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Day in the Life Caroline Tanner, Easter Seals SW Florida

7:00 am- I am awakened by the sounds of my daughter, Isabela, giggling and calling out momma dadda over the baby monitor. I am not a morning person but this is a great way to wake up.

8:00 am- After playing in Dora's tent and watching some Elmo... hopefully everyone is dressed and fed as my husband heads to work and I am off to drop Isabella at daycare and then also head to work.

8:30 am- I pull into work and walk through the front door to be greeted by several "Good Mornings!" and maybe one "Good Afternoon!" which makes me feel better that I am not the only one that is not a morning person.

8:40 am- I settle into my office chair and begin to check and respond to new email. Then off to check and update our social media sites. Shameless plug: Be sure to like Easter Seals of Southwest Florida on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and add us to your circle on Google+.

 

 

 

9:00 am- Pick out art work by artists in our Art Initiative program as gifts to board members who are rotating off the board and order plaques for each art piece.

10:00 am- Amanda from the Bradenton Marauders stops by for a tour of our campus and to drop off 100 free tickts to their Monday night baseball game for our clients. Go Marauders!

 

10:30 am - Update our website with new featured items, art work, photos, and a blog.

12:00pm -It’s my coworker’s birthday so we are off to Station 400…I highly recommend the balsamic chicken. Happy Birthday Julie Smith!

1:00 pm- It's karaoke time for our clients!! "Beat it", "Walk the Line", and "You Light up My Life" echo into my office. I debate whether I should join in but the phone rings....saved from embarrassing myself.

 

 

 

1:30 pm- Need a little pep in my step to carry me through the afternoon so I put on Pandora Radio. Station of choice: The Counting Crows

1:45 pm- Look at my whiteboard (old school style) and check off a few things on my to do list:

• Schedule our next METV Program
• Make a video with my new Bloggie
• Work on Volunteer Program
• Finalize Walk With Me event details:  Saturday, November 5^th at Payne Park….come join us!

4:30 pm- Off to spin class...GO LEGS! Then another birthday celebration at Selva Grill with our out of town guests!

 

A Day in the Life of A Local Public Relations Agency Owner

Suzanne Dameron, Owner, Lime Communications

7:30 am. Check email. I’m waiting on a critical email. It will approve a message that will go out to a small group of people working behind the scenes to get a project rolling.

It’s Monday morning. I develop my to do list for the week and day while I’m waiting. I look over a proposal that I worked on last night. It’s for a special event in our community as well as an annual communcations plan. It needs a little tweaking.

8:00 am. Facebook - While searching for something that is relevant, timely and useful to post on our relatively recent Facebook page, I found a great slideshow about Flickr – in 30 seconds it spotlights several ways to utilize Flickr; the original slide show was designed for nonprofits but it works for all sectors. Here is the link www.slideshare.com. I use Hootsuite so I can post to several channels at once. Many people will be interested in this.

9:15 am. I arrive at the office at little later than usual since I was working at home this morning. I set right to reviewing and updating the critical contact lists for the project previously mentioned. Our agency is assisting in developing two contact lists: those who can endorse the project publicly and those who can work behind the scenes.  

10:15 am. Our intern arrives. She is taking on getting calendar items submitted for a special event as well as creating a targeted media list for another project. This talented student is from New College and she is a radio host on our local public radio station. 

10:30.  News Release: I begin working on two versions of a release. The first will be released if there is a a successful outcome to a client project. The second will be released if there is an unsuccessful outcome to a client project.

Noon: The executive director of a local nonprofit takes me to lunch. We are doing a pro bono project for them so it’s very thoughtful and unexpected. We discuss how Lime Communications can further help their environmental cause.

1:00. A staff assistant is back from vacation. We review the notes from a client meeting that took place right before she left town. The next project is the quarterly print newsletter. It is for an organization that has a NO social media policy. The print newsletter is an important piece of their communication plan.

1:30. I get a call about giving a presentation on social media to a non-profit in town. Yes! I enjoy doing this. Yes, I can include ten tips on blogging in 10 minutes with five minutes for Q&A!  

1:45. I begin working on a large, ambitious project. The organization wants both an interactive annual report and a print annual report. So we’re creating a hybrid. This will be our second digital annual report and we’re one of the few agencies in the country who have done one. There has been much discussion about the value of the annual report – the interactive digital version is a great answer to the dilemma. Today we’re reviewing print annual reports from around the country – so many great ideas!

