Hi, my name is Kate, and I am the Director of Product & Growth Marketing at Tripleseat Software. I wanted to share what a day in my life looks like in the hopes that some of this information may be useful to you in your career.
Working in marketing means wearing a ton of hats and juggling lots of projects at once, no matter what your title is. It’s one of the main reasons why I love my job so much. My background is in hospitality and event management. For close to 15 years, I worked solely in restaurants and nightclubs. From bartending and serving to the Director of Events and Marketing, I’ve worn a bunch of different hats in the hospitality world, and each job, no matter what the title, required me to be able to do all the other positions within the venue on a whim.
The server didn’t show up? No problem, I’ll do it. The hostess called in sick? No problem, I’ll do it. The dishwasher quit with zero notice? No problem, I’ll do it.
With marketing, just like hospitality, you have to be ready and able to do whatever the job throws at you on a whim. I’m also a mother, so needless to say, that part of my life also requires quick thinking and patience. But, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for some organization and routine.
5:00 - 6:30 AM
As you’ll see after reading this post in its entirety, I don’t get much free time during my afternoons. So, I try to wake up at least four weekdays at 5 AM to get a workout in. I am lucky enough to have a treadmill and weight set in my home, making it easier than having to drive to a gym. My favorite workouts combine a Peloton treadmill class with some type of strength training.
6:30 - 7:30 AM
This is what I call “mayhem” time - the time when I’m trying to get myself ready while also dealing with two children waking up, making breakfasts, getting the kids dressed, making second breakfasts, packing lunches, putting out fires, chugging espresso, wanting to jump off a bridge, you know, usual parenting stuff. :)
7:30-8:30 AM
I have two young children, and my husband is a nurse, so typically, he’s out of the house before the sun comes up. My son is six years old, and my daughter is two years old. This difference in age means that they’re practically never going to the same place at the same time. So, during the standard 9 AM work start time, I bus them around to their schools and daycares. I usually don’t arrive at my office until 10 AM, so I like to get ahead of anything pertinent by checking my emails and my Monday board beforehand.
First, I go into my emails and delete anything that looks spammy. As a marketer, I get a ton of solicitation emails. Also as a marketer, I’m drawn to any emails with subject lines that are witty and appealing, no matter how spammy they are. So, I delete the ones that don’t immediately pique my interest and star the ones that do so I can go back and read them more thoroughly later in the day.
Next, I look for emails that seem urgent. These are generally from co-workers or customers. I try to take care of these emails right then and there. I will respond immediately even if I can’t solve the problem until I’m in the office. If that’s the case, then I star those as well.
The last thing I do with my emails is making notes to remind myself when I get into the office of something I read in the emails that need to get done ASAP, as well as those things that can wait until later in the day or week.
I then move on to my Monday boards. Monday is a cloud-based project management software that allows companies or groups within companies, like a marketing team, to build organizational boards and to-do lists that can be shared across their team, company, and beyond.
I have Monday boards for everything from simple to-do lists to large multi-faceted marketing campaigns. I’ve also integrated some of my Monday to-dos with Slack. So every morning, I get Slack notifications of items that I have due that day. It’s how I remember to write most of my blog posts, to be honest.
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
This hour and a half is filled with school and daycare drop-offs, followed by a blissful car ride to my office, where I either listen to the news or a podcast. Some podcast favorites of mine are Business Wars and Crime Junkie.
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Meetings, meetings, and more meetings.
The bulk of my late morning and early afternoon is dedicated to meetings. I have three people working under me, so I have weekly 1:1 meetings with each team member. I also have an appointment with our entire Demand Generation marketing team, in addition to a product team meeting and a meeting with my manager. Then, there are, of course, other one-off meetings that don’t happen every week or month.
In addition, I co-host a podcast with another member of our marketing team, Rachel Calkins, called Two Chicks, Three Seats. We record once a week, and that meeting usually takes place around this time as well.
Frequently, I am part of meetings for onboarding new marketing software to help us meet our lead generation demands and give us the content and data we need to do our jobs more efficiently. And, there are many meetings that I’m pulled into at the last minute for input on an email campaign or help with implementing a new feature release for Tripleseat.
Of course, during this time, I take a break for lunch or just get up and stretch. Sitting at your desk all day on Zoom calls isn’t great for your body or mood, so I always make sure to get up and move. I usually take a walk to grab lunch. My office is in downtown Portsmouth, NH, so there are many great places to grab something to go.
I normally eat lunch at my desk, but I try not to do actual work while I’m eating. Instead, I’ll catch up on some of my favorite marketing blogs and read those interesting subject line emails I mentioned earlier.
There are also days where I only have one or two meetings, and I can dedicate more time to writing and reporting.
2:00 - 3:00 PM
This is when I have to leave my office to pick up my son at school. I then continue my workday from my home office.
3:00 - 5:00 PM
I try hard not to book any additional meetings from 3-5 PM. This is my time to get work done. I write my blogs and email campaigns, run my reporting, and do anything that happens to fall on my lap during the day.
5:00 - 5:30 PM
I usually leave my house around 4:50 PM to grab my daughter from daycare. By 5:30 PM, after I’ve gotten her settled for a bit, I go back to my home office to finish up the day.
5:30 - 6:30 PM
This is when I tighten up any loose ends, adjust my Monday boards accordingly, and tackle my to-do list for the next day. We also use a performance management software called 15five at Tripleseat. I use this time to adjust anything I wrote for my weekly check-in with my manager and add any necessary notes for the check-ins with my team.
6:30 PM
I try to wrap everything up by 6:30 because, well, I have a family that needs me. Of course, every day is a bit different. Some days my son has soccer at 5:30, or my daughter really needs me, and I can’t jump back on and work until 6:30. I’m also on a few town committees and boards for various things, so those meetings do sometimes happen at 5:30. But, for the most part, my days follow the structure and routine I wrote above.
After dinner, bathtimes, and some much-needed family time spent on the couch watching a movie and eating ice cream, it’s time for bed. I try to have my kids in bed by 8:30 PM and me by 9 PM, especially if I want to get up at 5 AM the next day. One thing that I try hard not to do is scroll social media at night when I should be falling asleep. My tactic for accomplishing this is to listen to an audiobook or instrumental music instead.
Believe me, many things can and do throw a wrench in my beautifully detailed plan for each day, and I try not to let them bother me. I am a full-time working mother, married to a full-plus-time working father - nothing is ever perfect. But I love what I do for work and where I do it, and I love being a mom, so it’s OK. No matter where your career path and life decisions bring you, it’s important to remember that no day will ever go exactly how you planned it to. It’s OK to become frustrated but take that frustration and turn it into something productive. Breathe, and keep moving forward.
Interested in how other EventUp team members spend their day supporting the venue directory? Here's what we are up to:
Stay tuned for more posts sharing the daily lives of EventUp staff. Is there a role you want to learn more about? Let us know in the comments.