40 years of Joy

“If success is defined as being happy with what you're doing, I suppose I can call myself a success because I am happy.”

“THE key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance — and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”

That quote from entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey, a woman truly admired by Joycelyn Buensalido, founder and chief executive officer of Buensalido and Associates Public Relations, is something that best describes her career and personal life.

“If success is defined as being happy with what you're doing, I suppose I can call myself a success because I am happy,” Buensalido told The Manila Times.

“That is exactly how I feel. I thank God for His master plan for my life.

“The journey was composed of a series of significant small steps that have given meaning to everything I have now. Today, as I look back at how my career evolved to bring me to where I am now, I am grateful to each and every person I have ever worked with or encountered.

“They all influenced and touched my passage from my younger days to this stage in my personal life.”

After graduating from the University of the Philippines (UP) with a degree in Broadcast Communication, Buensalido took her Master's degree in Communication Research also from the UP College of Mass Communication.

“I even contemplated taking up law, especially after one of my best friends in college, Irene Ragodon Guevarra, topped the bar and that gave me the idea [or dream?] to try and become a lawyer, too,” Buensalido shared.

“I applied and was accepted at Ateneo Law School, but after trying out a semester of endless and rigorous studies and lectures, I had to give up the dream because my toddler at that time, my second son Jason, kept on peeking into my study room when I was reading, and I realized, I was not giving him enough attention.

“So, I decided to shift my sights on continuing what I had learned from my earlier five-year stint at Ace Compton Advertising (which later became Ace Saatchi), where I learned all the basics of public relations (PR) within the advertising and marketing sphere.”

With her advertising colleagues and the many clients she had worked with, Buensalido eventually made several important contacts in the agency. Hence, starting a PR company became not too difficult for her.

“Doing initial work from home, developing PR campaigns and servicing clients with little or no budgets who could not afford big agency rates.

“This was also when I started strengthening my contacts in the media, because it was fairly easy to go around doing press rounds at that time, when all the newspaper offices were concentrated in the Intramuros area,” she recalled.

“As soon as I gave up my intention of pursuing a law degree, I put my mind into starting my own public relations consultancy in 1983. And it turned out to be the best move I have ever made.”

Since she was “young and fearless” from the onset, Buensalido never even considered there would be challenges she could not overcome.

“My exposure and training to client management and agency work armed me with the guts to go for anything,” she admitted. “I actually started working from my car with one assistant who would type all our press releases from inside the car and then we would photocopy them and deliver them straight to the media offices.

“I would drive and Joseph Pastrana, my former student and very first assistant, would be the one to get off and submit our press releases to the editors. There were no computers yet when we started, only typewriters. Plus, our brains to write, of course.”

To say that Buensalido was a hardworking executive will be an understatement because in her ninth month of pregnancy to her third baby and youngest child, Monique, she bravely delivered inside their yellow Gallant (sedan).

She was in the front seat and her doctor-husband, Adrian, was on the steering wheel. That was one for the books.

Recently, Buensalido and Associates Public Relations proudly marked its 40th year, and the lady boss couldn't be any prouder.

In the celebration at Shangri-La Plaza, Buensalido was joined by her associates, staff, employees, family, loved ones, friends in and out of the industry, as well as members of the media. The company even ventured into publishing on its 40th year.

“I'd like to borrow a line that my vice president for Creatives and Account Management, Guia Santiago, wrote about their recent exhibit.

“'Books are keyholes that give one a glimpse of different worlds and experiences. Perhaps more significant are the insights one picks up from these stories.'

“In the course of working in the PR and communications industry, I have met a lot of writers, editors, authors and creative people whom I have admired, interacted with and became friends with, so they must have influenced me as well in my love for books and for the written word.

“That is why in the year 2000, I published my first project: a coffee table book titled '100 Women of the Philippines,' which was my personal tribute to 100 outstanding Filipino women achievers from various fields.

“It was my legacy to young Filipino women to make them proud of the achievements and accomplishments of 100 positive role models. In a way it was my personal project for the Philippines: To promote our traditional Filipino values as depicted in the lives of these 100 women.

“My next book project, which I authored and published in 2016, was 'Pinoy Manners.' It won a National Book award in the leisure category, so I felt I was doing something right.

“From that moment on, I felt I could do something more in publishing to help other potential writers fulfill their own dreams of getting published for their works or dream books.”

In her four decades in the PR business, Buensalido never thought of throwing in the towel in her pursuit. Not even once.

“Never did I think of giving up even once,” she said. “There was always something new to learn, something challenging to overcome and a new client or account to handle and persuade that we could help them with anything. I'm not the type of person who gives up easily so in my own way, I know how to be consistent and useful.”

Admirably, Buensalido manages to find time for motherhood. “Right from the beginning of my career as a publicist and eventually after I set up my own agency, my priorities have always been clear: that at the end of every day, I return to becoming a full-time wife and mother to my husband and children.