4:45. I leave the office to attend a presentation run through with a client. Several board members and staff will meet to be the audience for the client making the presentation tomorrow morning. My press releases are ready – fingers crossed that the client presentation succeeds and the YES news release gets distributed.

6:30. The meeting ends. I head home.

A Day in the Life of Emily Zier

Emily Zier, interactive designer, atLarge, Inc.

 

My name is Emily. My co-workers call me EZ because… 

1. I break things up into baby steps so even the trickiest projects seem easier. I call it my "easy, done" setting.
2. We're pressed for time so we grab each other's initials over our first names.
3. It's an abbreviated version of "EZ Train"--a reference to my soccer days when I'd plough through any defensive line.

So, now that we're on a first-name basis--I can tell you more about my work. I'm an interactive designer with atLarge, Inc. What the heck does an "interactive" designer do? If you guessed jump up and down while designing--you're wrong. (It happens to the best of us.) As an interactive designer, I design everything except print campaigns. Usually, that means I'm working on social media campaigns, websites and mobile apps. I collaborate closely with atLarge programmers, writers and account managers along the way. 

Here's how my day typically starts:

I roll out of bed by 7.40AM ready to start the day. In case you can't tell--I'm a morning person;)

Why so chipper? The way I see it, I get paid to do something I love that I'm good at--why wouldn't I be stoked to meet the day? Plus, I paid buko bucks to go to the design school of my dreams--shout out to Pratt Institute --so I'm cashing in on my investment! (Actually, I will continue to make payments for the next 10 years but that's besides the point.) 

We're a pretty casual crew so I grab a sundress or jeans and a T and I'm set. If I'm meeting with a client, I'll lay out my clothes the night before. Otherwise, I grab what catches my fancy.

I roll into atLarge 5 minutes early so I'm ready to go right at 8.30AM.

This is my ready, set, go ritual:

• Start my coffee. 
• Greet my office mates. 
• Turn my computer on.
• Grab my coffee.
• Sit down at my desk.
• Put my glasses on.
• Slap the iPod on.
• Put the headphones on. (By the way--noise-canceling headphones are pure genius. If you don't have a pair, you're missing out. I like my Bose Triport headphones.) 

Now, I'm officially on the job. (Notice my serious game face.) 

I check my email to make sure no one needs anything new from me. (Off the hook for emergencies today.) Then, it's straight to my calendar to review due dates. Now, I set my priorities for the day. Looks like I'll be finalizing a set of logos, working on website comps, testing a mobile app I designed and working on the atLarge newsletter.

Here we go.

Fun with Logos

Just a few tweaks before my show-and-tell meeting with the client. Ahh, that's nice. 

Now, I'm off to a quick meeting with my client. They love it. Sigh. I've been working on this for two weeks so it's nice to see it all come together. 

 

Fun with Websites 

This project has been on my plate for six weeks now. Three weeks ago, I shared moodboards which are rough ideas for colors, treatments and overall look and feel. Last week, I shared rough design comps. Now, I'm in the homestretch. This week, I share my final round of design comps so I'm perfecting all the nitty gritty details and making sure the design flows throughout all the pages before I hand it of to our development team.

 

 

Date with atLarge Newsletter  

I love working on client projects but it's nice to come home to our own brand. Since our newsletter is shipping out in a couple days I lay out our August issue so it's ready on time.

Want to see the finished newsletter? Sign up for our newsletter stuffed with digital marketing goodies that's delivered to your inbox each month.  

 

App Check  

This is an iPhone app that we're launching in a few weeks. I'm troubleshooting to make sure my icons and treatments look right across the app. I document a couple of suggestions to discuss with the programming team in our next project meeting.  

 

Website Walkthrough  

This is a project that's in build. The designs were finished a couple weeks ago but this is my first look on the development site. I check for any inconsistencies in design treatments and any usability flaws that would make a visitor confused. We're having a walkthrough meeting with the client next week so I'll continue to check the site as the programming team moves along.

 

My Design Process  

As you can see, there's a lot of variety in the work I do. My process is always the same though. Here's a peak:

• I ask a lot of questions and read everything I can about a client's industry.
• I take scrupulous notes in every meeting and refer back to them often.
• To keep a client's big picture business goals in mind--I'll write them out on sticky notes and post them where I can see them. 
• I create wireframes and moodboards for every interactive design project. 
• I also keep a working Evernote notebooks for every project. (Quick rave on Evernote. I use it to capture everything I love online--a cool blog post idea, an awesome social media contest or a killer website. I snatch a screenshot and store it away. I have notebooks topics like buttons, footers, headers, navigation, image treatments and design elements.)
• I share designs early with clients to make sure that I'm headed in the right direction before I've spent too much time speeding down the wrong path. (I move fast because I'm still on New York time.) 
• Once designs are approved, I work with the rest of the team to bring them to life. 

