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Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:01
Grace Bruhn
First thing we do is look. Oh, can we cycling here? We look on the road and. Yeah, when we find out the road for cycling. We are so excited.
00:00:08:07 - 00:00:13:07
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love that. Grace. You are my people. I love that.
00:00:13:09 - 00:00:43:05
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah. Something I wanted to add to about Vietnam. What's what's really cool here is you'll see like early in the morning or even in the evenings, groups of older women doing like aerobic type exercise near the lake with music and they're all coordinated. And it's really common here that especially older people will get together as a group. They often wear the same t shirt and they, you know, it's like part of a group and they'll exercise together, which is really, really nice to see it.
00:00:43:12 - 00:00:43:26
Dieter Bruhn
Hey everyone.
00:00:43:26 - 00:01:03:14
John Simmerman
Welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Zimmerman and that is a good friend, Dieter and his wife Grace. We're going to be chatting a little bit about, the culture of activity that exists in Hanoi, Vietnam. But before we get to that, I just want to say, if you are enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an Active Towns Ambassador.
00:01:03:16 - 00:01:20:20
John Simmerman
Hey, super easy to do. Just click on the join button right here on YouTube down below, or navigate over to Active towns.org. Click on the support tab at the top of the page and there's several different options. Okay, let's get right to it with Dieter and Grace.
00:01:20:22 - 00:01:24:21
John Simmerman
Dieter and Grace, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.
00:01:24:23 - 00:01:25:28
Dieter Bruhn
Thanks for having us.
00:01:26:01 - 00:01:29:01
Grace Bruhn
Thanks for having us. We're so excited.
00:01:29:03 - 00:01:44:29
John Simmerman
Yeah, you're so excited. I'm excited to to meet you, grace. This is a very first time. Dieter and I go way back, and we'll talk a little bit about that later. But what I love to do with my guests is give you the floor to quickly introduce yourself. So, 30s, please introduce yourselves.
00:01:45:01 - 00:02:09:25
Grace Bruhn
Ladies first. Well, ladies first, my name is lady. Done in Vietnam, but English, you can call me Grace whenever you pronounce my name. You can be a good, noisy grace with a good smile. So anyway, I'm a person that I could lie to. Make people smile, make somebody feel good is good. But make someone smile is much better feeling.
00:02:10:02 - 00:02:43:07
Grace Bruhn
So I'm here to inspire people to, smile more and be positive in life and have, inspired to reach out, to feel for their dream. And beside this, I am a missed out on the Vietnam 2024 and also miss my The In Chief Iowa International 2025. So my main stream is busy, need talent and I love beauty.
00:02:43:09 - 00:02:54:03
Grace Bruhn
So anyway, my honor to being part of active Tao for the topic today. Please enjoy and thank you for having me once again.
00:02:54:05 - 00:03:25:18
Dieter Bruhn
Okay, it's a tough act to follow. So my name is Dieter Bruhn. We're married, obviously. I came to Vietnam, almost five years ago on a month project through the US embassy. That turned into a four year project. And now I'm doing my own thing. I have a company called One World Training and, do educational training and business training, and I have a background in education and business.
00:03:25:21 - 00:03:57:24
Dieter Bruhn
So both of us kind of have this business background, entrepreneurship and cross-cultural and things like that. So we're looking to build up one world training here in Vietnam. But, love to travel, play guitar dance, which we'll talk about, I'm sure exercise, triathlons, other sports. But just generally, love to have an active lifestyle and love to meet people and visit different places in the world.
00:03:57:24 - 00:04:12:17
Dieter Bruhn
And we share that passion together. And it's great to have a partner in life who shares my same dreams and passions. So again, thank you for having us on Active Towns. It's great to see you, John, and all the way from Vietnam here.
