Get to know the man behind the work

I was born in Gießen, Germany to a German mother and a Kenyan father. At the age of three person family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, USA where my father continued to pursue his academic life goals. From a very young age the morals and work ethic of my father, who had been born in a small mud hut village in the "middle-of-nowhere Africa", instilled on me. My father now has mutliple degrees, a PhD and can speak over 12 languages!! It is safe to say that this ultimate drive to succeed runs in our family genes. :) 

At the age of 9 my family (of now 5) moved back to Kenya where I lived a majority of my life up until 2008. I went to a private American curriculum high school and university. My interest in event management and graphic design began in the summer of 2003, when I began doing exactly that for one of the newest and  biggest nightclubs in Nairobi. I had zero prior experience and managed to quickly learn how things worked on my own accord. The club became extremely succesful during my time with them . It was at this time that I began to offer my services to other venues and became deeply involved with many popular and upcoming locations. I found immense joy in helping build up companies that were just beginning, or struggling to get noticed. Since then I have helped not only bars and clubs, but also academic institutions and world reknown companies. 

Through my hands on, real life, experiences I have been blessed with a knowledge that an honours  graduated Masters student will take a decade or two to aquire! Additionally, I have been granted a unique advantage for having travelled so much at such a young age and on into my adult life. I have a deep understanding of people and cultures, which is reflected accordingly in every marketing plan, design work and operations manual that I work on. 

It is hard to put in to words without scaring a potential employer or client away, but I am a Jack of all trades. I know something about everything, some things a little more than others. :) My strong points are the following:

• Leadership: I am a strong leader of people and ideas
• Operations & Development: a strong sense of foresight and ability to bring ideas into fruition
• Media: I have over 16 years of expeience in graphic design, videography, sound and print
• Creativity: I tend to think outside of the box a lot and find solutions in uncommon places
• Content Creation: is something I beleive every creative mind should be good at, and am
• Humor & Charisma: an integral part of who I am and how I build/motivate a team around me
• Passion: I bring a lot of passion and drive to the table when I beleive in what I am doing
• Open minded: towards further coaching, further learning and new unconventional ideas

I bring a lot of personal and professional experience to the table.

• 2004 -2006: Events and Marketing Manager: Sikilza Nightclub, NBO Kenya
• 2004-2007: Promotions and Sales: 6:AM Entertainment, NBO Kenya
• 2006 - present: Freelance Graphic Design (Brainchild Media)
• 2008 - present: Euro Youth Hotel: Front Office, Bar, Events, Design work, Content Creation, Print, Photography, Videography, Website work
• 2010 - present: The Local Experience: Director and COO: Day to Day Operations, Marketing (online and social), B2B Sales and maketing, Content Creation, Events, PR, HR, Scheduling, Website, Graphic design & Print Media, Photography, Tour Guide
• 2014 - 2019: Mike's Bike Tours: Tour Guide, Marketing Management, Graphic Design and Production, Complete re-branding and CI creation. 
• 2016 - 2022: Globe Business College: in house graphic designer (remote)
• 2018-2020: Radius Tours: Tour Guide and Marketing Consultation
• 2020 - 2021: HopDog GmbH: Bar Manager, Operations, HR, interior design, Graphic Design, Inventory and Operations
• 2021 - present: Yokocho Karaoke GmbH: Bar Manager, Bar Layout/Design and Operations, Graphic Design, Video Creation and Editing.

I have also completed graphic design and/or marketing projects for the following companies or persons:

• Microsoft Corperation
• Mariott Hotels (Moxy)
• The Keg, Munich
• The Ministry of Environment & Forestry, Kenya
• Bavarian International School
• Gerschlauer Immobilien GmbH
• Female Founders

The global pandemic in 2020 put a lot of us in new and uncertain situations. I was not excluded from those unfortuantely. 

In 2010 a friend and I started our own tour company in Munich called The Local Experience. We became wildly popular and succesful. We were expanding exponentially from year to year. Our plans for 2020 were our biggest yet and we were ready to shoot for the stars. Unfortuantely, it did not pan out this way. Tourism and Events were among the hardest hit during the pandemic, forcing us to indefintely close our doors to business. My other businesses were also affected; I had a job as a Bar Manager at a new and up coming bar and my freelance graphic design jobs dwindled down to 1 as companies made cut backs. 

So, here I am now, ready to pull myself up by my own bootstraps and make the most out of an unfortunate situation, I am ready to work with or for a company that is as passionate as I am and ready to move forward and grow together! I hope that it is with you! :)