“In fact, I made it my own rule that after 6 p.m., I would not answer any telephone calls or set evening meetings unless they were extremely important client events or occasions.

“Over the years, my clients and even the media, who eventually became my friends, understood this rule I had established for myself, so they respected it and hardly called me except for urgent matters or emergencies.

“There are ten simple lessons I've learned in PR which I shared in my contributed article in the book, 'How to Make it in PR,' published in 2007. The number ten rule I wrote was: 'Spend more time or at the very least, the same amount of time you put into your work with your family and the people you love.'

“I have lived by that rule because I strongly believe that you are able to build a successful career or business because you spend long hours and extra time to excel and stand out.

“So if you want your family life to succeed and prosper as well, you must make equal or more time with them with the same passion, devotion and commitment you give to your work.”

Early on, after she finished grade school, Buensalido received her high school scholarship from the American School (now International School), where she needed to adjust to a different culture.

She wanted to become a flight attendant when she was a child then thought of becoming a broadcast journalist before she entered college. She also wanted to become a lawyer.

“But working in PR gave me all the opportunities to hone the skills and talents I would have needed for all those initial ambitions,” Buensalido said. “In fact, I think I became a better PR practitioner because of those early ambitions.”

She took up Broadcast Communication at the University of the Philippines in the hope to become a broadcast journalist.

“Five decades ago, Mass Communication was just a fledgling course unclear to many, and mass media was only starting to be recognized for its potential to become a powerful influence on our culture,” she maintained.

Buensalido audaciously pursued her UP education, and the Dean of the Institute of Mass Communications then was Gloria Feliciano, who became her adviser for her undergraduate and master's theses.

Her other distinguished professors were Koko Trinidad, Alice Coseteng, Raul Ingles, Hernando Abaya, Cesar Mercado, Armando Malay, Pura Kalaw Katigbak Tan, Evelyn David and Edwin Varona.

Buensalido and her husband have been blissfully married for 48 years now. “Two more years and we'll be golden,” she beamed. “Our marriage, with God's grace, has been a beautiful journey, and I think we complement each other as a couple.

“He's scientific, I'm artistic [although he also is a very artistic person]. I used to be the one who talked a lot while he listened, but now he's the one who talks more and I listen. He knows everything about the home: plumbing, carpentry, electricity, even sewing. So I consider myself fortunate that I married a total Mr. Fix It, because he not only takes care of our health, being a doctor. He also likes to fix everything in the house.”

They have been blessed with three accomplished children.

The eldest, Jondi, is a medical doctor. The second, Jason, is an architect who placed first in the architectural board exams in 2005. The youngest and only girl is Monique, a writer who works in her mom's public relations firm.

She was the program awardee of the Ateneo Communication Technology Management Department of the John Gokongwei School of Management.

“I can say that my entire family is really supportive in every way,” Buensalido proudly said. “They are always there whenever I need them to be present. For example, in our recent 40th anniversary as an agency, they all attended to give Monique and me their moral and physical support.”

Buensalido's last travels before the pandemic were to Milan, the Balkans — Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro; and New York.

“The most recent destination was a place I had long been wanting to go to — Banff in Canada — to see the most glorious masterpieces of nature: Lake Louise and Lake Moraine, which made me and my family believe all the more in God as the Greatest Artist of All.

“The place was absolutely mystifying and uplifted our spirits like no other place has done. I'm so happy we were able to see it at the perfect time and weather.”

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Quick questions

What is your biggest fear?

The loss of anyone in my family, the loss of good health and the loss of happiness.

What really makes you angry?

Disrespectful and rude people, and those who betray my trust.

What motivates you to work hard?

I always think that if God gave me certain talents, I am obliged to use them well to help others.

What makes you laugh the most?

Funny actors, situations and lines in movies which stand out because of the precise timing.

What would you do if you won the lotto?

I would use part of it to travel to places I have not been to with my family, and partly to donate to certain causes that I know can use the extra funds for their operations.

If you could share a meal with any individual living or dead, who would they be?

Jose Rizal, Michelle and Barack Obama, and Audrey Hepburn.

What was the last book you read?

I make it a point to read several books at the same time. I just finished “Serve,” edited by Jo-Ann Maglipon; and “Even Ducks Get Liver Cancer,” by Wilfredo Liangco. I'm reading a book we just published, “Lolo Dency: The Life and Times of Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales”; and a new book, “American Marriage,” by Tayari Jones.

What celebrity would you like to meet for a cup of coffee?

Meryl Streep, Anna Wintour or Barbra Streisand.

What is the most daring thing you have ever done?

When we were in college, my barkada and I used to hitchhike, and met many strangers that way.

What is the one thing you will never do again?

Ride the Magic Mountain roller coaster which I tried once.