00:04:12:19 - 00:04:31:15
John Simmerman
Yeah yeah yeah yeah, absolutely. It's it's funny to, you know, Dieter, you and I, you know, know each other from many, many years of, you know, kind of hanging out with the same crowd, together in Boulder, Colorado. And I'm going to pull up the map here. So, so folks can get a bearing as to where we're at.
00:04:31:18 - 00:04:45:29
John Simmerman
That's me. I'm in the middle of the ocean, literally in the middle of nothing. But. And you guys are over here just on the other side of the South China Sea. And in in Hanoi, correct?
00:04:46:01 - 00:04:47:05
Dieter Bruhn
Yes, yes, yes.
00:04:47:05 - 00:05:09:15
John Simmerman
Very good. So you're right over here. Boom. Now, Dieter, you don't know this, but I used to live just on the other side of the South China Sea. There. I used to live right here in Mindanao. In Cagayan de Oro. Way back. Oh, way back when? Way back in the 1980s. So that's date. That's dating me.
00:05:09:18 - 00:05:14:03
Dieter Bruhn
Okay. Yeah. You you look much younger. I say active lifestyle. It's the.
00:05:14:03 - 00:05:34:01
John Simmerman
Active lifestyle. It's the active lifestyle, for sure. But yeah, you and I, so we were very much a part of the, the boulder scene, the triathlon scene, and, and in fact, I've got a photo that you sent over, of of you out on your bike. Where is this particular race?
00:05:34:04 - 00:06:08:21
Dieter Bruhn
Actually, this particular race is in Vietnam. So this is. I'm wearing a Boulder Triathlon Club race kit. Race outfit? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. This is from two years ago here in Vietnam. So I did. I won my age group at that race. Wow. Yes. But triathlon. Really? I started doing triathlons when I was in graduate school at Eastern Michigan University and then came out to Boulder after grad school and got involved eventually with the Boulder Tri Club.
00:06:08:21 - 00:06:32:24
Dieter Bruhn
And as you know, I was president for many, many years. So this is this is, one of our group rides. But just, a big part of my life in Boulder, a lot of biking and swimming and running. And I think the big part of it, though, is also the community piece that, you know, we brought people together from all abilities.
00:06:32:24 - 00:06:56:07
Dieter Bruhn
We had beginners. We had people who were, you know, nationally and internationally winning, winning races and placing, so we had the whole range and just really built a strong, active, positive, fun community. And that was always a big part of the tri club was really, bringing people together who had a common interest.
00:06:56:10 - 00:07:05:02
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to go back to this photo here from, the race two years ago in, in Vietnam. Grace did you, participate or were you there cheering on?
00:07:05:09 - 00:07:11:22
Grace Bruhn
Unfortunately, that time we haven't met yet, but I only brown hearing this story.
00:07:11:24 - 00:07:37:26
John Simmerman
Now, here's here's the thing that that that really piqued my interest about wanting to talk to the two of you is, you know, Dieter and I have this in common. We have, you know, the the the Boulder, Colorado scene, the culture of activity that is really quintessential to the Boulder environment. It just you it's naturally exudes that ability to or that desire to want to be active.
00:07:37:28 - 00:07:47:24
John Simmerman
Do you get the sense that that's the same way there in Hanoi? Do you feel like it's a place that really encourages active living and active mobility and being active just in general?
00:07:47:27 - 00:08:10:07
Grace Bruhn
Yes. So anyway, back to us first. Yeah, well, I been to the US for five times and when I first time in Boulder with my husband and what impressed me is people are so friendly and look so fit, and then all the mountain, like so romantic. And I asked Peter that, like those people, he is very friendly and active.
00:08:10:07 - 00:08:35:09
Grace Bruhn
How come they are very slim? Because I've been to the other side of the world, so it's so different. And then find out people are very active with mountain and and cycling and again keep talking about it. And he gave me a gift and bought beautiful bicycle for me. And we, we have the fuel right together and yeah.
