Tijana Tamburic on being raised for autonomy, the gift of vulnerable conversations, and building a business that serves your life
Out Of The CloudsShow Notes
In this episode of Out of the Clouds, host Anne Mühlethaler welcomes Tijana Tamburic, a storyteller, creative director and co-founder of Female Narratives. After a decade as a model combined with a UCL history degree and experience in publishing and editorial roles, she co-founded Female Narratives to disrupt the outdated advertising industry. Named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Media & Marketing (and later serving as a judge), Tijana has worked on creative campaigns for brands like Bumble, BBC Studios and Allbirds, helping them tell real human stories. She's also the host of The Slow Down podcast and a board advisor for social enterprise OK MENTOR.
Anne discovered Tijana through The Slow Down, which offers what Tijana calls the career advice she never got in her twenties, aka conversations with people who've redefined success beyond hustle culture. Tijana shares her journey from arriving in London as an 18-month-old Serbian immigrant to being raised for autonomy by hardworking parents. She candidly discusses her teenage antics, keeping her modeling career at arm's length, staying in education, and initially hiding her avant-garde editorial modeling work from friends.
She tells Anne about her Burning Man transformation, meeting her future business partner on a flight to Ibiza, and her first ayahuasca ceremony, noting how these experiences introduced her to patient, graceful women who helped her step into her feminine energy after years of operating from a masculine, confrontational stance.
This shift led to founding Female Narratives, which initially got swept up in girl boss culture's demands to scale and sell. After two years on this path, Tijana and her co-founder had a crucial conversation about what kind of life they actually wanted. They worked backwards to design a boutique agency requiring a handful of projects yearly to meet their goals, allowing them to be selective about clients and maintain work-life balance.
Tijana reflects on her relationship with her archetypal masculine mother, a Serbian pharmacist who became a professor at London College of Fashion. The conversation also explores Tijana's past addiction to stress, her journey through burnout, and her ongoing practice of stepping into feminine energy through active listening and moving from scarcity to abundance mindset.
A candid conversation about building a business that serves your life, balancing masculine and feminine energies, and why vulnerable conversations are gifts that help us feel seen and understood.
Selected links from episode: The Female Narratives website The Slow Down podcast Tijana's Instagram: @tamburic Tijana's TEDx Bucharest talk titled ‘When my masculine met my feminine’ Heart Diffraction Glasses (as featured at Burning Man) The Whisperers by Orlando Figes Julia Astok Esther Perel on autonomy vs loyalty
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