Lockdown Economy

In this interview, we meet Monique Y. Wells, the co-owner of Entrée to Black Paris, a travel business that has provided services tailored for the African-American travel market since 1999. With the lockdown, international tourism in France has been interrupted. Her clients, the majority of whom come from the US, cannot enter the country. Consequently, all pre-booked activities have been cancelled. Until US travellers can come to Paris again, Monique and her business partner are looking at offering some Entrée to Black Paris services online and extending their client base to include French and other Schengen zone travellers.  Monique continues to publish weekly posts to her “Entrée to Black Paris” blog to keep Black Paris top of mind for clients while they look for opportunities to schedule or reschedule their travel.  The lockdown will not change her long-term mission to illuminate the history, culture, and contemporary life of African Americans and people of the larger African diaspora in Paris. 

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868

About the Host

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko

In this interview, Dannie-Lu Carr, a UK-based coach, consultant, speaker, author and founder of Creative Wavelengths, shares how the unknown has pushed her to be even more creative. The lockdown arrived suddenly just in the middle of the workshop when everyone was asked to leave immediately. She tells how seeing the agenda emptying and all events being “indefinitely postponed” put her on an emotional rollercoaster. Nevertheless, she kept in touch with her clients. Dannie channelled her energy into creating new online programs. One of them, 28 Days of Defiance, was meant to help people overcome the feeling of confusion by offering them a lockdown Truth or Dare.  

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest 

Dannie-Lu Carr is a training consultant and coach who works with people to get braver, find their power, purpose, use their voice and embrace fearless leadership in all areas of their life and work. She ensures that others will stand up and be heard, provoke important thought, create new narratives and ignite change through effectively galvanising others into action.   

She is the founder of three signature online programmes: Flaming Leadership, Warrior Women and 28 Days of Defiance.  Dannie is also a published author, award-winning theatre director and singer/songwriter. She is the founder of Creative Wavelengths ™, the first approach that directly articulates and implements communication around the collaborative creative process. 

https://www.dannielucarr.com. 

https://www.creativewavelengths.com  

About the Host  

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.  

https://julia.altercontacts.org 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko

In this interview, we meet Tessa van Keeken, the founder of Lift Your Spirit, a holistic transformation coaching practice that started in Ireland and now is based in the Netherlands. At the beginning of the lockdown, she had to stop her practice face-to-face. At the same time, clients were not ready to have their treatments online. Tessa tells how when the business stopped, she focused on partnerships to prepare podcasts and new programs. In the meantime, a lot of her clients had such a hard time dealing with the uncertainty of the lockdown, that slowly they joined her online meditations which hosted for free just to help people to get through it. 

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868

About the Guest

Tessa van Keeken, founder of Lift Your Spirit with Tessa van Keeken and TVK International Communication & Language Consultancy. She moved back to the Netherlands in 2018 after having lived in Ireland for 15 years. She has a background in Social Studies, International Relations & Conflict Studies and Healing & Meditation. She runs two businesses. Lift Your Spirit with Tessa van Keeken is a coaching, healing & meditation practice. TVK International Communication & Language Consultancy is a translation, proofreading and communication business.

Tessa van Keeken's True You Inner Leadership 1-1 and group programmes support purpose-seeking leaders and changemakers to (re)conect to their inner wisdom and live & lead with presence and authenticity. Tessa guides people on an inner journey of discovery, transformation and healing, so they feel aligned, balanced and connected. 

On the 1st of July, Tessa will launch the True You Interconnection Circle, an online membership Community for Presence, Healing & Growth with Live Meditation, Reflection, and Q&A sessions. You can sign up until 31 July. https://mailchi.mp/fa80aa466285/truey...  

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessavankeeken/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/TrueYouMentor/

About the Host 

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com.

She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko

In this interview, we meet Nadia Benedetti, a Game Thinking Facilitator and the founder of PlaynBe in Paris. Once the lockdown was announced she had to change focus of her activity from in-person to remote sessions. It took her a month to re-design the workshop's flow to adapt it to virtual collaboration. Her experience where Nadia had managed teams at distance for the last five years came in handy. Unlike many other facilitators whose clients cancelled everything, Nadia delivered about three workshops per week. She noticed that her clients which were international companies had less resistance and an easier time adapting to the remote collaboration, than the local businesses. Once they saw they got real value out of it, they gradually grew used to it.  

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest  

Nadia Benedetti is a Game Thinking Coach and professional facilitator, she uses the power of play to put teams in action and train their creative intelligence in solving problems, and innovating, especially when facing change and complexity.  Nadia is an Italian native. She moved to France to develop an international career in the world of publishing and educational toys. For 18 years, she had the chance to travel and to meet multicultural teams with different backgrounds. Facing the complexity of remote working, she learned how success depends above all on the ability to collaborate creatively. At the same time, she experienced the power of playful activities to mobilize teams. She then trained in coaching, creative facilitation, and gamification. In 2018 she created PlaynBe, my own company, specialized in corporate training and facilitation through the power of play.  