00:08:35:09 - 00:09:11:09
Grace Bruhn
So back to Vietnam. People who are very active to become age each year, the numbers they active. So people acknowledge that active make people stay in balance and live jungle and happier. And everywhere we go as an active couple, we look at the landscape and how people acting and do activity. So here in the morning and afternoon, yes, people, cycling around the West Lake or they go a little bit closer to the capital somewhere.
00:09:11:09 - 00:09:31:00
Grace Bruhn
The quieter like a thumbnail city for racing, right? Yeah. And, and then a couple of time we visit Danang. It's another city of Vietnam. And the first thing we do is look. Oh, then we cycling here, we look on the road, and. Yeah, when we fly down the road for cycling, we are so excited.
00:09:31:02 - 00:09:36:03
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love that. Grace. You are my people. I love that,
00:09:36:05 - 00:10:05:28
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah. Something I want to add to about Vietnam. What's what's really cool here is you'll see like early in the morning or even in the evenings, groups of older women doing like aerobic type exercise near the lake with music and they're all coordinated. And it's really common here that especially older people will get together as a group. They often wear the same t shirt and they, you know, it's like part of a group and they'll exercise together, which is really, really nice to see.
00:10:05:28 - 00:10:21:28
Dieter Bruhn
It's obviously different from Boulder where, you know, everyone's like that's part of your whole identity and lifestyle. But, you know, considering Hanoi is a big city, you do have a fair amount of activity here.
00:10:22:00 - 00:10:34:11
Grace Bruhn
Are they doing it? Yeah. In the proper nighttime dancing, aerobic and morning until at on the yoga meditation. So yes, I towels here.
00:10:34:13 - 00:10:39:18
John Simmerman
You know you you mentioned that it's a big city. How how what's the population there in Hanoi.
00:10:39:20 - 00:10:40:20
Dieter Bruhn
I'm trying to remember.
00:10:40:23 - 00:10:44:24
Grace Bruhn
More than 9 billion. Million a million.
00:10:44:26 - 00:10:47:24
Dieter Bruhn
Right. Yeah. It's a pretty big city.
00:10:47:26 - 00:11:04:10
John Simmerman
Oh my gosh. Yeah for sure. It was that a little bit of culture shock for you. You know, having spent so much time in a small college town like, you know, like Boulder and, and where you were at in eastern Michigan, I mean, that wasn't a very big city either.
00:11:04:13 - 00:11:27:00
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah. So, yeah, I would say I mean, Hanoi and Boulder are in many ways polar opposites. You know, the sort of when we go back to Boulder to visit now, you know, it's always quiet and, you know, a lot of open space. And here everything is crowded with traffic and pollution. And so it it was a bit of a transition.
00:11:27:00 - 00:11:52:07
Dieter Bruhn
But I will say there's something about Hanoi that's very special. There's an energy here that just feels really good. It's very there's a lot of the authentic traditional culture, in spite of being a modern big city. So even though it's a huge switch, I was able to transition pretty easily, but definitely some things were a bit of a shock.
00:11:52:07 - 00:12:05:15
Dieter Bruhn
And, you know, getting used to riding a motorbike through town and through traffic with, you know, it's it's a, it's a whole different experience. But also, you know, very exciting. Just in a different way.
00:12:05:17 - 00:12:13:15
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Now you too, you mentioned that you've gotten married and when, when was the wedding?
00:12:13:17 - 00:12:18:15
Dieter Bruhn
We got married a little over a year ago in December. December 6th.
00:12:18:18 - 00:12:31:00
John Simmerman
Oh, my gosh, that's great. And you two have are very, very photogenic together. So here's some of the photos, celebrating this. So really, really just quite beautiful. How did you two meet?
00:12:31:06 - 00:12:33:20
Grace Bruhn
We met through dances.
00:12:33:22 - 00:12:35:27
John Simmerman
Through dancing. Okay. Fantastic.
