Goolets' Year in Review - what we are grateful for in 2021

This post is written by a company CEO, Mitja Mirtič

“The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.” — Neale Donald Walsch.

I wrote last year about what I am grateful for in the 2020 year, so I decided to write another post, regarding things I am grateful for at Goolets for the year 2021. Here are the 10 things I am grateful for in the year 2021.

1 - FROM OPTIMIZING PROCESSES TO OPTIMIZING HEALTH

For many years I was building good processes so that people who work at Goolets, would be as productive and efficient as possible.

Now we are in the process of changing this into:

Having a great team who understand what their job is.
Give them the tools to be successful.
Help them be healthy, have lots of energy, be happy, focused, and motivated to be working with their full potential.

We started implementing this into our workplace. We are getting some cool gear, vitamins, and weekly doses of fruit and will be pushing people to eat healthier, work out, and feel good about themselves. (other improvements coming soon).

My long-term vision is to make sure we have a group of successful, good-looking, healthy, and happy individuals working at Goolets.

I am happy we made this shift in our minds as the overall atmosphere will only grow! And a good atmosphere is crucial for the success of the company.

2 - LASER-FOCUSED VISION AND COMPANY CULTURE

After almost six months of brainstorming, lost sight, frustration, and banging my head against the wall (some identity crisis along the way), I am incredibly grateful we managed to do two things in the company, which I am super happy about.

Company culture is clear and set. And we are not only sure of what our culture is, but we also know how we will implement it and make sure it becomes a part of all of us.

Passion, exceeding expectations, accountability, and a good heart.

If you do not have these traits, it will not be possible to work at or for Goolets.

Company vision: As a gulet cruise specialized company, we had a bit of an identity crisis, while transforming to jump ALL IN into the Luxury Yachting segment. We made the move. We understand very clearly what we wish to achieve until the year 2025 and also have a great overview of things to do from 2025 - 2028. The focus was a challenge in the past. Not anymore and I am very grateful for this.

The vision did help our Goolets team to understand what is the course of action, and since we did sync the team, all the projects are running smoother, and we removed lots of stress from our workplace.

3 - THE BIRTH OF A NEW YACHTING INDUSTRY IN CROATIA

I am very grateful that the company Goolets is a large part of a new Yachting movement being created at this very moment in Croatia. We knew for several years that Mini Cruisers from Croatia have immense potential not just for “cabin charter cruises”, but as Luxury superyachts, that can provide superb services for groups of anywhere between 10 and 40 people.

We wanted to start promoting these vessels to the Yachting segment already in 2018, but the market was not ready yet (or we were not convincing enough).

COVID made sure, that lots of these vessels were not booked in the season 2021 and some of the brave Yacht owners (special thanks to Yachts Ohana, Yolo, and Freedom who jumped onboard first) did see firsthand, what is the difference between having 38 people who do not know each other cruising onboard on a fixed route, regarding the private charter group of 30 to 35 people, where everything is tailor-made.

We did break the ice here with the help of these owners and the World (our clients) realized what an amazing value for money these ships provide.

I think the new concept born in Croatia (unique in the World) will only get better and more popular with time. I am grateful we were one of the first agencies in the world to recognize the opportunity.

4 - FREEDOM MAKES LIFE GOOD

Mr. Ivan Rakuljič, owner of Yacht Freedom had a vision 4 years ago, to build a mini-cruiser that would only have 10 or 11 cabins. We told him we did not think it was a good idea. (sorry Ivan).

After 4 years (and again thanks to COVID-19), Ivan decided to go after this program anyway. And we also changed our minds, after we realized how special this type of product would be.

We made a plan with Ivan on how to rebuild the vessel.

He gave us the keys to his vessel regarding exclusive rights for booking it, showing our trust (we will not forget this).

And the rest is history. Freedom is already almost fully booked for season 2022 and she will be a complete success story.

I am very grateful we made a step in this direction and for successful cooperation with Ivan.

5 - INFLUENCERS AND PRESS BREAKTHROUGH

For the first time, we organized 2 special trips in Croatia under the organization of Goolets.

