Twenty-nine year old marketing strategist and creative consultant Bec Dujin has always liked being the centre of attention. Growing up she was a drama kid, and all her friends thought she’d be an actress and her parents thought she’d be a newsreader.
Now, as she successfully navigates her career, it’s evident she’s able to use her love of the spotlight to make others shine.
She’s been working independently since January, and although she’s not making movies or publicly commenting on the state of affairs, you’d be hard pressed to find a creative in the region who doesn’t know who she is, particularly since she took on the role of marketing manager for the recently happened This is Not Art Festival. Bec also helped launch the wildly successful The Impossible, an ongoing night-markets event at the Edwards Bar.
“Going out on my own has given me a chance to have ownership of my work and stick to my causes,” Bec said. “Starting off, I intended to spend the first few months on my brand and website, but then I got so caught up in the momentum of helping other projects get off the ground that my own marketing has taken a back seat!”
Along with doing all these things she also happens to be the Roost’s very own general manager, and we’re already seeing awesome changes at the Roost due to her direction.
Bec’s journey to the Roost is an interesting one, one which she herself never would have originally predicted.
Bec received her Bachelors in Communication in Theatre and Media from Charles Sturt University.
“I was inspired to move to Bathurst — one of my drama teachers had studied there and I always admired her very unique approach, which was developed as a result of this particular degree,” Bec said. “My family took a little convincing, I was only 17 and moving seven hours away. But they were proud as I was the first in my family to go to uni, even if my training was to juggle and twirl fire.”
Bec’s father is Bosnian and her mother is Serbian. Neither of her parents were born in Australia, and Bec speaks fluent Serbo-Croatian. She comes from a massive food culture, and one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do was tell her parents she’s a vegetarian, though they’ve now come to accept it.
Apart from a role in an Ingham Chicken Commercial (in Bec’s pre-vegetarian days), a play about the Bali bombings at Bathurst Entertainment Centre and depicting a teenager with mental health symptoms for a psychology training video, Bec’s acting career was a short one. After she finished uni in 2006 she travelled overseas, returned home and then promptly moved to Sydney where she started working for a ticketing company, which promoted national concerts and theatre shows. Bec now has a rather impressive collection of theatre programs and show merchandise she hopes to pass on to a Phantom of The Opera enthusiast in the near future.
It was through her job in Sydney Bec discovered marketing was her calling.
In 2011 she moved back to Newcastle and joined a local branding agency called Mezzanine Media and went back to university to get her Master’s Degree in Marketing.
“It was a sense of trying to find out who I was and where I wanted to take my career,” Bec said of her time at Mezzanine. “I felt like a creative person without a tangible creative output, which was something I struggled with.”
Now, her work is her creative outlet, and she pulls all these different worlds together, using her marketing skills to build spirit, community and wonder.
“Leaving agency life to pursue my true passion has brought excitement, relief and a sense of responsibility,” she said. “Now working at a community level, I’m able to bring culture and creative experiences to a wider public.”
She’s found her time at the Roost has helped her go in the direction she wants, due to the networking opportunities, convenient location and like-minded peers. She spends half a day a week managing the Roost, and she sees so much potential for the space.
“The evolutionary nature of the Roost allows people who are working in it to take ownership and make their mark,” she said. “This is why we love optimistic and engaged members — I can’t do it all myself, but I can certainly drive the vision forward and facilitate change. Our growth depends on our community banding together; the more dedicated members that we have, the more the Roost is capable is of.”
To get in touch with Bec visit her website (she promises to update it soon) or search “Talk to Bec” on Facebook.
Photos courtesy of Rooster and Photographer Justin Aaron.