00:12:36:02 - 00:13:00:02
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah. We we met at, Latin dance social night. They they have, two big dance schools here that also do social dances a couple times a week. And I walked in one night, and I, for some reason, I walked in, but I turned my head and I looked right at Grace, and we both smiled. I said, know I need to ask her to dance.
00:13:00:04 - 00:13:13:14
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We danced two times, then we started. After that we started hanging out pretty much every day we've been together except for a few small periods. We've been together almost every day since we met.
00:13:13:16 - 00:13:15:21
Grace Bruhn
And you keep dancing?
00:13:15:23 - 00:13:26:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. And still and still dancing. And still dancing. That is fantastic. Now, now, Dieter, were you much of a dancer back in the Boulder days when you were here?
00:13:26:21 - 00:13:52:03
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah. I mean, I've always enjoyed dancing. I, it's something. When I was a teenager, I remember I won an award. I used to be part of a summer swim. I swam growing up to competitively. But in the summer I was in the summer league. And in the summer league, we would compete against different groups and always followed by dinner and social dancing.
00:13:52:06 - 00:13:55:22
Dieter Bruhn
So, you know, teenager, I was already starting to dance. And then,
00:13:55:29 - 00:13:57:22
John Simmerman
Where did you grow up as a teenager?
00:13:57:25 - 00:13:58:22
Dieter Bruhn
Detroit.
00:13:58:25 - 00:14:02:20
John Simmerman
Oh, wow. Detroit proper. In the actual city of Detroit.
00:14:02:22 - 00:14:14:01
Dieter Bruhn
Know I went to high school in the city of Detroit. Yeah, Cass Tech High School, which was a great. It's like an inner city public, but a magnet school. So people from the whole city went there and,
00:14:14:03 - 00:14:18:20
John Simmerman
Now, why did I think you were originally from Germany? Were you? Do you have ties to Germany?
00:14:18:22 - 00:14:39:21
Dieter Bruhn
My dad, I actually had dual citizenship. My dad was from Germany. Many of my friends like you, I think I was born there. I was actually born in Michigan, in Ann Arbor, but we grew up, kind of moved around a lot when I was a kid that moved back to Michigan and, yeah, so high school in Michigan and also very active in high school.
00:14:39:21 - 00:14:50:27
Dieter Bruhn
I was on the swim team. I we won the city championship four years in a row, and I was in high school swimming, and then I ran country. I played baseball in high school also.
00:14:50:27 - 00:14:58:17
John Simmerman
I see sea grace. We see a we see a trend here. You know, he was a swimmer. He ran cross-country. It was natural that he became a triathlete, right?
00:14:58:18 - 00:14:59:15
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah.
00:14:59:18 - 00:15:03:22
Grace Bruhn
Yeah. Anyway, so,
00:15:03:25 - 00:15:28:16
John Simmerman
Well, that's fantastic to hear. I knew that you had a little bit of that Michigan, tie. I did my graduate work in Ann Arbor and so I, I very much identify with that area, and I try to make it back to Detroit whenever I can to document how the city is trying to transform itself from Motor City, USA into a much more activity promoting active mobility.
00:15:28:16 - 00:15:42:02
John Simmerman
And so the dickin dracut that has been done and then the new trail that they're trying to build around the city, I think it's the is it the Joe Louis Trail or something along those lines? The famous boxer.
00:15:42:04 - 00:15:44:27
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah, yeah. Joe Louis. Yeah, yeah.
00:15:44:29 - 00:16:14:04
John Simmerman
There's some really, really wonderful stuff happening within the city. And really bringing the city back because it went through terrible, terrible decades worth of, of, you know, disinvestment and, and really, really a rough city in many ways. But, there's some really wonderful things coming back. So as you continue to visit and revisit, Detroit in the coming decades, years, I think Detroit will get even more beautiful.
00:16:14:06 - 00:16:17:23
John Simmerman
The good news is, a lot of those old historic buildings still remain.
