about
Nele Sienknecht & a sense of klæriti
Hej, I’m Nele. I’m a skier, surfer & solopreneur.
It’s as cliché as it gets: a ski instructor during winter, a SUP instructor during summer and in-between-seasons I do sth. with marketing.
Add black pants, white sneakers and a pair of golden John Lennon glasses to the picture and there you have it: the 30-something designer who swapped the city for the countryside. Escaping the hectic urban life for lower rent, slower pace and homegrown vegetables.
Only that’s not quite how my story goes.
I’ve fallen into this career rather accidentally
In fact, I had to fall on my face before it fell into my lap.
Let’s go back to 2019.
Within 6 months, I had broken up, moved out and into a new place. Got promoted. And fired. From a job I didn’t even like.
A “nothing is ever working out for me” crisis call with my sister later…
… and all of the sudden I was on the train from Denmark to Germany and on my way to become a ski instructor.
Powder days, blue sky, fresh air… ahh, that’s the hang-loose lifestyle I had been longing for.
Little did I know about the elephant in the room:
The absence of women in their 30s in adventure and outdoor education
This winter marks my 4th season in the outdoor industry and I have yet to meet a fellow female like me.
Let alone one in a higher outdoor management or leadership position – we practically don’t exist. Nor does a category we could/should/would fit in.
The million-dollar question now is: Why?
The industry might have no interest in answering the final “Who wants to be a millionaire” question. But I really like to know: How can an outdoor career, good money & family go together?
So I created of detours & dreams – my monthly newsletter for female skiers, surfers & solopreneurs.
For the lazy ones, who skipped the text. Here’s my “Is she really legit?” timeline
- 1994
started skiing in Flachau, Austria
- 2002
started windsurfing on the island of Sylt, Germany
- 2006
started in advertising @ Bartel, Brömmel, Struck
- 2009
started kitesurfing in Kiel, Germany
- 2012
graduated from Aarhus Business School with a MA in Corporate Communication
- 2013
founded my first company Yndlingsting. My products got featured in magazines like COUCH, Alt for Damerne, Jyllands Posten, VILLA, Walden and more.
Elle Decoration even put my KONTRAST pouf on their Top 10 Must Haves.
- 2019
got fired form my job as Brand & Marketing strategist. Started an email series called 30 Days of Wohin – When you have no idea of what to do with your life and 30 days to figure that out.”
Which in turn led to a collaboration with nespresso and Allan Torp.
- also 2019
- 2020
became a 200 hrs certified yoga teacher @ Aligned Yoga School
- 2021
founded a sense of klaeriti. Check out one of my latest projects im-doerfle.com (web design + concept)
- 2022
became a DSLV certified ski instructor & VDWS certified SUP instructor
08.12 2022
€395 for a SUP certification. The price seemed cheap enough. Only €395 quickly turned into €7,000.
Where to enter? Here.
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