PlaynBe introduces play at work for agile learning, team development, and product innovation. We help managers to innovate their practices toward collaboration, collective intelligence, and creativity. In particular, we design playful workshops to help teams in risk-taking, critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategy. We apply Game Thinking approach to bring innovative projects to life in a faster and better way. Our purpose is to teach teams how to activate their creative intelligence to transform change into an opportunity for evolution and becoming a real player in the organization. For the organizations, our playful learning approach is a simple way to bring the key competencies and great fulfilment in the digital and agile transformation.  https://www.playnbe.com 

In this interview, Joep Hegger, the founder of The Vocal Coach, a voice coaching studio for public speaking and singing in Amsterdam and Berlin, shares how he had to quickly adapt his practice to be available online. The physical studio was shut down as soon as the lockdown was announced and the trips to Berlin were out of the question. Singing classes were no longer possible because of the sound delay. Joep continued to do one-on-one online sessions for public speaking. He was surprised to find a new stream of clients looking to learn about vocal health. For many people doing many video calls every day because of lockdown became a real challenge and led them to explore vocal coaching. Right now he is working on a series of free video classes that cover the basics of vocal training. 

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest 

Vocal technique, aesthetics, and media graduate Joep Hegger founded The Vocal Coach, voice studio for Singing, Public Speaking and Vocal Health in Berlin in 2013. He opened the second voice studio in Amsterdam in 2017. Joep is currently working on a book and video series on the basics of vocal value and improvement. 

The Vocal Coach. To most people, the voice remains a mystery - a shame, since public speakers draw at least 30% of their value from their vocal quality, a number that for singers is evidently much higher. The Vocal Coach draws from recent research to make insight in, and efficient improvement of the voice accessible to anyone. Learn more about Joep Hegger and The Vocal Coach on https://thevocal.coach/.

About the Host

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/

In this interview, we meet Claudia Deken, the owner of Plant Based Sushi, the first vegan sushi restaurant in the Netherlands, that opened in January 2020. She shares how confronting it was to close the restaurant because of the lockdown when things were going just picking up and the team was formed. But it motivated them to go into deliveries, which was done overnight. At first through third-party delivery companies, which was very costly and unpredictable. But very shortly they set up their own delivery service that allowed people to pre-order which helped the sales and made the customers feel more in touch with the restaurant team. Everyone in the team was delivering the sushi and it became a great opportunity to be in touch with their customers and bring them a happy moment.  

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest 

Claudia Deken is the owner of Plant Based Sushi, the first vegan sushi restaurant in the Netherlands, Claudia grew up in South Africa but recently moved to The Netherlands where she studied business administration. Claudia found it difficult going to sushi restaurants with her friends as a vegan as the options were simply so limited and if there were vegan options it was limited to cucumber or carrot. Hence the beginning of Plant Based Sushi.   Plant Based Sushi is the first vegan sushi restaurant in the Netherlands - surviving up a vegan remix of sushi. Plant Based Sushi is on a mission to show diversity in sushi; to prove that sushi doesn’t need fish to be enjoyed. Not only will this keep your options diverse but it will keep the ocean and planet diverse. From the 27th of June, we are open in the new location with a terrace in Amsterdam East.  

https://www.facebook.com/plantbasedsushi/

https://www.instagram.com/plantbasedsushi.eu/

About the Host

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/

In this interview, we meet Juan Ramon, the Managing Founder of REE, the company of single-origin coffee brands based in Belgium importing from sustainable coffee cooperatives of Mexico. He shares how the sales went down immediately as the restaurants and bars that used to order the coffee closed for the lockdown. But the coffee did not stop growing and the farmers did not stop harvesting. So the business had to continue. That pushed Juan Ramon to move from selling coffee as a commodity to a finished product and to improve the webshop which connects original producers to the individual consumers.   

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868  

About the Guest 

RÉÉ is a ”Single Origin Coffee Brand”, meaning that focuses on promoting, commercialising and producing coffee beans coming from one coffee- producing country, Mexico. “Creating a single-origin coffee means to deliver the promise of offering the actual taste of origin, cause coffee is a very absorbent fruit, it absorbs the taste of the plantations and somehow the passion of the coffee growers too.”   

Taste RÉÉ within Europe in the purchase of € 20 euros receive 250 gr of our sustainable “Café Reserva el Triunfo” using the #lockdowneconomy  and share it on Instagram. Promotion is valid until the 31st of August.  

