Parisian Phoenix Publishing

If I could only relay to you three lessons I learned in my print journalism career, they would be:

1. There’s always a story.
2. Listen to people and you find what you need.
3. I can parallel park on a dime.

Okay, so number three goes back to where I was a reporter, not craft, but there is nothing like the power of those three lessons. You can learn to write a lot of ways. You can have great mentors and even better bosses. But those three lessons served me better than anything else in many walks of life.

And you don’t have to be a reporter to benefit from these lessons.

Any professional development centers on at least numbers one and two, and depending on the location (like, say, Moravian University) number three may also provide benefits.

On Wednesday, November 15, I decided to attend two different networking functions, One Million Cups Lehigh Valley and a Friends of Pete Lunch N Learn. One Million Cups Lehigh Valley meets in the Fowler Center of Northampton Community College’s Southside Bethlehem location.

One Million Cups Lehigh Valley

According to the web site, the Kauffman Foundation funds the weekly event as an opportunity for novice entrepreneurs to connect with established business people for advice.

Each week novice entrepreneurs and businesses under five years old are invited to share their stories over a cup of coffee and connect with the community. Each presenter gets between six to ten minutes followed by 15-20 minutes of Q&A. This is not a sales pitch and any new idea or business, including social ventures, is welcome to present. 1MC provides a supportive, inclusive space for entrepreneurs and their communities to gather and connect, where they can work through business challenges and identify opportunities. It’s not a pitch; it’s a chance to learn, collaborate and grow.

I had a great time networking and connected with some people I knew from various circles, many of whom I had been hoping to build relationships with.

• Battle Borne, a local organization for veterans, attended. This allowed me to compliment them on their regular and informative social media posts. They invited everyone to help distribute their pre-Thanksgiving food haul from Second Harvest Food Bank to veterans here in the Lehigh Valley who need the help.
• I learned about the Knauss Homestead in Emmaus and their upcoming open house December 2. With Parisian Phoenix’s interest in local history (as chronicled in Not an Able-Bodied White Man with Money and through our involvement with the Roseberry Gess House in Phillipsburg).

From the Knauss Homestead web site:

Built in 1777 by Heinrich Knauss for his Father, Sebastian Knauss, the Knauss Homestead is a living tribute to the founding of the Moravian community of Emmaus, as well as the United States of America during the Revolutionary War era.

Thank you, Tyler Wursta of Tyler Wursta Video for telling us about another local historical treasure. This whole region has pockets of the colonial era still in tact in almost every community.

Meanwhile, the presentation for the day was a cooperation between the Bethlehem and Monroe campuses of the college. The two groups held a Zoom meeting so that those in Bethlehem could ‘attend’ the presentation by the owner of Picturesque Luxury Picnics.

Owner Genamarie Rosado grew up in the Poconos and graduated from East Stroudsburg North. Genamarie attended college in New York City where she studied television and radio production. The pandemic forced her home, and she decided to try and make her dreams come true and moved to Los Angeles.

When she came home a second time, a friend encouraged her to consider the luxury picnic business. Genamarie has a passion for interior design and a good eye for entertaining. And she’s a one-man-show who would like to return to her television production career.

And she’s talented! Even her Instagram is carefully curated and pleasing to the eye. Who wouldn’t want to have an event with Picturesque Luxury Picnics?

She asked the group if she might be able to scale up or even franchise the business. Their advice: she is the magic behind the business, so she needs to increase her prices (everyone agrees she very much undercharges, even me, and I’m cheap) and work on generating more than six figures in a year.

And she has the skill to do it.

So that was One Million Cups. Now, let us take a break from our regular scheduled programming for some lovely reminders of the history available in Bethlehem.

We’ll continue on our journey to Moravian tomorrow…