Hidden Gems: Meet Kailey Mattarella of Joy Makers Project

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kailey Mattarella.

Hi Kailey, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
What part of the city are you (or your business) in?

Joy Makers Project is located in the heart of Holland MI serving individuals, families and teams, desiring to experience and spread more joy within themselves and community.

While Joy Makers Project focuses efforts locally in the West Michigan area, Kailey does occasionally travel to different parts of the world to assist individuals, families, and teams also desiring to experience and spread more joy within themselves and community, too!

Joy Makers Project also has a presence on social media, sharing tips and inspirations on ways to experience and spread more joy as well. Kailey makes great effort to help others experience and spread more joy wherever she’s able to.

While much of Kailey’s deepest passion with Joy Makers Project is to pour into the most marginalized populations, and to help develop the youth in this next generation, she recognizes everyone is in need of more joy and chooses to focus her efforts on all demographics, ages, and diversities.

****how you started and how you got to where you are today ****

Joy Makers Project was born out of my experiences 7 years ago, traveling the world for 11 months pursuing non profit volunteer work. 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 she could to spread joy to the individuals and communities around me through random acts of kindness, starting with Holland, MI.

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. When I originally started posting over social media, I had several people reach out over social media explaining how my impact helped keep them away from suicide or further bullying at school and I equated this to the joy I carried and how it led me to do my best to love others well.

As I progressed with the Joy Makers Project, I sensed there must be more to the concept of joy than simply doing random acts of kindness but wasn’t really sure how to learn more or where to start with doing a deeper dive of studying on the significance of joy. In 2022 I met my now good friend and Mentor, Chris Coursey, president of Thrive today, who introduced her to the concept of studying the significance of joy from a neurotheological and psychological perspective. This profoundly expanded my world view on Joy, which allowed her to understand in greater measures how joy in individuals lives and communities was necessary for positive mental health outcomes, human development and growth, and healthy cultures/communities.

This then led me to study, practice, and apply practical brain and relational skills in my own life guaranteed to increase her joy and relationships, which was profoundly transformational for myself personally. Because of how transformative it was in my own life, I started implementing practical brain skills and relational skills into her clinical practice, Joy Makers group workshops, and all over my social media. I started to emphasize to my clients and social media followers, if practiced and applied, these joy building skills would guarantee to increase joyful living and relational/emotional health in individuals and communities lives.

Today I specialize in increasing capacity for joy in people’s lives including her mental health therapy patients, local non profit teams, and individuals she coaches remotely. 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 it’s transformative potential in their lives, too.

Joy Makers Project seeks to be an authoritative 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. Kailey seeks to emphasize the importance of joy on the overall health of individuals and communities as well as not underestimating what one act of kindness can do, one act of relational joy can do, to change the trajectory of someone’s life for the better.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road for Joy Makers Project however it has persevered for the better! Years ago I was questioning if I should continue pursuing Joy Makers Project because I myself had been struggling with bouts of depression and had little joy to offer others at that time and in some ways, felt ashamed to run a business on joy. However, through a couple unexpected circumstances and some encouragement from loved ones and mentors, I continued on and as her depression lifted, creativity increased and the development of Joy Makers Project sped up, once again, this time with full confidence and no turning back.

The struggle of taking a leap from non profit, w2 work, to becoming completely self employed with Joy Makers Project also felt like a risk I took, one that came with much thought and contemplation, yes, stress, and worries of the “what’ if”s this doesn’t work” but once I made the leap, within several months, I found my rhythm with Joy Makers Project and was SO glad I took that leap because it allowed for so much more capacity and space to develop and build upon Joy Makers Project.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
JOY IS DEEPLY INVOLVED WITH HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH OUTCOMES.
Joy Makers Project leads with an uncommon solution for the mental health problems our world is experiencing today.

We train individuals, teams, and communities to maximize their experiencing and spreading of joy through training of strategic brain skills one individual and group at a time. It’s that simple and has profound transformative potential.

We live in a world characterized by brokenness and mental health struggles amongst individuals and communities desperately in need of joy. Mental Health crisis are rampant, burn out is common, people are surviving, when we’re designed for so much more.

Increasing joy amongst individuals and communities through equipping and training on strategic brain skills is the solution.

Through Joy Makers Project, Kailey is working to better understand the significance of joy and training individuals and groups skills guaranteed to increase joy within oneself and existing communities.

Kailey facilitates individual and group coaching focused on teaching the significance of joy and training brain skills guaranteed to increase joy on an individual level and spread communally.

May we never underestimate what joy can do to impact a community or even change the trajectory of someone’s life.

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.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I have had many mentors, supporters, cheerleaders, and advocates help play a big role in the success of Joy Makers Project.

Rich Campbell – my own mental health therapist of 11+ years, he has been the biggest encouragement of me starting up Joy Makers Project and helped me heal from the pit of anxiety and depression so I could have greater capacity for creativity and building this business.

Seth Barnes – founder of Adventures in Missions based in Gainesville, GA has cheered me on from afar. He is the founder of the volunteer missions organization I went on 7 years ago where I recognized the need for joy all over the world!

Chris Coursey – Chris is the president of THRIVEtoday has mentored me since 2022 and taught me many brain and relational skills that increase capacity for joy in individual and communities lives. I feel as if Chris has been crucial providing more structure and depth on the significance of joy. Chris has also helped Kailey through his own modeling of walking out living a joyfueled life, living out what he teaches.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://joymakersproject.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joymakersproject/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joymakersproject
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joymakersproject1089