07 APR 2020 My name is Izabela. I’m from Warsaw, Poland, but I have lived in Berlin for 10 years already. For the last 4 years, I've been running a cocktail bar called Bar in a Jar. Before that I worked as an IT Consultant and traveled around the world.

The beginning of the pandemic was very stressful, I will admit. The Berlin Senate ordered all bars to be closed immediately. I have 2 employees, so it was a huge pressure on me to figure out: what happens now?

I decided immediately to try out cocktail deliveries. I sat at my computer and was working nonstop on a website where people could place their cocktail orders. I was only taking 4.5 hour breaks to sleep. In the meantime, I was taking pictures and posting on social media about our new offering. I was contacting bloggers and media to get publicity, but also keeping myself informed about governmental support and applications I needed to submit to various offices etc. It was a very stressful and extremely intense time, but now we do it—we deliver cocktails in Berlin.

Each morning I do 10-15 minutes of Headspace meditation. Starting the day by calming down helps me a lot through this crazy time. Then I take a shower and put on clothes as if I were going to work. I make phone calls to friends and family all throughout the day—each day is another person. No matter what, I do that.

I’ve even refreshed some old contacts. It’s so cool to chat with people you wouldn’t normally and it’s important to focus your brain on people instead of work and financial existence for a few moments per day.

An old lady in Denmark who asked doctors to give her respirator to another, younger person, as she already lived her great life. This made me cry. Those are real heros.

Order cocktails, take funny photos and share them on Instagram. Tell your friends. Maybe your company would like to organise a virtual cocktail party?

I don’t want to get money for free, I want to earn money. This is what our team vibe is. We work crazy hard, as the time is crazy hard.