TKB – The Family Sandwich Shop

TKB – The Family Sandwich Shop

Background

TKB is a family owned and operated sandwich shop in Indio, California. This is their story:

Starting the Business

TKB stands for the kid’s business and was always intended for the family to have a way to connect with people, provide for themselves and increase their business. Started in 1991, Athena and Paul started a sandwich shop with Athena’s authentic recipes for gourmet sandwiches. Brandon, Nathan, and Melina are the kids that have now taken over the business and been growing it steadily through the years.

They are used to repeat customers, both local and visitors to the town. Often they’ll get an influx of “regulars” during the Indian Wells tennis tournament nearby. They have seen success not only from their unique and delicious bakery sandwiches as well as custom desserts, but mainly through connecting with customers and establishing a familiarity quickly that keeps customers returning. They’re known for their customer satisfaction and always getting in front of their customers to create a fun and loving environment where people can have a good time!

Their Perspective

The bakery started small and grew from such a small enterprise to one of the best rated deli’s across the nation. The success has always been unexpected, but welcome. The goal was never about growing the business to the size and capacity it’s at today, but instead to focus on individual connection. They’ve seen that their focus on their customer has made them a viral success, although with great sandwiches and top class cookies and baked goods. Their perspective is a focus on the good which perpetuates more and more good all around them and even returning to them.

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Val – The Tennis Volunteer

Val – The Tennis Volunteer

Background

Val is from Canada and has been passionate about tennis for some time. She committed this year to volunteer at the Indian Wells tennis tournament in California. This is her story:

Tennis Culture

Val’s husband recently passed away and she’s been looking for opportunities to get out and travel instead of staying home and suffering in remembering the loss. She’s instead decided to get out and focus on her passion for tennis.

For the first time she joined a group of tennis volunteers that help with administration and maintenance for the second biggest tennis tournament stadium in the world at Indian Wells, California. She has enjoyed her experience in getting to know other volunteers and having more options to travel and spend her time doing something she’s passionate about.

She plans to join the Madrid open this year as well and spend some time in Spain, as a fan of the game. She feels connected well, even as a first time volunteer, with other volunteers at the stadium. She feels like it’s a missing network that she needs now that she’s living alone.

Her Perspective

Val focuses on a sense of belonging. Family has always been her first priority and with 2 daughters and 3 grandsons, she loves spending time with her family. With the loss of her husband, she’s felt a drive for more connection and has found it in a common interest of tennis. She feels that it has brought her belonging and excitement at a time in her life when she needed it most.

She now looks forward to the next tournament where she can volunteer and connect again with people from all over the world.

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Keanu – The Maori

Keanu – The Maori

Background

Keanu lives in Auckland, New Zealand with an intense connection to his culture as a Maori. This is his story:

Maori Culture

Keanu is a father of two, in pre med school, looking to become a doctor. He loves his culture as a Maori and the connection it gives him to the land, his country and his ancestors. Maoris have a deep connection to their family ties, both those living and those who have past away. Keanu is no different. He loves to talk about his family, their home villages and how they are connected to the land and the people of those areas.

Most know the Polynesian and Maori cultures through their famous Haka dance their ancient warriors and now famous All Blacks rugby team uses to intimidate their opponents. Yet many over look the culture of high respect and duty. Keanu may be the first to admit that their culture is laid back, on timelines and schedules and things western cultures seem to value their time doing, but that doesn’t mean lazy. In fact, typically you’ll see the exact opposite, a disciplined and highly active culture that has so much to offer those willing to learn.

Their sacred Maraes are places of meeting, worship and family. Only those invited can enter the structures and shoes are often removed to show respect for the area. Although Maori’s honor their ancestors, they don’t worship them directly. Many Maoris have embraced other religions such as Christianity as an addition to their cultural beliefs, not in contrast to them. Keanu, who is a Christian himself, sees no conflicting beliefs in his culture and his religion.

His Perspective

Keanu is open and welcoming. He tells you what he feels, gives his insights as he sees them and is always respectful and kind. As many in the Maori culture, he feels welcoming should be done with food and is always willing to offer or accept and offer of food to spur conversation and connection.

