Hi! I'm Carmen Gerea

I'm a digital strategy consultant and coach. PacificVibes.work is an editorial and community project that gives visibility to the people building startups, brands and technology from Concón for the world.

Here's how it all started.

Why I left the big city to live by the sea

A while back I had what I call an epiphany moment. I had spent almost 12 years living in Chile, all of them in Santiago, immersed in the constant hustle and noise of a metropolis of more than six million people.

During a weekend on the coast, I asked myself a crucial question: "Could I look at the same view a thousand times without getting bored? Wake up to this scenery, fill myself with energy, work and give my 100% with the same smile every day?". Having been born in Romania by the Black Sea, I have always had a very particular and deep connection with the sea and nature.

The answer was a resounding yes. I made the decision on a Saturday, January 8th, and arrived in Concón on Saturday, February 5th, with a thousand boxes and a lot of hope for this new beginning. I went from a noisy metropolis to a quiet coastal town of fewer than 40,000 people.

I then realized that, like me, many other people had made the leap. You could even say there were two big waves of new "conconinos": those who arrived with the 2019 social unrest, and those who arrived with the pandemic or right after. Remote and now hybrid work made this movement possible.

The impact of your living environment on happiness and professional performance

Our surroundings have a tremendous influence on who we are, how we are and how we do things. The space we inhabit is not neutral. Setting up my home office facing the Pacific Ocean, this geographic change acted as a trigger for a full transformation in my habits:

• Focus and simplification: It was such a reset that I stopped doing a number of things professionally so I could really focus on what matters to me.
• An active life: I started getting active earlier, whether to work or exercise, doing more physical activity than ever and being able to walk to most places.
• Wellbeing and more neighborhood life: Having everything (or almost everything) close by gives you access to countless activities and hobbies at a lower cost than in a big city — at least in terms of commute time.
• New connections: I met a lot of people who, for various reasons, prioritize quality of life in a smaller town over the capital, and I even started meeting clients and colleagues right here on the coast. I also connected with the world more than ever and understood that you can build solutions from Concón for the world.

The courage to find where you can flourish

Waking up by the sea, looking out the window from my desk, and feeling that peace of mind is a privilege that directly nurtures my creativity and my work. Some might call it luck: being the right person in the right place at the right time. But I'm convinced that designing your life takes action.

Redesigning your environment is fundamentally about daring, moving, trusting, choosing, and finding the exact place to flourish. Because, at the end of the day, you can't build the professional life you want if the environment you're in doesn't support your energy and your peace of mind.

There's a core equation I stand by:

The life you want = people + environment + work + health + passions.

Thanks for reading.

Welcome to PacificVibes.work.

Carmen