We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jelena Jemi Miladinovic . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jelena Jemi below.
Jelena Jemi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I want to leave a sense of security and happiness to people I cross paths with. I love long lasting friendships and believe that it’s very important to keep the relationships. While I was working in the safe house and was involved in rescuing human trafficked children, I saw the importance of being there for someone who is going through hard times, even when they have a smile on their faces. The hard times go away, and anyone can get back to feeling better and happy again; especially the good people who decide to ‘keep going’.
I would like to be remembered as someone anyone could rely on, who was truthful and who brought smiles and laughter to people’s lives.
Jelena Jemi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I moved to the US in 2010. It was one of the most exciting times of my life because I was a Serbian National Team rower who just got a scholarship at USC and was about to meet a lot of amazing girls from all over the world that came to the university the same way as I did. In 2013, we won the fourth place at NCAA which is the best place USC women’s rowing team ever won, and I am proud of that legacy we left behind us. After I decided to ‘retire’ from the sports, I got involved in rescuing human trafficked children ages 11-17. At this job I worked on my confidence where I was convinced that I can rescue anyone who calls and my rescues over the phone have been a success. At this job I had to treat every call we received seriously, and I used to get calls from girls that tried to report the now famous Epstein case, but they were too scared to give the names at that time, they just called them ‘many powerful people’. Some of the cases were tightly connected with police and the FBI. I liked helping out with the cases and I always liked meeting the new intakes who got rescued. This safe house closed and I found myself a new professional path in private aviation.
I learned the basics of the private aviation and I used to create accounts for the private aviation companies and pilots. Through this company I learned that a lot of big companies like Starbucks, McDonalds and Netflix have their private airplanes. This is a software company and helps out pilots and dispatchers to create the most cost efficient trips. Private aviation companies can save millions of dollars by using this calculator called tankering and in the end the software subscription pays off itself.
As a hobby I never fully stopped training. I love running and eating well (plus my weakness, eating sweets), which helps me continue modeling on the side and creating videos for social media. With my boyfriend, I’m planning to open a page that would probably be called Idem Na Put (I’m going on a trip) which would be a guide for Balkan people who are coming to the US for the first time.
Any advice for managing a team?
I come from the team sport background. In rowing, the motto is all for one, one for all. Each person cares about the teammate in the boat because when we are healthy, strong and synchronized, our performance will be good and we can win the race. I like to have this mentality in the workplace as well. As a company to be strong and business to be good, the team also should support and be there for each other. Business, like a team sport is people trusting and supporting each other and that mentality should often be praised, especially when the hard moments strike.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Quickly deciding what’s not important for my future growth, especially stopping thoughts that would bring me in the circles is a type of resilience I developed while living in the US. That is because I came here by myself and I had to rely mostly on myself making decisions and moving forward. From teenage years, I had to make decisions like where I will live, what I will eat, how to organize the best my schedule so I can be efficient at school, work and social life. My friendships are very important to me so I always put them in the top of my lists of priorities.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @jemzzi (https://www.instagram.com/jemzzi/)
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jelena.miladinovic.100?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.licdn.com%2Fdms%2Fimage%2FC5603AQHfupHzts9qlg%2Fprofile-displayphoto-shrink_200_200%2F0%2F1565801414184%3Fe%3D2147483647%26v%3Dbeta%26t%3DPMbXLij5Xp9bhRHMv739_3jQbhVYLdqKtvV9QWgQ8Fs&tbnid=FRlGdlLgX0hfxM&vet=12ahUKEwj28q-hjPWDAxVNL0QIHdAmB9UQMygPegUIARDLAQ..i&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fpub%2Fdir%2FJelena%2FMiladinovi%25C4%2587&docid=6KhwJUsbHYvPHM&w=200&h=200&itg=1&q=jelena%20miladinovic%20linkedin&hl=en-us&client=safari&ved=2ahUKEwj28q-hjPWDAxVNL0QIHdAmB9UQMygPegUIARDLAQ
Image Credits
Jackie Vidal, Matt Stasi, Raeshib Aggerwhil