Meet Nadia Voukitchevitch

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nadia Voukitchevitch. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nadia below.

Nadia, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I truly believe I get it from my mother and my ancestors on both sides of my family. I’ve always felt like I descend from a long line of Filipina, Norwegian, German, Basque women warriors on my mother’s side and on my father’s side of medieval type noble knights who fought in battle in the Kingdom of Serbia with their bare hands. I know for a fact, that my grandfather on my paternal side where my last name comes from, survived the The Great Retreat during the WWI along with his younger brother, where tens of thousands of human beings died during that gruesome hike up the Albanian mountains and then down over to Corfu to be rescued by the allies eventually, and all this in the middle of the winter in 40+ degree celsius – below zero. My grandfather was 13 years old going on 14 at the time, and watched most of these men and civilian women who actually made it to Corfu, die of frostbite. This is all documented in a book by Flora Sandes whom I’ve written a script about, she was the first women General in the Serbian Army and in all Armies for that matter, and started out as a volunteer and then a Nurse in the battlefield with no training. Talk about a brave Irish woman!
I also know children in general are very resilient, but I believe Mother Nature creates us that way on purpose because not every one should become a parent, many should just remain artists creating art and that artwork are their babies.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a Director, Documentarian and Creative Producer as well as a Writer and Photographer. I founded a company Nadia Films, that recently opened a new division of multilingual-cultural creatives called The Creative Collective and we are a small independent branding company that helps individuals increase their brand awareness and we work with all kinds of brands and all types of budgets. We tailor our creative ideas and strategic planning to the brands specific needs. We make the whole process more streamlined and less costly.

What I find most exciting about being a Director is that you get to work with different people on each shoot and you get to bring to life stories that wouldn’t otherwise be told or get out there. I also love the feeling movies that are well done can give their audiences and every Director does that in their own unique way. It’s like experiencing your first kiss as a young girl when you’ve never actually been kissed yet… It’s breathtaking! Fascinating! Film is also a universal language – subtitles naturally help- but if you didn’t have any and just watched it silently you would probably still get the gist of what the movie is all about.

I also have been working on a docu-series on Powerful & Inspiring Women that is a 4 Part series on brilliant women from all walks of life both historic and contemporary. The idea occurred to me when meeting a 100 year old lady on my block who survived the WWII and helped prisoners who had leprosy. I felt compelled to start documenting all the women in my life and that I’ve read about that truly inspired me and gave me courage in those dark times to keep going and not give up. I’m proud to say that the first episode on Mira Chai who does the hair of Pedro Pascal and Tatum Channing, Austin Butler, Kendrick Lamar and is known as the Godmother of Men’s Grooming has won 16 Awards internationally and was accepted into over 30 film festivals worldwide. We are currently seeking funding for the rest of the episodes and distribution to get these amazing stories of this highly accomplished women out there. We are so happy when we got into the Meliora International Film Festival where it had it’s East coast premiere last year and then earlier this year it got into the Big Apple Film Festival-Los Angeles Edition where it was also nominated for Best Documentary as well as at Meliora Int’l Film Festival.

