Digital avatars: MARGITA & MAYA
*The following article was originally in Croatian
Written by: Danijela Kušen, June 6, 2024
We met the creative digital marketing duo that not only exudes an exceptionally infectious positive energy but also possesses incredible knowledge and experience like few teams do. By the age of 25, they had worked at some of the most prominent marketing agencies in the region – from Bruketa&Žinić&Grey to 404 marketing agency. In the past year, they have forged a new path, launching their own business, MiMs Digital, with a primary focus on digital marketing.
eternall.hr: How did your collaboration start?
Margita: "We complement each other, We are driven by the same ambition."
Maya's faith in both of us initiated everything. Despite starting our careers with different visions, the same ambition drives us. This "unplanned path" turned out to be the best. After working together as freelancers, we realized how perfectly we complement each other in business, agree on important matters, and share the same aspirations. It only remained to say, "Whatever happens, happens – at worst, we’ll say: we tried."
Maya: "Crisis is also an opportunity..."
Many situations, both positive and negative, prompted us to start this venture. Honestly, we didn’t have a detailed plan as work came in the form of new projects and clients, which we gladly accepted. Those projects opened doors to new opportunities. Initial successes gave us a boost, and from the beginning, it was clear that the dynamic between us is a rare find; this strengthened my belief in our collaboration. I found a second half in Margita, both professionally and personally, and knew we had the potential to create our own business – which today is MiMs Digital.
eternall.hr: Margita, what would you say about yourself?
Margita:
Hmm… I love having focus, persistence, determination, organization, and continuously honing myself through discipline. This combination has been ingrained in me since childhood, thanks to sports. I started training in figure skating at the age of four and volleyball at ten. When you’re a kid, sports really define you – especially sports like figure skating that you practically live. Daily training for hours, weekend performances, getting up at 6 AM for events, leaving daycare and after-school programs for training, unconditionally listening to coaches, and the famous phrase "can't and don't know don’t exist." This is how I function even today – can't and don't know don’t exist as arguments.
The combination of sports and life obstacles I faced over the years ultimately influenced my persistence and determination. Although that’s my character, life teaches you certain things. It might sound strange because I’m only 25, but life doesn’t ask how old you are for certain things; it just presents situations, and it’s up to you to choose what you’ll make of yourself and which path you’ll take.
"The blend of the two of us was quite sudden and natural." – Margita
eternall.hr: Maya, please tell us a few words about yourself as well.
Maya:
I think the first thing I’d say is that I actually don’t like talking about myself. That’s why people often don’t have a complete picture of me. Maybe I lack the trait of 'boasting' and 'self-promotion,' but that’s something I’ve been learning from the start of my career and even today. I don’t like proving myself to others in that way – I believe my knowledge and skills are best seen through my work. But if I had to describe myself, I’d say I’m always working on myself, from skills and knowledge to mental and physical health. This has led to great versatility in my life and work. I consider myself self-taught – I’ve independently learned many aspects of digital marketing (design, web, post-production) and developed many interests such as photography. A few more words to describe myself would be curious, creative, and a perfectionist (sometimes that’s great, sometimes not so much). Whatever I do, from hobbies to work, I always give my maximum.
eternall.hr: What is your backstory? You mentioned that one of your parents was in the corporate world and the other in production. How did your interest in digital marketing start, and what preceded it?
Margita:
My family never forced my sister or me to choose what we should do in life, nor did they impose anyone else’s vision of our lives. There was no "you must have straight A’s, you must finish this high school, you must enroll in this college," etc. Their philosophy (and they still have it) was that everyone should find their own path and do what they want, but it’s most important to always give your best. Whatever you do, it’s important to be happy but also to strive.
In my immediate family, there are no entrepreneurs; my parents have always worked in corporations. When you hear about something your whole life, you feel like you know it best and want to go that route. Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone, but it does for many.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m a very determined person and a big planner. In the sixth grade, I decided I wanted to go to the First Economic School. Initially, it was because "my mom went there"... but realistically, who knows what they want to do in life at 12 or 13 years old? Things got interesting when I went for career orientation and counseling for high school – they advised me against anything involving numbers, especially technical schools and economics. I have diagnosed difficulties from the dyslexia spectrum (omission, dysgraphia, and substitution), which were quite evident. They said they believed I would struggle in such schools. The same advice was given for college – no Economics. We can confidently say that when I set my mind to something, I don’t listen to others. Sometimes it’s a big flaw, but in this case, I’m glad I didn’t listen. When I enrolled in the First Economic School, it took me 3 minutes to realize that accounting as a branch of economics wouldn’t see me. That’s how I found out that marketing interested me the most. I still stand by that decision today.
Maya:
My backstory is quite different from Margita’s – my parents are entrepreneurs with several businesses, and my plans for the future, previously often changed. My parents always demanded hardwork and effort from me, but I always had complete freedom to choose where to invest that effort. I got used to this dynamic and freedom early on, and I watched their lives, which represented something I wanted for myself. They were my first examples of people who work and live successfully from jobs they genuinely love, and they taught me that I could set my life up the same way, but of course, with hard work.
