Listen to the Blue Lotus Café Podcast
Educational Content. Every Wednesday. 20 minutes per episode. 70 episodes and counting...
The Blue Lotus Café
A podcast co-hosted by Christophe Berg & Ivor Madžar
We are passionate about learning + teaching. We share, what's meaningful, fun for us and can be useful for our listeners
• Exploring our interests
• Sharing crazy ideas, practical things to experiment & learn
• Keeping up with the Plant-based world evolution!
• Talking about self-development & lifestyle design
Listen to Blue Lotus Café on
+ Apple + Spotify + Google podcasts
+ Anchor.fm (our recording, hosting and distribution platform)
We also host a weekly live conversation on Blue Lotus channel.
Insights for Independent Knowledge Worker
Follow-up to "How-to Become an Independent Worker?"
• Earn with your Mind, not with your Time
• You are never going to get rich by renting your time
• Get Paid for your Judgment
• Set a High personal Hourly Rate
• Business Networking is a waste of time
• Learn to MAKE, to SELL
• Play iterated long-term game
• Cooperate with honest people
Listen the Blue Lotus Café Podcast on Apple or Spotify.
How-to become an Independent Knowledge Worker?
Freely inspired by "How to get Rich?" Naval Ravikant
• Find your Niche, develop a Specific Knowledge?
• Avoid renting your time. Create Wealth from Assets
• Create leverage. Make one time + Sell X times
Listen this episode on Apple, Spotify or Google podcasts.
Immune System
How works the Immune System? How to Boost it?
• What is the Immune System?
• How it works?
• What strengthen the Immune System?
• Can you boost your Immune System?
• What to do / eat for a stronger Immune System?
Listen the Blue Lotus Café on Apple podcast or Spotify.
Healthy Microbiome
Trust your Gut!
• What's the Microbiome?
• What can you eat for a healthier microbiome?
• What's the difference between probiotics and prebiotics?
• What can you do for a healthier gut flora?
• What can reveal a microbiome analysis?
• How the microbiome can support your Immune System?
Listen the episode on Apple podcast or Spotify.
on Business Coaching,
Methods & Plant-Based Business Opportunities
• Creativity by Contraints
• Bootstrapping
• Sabbatical Project
• KANBAN
• KAIZEN
• Set your Price as a Freelancer
• Food Costing as a Chef• Why Positive Cash Flow Model?
Listen the Blue Lotus Café Podcast on Apple or Spotify... You can check the follow-up conversations on IG TV Channel.
on Self-Development,
Learning & Lifestyle Design
• Self-Knowledge, Cultivating Mindsets
• Instructor Mindset
• Teaching & Training
• Self-Learning, Autodidact
• Write Your Manifesto
• Stoicism
• Essentialism, book
• IKIGAI
Listen the Blue Lotus Café Podcast on Apple or Spotify... You can check the follow-up conversations on IG TV Channel.
on Plant-Based Cuisine,
Wellness & Plant-strong Lifestyle
• Plant-Based Speciality Cuisine
• SOUL Plant Food
• Pure & Simple WFPB lifestyle
• Time Restricted Eating
• Water Fasting
• 5-DAYTOX Challenge
• Hydration
• Blue Zones
Listen the Blue Lotus Café Podcast on Apple or Spotify... You can check the follow-up conversations on IG TV Channel.
Read articles and cooking books
I explore what sparks my curiosity from self-development, independent work and life, lifestyle design, plant-based eating and active living.
6-Day "Eating Twice a Day" Experiment
Early Time Restricted Eating put to the test.
• What is Time Restricted Eating?
• What is early TRE?
• How-to plan your 6-day Experiment?
• Frequent Questions on early TRE
Simple Pricing Tactics for Independents
Focus on Outcomes. Not Hours. Care about your Work.
• What is an Independent Worker?
• Alternatives to Hourly Billing
- Daily or Weekly billing
- Retainer or Monthly Fixed Fee
- Project based billing
- Respect your work, price it accordingly!
Read the full article on Simple Pricing Tactics for Independents. Listen to the IGTV live conversation on Pricing Tactics.
