Hi My Loves❤️

We are already in the Last Week of July and it has been absolutely bananas.

My Mom and Dad just celebrated their 57^th Marriage Anniversary on 7/24 (Holy Smokes that is a LONG time) Hannah is In Oklahoma this entire week for her last Softball Tournament with BLAZE before we get her moved to College and settled into her dorm @ UIW in August.  Her birthday is 8/8 and she will be 19, last year as a teen🤩🎈🥳💋 August is always a very busy month for us and I’m sure for all of you as well.  My Aunt Jane, My oldest brother Jamie and Hannah all have their Birthday within days part from each other so we always love just celebrating the entire month for them all. Not to mention I am working on so many juicy projects that will be launching soon that will not want to MISS🦋

Enough about me, I could go on for days……

Help me welcome my next BLOG Feature which is another Texan, that is now located in Hamburg, Germany (since 2001).  You gotta check out her story below, it’s amazing. Her journey and love for life is so addictive, you will be more than inspired.

Henriette J. Runte, also known as Dr. J, she’s an Author +  Educator + Podcast Host + Founder of @quadylle & @drjpodcast

Go FOLLOW her on all platforms👇🏽, you will love them all.

Thank you again Dr. J (Henriette) for supporting me and for inviting me to be a part of your Podcast @drjpodcast several months ago.  This was a spectacular opportunity and I am still lovin our Interview 🥰💋😍🎙

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My episode can be found on the links below:

🎙Spotify: HERE

🎙Google Podcasts: HERE

🎙✍🏼 Website: HERE
As well as on: @youtube , @spotifypodcasts @spotify ,  @applepodcasts and @googlepodcast – under: language and culture with dr. j

Now let’s dive into our Dr. J’s interview below❤️🤩🎙✍🏽

Henriette J. Runte

Author + Educator + Podcast Host + Founder of @quadylle & @drjpodcast

Featured Entrepreneur: Henriette J. Runte – Author + Educator + Podcast Host + Founder of @quadylle & @drjpodcast

Interviewed by: Anna Svetlik De La Rosa 

Episode: # 65

Date: 07/26/2021

Q1. What did you want to be growing up?

I have always wanted to be a writer and / or somehow work in theater. It has taken me a long time to even go in this direction, but I feel I’m finally on my way!

Q2. Tell us all about you and the story of how you have gotten to this point in your life?

My name is Henriette J. Runte. I am first generation Hungarian-American, but I have been living in Hamburg, Germany since 2001.

I grew up in Communist Romania as a Hungarian minority. My dad was the national Olympic weightlifting coach and defected due to serious political problems. My mother and I were separated from him for two and a half years. Afterwards, my parents reunited in Texas, where my dad became a strength coach at Texas A&M.

Growing up, there was incredible pressure to make my parents’ immigration worthwhile. I had to learn how to be American real quick, learn to speak the language, integrate, roll up my sleeves, and achieve. I collected degrees as symbols of achievement. I started taking college classes when I was 15. I finished a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Biology, finished Pre-Med, and completed a BA in French in only three years. I went on to get an MA in French and a PhD in French Literature, focusing on the sociological effects of theater on the community. I started teaching at KU when I was barely 21 years old. But even beyond that, I taught aerobics and kickboxing – did it all officially, got certified and everything. I was intent on showing that I was achieving.

As far as my career was concerned, I spoke at conferences around the world, taught and directed numerous exchange programs for several universities, and didn’t stop until I became Head of Modern Languages at a prestigious university in Germany. I have been working in my current position since 2007. I love my job and the contact I have with my students. It is an absolute privilege to be able to shape young minds and be inspired by them on a daily basis.

I have been blessed in my personal life as well. I am married to a wonderful, handsome man and have three children with him – 11-year-old, boy and girl, twins and a tiny 7-year-old princess.

So far so good, you might say. But if you go back to my answer to question number 1, you will notice that I was left behind somewhere along the way. My path had been all about measuring up, trying to prove something, and not really about me!

In 2015, shortly after the birth of our third child, I got really sick. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with me for months. Finally, I was diagnosed and treated for thyroid cancer. When I lost my voice for six months after surgery, I was completely paralyzed. I couldn’t teach. I couldn’t read to my children. I couldn’t even go shopping by myself. And I really had some sort of an epiphany. I swore right then that if my voice came back, I would make sure it was heard loud and clear!

