Olivia Jenkins is a Business & Marketing Consultant, specialising in working with female-led health, beauty and fashion brands in Australia.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
Sure! My career started over a decade ago where I embarked as a junior in a global beauty brand called Kosmea. After five years of working with the brand, I left with a plethora of new skills and experience having worked my way up to a General Manager position by age 21.
Shortly after, I commenced a new role with Swisse in the sales department, taking care of the South Australian market within a much larger business. This was right in the middle of Swisse’ huge global expansion and shortly before their eye watering sale to Biostime.
From there, I joined the team at VANI-T – a global makeup and tanning brand who was known as the leader in spray tanning in Australia and most of Europe.
This was an amazing role which enabled me to really deploy a lot of the skills that I’d picked up through my experience at Kosmea and Swisse, allowing me to really make some magic in this new role as General Manager.
Now, after over a decade in the health & beauty space, I am now a passionate and results driven Business & Marketing consultant specialising in serving female-led health, beauty and fashion brands in Australia to realise their full potential.
I pride myself on being a results-driven Business & Marketing Consultant who creates bespoke strategies to meet the needs and achieve the goals of my clients.
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
Working in the digital landscape and with different time zones means no two days are the same and my days can look completely different depending on the schedules of my clients.
A typical morning starts with a coffee and quick review of my email inbox – it’s important to ensure I can handle any urgent matters that have come through overnight.
From there, I am usually in and out of Zoom calls for the first half of the day and actioning tasks and campaigns in the latter half of the day. Having a little one who is only three months old means I need to be very intentional about how I structure my day around her schedule too.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
Yes absolutely – this is one of the biggest perks about specialising in eCommerce. There is an opportunity to complete work from anywhere in the world and completely remotely.
As a busy mum of three children, many of my tasks can be completed before the sun is up or after the sun goes down. Meaning I can put the children to bed and continue working if there are pressing deadlines.
Having flexible working arrangements coupled with my passion for digital marketing was one of the biggest reasons that I chose to start my own business and move into the eCommerce landscape.
It’s allowed me to create a lifestyle that is flexible and extremely rewarding – I have been able to create a really fulfilling business that is purpose driven and balance my time with the kids too.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
Work life balance is something that I am working on all the time, and both myself and my husband agree that as business owners it is a constant push and pull to get the balance right.
The biggest thing for me is trying to be as organised as possible as I find that the more organised you can be, the easier it becomes to balance work and family life.
I’m also a big fan of outsourcing what I can around the house so I can optimise family time on the weekends. For example, I have our cleaner booked on a Friday afternoon so we can go into the weekend with a clean house and spend as much time together connecting as a family as possible.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
Running a business is busy enough but when you throw three kids in the mix, it’s very easy to fall into bad habits.
One thing I’ve started practicing recently is setting an intention every morning before getting out of bed. I place a hand on my heart, breathe deeply for a few moments and set an intention for the day.
For example, yesterday I recorded a podcast for the first time so I set an intention in the morning that I was going to have a really successful podcast and everything would run smoothly and I’d have fun. I can confirm the podcast was a great success and I had a great time recording it!
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
Yes, I have so many! Favourite must read book for business is Profit First by Mike Michalowicz and favourite must read book for personal growth is I’m A Bad Ass At Making Money by Jen Sincero.
Favourite podcast for business and mindset is Bucci Radio by Amanda Bucci and for personal growth and wellness is The Healthy Hustlers by Madelyn Carafa.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
I love Asana for task management and I’m a big Google Drive gal! It keeps me super organised with clients and I love ticking things off a list.
I’m also a big Apple fan – I love having all of my devices connected; iMac, Macbook Pro and iPhone and I love that everything syncs so if I take a note on my phone, it will be on my other devices too or if I copy text from my phone, I can paste it from my computer. Life changing!
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
Roxy Jacenko. She’s an Australian mum and business person who seems to be the epitome of a busy mumpreneur and I would be keen to hear her words of wisdom in regards to balancing business and children!
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
My parting words of wisdom would be to protect your energy fiercely and spend your time intentionally with your inner circle and those who bring you up. As a person who has suffered burnout in the past, I know first hand what a journey it is to recover.
Prevention is better than the cure so always find ways to refill your cup – even if that means saying no to things in order to maintain your peace. If it costs you your peace, it’s too expensive.
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