The Reluctant Marketer
I never thought I would be writing about marketing. For many years, I lived and breathed storytelling — first as a news editor capturing historical changes in Eastern Europe, then as UN Head of TV and Film and a producer of more than 300 films and shows, documenting urgent global truths.
This series is for those who, like me, found themselves in a world of big data, ROI metrics, and market shares while chasing a bigger purpose. For anyone who started with a mission to change the world and ended up on hard-core money calls.
Through my journey and the stories of others like me, we’ll explore how to never give up on our dreams, how to find unexpected paths to our true purpose. Because sometimes the road to making real change takes detours we never imagined.
From Revolution to Revenue: A Story I Never Meant to Tell
Varna, Bulgaria. The savage 90-ies. The early computer screen flickers with another news feed about tanks in Moscow. Between AP, BBC, CNN, and Reuters updates, I’m piecing together a world that’s shattering and recutting in real-time. Yeltsin on a tank. Gunfire in Croatia. Smoke rising from Sarajevo. Blood in Srebrenica. Death on the streets of my country.
At Channel Comm Radio Networks, my reality as a news editor was a surreal experience: building editorial boards to chase the suspense and entertain the masses. I should have seen already then, through those political analyses mixed with current affairs reportages, how my raw enthusiasm for freedom gets diluted by the grimy truth of street reality. Reporting on democratic dreams, when financial pyramids were crumbling, celebrating liberty when organized crime was laying its rules.
I know it then as firmly as now that those who write the story, own the story. I wanted to own my story. Not for more money. For a bigger impact. To change people’s lives. Witnessing history wasn’t enough. The UN seemed like the answer. To be a participant in the global drama of change.
So I risked it all. Moved. Studied. Fought.
Sweating at the Dream Factory
Rather quickly, after being “in the field“ of post-war Kosovo, I became the Head of TV and Film at the UN. My films weren’t just stories; they were windows into worlds people needed to see. Because if they saw, surely they would act. If they knew, they would care. Or so I thought.
Then Hollywood beckoned. The biggest storytelling arena of all. Over the years, I produced more than 300 films and shows. Worked with major players, crafted stories that reached millions. By any external measure, I was living the dream.
But there was a hollow in my heart. No matter how many stories we’ve told, how many truths we’ve revealed, many remain untold, buried in ignorance and oblivion. I dug for the story. Yet producer calls began with budget discussions, engaged A-list talent, and ended with market projections.
The question was no longer, “Will this change lives?” but “Will this make money?”
Then, Wall Street crumbled, taking with it more than just financial systems. The film industry I’d known was transforming into something I barely recognized. Stories that mattered were becoming harder to fund, harder to tell, and to share. The urge to produce our true and important stories sunk into the quotidian reality. Bills needed paying. Life needed living.
On the Unexpected Battlefield
When a major company approached me to build a power network of women as part of its CSR initiative, it seemed like a reasonable compromise. Purpose-driven work, decent money, meaningful impact. A way to keep the lights on while keeping the dream alive.
What was I becoming. I didn’t want to admit it at first. I wrapped it in prettier words — creative communication, transformation, strategic storytelling. Anything but the M-word. As if changing the label would somehow keep my hands clean, my soul pure.
But strip away the fancy language, and what was I really doing? Fighting for market share. Struggling for visibility in the blinking infinity of similar others. Helping both giants and dreamers understand and shape their identity. Tell their story. Big corporations with their massive budgets and startups with nothing but a concept in their heads — in the end, they all needed the same thing: to matter. To be seen. To connect.
Now I’m on the latest battlefield — blockchain and AI. New territory, same war. Different tools, same human need to stand out, to make sense, to leave a mark.
On Purpose
Marketing. The word still feels foreign in my mouth. Like a language, I learned too late in life to ever speak without an accent. A territory I entered not through choice but through the grinding reality of a world where even dreams need business plans.
This isn’t a story about selling out. It’s a story about changing and growing.
Here’s what no one tells us when we set out to change the world: The path rarely leads where we expect. Sometimes, the tools we need to create change come wrapped in packages we never wanted to open.
To my fellow accidental marketers — I see you. I was you. I am you. Remember that beneath all the metrics and strategies, stories are all that matter. Helping the truth find its audience. Making change possible in a world that demands everything be monetized, quantified, optimized.
Keep moving!
This is The Reluctant Marketer. A series on how we fight to keep story alive in a world that speaks money. About how sometimes the best way to stay true is to master what we once despised and use it for our long game. How to never forget why.
Welcome to my confessions.
Your path might be different. Share your story of dreams, detours, and discoveries. Every reluctant professional journey adds another chapter to this ongoing story of purpose and perseverance.
Next Episode: When Purpose Meets Profit — How do we keep the soul when the metrics demand full attention?