A day in the life of Clair Hillier

5:20am

I’m up and straight out of bed to stop me hitting that snooze button – being a morning person definitely helps me get a few minutes of quiet time just to myself first thing.

6am

Off to the gym down the road where I make sure I’m fully awake and raring to go. This morning it’s two classes – Body Attack and spinning – but some days I train in the gym or have a session with my personal trainer (if I’m not sweating, I’m not training).

I believe that a good day starts with getting the bloody flowing – it gets the endorphins rushing and really sets you up for everything in the hours ahead.

8am

After showering and changing I head to the café and open my laptop, checking emails and project logs over a plate of scrambled eggs on toast.

As department head it’s important for me to know how our projects are progressing, supporting the team wherever needed, and looking for new opportunities. Doing this in the gym café is great to focus, but I love a spot of people watching at the same time!  

8:45am

Emails cleared and I’m in the car to head over and see a client – today it’s the Westmorland Family which owns Tebay and Gloucester services (yes, those amazing, award-winning service stations!).

I get there in plenty of time for our meeting so open up the laptop again and spend some time working in the café at their Rheged centre. And no, I have no idea how that scrumptious, homemade muffin made it onto the table next to my coffee…

11am

It’s time to catch up with clients Jon and Julie, alongside Steve White, their service manager here at Waterstons. We were even treated to a tour around their fantastic new offices.

Meeting with our clients face to face is so important to me as we get to find out so much more about what they’re doing, their plans, challenges and overall business strategy. I always get a great insight into a business by being on site and feeling like an extended part of their team.

We chatted about what we have ongoing and reviewed how everything is progressing. Was fantastic to hear they’re happy with everything we’ve done, and we identified upcoming priorities and any new work we need to look at.

12 noon

After a wonderful catch up, it just happened to be lunchtime so we naturally frequented the incredible facilities on site – always a belter, this time I opted for the lamb kofta and it was outstanding.

Please note: I only ever arrange meetings near lunchtime with them. I have no shame. They know this (I like to believe it’s something they love about us too!).

1pm

Full and happy from an amazing lunch, Steve and I headed back to their offices to dial in to a few meetings, start working on follow-up activities and generally make sure the ship is steady, before heading home.

We can neither confirm nor deny whether the car boot was full of delicious home cooked food and local produce…

4pm

Home and back in my comfy joggers and slippers.

There are still a few things I need to get done, so the laptop comes back out and I spend a few hours updating paperwork, solving a few issues and arranging upcoming meetings with the team and clients.

6pm

Time to put away the laptop (it’s had a busy day) and wind down for the evening.

I like to relax with a glass of vino or a cocktail while cooking up a storm – especially on a Friday. Plus, it’s not every day I have some of the freshest ingredients around to cook with!

I’m really lucky that I get to work with some incredible people, both within the business and as clients. By empowering the team to work from anywhere, our creativity is not restricted to being in the office around the same views and same people every day. We have the freedom to work where we are most productive, and spend more quality time with clients on site without being pressured to constantly check in.

That’s why we do what we do well.