Early days – how things started

It all started in late 2011, when Mark and I met on Facebook. In January 2012 he came over from the US to live with me in Italy. Soon we started to wonder why the Universe had brought us together and what our common task in the world would be. 

I for myself believed that I needed some training in public speaking because I intended to engage people in teleconferences and deliver my coaching services online. I attended a lot of online courses in that period of time and ended up in one called: “the confident teleseminar leader”. I remember Mark sitting in front of me while I practiced talking into a microphone. I found it extremely difficult to speak into the void without falling into my monotonous German accent driven tone. 

In the following we started a radio show together on Block Talk Radio. First we just talked into the microphone about the topics we were regularly talking about in private. The main focus was on relationships. It was a very exciting and also frightening time for a perfectionist (who I was). Managing the technical part  and at the same time speak in an engaging way, as well as being aware of the time – you were just cut off when your half hour was over – checking the devices and more: It was a heavy task, even for people used to multitasking, when they have not yet mastered the techniques. To me it felt like going on the stage as a singer knowing that you had not much experience with the piece or the collaborating people: stage fright, I guess it is called. 

I had met Margherita in the teleseminar course. We decided to practice together, not on phone and voice only, but on Video. Google Hangouts on Air were a great available tool – and I took another course to learn how to handle them – which was far more difficult than the streaming platforms today. By spring 2014 we met weekly and talked about topics which were interesting for any one of us, one being the “expert” and the other the interviewer. Here is one of the more successful episodes from the first few months https://youtu.be/8PXJYViUHcU

Later we invited guests into our live shows, we created websites around that and a separate Youtube channel and we became a good team for interviewing people. They mainly came from a postmodern background. There was something missing for me and the desire arose in me to talk to people coming from an integral worldview. And, first of all,  I wanted to include Mark, not only as an interviewee but especially as an active interviewer.

How Mark found his vocation and the beginning of the Wisdom Factory: see the next post