Rolf Leer
Rolf is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Quoted Magazine, a raw, candid, and intimate collection of love letters to New York, from the people who live in the five boroughs.
His curious mind brought him from Scandinavia to NYC in 2015, knocking on doors to learn about who the people behind the city’s rough and busy facade really is.
Rolf’s unique upbringing has set him apart throughout his career. He is an award-winning broadcast reporter and prior to starting Quoted, he was a writer for Huffington Post.
His morning routine
I get up between 5 and 6am, and go directly into the shower and brush my teeth. Even if it’s only for myself, I like to have an appearance and look decent because I feel a little bit more sharp. I felt that I had to keep up with my routine so that I mentally am more in tune, especially during COVID. There are a few hours in the morning where I feel like the world is still asleep, which is not true, but at least it's a feeling that I have—where I'm very much in peace with myself and I can focus on what I need to do before all the emails, calls, and all the other outer world things are starting to happen.
On where he’s from and his upbringing
I grew up on a farm in the suburbs of Norway, with my parents, sister, and 16 patients who were all diagnosed with different mental health illnesses.
My parents were running a mental health hospital on the farm, so during my childhood I had breakfast, dinner, and celebrated many holidays with all these patients. I learned not from books, but just from growing up, that people with diagnosis should also be looked upon as normal, because they have normalcy in them.
A lot of people act differently around people with diagnosis, which is why my interest for people grew. Diversity in people has been the crusty red thread throughout everything that I've done in my life up until now. It's about people, storytelling, diversity, and also tolerance for difference.
Finding his peak flow state
I've been my own boss for 15 years and it's taught me a few things on how to make sure that I can be productive. I end each day with a checklist of things that I need to have done the next day, or else things are just kind of floating around too much. It's too easy to listen to your needs that distract you from certain things that are not fun, but need to get done.
For me personally, I've had to set a timeframe to work. Of course, I enjoy flexibility but I know that I am efficient between 6 am and noon. I’ll take a break to workout in the middle of the day for about two hours and then continue to work for a couple more hours.
It's healthy to make sure you don't work to kill yourself as an entrepreneur, because that's not sustainable at all. You have to be kind to yourself and listen to where you're at with things.
During his most recent introspection
There’s a certain time in life where I started to reflect on things, and I think COVID accelerated it. Reflecting to find the answers to questions like:
What's meaningful in your life?
Is what you do for work the purpose of your life and does it bring enough meaning into your life?
How much time do you want to invest into work when you appreciate so many other things?
Now talking about life design, I'm in the middle of the process of redesigning. I’m hoping that being in Greece is going to bring a bit of clarity to the process.
On workview and life view compatibility
I've been working for a long time to find work that aligns with my values in life. Quoted Magazine is very much standing for truth and we want to make sure that we increase tolerance for diversity. I was a reporter in Norway for an entertainment news program, featuring a lot of celebrities, and I realized there's more and more fakeness in the world. Having been on that side, you can see everything getting edited, and it's all coming out very fake.
Since I started Quoted, I feel that my workview and personal beliefs are aligning a little bit more now, than it has in the past. We have to work on getting work life and private life closer together. Even though we need to keep them separate, there are attributes of private life that are necessary to bring into work life. Not so much what you have in the traditional view, which is work life into your private life, but the opposite way.
Intimacy, not in the sort of tactile way, but the intimacy of dialogue and sharing honesty is something that doesn't exist in a lot of work environments. You're expected to separate your work life and your private life. In my opinion, they need to coexist and they need to coexist in a higher manner.
On vulnerability being a strength
Vulnerability is also key for me. It's looked upon very often, that if you're vulnerable and if you're showing vulnerability, it's a lack of something. I think vulnerability is showing strength. If you allow yourself to be vulnerable, your relationship with work will be more sustainable. I don’t think anyone in work will be stronger by putting on an armor.
As the leader of the two employees that I have, I'm quite transparent and comfortable with showing my vulnerability to them, just because it's a matter of creating trust in the relationship.
I’m vulnerable to things that I don't know. I'm a leader but that doesn't mean that I know everything about everything. I'm also open and vulnerable about my lack of experience with having a partner or a lover. I'm vulnerable in the sense that I don't know if Quoted is going to hell right now because of COVID. It's not something that I'm trying to hide from my team.
The impetus for starting Quoted Magazine
The reason why I created Quoted was to make sure that the consumer can trust the content. I wanted to skip the third party— the journalist who edits or someone who's taking the content and then putting it out there—and rather just give it directly to the consumer. I feel that, as I mentioned before, it's not easy to find trustworthy sources of information nowadays because everything has been either edited or influenced by the parties that sponsor different media platforms or brands. It makes it difficult to know what's a trusted source and what’s not.
