Clare Winterbourn is the Founder and Director of Born Bred Talent, an influencer marketing agency and talent management business.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
My career first started in advertising and sports management but with the rise of social media I saw an opportunity to take the leap and start Born Bred Talent.
I was feeling fatigued with the sports industry and was starting to pay more attention to social media influencers who were growing an engaged and active community quite quickly across different social media platforms.
I decided to apply the same commercialisation principles of sports management to social media influencers and started Born Bred Talent.
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
My day usually starts at 4am – I like to get up early and jump on my emails for 1-2 hours to clear my inbox and get ready for the day.
Exercise is a huge part of my morning routine, so I’ll always squeeze in a workout in the morning before I head to the office, and then it’s a combination of meetings with brands and agencies, phone calls with our roster of talent to ensure everything is on track and campaign management for the rest of the day.
I’ll also catch up with our team in our Sydney office to ensure I am across all incoming enquiries for our talent roster, upcoming campaign briefs and projects and our own marketing and advertising activations.
Up until COVID-19, I was travelling to our New Zealand office once a month, and interstate at least once a week, so that’s had a huge impact on my day-to-day schedule.
On top of all of that, I’m wrangling my 17-year-old son and raising him to be a strong, independent and hard-working young man, which is a full-time job all in itself.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
I’m lucky that my business is set up for remote work, however, I never been a huge advocate for remote working in the past and have always had office space.
The last couple of months has completely changed my mindset of working from home and having a remote team, so we’re definitely embracing that more and as a result, we’re seeing increased productivity and performance, and more time and space for creativity.
Our team is split between Sydney, coastal New South Wales, Brisbane and our New Zealand office in Auckland, so remote working makes sense, and we’re really finding our stride with it.
As I’m always on the road and am in and out of meetings all day, empowering my team to work remotely and with more flexibility has been a great learning experience and is proving to have a positive impact.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
To be honest, I still haven’t mastered work-life balance. I became a mum at 18 years old, so I have always worked hard to support myself and my son as a priority, and now as a business owner, with a business that is growing at record speed, it’s really hard to find a balance. It’s the area of my life that I have found the most difficult, but I’m still working on it.
For me, COVID-19 and the ups and downs of 2020 have actually been a blessing in disguise as it’s made me manage my time better, embrace new ways of living and working and it has given me time to think about my personal well being, and how I can find more of a balance in my everyday life.
It’s a work in progress, but I’m proud to say I am finally splitting my time between family, work and wellness better than I ever have before.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
One routine I started in the last 12 months which has stuck is setting my alarm for 4am every morning. It’s a hard adjustment initially, however, I really value that quiet time in the morning before the rest of the world wakes up and starts their working day. I get so much done in those 2-3 hours, and I find it’s when I am most creative.
At work, we have also started to do a daily team WIP, instead of weekly, which I’m finding has a positive impact on my team, our internal efficiencies, and supports our new remote working culture.
On the home front, I have prioritised family time more in 2020 and now allocate time to spending with my son Angus, and to fill up my own cup in the process.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
I’m currently reading Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid and am enjoying it so far. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but love documentaries and of course, I’m always listening to podcasts about business, the influencer marketing industry and interviews with influencers. I find it is the best way to stay on top of what is happening in the market and new trends.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
Deliveroo – it has successfully fed my family for the last 3 years while I started and grew Born Bred Talent.
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
I recently read a book by Gail Kelly which I loved, and I learned so much about how she manages work and life as well as the work-life balance of her employees, and her strategies in leadership, work and personal development.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
I’d love readers to realise that it’s okay to not have a balance at certain points in your life, especially when you are working hard to achieve your goals, starting and running a business, and raising a small human, which in my case is a teenager who is bigger and taller than me. You can have it all, but not all at once.
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