11 Hour Day
Hey Folks,
In the brand and marketing business, our “Christmas season” is in October. It’s the busiest time of the year and sometimes we have to put in an 11 hour day. At Madison+Main we pride ourselves on maintaining a positive work/life balance, but this month long days are the rule, not the exception. For the most part, I believe doing anything for 11 hours straight becomes counterproductive after a while. Last Sunday, I went bow hunting for 11 hours and accomplished nothing. My daughter Hattie went to sleep after midnight, putting in an extra long day highlighted by a heavy helping of AP U.S. Government homework. She was so busy that she missed former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton‘s 11 hours of testimony on Benghazi. Like I said, doing anything for 11 hours straight becomes counterproductive. At Madison+Main, we were very productive this week and embraced a new hashtag, #getstuffdone (except we don’t use the word “stuff.”)
I spent 11 hours on Sunday in the wilderness and took a selfie.
Monday, October 19th – On Monday I went from 8:00am-8:00pm, starting with a doctor’s appointment that was supposed to be “quick.” The good news is the docs at Virginia Physicians have entered the information age and developed an online portal that gives me access to my medical records. The bad news is my cholesterol is too high and I had to wait almost 40 minutes to see my doctor.
After a long, but productive, day at work I did my duty as Secretary of the Midlothian Rotary Club, by taking minutes at our monthly board meeting at the law offices of Winslow & McCurry. Chris Winslow, our club’s past president, continues to be generous and provides his office as a free meeting space once a month. You may know that Chris is running for Supervisor in the Clover Hill district and you may know where he stands on the issues, but what you don’t know is that he is a humble, servant leader who will go “above and beyond” for friends and strangers. If you live in the Clover Hill district, check out his campaign website here.
Tuesday, October 20th – Tuesday was another long day starting with Rotary and ending with another political event. But inbetween the 7’s, we got a ton of client work done including some pieces for one of our favorite clients, Village Bank. They’re launching a new campaign next week, so stay tuned!
Kaitlin & Kaity dropped by the Virginia Promotional Products Association Show at the Hilton Short Pump. They were doing some research for clients and since Lindsey was too busy to attend, she got “skunked” by Kaity.
Lindsey’s colleagues went on a field trip but all she got was this lousy skunk.
Wednesday, October 21st – The creative team #gotstuffdone on Wednesday, getting some great work completed for our clients at Dragas Group and Frontier Academy. Frontier Academy holds exceptional professional development workshops on a wide variety of business topics. If you’re like me, and would like to learn more about managing younger colleagues, you may want to consider signing up for Managing Millennials on November 16th #beintheknow.
In the afternoon we had a very fruitful discussion with my Virginia Council of CEO’s Roundtable, and I found out that I was elected (or should I say punished) to serve as Roundtable Leader in 2016. It looks like Abby will be extra busy keeping me straight next year.
Thursday, October 22nd – I presided over another meeting of the Lucy Corr Foundation Thursday morning and am pleased to report that my long-time friend and client, Debra Marlow, will be staying on as Director of the Foundation. Debra has cut her workload back to half-time and she will be enjoying more time at the beach. I envy her. Because of the meeting, I missed the start of the Tom James “Trunk Show” but my personal haberdasher Samantha Sullivan says the sale continues through Monday. Check out Tom James here.
Friday, October 23rd – As the week winds down, I locked myself in the office and worked on some overdue copy. So far today, I’ve pumped out 4 webpages, 3 banner ads, 2 direct mail pieces and 1 completely killer TV spot.
Last week I told you about our latest TV spot in the Weekend Warrior series for YardWorks, and I am happy to report that I will be able to show you a sneak peek next week!
That reminds me, I think I have some yard work to do this weekend. Oh well, maybe I’ll just go hunting again for 11 hours.
“The challenge of work-life balance
is without question one of
the most significant struggles
faced by modern man.”
– Stephen Covey
-Dave