00:16:17:25 - 00:16:39:07
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah, yeah, my mother's still in Detroit, so we we were just there for Christmas. We we do get back there, and and I definitely have seen it transform over the last few years, like, really coming up again and becoming kind of a hip place to live. And there, there even neighborhoods where it's almost impossible to buy a house now because there's so much demand.
00:16:39:09 - 00:16:48:03
Dieter Bruhn
So it's definitely, definitely on the up and up and up, you know, and rising and looking forward to seeing where it where it goes.
00:16:48:06 - 00:17:01:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. Now, Chris, although I never really witnessed Dieter dancing, I have witnessed Dieter playing guitar and singing. Does he does he play guitar and sing for you.
00:17:01:14 - 00:17:02:16
Dieter Bruhn
Every once in a while?
00:17:02:19 - 00:17:28:18
Grace Bruhn
Yes. Especially when the, special, celebration, like my birthday. Women, they, Whenever we are gathering people together, I see just starting a special song for me beside the songs for the other. So I feel really special and happy to have him in my life.
00:17:28:20 - 00:17:38:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. Now he he he he surprised me. Did you did you know that about him? That he was musical, when you first met him, or did that surprise you?
00:17:38:29 - 00:17:40:27
Grace Bruhn
That surprised me. Yeah.
00:17:40:29 - 00:18:03:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, that surprised me too. Yeah. Yeah, surprised. It surprised me, too, because I knew Dieter for many, many, many years. And then. Dieter, I think this was the last time we met. We were together in person was, one evening. I think it must have been up in Vail. We were together with a whole bunch of friends, and you pulled out the guitar and started playing.
00:18:03:06 - 00:18:05:06
John Simmerman
Does that ring a bell for you?
00:18:05:08 - 00:18:08:17
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah, yeah. That's that that sounds that sounds familiar. Yeah.
00:18:08:20 - 00:18:28:18
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a whole bunch of our our friends from the triathlon world that still, were passionate skiers. And so we were up at, my good friend, Kevin, rest in peace, Kevin. He passed away back in 2017, and, I think. Yeah. So it's been over a decade since we've been together.
00:18:28:21 - 00:18:31:19
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah, it's been a while, but always good to see you.
00:18:31:24 - 00:19:00:18
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. So let's talk a little bit about that. You. So you met through dancing and I reached out to the two of you because I have seen this constant stream of photography going out onto a Facebook page. You're really promoting this concept of, of like, having this vibrancy and, and sort of spirit of activity. And I'm going, you know, this is like a culture of activity thing that's happening here, this whole dance world.
00:19:00:20 - 00:19:21:10
John Simmerman
And it looks like you guys are having so much fun. And it looks like hard work too. So you almost have to be an athlete to be dancing at the level that you two are doing it. It's, you know, talk a little bit about that scene. Did it is it something where it's a very tight knit group and, and you all come together multiple times a week?
00:19:21:16 - 00:19:24:15
John Simmerman
What's what's the set? The lay of the land for everybody.
00:19:24:18 - 00:19:45:05
Dieter Bruhn
So, so with, with kind of the scene here. And so there's a big Latin dance scene in Hanoi. As I mentioned, there's sort of two big schools. I used to go to one primarily, and Grace used to go to another. That's why we it took a while for our paths to cross, because we were often at the other place.
00:19:45:08 - 00:20:08:29
Dieter Bruhn
But she had the one I used. We used to go to that night that we met. But there is a very big scene we have friends who are very actively involved in the Latin dance scene. So that's kind of where, you know, where our story began was really around Latin dancing. But it's also, keys and birth and,
00:20:09:01 - 00:20:39:16
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah. And, and so we still go social dancing. Sometimes we've taken classes together, like advanced classes where you learn a very difficult choreography. I'm very lucky because I'm a big guy. And Grace and dainty, she likes that word. And so sometimes I have to lift her up or spin around. So, yeah, it is. It can be very athletic, especially at the level of some of the things that we've learned.
