Eighteen years spending time at a holiday home in Gwynedd provided the perfect backdrop, and inspiration, for man to change his life and the lives of others.

Sid Madge lived in London but spent weekends at his cottage in Llandderfel near Bala where, he says, the surroundings transformed his life.

Describing the house, Sid said: “It’s about 200 years old, and an old shepherd’s dwelling. It’s remote and nestled in the footings of the Berwyn Mountains and Snowdonia National Park.

“I bought it to be near my daughter Lily, after I separated from her mother. I spent four months renovating it with a local builder called Robin. We became very good friends. Robin was amazing as he helped integrate us into the Welsh way of things. We spent glorious weekends and holidays up there walking, playing in the garden and swimming in the river Dee.

“It’s a magical place and I’ve swam the length of the lake, run around it, cycled around it and completed two triathlons and one half Ironman there too.

“It changed my whole perspective on life and it’s where I started to develop my ideas for The Meee Programme.”

Sid had spent almost 20 years working at some of Europe’s leading creative agencies, but a school enterprise workshop started to change his thinking.

“I was shocked by the levels of low confidence and low self-esteem,” he recalls. “Young people and adults were looking to the future with fear and uncertainty. And shocking statistics around anxiety, depression and suicide rates in the UK were rising. I had to act.”

The Meee Programme was born.

For the programme Sid has drawn on psychology, neuroscience, education and sociology, to help people believe in who they are.

He’s run workshops for over 2,200 people and helped thousands more though his book Meee in a Minute – 60 ways to improve your life in 60 seconds.

He’s currently working on two more books, Meee in a Work Minute and Meee in a Family Minute. Originally from Portsmouth, the 55-year-old hopes his books, and talks, will help others. To date he’s taken the programme across the whole of the UK- including Number 10 Downing Street, France, Spain, Mexico and America.

Sid, who lives in Wales full-time now, speaks to hundreds of businesses and thousands of young people every year, and finds it more rewarding than his previous life.

“Before moving to Wales I spent 24 years living in London, New York and Amsterdam being a brand man. I loved working in branding but making companies even more money didn’t really stack up. I always thought about those less fortunate that couldn’t afford international conferences and highly paid thought leaders.

“It’s been an absolute joy, creating the wealth of resources Meee has to help people get a better understanding of who they are and what they are good at.”

“The hardest is not being able to help more people. We meet so many people who would benefit from Meee. Those unemployed, in hostels, those excluded or in fear of exclusion from education…the list goes on.”

Meee in a Minute – 60 ways to improve your life in 60 seconds is available in English and Welsh.