COLLECTING ... EMOTIONAL MOMENTS
* Success has a price which everyone chooses to pay or not
Joint theme of Fashion Lifestyle Magazine and magazine “PIK”
Ileana Stoyanova
It is well-known that to run a business successfully in the 21st Century means to steer its future, which on its part means to control information. Quite a lot of people nowadays are engaged in the fashionable speciality public relations, or as it has already gained acceptance - PR. In our country these people are called public image and public relations consultants and they are believed to control to a large extent information flows.
I have never planned my life and I haven't imagined public relations would be my occupation, says Denitsa Sacheva, Executive Director of the Intel Day Solution agency, one of the young but quickly developing companies in the PR branch. The 35-year blonde describes herself as moderate optimist and a happy person. Spiritual life is of considerable importance to her, spiritual emotions are her guiding force. She is not obsessed by material valuables, although she does not live in excessive affluence. Denitsa Sacheva says she has not been forced to make a decision based on money alone. For years, Denitsa Sacheva claims, money has been just means of life to her and not a target.
She graduated in tourism management first, then in social pedagogics and public relations. She was engaged in the leisure industry, in social affairs and healthcare. In 1999 - 2001 she was chief of cabinet of the former healthcare minister Dr. Ilko Semerdjiev. Of course during all that time the connecting link - communication with people and communications management - was present.
It's commonly accepted to associate PR with mass media alone. According to Denitsa Sacheva that is the sector which somehow structures the communication and exchange of information between people. Coming back in January 2008 from New York where she attended the annual meeting of the International PR Association (IPRA) in which almost 1,100 PR experts from 100 countries participate, she explained they commented their profession's significance at the forum, saying they were "conversation architects". Indeed, everyone has witnessed a number of situations when unnecessary arguments break between people who "don't speak the same language" or just talk without listening. Therefore, according to Denitsa Sacheva, it is PR's role to set up that "conversation architecture".
Strategic thinking and flair for small details - that is her life and professional philosophy.
She began practicing PR at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy 12 years ago, but took up actively and focused on the profession in 2001 when together with fellow students from the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at the St. Kliment Ohridsky Sofia University they established the Intel Day Solution agency investing their own capital. Later on she attracted colleagues from New Bulgarian University as well and thus formed a youthful team motivated to succeed. That is particularly important for creative and interesting decisions, but on the other hand is a disadvantage nowadays because it lacks a serious "economic backbone". It's well-known that most agencies of that kind are set up by economic structures or as branches of foreign organisations. In Bulgaria there are some four or five PR agencies like Intel Day Solution, that was created from "absolutely nothing", Denitsa Sacheva explains. However, that was not an impediment for winning in 2007 the prestigious award of the international PR community - that of IPRA - for the national campaign for preventing the avian flu infection which the agency launched in the region of the village of Slunchogled where the crisis broke up. The prize was awarded because the agency did not use the mass media in its campaign, but mosques and baker's served as communication channels. The villagers believed that Allah had sent them the terrible disease on birds. Therefore, the young people from Intel Day Solution proposed to explain them in the mosques how to protect themselves in the future.
The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery believes there is only one true wealth and it is communication between people...
That is so because one feels satisfaction from communication, ideas, knowledge, and feelings are being exchanged between people...
I feel satisfied when my work is worthwhile. Many people think that the most important thing for a PR campaign is to have a logo and a message. And according to me the most important thing is to be useful and to show spirit. If it is not useful there is no professional challenge. Therefore, the socially useful ones are the most interesting. Of course, a private company which should ensure salaries to 12 employees cannot afford the "luxury" of always choosing its projects and sometimes has to work on commercial ones.
PR companies aim to ensure publicity and create a corporate image. It's interesting how they decide what to say, whom to say it and how often to do that.
The sectors where Intel Day Solution operates are healthcare, social policies, culture and political PR. The experience of people working at the agency is of decisive importance. In order to conduct a campaign you should know well the sector for which you are working, with its problems, structures, informal relations between the people there. Because if you don't go deeper in your work you would be just an apprentice. The agency's name itself - Intel Day Solution - suggests it offers intelligent solutions every day...
Imagination, sense of humour and handsome intellect are necessary for succeeding in this business
In our profession one needs active imagination because there are no ready recipes. Everything depends on the specific problems. You should be acquainted with the situation in the country and with the general tendencies, both political and economic. You have to be flexible, well-intentioned and positive when solving problems. You should be able to communicate with different people - clever and stupid, opulent and very poor... And the relations in political PR practice are quite different, various people with a variety of ideas and ambitions are concerned. That is quite exhausting and "energy consuming" I would say. It's different with ordinary people. They are delightful and they inspire me. I see how they accept misfortune, how they endure it, what philosophy of life they have. It's very important how a person goes through distress because it is a "turnsole" for the human character. Denitsa Sacheva says all that and adds she has been working with Romanies and Turks, with deserted mothers, adoptive families and handicapped children. She says she has come across many life stories which have inspired her afterwards...
It is a wide-spread belief that genius, faith and perseverance are necessary in order to have a successful career nowadays.
A price is always paid and it is high
Success has a price which everyone chooses to pay or not. Sometimes it is at the expense of health, leisure time, contacts with relatives or friends. But when one realizes he or she has the talent for some kind of work, that talent should be developed.
So far I have focused on my career rather than on my personal life, says Denitsa Sacheva. I've reckoned I would be more useful in that way at the present stage. In some other moment I'll probably change my priorities. My professional tension is huge.
Yet, she thinks there is a balance between what she gives of herself and what she gets. She finds the balance between her work and personal emotions. She likes her life. Personal life for her is communication between two people with similar interests and that's what makes the relationship stable and sensible.
An old Chinese proverb has it that if we don't change the direction we'd probably reach the place we have headed to. The young woman likes stable things which are meaningful, she likes to move forward. Where is she off to? She is interested in international PR campaigns, including more than one country, several continents, several cultures... In other words, the difficult, large-scale projects, the interesting political or business projects. A new profession which is emerging lately is the so-called public diplomacy and she is rapt in it.
"She "collects" four-leaved clovers and... emotional moments
Phsychologists claim nowadays that if a person is able to go through each moment thoroughly, he or she is intelligent indeed because that is the most reliable weapon against stress and neurosis.
I go through all that happens to me completely and I remember the good things. In difficult moments I recall good emotions and that "charges" me. I'm constantly looking for something which inspires me spiritually. Something small which brings me happiness - for instance my passion for growing flowers. I like to "collect" four-leaved clovers. Quite often I find them in the fields, once I even found seven near the bank of the Danube river in Rousse. All in all I am one of those people who notice the small things and that delights me.
The Achilleas heel
People whose zodiac sign is Scorpio are too emotional. Sometimes that helps, other times - it's an impediment. According to Denitsa Sacheva, her excessive well-meaning towards people and things from life hampers her, all the time she gives a chance both to people and concrete situations to develop. She has made many mistakes and she claims that success is a function of talent, good luck and failures.
Striking the balance she believes she advances thanks to her self-criticism and because she always seeks ethics in her relations with people. She insists on preserving her nature unchanged and being in harmony with her inner self.
Where is the place of dreams
Dreams help me. Like Baron Munchausen I always succeed to "drag myself from the morass by my hair" and thus get out of temporary falls. I dream about trips to far, exotic countries, to unknown and strange places. Journeys always fill me with energy. I dream about certain things both in my professional and personal life. I have plans about the Intel Day Solution company as well, which I will accomplish.
