Storytelling & Communication Expert, Advocate, Author &TEDx Organizer Ana Denis

When I moved to the Netherlands to launch my startup, I thought I was getting some kind of MBA and I could always go back. Four months later, the war began — and suddenly I realized that staying is my only option. Overnight, I lost half of my business. My investment was frozen. And for the first time in years, I panicked.

I had changed careers before. I had built businesses. But this time felt different. I was in a new country, in a new culture, without the language, without stability. Because of the war, I was under a lot of pressure — including pressure from my home country, where people like me are labeled “traitors.”

I felt helpless. A war is terrifying on its own — but the state I was in made everything heavier. I couldn’t function. Every morning my hands would shake, as if my body understood the danger before my mind could catch up.

How do you start from zero, from scratch?

After some therapy and soul-searching, I asked myself a simple question: What have I always wanted to do but never allowed myself to start?
The answer was immediate — write a book.

So I decided to explore exactly this: how do you start from scratch in midlife? I began interviewing people who had reinvented their careers, asking each person to recommend someone else. One conversation turned into another, and soon I had listened to more than 100+ women leaders from 20+ different cultures who had reinvented their professional lives from scratch.

Now, in my book Reinvento, I share these beautiful stories of reinvention — theirs and mine.
And I founded Reinvento Club, a safe space where people come to understand themselves better, rewrite their career story, and step into the next version of who they’re becoming. I am also a TEDx organizer in The Hague — a role that felt like coming home to everything I care about: ideas, communication, and human connection.