Alumni Magazine Issue 4

Choosing the ‘Victor’ Mentality Sanja Tesic (nee Romcevic) BACHELOR OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CLASS OF 2005 “Live your life to its full potential – don’t give up on your dreams. Only you can make them happen!” Sanja Tesic is an author, inspirational speaker, career and mindset coach and mother of twin two-year-old girls. At age eight, Sanja became a child refugee. Sanja and her family sought refuge in various republics within the former Yugoslavia for five years, and at age 13 she immigrated to Australia. She did not speak, write or understand English. Sanja has flourished in all aspects of her life since completing her bachelor’s degree. In 2005 she was successful in attaining human resources positions at the City of Perth and the City of Melville where she grew both personally and professionally. Her career progressed to a Senior Human Resources Advisor and regularly saw her undertaking tasks at management level. Adding to her list of qualifications, Sanja is a certified Neuro Linguistic Programming Practitioner and has completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. While on an 18-month career break, and enjoying the journey of motherhood, Sanja achieved one of her life goals; writing her book Born to Bloom – From Hardship to Happiness , an inspirational biography and story of a war refugee who chooses a victor mentality to succeed. “You see, I am Sanja. The war didn’t kill me, it made me stronger,” says Sanja. Passionate about using her unique gifts and experiences to help others to realise and reach their full potential, in 2014 Sanja founded Blue Gerbera, a coaching business which offers online, one-on-one coaching and group workshops. She specialises in providing young adults with direction to find clarity and follow their purpose. “It is not what happens to us, it is how we react to it. The power of mindset.” This year has been full of excitement and wonderful accomplishments for Sanja. Highlights include speaking alongside Jelena Dokic at this year’s International Women’s Day Luncheon at Crown Perth, success as a Western Australian finalist for the AusMumpreneur Multicultural Business Excellence Award, and her book Born to Bloom now being sold in bookstores and held in library collections across Western Australia. Next year is already looking exciting for Sanja with more speaking engagements planned and her book being translated and published in her mother tongue, Serbo-Croatian, which will be released internationally. B U S I N E S S Alumni Magazine – Page 10