My day starts with…

The two-hour process of getting myself and my two-year-old ready for respective attendance at nursery/the office. We try to have breakfast together and play some games without rushing to get out of the door, which usually means an earlier morning than I’d like! On my drive to the office in Cardiff, I love listening to whatever Spotify throws at me, or the latest audiobook I’m into. I recently - and randomly - listened to the Madonna ‘Evita’ soundtrack and got a drive-thru coffee. Epic start.

I am responsible for…

I help my clients make sure their marketing gets them return and achieves their growth targets.

Much of my time is spent creating marketing strategies. This involves:

• workshops with my clients to set marketing objectives

• review what’s working for them – and what isn’t

• helping them set and allocate their marketing budgets 

• coming up with best use of marketing activities to achieve their strategy. 

I also work on brand positioning projects to help brands communicate clearly why their product or offering is the best choice above the other options available. 

My day looks like…

No two days are the same as a strategic marketing consultant but I’ll share a recent day as an example of a typical one.

9am: Start the day by clearing down my inbox to make sure all tasks are in hand and scheduled into my diary. I like to be organised and tend to chunk out my day into hour-slots to ensure my focus stays on what needs to get done.

9.30am: Conduct some insight interviews over the phone as part of a brand positioning project for a homebuilder client. I adore this part of my job because I get to speak to so many different people, to understand how they buy and their purchasing drivers. 

11.30am: Quick inbox check. I post an update on my social media channels about my latest blog and respond to some LinkedIn messages.

12.00pm: For lunch – I often pop over to Sport Wales (our National Sports Centre), they do the best canteen style food. It’s lamb madras with poppadom and naan – what a treat.

1pm: I finish my presentation for a client’s marketing strategy that I’m presenting to their board next week. I’ve already completed all the chunky work but having received sign off on their recommended marketing budget, I’m now able to finalise their activity plan.

3.30pm: Quick cake break! 🍰

3.45pm: I review some quotes and proposals from some of my partners for client projects – including a recommended content strategy and some responses to a brief for a new CRM software for a client. 

4.30pm: With everything done and dusted, I head to the nursery to pick up my daughter and hit the park (it’s raining but we’ve got wellies).

7.30pm: With my daughter tucked up in bed, I have some dinner with my husband, tidy up after the day and then chill out watching the latest Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. It’s always nice to end the day with a laugh.

My daily toolkit…

I absolutely love good coffee, so I tend to have a cappuccino to treat myself once a day.

The big glass wall in the office is essential for brainstorming on strategy and making sense of what’s in my head.

A good headset. I recently invested in a brilliant Jabra headset which is great for carrying out my insight interviews.

I run my business using all the latest tech and am entirely paperless in my operations – however I cannot seem to part with my trusty notepad and pen.

I love my job because…

I love solving marketing challenges – it’s one of my favourite things. Marketing is everywhere and it’s so much fun to look around and try to figure out what strategies companies are adopting and what different businesses are doing to promote themselves. 

I also love working with great partners (such as Crocstar) and talking to different people each day, learning about their businesses and walks of life. Marketing is a fun industry to be in: those around me love to collaborate which means we are always learning from each other and sharing best practices. 

A tough lesson I had to learn in my career was…

I used to believe whatever I was told and never thought anyone would say anything other than what they really meant. I now understand that for many different reasons, people don’t always say exactly what they mean and this did cause some challenges earlier on in my career. 

Now that I understand people’s different communication styles, I’m better equipped to spot subtleties and it means I’ll never be disappointed if someone says one thing and does another. Everyone is on their own path, doing the best they can with what is before them. Luckily – my clients and partners are a delight, although that’s no coincidence.

If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be…

On stage, maybe? I’d always seen myself becoming an actor or performer. Not so much on TV but in local productions with small independent theatre production companies. It’s not something I’ve done before but maybe I’ll experiment in that area someday.

My advice for anyone aspiring to work in a similar role...

Be clear about why you’re setting up your own marketing consultancy and keep focused on that vision. So many people who start working for themselves end up working all hours and become exhausted. I set up Tambini Marketing because I knew I wanted to be a mum and I wanted to have balance and control over my working week. I’ve achieved that but it’s taken focus and determination to ensure I have quality time with my daughter while also remaining motivated by work that I love. There’s no crossover between my time as a mum and my work and I love that. My clients know they have my absolute commitment but I’m also very strict with myself that I only book in work that is the right fit and I don’t take on too many projects at once. 

I also think it’s really important as a parent to listen to that ‘parental pull’. I’m not a fan of the ‘hustle hard’ and ‘girl boss’ mantras. If I feel a pull to spend time with my daughter I want to listen to that – my maternal instincts are very strong. I worry sometimes that these messages, aimed often at women, to be everything and cover all bases are not healthy. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, but each of us needs to find the way that’s right for us and not listen to anyone who tries to tell us to do it any other way. What works for you, that’s the right way.

On another note – the best advice I had on setting up was: ‘know the business you’re in’. When you’re new it’s easy to take on work that’s not an ideal fit but in the longer term it’s important to be clear about what you sell and stick to it. I only take on work that’s in line with my mission statement: “helping companies develop and implement marketing strategies”. I love businesses that have a speciality – you can’t be all things to all people. 

Want to be featured in our next ‘day in the job’ series? Get in touch hello@crocstar.com.