EPISODE 4
THE DARK SIDE OF SUCCESS: ADDICTION, HARDSHIPS & BREAKTHROUGHS
AGENCY FOUNDER, GELLAN WATT
Gellan Watt has led the ideal agency life, winning every pitch for 7 years and garnering industry awards aplenty. Since then, health scares, addiction and huge life events have brought him an extraordinary perspective on life.
His story is remarkable, and he shares it loudly to help those suffering silently. Remaining a prolific creative force for so many businesses, we go Off Script with Gellan to hear how he overcame the over-working, rehab, loss of family members, long Covid, a heart attack, and more.
This episode covers
The journey to creating a hugely successful agency
How Gellan’s work life began to take over
Attitudes to drug use & rehab in the business world
What addiction really is and overcoming the stigma around it
The mission behind sharing his story so openly
How Gellan’s experiences affect his parenting
Surviving long Covid and a heart attack
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
“Something being ‘addictive’ often just means something you're obsessive about. Obsessions can be bloody awful as well as addiction, but addiction you can't escape from, whereas possessions you can often put them in their place and navigate that a lot easier than an addiction. Addictions are known as a disease.”
34:20 - Gellan Watt
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“When you start a business, when you get it right, you employ the people to do the stuff you can't do very well. If you're employable, often you can meet all the expectations of an employer - as an entrepreneur, you get driven to ‘I can't do this, I can't do that, and I'm going to fail if I don't just do it on my own’.” - 2:40 - Gellan Watt
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“My only business plan when I started the agency was threefold: do great work, build a sustainable business and have fun. I said that they had to go in that order, because we can't have fun if we don't have a sustainable business and don't do good work.” - 8:25 - Gellan Watt
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“Agencies are bought because of their potential. I often try and say to business owners now, ‘Why leave the potential to someone else?’. If they're gonna hire a killer MD or Creative Director, or do something to your agency, why don't you do it?” - 10:30 - Gellan Watt
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“Really my leisure activities were, you know, I used to escape how I felt with more work and drink and drugs and all that kind of stuff. So I lost the grip of those things. Nowadays I’m in the gym every day. That’s a big thing for me to have a place to put that energy.” - 16:15 - Gellan Watt
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“The whole summer after my nephew passed, I'd gone from not taking care of myself very well to not giving a shit about life. Watching him fade was the first time in my lifeI felt powerless. By the time he passed away, I literally did not care about me or anything else. I just wanted to escape how I felt.”- 27:00 - Gellan Watt
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“All addicts’ outer edges are disconnected, they're not connected to things that matter. That's why I talk about addiction. There’s a great phrase: ‘I recover loudly to help people who are suffering silently’.” - 38:15 - Gellan Watt
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“I want my kids to be all of themselves, not to be scared of what that means, and to be confident & happy. I think it's affected my parenting a lot, because I want them to live full, peaceful lives. I would hate the idea of any of my kids, friends and family being in the situations that I found myself in. It would break my heart. So I want to keep them safe as well.” - 50:20 - Gellan Watt
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“I'm very creative, but very analytical. I'm more of a strategist than a creative, although I'm a Creative Director. That's the reason I probably win so many pitches, because I take people on the journey of why my idea is right, as opposed to just telling them my idea is right.” - 59:15 - Gellan Watt
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“The feeling of a heart attack is like someone putting a strap on your chest and tightening it, you feel like you're being restricted, like the world's biggest bear hug. It's breathtaking, and I actually then lost my sight and my hearing as well. I sort of passed out from it, but semi-aware, semi-unaware.” - 1:00:50 - Gellan Watt