Who am I?

My name is Mirna Šmidt. I am a positive psychology and interpersonal skills trainer, speaker, coach, and facilitator. As the founder of Happiness Academy and Trainers Toolbox, I serve individuals and organizations to fulfill their potential & create a positive impact in the world.

For over a decade I support and educate a broad range of diverse organizations (companies, startups, NGOs ) and individuals through workshops, speeches, and coaching. While based in Croatia, I work worldwide.

My goal is your success in reaching your potential and strengthening your well-being, thriving against life challenges, communicating and effectiveness with achieving your goals, using science-based tools from positive psychology.

Through powerful learning experiences, you gain the skills, tools, and knowledge practical and ready to apply in your work and life.

What can I do for you?

It is all about reaching your or your team’s full potential with tailor-made plans or ready-made tools and training!

If you are an individual, I can help you design and live a life you love with simple tools from the science of positive psychology. Rewire your brain to change your mindset and attitude towards life, boost happiness, joy, and well being or get coaching on how to reach career goals, be more efficient, or be a more impactful trainer for others…For a more exhaustive list, check it on What I do.

If you are interested to inspire, motivate or increase the efficiency of your team or are looking and strengthening the culture, communication, or engagement across your organization, let’s build together workshops, speeches, or trainings. For more details, check What I do.

If you are looking for freely accessible tools or ready-made training or workshops, have a look at the below 3 education initiatives I have founded.

Happiness Academy – Strengthening well-being, resilience, mindset & thinking patterns, and personal strengths of organizations, teams, and individuals with evidence-based tools and practices from the science of positive psychology.
Impact Academy – Strengthening skills for higher impact, such as communication, presentation, personal efficiency, teamwork, and team communication, and virtual collaboration. Making teams and leaders are effective, efficient, motivated, and great at achieving results.
Trainers Toolbox – Empowering trainers with evidence-based tools to spark authentic engagement and boost the learning of their participants.

All that I do is customized and tailor-made for you – so if you wish to discuss what can be done to achieve and boost your goals and skills, let’s talk.

Let’s talk

How I work – principles and values

I believe that one of the biggest power of individuals to create a meaningful positive contribution to the world is through purpose-driven organizations and workplaces that work in a positive and impactful way.

I am passionate about serving organizations and individuals in creating exactly that – empowering them, educating them, and motivating them.

My work is based on three pillars: empowering you (showing you how it is possible), inspiring and motivating you (helping you figure out what you wish and why it is worth it), and educating you on the best research-based knowledge, methods, and tools to create the desired change.

In my experience, science-based tools from positive psychology and experiential learning methods (and coaching) are the best way to achieve that.
While positive psychology gives us a lot of insights into human flourishing, success, and thriving against challenges, the process of growth, learning, and change needs to be meaningful for the organization and individuals involved in it.
That means that, while following science-based principles and keeping orientation on the goal that we wish to achieve together, every client is different and deserves a customized approach in training, process design, or coaching.

I love to work in a personalized, flexible way, making the process optimal. The broad range and diversity of my background allow me that flexibility and adaptability.

Let’s work together to create the positive change you wish to create!

My life and work are grounded in the following values:
• Engaging – both you and I should enjoy this journey of growth, discovery, and meaningful change
• Interactive – starts with listening and understanding your needs and goals
• Experiential – you learn from experience while maximizing the efficiency of the process
• Science-based, yet practical – rooted in no-bullshit tangible knowledge, yet focused on real-life application
• Impactful and effective – choosing the optimal tools for actual results
• Goal-oriented, yet flexible and personalized/customized – adapted to your needs, styles, and preferences.. to achieve the desired results in the most effective and engaging way
• Uniqueness and authenticity – achieving desired change or success in Your way
• Courage and ownership – mistakes and experimentation are allowed and supported, but excuses are not
• Walking the talk and authentic – I only teach what I apply in my own life
• Supportive – in a team, values of diversity, collaboration, openness, and ownership of our own process are integral part of all that we do.

Experience

For over a decade I support and educate a broad range of diverse organizations and individuals in reaching their potential and strengthening their well-being, thriving against life challenges, communicating, and effectiveness in achieving their own goals, using science-based tools from positive psychology.

I design and deliver workshops, speaking, and coaching for companies, startups, NGOs, conferences, and individuals, as well as worked in corporate, startups, and NGOs, which makes my work practical, applied, and powerful in the real world.

The impact of my work is powered by a combination of my engineering and corporate background (MsC in Computer and electrical engineering and 10 years of successful career in advanced technologies in Cisco) with a depth of my theoretical knowledge and understanding of psychology and learning process (including MsC of Applied Positive Psychology and a long range of training related education).

Through powerful learning experiences, you gain the skills, tools, and knowledge practical and ready to apply in your own work and life.

Next to 14+ years of experience in training and design and delivery of learning experiences and rich knowledge of positive psychology (including a Master in Applied Positive Psychology from Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge),
my background as an engineer, having a successful 10 years long career at Cisco, helps me understand real-life business with its challenges and potential