Exclusive Interview With Agnieszka De Neve CEO & Founder of Cherry Bee Retro International
Agnieszka De Neve is a celebrity self-made entrepreneur, CEO and founder of “Cherry Bee Retro International” who went from retro to crypto in 3 years. She is a psychologist, pin-up model, certified nutritionist as well as a Forever Living Products Ambassador, although, the area she excels most is high quality events with Michelin star catering. From an “ordinary” girl to the first Polish Pin-Up on the stage at world’s biggest pinup event in Las Vegas. Her story takes you from a small town in the South of Poland, through several big European cities and back to her home country where she was greeted with TV, radio and newspapers interviews.
Born at the end of Socialism in Nowy Targ, the mountain capital of the South of Poland. Those were less then favorable settings for her to achieve her goals and dreams. From a very young age people acknowledged her talents, visions and uniqueness, encouraging her to move to a bigger city to pursue her dreams. After graduating high school, she decided to move to Kraków and study psychology at the Jagiellonian University – the oldest Uni in Poland where she graduated with a master’s degree. During that time, she discovered belly dancing, joined a professional dance group and ended up teaching belly dance herself. That experience not only opened her eyes to alternative ways of earning income, additionally, it gave her an opportunity to learn about running various businesses.
At the age of 24 years old fresh after her studies Agnieszka decided to pursue her career abroad. She was never afraid of hard work, during that time she took on jobs as bar tender, pin-up model, divers roles in international corporations, finishing her career abroad as the Director’s General Assistant at the European Commission.
Despite her successful career abroad she decided to go back to Poland. After 2 years as a manager at one of the biggest Swiss corporations, she decided to follow her heart, opened her own event company and never looked back. In the first year she has sold out all her events and got recognized by other entrepreneurs and became one of the Founder-members of the Polish MICE Cluster. Since then, she was invited as a speaker at the TEDx Rakowicka and many other conferences for women’s empowerment and business. Today she marks a 3-year anniversary as a business owner and takes her company to the next level on the international stage.
Agnieszka, your life and career story could be turned into a movie! Tell us how Cherry Bee Retro International came to life?
The story is very long and indeed could serve as a movie script. I lived in Brussels for 7 years and managed to make my name in the fashion and modelling industry as a pin-up model. I posed for photo workshops, magazines as well as fashion and lingerie brands and did event modeling. After returning to Poland, I was chosen by an international public to the final of the biggest Pin-Up contest in the world- Miss Viva Las Vegas. I am the first and only Polish woman that managed to get to the final of this contest. That has opened a lot of doors but most importantly, it got my name out as a professional and expert which helped me set the foundations of my company that I would found 2 years later. Before I moved back to Poland, I had started cooperating with the Polish retro scene organizing meetups and small events. After that I worked as a freelancer for retro festivals and smaller events where my main responsibilities consisted of creating and managing the “Pin-Up Zones”. This was an area of the festival dedicated to workshops and photo shoots in pin-up/retro style. I quickly realized that being “just” a model and focusing solely on the pin-up zones was not enough for me. I wanted to put more emphasis on educational aspect, so I created a Facebook group – Retro w Polsce (Retro in Poland). This group grew so quickly in popularity that Facebook decided to interview me and release a short video about me and the community I gathered around the subject. “Retro w Polsce” allowed me to understand the needs for creating successful events in niche markets. This resulted in Retro Festival Kraków that took place in the middle of a pandemic, was a huge risk taken by me and ended up as the very first hybrid retro festival in Europe!
Fascinating story but we know retro events are not the only ones that you organize and produce. Tell us more about Era Nowych Kobiet and crypto events?
Many times, in my life I heard that my ideas were crazy. People were laughing at me when I left my “secure” position at the corporation and decided to do things on my own. One of those crazy dreams was working with Joanna Przetakiewicz, who has been my idol since I was a little child. She is a great example that hard work, respect and quality takes you places and helps you achieve your goals and dreams. When I heard that she is seeking for volunteers to join her foundation I did not think twice and within 6 months I was promoted to a position of Regional Leader of Era Nowych Kobiet Małopolska. We are currently planning a national, educational campaign that will allow thousands of Polish women to learn how to gain financial independence and manage their assets.
As for crypto… I see crypto currencies, metaverse and decentralized finances not only as an alternative for the traditional ways of doing business or investing but also the future of companies/banks/leisure. Naturally I was attracted by it and the moment I realized there was a demand for experienced event managers in the Web3 market I jumped onboard. Last month I wrapped up two incredibly successful events in Amsterdam for one of the biggest players in the crypto world. It was a lot of stress since I only had 1,5 months to organize it remotely form my office in Poland, but the results were extremely well received by over 500 participants.
Is it true you have received multiple job offers from other crypto companies ?
Yes, indeed I have received several proposals from different crypto companies to organize events for them but for the moment I decided I will stay with my current client, as we plan to expand outside Europe soon.
Fantastic! Is Lavish Life the first publication to to know about this news ?
Yes, you are! I have not shared this news with anyone except my closest friends and family.
Thank you very much for this interview!
Thank you for having me.
By Lavish Life Publication Editorial Team