00:20:39:17 - 00:20:57:28
Dieter Bruhn
And we've done private lessons as well with really top level teachers where we learn a very difficult choreography. So being athletic is definitely a big plus because of, you know, the energy that goes into it right now.
00:20:57:28 - 00:21:02:18
John Simmerman
Grace, have you been a dancer for a long period of time, ever since you were little?
00:21:02:21 - 00:21:36:14
Grace Bruhn
I started 2016, and until now it's more than ten year or ten years. And I started when you belly dance for me to eat, because I own away demand to improve my shower and to be better and to be unique. So, after about it, and I also learned the core, our photography class and learned from around the world different teacher, male and female, and compete around the world.
00:21:36:17 - 00:22:13:09
Grace Bruhn
And then I start loving them for more than two years and learn a joy the community for lady perform and class. And until couple with people so that also great performance group for my own business. So we perform at the event that people play us or when we organize the event and we can perform for people to enjoy the soul.
00:22:13:11 - 00:22:50:06
Grace Bruhn
And, besides it to dance by. I can do the, you guys flow and commentary, right? And defense. I like Chinese dance. So never stop learning because art learning never lived and never enough is all about awesome. The passion and and also a great match. So that own way bring us and make us really active with each other out there in every every thing we did and we do and we will.
00:22:50:08 - 00:22:55:13
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. I love this photo of the two of you. Why don't you describe this, Dieter?
00:22:55:15 - 00:23:27:06
Dieter Bruhn
Yes. Hi. Yeah. So this is, this is our our honeymoon. Okay. In Thailand and Koh Leap Island, which is considered the Maldives of Thailand. So we got, little sort of bungalow right on by the beach, and it had a private little pool. So we were doing some fun exercising there, and we did a sort of a fun yoga pose.
00:23:27:09 - 00:23:27:25
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah.
00:23:27:27 - 00:23:29:14
Grace Bruhn
We are very great.
00:23:29:16 - 00:23:48:08
Dieter Bruhn
So especially her. She's always like, oh, we need to do this. We're always, a lot of our, videos and things we post online. A lot of them comes from her inspiration where she's like, oh, we should, we should, we should do that. But yeah, it was a beautiful place to be. And that was a beautiful moment there.
00:23:48:10 - 00:23:49:29
Grace Bruhn
On the best.
00:23:50:02 - 00:23:51:09
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah.
00:23:51:11 - 00:24:05:18
John Simmerman
And I love there's another great photo of the two of you being active. Right here. You've got you you've got the golf clubs. Very good. Now, are either of you really good golfers or are you just doing this for fun?
00:24:05:20 - 00:24:12:12
Dieter Bruhn
She is good for all.
00:24:12:15 - 00:24:17:08
Grace Bruhn
I spent the 2000, and I made him play with me.
00:24:17:11 - 00:24:40:27
Dieter Bruhn
So. Yeah, she's like, she. She's one of those people, you know? She she consistently hits it straight. It's amazing. She just like, boom, boom, boom. Now for me, I played a little golf like 20 some years ago just for fun a couple summers. And then I didn't play for many years. But because she loves golf so much, she's like, we have to go play golf.
00:24:40:27 - 00:24:53:21
Dieter Bruhn
And so we driving range several times and we went out and played, played on the course. And, she kicked my butt. And it was a lot of fun.
00:24:53:23 - 00:25:00:14
John Simmerman
That's great. That's great. Well, I see that the two of you are royalty as well. What's what's what's the crown's?
00:25:00:17 - 00:25:26:26
Dieter Bruhn
So, last fall, we went to a competition in Korea. Miss and Mister Mighty, entrepreneur international. And we won. We both won. So we ended up becoming sort of the king and the queen. It was it was a it was a really cool event because part of it was the business and entrepreneurship side. That part was important.
