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A Week in My Life: Greg Felgate, Director of Communications, Intermarketing

family-gregfelgate

Greg Felgate is Intermarketing Agency‘s (IMA) Director of Communications, where he works alongside a growing communications and channel team to ensure the agency’s success.

IMA, who Greg has been with for one year now, works with clients including Reebok, The North Face, Liverpool FC, KIND Snacks and Arla Foods, and has its headquarters in Leeds. Most recently it announced its partnership with Cape Town-based Elevator Agency, which will soon be known as IMA South Africa.

Greg previously held a senior position at Finn Communications, joining not long after the agency launched and helping grow it into the influential name it is today. He also works with the recently established Harrogate Organics Company and is a trustee for childhood cancer charity Candlelighters Trust.

He showed us what a recent week in his life looked like…

 

Monday

My week starts with an early wakeup from my youngest daughter Millie, who is two. I realised the other day that I haven’t woken up naturally for months!  

My wife and I take it in turns to exercise in a makeshift gym we have created in the basement and since it’s my wife’s turn today, it’s my morning with the kids.

I try and get us all ready for 8am so we can enjoy breakfast together before Sophia – who’s in year 1 – goes off to school and I start work. Even though I have visions of breakfast being really pleasant, Millie ends up going mental because I didn’t give her the right coloured bowl. I do a quick bowl swap and all is well again.

The working day starts with me recapping on my key actions for the week and checking in with the team – we have a group on Teams that we call ‘Happy Channel and Comms’, where we all stay connected and make sure everyone is doing OK.

There are always a few others calls and emails to respond to, but as much as I can I try and block out time to work on things in chunks of time, rather than be too in-and-out on different tasks. One of my biggest priorities right now is recruitment, so I read through some CVs and get some interviews planned in for the week.

We won two big clients before Christmas so there is a big job to do to ensure they are onboarded and bedded in properly. After lunch, I begin working on a plan we’re presenting to one of them at the end of the week.  

I try and finish at 5:30pm as often as possible so I can go and have dinner with the family and then I’ll jump back online later if necessary. I’m a Board Trustee at Candlelighters and we have a board meeting on Wednesday, so once the girls are in bed, I read over the board pack to ensure I’m properly prepared.

Tuesday

This morning it’s my turn to workout. I tend to spend 30 minutes on an old exercise bike I bought off eBay – which my friends have nicknamed the Feleton! – and then 15 or 20 mins or so doing weights.

After getting ready fairly leisurely, the working day starts with a one-to-one with our Marketing Manager.  As well as helping growing IMA’s communications offer, I’m also responsible for new business, including marketing. We spend around an hour planning out our content for the week ahead.  

I then have another interview before taking a brief from a potential client. I joined the senior management team in January and every Wednesday we report to the Board on our areas of ownership and discuss the key priorities for the agency – I spend some time on Tuesday afternoon prepping for that.

After having dinner with the family, bathing the girls and getting them to bed, I join a Board meeting with the Harrogate Organics Company, a wellbeing business me and three partners founded in June last year.   

Considering we’ve only been going nine months or so, its going really well. The feedback we receive has been excellent and we’re looking forward to the Harrogate shop opening up again on April 12th. 


Wednesday

After the usual morning routine, I prepare for some appraisal meetings we have coming up, and then we have the SMT and Board meeting.  

I then head out for a short walk at lunchtime, which I had to put in my diary because I was finding that in some weeks I was hardly getting out.   

Feeling more refreshed, I go back to my desk with a cup of tea in hand and work on a press release to announce a new client win. We’ve got lots of exciting news going out over the next few months so I’m working on stories for IMA and selling them in pretty regularly at the moment. I don’t mind though – far from it! I still get that buzz from writing up a story, speaking to journalists and seeing them land in the media.

I also attend quite a few first-stage meetings with new prospects and we have a meeting with one tomorrow, so I spend the rest of the afternoon preparing for that.

After putting the girls to bed I have the Board meeting with Candlelighters. Like a lot of charities, we are facing quite a few challenges at present but we have a really strong leadership team in place who are very well-equipped to deal with them. Meetings normally go on for around two hours and are always really productive.

Thursday

After exercising, I start my working day on Thursday with a few team one-to-ones and then do some final prep for a plan we’re presenting to one of our new clients. Once we’ve presented the plan I go straight into a meeting with a potential new client.

I love the new business side of agency life, especially meeting a prospect for the first time, trying to simultaneously build a relationship and demonstrate that we’re a great agency partner for them.

After lunch it’s time for our fortnightly ‘Channel and Comms Work in Progress’ call. We have such a great team and I always look forward to these meetings. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been at Intermarketing nearly a year but I’ve still not met anyone in the team yet!

We start off by sharing a few key updates and where we are numbers-wise, before going over some highlights from the past two weeks. We then have a section for shout-outs, during which we give props to those that have done some great work or been extra supportive. We also aim to have three show-and-tells in each session, where we share great work and key learnings.

That evening, I pick up a book that I have been meaning to read for ages. It’s called ‘Freedom To Be Happy – The Business Case for Happiness’ and is written by my good and oldest friend from playschool, Matt Phelan.

Friday

I don’t work at Intermarketing on Friday but it’s still quite a busy day. I take Sophia to school and then spend the morning with Millie – we always go for a walk and to the park, whatever the weather.

In the afternoon, I spend some time working on a content plan and video script for the Harrogate Organics Company and then I have a call with the CEO of Candlelighters. We’ve recently started a marketing committee and I’m the Chair, so we discuss and confirm our priorities ahead of the next meeting.

The last thing I do before I pick Sophia up from school and switch off for the weekend is review my goals, both professional and personal, to ensure I’m on the right track. I then set some actions for the week ahead to ensure everything is moving forward as it should.

The weekend normally starts with a little family walk and a takeaway – its Sukhothai tonight, which I am very excited about!

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