Toronto, ON (December 11, 2019) – Originally published by PR in Canada here.
What is your current gig?
Train conductor on the digital marketing tracks, and major soup obsessor.
One Word to Describe your Work Style:
Wrangler
Tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today.
Having been a chef and eventually owning a cooking school, there was never a food industry challenge I didn’t meet. In the next phase of my career, I left the school part behind, but not the educator part, while managing up-and-coming talent and luxury culinary brands.
Media was no stranger to me either having been featured on networks like Food Network Canada, Fox TV, CTV and CBC. I also dedicated my time to editing the Food section of a major Canadian magazine while founding the Windsor chapter of Slow Food, a not-for-profit organization specializing in the promotion of local food.
Then I met Sean [Beckingham] and eventually the next step just made sense.
What made you start your own company?
I started it, in partnership with Sean, to actually be an entrepreneur. After spending years putting my hours and ideas into working for someone else, I felt it was time to feel more of the rewards of those efforts. Social media marketing was in its hatchling stage so it almost felt like we were disruptors of the PR marketing world, challenging that this would be the next best way to get the word out there over everything else. We knew social wasn’t being recognized as such and decided to give it a go, see what happens.
What is a typical work day like for you?
Because our agency is very “boutique,” every day varies. Because we offer 6 core services, it’s always exciting to walk through the doors to new daily challenges, opportunities and activities that all feed into each other but feel completely different each time. From planning secret garden parties to meetings about retargeting markets for newsletter signups to photographing the latest cakes or Middle Eastern cuisine, it’s a very “expect the unexpected” work lifestyle. No mundaneness, and lots of food.
You launched your agency in 2011, when did you know you had something?
We knew we had something right when we said let’s do it and launched. You just had this feeling that it was absolutely going to be the start of something. 8 years later, social media is king and has replaced a lot of styles of marketing.
What was a moment in your career that really helped define how you work today?
When I was a high school teacher, through experience, I understood management skills, planning and being prepared, being open to flexibility even when with an agenda. All of that know-how, that mindset, carries into what we are doing today.
How do you balance family-work.
Because I’ve held a passion for food for over 25 years, a lot of the time, it doesn’t feel like work because I’m in a field that actually feels like part of me. However, when those office lights go off and the doors close behind me, I’m typically on my way for a tech-free time-out in Prince Edward County.
9-5 is LONG gone, what is one shortcut or life hack that works for you?
Cutting out long meetings and replacing them with short huddles; it’s a time saver and a mind saver. We also find ways to figure out who really needs to be involved in a project, who doesn’t and delegate from there. Less sitting around for some, and everyone can get more done in the end.