Sanja Kon describes herself as a digital executive and international keynote speaker with a passion for coaching, spirituality and self development.
She was born in Sarajevo in a mixed marriage, moved to Italy before war broke out, attended one of Europe's top universities, and has settled (for now) in the UK where she is currently the CEO of Utrust, a disruptive Fintech blockchain crypto currency company.
Prior to running a start-up she held a number of senior positions at eBay, PayPal, and Vodafone.
A multilingual communicator, Sanja has a proven track of building and leading international teams in challenging commercial environments. She is fascinated by how technological innovation impacts our lives, constantly investigating new start-ups that will shape our future.
She is a mentor and advisor to various start-ups within accelerators and incubator programmes. and is a regular speaker at international conferences, sharing her vision and knowledge on how the digital landscape impacts consumer’s behaviour.
To top it all off Sanja is also deeply involved in diversity and inclusion as a mentor and coach to women leaders. She says she loves helping leaders around the world to regain their confidence and overcome their self-limiting beliefs.
Wowsers. She's a bit of a rock star really isn't she?
In her late 20s she started to become interested in life coaching, a concept that in Italy at the time was still not commonplace. She hired a coach from the US, she started to invest in herself each year - helping her move from the big corporate world.
Now on Barefoot she is looking to give back, by focusing on coaching and in time developing her own practice.
She has a morning routine where she doesn't read emails or social media, she meditates for 15 minutes, and tries to exercise if she can. When this slips, it really negatively impacts her day. The course already is helping her become a better leader. Helping her say no to other things that compete for her time and attention.
She is learning more and more about being present, and although she thought she was a good listener, there is so much more you can do - to give your time to someone, and be there. Not reading emails, focusing on them, and demonstrate you are really listening.
She is a goal setter herself, monthly goals, weekly goals. But she encourages her team to review their life goals every six months - are you happy here in this environment, if not, it's time to look at another challenge, another role or even consider leaving the company.
We also discussed when she is at her peak, and what floats her boat - she has come to realise it is all really about the small things, to be grateful every day.
Her insight on life is to be the CEO of your own time.
I love that sentiment.
If you enjoy listening to this podcast why not check out some of the others in season 1 & 2. Or perhaps you fancy taking part yourself? If so why not get in touch. You can find me via LinkedIn or Twitter