Draft a Project Manifesto
Share Your Magic, Tell Your Story and Send Your Message
• Tell your Story
- People don't know you, so introduce yourself.
• Send a Message to your Audience
- How can you help? What is the problem that are you looking to solve?
• Explain the Why? and How?
Read the article on "Draft a Project Manifesto".
Develop a Project Operating System
Dream with a Plan. Deal with Constraints. Set Simple Rules.
• Define a set of simple rules to operate your project
• Use Constraints to drive your Creativity
• The Art of Seizing fleeting Opportunities
• Enable your Project
Read the article on "Develop a Project Operating System".
Why Not Working from La Palma
articles on rePeople.co and Medium.com
Self-development
A series of How-To articles published on MEDIUM
Draft a personal Manifesto in 3 Steps
Don't neglect your dreams, write your adventure book
A manifesto is a letter to yourself, a reminder and a call to live under your terms.
Start by figuring out who you are. Then question who you think you are. Finally draft your own adventure book, who you want to become.
Read the full article on "Draft a personal manifesto in 3 Steps".
How-to manage your time with KANBAN?
A visual way to manage your tasks and get things done
Your time is precious. Take good care of him. Forget the busyness. Forget multitasking. Instead do one thing at a time. Focus on getting essential things done in time.
• Visualize your week and your tasks (BACKLOG)
• Organize your tasks in columns to visualize your progression
• Minimize your work in progress (WIP)
• Limit switching between different types of tasks
Plant Strong Lifestyle
Mindful Eating Plan
Simplify the WHAT (to eat)
• Be Mindful of the WHEN to eat
• Don’t worry so much on the HOW-MUCH
• Care about your recovery
• It is not a diet that matters… it is your lifestyle
+ a Myth Buster on Superfoods
Read Mindful Eating Plan made easy. Also the inconvenient truth about Time Restricted Eating (is it ok to skip your breakfast?) And Pure & Simple Plant Food, a manifesto
La Palma Trails
Explore La Palma through its volcanic trails
Livres de Cuisine
100% végétale et sans gluten
Cette belle aventure a commencé avec Secrets d'endurance, il y a près de 6 ans, puis Protéines Vertes, enfin plus récemment Le Grand Livre de la Cuisine Crue. Ces livres sont publiés aux éditions La Plage (Paris).
Je souhaite continuer à explorer des thématiques autour d'un style de vie actif, d'une cuisine 100% végétale, pure et simple, colorée et créative. N'hésitez pas à me contacter pour des projets d'éditions.
Learn How-to develop a Plant-Based Business
One on One Online Training for Independents
How to start? How to evaluate your food costs? How to set your Pricing? How to manage your time and attention? ... Learning some project management methods and tactics can help you to get things done in time and save some time and energy so that you can focus more on your craft and your core activity.
I offer an Individual Training Program by an introvert for introverts! (NO group call, NO group work, 100% your learning curve).
Training Workshop w Christophe Berg
Customized to your specific Skillset and Experiences
Topics to learn:
- Plant-based business 101
- Personal storytelling, self-knowledge and awareness
- Early development Cycle of your PROJECT
- Personal Project Management, KAIZEN
- Time Management techniques, KANBAN
- Project Mapping and Retro Planning
- Case Study Vegan Café + Backlog / Critical Path
- Opportunity Study, Exit rules
- Business Essentials: budget, costs & expenses, price setting and pricing tactics, Profit and Loss statement, cash flow, resources request...
• Training includes: 8 hours of One on One video calls, email correspondance and education material (lectures, templates)• No Prerequisites.• Requires: a minimum of 12 hours of Personal Work
• Durations: 5-day "intense" Training or a 4-week Training
• Languages: English or FrenchCoaching: Imagine Your Lifestyle
Dream with a Plan • Design the Lifestyle you want
It’s not enough "to be plant-based". On top of your talent, hard-work and enduring motivation, you need some essential management skills and business understanding in order to develop an economically viable project. You need to simplify, streamline and focus on what's essential in order to develop a personally sustainable project.
I am here to help by offering an Individual Coaching Program by an introvert for introverts! (NO group call, NO group coaching, 100% on your project).
