September 28, 2020 – A successful business career in the field of entertainment entrepreneurship and popular culture seems impossible for many Croatians, but not for Andrea Tintor, who, despite the pandemic, started her own business in those rare fields.

Andrea Tintor completed her undergraduate studies in Cultural Studies at the University of Rijeka, and her graduate studies in Journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Zagreb. Today, she is a successful young entrepreneur who creates her business from popular culture – in Croatia.

In an interview with TCN, this graduate journalist, blogger, columnist, and entrepreneur explained how she turned popular culture into her career, what it means for her to be an entrepreneur in Croatia and the problems the entertainment industry in Croatia is facing.

Also, she shared with us her biggest dreams and plans for the future, which includes expanding to the global market, all the way to Los Angeles.

1. What exactly is your job – entertainment entrepreneurship – and how do you combine it with popular culture content? How would you describe entertainment entrepreneurship in Croatia?

For two years, I have been actively thinking about how to define "that something" when I have absolutely no talent for singing, playing, acting, I am an introvert, and I can't stand being the center of attention, but I have editorial and agency experience. How to create a career from fragments of popular culture? That’s when I realized I was going to have to create my own business. There is an unsaturated market in Croatia and the need for small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the lifestyle industry for new approaches to marketing, advertising at the global level.

Entertainment entrepreneurship has its clientele, the entertainment industry has its audience, and I think it’s time to actively start talking about behind the scenes business segments. There are ingenious PR managers in Croatia who shape the communication of our biggest music stars, female singers finally talk about the business side of their careers and profile themselves as excellent entrepreneurs, event managers have been organizing world-class festivals for years that attract today's leading musicians… We need even better public education and quality projects that will build domestic showbusiness.

Andrea Tintor / Copyright Petra Mikšik

2. During your career, you've been a journalist, you've had a blog named "Razlivena tinta" ("Spilled ink"), and now you're writing weekly columns on a lifestyle Croatian portal. What motivated you to go into entrepreneurship, to start your own business in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic?

The idea of owning a business and going into entrepreneurship has been brewing for several months. My biggest motivation was financial independence and the freedom to manage time and choose the clients I want to work with. I have always wanted to have the freedom to create my own business and I adore creating something recognizable out of nothing. At the moment when I was just starting, the WHO declared a pandemic and I could have given up, but today I am grateful for my persistence.

3. What is it like to be a young entrepreneur in Croatia?

Challenging and exciting! Every day is different and I have completely unlimited time, creative ideas, project realizations, and choosing clients. I believe that anyone who has a business idea should embark on its realization to see if they will be persistent enough to succeed. We need to start somewhere, and if we are waiting for a move to a "better-organized state" or "for things to change in our country", I don't think we will get anything but to miss the time to create positive stories.

4. You work from home and tailor your working hours. Therefore, you are a digital nomad. What would you single out as the biggest advantages of this way of working? How do you see the future of digital nomads in Croatia?

As I have already stated, the advantage is freedom in all segments of the business. What I would list as a special challenge is that a person has to work on organization, focus, and daily discipline. I work from home, from cafes or with clients at their place, and I have unlimited time to work. However, my clients usually have fixed working hours and I try to adapt to their needs as much as possible. I believe that more and more individuals will become digital nomads, so I hope that the executive authority will recognize and encourage this, both domestic digital nomads and foreign ones.

Andrea Tintor / Copyright Petra Mikšik

5. You believe that popular culture's contents can be of quality, too, which is what you write about in your columns. What do you think is the perception of popular culture in Croatia?

Primarily, I think this is a very complex topic because I think the quality of the content is quite variable. For example, there are great musicians, creatives who write blogs, record vlogs and podcasts, niche media with positive topics, and everyone can find content for themselves. But the quality of content on television, starting with reality shows, is very superficial. It is clear to me who the target audience is, but for television as a medium to survive, it must also affect a younger audience. I believe that the audience must be educated and think about the content they consume, which I write about on my page.

6. What advice would you give to young people, creatives, and talents thinking about entrepreneurship?

Simply – go for it! The world is big enough and full of possibilities for anyone who dares to think outside your comfort zone. I believe that in the age of digitalization and global connectivity, the impossible does not exist. Every goal takes time, so the sooner you start – the sooner it will be achieved.

7. How do you comment on the negative Croatian mindset? Do you believe that there are any positive changes in this regard?

I think it was imposed on us by spreading panic, misinformation, and political scandals through the general media. Young people and everyone who is fed up with such propaganda turn to other channels of information, follow the content that interests them, and gradually exclude themselves from that cacophony. Such an approach will, I believe, bring us positive changes in the long run.

Andrea Tintor / Copyright Petra Mikšik

8. One of your desires for the future is to expand globally and collaborate with the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. Can you explain your vision and what would it look like? What would this mean for the Croatian entertainment industry?

I don't like to talk about long-term plans in detail, because sometimes there are points that I have to agree on myself, and on the other hand I allow life to surprise me. What I can say is that in a month, the plan is to launch an education program for small entrepreneurs and creatives who need PR support to expand their brand. Next year will be a year of growth, new projects, returning to conferences, travel… There is a big project planned that will be realized from Zagreb, and then global domination will gradually start (laughs).

9. Also, in the future, you want to establish a foundation and academy for the education of young creatives. What are your other plans?

Establishing a foundation and academy to educate young creatives and talents is definitely on my list of life plans that should be realized in my fifties when I make one round from what I started, to what I accomplish. I believe that each individual must return to the community what has been given to them and invest in the younger generations who need support, be it educational, financial, or both.

I have many plans on paper and in my head, primarily to continue to act creatively, to try myself in some new media forms, to write and publish a book… But, all in good time.

You can follow Andrea Tintor on her page for more.

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