Introduced by
Have you met Monika Nessbach?
All around genuinely caring and friendly person.
Before I actually met Monika, I was already completely inspired by this woman and I didn’t even know it. Let me explain, Monika is an interior designer who designed one of what I think is the most visually appealing restaurants in Charlotte, Eight Sushi and Kitchen. I remember going there for the first time and thinking how cool of a spot it was for Charlotte. But my admiration didn’t stop there, being from California I’m always on the look out for great tacos, so when I saw Texicali Taco and Tequila was also opening and saw pictures of the design, I said YES!!! that place is rockin’ too.
Cut to yoga class at Pure Body Fitness and this tall, German woman that I always found myself in class with. I remember thinking what gentle soul she seemed to have. We struck up a friendship and I soon discovered that she ran her own interior and commercial design company and was the designer behind Eight Sushi, Texicali Taco and some other standout commercial designs in Charlotte.
I want to introduce Monika to you because not only am I in awe of her creativity, she is incredibly talented, smart, driven, humble, passionate about life, can sing 99 Luft Balons perfectly in German, teaches cycling class at Pure Body Fitness and Firstwind Cycling and seriously always has THE best playlists and is just an all around genuinely caring and friendly person.
I asked her five questions and here’s what she said.
What are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about creating in any way shape or form. Be it creating a kick-ass design concept for a space or spaces, creating a super dope playlist for my next workout class, creating a culinary experience for my friends and myself, drawing, painting, just about anything that stimulates my brain and makes me feel like a million bucks. Creating makes me feel alive and whole. There is no better feeling than having created a cool design space for example and later on walk in and think: “OMG, this is so cool! And I created this … ”
In one sentence, what advice would you give yourself 10 or 15 years ago?
Forget the past, don’t think about the future. Now is the only moment you will ever have. Believe in your dreams and reach for the stars; today.
What frustrates you?
People without common sense and bad drivers … I admit I have little to no patience in these two aspects. But I also am my own worst critic so I quite frequently get frustrated over myself. I always want to do better, set higher standards and get there faster. Having no patience doesn’t help my cause.
If you could spend a day learning from anyone in history who would it be?
Buddha
What’s your go to escape activity?
That’s a good one. My go to escape activity used to be skydiving, the ultimate escape. However, for various reasons I had to take a break. Hopefully I can start again one day in the future. Nowadays my escape are my workouts and my yoga/meditation. I teach indoor cycling in two Southend gyms (Pure Body Fitness and First Wind Cycling), which is a great escape activity. Yoga and meditation are my other outlets. Every practice reminds you of the importance of being fully present and allows you to escape from anything that is happening outside of it.
If you had only 2 hours in Charlotte w/ a first time visitor what would you do with them?
I’d probably do a 1 hour private sightseeing drive starting in downtown Charlotte then heading to NoDa, Plaza Midwood, Midtown, Dilworth and Southend and ending the tour in Southpark.
The next hour would be a mini bar crawl starting with cocktails at Pisces (Midtown), then a quick bite at Soul (PM – assuming there wouldn’t be the obligatory 45 min wait), then dessert at Amelie’s (NoDa) and finishing hour 2 with a glass of Vino at Common Market in Southend. That would be a good intro, I think.
On a second thought, I’d probably combine hour 1 with hour 2 to be more efficient. Lol, I can’t shake the German in me … 😉
If you want to learn more about Monika and what she does you can visit her website at www.Designbaronline.net
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