LUCIANA GRANDE
Entrepreneur | Utopia S.A.S – Communication Agency
LUCIANA GRANDE's story - Entrepreneur | Utopia S.A.S – Communication Agency
When I started this journey with Private Community, I didn't know exactly what to expect. I was looking for something that would stimulate me, that would help me keep growing. I'd already been an entrepreneur for many years, but I'm a naturally curious person. I call myself a "disciple of life", and for me learning is a journey with no end.
Over time I've understood something fundamental: it's not worth forcing yourself to be something you're not. Everyone faces difficulties in a different way. I, for instance, don't tackle them head-on. I go around them, I find alternative routes. For a long time I believed that was a limitation. Today I know it's simply my way. And that's fine.
The Community helped me recognise this side of myself and make it truly mine. Of course, personal growth is a complex journey full of different influences, but Private has without doubt been one of the most fertile and transformative tracks.
Over the last two years, partly thanks to constant discussion with the Community, I've been through one of the most delicate and powerful passages of my professional life: the generational handover with my daughter Irene. It wasn't a sudden change, but a gradual, clear-eyed and shared evolution.
We listened to each other deeply. She's impulsive, visionary, fast. I'm reflective, pragmatic, organised. Two seemingly distant worlds that we learnt to bring into dialogue. Private Community's tools, like the work on behavioural styles, helped us understand each other better on a personal level too. Today Irene is my business partner, but above all a woman I deeply admire.
Together we reviewed the company's Vision, Mission and values, imagining Utopia's future not just as a digital agency, but as a point of reference for building personal brands and image analysis. It's a concrete evolution, and it's already bearing fruit.
One episode that struck me in particular concerns the choice of our new company structure. I was unsure whether to set up an S.R.L. I discussed it with other entrepreneurs in the Community, I heard similar stories, direct experiences, practical advice. That discussion was worth more than any formal consultancy. So I chose, with awareness and shared input: we became an S.A.S.
Within the company I've always believed in collaboration, not hierarchy. There are seven of us, all women. Each of us knows we can speak freely, and we work in synergy. We've built a process map with roles, primary and secondary skills, and ready-to-use plan Bs. It's not common, but for us it's essential. It's our way of working well and living better.
I believe in leadership that doesn't impose, but listens. For me, a company is a raft with many oars: everyone rows in their own way, but all in the same direction.
The mindset work also transformed my relationship with my daughter: from being at odds, we became a team. Each of us with her own pace, her own role. She's a Go-Getter, I'm a Nurturer. And today we know how much we need each other.
And, after all, it's no coincidence that Irene chose a husband who... is so much like me! A sign that certain balances really do work.
And then there was that moment, during one of the Mindset Booster exercises, when I understood how much my relationship with my father had shaped my life. He would have wanted a son. To feel "enough", I learnt to solder, take apart and rebuild computers. I became a geek. And only then did I understand why. That awareness gave a new meaning to my entire journey.
Today, after more than thirty years of experience, I could think I've already seen it all. But that's not the case. I still want to keep learning. And Private gives me the push to do it every day, with a clear purpose: to contribute to other people's wellbeing, even before my own. This is what guides me.
The financial benefit? It came. But as a natural consequence. When you do the right things, in the right way, results follow. It's not a promise. It's a fact.
If Irene keeps evolving, I've done my part. And I'll keep doing it for as long as I'm enjoying it. I still fancy taking apart the odd PC... but above all I want to watch this company grow, a company that today is truly ours, with its own style, its own strength, its own beauty.
For me, Private hasn't just been a course. It's been a journey inside myself. And, above all, a shared journey. And I know it will carry on being one.