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Melanie Ewan: Madrid, Spain

Melanie Ewan, co-founder, startup advisor, and COO gives us a peek into her day:

9:50 am I remember that I have a virtual coworking call at 10 am, so I quickly make a cup of tea (PG Tips) and fill my water bottle. Unfortunately, my time management skills are off today, as I can already tell that I’ll have to skip my normal snack time at 11 am.

10:00 am I join the coworking call with three other women from across Europe. We use the Pomodoro method to work in 25 minutes focused stints, with five minutes to chat in between. This is how I structure my time on most days as it helps me to focus while I work from home. Though usually, my workday starts after 12 pm as I work with predominantly North American clients and partners. Over the next two hours, I get through three tasks that I had fallen behind on for my book projects; including organizing my work, brainstorming 10 experts that I need to connect with, and beginning research on Young Adult best sellers.

12:20 pm The call went over, but I made some great new connections and got a lot done. My schedule is a bit off, but that’s ok. I make another cup of tea and my normal snack now, including 2 Hogaza crackers with hummus, avocado and goat cheese on them, and a leftover bread and cheese roll that my husband made last night.

1:00 pm Sit in on a webinar on event management and create some doodle notes for this, which I share with the group.

2:00 pm Research the reMarkable tablet, which I’ve been looking into as a replacement for my paper-notetaking and doodling. Watch a couple of reviews and feature comparison videos and decide that this is the one I want.

3:00 pm Work on my elevator pitch, which is my homework from a workshop earlier in the week. Look through past testimonials and the language that my clients are using to describe themselves and my services and unique value prop. Come up with a version two pitch to share with my workshop class tonight.

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4:00 pm Take a break to make lunch (nothing fancy today, just more Hogaza toast, this time with cream cheese and smoked salmon). Follow this up with an episode of Dr. Who while I catch up with my Whatsapp group chat with friends from home.

5:30 pm Prep for my upcoming call. I have been wanting to update my client discovery form based on past learnings, so do this over the next 30 minutes.

6:00 pm Discovery Call on non-dilutive funding strategies for client business goals.

7:00 pm Husband arrives home and starts making dinner. I send out a few emails responding to clients who have questions about an upcoming funding deadline and set up two calls for next week with potential partners.

8:00 pm Dinner is served: baked yams and salmon.

8:30 pm My husband and I take the garbage and recycling out, which has been piling up because we couldn’t figure out the system here in Madrid. Tidy up.

9:00 pm My 5-day Customer Generation Challenge is on Day 4 today, and starts right now. This is a 1-hour Facebook Live session in a group that I’m in. I spend the next hour learning about things to consider when creating your digital marketing plan. I doodle my notes on a piece of paper to share with the group after the session.

10:00 pm I wrap up my notes from the meetings, share these with the group, and check once more to see if there are any urgent emails or slack messages that I need to attend to. I send a quote to the client I had spoken to earlier in the day and pay one of our contractors.

10:45 pm I’m done for the day and curl up with my book, Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu – I try to find time (at least 25 minutes) to read each day. This is a much later end to my day than usual – I normally strive to end my workday at 8 pm.

11:00 pm My husband finishes his night routine and we settle in to watch two episodes of our favorite show.

12:00 am Our door rings – apparently something is wrong with the plumbing and we are flooding our downstairs neighbour. Thankfully she speaks English (a rarity in our building!). We figure out how to turn off the water, notify the apartment owner, and curl up in bed to chat about our day.

1:00 am Bedtime and I’m out.

So, tell us, what’s your day like?

Kathryn Hunter

Melanie Ewan

Melanie is Co-Founder and Lead Advisor at Volition, an award-winning advisory firm for startups, as well as the COO at Women in Tech World, a Canadian nonprofit dedicated to advancing research and programming for women in tech. She has facilitated 34 research events across Canada with 900+ women in tech and organized 45 startup events in Canada and Europe. Fueled by a nonlinear path to entrepreneurship, Melanie specializes in helping entrepreneurs navigate the tipping points and pivots of building a business so that they can focus on their big-picture vision and 'next steps' plan.