No.1 - INFLUENCER CRUISE

In cooperation with our long-term partner (and I can say a friend), Mr. Jure Grbič, and his wife Nives, we managed to organize a cruise for world-famous influencers on Gulet Nautilus. Some of the people we had on this cruise were Wil Dasovich, Haley Takes On The World, Around The World 4k, Daniel Marsh, and Dylan Efron, and the materials and advertising they did for Nautilus, Croatia as a destination and Goolets company was a success.

No.2 - PRESS CRUISE

We managed to pull together a truly amazing group of journalists on Yacht Freedom, to show them what she looked like before the renovation and the vision for the yacht.

We did an amazing promotion of Freedom and Croatia as a Yachting destination and a couple of mentions for Goolets company as well. It took us a lot of effort, expense, and time. But I am very grateful we managed to pull it off and set the first stone in connecting ourselves with influential journalists and magazines.

6 - COVID

We can't forget to mention the virus that has been making us all crazy for the last 2 years. It was still challenging to navigate between all the different criteria of different countries. But I can say 95% of our groups that booked yachts managed to show up and had an awesome time.

We had just 1 covid positive person in the whole season (a client) and our sales result did surpass the season 2019 (the last pre-covid year).

Covid did enable us to start some new projects, but I will not go as far as to say I am grateful for this situation.

I do hope 2022 will be the end of this thing (I am always optimistic) and that we will look back with awe at what happened to us and we will be more grateful for the times when stuff will be “normal”.

I have to say I am grateful for being in a segment that grew in these times. This is more luck than anything else, so I am happy we managed to sail through these crazy times.

7 - TEAM BUILDINGS & WORKSHOPS

It was a year where we worked hard. All company departments did their best and I can say we also had some good times along the way.

We had a great Team Building (Entire team and their families and kids) in June on Yacht Yolo (special thanks to the Šerka Family)
We had an awesome off-site retreat for 2 days in a fairytale-like Bohinj Lake with the entire team, where it was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
We had a great trip to Monaco, to experience a yacht show there and get some nice impressions, ideas, and partnerships.

We had lots of birthday parties in the office.
I managed to organize an interesting “Executives cruise” 2 times with directors, managers, and other successful people and did some good networking. We spent 5 days on Yacht Ohana and 7 days on Yacht Desire and it was pretty awesome.
I went on a family cruise with Gulet Maske (special thanks to Suzana and Marko).
We had another “New Year celebration” / “Team Building” at the end of the year. We went to release stress and some adrenaline while going to a shooting range and after that, we had a nice luxury dinner celebration trying not to talk about business.

I did plan to go to the Caribbean Yacht show, but at the last minute, I had to cancel due to COVID-related issues. (sorry to let you down again Nigel, if you are reading this :-)) But it is for sure on my plan for 2022.

8 - NEW OFFICE

I am very grateful that after 6 years we will be changing our office again. In the last 8 years, we went from “home office”, to a small place for 4 people, to a larger office for 12 people and we are now moving into a brand new place, that is meant for around 20 to 22 people.

We will also open a new office, a Yachting Branch in Croatia in 2022 and I am grateful for that as well.

9 - BEST PAGE AWARD

I am happy to say we won the award (First Place) in the largest marketing event in Slovenia for the Best Web - Page for Tourism made in 2020. It was a recognition of almost 1 year of hard work and a great success by Goolets company in cooperation with Enki company. Thanks, Tjaša and Jaka for the efforts and great job.

10 - PERSONAL GRATITUDE

I have to say I am grateful as well for all the private things in my life. One of my children successfully enrolled in law school. The second child is a “straight-A” student and an awesome basketball player. And our small baby turned 3 years old and is making us appreciate small quiet moments even more :-). And they are all fabulous human beings with high values which is the most important thing.

I am also grateful for my awesome wife, co-owner of company Goolets, and a person that is responsible for everything that does not fall apart from my ideas and big plans.

I am grateful we are in the most interesting and fun segment in the World (Yachting) and serving clients from all over the World. We still have tons of ideas. Lots of passion. And lots of things to work on.

I am also grateful that I still stick to my mission, which I believe brings the most joy to work. This is working with awesome people on hard projects. As long as we keep our focus in this direction, I am sure we will do great things…and have fun doing it.

2022! Here we come.

Mitja Mirtič