Yes, I Met Hanson Today.

And this is me with Taylor Hanson. If you refer back to my first post on my blog, you will read about how I learned about TOMS from Hanson... Well, they were in the office today for a meeting with Blake and I got to introduce myself, shake their hands and as you can see, take a picture. 10 years ago when Mmmbop came out, I never actually thought I would get to meet them. But, thanks to TOMS, I got to meet them today! And not only just meet, but actually talk to them. Wow !!

Yesterday Blake's assistant Jake called me over to his desk and said, "Kirsten, there is a band comprised of three brothers, that started around 10 years ago from Tulsa, Oklahoma that will be in the office tomorrow..."
At first I thought he was pullin my chain - I looked around to see if people were watching to see how I would react and I kept saying "Are you serious? Are you serious? No, Really? Hanson? Will be here. In the office. Like physically here? Tomorrow? Are you kidding?"

And as you now know. It was true. They came to the office today. Everyone here is pretty aware of my appreciation for Hanson. Thanks to Jake, when they first arrived and started saying Hi to everyone, Jake called me over and introduced me to Zac (Who is in the picture to the left with Tyler Mycoskie) and Taylor. I got to tell them that I heard about TOMS through them, that I am from Minnesota and asked them about their next tour. Everyone was pretty much watching me when I was talking to them... They all said I kept my cool and was very normal. So, thats good!

Taylor was exactly what I thought he would be; very engaging, approachable and genuine. He definitely made me feel important and was engaged in our conversation. It was amazing that the person who I built him up to be, was exactly who he was. Yet, he was still just a regular person like everyone else. I have so much respect for them - that I could go on and on and on. But, I won't here. If you ever want to hear my thoughts on Hanson and my respect for them -- call me -- But, considering that after going to their concert, hearing about TOMS, getting inspired by them and that I actually took action, applied for an internship in California and moved within the span of 4 weeks -- I think you can understand what Hanson means to me. :)

This picture is of the 3 Hanson brothers & Blake:

This past week, all of us interns got to have lunch with Blake. And of course - he is always amazing to listen to. We asked him questions about where he was in his life when he started TOMS, his different business ventures, the lessons he learned along the way, advice he has for us, etc. One of Blake's favorite quotes is below:

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

Right now, I feel like that quote really speaks to me and where I find myself today. I completely agree that everything that people do to make themselves feel secure in life, really only limits opportunities for self improvement and growth.

The picture to the left is me and 3 of the other interns with Mr. Blake himself. Don't you just love his hair?

This upcoming week will be even more exciting for me because I get to meet Brett Dennen as well! I have been in contact with his manager and I got put on the guest list for his show next Friday. Our intern director Mike will be coming with me since I only have a +1 and he is also a big fan of Brett, it only seems appropriate. But, we will get to meet him and personally bring him shoes. Mike and I have both applied for TOMS to be apart of Brett's program "Love Speaks" which would allow us to speak at one of his concerts about TOMS and our Cause. Hopefully after giving Brett a pair of TOMS, he will be interested in letting us present at one of his shows. Yay! I'm so excited!

Tomorrow we are all planning on going to the beach -- It is supposed to be a beautiful day!

More later!

PEACE & TOMS & HANSON :)

-KJ

I'm Tired, Tuesday!

The picture to the left is of me and a couple of the other interns in Laguna Beach over this past weekend! It has been a crazy week! I can't believe a week has already flown by since I last wrote!

Last week we had our party in San Diego. I was planning on going early to help set up at the party and trade show, then I was told I didn't have to, then Thursday morning when I rolled into work I found out I was needed in San Diego. We had to have one of the other interns with a car, who wasn't going to be too busy that day, drive me down to San Diego. Dave, who is from San Francisco was the lucky one.

It was a really busy day for us because we had to stop a couple times a long the way to get some things for the party and trade show. We stopped in Carlsbad, California which was so BEAUTIFUL! Well, really, the whole drive down to San Diego was beautiful. It was a really nice day so I was able to get some good pictures in while Dave drove.

We were able to get the stuff we needed, get down to the trade show in downtown San Diego, walk around the show, drop stuff off at the bar where the party was and get to La Jolla, California just in time to meet the other interns. Most of the other interns came down for the party and we were able to stay at one of the TOMS full timer's house in La Jolla... again, Beautiful! This was the view from the front of her drive way! (below)

The party was good, but definitely not my crowd. There were a lot of 'surfer dude' types there and the bands we had play were very odd...

The next day we all woke up pretty early and a couple cars of us decided we would drive back to LA on the Pacific Highway --- which again, was beautiful!

We didn't stop in a lot of places, but we DID stop in Laguna. A bunch of us stopped and got lunch and did a little browsing of their shops. The town was set up in the hills and had a lot of cute restaurants and shops and of course had a great beach! (The top picture.)