My voice did come back, and I started to talk to … everybody. I got everybody’s opinion and advice. I spent a long time, trying to figure out what I could do and how I could do it best.

I wanted to create something that would help me explore interculturality, and talk about identity and culture. And I wanted to make sure that whatever I did somehow furthered general education and gave back to the community and somehow contributed to uniting people. And I knew I wanted to finally write!

It took me a while, but finally, in the summer of 2020, I founded the Cultureum group, which is a group of people with similar interests to mine. I got all my friends involved around the world – film makers, doctors, musicians, lawyers, teachers, graphic artists, sound engineers, painters, journalists, seamstresses – so many people were interested and could contribute. Through Cultureum4All, we wanted to organize classes, workshops, and events with a multicultural angle and offer things especially for young adults and kids. This part was completely halted by Covid, and will have to continue and develop in the future.

But what did take off were my podcast and my books.

So, my podcast is called: Language and Culture with Dr. J. It’s available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcast, and it’s absolutely non-profit. The podcast is all about giving people a sense of how different issues are faced around the world, and how people live and approach their work differently. I realized that I had all these languages that I speak fluently (6 of them – English, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian, Romanian, plus a few others that I speak less well) and that it was a pity for me not to let others benefit from that. I have the ability to reach across so many cultures and speak to people directly. And through my studies, and having lived in different places, I also have knowledge that I can apply to such a range of different fields. I decided to interview expert from all around the world and to allow my listeners to discover different fields of interest and lines of work through their eyes. The central questions that keep reoccurring and tying it all together are the questions of language, culture, and identity.

And then, there are the books! You can find all my books on my Instagram page @quadylle; the purchase links are in the bio.

There are nine books out so far. They are pieces of writing that I finally managed to edit and publish.

Because these pieces are from different periods in my life and focus on such different aspects of who I am, I decided to publish under several different pseudonyms.

We Fade to Green by Anna Molnar (aka me) is a sweet story about how two old Transylvanian grandparents move to the US to be with their daughter and grandkids. The cultural clashes they encounter are funny and thought-provoking. The book is humorous and touching at the same time. It’s a great light read for the entire family, filled with references to food and young love, and geriatric vampire superheroes!

I wrote Paris and Chicago under the pseudonym Nira Nabro. This book is a love story told through poetry and messaging. The girl character writes beautiful, heart-wrenching love poems, while the boy tells his side of the story through texts and messaging and direct conversations. If you’re ready to be taken back to your first true love and heartbreak, this book will nudge you in the right direction.

As Henry Hills, I embraced my “masculine” side and published Farting in Public. This is an illustrated short story about a woman who loved to fart, and it’s a must have for every Farting Goddess out there!

Two more books are queued up to be published. Joann Thornton and Her Last Will by Renée Kerovaj (still me with a wig) is a play about a retiring professor who’s trying to live out some unfulfilled fantasies. I guarantee this play will crack you up!

Life With Coach Pop by Henriette Javorek (my maiden name) is more philosophical. It takes my childhood journal from when my family first moved to the US and reflects on the question of immigration through my commentaries and observations as an adult.

And then there are four adorable little books that my kids and I wrote:

The Little Love Book, The Piggy Bank and the Gold Coin, Magical Easter Eggs, and Halloween Travels.

And that’s the long and the short of it.

And maybe one message to anybody who might be reading this:

If you’ve been a baker, and decide you’d like to be a physician, go back to school, study hard, and do it. If you’ve been a doctor, and decide you’d rather be a baker, do an apprenticeship, learn the trade, and do it.

And if you think you’d like to be both, because that’s just who you are, then sit down, figure out a way to balance it all, and go for it!

For me, I am a woman, a mother and a wife, an educator and a boss, a podcast host, and you know what, I am a damn good writer!

Q3. What do you think are the three biggest mistakes women make when it comes to achieving their goals?

