Tijana Tamburic

Co-Founder of Female Narratives

(Forbes 30 Under 30)

13 September 2019 8 Min Read

Tijana Tamburic: Empowering Women in Media Through Inclusivity

Meet Tijana Tamburic, co-founder of Female Narratives, an integrated creative agency with over 100 female and non-binary freelancers that tell stories for brands directly and without the use of middlemen. Thanks to Tijana’s innovation and creativity, she was placed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe 2019: Media & Marketing list.

Tijana obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in History from University College London. She was also a model at Select Model Management before co-founding Modesty Comics, a publishing company celebrating artists and writers from Ex-Yugoslavia. After founding Modesty Comics, she moved on to co-found Female Narratives.

Please join me in learning more about Tijana, her business, her team, and the struggles and joyful times of running your own business as she shares her advice!

The Logician

Hi Tijana, and welcome to this interview! Thank you for taking the time to be a part of this mission! Do you mind introducing yourself? Who is Tijana Tamburic? How and why exactly did you choose the career that you have today?

Tijana Tamburic

Hey! Thank you for having me.

Who I am is a very existential question that I’m still working on the proper answer for!
But in terms of my passion and career, I’m a storyteller.

I’ve had a range of jobs and interests that only now with hindsight can I pull a thread between them and say the common factor is storytelling.

Telling engaging stories that move people in some way, to feel something or to act, is my “why” but I don’t feel limited by mediums.

It can be an article, a dinner series, a social media campaign, a short film, a podcast, a comic book, I find the right people to execute the technical side of any of these but I enjoy to create the story and bring the people together that make the story come to life.

Through a long period and dabbling in different things, I eventually co-founded my own creative agency which does exactly this.

So I guess to answer your question more specifically; I noticed the things I gravitated towards, the things I was good at and the attributes within my personality and I allowed myself to flow towards a career that fulfills me.

I didn’t find the exact job that fit me so I made my own.

The Logician

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you for making it among Forbes 30 under 30! Was this a dream come true? How was this experience for you?

Tijana Tamburic

Haha umm, it was actually a bit out of the blue. My friend recommended me last minute and I received an email to fill out the application form on New Year’s Day with the deadline of New Year’s Day.

So I think I may have filled it out faster than most people have.

I would have liked more time to do it justice but I was on a beach in Mexico on my phone and just did the best I could. I then completely forgot about it until the list came out (they don’t tell you in advance if you made it in) so I was pretty surprised.

As I didn’t know in advance I didn’t really have time to plan for any kind of press move to promote myself so I think I missed that whole opportunity. I’ve also honestly just been too busy working!

The Logician

What is Female Narratives? How was your business born? How did you come up with your business idea? What is the mission of your company?

Tijana Tamburic

Female Narratives is an all-female creative agency that uses a collective of over 100 female freelancers to tell stories for brands.

I met my co-founder, Franzi Klein, on a flight to Ibiza and we just had so many issues with the industry we were both in (modeling) that we both wanted to change the game. Nine months later FN was born.

Our mission was to cut out a lot of middle-men (and a lot of men in general – sorry men) and connect brands directly with talent, ways to tell that story and the whole production system to make it happen. We are an end-to-end creative service.

We also sought to cut out a lot of formal business structures, like a brick and mortar office, that aren’t necessary for our model and only function to make budgets more expensive to clients. By doing that we could be significantly more cost-effective.

The Logician

What are the best and worst parts of being young and successful? Please explain.

Tijana Tamburic

Not being trusted/believed when you start out is hard. But I think that’s the same for anyone that’s starting a company — there is a long time where people will sit on the fence until they trust your service or product. And I do think that’s fair speculation.

You have to work to prove yourself and your longevity. Companies pop up all the time – but can you weather the test of time.

Being a young woman sometimes means people assume I don’t know enough and I always have to prove something which is a bit boring. It also often means people assume I’ve made it into a room because I am the ‘date’ of a successful man — not of my own accord.

Which is is also boring to keep correcting. But I’ve long stopped feeling a need to prove to justify myself to anyone.

Interestingly I actually find the opposite to be true more often: clients working with us precisely because we are millennial women and that’s their target audience.

People are finally realizing that if your audience is X you should probably have X on your board, or at least on your advisory committee.

Suddenly I’m the ‘expert’ on millennial women, which I think is equally hilarious because of course, I’m not, but yes maybe I do know a little more than a middle class, middle-aged man, from lived experience alone.

The sky is also the limit when you’re young and I have time to keep refining and re-routing my goals. I feel no obligation to stick to an industry or a job title.

My parent’s concept of staying in one company doing one role for 40+ years I just don’t think exists anymore. We are in the process of creating new work norms and breaking down archaic, inefficient structures gay just don’t serve us anymore and it’s exciting to be part of that wave.

The Logician

How challenging was it to start your own business? How difficult is it to run a business? How do you manage your time? What are the best time-management strategies you know of?

Tijana Tamburic

My company is my life so my work-life balance is a non-existent concept which I am working on re-assessing. I think any founder has this struggle, especially in the first few years.

I prefer what I once heard Jeff Bezos call ‘work-life harmony’; if they’re already inextricable how can we function to make them work together effectively.

