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Petra Jurova was born and raised in Bratislava, the beautiful capital city of Slovakia. She is fluent in Slovak, Czech, as well as English and was one of the only non-native English speakers in her master’s program at Nova Southeastern University in composition, rhetoric, and digital media. 

From the age of seven, Petra’s life was consumed with one thing, becoming a championship tennis player. At age 14 she made those dreams a reality by becoming the National Junior Champion of Slovakia, and was eventually in the top 500 in the World for Women’s Professional Tennis. She traveled the world, eating, sleeping, and breathing tennis until around age 21 when a back injury forced her to make the difficult decision to retire from the pro circuit. It was during this confusing time that Petra learned of the opportunity to come to the U.S. on full scholarship as a college athlete.

Petra’s first professor at the university really made her fall in love with writing and helped her realize that this was a possible career track she could take. When asked why a highly competitive former professional athlete would grow so fond of writing, Petra explains “The rhetoric part is the most appealing aspect as there is so much thought and strategy that goes into every composed piece, similar to a tennis match.” Petra finished her college sports career with outstanding accolades at NSU and having discovered writing as her passion off the court, the next big question in life was what to do with this newfound love?

At first Petra thought she would fall into writing, editing, or teaching as her role in the NSU newspaper as well as her role as a tutor at the NSU writing lab had prepared her well for any of the three. As time went on, she felt that although these career interests were great, there was just something missing that she could not put her finger on. The missing piece was found when Petra began her career in marketing as she has found no shortage of strategic writing in addition to a myriad of other skills she has a natural propensity for, such as event planning and networking. She has brought these skills to Tobias Financial Advisors as our Marketing Associate where the challenges of her multi-faceted role really touch her competitive nature.

Ever the avid learner, Petra has taken the opportunity to immerse herself in financial planning by working towards the Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional® designation to better cater the firm’s marketing efforts toward those important conversations that clients want to have with advisors. In addition to furthering her education, Petra still works as a private tennis coach and finds immense joy in teaching others the sport that inspired her to be the best in everything she does. 

Overall, the most enjoyable thing for Petra about working at Tobias Financial Advisors is the people that she works with. “We have people here who can trace their origins back to 10 different countries which is so unique in that it provides so much diversity of thought, background, and experience for our clients and our company culture.” Petra’s wish is that we strive to keep this same culture as we continue to grow as there is something special about being excited to wake up for work every day. Petra says, “I really identify with what we do here, so marketing and communicating our message is easy as it is something I genuinely believe in. It is an absolute pleasure to share our work with others.”