About Me

About
Lena



I am a proud Kansas farm girl, raised on my Grandfather Walter’s farm from birth until I was 14 years old. When Grandpa died, my family moved to Halstead the ‘biggest little city in Kansas’ (population approx. 2000, not including cows) and I have been a city slicker ever since.
 

At age 20, I made a fateful decision: I enrolled at THE Wichita State University, eventually graduating with a degree in International Business. It was the hot career of the moment, and a great way to see the world on someone else’s dime.



I’ve traveled to the ends of the Earth and back to do marketing, distribution, new product development, vendor management, quality control, product trend analyses (a.k.a. shopping). And I’ve worked with B2C retailers and B2B distributors across the globe.

 

Along the way, I’ve experienced amazing sites, sounds, smells, food and culture. Among my great adventures:


  • I narrowly (very narrowly) avoided getting run over by a bicycle loaded with dead chickens in Hong Kong
  • I was persuaded to eat donkey ‘balls’ in China (hmmm, a local delicacy or a menu mistranslation?)
  • I accidentally participated in an anti-government demonstration in Germany (I thought it was a parade).

My international experiences have shaped me as a human being and marketing professional more than any college degree could.
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Working closely with people from so many cultures and backgrounds opened my eyes to even more possibilities. The marketing ingenuity, business savvy and work ethic that I saw in so-called emerging and underdeveloped markets astounds me to this day.

I’ve often worked with business owners who wanted to learn how to compete with the big brands, the “dragons” of business, in the United States. Despite the odds, they were eager to learn and worked insanely hard to win in the most competitive markets in the world. They taught me the value of passion: the passion to succeed. I continue to draw my motivation from them.



When I’m not working, you can find me at home with my amazing dog, Hoss. He adopted me over 3 years ago and has taught me the value of patience, empathy, playtime, power napping and daily exercise. I also have two cats that tolerate me living in their house (only because I feed them). Between work and fur management, I carve out time for hiking, cycling, SUP’ing, gardening and travel.




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