00:25:26:29 - 00:25:51:14
Dieter Bruhn
But they also included a talent that they wanted to because they want to measure creativity. So, for my portion, we, we danced together. We did a choreography, and then she did a belly dance performance for her individual part. So, so she was kind of my partner for mine, and she was individual first. But yeah, so we a huge honor.
00:25:51:14 - 00:26:13:28
Dieter Bruhn
I mean, to win that, there were people from different countries and, we had to also do some catwalks. We had some traditional outfits that we walked in and, kind of like the walking down the runway and, you know, answering questions, which is everything. But yeah. So even today we we came out on top and, it's been kind of a nice thing.
00:26:13:28 - 00:26:19:10
Dieter Bruhn
So sometimes we go to events and we wear our wear crowns.
00:26:19:13 - 00:26:23:25
John Simmerman
Very good. Well, might as well. You earned it.
00:26:23:28 - 00:26:40:03
John Simmerman
That's fantastic. Oh, well, talk a little bit about the you know, you mentioned to entrepreneur and the business side of things and you starting your own, business. Talk a little bit about that. What what can you give in terms of like the background of, of that organization or that effort?
00:26:40:06 - 00:27:03:08
Dieter Bruhn
So I actually started One World training in Colorado back, a little more than 20 years ago, actually built it from the ground up. As I mentioned, my background is in education and business, so I have two masters. One of them is in teaching English, and I have a doctorate in in business as well. And so which I got recently.
00:27:03:08 - 00:27:36:03
Dieter Bruhn
But so I built the company around training teachers. So that's the educational side, doing a lot of teacher training and sending people all over the world to teach. And then on the business side, doing a lot of training for international business professionals as well as entrepreneurs. And, the the project I did in Vietnam through the embassy was primarily focused on education, but I've also done programs through the embassy that are focused more on business.
00:27:36:06 - 00:27:59:26
Dieter Bruhn
This particular photo that you showed here, that's a program in Pakistan where, where I trained quite a few. These are called Access Teachers. They're from the whole country. They all came together for for an intensive training on innovative teaching techniques. But I see you're showing my website. So this is me in Laos working with teachers.
00:27:59:29 - 00:28:28:05
Dieter Bruhn
So the educational side. But I've also done a lot of projects in India, for example, working, particularly with entrepreneurs. The photo on the right there is, working with a group of women entrepreneurs in a city called Patna. So the embassy would send me mostly to areas that, are more financially struggling to really work with entrepreneurs there to try to help lift them up and give them skills to succeed.
00:28:28:07 - 00:28:55:09
Dieter Bruhn
One of the advantages I have is because I have a background in both language and business and culture. I'm able to kind of merge all of that together and sort of understand that business and entrepreneurship and education, it's not just language, it's also how you communicate the culture, helping with skills development and things. So I started one World training kind of with these goals.
00:28:55:09 - 00:29:10:01
Dieter Bruhn
And, here in Vietnam, we're actually working together with One World Training. We just got it incorporated here officially so that we're going to build a big, program, some big programs here as well.
00:29:10:04 - 00:29:22:25
John Simmerman
Fantastic. Wow, that is great. That is really, really cool. Final thoughts. From from both of you. Anything that you would like to share with the audience?
00:29:22:27 - 00:29:50:07
Grace Bruhn
Yes. Things. Until we finish all for many years, 15 years and helping to inspire training, hospitality. And besides, I also own, Academy Dance studio in the past. And now, even more, when we were training in Vietnam with my husband. Beside that, I want to run my own missile in Vietnam, and I also have my website, MySQL and vietnam.com.
00:29:50:10 - 00:30:07:00
Grace Bruhn
So you into that later to check it out. Still training people how to dance choreographer, performer and healthcare industry. And we have Larry right that yeah. Thank you.
00:30:07:03 - 00:30:07:23
John Simmerman
For.
00:30:07:25 - 00:30:35:25
Grace Bruhn
For that. We are very excited to launch the competition in one work training for the English talent contest or other than contest, in GTA and moving forward. And my advice for a few people running a busy need is running a busy need is very tough. It can be up and down, but the most important is a human the people.
