Hello, I am Ivana, and this is my story.

I was born in Serbia just before the Balkan wars broke out and was raised in the 90s amid hyperinflation and uncertainty - a post-communist reality that shaped me more than I thought. At 17, I left for an international boarding school abroad, then a very British university. That meant being catapulted into another world, in every way. I did BSc Chemistry and Maths at the University of St Andrews, and MSc Finance at Imperial College London - as a classic overachiever, I chose what I thought were the hardest degrees at the top universities. I told myself it was to prove I was smart to others. Over time, I learned it was to myself.

Over the last 20 years, I have changed countries five times, started from zero each time, and learned new languages along the way. At 25, I moved to Brazil to follow my dream of living there - another fresh start in a completely different world. My career has been just as non-linear: four significant transitions, from the corporate world to building a food business, to venture capital, to building a portfolio career.

I know the fear of starting from zero because I have felt it every time I changed countries or careers - the question of who I'd be without the job, the title, the path everyone could recognize. What I learned, each time, is that it's never actually zero. The skills, the judgment, the credibility travel with you; what changes is the shape they take. That's what I help clients see about their own path too, especially when it stops looking like the one they'd planned.

This non-linear path is exactly what lets me understand "paths less travelled." I know what it's like to build a career that doesn't fit expectations and templates, and I had to learn to own that story instead of apologizing for it - which I did, for a long time. Having reframed my own successes, failures, and learnings is what lets me help others do the same.

I bring different lenses into my work - founder, investor, advisor - plus my own extensive reading and research on success, achievement, money, and belief.

Before becoming a mother, while still in the high-paced world of venture capital, I stopped and decided what I wanted my life to look like, and what kind of mother I wanted to be. Then I reverse-engineered my career from there.

My own portfolio career - 1:1 client work, founder workshop facilitation, startup advisory and mentorship, and a venture partner role - is a career I have designed and it's exactly the kind of path I help clients design for themselves.