Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Yes! I’m a 24-year old girl, originally from Maastricht. I love photography, music, traveling, design, home, writing, mountains, bears, sweatpants, plants and my love. I studied pedagogy and one year of product design, and now I’m working with a bunch of teenagers on a local high school. About one and a half years ago I set up , that now has grown into a small minimal baby product brand.
What do you consider your distinctive achievement?
I think my biggest achievements are yet to come. I guess that I could say that having my diplomas, the trips I made, being able to start a business and enjoy life in general is an achievement on its own :-). Business-wise I think that my music mountain could be distinctive eventually. Still finding my way in the maze of creatives.
What are you looking forward too?
In general? Personally I’m most looking forward to our trips coming up, like our road trip in west-USA this summer, and to starting a little family. Sounds silly, but becoming a mom is one of my biggest goals. When it comes to my own business, I’m really just curious how it will work out and how it will develop. I’d really like to spend more time on photography. The original plan was to also do baby and kids shoots, so if I could realise that and make it into a parttime job- that would be a dream.
Which advice would you give to other professionals?
This is a hard one, as I don’t really see myself as a professional just yet. Still in the learning process! If I could say one thing it would be to do what you like yourself, don’t do it just for others. Make products you would want to have yourself, make art you love and that touches you, make music where you could disappear in yourself, write stories and your thoughts without the goal to amuse others. If you spend your time pleasing anyone but yourself, it could never really work.
This is also a note for myself, haha.
What are the challenges that we need to come to make about cultural entrepreneurship more accessible?
I think it has already become a lot easier to get artists and creatives in contact, because of platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Especially on Instagram I’ve met lots of new people that inspire me and who help my business grow. The thing is that they’re rarely close by, so meeting local artists who are interested in the same things and also have the same style would be great. Small events and meetups, maybe starting an online group first, could do the trick. Adding people like webshop and social media experts, photographers, graphic designers, etc. to the mix could be really helpful.
