Bec Ney is the Head of Marketing at The Missing Link, an Australian IT company providing expert IT services and solutions.
Interested in talking about how you balance the grind? Get in touch with us here!
1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
From a young age I wanted to be a lawyer, I started off my career in a legal firm as a junior and worked my way up to a conveyancing secretary. I quickly realised law wasn’t my cup of tea and when relocating to Sydney, I fell into IT.
I joined The Missing Link as a receptionist 12.5 years ago, and did a variety of roles within the business including procurement, sales support before landing in marketing where I’ve never looked back.
I took the opportunity during lockdown last year to complete my Graduate Certificate in Marketing in a fast tracked 8 month course. Juggling the course, a full time role managing a team of 4 at the time and being a mum was hard but very rewarding.
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
Every day looks different for our team, we have a variety of events, campaigns, digital activities, and general BAU tasks running at one time and across 3 lines of business for The Missing Link.
We start our day with a team catch up to talk through updates, challenges and to have a general mental health check in over a coffee. My team’s progress and development means just as much to me as the output for our business.
We follow this up with more collaborative meetings with internal teams to talk about campaign kick-offs and go to market solutions we have in the making. I also join the business’s leaders in monthly leadership meetings to keep them abreast of our marketing strategy and what we have coming up.
The day also entails meetings with external vendors who play an integral part in our business and on the off chance I might speak to a customer here and there to learn of some of our success stories.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
I’ve been very lucky to work for a business who allowed flexible and remote working where needed even before COVID-19. Our team is driven by outcome based results instead of counting the clock for the hours we work.
As a super organised person, I have a very structured week with mum life tasks in my calendar and business meetings. It takes discipline and hard work to juggle it all but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
Work life balance is so important to me as a single parent, I know that a healthy balance reduces stress and burnout and therefore makes for a happier parent AND worker! Further to that I try really hard to get ‘me’ time – quiet downtime where possible to regroup and recharge.
As I mentioned before, I am very strict with my diary – I have mid-day walking breaks to get out of the house for exercise and fresh air and I prefer to pick up some work late at night once when the household is quite, generally this is a great time for me to read industry news or brainstorm for upcoming projects.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
One of the best habits I learnt while studying (huge thanks to my amazing mentor) was not to set myself up to fail – don’t set unrealistic expectations of a Friday study if you know you will likely fail. Set realistic goals and choose optimal times that work and be disciplined
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
I love reading when I get the chance – I’m half way through the Book Thief at the moment and a few of my all time favourites include The Kite Runner, Memoirs of a Geisha and I’m a sucker for a Liane Moriarty novel.
I have just started State of Demand Gen podcast series so I’ll have to let you know how that goes and my other favourite is our very own CTRL ALT DEL podcast series – I love hearing from the amazing people within our business about what their passionate about. I also really enjoy The Privacy Professor – Rebecca has a refreshing way of sharing insights in the Tech world.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
My iPhone is the obvious one because it has everything I need but I also love listening to music so the Song speakers at home are an all time fav gadget. Nothing beats a morning coffee and dancing around the house to get me pumped for the day!
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
Jacinda Ardern – she is an impressive young woman. I read recently that she went back to work after 6 week maternity leave so I bet she’d have some great tips on a healthy balance.
Before you go…
If you’d like to sponsor or advertise with Balance the Grind, let’s talk here.
Join our community and never miss a conversation about work, life & balance – subscribe to our newsletter.
