From Power Point to Power Moves

Dear…you,

When I first started this blog, I was a standard office worker, living a standard life. Fun, but still standard. So, I kicked off all my articles with a different greeting: “Dear Corporate Friend”. And I also ended them with: “From my cubicle to yours”. Today I will switch to a different path as I start to write in my blog once again.

When I first came up with the idea of this blog, I had my former role managing all the complex situations inside the company, anything that would escalate or become a “dispute”. Hence the name of this blog. However, it was not just that. Sure, it was a funny acronym that matched my role, but it was also a little bit of me, of how I am and have always been: disputing the “norm”. I was never able to accept something as “given” just because someone says so. I always questioned things and most of the time found better ways of doing them. This actually caused me lots of pain because surprise…people do not like something that is not “normal” …or “how it should be” …or simply sitting quietly in the appropriate box. So, whenever I had a good idea or found a better way of doing things…the chances of getting pushed back were very high and more often than not this is what happened.

I started this blog in a mini rebellion, thinking that I can write about things that maybe others are also frustrated about and perhaps I can make even the tiniest change in the world. But, of course, I fell into the trap of uncertainty. It seemed so weird and dangerous to put yourself out there and really show everyone who you are…because…. what if they don’t like it? What if because of an opinion, my future potential boss reads my article and decides not to hire me? Or what if people do not like what I am saying or do not agree with me and shut me down because of it? So I played it safe. I still wrote the truth…but a very curated and safe truth…making sure I do not share too much…too honest…or touch certain sensitive topics. So yes, all my previous articles were not really me. They were a bit of me, for sure. But just a small part that the world “had allowed”.

I stopped my “corporate” life one year ago and also parked this blog; didn’t know if I was going to use it anymore. Today I decided to revive it and be brutally honest about everything out in the open. I do admit having small anxious thoughts about this as well because social media is so conducive to “positive posts only”. I have no idea how these will be perceived by people but one thing is very clear for me: being true to yourself is the only was to be free. And when you honor that, the world starts changing as clearly only the people that are in sync with you will stay. And only the bosses that will be a good match for you will hire you when they see such things. And this is good! As why would we want a boss that doesn’t get us or that doesn’t like us? How can we ever find the “right boss” when we are pretending to be someone else? This, of course, applies to everything in life.

Now back to the point of this article: the new me. My first non-corporate year was the best period of my life. And no, I am not saying that corporate is bad or anything. This was just my experience, and everyone should follow their own path as we are all different and, just like pieces of puzzles, fit in different parts.

So why was this year so incredible? Simply because it forced me to meet myself. I went through a series of transformations that helped me understand who I really am, what I like, and how I want to live my life. I lived more this year than my whole life. And it was not only good, but it was also hard and painful. Transformation is not what we see on social media, it’s not pretty, it’s breaking you down completely to create the new you. I stayed up at night many times not being able to fall asleep, I worried a lot, I had intense periods of stress and doubts about multiple aspects. But I loved each and every one of them. Because they helped shape me and reveal what was hidden inside but couldn’t see the light of day.

If there is something I learned in this year is that the saying “anything is possible” is really true. Not easy, of course, but possible for sure. We just must want it bad enough.

There is such a fine line between reading a motivational quote and feeling it in each cell of your body. At least this was my experience. Whenever I used to hear something like “anything is possible” I could understand logically the point, but it would simply not “click”. But whenever it did click…puf! All of a sudden it really makes sense; you really understand the message in your core. The line is so fine that you barely even notice when the shift happened. Maybe you can’t even figure it out. But what you do know is that now this is part of you and will never go away.

I made so many clicks this past year. Some of them alone, some of them guided by friends or mentors to whom I am incredibly grateful. I would never have managed to do all of this alone. Nor should we. Humans are made to form connections, to be together, in groups, to support and help each other. This is one of the most important aspects of longevity. I also doubt it would have been this fun to do it on my own.

I had a life coach, Gabriela, an incredible mentor that I recommend to everyone if you really want to improve your life. I also had a health coach, Cristina, that held my “hand” every time I needed it and taught me the importance of being one with your body and honoring it. And I also had a spiritual coach, Ruxandra, that helped me see the reality that I was living in, my reality.

