When I was 12, I marched up to my mom and announced: "When I grow up, I will be a teacher." Her answer was: "Oh, no. Why on earth would you want to be a teacher?" You see, she was a teacher as well, so was my father and grandfather. And she knew all too well that the teaching profession was becoming more of an administrative role than a romantic picture I had in my head.
I answered (with a sparkle in my eyes and determination in my heart): "Because I want to show kids that learning can be fun! All I see around me in the classroom is bored teenagers when learning for me is like being a detective of unknown worlds waiting to be discovered (eehm, apart from chemistry and mathematics that is).
And so I did. I became a language teacher and taught in Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and now - the wwworld.
FROM SLOVENIA TO PORTUGAL
Soon after finishing my studies of Sociology of Culture and Spanish language I had to make a decision: will I continue my career path as a teacher in the regular education system or not.
To get the answer to that I accepted a post as an exchange teacher in Carrazeda de Ansiães in the Portuguese mountains. One afternoon I was sewing Easter bunnies with Pedro, a 10-year-old boy from my culture class. As he was assembling the ears and stuffing them with cotton balls, I casually asked him what he wanted to become as he grows up. His eyes shone with delight as he told me about his dreams of becoming an artist. To my horror, the light was gone the moment after when he said: "But I will not do that, I will become an accountant."
Wooow, wow, wait, what just happened here!? After listening to his explanation of how his parents told him he should choose a 'respectable' profession, I realised my work lies with the adults, not kids. I wanted to make an impact on how adults shape their beliefs about what is possible in their lives (so they don’t cut the wings of their children when they want to fly).
Additionally, I had a passion for learning and a talent for facilitating group processes. Oh, I was such a nerd and felt deeply lost with the question: How do I turn a passion into my profession?
FROM TEACHER TO EDUPRENEUR
After my Aha! moment over Easter bunnies in Portugal, I moved to The Netherlands for a creative entrepreneurship study.
I wanted to figure out how to bring my mission into life without being a part of an educational organisation that would prescribe how I should teach. Namely: how to package what I want to bring to this world into a business. No small feat for a teacher from Slovenia in a completely new culture. I had no clue where to start. I got help at a rather unorthodox business school in Amsterdam, called Knowmads.
My first company, Go Mad, was an experiment with my 2 best friends from that same school, Kristin and Laura. We helped people turn their passions and talents into a job they love.
Our clients made great progress during our leadership programs and it was loads of fun to do. Until it wasn't anymore. The pressures of building a company without any prior experience and with your best friends resulted in exhaustion, depression, hopelessness and eventually the end of Go Mad.
My second company was me trying to figure out what am I all about now that Kristin and Laura were gone. It didn't go well either. Now I know the reason lay behind me still trying to be someone else but me. I was still living the good girl version of me that didn't get me anywhere.
For me to start the work I am here to do, I had to become a mom first. Exqueeze me? Explanation below ;)
FROM 0 TO 3 IN 3
In 2016 I decided: I will take what I loved doing most and package it into my 3rd company that will give me the freedom to travel between my two homes: Slovenia and The Netherlands. That meant I just decided to build an online company ... without any knowledge of the online world. My partner Geert raised an eyebrow when pointing that out. But I was determined (or stubborn, you decide). I desperately wanted my location independence.
A week later, I figured out I was pregnant with our first. When Svit turned 2 we decided to have another child. Only to get a surprise of a lifetime: we were getting twins.
In 3 years I went from no kids to a mom of 3 - a mompreneur if you will. The business I have today has been built with my laptop resting on my preggo bellies, diaper changes and breastfeeding at meetings with my team. Challenging? You bet. Would I do it differently? Not really.
You see, designing my career from scratch again while figuring out how to be a mom and a partner in this new constellation helped me make healthier decisions for myself. Instead of trying to take care of everyone (my problem in Go Mad), or please everyone and be somebody else but me (my 2nd company), I stepped forward as fully me. I listen when I have the capacity to listen. I work with people with who I have a click. If I am feeling angry, I express my anger in a constructive way, if I'm feeling happy, I giggle and dance in front of my computer with my clients. I make funny facial expressions, tell stories with lots of sounds, and I wear my silver hair proudly.
When people work with me, they get me, not a 'should shadow' of what the society had prescripted for me.
Simply put, my 3 fun curious boys and my partner bring me back to the core: what is worth my time and effort? The answer is so simple (and oh so tricky to follow every day): only the work that brings me energy and feels easy to do.
For me, that is facilitating groups in their transformative processes. Online and offline. Teaching teachers how to bring a transformative edge to their classroom. Guiding women through life transitions with ease and fun. Creating practical online courses about the topics I love and rock at: facilitation, transformation, and process design.
That is the work I am here to do. This is when I'm at my best.
HERE AND NOW
12 years from the moment I figured out what I want to do in my life, I am 4 books in, with over 90 programs designed, and more than 3000 people gone through my programs. Oh, I am so proud of my clients and the impact my work has had on their lives!
Yes, I am still in the Netherlands, running my 3rd (and the right) business from the attic of our home 20 km from Amsterdam. Yes, the walls of the attic are deep blue. Yes, I have many plants here. Yes, it is so much fun to do what I do. And yes, I miss Slovenian mountains, my people and those sweet summer tomatoes