It was really nice to have the Friday off and be able to take our time getting back to LA and get to see some things along the way. That night we all were pretty tired and wanted to just relax, so we did!

Saturday afternoon my room mates and I decided to do some touring around Santa Monica and LA. We went to J-Town (Japanese Town, which is just a little area that has a lot of Japanese restaurants and stores). We then decided to go to The Grove, which is a shopping area in West Hollywood that has a movie theatre, a lot of great stores and a farmer's market - where we had some onion rings, which we think are what gave Abbi food poisoning, she was sick all day Sunday :(!

Yesterday at work we got to meet Blake for the first time! It is really fun to have him around the office and it totally feels like he is a celebrity - well, at least to us interns! It was just really odd when I was going through our press clippings, with articles about him and he is standing right there! Yesterday a film crew with Current TV came in to interview him and took footage of our office/warehouse.


Today was awesome! I got to sit in on a merchandising meeting with Blake... I learned so much in just 40 minutes! I got to listen to Blake explain where he got the idea for an upcoming product for TOMS. He was incredibly inspiring - I could have listened to him talk about everything for hours! Plus, what TOMS has coming up for spring and fall is pretty amazing and I can't wait for the launch!

I am incredibly exhausted and I will write more soon! I would love to hear some of Ya'll's comments!!

-Peace & TOMS!

Kirsten

Addressing Envelopes is incredibly exciting!

Happy Tuesday Ya'll!!


The picture to the left is our condo building... Pretty amazing huh!

Today went down in history as one of my most exciting days... And my friends who read this, will totally laugh at me but I don't care! hehe

So, it wasn't until late in the afternoon today until we got our 'assignments' as in what department we would be working in over the next four months. The past two days have been filled with doing random projects around the office and doing things that everyone in the company has to do every once in awhile. The past two days I got to help make "CusTOMS" which are TOMS that are custom ordered. I got to stamp paint on shoes, which was pretty fun.

Others got to help with inventory or make point-of-purchase signs for in-store displays. Pretty much anything that needed to get done, we got to do. Which was a good way to start because it allowed us to get to know the full-time employees and get acquainted with the office.

SO - Today, I helped Blake's assistant (the Founder), send out shoes along with Blake's personal cards to Blake's important contacts. These people included: Paul Mitchell, Kenneth Cole, Ralph Lauren, fashion editors, publishers... etc. I got to address the envelopes... Which means, Paul Mitchell will some day read my hand writing (Well, it will most likely be his assistant, but STILL!) It was pretty exciting...

Guess Who's Envelopes I Got To Address??
HANSON! All three brothers... I even carefully packed Taylor's shoes with Blake's note in a box. It was pretty exciting! (3/25 - Little did I know that I would eventually MEET Hanson... Wow!)
The wide variety of connections that Blake has is crazy awesome, and I truly don't believe the company is where it would be Today without them.

Today, I truly felt blessed to be apart of TOMS (I've felt blessed everyday I've been here, but today it was extra strong). The evolution of the company over the past year and a half is so inspiring and I'm thankful I get to be apart of something from the beginning. At TOMS, the work atmosphere is so positive all day long and everyone is so unique, charming, enduring and amazing in their own ways. I will learn SO much from everyone about every aspect of TOMS.

Thursday evening we all get to attend a trade show party in San Diego! I have been assigned to assist the public relations manager at TOMS, so the trade show party preparation is in my department. I will get to head down early and help set up table toppers and get things prepared! I'm really excited! I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but either way it will be a great opportunity to spread the word about TOMS. (I will write more about my responsabilities another time)

Every Tuesday night we will be having our 'Cleaning Parties' at the condo. We split the tasks and all got done within a half hour, then we had a dance party in the living room. It was a lot of fun and we had music blaring the whole time. It was also a pretty good work out! But, with 15 people living in a small area, the once a week cleaning party is very necessary!


I have decided that I wouldill write a little note about everyone I work with here at TOMS, just because they are all amazing... So, I will start off with Meg, who you see to the left :)

She is from MINNESOTA also and went to school in San Diego. She studied abroad in Spain and is in love with Barcelona and she hopes to go back some day. Meg is also our "House Mom" as we say, because she was an intern last semester and was hired to take on the College Initiatives at TOMS and lives with us now, she is pretty much our RA, but a much cooler RA.

The greatest thing about Meg is that she is incredibly encouraging in every sense of the word and in every aspect of life. She is very spiritual and I know I can learn a lot from her. She is a person who is genuinely interested in you and your life and makes you feel wanted. I'm so excited to get to become good friends with her and join her in her many 'Dance Parties.'


I'm off to bed!!

Peace!!


