Tell us about your creative business!

To keep it very short and spicy: «Create & Shift with Nina» is about creativity and positive thinking. I have designed online programs and virtual creative coaching workshops where people will reconnect to the process of creation and improve positive thinking. I am also doing the same for entrepreneurs so that they get new and fresh ideas for their businesses.

It’s about developing yourself and your life in a fun and colorful way so that you just can feel better and make things better.
And not to forget as a part of my business, I am also selling my art, art prints, and NFTs.   

Tell us more about yourself!

I am a Croatian, born in Germany. I grew up bilingual, and my second-biggest passion in life is languages. Together with French and English, I speak four languages. However, my biggest passions are dance and art. For more than 25 years, I am expressing my creativity through dancing. Unfortunately, I have some injuries, which is very frustrating for a dancer. But on the other side, these injuries have been a huge blessing for me, because they have forced me to step back and work on my talents for art, writing, photography, and also street art.

I stepped into the challenge to leave my job to become an entrepreneur, which is a huge opportunity to combine all my passions with my business experiences and share them with others.
I also love traveling, hiking, reading, doing crochet, being with my friends, and meeting new people. When I fight, I fight for love and peace.

What were you doing before you started your business?

After I graduated from university in Croatia, I worked as a teacher in a High school. At this time, I found out that I would rather teach dancing than German grammar. So I followed this voice. In 2012, I moved to Paris where I worked for almost 10 years as a Trilingual assistant (French, German, English) in international institutions and companies. Most of my money I invested into ballet, dance, and art classes.

Today I am still working as a Virtual Assistant because some of my clients are business owners and I create social media content for them and do languages services like translations or proofreading. This means that I am supporting business owners not just with my creative coaching business, but also with my assistant skills.

What made you want to do this?

As an artist and dancer, I’m very often confronted with it that people say they are not creative, and they really feel sad about it. Well, the truth is that everyone is constantly and actively using creativity; it’s just most people are not aware of it.
One reason is they think that only artists are creative.

Or even worse: they are using creativity negatively without knowing it, like for example thinking about worst-case scenarios. In such a case, you are imagining scenarios in which you destroy yourself. And as creativity is defined as something «positive, inspiring and good» people don’t connect this way of negative thinking with creativity.  

My goal is to teach people to shift their thinking because negativity will not just destroy you, it will also block the flow of ideas which you need for your daily life and business. In addition, I wanted to change the way how we are approaching self-development, goal achievement, creating a better future, and having more success in business. This is something you should enjoy and from time to time treat as a game of fulfilment, and not just as a painful release of old habits and work.

How did you get started?

The base of my business is my book «Shift your life colors» and it all happened by hazard. I am a student of the Bob Proctor coaching program (BPC) and while I was in the middle of my studies I felt that my imagination was blocked. I couldn’t visualize pictures anymore; nor what my future life should look like. For a creative person, this is just unsupportable.

One day in the office where I worked, a colleague showed me at the end of a brochure for office supplies a mandala template and asked me if I want to have it. I said «Yes».

When I came back home, I started to color it. Suddenly I felt that the simple process of coloring released all the stress I felt because of the paradigm shifts I did, and it unblocked my creativity. It was funny to witness that I totally forgot about the simple coloring process to calm down. I started more and more to play with mandalas.

I combined them with my positive affirmations and that was it. The only thing I wanted to do is to share this creative experience with others and from this day on I am daily growing together with my business.

What does a typical day look like for you?

The mornings are very classical: getting up and having a cup of coffee. After I fully wake up, I close my eyes and try to see all the things I need to do today, and I write them down.

When I start to work, I usually first do 2/3 little things, that will push up my motivation for the harder tasks.
At the end of the day, I check what is left undone, and instead of judging myself, I am asking myself «Why I didn’t do this today?». Is there maybe a specific emotion or fear connected to the task? If yes, what I am afraid of? Why do I feel this way when thinking about a specific task or email I need to send out? This short analysis can help to understand things better. I am daily dancing or doing some body movements.

Some of my daily habits are that I thank God for everything he does for me, I feel love for the moment, and try to accept hard times with gratitude because during hard times we are learning. 1h before sleep, I don’t use any electronic device anymore. Instead, I am doing an art meditation to relax and calm down before I go to bed. Referring to food, I usually skip lunch and only eat something small to have all my energy for my work and learning; so I only eat breakfast and dinner.

Where do you want to end up / what goals do you have?

My goal is to have my own art and dance company. My own space where I can create and where other people can feel free to create too. Another dream is to work with companies and that my creative workshops become part of team-building. I want to show that business is not just about work and that employees are just feeling better when you accept them as creative beings and let them be free to create.

What are some of the more memorable obstacles that you’ve had to overcome?

The biggest obstacles are paradigms. Especially the ones that other people have planted into our subconscious minds and you don’t even know about them. To discover them and to shift them is such a hard job.
I wrote in my book that the hardest paradigm I needed to shift was the traditional education I need to grow up with, that women are pushed into marriages and if you are not married and you don’t have kids, you are a family shame.

I love marriages and kids, but to be literally brainwashed as a young woman, that you are totally worthless if you are a single woman, was a huge obstacle in my life.

The problem is that when you are an adult, and you start to live your life or create a business, the feeling of unworthiness is deeply rooted in your subconscious mind. Such a paradigm can mess up many things.
However, I must confess that even if it was hard I am a lucky person because my purpose, dancing, and art have shown me over and over again that my real worth is my gift of creation.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to start their own business?

I must confess that there are really a lot of things that need to be shared, but the following points are some of the most important ones for me
1) Pay your taxes
2) Try to find a good business coach and mentor. Someone who knows how to develop a stable business while fully supporting your dream. 
3) Do nothing without a lawyer. At least try to find a lawyer club or an association of lawyers.

4) Don’t put your business over yourself and take care of your sleep
5) Be creative, don’t copy
6) Put money on the side. You never know what can happen
7) In the beginning, use only free and not expensive content; like Canva, Pixabay, YouTube, Facebook, etc. For a webpage, you can use WordPress or Wix.
8) Be Always honest with yourself. Never fake that you have a 7-Figure business while having a start-up. Keep the feet on the ground.

What is your favorite thing about your business and what you do?

It’s the never-ending process of creation and the feeling of happiness that overcomes people when they start to reconnect to the unlimited source of calmness and joy called «creativity».