Our next, and final, post in our Day in the Life series focuses on Imaginaire’s ‘top dog’, Don Sebbeh. Seb is the founder and director of Imaginaire. So naturally, his days are pretty busy.
Being the director of a digital agency means I have to wear a lot of different hats. I am a salesman, developer, SEO strategist and team leader. One day, I could be in and out of meetings with clients all day talking to them about their campaign results. And another day I could be hauled up in my office coding the back-end of websites for our ongoing projects.
One of the advantages of running a small agency is that I and the team have a hand in pretty much everything we do. We are a results focussed agency, and we try to be one of the first to use new strategies in our marketing campaigns.
So, what does a typical day look like for me?
06:00 – 07:30
During this time, I shall get up (often having pressed the snooze button on my alarm at least three times) and get ready for work. I’ll eat my Coco Pops with chocolate milk whilst talking to the cats about what they have on for the day. I’ll probably talk to the wife as well, at some point.
07:30 – 08:00
This is my commute into work. You always read blog posts about how people increase their productivity by listening to some amazing podcasts during their commute, but I’ll often forget and just listen to some absolute 90’s tunes in the car instead, this really motivates me for the day ahead.
08:00 – 09:00
The first hour of my day is dedicated to emails. I get a lot of emails from clients requesting changes to be made to their websites, asking questions about how their marketing campaigns are coming along and asking for additional work to be completed. A big part of my work involves client work so it is important to make sure I am up-to-date with emails so I can plan my work effectively.
09:00 to 11:00
We often have a number of web design and development projects on at one time here at Imaginaire, so a large chunk of my time is spent developing the backend of these sites. Having originally learned to code when I was 14, I like to ensure I code a lot of the websites myself to ensure my knowledge is kept in shape.
11:00 to 12:00
I will often have a catch-up with my team to see what they have been working on for the day, and what else they have planned. Executing a successful marketing campaign takes a lot of work so I always offer my expertise when I can and give my input where needed. But I also trust the great team I have around me which allows me to get on with the work I have to do as well.
12:00 to 13:00
This is my lunch hour. I love to keep in shape so I will use this time to go to the gym and get my workout done for the day, I then come back and eat my lunch while browsing local and national news sites, as well as reading my favourite marketing and web design blogs.
13:00 to 15:00
Time for a new client meeting. We have just bought on a very exciting marketing project so I am out of the office at their premises to go over the campaign that I and the team have created. This involves going over link building strategies we have created, and PR plays which we believe will be very successful for the business.
15:00 to 16:00
Back at the office now. Marketing, as you will know, is an ever-changing field and tactics expire all the time. One of my big focuses is on researching new SEO tactics and experimenting with these tactics to see if they will work with our clients. I work with my team on this and always report my findings. You never know, there may always be an opportunity to publish our findings and use this to build some more links to our site.
16:00 to 17:00
I will use the last hour of my day to go over my emails one last time and action anything that needs completing before I leave for home. I will also have one last quick catch up with the team to see what they accomplished for the day and plan out what we have going on for the rest of the week. We can make changes to our plans for the rest of the week depending on any emails that have come in.
17:00 to 18:00
My commute home, again, often spent blasting out some amazing tunes and singing along to keep me entertained during the endless traffic back home!
18:00 to 22:30
Time to relax and wind down for the day. Running a marketing agency can sometimes be stressful, so it is nice to take some time to myself. Running a business can eat into personal time often, but I try and refrain from this as much as possible if I can! Mainly to keep my wife happy!
As I said above, I have to wear a lot of different hats during the day, and this is what I love the most about my job! It keeps me on my toes and allows me to both keep good communication with my clients, whilst still being able to hunker down and get development work done where needed.
