My heart's desire:

A fairer world and a future worth living

To make the world a fairer and more livable place - that is my heart's desire. For many years I have been dealing with the challenges of our time: climate change, social injustice, animal rights and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDGs).

I acquired this knowledge autodidactically and am now putting it into practice with GEOlaViva.

My goal is to recommend ethically sustainable leisure, travel and consumption offers in order to support change in tourism, trade and society.

From idea to vision:

Sometimes a personal change begins with a book. For me it was "Anger Alone Is Not Enough" by Hannes Jaenicke. In 2011 I held it in my hands and it became clear to me: If I don't change my lifestyle NOW, I will continue to contribute to the injustice in the world.

This idea was the starting point for GEOlaViva. After my family time, I didn't want to return to traditional travel sales.

Too often I had seen the dark side of tourism there: mass tourism that pollutes the environment and the population, right up to questionable attractions with animals.

But travel can also do a lot of good - if it strengthens local communities and improves living conditions. In many holiday destinations, responsible tourism creates jobs, supports local economies and promotes cultural exchange.

I just wanted to recommend such trips, if possible worldwide.

This is how GEOlaViva was born: a place that shows solutions on how we can make the world fairer and more livable through our decisions.

Responsible Tourism

The question of which offers are really worth recommending presented me with a big challenge. How do I recognize greenwashing, climatewashing or other misleading practices? And how can I create socially responsible tourism? I decided to recommend not only land travel but also air travel - but only those that support social or ecological projects and convey the meaning of travel. Because especially in the global south, tourism can help improve the living conditions of many people.

Holistic Lifestyle for a Change in Retail / E-Commerce

During my self-taught research, I realized how crucial conscious consumption is. When you shop, you make a choice - and either support positive changes or existing grievances. That's why I expanded the idea of GEOlaViva and now recommend offers for a holistic lifestyle in addition to travel and leisure recommendations.

My experience from retail and my other professional forays comes in handy here.

GEOlaViva - A name with meaning

• GEO = Earth
• The Alive = She is happy

GEOlaViva stands for “Long live the Earth”

GEOlaViva is also a homage to Gaia, the mythological Mother Earth – and a call to preserve our world.

Challenges and Growth

As a founder without any technical knowledge, I had to overcome many hurdles: Structure of the website:

With a limited budget, I had to create the website myself. A website builder was the turning point that enabled me to create my prototype and continuously develop it further.

Corporate design and content:

From the logo to the color scheme to the texts and images - I developed the entire appearance of GEOlaViva myself, step by step and with great attention to detail.

Legal aspects:

Data protection, imprint, liability and other legal requirements required intensive research and careful implementation in order to build GEOlaViva securely and in compliance with the law.

Affiliate-Marketing:

Before I could implement this concept, I first had to understand what affiliate marketing actually is and how it works. Involving suitable partners required a lot of research because their offers had to fit with GEOlaViva's values and goals.

Research on future topics:

Topics such as the United Nations SDGs, animal rights and conscious consumption require continuous research. This knowledge forms the basis for the selection of recommendations and the direction of GEOlaViva.

All these and many other tasks required a lot of time and perseverance

But they also helped me grow and showed me what is possible when you pursue a vision.

Support through AI

GEOlaViva would not be what it is today without the support of modern AI tools. Applications such as ChatGPT and DeeplWrite helped me formulate and correct texts to speed up the implementation of GEOlaViva.

For image creation, I use Playground and DALL·E to create visually appealing content that underlines GEOlaViva's vision.

For me, these technologies are not just tools, but also examples of how AI can help advance innovative projects and support a better world.

Bootstrapping: A startup from your own resources

GEOlaViva has so far been financed exclusively through bootstrapping. This means no investors, no debt - but a lot of initiative and sacrifice. This approach helped me to build GEOlaViva calmly and with a lot of passion and conviction. In 2025, it is now time to take GEOlaViva to the next level. I am excited to see how the company develops and what opportunities arise for the future...

The Power of Resilience

The implementation of GEOlaViva took longer than originally planned. This was not only due to the usual challenges of a start-up, but also to some personal setbacks that I had to overcome during this time. But it was precisely these difficult phases that showed me how strong one can emerge from challenges and how valuable a holistic way of life is in such times.

Every setback has made me stronger and shown me that with determination, but also with self-care and compassion, we can achieve our goals - even if the path is not always easy.

Working together for better working conditions in the

 hotel and gastronomy industry