He takes life one day at a time, and hopes his career in the medical field will help him serve in his community. He feels a deep connection to the nature and people of New Zealand and wants to give as much as he can back to his people. He believes a career as a doctor is a great way to help and to heal.

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Alan – The Gold Miner

Alan – The Gold Miner

Background

Alan is a volunteer at the gold mine in Thames, New Zealand. He dedicates his time to preserving history and educating tourists about New Zealand’s rich mining history. This is his story:

Volunteering

Alan’s background in mechanical engineering and early time as a miner himself, led him to his now retired past time as a guide in the gold mine in Thames. He gets fulfillment from meeting new people and helping maintain a history that has been so impactful for his life.

The entire gold mine is run by volunteers, mostly old retired men that used to work in the mines in their younger years. They love getting to teach tourists about the uniqueness of the mine in Thames. The gold mining process was manually finding quartz veins to then process the gold dust and eventually sift down to enough gold dust to be melted into heavy gold bricks for sale. Many of the miners came from Ireland and other parts of the UK and were known for their drinking and competitiveness. They lived hard lives in mines with long days in darkness and dust in their lungs, working by candle light in the essentially the pitch black.

His Perspective

Life is meant to be lived and to do what you know and love. For Alan, mining and mechanical engineering were his passions. He uses his knowledge to give of his time and energy to educate tour groups passing through his small coastal town. Although now most of the mine shafts are underwater and out of commission, he takes people through the active shafts in the mine used many years ago.

He believes preserving the past is a way to remember and honor the past and those who have gone before us. He loves seeing the new generation connect to the excitement of knowing how life was like for miners in Thames all the way back in 17th century.

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Mei Mei – The Customer Service Expert

Mei Mei – The Customer Service Expert

Background

Mei Mei is originally from Guangzhou province in China. She and her family have since migrated to New Zealand and opened up Snapper Jack’s fast food restaurant in a little town called Whitianga. This is her story:

Family and Work Life

Mei Mei is known by all the local residents in the town as the woman who knows everyone’s name. She prides herself in her memory and even a brand new customer coming into her restaurant, she will commit their name to memory so when they come back for seconds, she’ll know them. She loves to laugh and enjoys every minute of interacting with her customers every day and providing them the best seafood, both native Chinese dishes and Kiwi favorites.

Her husband owns the restaurant while her son, she says, is the real boss and runs the day to day operations. They constantly have a line out the door with every customer talking about how much they love Mei Mei’s sass and wit. She leaves a positive interaction with every person and keeps them coming back.

Her Perspective

Mei Mei has a love of life and radiates happiness. She believes whole heartedly that the actions she takes directly come back to her to bring her happiness or misery. So she’s always smiling, always interacting with people and constantly improving her memory.

She believes that remembering a name is remembering a person and showing them that they matter. She works to know every name of anyone who comes into her restaurant so she can remind them of their worth and give them a smile to brighten their day. Working with family and loved ones, and making everyone feel important, give Mei Mei a perspective of life that radiates positivity. Even if and when struggles come, she is able to handle adversity with a much more positive outlook because of her outward focus on individuals. When she focuses on others, her own problems seem so small.

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Ash – The Sea Cave Master

Ash – The Sea Cave

Background

Ash is a sea caves tour guide in the Whitianga Wharf. His down to earth focus on being one with nature makes him a thrilling guide for any and all who step into his boat. This is his story:

Daily Life

The Whitianga Wharf is Ash’s self proclaimed backyard. “The land and nature is sacred, we don’t think we’re above it. It’s above us,” he says. As a Maori, he feels connected to the land and the water and knows the traditions and the stories of his ancestors. As we approached Cathedral Cove, which he says is really only famous to tourists because Microsoft made it their default background in Windows, he instead focuses on the Maori ancient tribe leaders who would meet on this secluded beach for peace talks. It was the ancient equivalent of the UN Headquarters in Geneva.

