Balancing the Grind with Kayla Medica, Marketing Manager at Perkbox

Kayla Medica is the National Marketing Manager at Perkbox, a leading employee experience platform with a big focus on company culture and values.

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

My background is marketing in all its forms for B2B startups and technology companies.

I originally started out as a translator (Japanese to English) for a marketing agency, which is where I got my marketing skills, but as I’ve gone further into the technology sector my Japanese has become pretty rusty. 

Currently I’m the National Marketing Manager for Perkbox Australia. We’re a global employee experience organisation, offering a platform for employers to use as a form of motivation, engagement, and to gather business insights through.

2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

I oversee every aspect of the Australian marketing, so my day is really varied, from the website, to PR, sales assets, performance marketing, even customer marketing, really everything from start to finish.

My day always started with going through my emails, any relevant news, and looking over the quality and quantity of leads that came in overnight. After that it could be anything! 

Most recently, we’re focusing on refreshing our email marketing, so a lot of my time is spent on that. 

In my personal time, I’ve been experimenting with my morning routine, from waking up earlier to walk the dog on days he doesn’t come to the office with me (we’re dog friendly!) to cooking a more extravagant breakfast to start the day off right.

At night, I try to do no-screens for an hour or two before bed and read a book. I flip flop between reading fiction and non-fiction. A recent recommendation for the pure experience of reading the book would be ‘S’ by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams. 

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

Yes! We have a work from home allowance, currently I do four days in the office and one at home. During covid a few team members have also gone to rural NSW to work remotely, but I personally haven’t done so. 

4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

I’m still figuring that out. I am definitely someone who puts 100% of my effort into work and then gets home mentally and physically exhausted. 

For me, because I have so much creative output each day in marketing, I find a really strong need to absorb creative input as well. That could be going to a museum, reading a book, watching a film, going for a walk somewhere new. Just anything that could provide some inspiration to me and charge me back up creatively. 

I also make sure I’m making time for my personal creative outlets, during the NSW covid lockdown I wrote a murder mystery game designed to be played on Zoom that went viral, took a screenwriting class and wrote a feature film script, and I also practice film photography. 

This year I started mood tracking as a new year’s resolution, and I’ve now got data that shows my mood is greatly affected by seeing my friends regularly and in real life (Zoom doesn’t cut it), so I make an effort to reach out to my circle of friends and organise catchups regularly. 

5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

I’ve mentioned a few already, mood tracking and dog walking and what not. One routine I had to drop due to covid and haven’t been able to pick back up since it reopened has been static trapeze classes. 

I read a book or an article (I have forgotten what it was) but it spoke about how the author had a coffee table that they would often bang their leg on, not terrible but a slight inconvenience.

They didn’t realise how much of an effect that it was having on them until they bought a new table and no longer banged their leg ever again. It was a weight lifting off them in their own home where they thought they were the most comfortable they could possibly be. 

I’m trying to find the coffee tables I’m banging my legs on in my life. So far it’s been really small things (like wearing blue light glasses during work hours – I don’t usually wear glasses/contacts) but I’m trying to build these habits to improve my quality of life.

6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

So many. 

Newsletters:

• Dense Discovery (tech and design inspiration)
• Lonely Victories (writing and writing habits)
• Deez Links (media industry general interest, strong focus on New York)
• YellowTrace (design and architecture)
• Subtle Maneuvers (the work habits and routines of creative people, mostly writers)

Podcasts:

• Reply All (tech and pop culture)
• Dissect (dissecting musical albums)
• Nice White Parents (gentrification of school systems in New York)
• The Dream (scams, pyramid schemes)
• No Such Thing As A Fish (comedy, fun facts)
• Show Me The Meaning (film dissection)
• Popcast (pop music, music industry generally)

Books:

S by Doug Dorst, I mentioned this above.

Severance, Ling Ma, a post-apocalyptic setting with a strong female protagonist

I’ve been reading a lot recently but can’t think of as many recommendations! I’m currently reading White Fragility, and I love almost anything by Stephen King. I’m generally very into psychological thrillers and things that are a little wacky.

7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?

I really try to avoid having something I can’t live without. I think even having your phone with you 24/7 is a bit much. I’m looking for more time to switch off, which is much easier if you’re not attached to a ‘gadget’. 

8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?  

I think it would be fascinating to see a housewife’s opinion on this from the 50s/60s, but I think if you were to interview those people today their memory would be tainted by having a 50 year bank of information and bias in it. 

We are really missing a conversation on how the household dynamic evolution has prevented true work-life balance, and that our perception of what is achievable has also been deeply warped by the picture of how a household ‘should’ work. 

9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

Find where you get your energy from and do that as much as you possibly can. I definitely think it’s possible to find a part of your job that gives you energy rather than taking it. Like any good relationship, there’s give and take, and make sure you’re getting both at work and at home. 

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