Coach, underdog, relentless builder.
"I figured most of it out alone. No one softened the path. No one sat me down and said, 'You're not broken for wanting a different life.'"
I was born and raised in Split, Croatia, part Italian, fully Mediterranean in my need for sun, good food, and strong opinions. I've been living abroad for 15 years now and I’m currently in Amsterdam with my boyfriend Marc and our corgi Galileo.
I grew up in Croatia in the 90s during the war. Overweight, closeted, in a place where neither was easy and there were bigger things to worry about.
At 27 I moved abroad, driven mostly by opportunities to I could learn and grow, but also by the hope of finding places where I could be myself and have a “normal” life. In many ways, that’s when I really started living.
My career has taken me through McKinsey, Google, Facebook, project44, and Uber, across management, leadership, and everything in between.
As my professional experience grew, so did I as a person. I transformed my body, came out, loved, got hurt, burned out, and rebuilt. Often more than once, and never in the right order.
Home was Romania, Belgium, Ireland, and now the Netherlands. When you move around this much, home stops being a place. It becomes something you carry in your heart.
I always felt like I had to catch up for all the years and opportunities I missed. That drive and hunger gave me a lot, but it also knocked me down. Still, I kept getting up. Not because I was always brave or tough, but because I didn’t see another choice.
Could I have done some things better? Of course. But what matters is that I did something. I refused to be a victim of my circumstances. I chose to be the victor.
Why Breakthrough Collective
For thirteen years I only saw myself as a corporate guy. That was my identity, my world and my plan. Until it wasn't. The first time I lost my job, I found coaching. The second time, I built something of my own.
Realizing how much of yourself you can hand to something, and lose, changed everything.
I remember my first coaching course. The facilitator asked what we were hoping for and I said I wanted to feel the magic of coaching. By the end of day one, with barely any training and just a few clumsy first steps, something was already happening. The breakthrough moment of realization, the tiny move forward that suddenly changed things.
That was also when I understood something important: you never really start from zero as a coach. You bring yourself and everything you’ve lived.
I also want to build something beyond 1:1 work. A community. A tribe. A collective. Some of us never had that growing up, and we know exactly what it cost.
We live in the most connected era in human history and somehow people are lonelier than ever. "What can we build together?" quietly turned into "What can I get from this?".
"When the right people support each other, BREAKTHROUGHs aren't just personal. They're COLLECTIVE."
