Originally starting out as one-person operation, Making You Content (MYC) was founded by Kelly Gilmour-Grassam in 2014.
The Manchester-based agency now employs 11 and has made its mark in the sector, offering services across copywriting, editing & social media management. Clients include The Growth Company, ResponseTap, and UKFast.
Kelly herself is a high-profile marketer – having been named Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 by Downtown Manchester in Business.
Here, she gave us an idea of what a week in her life looks like…
Monday
I’m a big advocate of starting the morning right. Making time on a Monday to map out my positives and find some focus before diving into emails sets the tone for the rest of my day – and week.
This week is a special one for me, as it’s MYC’s seventh birthday. It makes me feel old to think we’ve been going that long, but we’ve come so far in the last 12 months alone that I have a lot to be grateful for, especially given the flurry of messages received on LinkedIn.
So we had plenty of reasons to start our weekly team call on a high, as we also had a new face to welcome – Jai, our latest apprentice. He’s our third new starter in the last month, so it feels like a really exciting period of growth for the company. I always try to pick a good ice-breaker activity, like Skribbl, to help new people settle.
It’s hard enough starting a new job, let alone trying to get to know a new team virtually. Something silly helps start the chat.
Then, like every Monday, I make time to catch up with Adam, my Ops Manager, to check that live projects and retainers are running smoothly and map out our workflows for the days ahead. As I said, it’s all about starting the week right!
Tuesday
March is always a busy pitching period for us, as budgets are being mapped out for the next financial year. So my first job this morning is to make contact with a business we’re currently pitching for. I need to discuss the brief in more detail and get a few outstanding queries answered so we can put together a knock-out proposal in time for the next quarter.
I’ve found it takes a conscious effort to manage stress levels effectively working from home – it’s easy to get caught up in the pressure when you’re surrounded by the same four walls – but I know that exercise helps. That’s why I try to make time for a run a few days a week.
It’s beautiful today, so I get my trainers on and head out the front door. Nothing focuses my mind like fresh air and an adrenaline rush from a good sprint down the canal!
Wednesday
My Wednesday is a day of two halves.
I kick off with our monthly ed slot. It’s really important to me that my team continues to learn and improve while they’re with me. Personal development doesn’t just help them – it’s also a win-win for us.
This month, the focus is organic social. Getting noticed on platforms like LinkedIn is becoming harder and harder; we spend our morning looking at what takes a post from good to great – from the content itself to the tricks that give it a leg-up in the algorithms.
The afternoon is all about mucking in. I like to be hands-on, so I get involved as much as possible with the team. Today, I spend some time with Jai on his first phase of training, before moving on to strategy calls with clients and offering a fresh pair of eyes on some web and email projects that are ready to go off.
Thursday
I’m sitting in on a client’s webinar today. I like to do this whenever I can as they’re always really rich sources of content inspiration – and we need to handle the post-event comms for this particular one, too. So many businesses are investing in webinars, but I’m always surprised at how few milk them for sound bites and key insights afterwards!
This week’s been busy on the new business front with lots of enquiries coming in, so I also found time to get my head down on scoping out projects and retainers.
I’ve noticed a positive trend for the rate of new work over the last couple of months. It seems to me like confidence in the future is returning; there’s definitely a new sense of making the best of what we’ve got, compared to last year when it was very much a ‘watch and wait’ vibe.
Friday
I host my final meeting as President of BNI Beyond today. Networking has always been a good source of new business for me, and taking on the Presidency has been a great opportunity to work on my public speaking confidence – especially since we’ve been on Zoom since March!
Speaking of Zoom, we couldn’t celebrate our birthday with the usual drinks in the office, but we did round off the week with a virtual party. We’ve got such a lot to celebrate – the last 12 months have been utterly bizarre but we’re here, we’re growing, and the future feels bright! So it seemed only fitting that we throw a bit of a bash to mark the occasion.
With three relatively new faces on the team, it was a great to raise a glass to their first few weeks with MYC and share my vision for the coming months and years. What better way to end a busy week – spending time with my team and celebrating all the amazing things we’ve achieved together!
