Hi! I’m Diane.
I’m a Lifestyle Engineer & Real Estate Broker: I help people get unstuck.
I got a very big lesson at a very young age that made me realize “stuff” didn’t matter, and that people and time were everything:
In 1994, I left the country for the first time, to participate in a German exchange program through my high school. A few weeks after returning, two of my best friends/soccer teammates were killed in a car accident. To have a first hand look at the other side of the world and the other side of life in one summer changes a girl forever. At least it did me. I decided that if life could potentially be that short I better start truly living, so after graduating high school I got in my car and left my tiny hometown in Vermont with no plan other than to go, be, do, and see, everything possible.
During my 18 years on the road I logged thousands & thousands of miles, and explored all 50 states and 17 countries. I swapped stories with cowboys over coffee at Denny’s at 4 am in Oklahoma City, I tucked my Honda between big rigs on nights when I slept in my car at rest stops in desolate New Mexico, I visited the home of a woman sewing a sari for me in India, I back country camped & hiked in multiple national parks, bused around exploring all of Argentina, and drove The Great Alaska Highway. I’ve driven Pacific to Atlantic alone…and more than once. In 2008 I started itching for a way to share my stories with more than just friends & family. I thought a blog would be perfect, but what to call it? “Blue Lollipop” came to me in an instant; In the years leading up to that 1994 soccer season, my friends and I practically considered Blue Razz Blow Pops a food group. We consumed boxes of them together at practices and games, and to this day they have a special “Strong Mojo” among us now grown women who played soccer at Mount Anthony Union High School. “Road” was the perfect addition to describe my love of travel. Blue Lollipop Road was born!
Before moving to my current Charlotte home base, I worked at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games in Event Services, on Red Bull’s Mobile Energy Team, and as Operations Manager for Matt Paxton, Host of TV show Hoarders. I opened and ran a coffee shop & art gallery, served burgers and beers in Chicago, held many event planning and marketing gigs, was featured on Forbes.com, hosted wine tastings in Napa, and created a travel scholarship fund. (I was even sponsored by Honda!) My buckets of varied work experience taught me how to run a very tight ship, and become a master of tackling & managing chaos.
Blue Lollipop Road has grown from a travel blog about my adventures, into a business I’m very proud of. I love being a shot in the arm for my clients, to help them live outside the drone zone.
I still travel every chance I get, for fun and for work. I love Nutella & Oreos, wine & cheese, and spending time running and booty shaking to support my foodie habits. I believe in staying curious, exploring fearlessly, and living like I mean it. I continue to stay motivated, by my friends Maria and Brandy who I lost many years ago. They embodied pure joy. You can see their photos below.
I hope by visiting here, you’ll be inspired to take action, think about what really matters to you, get rid of what doesn’t, and spend more time doing what you love.
LESS STUFF. MORE FREEDOM. HAPPY LIFE.
