#NoBadDays
My First Year at Freeletics
Let’s throw it back to summer 2019. At the time, I was a Corporate Communications Manager for the in-house agency of one of Germany’s largest news publications and constantly on the go. I mainly focused on business development for PR Teams, but wore plenty of hats throughout my time — the good, the bad, the ugly — I was there. I was a mercenary, and my training and ability to tackle all kinds of topics quickly and with resilience came from spending ten years in agencies. Working with clients of all personalities was challenging, yet rewarding. And although I was able gain invaluable experience and knowledge that I am still to this day thankful for, I knew I was ready for something more. I was ready for my next challenge. It was during this summer when I received a message from an ex-colleague who worked at Freeletics. She told me that she was recruiting a Senior Corporate Communications Manager to take the company’s image to the next level. After learning more about Europe’s #1 fitness app, I was hooked. Just a few weeks and conversations later, I excitedly agreed to join the PR Team at Freeletics.
My first day came along in November and although I was full of excitement, I also felt a little bit nervous to swap my well-known agency life for this new and uncertain territory. Nonetheless, I felt welcomed right away and those nerves quickly disappeared. Everyone from working students all the way up to the CEO took an active interest in getting to know me, listening to my thoughts on collaboration and supporting me in taking on this new role. Not to mention the People Operations Team (POPs), who provided me with an organised and well-structured onboarding, which helped me to deep-dive into the company values and team culture. Even in times of high workload, where onboarding a new team member, answering thousands of questions and giving directions can be tedious, I never experienced impatience from anyone. From the very beginning I felt trusted, appreciated and like my opinion mattered.
When I look back on 2020, I realise how thankful I am to have briefly experienced life at Freeletics in person and on-location, not knowing what would hit the world only four months later. Even before the first nationwide lockdown started in March 2020, the company leaders navigated the situation proactively and thoughtfully, taking care that everybody had everything they needed to continue working in a safe environment. The IT and POPs teams prioritised getting everyone the right resources and went beyond purely material things. Not only this but, the creativity and initiatives of my colleagues also showed me that these people truly care about each other. I felt a high appreciation for our contribution to the overall success of the company from all management levels and a positive failure culture that enables us to learn, improve and continuously try new things. Now, after over a year, I am still as excited to be a part of Freeletics as I was when I signed that contract — maybe even more so.
Freeletics is truly no ordinary company, but a dynamic and colourful place where smart and talented people from all over the world work continuously and tirelessly to make our common vision come true. The belief in this common goal, the product and also the trust in the whole team to make it happen is overwhelming and highly inspiring. I believe this shared vision — to challenge and inspire everyone to become the greatest version of themselves — majorly contributed to my #nobaddays experience and is one of the reasons that I still feel excited to be part of this company. As can be expected from a startup, things are continually changing as we evolve into being the solution for at-home fitness. And as fast-paced and growth-oriented as Freeletics is, I have been impressed to see that the efforts of individual employees do not get lost along the way. From the Dorsch awards to our Marketing Team Player of the month, this culture of giving credit and recognition where it is due is also something that has greatly impacted my year.
So, to sum it all up, my first year at Freeletics has been all kinds of crazy. From ups and downs to successes and failures, my year was full of happy days, exhausting days, easy days and hard days, but overall, I am proud to say that there were no bad days. I am looking forward to keeping up this streak into a hopefully less crazy 2021.
