5:15 am: My alarm goes off and I have to roll out of bed immediately or I’ll fall back asleep. I get on my workout clothes in the dark and tie my hair up, down my pre-workout (this Tiger’s Blood one is my FAV!), and get my sweat on. I usually run and then do some sort of strength-training circuit.
7:15 am: By this time, I’m home/upstairs just in time to sign school papers, fix the girls’ hair and ask them about their dreams. Chris wakes up at 7 with the older two girls to get them dressed and breakfast going and brings them to the bus around 7:40 and then works out. I try to sneak in the shower before Polly gets up around 8.
8:00-8:30: During this time, I balance getting ready and tending to Polly. She wakes up and asks for cereal in the same second and girlfriend is HUNGRY. She often eats multiple breakfasts and I set her up with breakfast and we chat until my mom arrives at 8:30 am. She watches Polly at our home until 4:30, so we still get to see her all day.
8:30-9:00: I finish getting ready and head to my desk. I try to get our morning instagram posted and watch other people’s stories while I am getting ready, or Marco Polo my friends, or watch old season of Survivor.
9:00: Our team arrives and we spend a few minutes catching up, chatting about shows and then we have a morning meeting (we conference in our brand manager in Seattle) and outline everything that is due that day, what we want to post, what projects we’re working on and what needs photographed/video. We try to keep this to 30 minutes.
9:45 am: If I haven’t yet, I like to go on stories at this time and share what the day’s post is about.
10:00: I almost always have a zoom call with one of our partners at this time. I purposefully schedule it for 10am because it keeps our meetings on time and I’m still in a fresh mindset. Also, zoom calls give me anxiety and I usually just want to get them over with earlier! We have so many amazing things rolling out in the coming months and year and I’m so grateful for the technology to connect with talented people, creators and brands no matter where we are.
11:00 am: We have a whiteboard in the office and have assignments broken down into which team/person in responsible for checking it off. My assignments are under Design and editorial but I oversee all the creative team. Today, I filmed two sponsored stories (I love to batch these when I can!) and turned them over to our social media manager, Brooke, to caption and upload for brand approval.
I like to call my time from 11am-3pm “creative time.” This is when I design collections, do projects, style spaces for photoshoots, film Instagram content, work on Good Influence(r) content, campaigns–be in a photoshoot for Propertee!
*Here I’m making a video for our Mastermind group!*
Being creative keeps me in good spirits. This is my FAVORITE part of my job–the actual doing. When I’m having a rough day, it’s generally because I’ve been at my computer toooooo long.
12:30pm: We break for a team lunch nearly every day. On Chris Cooks days, we all dig into whatever he makes. Tuesdays and Fridays, we order in and the other days, everyone packs a lunch and we usually talk about houses in North Carolina or pass around funny memes.
1:00pm: We head over to the warehouse with the visual media team to meet Derek, our Propertee manager for a photoshoot for a new launch coming up. I would generally say that photoshoots where I’m involved are my least favorite part of my job but the people I work with make it SO fun–it’s like hanging out with my best friends.
2:00pm: I rush home and get changed for a filmed zoom interview about what we do for an upcoming “Save the internet” series our ad network is putting out.
3:00pm-5:00pm: This time is generally reserved for writing the next day’s blog post, but to be honest it rarely happens before 4. Our team is done at 4, so the last hour of the official workday is usually a mad dash of approvals on everything from photos, to videos to captions. If I get a head start on the next day’s post it’s a bonus.
At 4pm, I do one more check in with our brand manager to go over any inquiries we got that day, get on the most ridiculous comfy outfit and bust out a blog post from the couch before dinner. My mom leaves at 4:30 and the girls do their homework and can have screen time until dinner.
5:30-6:30: Chris rings the dinner bell and we all gather as a family for dinner. It’s one of my favorite parts of the entire day because we’re all together and computers are closed for the night. We all chat about our favorite parts of the day.
