The second interview in the amazing coaching clients interview series is here and it’s a juicy conversation with Adelina Pavelescu, co-founder of Joyful Management. It covers career, mindset and business topics, with the red thread of change woven throughout our chat.
Adelina has been creating learning experiences with hundreds of people in Romania and Europe for the past 10 years. She has experience as a trainer, teacher, copywriter, project manager and manager.
She worked in the UK for a large food and dining company for three years. That’s where she became very much interested in organisational culture, structure, and performance.
At the start of 2024 Adelina and her partner co-founded a cool business together, called Joyful Management.
Read on to find out more about her experience and her current projects and the positive impact she makes.
Diana: Hi, Adelina!
Thank you for accepting my invitation for the interview! I’m delighted we’re doing this.
I’d love to get started by asking you a few questions about your career, mindset and business.
How does that sound?
Adelina: Bring it on!
Diana: Let’s begin!
Diana: What has your career trajectory been so far?
Adelina: It all started with a lot of volunteering and practical experiences. Ever since highschool I was involved in and running recruitment campaigns for a local NGO in Onești, my hometown. That’s when I also got involved in the Erasmus+ world, which back then was Youth in Action. For 2 years I also collaborated with a local newspaper, and had a local radio show designed for youth together with my colleagues in the NGO.
I know most people would start with their first job, but for me those 4 very active years in highschool marked a lot of who I am today, even if I wasn’t paid for it. I worked with hundreds of people in very diverse backgrounds, not only youth, but also children, adults, and seniors.
This continued in university, where I enrolled in 2 student NGOs and organised events for my colleagues. That was the part where I coordinated teams and large events, and also learned a lot of technical stuff, such as graphic design, social media, creating websites, events management, team management, PR, and the list can go on.
Even if I studied Communications and PR and I have a master degree in Marketing Strategies, my path was slightly different. I never worked in an agency or in a corporate environment. What I did though was to move to the UK, where I learned a lot about the food industry. I experienced many roles, from waiter, and private events staff, to restaurant supervising and management, then moved to sales and events coordination.
In 2020 I returned to Romania, and started working as a freelance copywriter, until I started my 2 year Teach for Romania program and became a primary school teacher.
The last 2 years have been full of even more changes, as I worked for a youth NGO doing everything communications and events wise.
And one year ago now, together with Adrian Miu, my partner, we started the Joyful Management Adventure.
Diana: How does your career look like now and what do you enjoy most about it?
Adelina: It is a mix of everything, since we are just beginning as entrepreneurs. Where Adrian had some other experiences in entrepreneurship, for me this is the first time growing a business.
What I enjoy the most is working with teams and observing how they collaborate, so I can then design experiences that support them in growing together healthy and effectively.
Diana: How did your focus on what you value in your career change throughout the years?
Adelina: I don’t think it changed fundamentally, I am just more aware of it now. I always focused on doing the right thing, contributing, bringing my whole self to the game when I truly believed in a cause. Also, doing things ethically, at a great quality, as well as creating real, meaningful connections are some principles I always had. Another focus that usually makes or breaks a work experience, be it on my own or with others: to feel good and joyful about what I am doing, and having the freedom to be curious and explore my creativity. And even if my context changed a lot, these things stayed with me throughout the years.
Diana: How has coaching with me help you shift your mindset?
Adelina: Back then I was very new to networking events as a business owner. And the struggle was huge. If before I was always just a curious bee, going into any conversation with no pressure, with this new context things changed. I was very clumsy at it, I wanted to talk about my business, I wanted to sell too, didn’t know how to manage it, I wasn’t either very good at understanding how to tell people what I did. And this started to make it very hard to just talk to people. The sessions I had with you helped me challenge myself, and approach things differently. Of course it didn’t change overnight, not the way I wanted, but step by step I managed.
Diana: Once those shifts were in motion, how did your behaviour change and what started happening for you?
Adelina: I started telling myself that I am not here to sell, I am here to just talk to people and be curious about them. Don’t imagine I was actually believing what I was saying :))) There was still a lot of pressure. But every event was better. I just exposed myself to contexts where I could exercise.
Diana: What helped you maintain positive changes in your day-to-day work?
Adelina: First of all, small successes. The fact that I could learn more and more about myself, actually doing the things I wanted to do (delivering workshops, thinking of strategies, developing resources and so on). Then, a major factor was that it’s two of us, me and my partner, and when one goes low, the other helps a lot. I think this is my biggest luck. And last, but not least, the awful thought of being an employee again. That one is quite scary and keeps me going. :))
Diana: I know you and Adrian created Joyful Management in 2024 and your mission is to support organisational transformation, so that people find their purpose in their work, they grow and use their creativity and autonomy. Tell me more about Joyful Management. Who do you help through your business and how?
Adelina: Long story short, we help teams collaborate better, using the principles and tools offered by Sociocracy 3.0. We believe that every business exists through its people, and our view is that entrepreneurs could benefit more from the collective intelligence of their teams if they learn how to delegate effectively, understand their roles and the roles their businesses need to grow, and bring the right people to those roles, in the right way.
Diana: What have been the most significant challenges in the first year of business and what has helped you surpass them?
Adelina: We are still in the first year, and there were quite a few challenges.
Firstly, we had no idea of the market we were getting into. We thought we did our research, but oh, boy, how wrong were we. We realized along the way that our competition is years away in many aspects. Then, it was the lack of brand awareness. No one knew us, and no one understood what we were doing. That is still a challenge, but at least now we have a more clear picture of where we sit and what we have to offer, which makes it easier. And last, but not least, joggling with product development, delivering to clients, communicating our business (Social Media, website, events, partnerships, newsletters etc.), and sales. Especially when you wanna do everything right. 🙂
What helped us along the way was being together, and having a system. We started using S3 in our business from day 0, and everytime we were struggling with anything, we were getting back to basics: the patterns and the principles that give us structure, not only in our work, but in our everyday life.
Diana: What interesting projects are you working on at the moment?
Adelina: One of our long term objectives is to educate young people, and support them getting prepared for adulthood, with everything that comes their way, both personally and professionally. Which is why we decided to do our part of Social Responsibility independently of how our business goes.
We started with an Erasmus+ Project, ConnectiON Vibes, that aims to help young people connect through deep conversations, no matter their backgrounds and the differences between one another.
There is also another Erasmus+ project that we hope to have approved anytime soon, focusing on filling the gaps between young people and employers, through dialogue and mutual understanding of how they could collaborate more effectively.
And last, but not least, together with some friends we are creating an NGO to follow pretty much the same purpose. We will reveal everything most likely around February 2025.
Diana: What type of business do you feel both driven and capable to support the most in the next 2 years?
Adelina: Our focus would be on businesses with at least 10 employees, particularly those in industries like IT, financial services, and marketing, dedicated to creating collaborative environments and empowering their teams to work autonomously, and open to learning how to do it.
However, this is my answer now, in early December 2024. We will most probably learn new lessons along the way, and adapt our strategy accordingly. One thing is certain: our mission of helping organizations transform the way they do management, with a focus on their people, and how they work together, will stay the same, and we are working every day towards achieving it.
Diana: Adelina, it has been a delight to interview you.
Thank you for making the time to answer my questions and I hope Joyful Management brings joy to many smart businesses in the future.