Because of this mindset, I’d say I’ve always been hardworking, and I grew up with a full schedule – some long-term and some short-term hobbies – swimming, skiing, tennis, dancing, gymnastics, etc. From high school, academic success became important to me as I started linking it with some sense of security – a combination of ambition and fear for the future. The path to digital marketing was long but spontaneous. From a young age, I loved expressing creativity, leading to many different interests. For years I took dance and went to music school – hobbies that lasted. At 9, I bought my first ‘greenscreen’ and fell in love with video creation, at 10 I discovered my mom’s camera, at 11 social networks, and started publishing my versions of ‘artistic photos’ – as much as they could be called that at a young age. This sparked my love for technology, naturally. I started taking photography seriously at 20, leading to several cool opportunities – photographing Marko Kutlić for his single cover, Florencia from The Voice, and of course, my dad, Tomo in der Muhlen, who is also a DJ. Overall, I think my backstory is based on continuously perfecting interests that in the end connect into a complete picture.
As for school, I completed four years at ZŠEM (Zagreb School of Economics and Management), majoring in Economics and Management in English, and I am currently a student in the MSc program for Marketing and Digital Media at ESCP Business School in Madrid.
eternall.hr: All interviews start with questions about experience, but we are most interested in where you get your incredible infectious energy :) How did you meet?
Margita:
We met at the 404 agency. We were hired in the same department for the same position, two months apart – Social Department, Community Manager position.
Maya:
We collaborated a lot within the department, which were the initial moments of working together. That’s likely why we later realized it was a good idea to work together in a new type of environment.
Margita:
As for the energy… I don’t even know how to answer that, but everyone tells us – "we love your energy," "you have infectious energy," etc. I think it’s just the energy we have as a duo. I’m glad others feel it positively around us. Maybe the positive energy in our communication comes from our excitement about developing the business, ambition, joy in work in general, and pushing boundaries.
Maya:
I think our energy is a mix of various feelings – from fear, stress, and challenges to excitement, happiness, and satisfaction. I’d say our enjoyment in what we do and with whom we work is evident. The dynamic is excellent and honestly, we have fun. So we appreciate that compliment, taking it as confirmation that we are building quality relationships and that what we feel is visible on the outside.
eternall.hr: You are very young for entrepreneurs; what inspired you to venture into entrepreneurship?
Margita:
After acquiring several clients, Maya suggested we become business partners. At first, I wasn’t for it because my initial goal was to go into a corporation and build a career there.
What made me change my mind and ultimately decide to go private? Maya. Not in the way you might think – she didn’t persuade me. We have great respect for each other, and there’s no forcing anything one of us doesn’t 100% want or is even slightly unsure about. I changed my mind when I saw how we function as a duo, how much fun we have, how well we work together, and how we complement each other. I wouldn’t do this alone, and I wouldn’t venture into this "private path" and this business with anyone else. I think each of us could do this alone equally well, but the greatest beauty lies in not having to.
Maya:
I always had the mindset that I wanted to be an entrepreneur eventually, but everything started much earlier than I expected. That’s why we always say our path was spontaneous and natural because each of us had our plans, but each realized that our joint plans were even better. While negotiating the first bigger client collaboration, it became clear to me that this could be more serious than what I initially thought. The more we worked together, the more excited we became and the more we believed in our potential. I think we both became more optimistic and ready to take the risk of "working for ourselves" because we proved to ourselves that we could. Today, it feels like ‘MiMs Digital’ is our child, and we genuinely want it to develop into what we believe it can be.
"What we can say is that we followed that ‘gut feeling,’ embraced various opportunities, and everything just fell into place. The main feeling for both of us – excitement. Since we started, we think we found a new source of motivation and happiness."
eternall.hr: What gives you the best inspiration for projects?
Margita:
I would say the client and the potential we see in them – we always get excited when a new project starts. After analysing current profiles and the state of networks, websites, PR, etc., as soon as we get a picture of how it functions now, we know immediately what we would correct/change/improve.
We also inspire each other greatly; our ‘brainstorming’ involves complementing each other’s thoughts, ideas, approaches...
Maya:
Surely what Margita says, that potential we see, which clients often don’t see themselves. I think we truly love what we do – our clients feel, see, and ultimately appreciate that. We will never suggest something we don’t believe in. Our goal is to give the client our maximum and do the best for that project. That’s why we continually reflect on our work for clients and explore areas for improvement. We practically treat their brands as our own, and with that mindset, it’s not hard to be inspired.
eternall.hr: What projects are you currently working on?
Margita:
Currently, our primary work is Social Media Marketing, although we offer much more than just social services. Services we offer and want to focus on, besides social, include personal branding, website creation, email marketing, consulting, content creation, advertising, videography and photography, strategy creation for both social media and the entire digital segment of the client’s business.
Maya:
Although we can’t reveal which projects are in the pipeline yet, we can say that we are fortunate that since we started, new projects have been constantly coming in. Consequently, now we’ll use a “classic marketing trick,” but... for more information about what we do and with whom, check out our website: MiMs Digital.
Maya: "This is a journey for us – we are building ourselves and our business, developing a client portfolio, and learning from every experience. We are proud of our satisfied clients, we are growing, and we believe that time, work, and effort will bring the rest."
eternall.hr: What are your future plans (those you wish to reveal :))
Margita:
Good question, hahaha, we are working on them. We started our first year of business in the summer of 2023. The first year is challenging by itself, and we made it even more difficult by deciding to start a business before Maya moved to Madrid. What we can say about the future is – to continue growing.
Maya:
I think a lot still awaits us in business and our partnership – we have many ideas in the air and plans for the future. We hope that growth will continue at the same pace as it has so far. We are daily developing a vision for our brand and for us personally – we are never short of inspiration and ideas; we just sometimes wish the day had 48 hours instead of 24.
Margita Miše and Maya in der Muhlen – young, capable, and energetic women with a powerful weapon: an infectious smile and optimism
Article / Interview created by Eternall.hr in collaboration with Margita Miše and Maya in der Muhlen