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I’m the founder of COPPR Creative, a boutique agency focused on innovative storytelling in the outdoors, adventure and travel space.

What’s your historical Los Angeles and New York connection?
I always had the California bug inside me but opportunity knocked in NYC so I spent a whirlwind three years living in Greenpoint and working in marketing at a record label. I started feeling claustrophobic (not enough sky in NYC) so visited LA, loved it (thank you Gjelina and Griffith Park), locked down a digital strategy job with a talent agency and road tripped across the country four years ago. Last year, I started feeling claustrophobic again (realized that maybe this feeling has nothing to do with the amount of sky…), put my life into storage, bittersweetly parted ways with my amazing Venice Beach apartment and spent the last eight months exploring, writing and volunteering around South America and the US. I’ve just returned to LA, I’m not done with this city yet, and am currently freelancing, digging into ideas to start my own company and apartment hunting. Leads anyone?

Describe your experience in LA and your experience in NYC
NYC was nonstop. LA slowed me down. NYC was all about being out of your apartment, bouncing to different places each day and night, surrounded by people (even ones you didn’t know). LA allowed me to appreciate my personal space, time and health. NYC was about traditional corporate ladder career ambition. LA made me realize that there are so many other, more ambitious options.

What was the biggest challenge of moving from LA to NYC?
Relying on my car every day in LA. I love having a car to escape LA and if I ever moved back to NYC, I would want a car for that reason but having to rely on it to commute, get to meetings and events is just a stressful waste of time. I love public transportation and after traveling, think it is a great way to uncover the pulse of a place. The energy of NYC comes from all socio-economic classes grinding on the same streets, the same subways and buses. In LA, we’re isolated in our cars and that rubs off on the personality of the place.

How can NYC and LA best engage with each other?
Portals. Red eyes are not the solution.

Favorite LA secret spot
These aren’t secret spots but are places I love and got to curate for AFAR, an awesome experiential travel magazine

Favorite NYC secret spot
McGlorick Park in Greenpoint, especially during the Halloween dog parade but most commonly when you are one of a few people there.

If you were not building what you build now, what would you be doing?
I’d go back to Peru to finish what I missed – Colca Canyon, Huaraz, Lake Titicaca and I just saw an Instagram that this is a place that exists and I must go.

Inflight Entertainment: tell us what song/album, TV show, podcast, or web videos you’ve been watching lately.
I love podcasts. The Aspen Ideas To Go and TED Radio Hour podcasts are my favorites.

From the 2462 Miles newsletter: connecting NEW YORK CITY + LOS ANGELES