ABOUT ME

My name is Nora and I was born and raised in the heart of the Ruhr area - in a small town called Hattingen. Although I am deeply rooted in the beautiful pot, I have always been attracted by adventure. Traveling is as much a part of my life as my beloved dogs. 

I spent most of my career in marketing and event management in the arts and sports before I moved into the entrepreneurial world.

In 2015 I found myself in a job that I was deeply unhappy with and eventually quit. With no prospect of anything immediately new, I set off on a journey. After three months and 23 states in the USA, my trip ended with the co-founding of From Fat to Finish Line in Los Angeles. Since 2017 I have also been working at Setlog, a Bochum-based technology company, where I developed the company's digital marketing. In the same year I started to spread the topic of community building mainly in the marketing and start-up world. Since then I have been standing on numerous stages and speaking about my true passion for community building in front of different audiences. In early 2019 I officially started working as a consultant and expert for digital communities.

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WOFÜR ICH BRENNE

Im Herzen des Ruhrgebiets geboren und aufgewachsen, sehe ich den Strukturwandel in meiner geliebten Heimat, als einen wichtigen Aspekt meiner Arbeit.  Während noch vor gar nicht so langer Zeit eine regelrechte Flucht aus dem Ruhrgebiet stattfand, da es zu wenig Perspektiven und spannende Jobs gab, hat sich in den letzten Jahren viel in dieser Region getan. Innovative Unternehmen, Neugründungen und technologische Entwicklungen haben das Ruhrgebiet in den letzten Jahren zu einer treibenden Kraft gemacht. Doch wir stehen hier noch ganz am Anfang. 
Für mich war immer klar: Ich möchte hier bleiben. 
Mir war ebenso klar, dass ich gerne meinen Anteil an dem Strukturwandel beitragen möchte. Ob mit meiner Meetup Community "Digital Innovation Ruhr" oder der neu aufgebauten online und offline Community "COMM.unity" für alle aus der Branche im Ruhrgebiet und Rheinland - es ist mir ein Anliegen, die Menschen zusammenzubringen und ihnen Netzwerkmöglichkeiten zu schaffen. 
Community ist in meinem Blut und ich teile diese Leidenschaft gerne. So ist es für mich relativ schnell klar gewesen anderen Unternehmen, Initiativen und Startups dabei zu helfen eigene Communities aufzubauen und dieses Thema weiter voran zu treiben. 

WHAT IS RUNAWAY REDHEAD?

MY STORY

In 2013 I found myself in a job I didn't like and a life that made me unhappy. I did not know what I could do to change my current life situation, the job market was meagre. So I did what any normal person would do (or not) - I signed up for a marathon relay race. As an overweight non-runner, I was not the special target group for a marathon relay in my home country Germany. 

I did not find much information that could help me and there was no support for me in the existing running communities. All this changed the day I found a trailer for the documentary "From Fat to Finish Line". Since the trailer was not yet released, I sent a message to the Facebook page and asked for help and support. I didn't know that I was not the only one. The site received tons of messages every day. The producers of the documentary film decided to open a Facebook group in which I became an integral part. Almost exactly a year after I found FFTFL and after I successfully completed my first race, I left the job that was poisonous to me. Without anything new waiting for me, I decided to fulfill one of my biggest dreams and go on a self-discovery trip through the USA. I traveled through 23 states in 3 months and stayed only with members of the FFTFL community. Early on I decided to blog about this trip to keep my family and friends up to date and tell my story of trying to find myself. And so the Runaway Redhead was born. 

Not only did I continue to run, but with my co-founders I also built From Fat to Finish Line - the business behind the community. I took over the management of the community and it soon became clear that I had found my calling. Which is exactly what finally brought me here. Now I not only spread the message and work on my mission to raise awareness of communities, but also help companies, start-ups and people to build new brand communities.