By 
At the end of last year, Yelena Fairfax left her job as an editor at Bauer Media’s BEAUTYDIRECTORY to pursue her dream of launching website Husskie. Focusing on the lives and careers of influencers, www.husskie.com has fast gained traction in the market – appearing in such publications as Daily Mail, POPSUGAR, Byrdie, Body & Soul… the list goes on.
But what’s life look like now for Yelena since leaving the corporate world to be her own boss? To find out, we tracked the editor down to talk a usual day in her life…
5am: The alarm goes off – but I hit the snooze button for 20 minutes. When I first started working for myself, I use to set the alarm for 5.20am – but kept snoozing until six. I figured if I set it for 5am, I’d actually get up at 5.20am!
5.20am: Time to actually wake up! Every morning I spend about the first half an hour checking through my various social media accounts. There’s my personal Instagram – @thebraidedlena, my professional Instagram – @husskiepress, my Pinterest – @Husskie… the list goes on (think Facebook – personal and professional and Twitter – professional). So yes, that first part of the day is rather busy.
6am: At 6am I move across to my computer where I start going through all the stories that came in overnight. I find Bloglovin’ is a great source to see what all the bloggers are up to all in one place – so this is where I tend to start. I also do some beauty writing for Grazia, so for this I’m going through all my Google Alerts and press releases to pull out the best stories for the day.
7am: It’s time to get out of my pyjamas and get myself ready for a launch. I have an event for Country Road starting at 8.15am today, so it’s a quick shower, grab some clothes, and then my typical beauty routine (primer, foundation, eyeliner, mascara, and highlighter). My friend once asked me how I choose what to wear to go to all these events and I laughed and said “whatever is closest!” And it’s true. These days I tend to always be in a hurry – so I often just have to hope for the best with what I grab.
8.15am: The Country Road event starts. And it is beautiful. Truly beautiful. Set up in a private residence in Gordon Bay, Sydney, Australia – the house has been decked out with everything from Country Road. We’re talking clothes in the cupboard, linen on the bed, towels in the bathroom, bowls on the table… everything. I always find I spend ages at events as I love having a good chat with the brands, PRs and other guests. After checking out every room in the house and having some breakfast treats (and coffee!), I chatted to the head of women’s fashion who took me through everything coming up for the brand in the next season.
10.15am: Leaving the event and headed for home where I need to seriously get cracking on some writing. Killing two birds with one stone, I talk to a PR on the phone (hands-free of course!) for the journey as she wants to tell me what they’ve got coming up for beauty.
10.45am: Finally sitting down at my computer. Luckily I don’t need to worry about eating as I grabbed some food at the event. While I would love to say that this is where I begin writing my stories, the next hour is actually spent answering emails. This can be anything from responding to idea pitches to organising meetings or just discussing upcoming opportunities.
11.45am: Article writing and preparation starts. Before writing an article I like to do some thorough research on the person or topic. It’s then writing, picture selection and uploading. I also use this time to put together questions for upcoming interviews.
2pm: I stop for 15 mins to grab myself a bite to eat and a drink. I’ve got into the bad habit of having my breakfast and lunch in front of the computer. I know I shouldn’t do this – but it’s definitely the most efficient way of working. I’m then back to my office to continue writing, planning and responding to emails.
3.30pm: I’ve got a meeting with a PR at 4pm to discuss what she’s working on with her brands and to see how we can align what we’ve both got in the works. I close up the computer to quickly get ready and out the door.
4pm: The next two hours are spent chatting agendas and upcoming product launches. While PR meetings are a big chunk out of your day, it’s so essential to have good relations with PRs – whether you’re in traditional media or a blogger.
6pm: I sneak in another hour at the computer before my partner (Jon) gets too hangry.
7pm: Dinner time! I try to always stop around dinner time for about an hour so that I get to see some of Jon. It’s definitely treasured time together now that I’m running my own business. I do sometimes miss the days we could just sit on the couch of an evening watching our favourite shows.
8pm: Unfortunately with the morning’s events and afternoon meeting, I’m now quite behind on my writing duties for the day. Finally at 12am I’m able to turn off the computer and shut down for the evening.
12am: I sneak in 30 mins of social media while Jon sleeps soundly beside me.
12.30am: Phone down, sleep time. I set my alarm to go off in four and a half hours and fall straight asleep, exhausted. While working for yourself does bring long hours (some longer than others!), it is incredibly rewarding to be in control of your own ship. Now I’m doing Husskie, I can’t ever imagine doing anything else.
I love the influencer and blogging world and am so thrilled to be able to bring each of their stories to life every single day.
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