One of the biggest accomplishments that we’ve had with Quoted is creating that intimacy between the person who reads and the people that have been featured. Which makes me believe that storytelling is a good source of information.
On going against the odds
Early on, I couldn’t figure out whether I should launch a book of all the stories I gathered while writing for the Huffington Post or if it should be an online thing of its own. I was out to lunch with a friend at St. Maize in Williamsburg when I decided that Quoted was going to become a print publication magazine. My friend suggested that I make Quoted a print magazine, with two or four issues a year. I liked the idea, despite it going against all odds of people saying print is dead, because I like the feeling of showing people that print has some nostalgia to it and it has a different feel of building a personal brand, something that has much more longevity to it.
When people read Quoted, I want them to feel an intimacy with the individuals that are featured - that they get a glimpse of their life and a sense of connection and affiliation. For our New York readers, I want them to be reminded of why they choose to call New York home and make them feel proud of being part of such a diverse melting pot. For the visitors, I want them to learn from and about locals.
The art of communication and intuition
I am not a dedicated journalist, so I mainly focus on my communication and people skills. Quoted has become what it is today because of the art of communication and intuition. Journalists sometimes have an approach to the dialogue, which can make people put up their guard. If you're a good communicator, you just have it in you.
I tell my team: "We need to be over prepared, but under structured."
You do have your framework of course, but there will be topics that you want to follow because they might be more interesting than what you planned. Going with intuition and flow is just as important as having a framework.
Curating personal growth through life experiences
Coming from Norway, and having to adjust, adapt and learn how to cope with the way things are in New York was an expanding life experience. New York is a different world. There are some differences in the way business is done here, compared to how we do things in Scandinavia.
For example, something as simple as scheduling meetings. If you schedule a meeting in Scandinavia, that's three weeks from now, we don't need to check in the day before to confirm. Unless it's not happening, we’re going to meet there at that time. In New York, writing an email to confirm meeting attendees is of custom, and having half of the people almost cancel or move the date is still something that I’m adjusting to.
I also came to a point that I realized I was trying too hard to adjust, and then I wanted to come back to the more unpolished and honest person that I am. So now, I try to break the ice because I don't care about the bullshit. You know, it's more about just putting the fish on the table, a direct translation of an idiom people from the region I'm from say.
Especially when it comes to partnerships with different brands. You can have plenty of meetings where they show interest and they ask for proposals and they want to go through them with you, and it's almost like a psychological contract there. And then all of a sudden they just disappear.
I’ve gone through that and don’t like to, so I'll ask directly: “Are we going to work together because this is a big time commitment to plan for.”
It’s a balance of being yourself and allowing you to come in with your cultural backgrounds, which a lot of people appreciate.
On what he’s curious about
I've always known that I'm gay, but I haven't been living it out since I moved to New York. I've been focusing on my career, which is easy to do because New York is all about ambition and having a successful career.
However, during COVID I’ve become more curious about having a partner. For example, how do I become the best version of me so that I can live with someone? Do I really want to live with someone for the rest of my life? I don’t understand how people do that and can remain in love. How do they keep the energy between them alive?
All the different ways of living together as a partner, and the different dimensions of a relationship—three way, two way, living apart, living together, living in separate countries. What does it really take to have a sustainable relationship? Will I go into a relationship?
I’m being very personal, but it’s something I’ve been very curious about and spending time reflecting on answers to these questions.
His priorities
Half hour to myself in the morning to be in silence, and get through my little routine of showering and having a cup of coffee.
Human connection, some sort of meaningful conversation.
Fresh air and exercise, even if it's a brisk walk.
Getting inspired by nature.
On curating his environment
I lived in a penthouse in Oslo with a lot of stuff. When I decided to move to New York, I downscaled my life a little bit when it came to materialistic things. I learned to appreciate not having so many things, but still having esthetically beautiful things. It’s kind of an interesting balance between not needing too much, but wanting quality things.
When you have a lot of stuff it can confuse you, it’s a lot of maintenance and that mindset always leaves you hungry for more things.
The favorite thing he owns
My cabin in the Norwegian Mountains. You can’t drive there. It’s a 15 minute walk through nature. Peacefulness is a different level there. It’s a cabin that my grandfather built, and it’s the best escape to re-energize and reflect.
First thing that comes to his mind when asked:
What did you once pursue but no longer value?
Fame.
What do you know to be absolutely true?
That we’re going to die.
What do you know to be absolutely true, but other people debate?
That we're all kinda inside when you dig all the way deep.
What is the biggest lesson you've learned in the last 12 months?
That I want to redesign my life to become more meaningful.
Is there a question that I haven’t asked that you’d love to answer?
Do you dye your hair?