 

Inspiration Check 

I need a little bit of inspiration so I have lunch with my online buddies. Let's go surfing. 

CMYBacon - Inspiring and funny things in the world of art & design

Dribbble - Show and tell for creatives

DesignWorkLife - Cataloging inspiration daily

Pattern Tap - Web Design Collections

 

Time for a Social Call  

Just a few minutes left in the day so I tweet some of the awesome design gems I found inspiration surfing. (Want to stay up to speed on my finds? Feel free to follow @EmilyZier and @atlargeinc for a daily dose of fun.) 

 

Whew, and before I know it--it's closing time!

 

 

 

 

A Day in the Life of... Broc Smith

 
 

 

Broc Smith is the Owner and Operator of the Liquor Locker on Fruitville Road near Honore. He spends a lot of his day promoting his company through public relations and community partnership, as well as being a hard-working business owner.

 

 

8:30 – I arrived to the Liquor Locker 1 ½ hours before opening to meet the Comcast technician to switch my phone and internet service away from Verizon.  I was able to save over $100 per month, so it was an easy decision.  While the technician began installing my new DSL connection, I wrote this week’s Mixologist column for www.thisweekinsarasota.com.

9:30 – I ran down to the bank to do the banking, and then back to the store to enter the received invoices and deposits into QuickBooks.  Once finished, I hit the switches for all of the store lights and lit the open signs by 10:00 a.m.

10:15 – Wednesday is a big delivery day.  The J.J. Taylor driver arrives while the Comcast tech is on a ladder in the ceiling, blocking the delivery door.  After some maneuvering, the driver was in the door so I could check the order.  I noticed there was a case of Icehouse that didn’t belong and a case of Yeungling Light 12-pack cans that was missing.  I adjusted the invoice and paid the driver as the next delivery from Republic National arrives.  By this time, I had 3 customers filing in at the same time the tech is ready to test my new internet connection.  Surprisingly, the connection worked flawlessly the first time!  I mentally prepared for every scenario but that one.

10:45 – I checked in the Republic order to find that the sales rep mistakenly sent 3 bottles of Mount Gay Black instead of Black Grouse.  I denied the Mount Gay Black and I’ll have to reorder the Black Grouse.  I said goodbye to Carlos, my Republic driver since I opened on one of the better ones that services my store.  He’s moving back to NYC, so I get to deal with a new guy next week.  I rushed to stock the new inventory before the next delivery arrives.  As I was breaking down cardboard boxes, Dave arrived from Premier Beverage.  Dave is a character.  He calls everyone babe.  I noticed right away that my Jack Daniel’s Honey wasn’t on the order.  Next I see the rep sent me a bunch of mixers that aren’t what I ordered.  It isn’t always this bad, but it’s much better to catch these mistakes early.

11:30 – I spent the next hour receiving the products into my inventory system and registering new items.  I love this part!  Adding to my selection and having new products and special orders keeps things fresh and new.  This week I added Gentleman Jack 50ml’s.  I got a great deal on them that I’m going to pass on to my customers!  I also brought in MGD and MGD 64 bottles.  I didn’t want to carry them or have the room, but Publix can’t keep them in stock so I had no choice.  I also brought in Blue Moon cans.  More producers are making good beer in a can now that the technology has actually surpassed that of brown bottles.  With the beach and golf such a big part of so many people’s lifestyles, the decision was a no brainer.

12:30 – I plug in the Foreman grill to cook chicken breasts for lunch as I hear a crash in the walk-in cooler.  The driver stacked some six packs horribly and one fell.  I took a picture with my iPhone to show the sales rep why he owes me a replacement, then swept and mopped the cooler.

2:00 – I washed all of the wine glasses for my wine tasting and set up the table.

5:30 – With the assistance of my friends Nicole and David, we had a very successful wine tasting.  We were able to expose some people to some nice South American wines, a carmenere, cabernet and sauvignon blanc.  It helps business to have something going on inside the store several nights a week.

7:30 – I cleaned up after the tasting and continued to service customers.

8:00 – David and I worked on the thisweekinsarasota.com advertisement for next week’s tasting.

9:00 – Locked the doors and counted the drawers.