Episode I: From Actress to Marketing Professional

September 15, 2020

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Hi everyone!

My name is Tena and I’ll be your host in the podcast “Make Some Waves”.

For the first episode, I’ve prepared a small interview where I’ll be the guest on the podcast and Tea is going to be the host! I want to give you a sneak peek of how my journey began and what am I planning to do next.

How do I know Tea?

We met in 2013 when we were both on Erasmus exchanges in different countries. At the time, we have been a part of the same Croatian student organization, and we wanted to keep making a difference and work on cool projects even while outside of our home country.

“To this day, working with Tena remotely during Erasmus was the most productive, enjoyable experience I have had, and I don’t know anyone who brings more enthusiasm to everything as does Tena.” – Tea Zavacki

Also, did you know that Tea now has her own business and is helping entrepreneurs and freelancers build profitable and meaningful businesses? The girl is the best! Check her out!

https://www.teatime.com.hr/

https://www.instagram.com/teatime.com.hr/?hl=hr

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVc_ZvNzFt1S2rtfND6_c1w

Did I always know I wanted to work in Marketing? No, I definitely did not. I had another dream in mind – acting. I wanted to be a Hollywood actress.

My proudest moment with acting was getting accepted to the New York Film Academy.

Why economics? I’m going to blame my Mom for this. She always saw me as a marketing professional. I applied to the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, and later on, my path led me to Marketing. I hate to say it, but Mom was right.

Surround yourself with people that motivate you and are driving you to be better. Thanks to those people, I decided to specialise in the Marketing field.

Marketing in theory vs in real life – You have to have a theoretical overview of Marketing and its structure. Still, to have efficient marketing in real life, you have to be agile and ready to embrace the change.

“Without the challenges, we cannot grow to our full potential.” – Tena Turčinović

If I have to choose one thing to pursue in my carrier, it would be to work alongside the people with whom I can grow, make mistakes and have a problem-solving mindset.

What does it mean to be a Brand?

In short, you are the Mom and Dad of the brand you are managing. ? As a Brand Manager, you are responsible for creating and implementing long and short-term strategies for your brand. You work alongside different departments like R&D, Sales, Supply Chain, Production and many other departments. In short, you are driving the business that surrounds your brand.

The three greatest lessons that I have learned:

For a business to work and function efficiently, every aspect of the business has to be aligned but the business must also be flexible and ready to adapt to changes.
Responsibility and transparency are the key ingredients to a successful collaboration.
Have fun in everything that you do. It will make the hard times easier, and the good times will become great memories.

From Brand Management to Digital Marketing. Why Digital Marketing?

New technologies, new dynamics, new possibilities will grow your business, the fun that you can have while interacting with the online world and many more reasons…

Press play on the podcast for more juicy details.

All in all, we have a lot of work for us to do. This is an exciting time for anyone that is working in digital marketing!

The vision for my website and the podcast “Make Some Waves”

My idea is to have a platform where I can explore all the areas that are of great interest for me. In my podcast I want to explore the areas of digital marketing and brand management from a perspective how can companies use those two areas to grow their business. In the long term business can use their influence and resources to help the community.

I have always been passionate about finding ways to help the community. In my podcast, I want to give space to individuals, organisations, projects and companies to share their work and the experience to motivate more people to join and help in their community in some way.

As you can see, there is more than one area I would like to cover. In many ways, I am still searching for my place in the world. I would like to share my experiences and my knowledge from the very beginning. We will see where that path will take me ?

Where do I see myself in 5 years?

Flying up in the air, but standing firmly with two feet on the ground.

Also do not miss the 10 QUICK & EASY WAVES! – Tea’s 10 random questions that she was dying to ask me.

Books /Websites/ Reference mentioned in the podcast:

Book: “Swim with the Sharks” by Harvey Mackay

Book: “Bee Fearless: Dream Like a Kid.” by Mikaila Ulmer

Podcast: “What kids can teach us about starting a business with Mikaila Ulmer” in the Marie Forleo podcast

Thank you for listening and watching the podcast! I hope you liked it.

If you want to reach out to me, give me your feedback of just go for a coffee, click on the link below.

Guys have fun and make some waves!

With love,

Recommendations

Maria Šimurina

Account Executive at Imago Ogilvy

I had the opportunity to work with Tena for two straight years on the Franck tea category, a category and the brand that was especially dear to her and me.
In the Client-Agency relationship, the Client’s trust is crucial, and I could sense that with Tena, which of course reflected on the cooperation and working atmosphere on each project.
She left the creative thinking to the Agency with great confidence, and with her knowledge of the category, she further enriched each project.

What I especially loved about Tena was her emphasis on excellence and high quality, from the smallest communication material, all the way to the 360 ‘campaign concepts.
I want to thank her for all the joint projects, late production hours and gatherings and I wish her much success on her new journey!

Dario Galinec

CIO

I worked with Tena on several projects after she was appointed responsible for digital marketing in Franck. The most important was Franck webshop implementation, where she was the project leader. Tena manages to get along with pretty complex project coordination on a number of activities through all internal organizational units (IT, Supply Chain, Sales, Accounting, …) as well as with external partners working on webshop functionalities, design, payment execution etc. She is young, curious, ambitious, knows what she wants and not afraid to pursue it.

Tea Zavački

Entrepreneur and Business Coach

I had the opportunity to work with Tena on a few occasions, among others, as a part of a design thinking workshop. During the workshop, we developed a solution applying design thinking methodology and tools such as in-depth interviews, customer journeys, and prototyping. Because of her creativity and proactive approach, Tena has been a valuable part of the team. Above all, I value her positive attitude and team spirit, and she comes with my heartfelt recommendation.

LIVIJA DEVIĆ VULJANIĆ

Marketing Manager

As Marketing Director, I had a pleasure to have Tena in my team as a Brand Manager and afterwards Digital Manager. Tena has excelled in these roles, exhibiting high levels of productivity and work quality. She possesses the ultimate “can do” attitude while taking on all tasks with positive energy and a smile. Her upbeat personality and engaging personal style enable her to interact effectively with the whole team as a great team player. Proactive and inspirational, she takes the initiative to go beyond the expected parameters of her job.
Tena is not only out of box thinker- there is no box to put her in as continuously suggesting new approaches and ideas to implement in fast-changing market environment.

DRAGA ŽULJ

Senior Brand Manager

In the last two years, I had a great privilege to work and cooperate with Tena while she was a brand manager as well as a digital manager in Franck. Professionally I can say that Tena is a responsible, reliable, hard-working colleague and great team player always ready to help. Despite her short work experience, with her acquire knowledge, she successfully launched several products, campaigns, helped in setting up of brand strategies and in the digital transformation of the company. She is continuously seeking new knowledge and proposes new ideas on how to maximize promotional activities as well as how to improve the business in general. Any team or company can benefit from her knowledge and skills. But above all that Tena is a great person and dear friend that I would like to have and keep in my life.

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Episode I: From Actress to Marketing Professional

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Let's make some waves!

Recommendations