Piret Reinson on communication as a craft, building from scratch and trusting where life takes you.

For every Snappi Journal, Piret is the one asking questions.

She listens, notices the details, finds the connecting thread and somehow turns a conversation into a story.

This time, however, we decided to turn things around.

And I must admit interviewing the person who usually conducts the interviews comes with a little extra pressure.

As Snappi’s Corporate Communications & Community Intern, I have spent the past few months working alongside her and learning how much thought, curiosity and care can sit behind a single story. So, for this edition of Snappi Journal, I took her usual seat.

Being on the other side of the conversation feels strange to Piret.

She compares it to a memory from when her children were young. Back then, she was usually the person holding the video camera and recording everything. One day, her son turned the camera towards her.

“My children still love that video because it is one of the few where they can actually see me,” she says. “Being interviewed now feels a little like that. Very strange.”

This time, we get to see the person behind the stories.

Creating her own world

Piret grew up in the Estonian countryside, at a time when the country was still part of the Soviet Union. She remembers herself as a creative child who often lived in a world of her own.

“We did not have many ready-made things, so we had to create them ourselves,” she recalls. “We made clothes for our dolls and turned old pharmacy bottles into objects for our dollhouses. You had to use your imagination.”

What could have felt like a limitation became an early lesson in creativity: if something did not exist, you could find a way to make it yourself.

That instinct would remain with her. Throughout her career, Piret has repeatedly found herself in places where something needed to be created, transformed or reimagined.

She also recognises the Estonian work ethic strongly in herself. To her surprise, it is a quality she has also encountered in Greece and particularly among her colleagues at Snappi.

“When the people around you share the same values and commitment, you want to push yourself further,” she says. “At Snappi, we all want to make it a success and make a difference in how people experience banking and feel about their finances.”

A career without a straight line

Piret did not begin her career with a clear plan to work in communications.

At school, languages seemed to be the natural direction. She excelled in English and began studying English language and literature at university. It did not take long, however, for her to realise that the course was not right for her.

As Estonia regained its independence and the country’s economy began to transform, Piret became increasingly interested in economics and business. Changing direction required an intense period of study, but it ultimately led her towards her first professional opportunity.

The opportunity arrived unexpectedly, through someone she regularly saw at the university library.

“One day, he told me that his friends were starting an investment fund and asked whether I would like to work there,” she remembers. “I said, ‘Why not?’  So, my first job interview happened in the library.”

Her first role involved repetitive administrative work connected to Estonia’s privatisation process. It soon became clear that it was not the kind of work she wanted to continue doing, and she decided to return to university.

Not long afterwards, the company’s CEO approached her with an unexpected suggestion: why not become Head of Marketing?

That question marked the beginning of a career spanning marketing, public broadcasting, banking, nation branding, technology and corporate communications.

“I always tell young people how difficult it can be to find yourself,” Piret says. “There is so much pressure to know who you want to become. But careers do not always happen in a straight line.”

When communication becomes a craft

Piret initially approached her work through traditional marketing. Over time, however, she began to understand that everything starts with communication and more specifically, with the message.

“You can work with the best agency and create a beautiful campaign, but first you need to understand the essence of the business, the audience and the problem you are trying to solve,” she explains. “Everything starts with messaging.”

For Piret, communication is not simply a corporate function. It is a craft that requires curiosity, cultural awareness, precision and continuous practice.

“For me, communication is also an art. You need to read, observe, experience and use all your senses. That is how you create something people can genuinely relate to.”

That becomes even more important in the age of artificial intelligence. Everyone now uses AI as part of their work, but Piret believes technology makes human judgment and attention to detail more valuable—not less.

“The future belongs to people who care about nuances and want to master their craft,” she says. “AI can help you, but it cannot replace everything you have read, felt and experienced.”

She believes this is also why corporate communications are often misunderstood. Because everyone consumes media, uses social platforms and has opinions about content, people can easily assume they understand the work behind it.

“What they do not always see is the strategy, research, measurement and overall thinking behind the communication,” she explains. “Part of our job is also helping people understand our function.”

Making belief visible

Looking across Piret’s career, a pattern begins to emerge. She is repeatedly drawn to organisations experiencing transformation—places where a new direction, identity or story needs to be built.

“When I believe in something, I want to make it visible. I want to make it real,” she says. “I can only do that when I genuinely believe in the values and the mission.”

Building something new is rarely straightforward. It requires energy, flexibility and the ability to respond when circumstances change. But once you have experienced the feeling of transforming an idea into something real, she says, you want to experience it again.

“It is a mixture of art, leadership and craft. And ultimately, everything is about people.”

