Mereana Sheehan is the Social Media Manager at Pipedrive, a CRM and intelligent revenue management platform for small and medium sized businesses.

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

Originally from New Zealand, I moved to London around  4 years ago to further my career and travel. My background is mainly in tech and prior to my current role I worked in the revenue team at Xero, helping to manage global social activations, which was an incredible opportunity.

My current role is with Pipedrive, where I lead our social media efforts globally, driving engagement, increasing brand awareness and building our digital communities. 

Pipedrive is an Estonian based CRM software company, recently reaching unicorn status, we’ve got ambitious goals for the future. When I joined there were around 300 employees and now we’re at over 900 and growing.

Working within a hyper growth company comes with lots of change as we scale. I’m grateful to have a supportive team and boss who I look up to, we’re a diverse bunch that all bring something special to the table. 

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

I mainly work from home, so balancing my work and home life has been a focus since lockdown. Overall I’ve enjoyed it and having no commute has been the best part. My team is based in Tallinn so they’re two hours ahead. I connect with them and get my daily updates and content from Slack & then prioritise what needs to be actioned for the day. 

I’ve found that working from home, I’ve taken less holidays and sometimes it’s difficult to switch off and have those boundaries around work and home life. Luckily, I live close to my gym, so a daily workout or walk in my neighbourhood has been essential for clarity of mind and physical wellness. 

Usually I have a few meetings in the day and catch up with various teams on our planned activities. I work closely with the Berlin based team as well, focussing on social media, PR & employer branding efforts. 

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

Yes, my role is fully remote and I was encouraged to work remotely in another city, so last year I chose Porto, Portugal and spent a month there which was incredible. I was very lucky to be able to work remotely and it has inspired me to do the same this year. 

A great thing about working at Pipedrive, is we have trust from leadership to do our jobs no matter where we are. I just need my laptop and a solid wifi connection to work, which I am very grateful for. It makes me more excited to achieve my goals when I have that peace of mind and autonomy. 

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

For me it’s about identifying my personal and professional goals and ensuring that my daily habits help to support my endeavours. It’s so important to find a balance between both and it’s a journey within itself in discovering what works.

Working smarter and improving a little each day, will in the long term make a difference. You’re only able to give to your work when you take care of your vessel, so I enjoy learning about personal development and focussing on being the best version of myself. 

Making micro and macro goals is a must for me, it helps to break down and identify what needs to be done in stages. A key for me in maintaining balance is practising gratitude. This pandemic has been a massive upheaval for the world and we’re all trying to figure out how to adapt to its effects.

In a lot of ways it’s made our work life balance even more important by forcing us to really evaluate how we work and what we prioritise. Focussing on the small wins, opportunities and experiences helps me to stay grounded and hopeful for the future. 

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

Two habits I’ve embraced more in the last 12 months would be reading and meditation. I’ve found making more time for these activities has really helped to develop my mind and allowed me to evolve.

Making a conscious effort to meditate each day and listen to affirmations has helped rewire some self limiting programming and reading has been a great way to spend down time. 

Whether it’s on my kindle app or collecting books, I’m trying to read for at least 15mins each day, it’s a healthier change to scrolling on my phone and there’s been a lot of good reads pop up in the last year.

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

I enjoy the Medium newsletter, podcasts on my radar include ‘Equity Mates Investing’ & ‘The Daily Stoic’. For books, I’m currently enjoying The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World by Roman Krznaric and The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. 

For me personally, I envision my 75 year old self and try to soak up information today that will benefit me in the future. I tend to gravitate towards content that is connected to self development, building my personal economy and spirituality.

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

I would say my digital diary, Perspective, Kindle, Binance & Spotify. 

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

I would be fascinated to read an interview by the late Virgil Abloh, what he was able to achieve in his life was incredible and it really shone a light on so many artists and creatives.I enjoy learning what inspired him and how he balanced it all. 

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

I think this is important dialogue and in these changing times, it’s allowed society to re-evaluate how and where we work. Industries are evolving and we’re all adjusting to the times, but it puts a spotlight on the future of work and how we all fit into this new arena. It’s an incredible opportunity for people and culture teams to really shape meaningful initiatives that can help employees to flourish. 

Obtaining a work life balance shouldn’t be something that is commended, it is something we’re all entitled to achieving and with the right foresight and action, we can become a more productive generation.

I really believe that real balance can be achieved but first we have to go within and identify what we’re wanting to achieve, envision the best possible outcome for the future and then reverse engineer our way to today and focus on the small wins that’ll direct us onto that path. 

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