety.

Support. Support was probably the best thing that happened to me at that stage. I was lucky (and still am lucky) to have a fantastic wife and a number of friends who all encouraged me to take the step towards entrepreneurship. So fast-forward towards 1^st January 2021… I am now my own boss and run my own Management Consultancy.

Stress. Of course, the beginning is quite fun as you set up the framework of your business and inform all your friends and contacts about this important step in your life. However, when things settle down, you start feeling the stress of having to search for new leads and service the clients you managed to secure. A couple of obituaries in the family added to an already tense situation… so I must admit that the beginning was quite tough.

The monkey inside my head (with reference to Jonathan Shaw’s cognitive approach to unblocking your mindset) was telling me: ‘dude, this was a bad idea all along. Just find yourself a job already… it’s less hassle’. I think Jonathan Shaw would have been quite pleased with my reaction as I tried to stay calm and thought about the logic of the situation. I told myself things like ‘it’s just a stressful moment, it will pass’ ; ‘of course I can do it! Just because of some adverse situations, it doesn’t mean that everything is wrong’ ; ‘I have the quality to succeed, I just need to keep focused and work hard at it’.

Time went by and stress was still around. Coping with the workload, giving time to the kids and family, handling other personal matters… it all adds up to create quite a stressful situation in anyone’s mind. So the question came up: ‘what could I do to help myself?’

Running. Yes Running. Anyone who knows me will know that I am quite a fan of sports. I played football for a long time and also enjoyed running long distances. With work and family commitments, I slowly decreased my time allocated to sports until it ended into zero time for sports. I managed to handle all my commitments however I was stressed and mentally tired. And then it dawned on me… I needed to start exercise again! I needed to do something that would keep me fit! What I didn’t expect is that, it was actually helping me mentally too!

On 5^th September 2021 I started with my first run in months. Just a 6km jog to see if can still handle some distance. To be honest, I was practically dead by the end of it… but I felt good! I knew that I was giving my body some very much needed exercise. Moreover, the moment I had started running, I started getting hundreds of thoughts sorted in my mind. It was like magic… it was like a feast of fireworks in my head. Hundreds of ideas and thoughts were dancing around, just waiting for me to catch them… I couldn’t believe it!

I started jotting down some of these thoughts in order to include them in my work plans. I also looked forward to the following Sundays to get my running shoes on and set off on another mind searching expedition.

#RunToThink. This is how I came up with the hashtag #RunToThink. It’s actually quite refreshing to know that there is always a way forward… you just need to find the best way to think about your way forward. In my case, I run.

Exciting times are coming up as I enact these fresh ideas.

In the meantime, I keep running.

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