Her understanding of leadership has also evolved throughout her career. Even before feedback discussions and personal development plans became widespread, Piret began introducing them within her own teams.

She encouraged people to pursue interests beyond the immediate requirements of their role, believing that personal curiosity could bring new energy into their work.

One principle eventually became particularly important to her: leadership does not require imitating someone else’s style.

“You do not need to be mean or bully people to be a good leader,” she says. “You can be kind, positive and still achieve great things. Do not copy other people. Find the leadership style that is authentic to you.”

Knowing yourself without standing still

When asked what advice she would give someone at the beginning of their career, Piret returns to the importance of self-awareness.

“Do not lose yourself in all the noise around you,” she says. “You need to spend time understanding who you are. When you are comfortable with yourself and connected to yourself, you make better decisions.”

Her own definition of success has changed over time. Today, it is less connected to titles, status or external expectations and more closely tied to freedom, meaningful work and feeling fully alive.

“I love what I do because it allows me to use all my senses,” she explains. “I can work on things I believe are meaningful. That is when I feel full of life.”

She describes this way of living through the image of a river: continuously moving, changing and trusting where the journey leads.

“I do not want to limit myself through age, titles or status,” she says. “I feel more like a river. You need to know who you are, but you also need to trust where life takes you.”

The image reminds her of a poem by Khalil Gibran about a river approaching the ocean. At first, the river is afraid of what lies ahead. Eventually, it understands that it is not disappearing, it is becoming part of something greater.

For Piret, that is what “living the dream” means.

“I think I am living the dream right now,” she says. “It is the ultimate pleasure to live like a river and trust where the route takes you.”

Finding something human in Greece

After interviewing so many Snappiers, Piret has also discovered something about the people around her—and about her own connection with Greece.

“I feel almost Greek myself,” she says. “There is something deeply human here. People believe in something bigger, want to be useful and want to give something back.”

Her favourite place in Greece is not Santorini or Acropolis. It is her own neighbourhood in Athens and, more specifically, Xenokratous Street in Kolonaki on the day of its weekly farmers’ market.

“It feels like a village in the middle of the city,” she explains. “I know the people in the small shops, and you see everyone stopping and speaking to each other in the street. For me, that represents what Greece is about.”

This warmth, openness and sense of everyday human connection would later become central to the way she understood Snappi.

Starting from a blank page

After working with established banks, public organisations and international technology companies, Snappi offered Piret something rare: the opportunity to begin with a blank page.

“First of all, it was something from scratch—a tabula rasa. I love that,” she says. “But it was also about the values, the mission, the people and the timing.”

She first joined Snappi in 2024, while the team was still small and the bank had not yet become visible to the wider public.

 “From the beginning, I felt that these people could build something meaningful. In a way, I found my family.”

For Piret, building Snappi’s voice could not be separated from building the bank itself. The two had to develop together, responding to the organisation, its people, technology and the world around it.

She also knew that holding a banking licence would never be enough on its own to create a meaningful relationship with customers.

“The fact that you have a banking licence does not mean you are entitled to people’s trust,” she says. “You have to earn their respect, trust and love.”

That belief helped shape the communication philosophy behind Snappi: begin with what you want people to feel, translate that feeling into clear values and messages, and then make sure the experience lives up to the promise.

Before building an event or a campaign, Piret starts with one question:

“What do I want people to feel when they leave?”

Once that feeling is clear, everything else can begin to take shape.

From the waitlist to a community of believers

As Snappi completes its first year of operation, one moment immediately comes to Piret’s mind.

It was the moment the team pressed “send” on the press release announcing Snappi’s public launch.

“We all started clapping,” she remembers. “It felt as though we were launching a rocket.”

Beyond the formal milestones, what makes her proudest is the way the people behind Snappi have developed together.

“We are much stronger as a team now,” she says. “We are smarter, more connected and clearer about where we want to go.”

If Snappi’s first year were a chapter in a book, Piret already has a possible title:

“From the waitlist to a community of believers.”

And as the bank enters its second year, there is one thing she believes should never change: its openness.

“The ability to speak honestly, share what you think and remain connected to our core values is what drives us,” she says. “No matter how much Snappi grows, we must protect that.”

The first year was about taking an idea, believing in it and making it real.

The next chapter begins with the same commitment: to keep building a bank that earns people’s trust, remains true to its values and never loses the human connection at the heart of its story.

This time, the interview was conducted and written by Athina Rapti, Corporate Communications & Community Intern at Snappi. For this special edition, the intern took her manager’s usual seat, while Piret found herself on the other side of the questions for the first time. So, don’t be surprised if you notice here and there the curiosity of a young professional who is just beginning to write her own story in communications.