"Thanks to therapy, I now know I'm not a workaholic. When I have a creative block, I let my subconscious work," says the awareness expert
Where did the impulse to co-found your own communications agency come from - from the outside or from the inside?
From within, from Lenka. I wanted to go out on my own as a freelance copywriter, but Lenka believed we had the right stuff to start a proper company with our own clients. I'm glad she convinced me. I wouldn't have had the balls to do it on my own and I see starting an agency as one of the best turns of my life. We are currently thematically focused mainly on medicine - which in a way brought me back to my original veterinary training. It's quite handy to know where which organ is in the body (laughs).
Was that the biggest challenge - to pluck up the courage to start a company?
For me, yes. Not just to start all sorts of marketing and being kind of in the background - but to decide to kick out my brand, with my own face, and take responsibility for its reputation. To stand up for the fact that I can do something. I'd like to encourage all hard-working people who aren't happy with someone else's rules and restrictions that it is possible to stand alone. There are stumbles and falls along the way, but it feels so much better when you're doing well and you know you've earned it.
Have you developed proven methods to "cheat" yourself when it comes to time management?
No method is perfect, I think, and I take all of them with a grain of salt, but I like to try different approaches and combine them. When I'm feeling really strong and productive, I tend to do a quadrillion things and "get it done". The pomodoro method helps me with this - turning off my phone and setting aside half-hour blocks for a specific task, with short breaks away from the computer in between.
I also keep track of how much time certain types of tasks take up, and then I can plan more realistically what I can get done. Unfortunately, this can't be done without prioritization, in which I inevitably have to cross some things off. I struggle with this a lot internally, but in the end I'm glad I have time to have a quiet lunch instead of some unimportant task.
ADDICTS has both "companies with a story" and various patient organizations, non-profit associations, foundations in its corporate portfolio. Aren't they kind of two different businesses - communicating attractive services and products versus communicating hard-to-digest topics like chronic leukemia, lung cancer, or caring for children with disabilities?
Our primary role is to raise awareness of socially beneficial topics. Ten years ago, the media wrote mostly gloom and doom on the topic of cancer. Most of the alarm bells were sounded in the style of "cancer is slashing the Czech Republic, let's be afraid". Today, we are more concerned with how to reduce the risks, informing about the growing hope for a cure and about living well with the disease. Some media are still running the scare narrative, but I see more and more good news, stories with happy endings. So for me, these are not hard topics to digest, it just takes taking the right ending.
And in terms of business clients, we like to work with companies that are willing to listen to our experience. The media is mostly interested in your value-add to the company. A brand has to be willing to invest in PR beyond photos and product or service descriptions. Many companies have seasoned professionals working for them who have a wealth of information that is useful to consumers as well. If we can figure out how to articulate it in an interesting way, and the client understands the benefit, it's a win-win. We have been doing this for a long time, for example, with the Brno sex shop YOO.cz, for which we conduct surveys, the results of which are widely used by the media, and sexologists and therapists also participate in the communication.
Has there been a major breakthrough opportunity over the years?
Professionally, I appreciate every opportunity to work with experts from top institutions - for example, from IKEM, the Apolinář Maternity Hospital, the Brno University Hospital, the Czech Academy of Sciences and others. But also with organisations such as the Voice of Cancer Patients, the VERONICA patient organisation or Nedoklubko, which supports families of premature babies. They are led by real professionals.
Do you take the socially responsible dimension of your work as a bonus, or as a complete basis for self-fulfilment?
I see it as a privilege. I'm good at writing about things that have an impact, something useful comes out of it, it's not just product promotion. I certainly don't despise that, on the contrary, I bow down to anyone who is good at it. But personally, I'm a horrible at it, and when I'm not good at something, I don't even enjoy it. (laughs)
What fulfills you outside of work?
A big family and longtime love, happy friends, a happy dog, home-cooked food... All of that preferably on a trip.
Do you see your gay identity reflected in your professional life?
At my age and with my traditional background, I would probably have had children by now as a heterosexual. Not having them leaves me with a lot of time to work - which is also a disadvantage, given my tendency towards workaholism (laughs). But even though I am open about my identity in all aspects of my life, I have not yet experienced any disadvantage or harassment because of it.
When you mentioned workaholic tendencies - can you tell early on that you're overdoing it with your work?
I think some ability to put the brakes on comes with age - I don't want to sound like a senior citizen at 41, but I certainly can't handle working at a computer from dawn to dusk like I could at 30. I guess I naturally come to need to manage my energy better. But of course I get relieved when a lot of projects come together, all of which are great and I want to get them done. It helped me a lot to open this topic with my therapist - it was reassuring to find out I'm not a workaholic. Just because someone tends to overextend themselves doesn't mean they're hardwired to work.
What helps you keep a creative mindset?
I used to think that if I had a creative block and couldn't write, I should go out and think about working in a different environment. Now I know that I need to put it out of my mind. Get busy in a different way, somewhere else - air out the doghouse, run around the bakery, the butcher shop and the market... And then it gets better again. My creativity also needs distance. If it can't be done with effort, it's time to let the subconscious work in peace.