00:30:35:28 - 00:30:51:16
Grace Bruhn
If you train people well and care about, customer service and willing to hear the feedback and keep improve and it is you going to be succeed.
00:30:51:18 - 00:31:31:15
John Simmerman
I love that, I love that and and Dieter, you can you can relate to this too, because one of the things that I can really relate back to with, with triathlon is that, you know, that discipline of, you know, an endurance athletic event like a triathlon. It just it I think it really, you know, instilled a great deal of fortitude of stick with it ness and in that kind of, you know, spills over into the rest of life and is, I think, is part of reinforcing, you know, that culture of activity that we were talking about earlier is wanting to make sure that we stay active, because if we are active, we can be
00:31:31:15 - 00:31:39:23
John Simmerman
healthier and, other things in life, you know, continue to, you know, progress successfully. Final thoughts from you, Dieter.
00:31:39:26 - 00:31:58:20
Dieter Bruhn
Yeah. Know what? You just I'd like to sort of piggyback on what you just said, but, you know, kind of coming from an athletic background, particularly endurance, you know, I've done. Which in gold is not a big deal, but I've done three Iron Man's and, you know, going through that process of being out there all day and struggling.
00:31:58:20 - 00:32:10:27
Dieter Bruhn
And then, a few years ago, I did a ten kilometer ocean swim in Thailand, hardest swim of my life. And I went off course, so I actually probably swam 11km.
00:32:11:00 - 00:32:11:22
John Simmerman
00:32:11:24 - 00:32:45:10
Dieter Bruhn
But I think what it what it kind of the overlap is that sports and work and life are all intertwined. So if you're active and you put time and energy into staying healthy and making it a priority, it carries into all aspects of your life. So personal life, you know, and and work too. And just having the motivation and the drive and the energy to to do what you want to do and to know that you can do it and not to give up it when things get tough.
00:32:45:10 - 00:33:13:06
Dieter Bruhn
I think that's the biggest form is, is that's a big driver. And, I really I know that people watching this are probably mostly active, but, I think that you know, always staying active. We want to continue until, you know, until we can barely walk again. You know, when we're older, we we want to always be active and we want to always dance and do things and travel and and really enjoy life.
00:33:13:06 - 00:33:36:01
Dieter Bruhn
And active, active lifestyle is, is a big part of that and really carries over into everything we do. So, we're excited about the work you do and spreading this message. And, we're looking forward to all the adventures, work, personal, athletic that are still in front of us.
00:33:36:03 - 00:33:58:13
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it, I love it, yeah. And, I like to, to to reinforce too, that, you know, when we create an environment that really encourages healthy, active living and we create that culture of activity, we also meet, you know, just wonderful people and friends. And sometimes we even need our partner for life. And I'm so glad that the two of you found each other that night.
00:33:58:15 - 00:34:07:23
John Simmerman
During that Latin dance, program. Fantastic grace and, Peter, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.
00:34:07:26 - 00:34:26:06
Dieter Bruhn
Thank you to John and great to see you again. And I have one small correction. I showed you that my triathlon on the nine was two years ago. It was actually three years ago. Time flies so fast because when you said that, it was like, oh, it must have been that was actually 2023 that I did that one hoping to do on this new.
00:34:26:08 - 00:34:29:03
John Simmerman
I'm glad you fact checked yourself.
00:34:29:05 - 00:34:32:06
Dieter Bruhn
I'm really not always been.
00:34:32:08 - 00:34:47:04
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode and if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, I'd be honored to have you subscribe to the channel. Just click on that subscription button down below and be sure to ring that notification bell.
00:34:47:10 - 00:35:07:27
John Simmerman
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00:35:08:02 - 00:35:32:06
John Simmerman
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00:35:32:06 - 00:35:42:02
John Simmerman
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