Meet Claudia Hackl of The Smart Spirit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudia Hackl.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Claudia. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I am born in the Austrian countryside at a traditional family-owned winery – producing Austrian rosé wine. Growing up there, I worked a lot at the winery & restaurant during my time at school and college, which helped me to become a social and outgoing person and to deal with all kinds of people.

I finished my Bachelor and Master’s Degree at the University of Applied Sciences in Austria with focus on Business Management & Accounting and went straight to PricewaterhouseCoopers in Vienna to work for a couple of years in the tax department for financial services. Finding myself very unhappy in the financial sector I decided to make a career change.

Shortly after that, I graduated with a Master of Education from the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz and taught at a high school for a little while. But still, there was this creative side in me, that I never fully had the chance to express. As a result of this unhappiness, I decided to start traveling.

My travel time in LA and the open-minded and creative atmosphere here inspired me so heavily that I started to write after I came back to Austria. After a couple of months of an inspirational writing journey alone in a small house in the mountains, I published my first book ‘Your Guide to a Smart Life’ in which I created a method how to find one’s unique gifts and follow one’s passion.

As a teacher by heart, it was my desire to help other people to find their path earlier than I did. With that book, I was a Finalist at the Beverly Hills Book Award in 2018. From that moment on, one came after the other.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has definitely not been a smooth road, that is for sure! First of all, Austria is a very conservative country, therefore, I got almost no support for my change into the creative sector.

Also, my family was not very enthusiastic about my career change. But apart from that, the hardest part, when you become an entrepreneur, is that you have to do everything by yourself. I had to think about EVERY aspect of the business. I had to learn so many new skills, like building websites, creating marketing campaigns, dealing with legal requirements, etc.

Consequently, there was not so much time left anymore any more for doing what I loved – being creative. That made me feel frustrated. Sometimes I really felt burned out and left alone. I also had sleepless nights because I couldn’t stop thinking about problems that occurred. I took it way to serious at the beginning and there were definitely a couple of moments where I wanted to give up and where I just wanted to have my old ‘easy’ life back.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
After I published my first book, that became Finalist at the Beverly Hills Book Award, I created a website with a blog, I built an Instagram community and started to work on an online shop with merchandise products for the ‘Smart Community.’ Posting day by day and interacting almost 24/7 with followers helped me to slowly grow my Instagram.

After a little while, I started to create small videos to delight my community and published them on IGTV and my website. Additionally, I started to offer meditation courses, after I figured out how healing meditation can be in our digital influenced times and therefore did my certificate as a Meditation Instructor in Munich.

At that time, I also had my first Instagram collaborations with yoga and tea brands in Austria. With The Smart Spirit blog & community, it’s my goal to make people aware of their potential and to inspire them living a mindful life full of meditation, a passion for work, travel and personal growth. In this community, we create an atmosphere full of respect, support and understanding for each other.

My personal next big project is an inspiring and romantic novel that will be published on May 1st 2019, which is about the travel adventure of a young woman. This adventurous story takes place in California and shall inspire as many young women as possible to follow their dreams.’

Additionally, the title song for this novel is going to be published in May as well. This will be an important milestone.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up with a passion for music and acting. I played the piano and the accordion and took part in some plays at local theatres at my school.

When I was younger, I was absolutely not into sports, which changed when I became an adult. I now love yoga, running, gym workouts, tennis, etc. I was always a very happy person and tried to make people around me happy. With The Smart Spirit, I want to do the same, just on a larger scale.

Since I am a little child, I can’t get rid of my chocolate addiction. 🙂

Pricing:

• Book: ‘Guide to a Smart Life’: 11.99 Dollars – Amazon
• Shirts: 19.95 – 24.95 Euros – Online Shop
• Hoodies: 36.95 Euros – Online Shop

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesmartspirit.com
• Email: info@thesmartspirit.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesmartspirit

 

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.