-Kirsten

Hella California!

Greetings from California!


I have made it safely, after a nine hour day of travel! These past two days have been very busy, and very exhausting - we really haven't had much time to ourselves yet, but that was expected.

I got here on Thursday around 1:30 and waited for my luggage for about an hour with another intern Eric, who picked me up from the airport.

We got back to the condo to find that I was the last to arrive! I luckily was able to end up with a good room although I was the last to pick. Our condo is a four bedroom - 2 1/2 bath. Two bathrooms for the girls and one for the boys. (There are four boys and 11 girls... think about the ratio for girls & showers... yup.) But the place is great, has a great view and in all honesty, we are very lucky to be living in such a great place.

I am in a room with three other girls, Abbi (Tennessee), Carly (Alabama) and Becca (Florida). Abbi and Carly have thick southern acccents and I have already adopted saying "Ya'll" --- I can't help it! AND, of course I am being made fun of because I can't say 'Bag' correctly. To them, I say bag like 'beg'.... It is freshman year of college all over again.

The first day and a half we have spent getting to know each other. We were asked to write down ten words to describe ourselves, then we all went through our list. This was great because it really did allow us to get to know each other on a level that has made us all more comfortable.


The TOMS interns are from ALL over the country: Minnesota, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, Vegas, Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota (Yup, someone from Bismark!), Kentucky, California & Louisiana. Everyone is very diverse and all have amazing experiences and reasons why they are here. We all have agreed that we are a Wholesome group. Everyone is very positive and have their own Causes that they are passionate about.

I will probably talk more about all the interns another time, but for now I will just talk about what we did today. We all headed to Venice beach to have an intern "Style Your Sole" party.



We got to paint our own shoes by the Venice Beach boardwalk. I had so much fun taking pictures of everyone, and people and the beach, etc. I took over 400 pictures! We had awesome weather. The funny thing too is there are five others here that have great SLR cameras and a few are actual photographers. We are going to find a website for all of us to upload and share our photos (What a great way for me to learn!)

We had some people ask us what we were up to and even had a little kid come join us. It was truly a great day - being out in the sun, by the beach with a group of really fun people.

The weather today was in the 60's. It is actually really cool, I've been surprised. This next week it will be in the mid-50's. It gets cold at night without the sun, but it is still better than being in Minnesota right now! Negative 25 with wind-chill - No, thank you!


<---- This is one of my favorites pictures I took today. This guy was painting this on the famous graffiti wall in Venice Beach. It looked awesome! Also in Venice today, was the skateboarding dog from Youtube. He pretty much ran over me today -- he was a hit with everyone.


I will end today's post with saying: It's a Small World because....


1. Kim from Bismark, North Dakota is best friends with someone I used to skate with!
2. Andi from Texas, was an Alpha Chi Omega the University of Texas!
3. Our 'House Mom' is from Eden Prairie, Minnesota!
4. Mike Hammer, our boss shall I say, has family in Lincoln, Nebraska!




-Peace & Love Ya'll

Off to California!

Hello to all!


This past weekend, I found out that I was offered an internship with TOMS in Santa Monica, California. It would be stupid of me to not accept.... So, I'm leaving this Minnesota winter and off to California in two weeks!

I'm hoping to keep my blog updated while I am away in sunny California, so that my family and friends can read what I am up to. And of course, I will be posting pictures!!


I first heard about TOMS before heading to a Hanson concert at First Ave in Minneapolis. Hanson's 2007 tour was called "The Walk Tour" which was in partnership with TOMS shoes. At every tour location, Hanson invited their fans to do a mile walk around the city without wearing shoes - then they encouraged the 'walkers' to check out TOMS.

TOMS was started by Blake Mycoskie and is formed around the idea that every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS donates a pair to a child in poverty. This past November, TOMS brought 50,000 pairs of shoes to South Africa; in 2006 they brought 10,000 pairs to Argentina. Hanson actually helped out with the South Africa shoe drop and you can see what all they have done to get involved with TOMS.

My discovery of TOMS and seeing how Hanson has gotten involved, was very inspiring for me. You can ask my mom, she wasn't sold on the idea at first. (The idea of me taking an internship in California.) But, after I explained the cause and what I would be doing, I think she understood. This experience will allow me to support and promote a business revolved around a simple idea: To give back to others in need. I would be excited at the opportunity to go along to a 'Shoe Drop' but I'm not going to get a head of myself. :)
My official title is "Cause Connect Intern." I will have more details about my duties later. But, for now I can tell you that I will be living in Santa Monica with the other interns, within 2 miles of the Pacific Ocean. I will not only get to be involved with a great cause, meet other passionate people, get valuable work experiences.... But, it will be bringing me to a great location that I have never been to. :)

More later!