Meet Me Monday: Jana Liivandi

Shortly said, I’m a (wo)man of 9 jobs. Wife and a mother at home, comedian and optimist to my friends. Creative-, project- and customer relations’ manager at work. Daughter, sister, gatherer and a grape farmer at my childhood home. As a hardcore marketing fanatic, I highly appreciate the inner spark and motivation to work in people. I frantically love the first whiff of the spring and the greenery that’s just starting to blossom.

3 unpredictable facts about you:

The first and maybe even the most shocking fact is that one of my first pets as a child was a chicken. Because I’m a country girl by roots and I’ve grown up between the pristine forests of Estonia, then I’ve come across many different beings and at that moment a chicken seemed to be the most reasonable friend to me.

I’m an undercover poetess. I have many poems that have stayed in my drawer that I refine now and then. Because I love poems then last year, I asked every one of my birthday guests to write a poem about me. Of course, they had no clue that me, on the other hand, had written humorous poems about all 31 guests. This got them quite excited.

I really love humour – I don’t put that on the table right away usually, but I open myself up when I feel like I know the person pretty well already.

You’re an EBS alumni. Why did you decide to study entrepreneurship and chose EBS at that time?

I must admit, after high school I didn’t have a clear vision about who I wanted to become. I decided to study Administration and Archival Science at Tallinna Kergetööstustehnikum and I also went to work as a public servant to Tallinn City Government. I thought that this was it, I was going to be a public servant but fortunately for me, at the time my school was located under the same roof with EBS and then the idea started to grow that maybe marketing and leading could be something for me. In addition to that, my future husband was studying at EBS and his study materials were really interesting to me. The decision to study at EBS turned my perception of the world around, I gained a lot of courage, the will to act, new contacts and useful knowledge.

As a fan of marketing, you have established an advertisement agency Adark. Where did you get that idea and how much did the knowledge from EBS really help you on the way?

It’s a small creative agency which offers a full service of marketing as of today. A client gets the full experience – we offer them everything from the idea to manufacturing to instalments. The main services include developing creative solutions, packaging and campaigns, branding and execution of different advertisement materials. For the client, the advantage is that compared to other agencies we offer them personal project management, we take fast action and we are flexible in both time and cost, which means that every little action doesn’t cost. Long-term relationship with the client is based on humane aspects such as relying on and trusting each other, listening and discussion.

From your experience, what are three of the most important characteristics that an entrepreneur should have?

Full commitment – if you are stepping on the entrepreneurship carrousel, you have to keep in mind that you can’t easily step off halfway. You must wrap your head around the fact that if needed, you’ll work 24/7 and unfortunately this means the time is coming as a sacrifice to other things – family, gym, friends, vacations. I definitely don’t want to scare anyone away with my statement, because it actually is a great experience. Even if it doesn’t succeed, you should try it out anyways.
The ability to include right people – it’s one of the most important things because you won’t sail far alone.
Learning from mistakes – no one isn’t perfect but it’s important to acknowledge your mistakes and be smarter next time to take a different action.

What’s the key to success?

It’s a mix of different components – great communication skills and self-awareness, spark in your eyes, learning from your mistakes and the right timing. Of course, you’ll need a little bit of luck also.

You created a small vineyard this summer. What plans do you have with it for the future? Could see your wine in the stores in the future, and when?

I’ve always thought that I’d like to do something with my own hands. When I discovered Estonian grapes, the idea was immediately sold. I think of putting some local edible grapes on the market and a juice after that. I am writing my masters thesis in where I’m examining consumers’ preferences and factors affecting their purchasing decisions with the example of table grapes, so that I could gather as much information as possible to know which vine plants to grow in my vineyard in the future. Because growing plants is a long process, I won’t be waiting for any harvest in 5-7 years. But I’m already excited to know what my own organic grapes are going to taste like.

I’m not looking towards wine world right now, but I won’t rule it out for the future either.