Hello there! I’m Maria – half creativity, half strategy, and a soul with a passion for people, communication, beauty, human mind, and behavior.
I inhale curiosity, and exhale dreams and ideas, but most importantly I love to learn and to create.
My strongest desire is to shape the best version of myself so that through everything I become (as a human being and as a professional), I will make a positive impact both in my life and in the lives of others.
Professionally speaking, I am … whatever it’s necessary in a given situation. I am joking, but there is a lot of truth in that.
I am a multi-passionate entrepreneur, Creative Director (working in Marketing since 2014), Director & Screenwriter of Popotam Productions – Video Agency. Let me detail that – as a:
- Creative Director – I make concepts based on a strategic and creative approach.
- Screenwriter – I develop the concept into an effective and engaging script.
- Director – I imagine the script into a visual form. I also make sure that everything is on the same page until the project is delivered.
But how did I get here?
Let’s start from the beginning…
I was born curious on a Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Simeria (Hunedoara county), and I chose to stay like this all my childhood. I played the piano, danced, drew, made clothes for dolls, I had a band … but most importantly, I asked questions to discover the world.
My curiosity grew up with me. The things around caught my attention more and more, and I had a calling to discover them.
In high school (CND Deva), I chose a real profile, because I believed that creativity also needs well-structured thinking. Here, among the equations with radicals, I kept my philological sense and began to analyse the texts of the poems, also out of a natural curiosity to understand the feelings behind the words. This helped me develop my writing of thoughts, ideas, personal poems, and, later on, stories in various forms.
My life as a student
After graduation I moved to Timisoara where I finished Landscape Architecture. I’ve made this choice because I thought it was a great place for creativity. From the first year of University, I took dance classes. Later on, in the 2nd year, I got my first job, out of the desire to be financially independent, but also to invest in my passion for dance.
All this time, Curiosity had not left. “She” was my roommate, so “she” had asked me to open a door for NLP – to understand better what was behind human behavior. Since then I started to dedicate myself to the study in the area of ”human brain & behaviors”. At first with low speed, then more and more in-depth.
Unlike other young people (who know what career they want to pursue or at least choose something) as I grew up … I felt like I have some acute “software error”, and I was getting more and more confused. Why? Because I didn’t know what I wanted.
I just wanted to create by making a mix of my passions.
Therefore I refused to accept compromises, so I kept looking.
In the 3rd year of University, in 2014, I started my activity in Marketing. Here my curiosity became a serious job. My desire to always create and learn something new was nurtured: I played with graphic design, I was a social media junior, then I made my way to social media manager. I created local and national campaigns where I was involved in the whole development – from creative briefs, analysis, strategy, pitch participations, castings, to many emails and phone calls, photo sessions, and video commercials.
This whole journey was due to the fact that I am a multi-passionate soul; the truth is that as much as I love creation, I love analysis, strategy, and entrepreneurship as well.
Diversity is my balance, and learning is my relaxation.
This is how I fed my curiosity until now:
- I am NLP Master Practitioner
- I have read and listened to many books that have enriched me with valuable lessons from authors such as: Grant Cardone. Al Ries, Jack Trout, Simon Sinek, Oran Klaff, Maxwell Maltz, Seth Godin, Blake Snyder. Herb Cohen, Stephen R. Covey, Scott Cochrane, Carl Sewell, Paul B. Brown. George Lois, Napoleon Hill, Bob Proctor, David Schwartz. Bruce Lipton, Joe Vitale, Earl Nightingale, Jack Canfield, Joe Dispenza, Mark Manson, etc.
- I have taken numerous courses and masterclasses on:
Filmmaking, Writing, Creativity, Professional Development, Photography, Make-up, Personal Development, Neuro-Marketing, Advertising.
- I immersed myself in tens of thousands of hours of video or written material: Filmmaking, Story Structure, Writing. Marketing, Advertising, Branding, Creativity. Sales, Communication, Neuroscience, Negotiation, Human Brain & Behavior, Leadership, Personal Development, etc.
Back to the story.
In 2016 I met Costin, my boyfriend, who became my business partner later on. He’s the one that made me want to know more about cinematography, and taught me to value my time and my know-how. Also, he taught me to love quality more than I did before, and I am very grateful for that.
One thing that I love the most is that he is very organized, talented, and he has a lot of funny stories (just for me. haha). If you want to read more about him, you can click here, but after you finish my article.
Now, back to the present. The full transition to Video Concepts & Directing (2018) was natural and came at a time of clarity, when all my experience gained so far, passions for structure, analysis, gestures, and words, cinema and entrepreneurship teamed up.
Today, after many years of experimenting and working to discover myself, I created my own mix.
Both as an Entrepreneur, Creative Director & Director, and through the projects I am going to develop, I make sure to nurture my passions and I bring a lot of value by giving back everything I have learned and experienced so far.
Final thoughts
This year (in August 2021) we moved to Cluj-Napoca … and I am very happy that I dared to open my mind and my soul to new adventures. I am looking forward to meet new people and to bring to the table everything I’ve become so far.
Thanks for taking the time to know me better.
See you around and till the next time: invest in yourself and remember to be kind!
