My writing journey - a love story

Welcome on my mind!

Writing. Most probably one of my first loves. I don’t remember what my first words were, but I remember when inspiration hit me for the first time and I wrote my first poem.

Of course it was about love, of course it was full of emotions and of course it was tragic (because what isn’t tragic when you are 13 years old and fall in love for the first time?).

I want to share my writing journey with you, because deep inside of me I felt a very strong urge to write a blog. Some might say that it’s way too late to start writing a blog (with AI and all the SEO marketing); others might argue that podcasts are the future and nobody is reading anymore anyway. But you know what? I want to do it anyway.

There are so many things I would like to share and talk about, and I feel that now is the right moment to start doing it. I called my blog “on my mind” because I want it to be a blank canvas for sharing my thoughts, experiences and reflections.

So that eventually one of you (yes, you!) reads something and thinks “oh yes, I needed to hear that” or “I’m so glad that I’m not the only one with this problem”. 

During my workshops I always get to experience these special magical moments when you come out of the breakout rooms with a smile on your face. You’ve made a connection, opened up and shared what you felt comfortable sharing.

May this blog (not only) be my (selfish) creative outlet and may you find yourself in what I’m writing - who knows, maybe it will also inspire you or make you want to share it with someone who needs to read that particular article.

It’s true that I can share lots of insights and knowledge in my articles on Forbes, but I cannot talk about “I”, I cannot get too personal and I need to follow certain guidelines (which I totally understand).

Freedom being one of my core values, I truly want to honour it with this blog.

Being free, saying what we think and not caring about what others will think about it, isn’t that also what we often long for? Speaking the truth? Your truth? (I feel there might be a potential topic for a next blog article already.) 

As you can see, I’m slowly getting off topic, but this being my first blog post, I wanted to share my reasons for starting it. It feels like such a relief to finally be sitting down and writing this first blog. Some years ago, I thought of starting a podcast with a fellow coach, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. As I didn’t want to do it alone, this creative spark got parked and now I start a creative project of my own and give it the attention it deserves: 

How it all started

As mentioned at the beginning, my first “piece” was a love poem. I wrote it in Slovenian and it was the result of my first Summer School in Slovenia at the age of 13. What followed was a series of poems, short articles and even a short story. For quite some time, I only wrote in Slovenian and thanks to my very supportive Slovenian teacher, some of my pieces have been published in magazines. Rest assured, my topics also varied and love wasn’t the only topic that occupied a part of my headspace. 🙂 My longer texts turned around my identity and how it was to grow up in Germany with Slovenian parents. 

Later on, I also wrote poems in German and still remember that my German teacher also encouraged me to send it in for an online competition - it didn’t win a prize, but it got selected as one of the most beautiful contributions. 

Writing as a profession

I think it was at the age of 16 when I first read a Wikipedia article about public relations and somehow knew that this is what I wanted to do as a job. To be honest, I had almost forgotten about it, but my subconscious somehow kept it close to my heart and so I ended up working for a PR agency (this was actually my first real job!).

Fast forward to today and now I still write at work, but today it’s all about VAT fraud and money laundering (if you ever want to learn more about MTIC fraud, let me know 😉). There are always all these limiting beliefs we have around certain topics and I came across one of mine recently. When I was younger, I always thought that it would be impossible to get paid for writing - I mean who would pay you for writing articles or books or anything in between? Well, it turned out that I managed to always have writing as a part of my jobs, and this limiting belief dissolved itself (and I proved it wrong!).

It was also an honour for me when Forbes approached me and asked if I was interested to become a Forbes contributor for Careers and Leadership topics. This was in 2018 and shortly after I had been on the first Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in the Policy category (which I also still sometimes cannot believe - hello, impostor syndrome!).

So during my working hours, I could always write about EU-related topics and in my free time, I could (and still can) share all my findings and experiences in the broad fields of Career and Leadership. 

The Why

You might ask “What keeps you writing? What’s your why behind it?” and my answer is: connection. Words (and languages!) are so powerful and you can express so many different things. When we express words (in writing or speaking), it’s all about connection for me. A connection between two people, a connection between team members, friends, you name it. And by connecting with each other, we create a link, exchange information, share our feelings and express what’s on our mind.

What comes to my mind right after “connection” is “translating” - when I write, I want to translate complex topics into understandable chunks of information. Everyone who reads it should be able to understand it and I’m against using jargon and way too long sentences to explain something that can be explained in one short sentence. It’s about making complicated topics accessible to readers from all kinds of backgrounds. I know that this is a high standard and I don’t always reach it and am of course also full of unconscious biases, but this is what I strive for, both at work, when I write for Forbes and now on my blog.

For you

Let this be an invitation for you to find what brings you joy and invite more of it into your life. 

If you don’t know where you should start and want to learn more about how to spark your creativity, Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic will definitely help you on your way. She’s the person behind “Eat, Pray, Love” as well, but I think that this is her true masterpiece. 

There’s plenty more on my mind about this topic, but I’ll stop here for the moment. Let it sink in and let me know your thoughts about it (please don’t leave me hanging here alone with my thoughts 🙂). I’m only one click away.