90-DAY One on One Coaching Program
- Outline your Personal Development Plan, visualize and clarify your aspirations, vision and values.
- Visualize your concept, clarify your directions and objectives
- Outline your Project Plan and roadmap
- Define your Tactic and Action plans
- Experiment and develop your project by iterations
- Evaluate the outcomes, streamline and simplify
- Outline a Communication Plan (storytelling, manifesto, core values, online presence… )
Coaching includes: initial conversation to define a personalized coaching plan, 2 hours of weekly One on One Video calls (lectures + briefing), email correspondance and education material (lectures and templates).
Requires: a minimum of 4 hours of personal work every week.
Overall duration: 3 months
Languages: English or French
Consulting: Creative Business Development
for Peaceful Plant-Based 🌱 Projects
You are managing a small business, you need a project manager to oversee the development of new projects but you don't have the visibility to hire a permanent senior project developer.
I offer a retainer agreement so that we can start a preliminary study and initiate the development to seize an opportunity and figure-out the project’s feasibility and its viability before you start monopolizing extensive resources.
Management by Projects
Project-Oriented Strategy • Lean Management
- Project Design, opportunity study (feasibility, viability), vision, strategy, swot analysis, tactic plan, risks assessment
- Project Development, hiring a team, setting smart goals, planning, assessing risks and economic viability, backlog
- Project Management, roadmap, retro-planning. tasks, time and resources management. Problem solving.
- Project Coaching, mentoring, coaching or training team members
Some Projects:- Blue Lotus Hua Hin, Wellness Boutique Resort and Club
- Plant-Based Cuisine on board! with Apollo Group (Miami) for Oceania and Regent Cruise Lines.
- Design Juice/Smoothie Bar on Oceania & Regent Cruises.
- Developing Tom Juice’s Bar in St Barth
Catch Me if You Can on Social Media...
I am mostly active on IG, publish articles on MEDIUM and connect via Linkedin.
Instagram
MEDIUM
LinkedIn
Twitter
Christophe Berg
Author, educator & coach • Project Manager - simplifier, planner & fixer • Plant-based 🌱since 2005
From Hacking Games to Project Management
and eventually Training & Teaching...
Early on I became attracted if not fascinated by computers and went from hacking video games and learning English along the way to working in my twenties as a software developer and a database architect. As the internet wave hit Europe, I quickly became a digital project manager and a game designer.
For the past 25 years, I worked as a consultant and independent project manager, applying agile methods for web development, game design and digital production. I have a Master of Science degree, in Mathematics and Computer Science, with a specialization in Project Management. I taught project management, agile methods and creative design as a guest lecturer for 10 years in France (Master of Video Games), the Netherlands (Utrecht School of Arts) and Singapore (Ngee Ann Polytechnics).
From Plant-Based Lifestyle to Consulting
As an avid-trail-runner, I started by experimenting with plant-based food for active people. While running a cooking studio in Haarlem, I wrote 12 books on plant-based cuisine and explored the emerging vegan scene in The Netherlands, France, California, Croatia and España...
I worked as the Executive Chef & Project Manager to launch Yi Athens Raw Vegan Café in Greece, MK Culinary Academy in Thailand and TOM's Juice Bar in St Barth and as a consultant for Apollo Group to develop the plant-based cuisine on board the Oceania and Regent cruise lines.
Through these projects, I keep promoting Plant-based lifestyle for active people and Plant-Based as a NEW Speciality Cuisine.
From launching Blue Lotus to Project Development and Coaching...
I imagined, developed and launched Blue Lotus Hua Hin, the first Learning Center for Plant-Based Cuisine in Thailand.
Which means, in no particular order: Hiring, Coaching the Instructor Team • Business Development • Quality Control • Teaching, Coaching students • Project management + Problem Solving • Storytelling, content creation and online communication • Curriculum Development: Pure Energy, Green Thai Cuisine, Chef's Training, Instructor Training + Business Coaching • Plant-Based Menu Development for the Resort + Training cook
And now? I am working as an independent consultant specialized in creative plant-based projects. I am based in La Palma (Canary islands, Spain, EU). Don't hesitate to contact me.
