How it started
A Taste of the World
I was born in Munich, Germany in 1992 into a family of adventurers. My father has always had a passion for the mountains, and my mother enjoys getting to know new communities. So I spent a lot of my childhood camping or in caravans. I learned the value of a helping hand, not to get discouraged by a little rain, and how much world there is to explore.
All of this would come in handy when I, perhaps unsurprisingly, joined Scouting in elementary school. I quickly fell in love with Scouting’s stories: the ones read around the campfire, the ghost stories the older Cub Scouts whispered in the dark, the stories around our scarves and the Scout promise, the Jungle Book, and the tales after a weekend of hiking. The kind of stories that shape how you see the world and how you want to serve it. They turn group mates into friends and adults into mentors.
The Power of Stories
By the time I graduated high school, I had collected some first-hand experience on the power of communication: I had founded and later edited a school magazine for a couple of years and done some freelance writing for a regional newspaper. I was beginning to understand that the stories organizations, brands, businesses, and governments tell can make a difference, and unfortunately it isn’t always a positive one.
I wanted to understand how to do this better, so I decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in International Media and Communication Management in Munich, with stints in California and New York, and later a master’s degree in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Berlin and in Sweden.
Knowledge into Action
During this time, I was lucky enough to learn from many inspiring leaders in class and at work, and of course in Scouting: how to use communication as a force for good, how organizations can contribute to a better society, how many great role models there are worldwide but also, quite simply, what it takes to run a successful communications team. And, even luckier, I had plenty of opportunities to turn the knowledge into action: forming and leading a student government, bringing together diverse communities for marketing campaigns, and working as a freelance communication trainer for German and international non-profits and small businesses.
Two thoughts have guided me since then, in my personal life, in Scouting, and at work. One: curiosity and communication are powerful connectors of cultures. And two: just like many other things, good stories need great teams, governance and structures to make them happen.
How it's going
Today, I’ve turned my fascination with good storytelling and how to get it done in the digital age into my profession. I work at one of Europe’s leading communication agencies where I co-founded and lead our marketing transformation unit, taking up the role of Consulting Director. At C3 CYAN we’ve helped prestigious national and international clients make their communication teams, contents, structures, processes, and culture more resilient – so they, in turn, can tell better stories.
I have found it very helpful to apply my Scouting skills at work, for example by using Scout methods in trainings, and the other way around: helping improve WOSM’s internal and external communication bit by bit.
My home base continues to be Berlin, Germany, although I make it a point to connect with as many different communities around the world as possible when there’s no global pandemic.
Outside of Scouting and working with clients, I have been known to organize acclaimed charity pub quiz nights for my agency colleagues, tend to my lockdown collection of houseplants, enjoy the community of a good home-cooked meal, and to add to my growing to-read pile of books.