Hi there, my name is Kseniya Martin, and I’m a digital marketing consultant. I help businesses and individuals reach and exceed their goals, such as better brand awareness and higher sales, using social media. I’m also a wife, a mother, a foodie, and a lifestyle blogger over at Birch Collective.
I started consulting full time in 2014 after leaving the corporate and startup world. I spent too many years dreaming about and fighting to do what I love to do, which is using digital marketing strategies to help organizations and individuals reach and exceed their goals. After seeing someone I admire quit his high paying job to become a business growth coach, and facing a layoff of my own, I knew it was time to take the leap I’ve dreamt of taking for years. Life is too short to be miserable, get out there and do the damn things.
How I Work
There’s no such thing as a typical workday. I work from my home office with a three-year-old daughter (who proudly wears her VP of Distractions title) so my days and weeks are planned according to her school, activities, and nap schedules. Throw in networking events, volunteer commitments, social life, keeping the house from burning down and feeding the family and, well, I’ve got a full plate.
Owning my own business, managing clients, and embracing motherhood has taught me to be flexible, nimble, and ready to pivot at a moment’s notice. This is why planning for the week ahead is so important.
On Sunday evenings I sit down to make a list of everything that needs to be done for the week and then prioritize and set deadlines for each task. I check my Google Calendar for any upcoming appointments and events and then I lay out my week in my Day Designer daily planner. I use a paper planner for top level daily tasks, Google Calendar for anything that requires me to interact with other people and be somewhere on time (appointments, networking events, meetings, calls, workouts, etc.), and notebooks and digital checklists for each client for more granular tasks.
Planning and preparing for the days and weeks ahead is what keeps me on track, no matter what life throws my way, and allows me to accomplish everything that is important.
I’ve recently started treating my own business, personal brand, and lifestyle blog as “clients” because it’s really easy to let my needs to slide to the wayside when taking care of everyone else. Don’t forget to take care of what’s important to you.
My work days include a lot of small- and mid-sized tasks that lead to big results. Each day includes a mixture of the following for the clients that I work with:
- Creating and managing short-, mid-, and long-term digital and social media strategy
- Creating and managing content and editorial calendars
- Creating brand driven written and visual content and scheduling it out on various social media platforms
- Curating content
- Auditing, assessing, measuring, and testing marketing campaigns and their performance
- Building lists, creating templates, writing copy, and designing graphics for e-mail newsletters
- Engaging with followers, current and potential customers, and influencers on social media
- Utilizing social selling techniques to nurture current and potential clients
- Generating leads to fill sales pipelines
- Reaching out to other business owners to create partnerships and create new profit generating opportunities
- Running contests and giveaways
- Consulting clients on best practices, business opportunities, promotion ideas, and provide business coaching and training on various social media platforms
My clients are diverse and range from small businesses to global B2B companies to franchises to non-profits. My requirement for a client is that they have to give a damn about their business, brand, or product. Passion is contagious.
Habits & Routines
I wish I could tell you that I’m a morning person who wakes up at 5:00 am to read, work out, meditate, and get a head start on the work day but that would be a lie. I’m a night owl and do my best work when everyone else is asleep. It’s also quiet and nobody is asking me to open a bag of Goldfish for them.
I am able to accomplish as much as I do in a day because of my amazing husband, who is my biggest cheerleader and handles more than his fair share of housework and child-rearing duties. His absence is greatly felt when he travels and my workload is adjusted accordingly.
📸 JJ Horton Photography
School day mornings go a little bit like this:
- Husband wakes up the toddler and takes her through her morning routine (brushing her teeth, eating breakfast, etc.).
- I begrudgingly roll out of bed after hitting snooze too many times and check my phone. I make sure all of the client posts that were scheduled for that morning went live, check my e-mail, and respond to any urgent matters.
- I pick out an outfit for our daughter, prepare her lunch, and get my first pot of coffee going.
- By 8:30am I am at my desk tackling my inbox and checking off the most urgent items on my to-do list.
- At 10:00am I leave the house to go to yoga. I have a fifteen-minute commute to the gym so I take the opportunity to listen to a podcast, which varies by mood or educational needs. Current favorites include The Dais Podcast by Rachel Hollis and How I Built This).
- After yoga I run quick errands (grocery shopping, checking out a new restaurant for my blog, post office, etc.) before picking up our daughter from school.
Non-school day mornings are a time for play, errands, and adventures.
Naptime is non-negotiable.
Once our toddler is in bed for her afternoon nap, my workday continues. Afternoons is when I have my biggest uninterrupted pocket of time to handle things that require the most brain power.
I take a break around 5pm to play with our daughter after she wakes up, cook dinner, hang out with the family, and relax until about 8pm.
I’m back at work once our daughter is in bed. This is the second pocket of time when I can crush my to-do list. I try not to work past 11:00pm so that I can shower and be in bed in time to watch my favorite late night talk show.
Life Balance
For me it’s not so much about balance but more so about blending. Managing social media for myself and others is a 24/7 job. Days off do not exist and you do whatever it takes to get things done. The reason I am bullish on planning out my week is so that I can be prepared to a) work from anywhere and b) in any situation or time constraint that may get thrown my way.
Arrived early to pick my kid from school? That’s a few minutes to engage with followers or to send a note to another business about a potential partnership.
Kid skips her nap? Concentrate on 5-15 minute tasks and complete as many as possible.
Need a mental break from a project? Check my Twitter feed or start a load of laundry.
I’ve learned a few hard lessons over the past four years from dealing with bad clients, burning out, dealing with anxiety, and so on. I’ve learned the hard way not to bite off more than I can chew. I’ve learned when to scale up and when to scale down. I’ve learned to charge my worth so that I can spend more time with my husband and daughter and family and friends instead of worrying about taking on more work when there’s so little time left in my day. I’ve learned that it’s important to take care of myself. I’ve learned that sometimes the most productive thing I can do is take a 30-minute nap instead of drinking yet another cup of coffee.
Starting a business and having a kid has forced me to finetune my focus, learn to better prioritize my time, and not to put up with other people’s BS. Ain’t nobody has time for that.
I am grateful to get to do what I love to do, working from home, and building a life that I can be proud of. I am grateful to have amazing clients and support system (family and friends) that make every day a good day and bad days better. And I am grateful to show my daughter that she can be and do anything that she wants so long as she believes in it and works hard to achieve it.
Professional links (social media tips, industry news, etc.)
- Website – www.kseniyamartin.com
- Twitter – www.twitter.com/kseniyamartin
- Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/kseniyamartinconsulting
- LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/kseniyamartin
- Instagram – www.instagram.com/kseniyamartin
Lifestyle/Personal (food, kid, out and about, travel, etc.)
- Website – www.birchcollective.com
- Twitter – www.twitter.com/birchcollective
- Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/birchcollective
- Instagram – www.instagram.com/birchcollective
Thank you, Kseniya for taking the time to hang out with us today! You are for sure an inspiration to bad ass mama entrepreneurs! Be sure to go show Kseniya some love! Oh, and if you follow her on Instagram, prepare to get hungry. She takes the best food pics!
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