Fabiola Gomez is the Founder & Director of LUXit, an on-demand luxury mobile salon, which provides premium beauty and wellness services to the doorstep of time-poor individuals.
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1. To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I am the Founder and Visionary of LUXit and a former brand consultant and lawyer.
I started my working life as a property and commercial lawyer. I went on to co-found the law firm Lyon, which gave me my grounding and business acumen that were required to lead my numerous future ventures.
I applied my strategic business talents to the fashion realm, where I served different times as General Manager for two of Australia’s most iconic designers, Camilla Australia, and Leona Edmiston. Fashion brand consulting was a natural progression, and I maintain working relationships with major Australian fashion labels.
In 2015, I created the multi award-winning mobile and beauty concierge service, LUXit. It is used to book qualified, experienced beauty and wellness professionals such as hairdressers, beauticians, therapists and more to your home, hotel, hospital or other place of choice, when desired, seven days a week.
The technology is similar to that of Uber Black, where clients can rate and track the arrival of their premium freelance provider via the LUXit app.
2. What does a typical day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
Most work days I wake up very early, and immediately visualise how the day will pan out before I’ve even gotten out of bed. I’ll have a big glass of water, and then meditate for anywhere between 20-45 minutes. My morning ritual is extremely important to me and is sometimes the only thing that truly calms me down. I never miss a day, no matter what the time constraints are.
When my team arrives at 9am, I ask them to debrief on their daily tasks, and report on the top three tasks that they did the previous day, followed by what their top three for today. By 1:30pm-2:00pm the majority of the work should be done. The most important thing I encourage in my team is that all tasks are completed with love and good intentions.
3. Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
Yes, absolutely. Most of our clients are from corporate spaces, and we’ve needed to adapt to working on the go and from different locations. I’m also a very free, creative spirit, so being locked down in one spot doesn’t work well for me.
Everything involved in my business is cloud-based, and so I can literally take my work with me anywhere. And with technology at the level it is today, everything is achievable.
4. Do you have any tips, tricks or shortcuts to help you manage your workload and schedule?
The biggest method I use for my personal workload is the Time Management Matrix by Stephen Covey, which distinguishes between importance and urgency. For my team, I encourage the Three R’s method:
- Report (state the facts)
- Recommend (reason for decision)
- Results (final answer)
Additional tricks would be to keep all meetings to a maximum of 20 minutes, and send out the agenda prior. Also, the Voice to Text feature on modern phones is the biggest time-saver.
5. What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
To me, work-life balance means healthily blending the two together. Lorraine Murphy addresses this notion in her book, Baby, You’re Remarkable, discussing balancing motherhood with work commitments.
Although I’m not a parent, I have adapted her blending ideology into my daily life. It is of utmost importance I still tend to all family matters and I never miss a birthday dinner, but I may have to step out for a few minutes at a time. All my friends and family are extremely supportive of what I do and are open to the way I balance my work life.
6. What do you think are some of the best habits you’ve developed over the years to help you strive for success and balance?
Making fast decisions, and choosing quickly whether you’re in or you’re out. Do it fast – it’s always better to have something done and move forward, and then revisit it later if need be.
If it’s a more important and final task, then of course allocate sufficient time to make educated decisions and responses.
7. Are there any books that have helped you improve over the years?
A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman is a mind-blowing book that has opened my perspective and awoken a sense of spirituality within me. It offers tremendous insight into the false projections of our mind and the self defeating beliefs we hold about life.
8. What is the number one thing you do to make sure you get the most out of your day?
It would be my morning routine that I mentioned before. Ensuring I take that extra time in the morning to meditate, and to visualise how my day will pan out, allows me to maintain a sense of clarity and calmness in my rather hectic life.
9. Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
Always be present in the moment, learn to be a good listener, and be selective with your time. Take an assistant or team member with you to all meetings to ensure you capture all important notes, and get them to start drafting follow-up emails with debriefs and action plans whilst the meeting is still occurring. Definitely keep a close trusted circle of advisers.
If you found the above conversation about work-life balance helpful, be sure to check out Balance the Grind’s 42 tips for achieving & maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