I actually think women do achieve their goals, often more than men. I just think society doesn’t always recognize these achievements and give them enough respect and attention. So, I guess I would say that the three biggest mistakes women make are:

1. Letting anyone but themselves tell them what they should be achieving.
2. Allowing themselves to think it might be too late for some things. It’s never too late!
3. While juggling several things at the same time, putting themselves under too much pressure to be perfect at everything.

Q4. What is one of your most treasured accomplishments?

Regardless of what I have achieved academically, or in my career, or what I still hope to achieve with my writing, my most treasured accomplishment is that of being a good mom. At the risk of sounding old fashioned, there is honestly nothing I am more proud of than my children, and nothing I am more devoted to. After the kids, I treasure the books I have been able to put out there the most.

Q5. Tell how you process work load stress or personal stress or just too much coming at you at one time?

Ex: Exercise, Meditation, Journal or all the above. What is your Personal Process?

Since my dad was a coach, I grew up with sports all my life. When I get stressed, my instinct is to exercise. I taught aerobics and kickboxing for almost 15 years, so that’s something I still get a lot of comfort from. For serenity, I practice sophrology, which is a meditation technique developed by Dr. Caycedo. It combines positive thinking and body awareness into an amazing meditation ritual. I learned it from my French host mom when I was 18 and have used it ever since.

Q6. Do you have any beauty secrets?

I only wash my hair once a week. Shh, don’t tell anyone! I feel it allows my hair to stay healthy and naturally glow more. Plus, it saves a ton of time, too!

Q7. Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming successful, you are killing it?

Perseverance…. A little luck and guidance from above also help!

Q8. If you could speak to one woman from history, who would it be? It can be anyone…

I’d love meet my grandmother who passed away when my mom was really young. There is so much I’d like to know about her, so much I’d like to ask her.

Q9. Any future collaborations you want to share?

I hope my books will entertain and touch a wide range of people and that

I can continue writing my whole life!

Q10. Favorites:

What is your favorite podcast and why? Language and Culture with Dr. J (-:

Because it’s all-encompassing, & it’s mine (-:

Favorite shampoo? Nexxus

Favorite food? sushi

Favorite quote?

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”

Eugène Ionesco, playwright

Favorite movie? Hable con ella – from the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar

Q11. Do you sing in the shower?

Yes, a lot, and loud!

Q12. I want to have a little fun with ya and share with of these gorgeous ladies so they can see that there is not 1 personality or characteristic you need to be a powerhouse boss! You don’t have to be a certain way to be beautiful, successful, smart or talented, just be you!

Check out fun preferences below:

▫️Pick one or the other:

• Wilma or Betty (Flintstones): definitely Wilma
• Gold or Silver: depends on what I’m wearing
• Tom or Jerry: Jerry
• Dogs or Cats: both, seriously, both!
• Chanel or Valentino: Chanel
• Sweet or Salty: Salty! Always!
• Summer or winter: Neither! Spring!
• Pancakes or waffles: Crêpes!
• Phone Call or Text: Call, always!
• Sausage or Bacon: Bacon!
• iOS or Android: iOS
• Diamonds or Pearls: Both, and sapphires, and rubies, and emeralds, bring ‘em on!
• Netflix or YouTube: Netflix
• Reading Books or Audible Books: Reading – unless I’m exercising or driving, then audibles.
• Instagram or Twitter: Instagram
• Toilet paper: 1 ply or 2 ply: 2 ply
• Red or Pink: Pink
• Iced Coffee or Hot Coffee: Iced Coffee!
• Country Life or City Life: A combination works best for me!
• Comedy or Action Movie: Drama

More About Dr J. Below👇🏽

Podcast, “Language and Culture with Dr. J: HERE

Quadylle Books and Events Instagram: HERE

Dr. J.’s Portfolio: HERE

Cultureum Website: HERE

Henriette J. Runte LinkedIn: HERE

Dr. Henriette Javorek Runte, aka Dr. J is a multilingual academic with degrees in Human Biology and French Literature. She is also the creator and host of the podcast, “Language and Culture with Dr. J,” and the founder of Quadylle Books and Events. She writes under several different pseudonyms, including Anna Molnar, Nira Nabro, and Henry Hills, and she edits and publishes children’s books📚 

Cultureum stands for:

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https://cultureum.com

Xo,