6:30-7:30: Sister/Family time. We love to play games at the table or lounge and laugh on the couch while the girls do gymnastics. On a nice day, the girls go play outside after dinner and I tidy up and watch them through the window.
7:30: Polly and Faye go down for bed at 7:30 and sometimes I swear the routine takes 40 hours. In reality, it’s pajamas, brush teeth, wash face, read book, prayers and lights out but it’s somehow never that straight forward. It usually takes about 30 minutes in reality and then Greta goes down at 8. So the nighttime routine is a solid 45 minutes. Some nights I remember to soak it all in and some nights I’m so anxious to get to bed myself.
8:15-8:30: I don’t allow myself to lay down before doing my skincare routine or else I might not get up! This 15 minutes is sacred and I love to go to bed with a slick face.
8:30-9:30: Showtime!!! We have a TV in our bedroom and love to unwind watching a show. We shared a bunch of our favorites here but right now we are watching Alone Season 7 and it’s INTENSE!
I fall asleep before 9:45pm every day and generally mid-show. I’m just beat! But more than that, I am just so much more of an early bird than a night owl.
That’s a typical day for me. Of course I check in on Instagram throughout and I didn’t share the part where Polly comes and shows me what’s in her lunchbox (she loves to have a lunchbox even though she stays home all day) around 11:30, or taking a break around 2:45-3 when the girls get home from school. Or all the times we laugh so hard during the work day–but I guess you just have to be there for those things. Hope this was fun!
This was a great post! Thanks for sharing!
Loved reading this! You all are so organized and it sounds so fun! :)
I’m not sure what you all do… and why the need for all the managers? Are they really all necessary? You and Chris are “influencers,” right? Why do you have to have a whole team to do this? Not sure I understand this as being a career. Am I missing something here?
Think of it like a magazine. How many people work on staff for a magazine to produce a monthly issue? Nobody questions that. It’s a similar type of work.
They basically have three businesses! Propertee (clothing). Good Influencer (training for other influencers) and their own page content/brands/various lines they have launched with brands (i.e. rugs, furniture etc), plus photography/video editing for basically everything they do. Every sponsored post has specific requirements that they have to follow. There’s financial stuff to keep up with and new business relationships to explore or form. I am sure they are inundated for requests to do brand work since they have such a high following (I would imagine the number of inquiries is EXTREMELY HIGH for one person to manage. All the while, they are actively engaging social media platforms, answering questions, linking products…oh and RENOVATING the entire house.
I once wondered the same thing and didn’t really know how much could go into this…and I am not in this field, but I have seen through others shares how much pressure and work it is. And if you don’t keep up, you won’t stay on top.
Chris Loves Julia, you guys are some of the best of the best on the web. The content, quality and consistency keeps your audience engaged. I mirror the day in the life of Chris post!
Such a great reply for others who don’t “get it”. I think it’s easy to underestimate The sheer effort it takes to manage editorial. This work is not that far off from magazine publishing or television production. When you think about the span of Chris Loves Julia business reach it truly is impressive. I’d love a day in the life of your staff too… and thank you for providing this transparency. Too many value the output more than the effort, but I love it all.
So well said ! Especially as someone not in the field – like me. I’ve been fascinated too and have followed along as Julia and Chris are sooo generous to share information and be inclusive and educational. Super appreciative of the transparency and the BTS – it really looks amazing from here. I’m happy to know it brings you so much joy also! You guys are truly blessed in the love, friendship and professionalism departments – and creativity —-
So sorry you have to deal w the other stuff
Hugs from the PNW
Thank you so much, Jen! <3
It’s a really new and in-depth career. So I get why you don’t understand.
Don’t forget to add time in your day for recovering from snarky comments that get posted to your blog and social media platforms all day long, every day. By this time I wonder if you’re immune.
Such a fun post. Would love to see a “Day in the Life: Chris Edition” to hear about his perspective of the day someday in the future!
I second this idea!
I loved this post! Helps me evaluate my routine and think about how I can be more productive and have a healthier rhythm for my days!
Agreed!