Bespoke Sports & Entertainment Account Dir TIFFANY LEE was already a busy woman, working for one of the fastest growing agencies in the business, with major clients like Pilot/Flying J and Navy Federal Credit Union. Then, seven months ago, she had her twin girls, ELIZABETH and ISABELLE, and things got even crazier. Lee spoke with THE DAILY to show us how she navigates and balances being a new mom with her work life. “My daily schedule is a little bit different than the average person. I’m in the process now of balancing agency life and work, travel. Just one of those challenges that all new moms face, when to pump.”
5:15am: Usually I’m up at 5:15 in the morning, that’s when the alarm goes off. I usually check my email before getting up, and then I get the first pump of the day in, and then get ready for work. Whole process takes probably an hour and a half or so. At about 6:00am I head downstairs, make my first cup of coffee. My husband, ANDREW, drinks hot water with lemon, he’s not a coffee guy. I’m pretty much a coffee fiend.
6:45am: We’ll pack both of our cars up. I take the dog, BAUER, like Jack Bauer from “24,” out and then head to the office. We live out in Lake Wylie, so it’s about a 45-60-minute drive to get to the uptown Charlotte office. In the car I’ll usually listen to HLN or CNBC.
7:45am: I’m trying to network as much as possible, so when we don’t have an event, I take advantage of being the first one in the office. In the morning I check more email, text, just reach out, phone calls with friends in the industry, etc. Then I spend the rest of the time reading the N.Y. Times, local news, and scrolling through social media, and then of course get another pump in.
9:00am: Our whole team gets together for a weekly meeting where we discuss our client activations from the past weekend, we provide updates across our entire client rosters, talk about new business prospects.
10:00am: Most of my week revolves around client strategy, sponsorship evaluations and negotiations. I’ll spend the majority of my day reviewing clients’ existing contracts with sports teams or media partners and evaluating whether or not their deals are a strategic fit. Then I’ll work on negotiations to increase their sponsorship, media values for clients, and then I get another pump in.
12:00pm: Most days I bring in lunch, and I’ll usually eat at my desk. If I’m managing a client activation over the weekend, I’ll use the lunch hour to put the final touches on whatever preparation is left to complete. But on Fridays, usually anyone who’s not travelling all goes out to lunch together. We have a very heated ongoing office debate around the best fried chicken in Charlotte, so we like to have regular taste tests. For me it’s Price’s Chicken Coop, no contest.
Lee and her husband Andrew had twin girls Elizabeth and Isabelle seven months agoTIFFANY LEE
1:00pm: Usually two or three times a week we’ll have brainstorms around activation concepts for our existing clients and clients we’re pursuing. We’re a collective of senior agency people but we do have a few teammates whose previous experience sits outside the sports and entertainment world, so using that time to get the whole group together and brainstorm is a good time for us to consider new ideas and challenge old ideas.
3:00pm: I get another pump in at 3:00, my fourth of the day. About once or twice a month, I’ll go with our CEO MIKE BOYKIN for a walk around Third Ward, just so that we have an opportunity to catch up outside the office and things going on with our clients, our personal lives, etc.
4:30pm: After having the twins I was able to adjust my schedule, so now I leave at 4:30 to go pick them up from daycare. It takes about an hour and a half from the time I leave the office to the time I make it home.
6:00pm: My husband and I have about 30 minutes to play with our kids before we start their bedtime routine. Usually they get a bath, they get a bottle, and then we’ll read to them. “Princesses Wear Pants,” SAVANNAH GUTHRIE’s book, is a family favorite.
7:00pm: I usually clean and prep all the bottles for the next day while my husband cooks dinner. We’ll spend probably an hour doing that, catch up with each other. He makes everything. He’ll cook salmon, grill out, make pasta. I think if he didn’t do what he is doing he could have been a chef.
8:00pm: We’ll settle in to watch some TV together. Now that it’s basketball season it’s typically a Badger game or a Hornets game if either of them are playing, or it’s something on Netflix or HBO. Right now, we’re watching “True Detective.”
9:00pm: I’m in a book club that meets once a month, so I try to get a least a few pages in every night. We’re reading “Where the Crawdads Sing” right now, and if I get that finished before we meet again in a couple weeks, I’ll pick up one of JODI PICOULT’s books, I’m a huge fan. I’ll read, get my final pump in, and go to sleep.