Ash loves being away from it all, even if the nearest hospital is 2 and a half hours away, he loves the connection to water and to his people. Ash’s background is in monitoring and tracking whale migrations, specifically orcas in the area. He’s swam with the whales since he was a child and knows them intimately and personally. He’s currently working with a documentary film crew to study the whales off New Zealand and Tonga a bit more closely, and hopefully educate more on preserving their way of life.

His Perspective

In looking over his gulf and “backyard” Ash often laments some of the damage that was done by European invaders in the not so distant history. He feels that tourism is saving his country from poverty and getting back their land from imperialist who have stolen it without going into deforestation with lumber business and commercial fishing practices. Tourism is one of the only profitable industry that doesn’t hurt his land.

Ash is grateful, humble, personable and laid back. He works to make things better for the planet and his own life and family. He likes simple pleasures along with awesome adventures, from taking his boat out on the gulf right by his home, to traveling to Tonga and taking tourists to swim with whale sharks, Ash finds joy in being exactly where he is in the moment and not taking anything for granted.

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Josh – The Shark Fisherman

Josh – The Shark Fisherman

Background

Josh is a fisherman off the Whitianga coast in Coromandel area of New Zealand. He spends most of his life at sea catching and selling fish to meet his needs. This is his story:

Daily Life

The life of a small business commercial fisherman is life constantly spent out on the open sea. Josh feels fortunate to do shifts and works for three days straight, day and night out on the open sea. His vessel mostly catches snapper fish to sell to Auckland and Australian, but is always look to catch anything he can. The more he can catch, the more he can sell. But the three days out the sea suite him just fine. He talks about how there’s never any traffic or much stress each day. They cast their nets for the snapper and then have 6 miles of lines for single casting. Sharks normally come in on the single lines and take a lot of strength to pull in.

He’s been a fisherman in the waters off New Zealand for over 10 years now and has never regretted his decision. He lives up to the fisherman stories of loving exaggeration and sarcasm and getting to talk to tourist who frequent his town. The scruffy look is really just a testament to focus on being who he is, instead of appealing to any societal norms. They normally come in with about 2 – 3 tons of fish each three days. They’re fortunate enough to be able to freeze anything they can’t sell fresh, and even though they don’t get top dollar for the frozen fish, nothing goes to waste.

His Perspective

Josh lives life one day at a time. He loves the time spent on the ocean and feeling connected to nature. It’s not about schedules, being busy or getting caught up in so many cares of the world. He just has his boat, crew, and his fish. That’s all he needs.

Living the simple life, he’s able to disconnect from many of the hustle and bustle most of the world gets wrapped up in. Josh loves his fish stories and loves connecting with people, but in person and showing them tangible proof of his adventures. Each day is a gift and he takes each one as they come.

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Oden and Ingval

Oden and Ingval – The Traveling Family

Background

Oden and Ingval are a young family from outside of Oslo, Norway. They have chosen a life of travel and adventure for themselves and their two daugthers. This is their story:

Family Life

For the past 5 months, Oden, his wife Ingval and their two daughters have been traveling around South East Asia and Oceania. They’ve had to make quite a few adjustments to living in camper vans in different countries a month at a time. But they have no regrets. They spent a month in Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Oden feels it’s the best way to really experience the nature and culture of a foreign country. They spend most of their time climbing, biking and hiking and finding free spaces to park and be out in nature.

Ingval and Oden had to home school their children with such a long time away from home, which has had its ups and downs. The children are getting a great education about culture, history, and nature as well as science with their experience, but it still has to be supplemented with some real homework to make sure they don’t fall behind when they return home. It’s also a lot of time in much closer quarters than they are used to. The camper vans they’ve been renting have everything you need, but the space is small. The four of them sleep, eat, cook, shower and travel all in their van. But as Oden explains, “it really has everything you need.” They like to live a minimalist’s life and focus on nature and experiences, rather than positions and status.

