25 Things About Me – “you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask…”

I got tagged to do this by the Alex Jeffreys coaching students community, specifically by Julie Newman one of the most creative bloggers I know. So here goes…

5 Things Personal

I was born and raised in Germany (which makes English not my native language)

I grew up near Cologne, Germany

I met my wife, Nancy, who is from La Jolla, CA, in Salzburg, Austria at a “Sound of Music” dinner show that was put on for American and Japanese tourists (she was a singer, I played the piano)

We migrated to Los Angeles in 1996

We have 7 children, 4 girls and 3 boys (current ages 13 to almost 1)

5 Things Interests and Likes

I like to travel to Umbria, Tuscany and Greece (but haven’t for the past 15 years…)

I love music, especially Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, and Brahm’s Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, and Glen Gould’s way of playing Bach

[Afterthought: Come to think of it, pretty much ALL 8th Symphonies are quite extraordinary and most enjoyable (Bruckner, Mahler, Shostakovitch... ]

I like to try something new (every day)

I like to lead and teach, especially groups of young musicians

I like good conversations and visits with friends

5 Things Professional/Career

I have a fairly large list of film and TV credits as music editor, orchestrator and score conductor

I am a “church musician”, and have played the organ almost every Sunday for the past 27 years with very few interruptions

I have been on the Internet since 1994. My first “commercial” domain was audiohost.com which I envisioned to be a hosting service to make it easy for people to add audio to their web sites (talk about cutting edge back then…)

I have been a real estate investor since 2002 – ups and downs included (CaWholesaleDeals.com)

I have been an information marketer since 2007

5 Things Ambivalent and Dislikes

I don’t like negative people who are always looking for reasons why something won’t work

I really don’t like the ups and downs of testing, rejection and mediocrity in marketing. I’ve coined the phrase “Success looks different from the inside than from the outside.”

I like technology, but dislike having to learn something new all the time just for staying on top of things.

I don’t like to do things on my own – but it’s hard for me to consistently step out of my personality to seek help, collaboration and partnerships.

I find most “25 Things About Me” from other people a lot more interesting than my own

5 Random Things

I used to run a couple of my own radio shows in a local radio station in Bavaria (“Radio Untersberg”), and did some cutting edge stuff there, like interview abused teenagers and run their voice through a special effect device for identity protection, having indy bands play live in the tiny studio, or airing a fairly long interview in English (with German translation of course) with Jim Dine about his “Untersberg” paintings when they were exhibited in Salzburg…

I like my son’s (Lukas) videos on youtube -

I really enjoy that I can be around my kids and family most of the time, and work out of my home office. It’s fantastic and a true blessing to see them grow and develop.

I can be persistent and stubborn (2 sides of the same coin to me), but at times persistence competes with eagerness to explore new things.

I enjoy being Catholic (although I didn’t grow up that way), and recently started to go to daily Mass (but I need a nap on Saturday afternoon to make up for that…