When I first left my last corporate job, I was in such a bad place. Constantly tired, just living the same day over and over again. We actually don’t realize that many of us are not really living, we are simply existing. Because that is what we know. That is what we see around and that is what we’ve been taught to do. That is what our left sided brain is telling us: follow the rules, stay in line, don’t you dare be different. And we do it because we think that the feeling of being part of something bigger is the ultimate goal. We need to be liked, right? But what if…we actually don’t? Or what if the path towards that is actually a different one?

For me, breaking out of these unwritten rules was where the magic started to happen. I made incredible changes in such a short period of time that I had no idea I could do.

I adopted a healthy lifestyle which was crazy to think about before.

I started doing monthly water fasting’s.

I meditate and do breathwork.

I dance with my eyes closed and really experiencing life.

I became a vegan and even gave up on coffee which I believe would be truly impossible as coffee was my life.

And so many more…

There was this one podcast that really impressed me a lot. After listening to it, I decided to only tell the truth, no matter how harsh or strange it would sound. And even if some of you know me personally and know I used to be quite open before as well, no, that was not it. I am now in a place where I made a promise to myself to delicately (it’s so important how you say things, not just what you say) speak the truth in any circumstance and allow things to fall into place. Because this is the only was they can fall in the right place. And since I did, I never felt freer in my life.

Now back to the point of this article: my new career. Because clearly I didn’t only have fun this year. Life is not that easy, you can’t do only what you like, you also must work haha.

But at least this time, I didn’t work for somebody. I worked for something I believed in. While my whole life I worked in finance, now I have moved to real estate and started experiencing the world of entrepreneurship. Brrr…what a world 😊.

All my mentees know that I used to say never get off track. Stay within your expertise area. I thought that we need to decide something and just do that forever. Set a goal and work towards it. Otherwise…how can we grow? My goal was becoming a CFO. I even mentioned it in an interview that is part of my Linkedin profile some time ago.

Now, after doing so much work on myself, I finally get it. Things are way more complex than that. Of course, we shouldn’t be unreliable and change the goal every 2 minutes. But there is nothing wrong with changing. We all grow in such different ways that it’s impossible to know who you might be in 6 months from now. So maybe that version of you will not fit well with the old goal. And there is nothing wrong with that. We should honor our true self and allow it to express as otherwise we will always feel trapped in someone else’s world. Because that is exactly what it will be. It’s not your reality anymore, it’s an old one.

I bought my first apartment back in 2017. While everyone else was buying apartments to live in, I had it clear even since then that I wanted to rent it out. In 2020 when the pandemic hit, I bought my second one. I had always thought it would be so cute to have an apartment at the seaside and one in the mountains. While the world was falling into chaos, I decided to follow my dreams and put a deposit down for my dreamy seaside apartment. As mentioned before, this is not a story about perfection but about reality. I don’t care about looking “good” and showing off the good parts only. That’s why I can admit it probably was not the best move, but it was a calculated risk, and I have learned a valuable lesson. I sold my car back then and got into the Nordis scheme.

Oops! For those who don’t know what this is, they even passed a new law in Romania called the Nordis law, I believe it’s in parliament now, waiting for the final approval before being enforced. So yeah, I ended up waiting way longer than I would have thought. But I am sure the project will be finalized in the end, after all, I am a Pisces and my intuition is through the roof. To those who say that Nordis will go bankrupt I say: I’ll send you a pic from my balcony some time in the future, just wait for it.

Then, in 2021, I got my next “dream”, my mountain retreat and then 2 more in Bucharest. If you are thinking that I had help from someone, think again. I have been working since the 10th grade while studying at the same time and then going at the top finance university in the country, finishing my bachelor's degree as well as my master’s degree. So how did I manage to do this? Simple: by being creative. A mix of different bank loans, tools, savings, stock market, etc. Who taught me? Nobody, I learned. I read, I tried, I sometimes failed but I kept trying. Well, of course there was also lots of study behind, but nothing forced me to do it. It was all my initiative. Studied project and program management with PMI which was such a excruciating but beautiful process, change management with Prosci, stock market with Valentin who is now one of Romania’s top investment experts but also read books by Warren Buffet and more. I learned a lot from them, but I also had a funny revelation: that we should follow our intuition. It knows. Even if Warren says something, your intuition knows what is actually good for you.

