It brings me a lot of joy to build new connections, to find solutions and to help people out with all kinds of things. I always try to be in the position to answer the question above with a “YES” or at least try to direct people to another person who might be able to bring them a little bit closer to what they are looking for. That’s also one of the reasons why we established the #greatpeople column on my blog. Besides the fact that I am so grateful to be surrounded by so many great people I believe in the power of passionate people, a huge network of all kinds of amazing human beings and talents as well as personal recommendations. Of course you can google it, there are great Facebook groups for almost everything you could Continue Reading
Archives for March 2017
Fresh air, salty hair? The Oregon Coast – let’s get out there!
The Oregon Coast is big, so pretty and comes with so many great places and things to explore. You can totally spend your annual vacation just traveling the coast side. But if you just like to get out for a day, the closest touch point coming from Portland is definitely Cannon Beach. That's what we try to do from time to time and every time we do it, we drive back saying: " We should do it more often!". It’s just a super nice day trip and will make you feel so refreshed heading back to the city in the evening. To me it’s also a kind of all-year-thing to do, since every season by the beach feels so special and good. And even if it is super rainy day it’s not as bad as rainy day in the city and change of scenery. At least this is Continue Reading
BE REAL. BE AUTHENTIC. BE HONEST.
Time flies (what else is new?) and so it has been two months already since I left my job. Some days it feels like it yesterday had been my last day, other times more like two years ago since I had left. “How are you? How is it going? What do you do all day? Are you enjoying your time? How is the book coming along?” Those are pretty good and reasonable questions and I would ask the exact same things for sure. What can I say. I am not known for taking the easy routes in life. I would rather move to another city or even country, have a long distance relationship over two continents for a couple of years or train for a marathon in a super busy Olympic summer than run into the risk of being bored at some point I guess. Just to remind Continue Reading
Hi, I am Andrea!
“Why don’t you meet me at my hotel?” I think a lot of people have experienced that question trying to arrange a meeting with Andrea Michaels. I think I have met Andrea in more places all over the world than in Los Angeles, where she and her agency, Extraordinary Events, are based. It must have been around `09 when I first met Andrea in person. My boss back then described her as a pretty lady, super important U.S. client, and just a great person I needed to meet. Continue Reading
A little getaway: California, Manhattan Beach. Hermosa Beach.
One of the great gifts that comes with living in Portland is that whenever you need a break from the rain ( which most of us probably feel like especially this winter) you can easily hop on plane and spend some days in sunny California. This is exactly what we did last week and besides all the good things you know about getaways like taking a break from life and relaxing for a couple of days, it amazes me how much the combination of sunshine, oceans and beaches adds to it. At least for me. As always we never have a plan when heading anywhere because we hardly ever have time to come up with one before and secondly because we like to explore. Have fun day dreaming while reading our experience and #placestobe we got to explore and that Continue Reading
IT’S OK!
What a week ! While I hope I can inspire people around me with my blog posts they also help me reflecting on what’s important to me, what keeps me moving and thinking about these days. No matter if it is in my book ( yes, yes, yes - it’s coming together) or on this blog I like this to be authentic and real in terms of what I have been able to explore over the last years and what I have learned on this journey so far, especially living the lifestyle working in events. Yes, I call it a lifestyle as your job and your private life overlap and interfere a lot and you can’t just draw a line. And the longer I have thought about it, the less it made sense to me to even try to differ between work + life. Making it a lifestyle is a way easier and Continue Reading
LET’S DO WHAT WE LOVE AND DO A LOT OF IT.
Hanging out in Hermosa beach these days made me think that this week’s #greatpeople post should be about two absolute kick-ass ladies I got to spent an unforgettable night with at a local spot in this little beach town. Just in case you ever happen to be in Hermosa Beach check out ABIGAILE. They serve inspiring local-grown food, have great in- and outdoor seating and are just an amazing mixture between a brewery, casual restaurant, sports bar and just a nice local gathering place. That's where we got to enjoy a great dinner back then. Besides that it was also the pre-opening night of another great local spot called HOOK & PLOW when the three of us happened to be in town and since Katie knew the owners we could kindly volunteer as Continue Reading
Have you tried our kolaches yet?
It was on a so-called "snow day" (for those you are not from Portland: Portland hardly ever gets snow during this winter 2016 / 2017 we had a lot and that’s why schools and offices had to close multiple times) that I first happened to stumble into the Bread&Honey Café. Although it was a beautiful sunny, snowy and crisp day in winter wonderland it was expected to freeze and snow again as soon as the sun would go down. Based on that fact many places decided to close early on this lovely Wednesday afternoon. I went for a long walk after working from home ( that’s pretty much what everybody did I think) and felt like a coffee and maybe a little cookie. You wouldn’t believe it but all places I considered where closed anyway or Continue Reading
If you wait till you are ready you will be waiting the rest of your life.
A lot of times I got asked the same question: “ Do you feel ready to…..move to Portland, do this job, take this responsibility?” To this day I have always hated this question as it ultimately raised the next question in me which was what the correct answer would or should be. I still don’t know if there is answer to it when your boss, co-workers or your friends are asking you this question no matter how well they mean. How honest do I have to be? What are they expecting? What does it help to know? For sure one of the reasons why I have never liked it is the fact that at least I never felt 120% ready taking on the next challenge or opportunity and it made me insecure as well as I felt kind of caught in the act. I doubt if Continue Reading
PCFC – strength has no gender
Still being moved by all the inspiration, actions and great women I got to meet yesterday there couldn’t be a better fit for today’s #greatpeople post than COACH KAIG I think. It was during FIFA world championships in Summer 2014 while watching the Germans playing at PROST when we got Kurt’s attention: A few Germans wearing Nike head to toe made us standing out when we were having Hefeweizen on a nice Portland summer day sitting on PROST’s patio cheering the Germans. Kurt himself (please note there is KURT and there is KAIG) was with his three sons and they were all geared up in Nike as well #somanygermanswearingnike so he decided to walk over to us and started singing German Football songs. After the first game was over we Continue Reading