I find it hard to ever switch my work brain off so I find yoga to be a great way to tune out my thoughts and tune back in with my body. It’s an hour, ideally in the middle of the day, when I’m not thinking about work and actually means that I come back to my work with a new perspective or idea.

If I think about something for too long uninterrupted my creativity slowly decreases. I’m also very slowly learning the concept of a ‘weekend’.

Everything I do is based on good time management and organization. And as useful as google cal or Dropbox or other shared-work systems are there’s nothing better for me than a big wall calendar and a notebook. I’m a visual person and I like to see it all in one place.

The Logician

Have you ever failed before succeeding in business? If yes, how did you recover from failure? What are the best ways of improving the mindset?

Tijana Tamburic

This is my first company and we haven’t failed yet!

But I have been fired before and ‘dropped’ by my modeling agency which felt very personal at the moment and it’s hard not to take it that way but with hindsight we learn that everything happens for a reason and any perceived “failure” is, in fact, an opportunity to get you on the right track or do something new.

Failure has bad connotations but it is always a great opportunity or learning curve that you had to make in order to do better next time. I wouldn’t personally use the word failure to describe any of my experiences.

The Logician

How would you describe your team, and what are your employee engagement strategies?

Tijana Tamburic

My team is a wide friendship circle of incredible women.

Get your team passionate about their work and they’ll over-exceed your expectation. If it matches up to their ‘why’ them it’s the perfect team. Don’t try to force something that isn’t working.

If you can — build culture. And I don’t mean take them all out for a beer. I mean do something altogether that’s authentic to your brand that ideally, each individual can show their strengths at.

The Logician

According to you, what matters in life? What do you do in your free time? How do you unwind?

Tijana Tamburic

I think I already mentioned yoga which is a big one for me as it combines exercise with mindfulness and meditation.

I like to experience new things with new people and try things out of my comfort zone – I’m always pushing myself.

If you can find some kind of balance and calm in your life that’s huge. Regularly unplugging from social or being somewhere without internet for a while is amazing. Ideally with good friends and food!

The Logician

Where do you see yourself and your company in the next ten years?

Tijana Tamburic

It’s impossible to predict and I don’t like to mess with fate. What’s the saying — show god your plans and he will laugh?

I aim to find more stability, hopefully, be blessed with a family and still be telling stories — maybe through AR and VR!

The Logician

What would you advise everyone who struggles to enter the business world?

Tijana Tamburic

Don’t rush. Amass all the possible information you can. Ask everyone. Sit on it. Sleep on it. If it still feels right then just do it. Prioritize. Plan. Be organized. Don’t get overwhelmed. Stay informed. Find your tribe ( there’s likely an initiative or group happening in your chosen industry no matter how niche).

Don’t beg for funding — do what you can yourself first and money will come. If you need funding, be very careful about who you get it from and what that contract says.

In general, carefully read every contract you ever make. Stay humble. Be kind.

The Logician

Thank you, Tijana, for sharing your story and advice. The way you support and lift women around you is truly incredible. It was interesting to hear you explain the difficulties, such as not being believed in when you start your business, and how you have to overcome such obstacles. Your advice to stay humble and be kind is simple but rings true in everyone’s life. I wish you luck in your future endeavors for Female Narratives!

The Logician

Trademark of a Living Legend

Latest Interviews

#000061

Guido Zichittella's Green Vision: Revolutionizing Energy Production

The Logician Image, which is an animated image of a person working on the laptop with a globe behind him, on a transparent background

Find Your Fellow Associates

Support means everything, especially in the digital world. Expand your network and extend your knowledge - make sure to join the association!

Discover My Association

Tijana Tamburic

Tijana Tamburic: Empowering Women in Media Through Inclusivity

The Logician

Latest Interviews

Aviran Zazon: Crafting a Legacy in Tech and Beyond

Thomas Torre: Revolutionizing Health Savings with Investment

Sanjay Brahmawar's Vision for the Future of Digital Transformation

Theo Saville: Revolutionizing CNC Manufacturing with AI

Akshay Singhal: Pioneering Clean Energy Solutions for Tomorrow

Matthew Clare on Revolutionizing Clean Energy Investment

Laila Kasuri: Driving Innovation in Healthcare and Science

Jiajun Cen on the Cutting Edge of Manufacturing Innovation

Chirag Gupta: Elevating Indian E-commerce with Customer Focus

Carlos Pierre: Disrupting Real Estate with Tech-Driven Innovation

Erik Cheong on Transforming the Consumer Tech Industry

Siddha Ganju: Revolutionizing Manufacturing with AI and Robotics

Simon St. James LeComte on the Intersection of Art and Fashion

John Cassidy: Advancing Healthcare Through AI Innovation

Aleksandra Dragozet on Charting a Course for Sustainable Tourism

Jay Richards: Empathy, Compassion, and Building a Better Society

Cristina Aleixendri Muñoz: Advancing Manufacturing Via Innovation

Demelza Hays' Vision for a Decentralized Financial Future

Bernhard Winter: Revolutionizing Medical Devices with Innovation

Guido Zichittella's Green Vision: Revolutionizing Energy Production

Find Your Fellow Associates