Hello & welcome!
We live in amazing neighbourhoods. Small pockets of people, businesses, schools and community organisations and sporting teams with their own unique story. We are dedicated to sharing these stories.
This idea of My Local Pocket is designed to shine light on the amazing businesses, people, associations and sporting clubs. Have them tell their story and be part of our wonderful community.
The world is full of pressure and competition and times are making us tough. Sometimes though, we need someone to cheer-on. Someone to cheer for us. To listen and to share. That’s exactly what MLP is about.
My Local Pocket is about humans being kind.
A small background
My name is Paul Holstein and I live in Balmoral with my beautiful wife Sara. Our little pocket is in East Brisbane, Australia (Balmoral, Hawthorne, Bulimba, Norman Park and Morningside).
I love everything about our pocket. I know the parks, the hidden areas, watching the Morningside Panthers play, the local coffee, the cinemas, the people, the businesses.
We are small business owners. In 2006, I started a design company that specialised in brand and digital strategy called Brandrally + an apron company called Nice Aprons and 3 years ago Sara started her dental practice Hello Smiles just down the road from us in Hawthorne.
On 19 March 2020, we had a simple idea for Hello Smiles. A local letterbox-drop in the area, though we wanted it to be about more than us. As a community, we are in hard times, so we wanted to support and bring together local businesses to create a small pocket guide. Sharing the knowledge and stories of our friends but also bringing hope in quite uncertain times.
What a difference a week made for us though.
Unfortunately, on the following Wednesday, we learned that all dentists around Australia needed to severely restrict the work they can perform in light of the COVID-19 associated risks – and with that our doors effectively became closed, and our beloved staff we had to stand down (one of the hardest day of all).
The local pocket area guide is on hold for the time being.
In the mean-time, we still want to do our best in a digital way to connect our community as there are many out there that need our support and love more than ever.
Feature you, your business, community or sporting group.
By completing the form below, we will be able to share your story with the your local pocket via social channels. Even if it is a photo of our business, product, team or a nice message of hope / support, we'd love to share your message.