This is how I built my company and my NGO. My listening to it, despite all the noise. Everyone telling me I am going to fail, that it is not normal, that I should return to the “safe” space of a blue-collar job. But my intuition was yelling that I could do it. I now understand why it seemed that my intuition was off before. Every time I had a feeling, I would rationalize it. Straight to the left brain! As it “should”. So then, of course it would not work. Because it was not mine anymore. It was tainted with the way things “should be”. Our fears usually get mixed up with our intuition and don’t allow it to exist.

Anyway, it was such a difficult period. And it still is. I found out how the world of business actually is: unfair, unethical and unsafe. Everyone is out to get you, everyone is lying and stealing from you…anything they can…from ideas to money. There is no win-win scenario which was a shock to me as my mind could simply not understand why anyone wouldn’t want you to both win. But they don’t. It’s either they win, you lose or lose-lose.

Shattered dream for me as my guiding principle has always been fairness. But, in the end, it is what it is, and we must find a way to live our best lives, no matter what.

Then I made even my friends extremely confused. Nobody understood what I was doing as it seemed like I was literally doing everything. And I might actually be doing everything in this domain haha. This was one of the points in writing this article, so hopefully after this my friends can finally understand what I do for work now.

Summary of my current initiatives:

* I built Romania’s first and only NGO for owners of rentals units

What this means is that our goal is to protect the owners’ interests from a fiscal, tax and legislative perspective while at the same time building a strong community.

* My company is a certified insurance broker

I partnered up with Romania’s top insurance broker and I can sell any type of insurance from any company. Cars, property, equipment, you name it. Generalli, Groupama, Allianz etc etc, there are way too many to list. But this was a strategic move, as the bigger picture was to…

* I created the first and only insurance in Romania that covers the damages made by tourists as well as long term tenants.

And NO, there is NO other one. Insurance terms are simply so cumbersome, and agents are lying or misinterpreting terms that they sometimes say it exists just to sell it to you. But come on, we are all smart right? We live in the AI era, simply drop the T&C’s into any model that you are using and ask it if those terms cover damage made by your tourists and they will explain they don’t as well as why.

* We do property management

This means that an investor can drop off their property just like a baby in kindergarten and we will care for it. Zero work for the owner, just profits.

* We will soon launch a top-notch software that will be completely unique in Romania; none of the other existing tools covers the range of automations and features that we’ve built.

* We sell products suitable for rental apartments but also regular households

Anything from smart home automation sensors to towels and hotel supplies. Of course, still building up on this as the full catalogue will have over 200 types of products so it’s not a quick process.

* And yes, at the same time, I am also renting out my own apartments in the Airbnb model so short term.

After a bit of panic, I am now officially opening all my social media accounts and making them public to start to post about real estate in Romania. It was not an easy choice as I have always been very private and keeping only a small, limited number of friends in my “list” but I guess this period is about breaking limits.

I hope my story can help even in the smallest way and even if it’s only 1 or 2 people, that is still amazing. Any change is powerful as it has an echo that starts replicating.

After all of this, I am now…almost always happy (nobody is perfect 😊), grateful and above all, connected and free. I have no idea if my businesses will success or fail but I do know that what I am doing is with the owners’ best interest at heart and really hoping to make a positive change in this field in Romania. I am absolutely sure it’s possible. That’s why I keep making leaps of faith on a daily basis despite all the challenges…that are so many…. you have no idea, oh my God.

This is…me. 😃

And I hope you also find…you. 💖

If you’re also ready to start your version of this journey, I’d love to hear your story too. Let’s connect!

Now I’m off to start the Rentals Revolution in Romania. Stay true!

With love,

Di🌞