For more information explore RÉÉ website and discover our coffee journey. http://ree-coffee.com/  

Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ree.coffeeoriginals/

About the Host

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/

“Keep it small, keep it simple, be personal and then you can do what you love most.”

In this interview, Dave van der Aar, the owner and head barista of a mobile espresso catering business in the Netherlands, Coffee on Wheels, talks about how the lockdown affected a company that depends on the events industry. As soon as the lockdown was announced, all orders, events and appointments were cancelled. But there was an advantage in being a small company of two partners, as it was easy to cut costs immediately and take decisions on what to do next. A positive side of the lockdown was the free time that he could spend with the family, which was the original idea behind starting his own business, along with the passion for coffee.   

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest  

Dave van der Aar is the owner and head barista of Coffee on wheels Amsterdam. 

“Since November 2015 I've been running my own coffee catering business Coffee on Wheels Amsterdam. Coffee on Wheels Amsterdam is a mobile espresso bar coffee catering business and we facilitate our barista services mainly in and around Amsterdam and furthermore in the rest of the Netherlands. We are the number one specialists in the coffee catering business. We bring joy, hospitality and the best coffee to any location with our mobile espresso bar units and Italian coffee Piaggio's. We are dedicated to the craftsmanship of serving the best cup of espresso to our customers in order for them to experience a true moment of happiness.  

From 2004 until 2015 I've been working in the hospitality industry for NH Hotels in multiple 4 & 5-star hotels in South Africa & The Netherlands. The last five years of my career at NH Hotels I've been working in the position of Food & Beverage Director at NH Collection Barbizon Palace Hotel & Restaurant Vermeer (one Michelin star).” 

https://www.coffee-on-wheels.nl/amsterdam/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davevanderaar/

About the Host

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/

“It is difficult to commit to something when you don’t know what is going to happen.”

In this interview, Bernadett Nagy, who has become a life coach three years ago, shares how she helps men to uncover their real selves and how the lockdown affected her and her clients. Bernadett is based in Barcelona and her practice is fully online. During the lockdown, she lost a few clients, because their attention diverted from inner search to their businesses and financial stability. Despite the slowdown, she used the time to start a video channel to keep awareness about her practice and to create a new program for men with a “Nice Guy” syndrome to help them explore and be who they really are. Now the lockdown is lifted, both men and their wives are asking Bernadett to help them deal with interpersonal challenges that surfaced during the last few months.  

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest 

Bernadett Nagy specializes in coaching men to become more authentic and to get what they want in life. Her 4 months coaching program called “Reinvent Yourself” is helping gentlemen to create a healthier, more conscious lifestyle, which is filled with purpose, joy and meaningful relationships.   

Her newest program is supporting “Nice Guys”, who are like chameleons, fixing others' problems, having difficulties with saying ‘no’ or saying what they want, and giving more than they get. She is assisting them in outgrowing the “Nice Guy” role to become an integrated, authentic, great man who knows and gets what he wants in his private and professional life as well. Someone confident, who is appreciated by women and respected by business partners and colleagues equally.   

Interested in having a free 30 min discovery session with her? Please use this link to find the best timing: https://calendly.com/mancoaching/30min https://bernadett.coach/

www.linkedin.com/in/dettinagy

About the Host

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/

“We start with our facilitation mindset to see what we can do for society.”

In this interview, we meet Poom Narudee Kristhanin, the CEO and Founder of Eureka Global, a transformation consultancy based in Thailand that has been active in the Asian market since 2006. She shares how the lockdown became a good moment to revisit the company's purpose and what true value it brings to the clients. It gave Poom and her team a chance to focus on the collective strengths each of them has. Despite the majority of the work being postponed to “better times”, they continued being active partnering with various organizations and clients both on pro-bono and business bases to reimagine and rebuild the future together.  

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest 

Poom Narudee Kristhanin, the CEO and Founder of Eureka Global, a transformation consultancy that connects and unleash leaders to co-create impact for themselves, businesses and ecosystems by using ‘play’ to bring out high levels of human intelligence to solve complex problems. Starting from Eureka Consulting in 2006, then Eureka International from 2013, the company now grows and transforms itself into Eureka Global in 2020 with the mission of helping individuals and businesses reimagining their future with clarity in meaning and purpose. With a strong presence in Asia based out of Bangkok, the multidisciplinary Eureka Global team is steadily referred among top leaders as a trusted partner in bringing collective human intelligence to solve complex problems through serious play.  It is known regionally for uncompromising facilitation skills using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method to drive strategy and innovation in organizations with deep collaborative engagement.  

www.eureka.co.th        

www.LSPThailand.com  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/narudeekristhanin/

About the Host

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/