HOW DO YOU GET ATTENTION (Dress up as a strawberry?)

For the last couple of days, I have been slightly abusing AI tools by photoshopping myself and my friends into increasingly unnecessary situations.

I originally discovered how terrifyingly good these tools have gotten because one of my friends was using them to add attractive girls into his photos.

Which, honestly, might be the most accurate summary of technological progress in 2026. Humanity has spent billions developing artificial intelligence.

We can detect diseases. We can accelerate scientific research.We can automate entire industries. And somewhere, a 20-year-old man is using it to make it look like a blonde girl wanted to go on holiday with him.

To be fair, my own use of AI has been far from revolutionary. I simply realized there was absolutely nothing stopping me from photoshopping myself, my friends and basically everyone I know into situations that never happened. A dangerous realization for someone with this much free will and this little self-control

Anyway.

As you might remember from my last post, I have been trying to figure out how to get in touch with Petter Stordalen. Then my mum reminded me of one of his famous quotes:

“Du må selge de bæra du har.”

Or, in English:

“You have to sell the berries you’ve got.”

Basically: stop trying to be someone else and use the strengths you already have.

Very inspirational.

Very wise.

Slightly inconvenient when you are 20 years old and still trying to figure out what exactly your berries are.

Now.

Petter Stordalen’s company also happens to be called Strawberry.

And as a joke, my mum said: “Why don’t you just dress up as a strawberry and stand outside his office?”

Obviously, this was a terrible idea.

Embarrassing.

Terrible

Potentially concerning for everyone working in reception.

So naturally, I started looking into strawberry costumes. (NOT)

But this posed the question... how do I actually reach this guy? But before we move on, please enjoy some of the images I have spent my “valuable time” creating instead of working on the two massive projects I have publicly committed myself to completing this summer. Because apparently, even I am not immune to procrastination.

Me running for president in the USA. Fame changes people. I am doing my best.

Me trying to stay humble at my Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Okay.

Enough fun and games.

Because unfortunately, photoshopping myself into increasingly impressive situations has not brought me any closer to the one person I actually need to reach: Petter Stordalen.

And for this project to become what I think it could become, I need him in on it. Not because I need permission to do the project. I am going to do it anyway!

But because my goal is not to spend a summer visiting hotels, collecting ideas and making a nice presentation that sits on my laptop.

I want to build something genuinely useful.

Something concrete.

Something good enough that one of the biggest hotel groups in Europe actually wants to hear it. And ideally, I want to present it to the man who built one.

Small problem.

I still have not managed to get hold of him. I have tried the normal routes:

Emails.

Messages.

Asking people who might know people who might know people.

The classic LinkedIn strategy of staring at someone’s profile and hoping they somehow sense your intentions.

Nothing yet.

Which leaves me with one slightly uncomfortable conclusion:

I think I might have to show up.

At the office.

In person.

Now, there are obviously two ways this can go.

1. Option one: I show up with a genuinely good idea, explain it well, make someone curious, and somehow manage to turn five minutes in a reception into the start of something much bigger.

2. Option two: SECURITY!

So the question is not really whether I am willing to show up. I think we established last summer that embarrassment is not a particularly effective deterrent for me.

The question is: How do you show up at the office of one of Scandinavia’s most famous entrepreneurs without just becoming an annoying 20-year-old standing in reception asking if “Petter is around”?

Because I do not want to waste anyone’s time. I do not want to demand a meeting. And I definitely do not want to become a small internal security incident. I just need to create enough curiosity for someone to think: “Okay. Maybe we should hear her out.”

Last summer taught me that being slightly unreasonable can sometimes work.

At 19, I had no impressive title, no consulting experience and absolutely no logical reason why CEOs of some of Norway’s biggest companies should agree to meet me.

I asked anyway.

Many of them said yes. And that project eventually ended with me presenting my findings to partner groups at McKinsey and BCG. So perhaps the lesson was never “wait until you are qualified enough.”

Perhaps it was: Do the work. Make the idea good.

And then be bold enough to put it in front of people who can do something with it.

Which brings me back to Petter Stordalen.

I think I have to show up. I just need to figure out how.

A letter?

A box?

A one-minute pitch?

A giant presentation?

A strawberry?

Please say anything except the strawberry.

Although, knowing my track record, I am not ruling it out.

Until next time,

June