During my college days, Gretchen Ho was best known for playing serious volleyball games for Ateneo De Manila University. Now, she’s hustling in the media world, covering everything from sports to local destination spots.
During the re-launch of Celeteque’s Dermoscience makeup line, Gretchen shared how she’s been surviving early call times (“I wake up at 3 a.m. every day, the latest is 4:30 a.m.”), skin problems, and multitasking shoots daily. So we had to know her secret to keeping disciplined in all these aspects. What we learned is that her athletic training played a role in her goal-oriented mindset. Scroll down to read our conversation with Gretchen.
On staying energized at shoots
“I’m a really hyper person. If there’s one thing I have, it’s energy. But sometimes I’ll crash at the end of the day. What helps me is coffee and training myself to always be “on” at work. Volleyball training helped me with that, too. It’s discipline and having the mindset that I always have to be at my best. I keep telling myself, ‘No excuses. You are hired to work, you wanted this life. You have to go out and do it!’”
On how being an athlete helped in self-discipline
“I feel like I’m still athlete now—I’m an athlete of hosting. [Laughs] [Whatever I’m doing,] I give it the respect that it deserves. The discipline when it comes to sleeping, my regimen, waking up, doing my job well, and performing. Even when I’m not feeling well, I need to show up, and be a learner—it’s finding that constant challenge. I don’t want to be complacent, I want to get better. As an athlete, you can’t train without a goal in mind.”
On making sure her skin doesn’t break out after losing sleep, doing outdoor shoots and activities for her morning show
“The makeup I use has UV protection. I also make sure I hydrate and put on moisturizer. But what really helps for me is taking my makeup off after work. I always have wet tissue to remove my makeup temporarily, so while I’m in the van [going to my next shoot or event] it doesn’t seep through my skin. Catching up on sleep before my next shoot helps as well.”
On choosing one passion over the other
“The reason I gave up volleyball is because I couldn’t do that and hosting at the same time due to the different lifestyles. When you’re an athlete, you’re not allowed to sleep late. When you’re on a morning show, you can lose sleep. There are also certain requirements that are different in both fields. I thought that if I want to be great in what I do, I should choose just one. I’ve been playing volleyball for 12 years so I wanna choose something different. When I did that, that’s when my career in media soared.”
On still staying active despite her profession change
“I’m still doing more activities [for work] so it’s like nothing has changed for me. It’s just a different playground.”
Art by Marian Hukom
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