A Wednesday

At 7:03 I finally turned off my alarm, got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.  I flipped my iPhone to my Book of Mormon - I've taken to reading for 15 minutes first thing (really, first thing) each morning so I make sure not to miss it, and today I treated myself to my feet in a sink of warm water while I read.  After getting dressed and ready for work, I grabbed my bowl of cereal at 8:15 and walked out the door.

I have about a 30 minute commute to work and listened to John Bytheway on the drive: "Farm Wisdom for City Folk."  I arrived to work just before 9:00 and began a full work day.

I started with 14 new emails, so I began the day reading through them.  I followed up on a few critical things: we just had 126,000 labels for our number one product deliver, and they are all unacceptable.  Reached out to the vendor to have them rerun, on their dime, while trying not to delay the production run.  Additionally, I finally found some information about our current AT&T contract, as our founders are starting to demand iPhone 6's, so I need to negotiate those.

After a quick management meeting at 9:30, I switched my focus to our new building: we are targeting a move-in date the week of November 10, which is just two days after our Philadelphia event.  Our most critical tasks at this point are having a company run our IT wiring before the hard walls are complete (running the cable that allows phone and computer connectivity) and purchasing blinds (who knew that when I went to work today I would be negotiating the color, size and cost of blinds for a new office building?)  I also spent an hour or two on "other" things: rugs, dishes, doorbells, vending machines, lockers, projectors, etc.  So many things go into a new building! 

My other top priority right now is our event in Philadelphia for 500 people in about 4 weeks (November 8): I'm responsible for the entire execution of the event.  I started by jumping on the phone with my site manager in Philadelphia to discuss payment and slipped in a few questions about room set-up, set-up timing, storage locations, stage sizes, etc.  Then I reached out to my AV (audio-visual) contact to let them know the bid of $32,000 for a 6 hour event is unacceptable, and they need to come down substantially.  I've got them down to $25,000 and will push again tomorrow.

I had a meeting at noon with my boss (Kale) to discuss the Philadelphia event: which of our staff members will be attending, what they'll be responsible for, which customers we need to arrange accommodations for, the schedule/timing of each event, the menu for the breakfast, how we'll handle security, etc.  I also tricked him into answering a few questions about the new building, which was very helpful for me.  :)

At 1:15 I sneaked to my car with my leftover soup for a quick lunch - while I ate I read "Creativity, Inc.", a book about Pixar's evolution and lessons they've learned that could be applied to other businesses.  All the managers at Yoli have a weekly book club that meets Thursdays, so I have 25 more pages to read by tomorrow.

At 1:30 I had a vendor arrive from a copackaging plant in Idaho - his company does the packaging for powders and pills, which means we could ship them bulk powder and they'd put them into stick packs (like Crystal Lite) or into larger packets (like tuna packets).  We discussed their machine capabilities, their machine cleaning fees, different materials they can/'t package in, and how their quote is looking.  I gave him a few samples of additional products we'll have him quote on and we both left with full to-do lists.

I jumped back on email for 30 minutes before my next vendor arrived at 2:30 - this one is a copy machine vendor for the new building.  We spent about 20 minutes discussing leasing options, how exactly they could match colors, how quickly their machines work, etc.  I pushed him for a few additional payment options, and will touch base with him tomorrow. 

I was back working on new building purchases when Kale contacted me at 3:25, saying that the person responsible for planning a company-wide, hour long activity had just told him they couldn't come up with anything.  The meeting - with all employees - was set for 4:00, so we had 35 minutes to come up with something.  I found a few Minute to Win It games and gathered the materials for them from around the office - I finished explaining them to Kale at 3:58.  The meeting went smoothly, and we finished at 4:50.

I read through the 4 new emails in my Inbox before leaving at 5:15.  I emailed TJ the recipe we wanted for dinner (stuffed peppers) and left the office.  I swung by the pharmacy just before it closed to grab some new prescriptions and got home at 6:30, just as TJ put dinner into the oven.

We'll eat at 7:00 and try to do our couple Book of Mormon study before I head to my Primary meeting at 7:30: tonight we are meeting at the church to decide where the children will sit for the program (we are planning on about 140-160 kids for the program) as well as discussing a new group of teachers for 2015.  Our meeting usually ends at 10, when I will come home and read in bed with TJ until we are ready to call it a night!


I think my life right now looks different from most my sisters' in some ways: I spend a lot of time and effort in my profession, which is simply a different phase than most of you.  I like what I do (I have so many opportunities I couldn't have dreamed of) and I know it may not last forever, so I try to enjoy the ride.  My biggest struggle is balance - work, personal development, spiritual growth, my calling, being a spouse, exercising, and setting up the Harry Potter Party ;).  All of those are priorities for me (as I know they are for you) and in that regard, I bet we are not so different as this might make it seem.

Love you all!

-Rachel