Their Perspective

Although Oden had a difficult time convincing his employer, he works as a engineer, to give him so much time off, he still plans to do more 6 month vacations in the future with his family. He feels it’s worth the time off and away from home to experience more of the world. Ingval and Oden also believe it makes their family ties stronger. When you live in such a tight space for such a long period, you have to work things out and let things go.

The family’s focus is that life is meant to be lived and experienced, so take the time to do it. Their daughters, ages 9 and 13, are getting a better education and experience to set them up for success in life than anything else they could do. They love the travel and seeing the world, but especially the areas of nature where they can focus on their passions of hiking and climbing.

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Sophie

Sophie – The Opera Singer

Background

Sophie is an renowned opera singer originally from Whangarei, New Zealand. She’s humble, but passionate about her music and career as a soprano opera performer. This is her story:

Career and Daily Life

Sophie grew up in New Zealand with lots of family in the area. Her passion for music and opera has led her career path to performances all over the country. Although she was raised in New Zealand, she now lives in Brighton, in the United Kingdom with her boyfriend, George, who is from Cyprus. Both are passionate travelers though and often spend time out of the UK and in Sophie’s native country of New Zealand.

Both are also passionate about music. Sophie has seen a lot of humble success in her career as an opera singer. She doesn’t like to be recognized, but has had high profile performances all over New Zealand. She talks about how opera is “meant to be heard live,” so she doesn’t record her music. Instead she performs in churches and cathedrals with great acoustics to really feel her passion for opera.

Her Perspective

Yet Sophie has a significant life outside of the world of opera and performance. She, along with her boyfriend George, are strong advocates for immigrants passing through the Mediterranean Sea. George is part of a project documenting these events to really bring awareness to the world of what these immigrants go through and the chances they take in order to make it to a new life. For some people George met it was their “eighth attempt to get to Europe, across the sea. They pay smugglers to help them get in a vessel that is barely seaworthy, and then most still get caught by kidnappers and sent back.”

Although Sophie and George’s experience with seeing the immigration crisis has taken a toll on their outlook on humanity, they remain hopefully optimistic in the power of change. Both through advocacy, documentaries, and even music and performances, Sophie’s passion for life shines through. She strongly holds the belief that whether someone is rich and famous, or destitute and desperate, people are people and deserve to be treated with respect and kindness and just a bit more benefit of the doubt.

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Dave

Dave – The Whale Watcher

Background

Dave is a marine biologist focused on conservation in the Hauraki Gulf. He gathers data daily on the plant and animal life to monitor the health and well being of the marine life off the coast of Auckland. This is his story:

Work and Daily Life

Dave’s passionate about the nature in his native land of New Zealand and specifically the marine life in Hauraki bay. His daily life focuses on giving dolphin and whale watching tours and working with tourists to help fund his conservation efforts. His sarcasm and wit help him connect with people as he makes daily tracking of water temperature, color, phytoplankton and zooplankton levels and getting estimations on dolphin and whale populations in the area.

One of his greatest accomplishments was in helping move forward with an congressional act that provided guidelines for large shipping vessels passing through the gulf. Before 2013, on average 2 bryde whales were rammed and killed by the heavy container ships passing through the busy port. With a population of just over 100 whales in the bay, they could be wiped out in a few decades by the ships. In 2013, Dave and his team worked to pass legislation that would allow for an alert system for when whales are spotted and tracked. Container ships in the area would then optionally slow down, which decreases the likely of hitting and killing a whale by 70%. Since 2013, there has not been a single whale killed in the bay by a container ship.

His Perspective

Because the land and the environment are so important to the Mauri people, Dave has this same focus and connection with nature. He feels we’re a part of this world and have a responsibility to look after and care for what we hold dear. The resources we have are limited, and he believes we can have an incredible time here on the earth without destroying what we have.

The laid back, “yeah, nah all good” mentality is deeply ingrained in Dave’s perspective. That as we casually do good and do daily acts to make the world better, we change everything for the better. He loves being out in nature and having the freedom of being on the ocean and learning from his environment. He makes an impact on all those who come on his tour, teaching them with humor and real facts to show the importance of maintaining and preserving his home in the Hauraki Gulf.

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