HEY YOU - WELCOME!

I am SO incredibly happy that you've found me!

Let me tell you a bit about myself, so that you get a 'feel' for who I am. If you want to read more about what I've done in life business wise, and how I can help you and your business reach new highs, pop over to the How I Can Help page.
This is personal. And mostly about travel. You'll find out why at the end. Bear with me - here we go:

This article is personal and mostly about travel. Travel makes you richer

I was born in Sweden into a family that like to travel. When I was four years old, my parents bought a time-share in an apartment complex in Austria, and so for the next 10 years or so every year my older sister joined us and we would go skiing in the Austrian alps. I had learnt how to ski already at two years old, so that was not a problem; the problem was keeping me from setting off down the slopes with the tips of my skis pointing straight down, zooming past gobsmacked skiers of all ages, shouting at my parents, asking how old I was... Turns out, in the Alps turning was key. After my mother almost had a heart attack on the first day when I set off down the slope, and my father throwing himself after me to try to catch me before I killed myself, I had to promise on everything that was holy that I would start turning. Otherwise, I was not allowed to ski anymore, it was as simple as that. Reluctantly I accepted my fate, obviously cheating anytime I could get away with it, but I stayed on the slopes. A crouched little person, looking like she was sitting on a stool, with a huge black helmet on top, from where a 'fox' tail stood right out, hauling down the mountain. My father still had to try to keep up, even with the turning...

Often around Easter, we would pack the car to the bursting point and set off on a 2-day roadtrip from the Stockholm area where we lived, towards Zell am Zee, Austria and our skiing holiday. We would often tag on a week or two in Italy (a country my mother loved), sunbathing in Rimini; sightseeing in Venice (I had been three times before I was a teenager and could appreciate the romantic settings); climb up the leaning tower in Pisa, when that was still allowed; or visit the ancient city of Rome. Sometimes we would stop off in some new destination in Germany or neighbouring countries on the way home. We saw a lot of Europe this way. 

During these years of travel with my family I met, and I played with, kids from all over the world. Although very few of them were Swedish like myself, language never seemed to be a problem. British, Italian, German, or American, we always found a way to communicate during play, like children often do. When in Austria, I claimed to completely understand the bread delivery man, and said I could also follow what the grown-ups were talking about (my parents both speak, if not fluent, understandable German). It was probably true, because kids learn fast and I was very curious and inquisitive. 

Our family travels also took us by plane to London, and ultimately to the Caribbean islands of Trinidad & Tobago, where at the age of nine, I was anxiously swimming in a pool in the ocean that was meant to shave 10 years off your age, hoping I would be spared...

You have to be careful infecting your kids with the 'travel bug', as it can only mean one thing...

Fast track 15 years forward and my sister is living in America, while I am on a plane to Asia for a six-month study-abroad programme in Singapore as part of my university degree. While there though, I got an opportunity to go to Hong Kong afterwards for an internship at a French bank. I have always embraced saying YES as much as I possibly can, mainly because that reduces the risk of regretting not doing them later in life. I didn't want to be the person who said 'if only' when talking about her life. On the contrary, I have always reasoned that if something doesn't work out, at least I will have learnt something. So off to Hong Kong I went, and what was supposed to be a 6-month internship turned into a 12-year stay in the Fragrant Harbour (which is what Hong Kong is called in Cantonese). I switched careers somewhere half-way, but I never stopped travelling. More about my work experience here. In fact I took every single opportunity I had to travel. Any 3-day weekend, and there were plenty of them while I was trading Japanese bonds for a brokerage, I was on a plane to a different destination.

One of the reasons I love traveling is because it allows me to experience different cultures. Often they have also allowed me to combine this with some of my other 'loves'; food and wine, nature and adventure, and on the rare occasion, all of them together. To date I have visited more than 50 countries all over the world, and recently I finally got to visit Africa, as my husband and I went to South Africa and Mozambique for our honeymoon. I hope to return to the continent again sooner rather than later. So much to see, so much to experience. I am a self-proclaimed 'best travel planner in the world', and many of my friends call on me for advice for their own trips, although I have had my share of mistakes and things not going according to plan. But I have learnt, and sometimes other great things have come from it.

Some of my favourite memories (for one reason or another) are, in no particular order:
  • A Yoga Retreat in the Kingdom of Bhutan, where they measure not GDP but GNH (Gross National Happiness)!
  • Hiking to Mount Everest Basecamp in Nepal, a 16-day roundtrip.
  • Shark Feed Diving with Bull Sharks in Fiji (scared the living daylight out of me).
  • Hiking up Mount Fuji in Japan at night without any food and very little water (don't try this folks!) to see the sunrise from the top in the 'land of the rising sun'. It was worth it.
  • Traveling upriver through the Lao countryside surrounded by beautiful karst mountains. One of the most serene trips ever.
  • Sunrise at Borobudur Temple (the oldest Buddhist temple in the world) in Java, Indonesia. Just gorgeous.
  • Diving the Sipadan Reef in Malaysia, before they stopped tourism there. Lucky!
  • A 10-day Ayurveda Retreat in the backwaters of Kerala, India. Where I for real started listening to my inner guidance, and started writing a book.

This book was about some of my travels, and all the crazy situations I have been in. Sort of like a "Eat, Pray Love" meets the "Lonely Planet" kind of book, filled with history, geography and useful information. I think it is quite a funny book too. Maybe it will be published some day, who knows?

I often travelled alone in those days; and I know that many people are scared to do so. All to their own, but at least for me, I have found that solo travelling enables me to be more present in my travel, as you have no one else to 'lean on' so to speak. It also allowed me to connect more both with the people in a place, and with other travellers around me. I really don't mind traveling alone at all - perhaps because I have such great company! And perhaps because I have been alone, I have experienced some rather crazy situations and encounters, I can tell you that! More in that book.

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to know a little about me. I want you to hear my story and to connect with who I am. Now you know what makes me tick (travel, nature, food and wine). This story should also have given you a few other hints about me, if I have done it right. For example you might have picked up that I am curious, inquisitive, and that I can always find my way out of a sticky situation. Did I mention that I love to travel?

If you go on from here (or maybe you came from there) to read My Story, which is about my professional education and achievements, then you should have a good all-round picture of who I am, and if you think working with me would work for you. 

If you think so (and I hope you do!), Get In touch and we will take it from there, starting with a no-strings-attached phone call so that I can get a picture of what you need and how I can help.

 

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