Day in the Life: Sam Fletcher, Managing Director
No day’s the same here at 21Digital! Our day in the life series gives you a bit of insight into what daily life is like here in our Blackburn studio, and how our team all work together to deliver fantastic results for our clients. In the coming weeks you can expect to find out more from our specialists in design, development, SEO, and marketing, but first it’s the turn of Sam Fletcher, our managing director.
5:30am – Home in the Ribble Valley
I get up most mornings at about 5am to feed my baby daughter (some mornings she’s up a lot earlier!). Thankfully this morning she’s reasonably quiet, giving me a chance to watch a bit of BBC News, and catch up on work emails from the previous night. I notice that today I’ve got an even busier inbox than usual – Steven, our Creative Director, is on leave, and he’s been delegating various tasks for the week ahead. I deal with as much as I can, sometimes delegating additional tasks for our team of copywriters, designers, developers, and paid and organic search specialists. Then, it’s time to get ready for my first appointment of the day.
7:30am – Rise and Grind
Usually I’m in the studio by 8am, but today I’m off a Downtown in Business networking event, near Preston city centre. It takes an hour to get there and reminds me of how lucky we are at 21Digital to be located in Blackburn, just a stone’s throw away from my home in the Ribble Valley.
Rise and Grind has a fantastic keynote speaker in Michael Finnigan, the CEO of i2i. He had a lot of great stuff to say about the best ways to set yourself up for success, both from a personal and business perspective, and I found it useful for a slice of Monday Motivation to kick off the week. It definitely reminds me that I need to revisit my own life goals and plans.
10:30am – Back to the studio
I’m back in the studio for 10:30, to find some fantastic news awaiting me. We’re finalists in the Red Rose Awards 2019 for two categories, Small Business Award and Digital Agency Award. After a quick celebration, I catch up with my two account managers and then head to Aldi to do the weekly studio ‘big shop’ – we like to keep the breakout areas well-stocked with fruit, snacks and drinks for the team.
12pm – A busy afternoon
Once lunch is over, I head out to see our biggest home and garden client to discuss the launch of their new composite decking range, as well as talk over the most recent server upgrades, and the results from that week’s PPC and SEO campaigns. Then at 4pm, I’m back in the studio for an apprentice review. We’ve got big plans for 2019 – 21Digital is currently recruiting for a junior designer and a content writer to support our ambitious plans. Late afternoon consists of catching up with Annmarie, my business development manager, to finalise our new strategy, as well as overseeing various client projects.
I leave the studio and take number one son for tea, before dropping him off at Scouts. By the time 7:30 rolls around, I’m already home to help bath the baby, and then read stories to son number two. He’s currently into dinosaurs, and we have great fun trying to pronounce the Greek names. Our favourite so far is Patagotitan, but Ichthyosaur is a tricky close second. I’m in bed by half nine, ready for another equally frantic day tomorrow!
Recently rebranded from 21 Digital Agency, 21Digital provides web design, web development, SEO, Google AdWords, conversion rate optimisation, digital consultancy, social media marketing and email marketing to clients across the North West.
Sam Fletcher is 21Digital’s Managing Director, responsible for overseeing all strategic digital marketing, with a personal specialism in PPC (Google AdWords). A keen mountain biker and motoring enthusiast, he has a lifelong dual passion for both business and design, which he now uses to come up with bespoke, creative marketing campaigns.