We are hoping to continue filming and researching women who are not only wonderful Artists, but are Scientists, Inventors, Pilots, Astronauts, Judges, Engineers, Doctors, Writers, Poets, Activists, Politicians, Presidents, Actors, Directors like Louis Weber one of the first women Directors in Hollywood to make more than Cecil B. Demille and that was back in 1917 and even had her own studio.
We are excited to announce the launch and grand opening of our Creative Collective by Nadia Films New York Offices on Nov 9th in NYC! We hope to see you all there! So fingers crossed this brings in loads of new jobs and projects so we can keep funding the creative and impact films like the docu-series and other biopics we have in development.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I’ll start by giving my humble advice to folks who are in their early journey. Like your magazine states, be bold. Starting a business or deciding to be a “Founder” is not for everyone, so first makes sure you have a good business plan, you do not need an MBA for that, just go online and study how to do one and make sure it makes sense to your investors or people from whom you are seeking funding. Aside from that, I say be brave, be on time, work hard, don’t take any crap for anyone, never give up, and show up to work with a big smile and great attitude. Make yourself stand out in a way that is true to who you are, make sure the people you chose to work with know and appreciate your value. Show empathy and understanding- all good leaders and bosses have to know and feel what it’s like to be in each employee’s shoes and know well how to do each team member’s job or at least have a general understanding of what it entails. This will not only earn their respect but trust as well, Trust is earned in life, but you need to at some point let go and trust your Team knows what they are doing. Try not to micromanage as hard as that can be especially for type A folks! haha! At the beginning of my career, I went thru a period where I struggled with being misunderstood and folks judging me just cause I spoke several languages or was different or didn’t look like most people cause I was a big mix, and didn’t grow up all my life in the USA. Then there was a time when I hit a plateau, and didn’t even know it, which coincided with a boss of mine sexually harassing me and bullying me, which I could not tell HR about at the time or else I would have been fired or let go politely and never would have worked anywhere. It was a time when I felt like I wasn’t growing anymore, I was being creatively suffocated, and that the Leadership Team where I worked didn’t value my skills, talent and what I had to bring to the table or were getting jealous and insecure about me as a valuable asset to the company and looked at me more like a threat perhaps… So I moved on as hard as it was and went thru a tough season of financial struggle and then shortly after became a single parent not by choice…. So know your worth, and don’t let anyone put you down or destroy your reputation. After the #metoo movement there is nothing to fear now, you can tell the whole world if you have suffered an injustice or some kind of wrongdoing or harassment, before that was very difficult to do if you still wanted to work anywhere and pay your rent. So three qualities that were most impactful in my journey were: 1) perseverance 2) determination 3) confidence. My motto is what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and always repeat the mantra: “yes, I can, I can do this.”

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
We are seeking like minded people we can partner with who believe in our vision and share our passion for the same stories that we would like to tell. So anyone looking to invest in a woman of color small independent company with huge potential to grow, and financiers who are interested in funding and helping with the distribution of our docu-series on Powerful & Inspiring Women and other biopics and comedies we have in development. Fortunately, we have worked with many great brands and clients in a variety of sectors and have produced very successful branding and promotional campaigns for them such as Paul Mitchell Advanced Schools, Boys & Girls Club, CHIRLA, PepBoys, Aireloom, Two Gemini Girls in LA, Ursula’s Costumes, Martin Brinkerhoff & Associates, Authenticity is a quality that GenZers really value as do Alphas and so we love to portray that important aspect when working with all the brands that chose to work with us and give us a chance to show what we can do for them. The world is vast and so diverse and we want to embrace that and collaborate with all folks and all types of brands whether you are an individual or a huge billion dollar company. We value people and companies who practice sustainability, spirituality, and are environmentally aware -friendly as we are now finally an LA Green Certified company. Sharing the same values goes hand in hand with the same type of culture in your workplace and being aligned with our mission, which is on our website: www.creative-collective.us
“We are global branding innovators and ambassadors of your company. We bring strategic budget-conscious planning and solutions to your brand and business. With decades of successful track record for our Partners/Clients and over 50 years of combined experience and knowledge of multicultural markets, we do not follow the norm, we disrupt by improving, making the process easier – achieving your short and long term goals faster. We are Bicoastal, multi-bilingual, bespoke branding community. We do life together, we create together and we elevate & grow your brand together- the sky is the limit.”

Contact Info:

Screenshot

Image Credits
Robb Hart, Charles Voukitchevitch, Jasmin Espada, Alexandra Parral, Madeleine McGregor, Valentina Caniglia, Paulina Villalba, Nadia Voukitchevitch

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Leadership Development
Increasing Your Capacity for Risk-Taking

The capacity to take risk is one of the biggest enablers of reaching your full

Productivity
From Exhausted to Energized: Overcoming and Avoiding Burnout

Between Hustle Culture, Work-From-Home, and other trends and changes in the work and business culture,

Productivity
How did you develop a strong work ethic?

We asked some of the hardest working artists, creatives and entrepreneurs we know to open