Prerna Kapoor is a Digital Performance Manager at The Wine Collective, an online wine marketplace featuring over 9,000 wines from Australia and around the world.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing & Management). From there, I got my first job at a mobile loyalty start-up in Sydney, wearing many hats, including sales, marketing and growing the customer base.
After that, I knew that I wanted to be involved in digital marketing and helping businesses grow. I landed a job at a conversion-focused digital marketing agency where I learned all things paid marketing and with worked clients in various industries.
I love nothing more than the challenge of growing and scaling businesses, which led me to leap to start my growth and performance agency with a friend of mine for a few years. It was incredible starting something from nothing and helping businesses grow across a whole range of industries.
Now I’m at The Wine Collective, Australia’s ultimate online wine marketplace. We have a range of over 9,000 wines from small-medium producers in Australia & around the world. I lead all aspects of paid marketing to drive revenue and grow the active customer base… so it definitely keeps me on my toes!
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
First things first, coffee! I try to exercise first thing in the morning, either a 6 am session at the gym, or on the days I don’t go to the gym, I’ll still get up and go for a morning walk.
My workday starts at 8 am (and another coffee) with a video call with the digital team, where we get aligned on the day ahead and feel connected.
Each day looks quite different: strategising on and working away at our paid media strategy, working with the team to plan out campaigns for various promotions, emails, checking in on all our paid media channels, creative workshop with the design team on collateral such as landing pages and ad designs, 1:1 with the performance marketing team, 1:1 with the Head of Digital, project sprint meetings with the dev team and I’ll always do a final check on all our paid media channels and make my to-do list for the next day before I wrap up.
After work, I switch off by going for a long walk then cooking dinner together with my partner.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
We’ve been working remotely from home for a good part of a year now since COVID hit. We’ve got the tools and resources to support flexible working. Initially, it was a significant change working from home, but now I’ve embraced it.
I still tend to go into office 1 or 2 days a week just to mix it up and change my environment, and it’s always nice to see other co-workers.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
For me, work-life balance is about a few things:
- Being truly present with my partner, family and friends when I am with them and switching off from work
- Making sure that I devote time to myself outside of work to focus on hobbies/activities that genuinely nourish me and give me energy.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
Absolutely. For me, a routine is always an evolving thing. I’m continually trying to tweak my routine and try new things. Here are a few things which I’ve incorporated in the last 12 months:
Walking a minimum of 10,000 steps a day.
Working from home can make it difficult to switch off at times. I’ve made it a priority to go for a long walk after each workday. This allows for the mental and physical separation from my work and signals that the workday is finished.
I’ve turned off slack notifications after a specific time and make sure that I do not have any notifications on my phone from my Gmail or calendar apps.
I’m conscious that I’m looking at my laptop screen for most of my day, so I limit my TV time to 1 hour a day.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
Podcasts:
Books:
Majority of the time, I read fictional books. It mentally relaxes me and is a constructive escape from work or business.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
Apps:
- Spotify
- SoundCloud (sometimes you need an extended mix to get you through some deep work)
- Pomodoro timer app ( helps me break my task down to 25-minute chunks)
- 1Pasword (remembers all my passwords for me and keeps them secure in a digital vault)
- OneTab browser extension ( converts all my tabs into one list)
- Pocket (helps me save articles in a central location so I can read them at a later time)
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
There’s no one particular person. I’ve always been interested in productivity and how different people manage their routines and work-life.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
Step back from the day to day grind and take time to check in with yourself whether that’s through penning your thoughts down, meditating or even going for a walk.
During the week, do more of the things that feed your soul and give you energy.
Be kind to yourself and remember that there’s no simple process to finding the right balance, it’s something that’s always evolving.
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