Behind the Brand: What a Real Day Actually Looks Like

People ask me all the time how I "balance" everything. The truth is, I don't balance anything. I just put the most important work where I can do it best and let everything else fall into place around it.

But here's what that actually looks like on a typical Tuesday when I'm deep in client work, my coffee maker decides to break, and my four-year-old has very strong opinions about the construction trucks we pass every morning.

A real day from start to finish:

4:30 AM - Up before anyone else. Well, theoretically. Today the coffee maker made this sad gurgling sound and died. So I'm standing in my kitchen at 4:35 AM, still in yesterday's messy bun, debating whether instant coffee counts as coffee. (It doesn't, but desperate times.)

5:00 AM - Finally caffeinated (barely), I crack open the book on my desk. It's been the same three pages for a week because apparently my attention span peaks at "once upon a time" before my brain remembers I have deadlines. Twenty minutes on the walking pad while I listen to a podcast about minimalist interior design that makes me want to throw out half my house. Phone stays banished in another room during all of this…learned that lesson the hard way.

5:30-6:30 AM - Deep work window. This is when I tackle anything that needs real thinking. Today I'm designing the homepage wireframe for a leadership consultant who's brilliant in person but her current site makes visitors' eyes glaze over in confusion. I'm sketching out how to restructure her content hierarchy so people actually understand what she does within 5 seconds of landing on her page.

The breakthrough happens when I start thinking about her ideal client's mindset. They're probably frustrated, drowning in team chaos, looking for someone who can cut through the noise. So instead of leading with her credentials, we lead with their pain point, then show how she solves it. I'm mapping out the visual flow: hero section, problem/solution, social proof, clear CTA.

6:30-7:00 AM - Content creation. Writing a quick post about why your about page shouldn't read like a memoir. I'm thinking about all the about pages I've seen that start with "Ever since I was five years old, I knew I wanted to help people..." while I'm literally helping my almost-five-year-old find her other shoe. The irony is not lost on me.

7:00-8:00 AM - Mom mode activated. My daughter has decided that toast cut into squares is "yucky" but toast cut into triangles is "the best." We spend ten minutes negotiating breakfast geometry while I mentally map out the consultant's new site structure.

8:00 AM - Preschool drop-off. We absolutely must stop to watch the construction trucks for exactly 3.5 minutes. Not 3 minutes. Not 4 minutes. A tiny human’s internal timer is very precise about this 😅

8:30-10:00 AM - Back at my desk and diving into strategy session prep for a wedding photographer who wants to move upmarket. I'm deep in competitor research, and honestly? Most luxury wedding photographers look and sound exactly the same. All light and airy photos and "capturing your love story" messaging. We need to find what makes her different and build a brand around that distinction.

I'm creating a positioning map, plotting where each competitor sits on the luxury-to-accessible spectrum and the traditional-to-modern spectrum. There's a clear gap in the "modern luxury" space… and that's where we're heading.

10:00-11:00 AM - Record a Loom walking through my brand strategy recommendations. I've learned that tone matters here. A written strategy document can feel overwhelming, like homework. But when I'm walking through it on video, she can hear my excitement about repositioning her as the photographer who gets that wedding photos aren't just pictures—they're the start of your family legacy.

I only mess up the recording twice today, which is a personal record. Usually it's more like five times because I forget what I'm saying mid-sentence or my cat walks in front of the camera.

11:00-11:30 AM - Last (quick) focused work block. Today I'm finalizing the brand identity system for a skincare founder. We've been working through color palettes and typography that feel premium but approachable… think clean, modern, scientific without being cold. I'm testing how the logo looks at different sizes and making sure it works across all her packaging concepts.

11:30 AM-12:00 PM - Admin reality check. Email responses, project updates in Notion, sending next month's contracts. AKA the stuff that makes me feel like a real business owner instead of someone who just plays one on Instagram.

12:15 PM - Preschool pickup. My daughter bounces out with paint under her fingernails and a story about how her teacher had to move the boys’ seats because they kept hitting each o ther. Work is officially done for the day, and my brain switches from "strategic brand consultant" to "mom who needs to figure out what's for lunch."

Boundaries that keep everything from falling apart:

No calls before 9 AM or after noon. I tried being accommodating with my schedule once, and it was a disaster. My morning hours are sacred deep work time. Afternoons belong to my family. Full stop.

Phone stays banished during morning routine. I learned this the hard way after spending an entire morning scrolling through emails instead of designing, then feeling frazzled and behind all day. Now the phone lives in another room until after my first work block.

Calls only happen two days a week. Otherwise they slice up my focus like confetti. I'd rather batch them and have solid work days than constantly switching between "phone Shannon" and "strategy Shannon."

Evening hours are off-limits. I tried the whole "work after bedtime" thing and crashed hard. Turns out, being present for dinner and actually talking to my husband makes me a better human. Who knew?

I say no to almost everything. Coffee chats that go nowhere. Networking events that feel like speed dating for business cards. Collaboration requests from people I've never heard of who want me to "leverage my platform." Protecting my capacity means better work for the clients who matter.

What you can actually steal from this:

Find your golden hours and treat them like Fort Knox. Mine happen to be early morning when my brain is fresh and the house is quiet. Yours might be late night or mid-afternoon. Figure out when you think best and guard that time like your business depends on it. Because it does.

Batch like your sanity depends on it. All my admin happens in one 30-minute block. All my content creation happens in another window, on 1-2 specific days. Switching between strategy brain and administrative brain and social media brain is exhausting.

Make boundaries sound normal. I don't explain why I can't take calls after noon. I just say "I'm available for calls Tuesday and Thursday mornings." No justification needed. Confidence is contagious.

Use constraints as your secret weapon. Having limited time makes me ruthless about priorities. I can't afford to spend two hours perfecting something that was already good at the 30-minute mark.

Build systems that work when you're barely functioning. My Notion setup is simple but foolproof. On days when I'm running on fumes and forgotten lunch, I can still figure out what needs to happen next.

What I've learned about making it actually work

You can't do everything, but you can do the important things really well. I'd rather knock it out of the park for five clients than deliver "meh" work to fifteen.

Boundaries aren't mean, they're strategic. When I'm not constantly available, I'm more focused during the hours I do work. My clients get my best thinking, not my scattered leftovers.

Perfect days are a myth, but good enough days compound. Some days everything flows and I feel like a productivity goddess. Some days I'm thrilled if I remember to eat lunch. Both count as success.

The messy, wonderful reality behind the highlight reel

Social media makes it look like successful business owners wake up grateful and ready to crush their color-coded calendars. Like we all have our life together and never question whether we're doing anything right.

But the reality is that some mornings I'm running on three hours of sleep because someone had nightmares. Sometimes my "lunch" is leftover goldfish crackers. I've definitely presented brand strategies while wearing the same sweatshirt three days in a row.

But somehow, the work gets done. Clients see results. The business keeps growing, slow and steady. My daughter thinks I "make pretty things on the computer," which isn't wrong.

That's what it actually looks like behind the polished LinkedIn posts and carefully curated Instagram stories. Real work, real constraints, real life happening all around the edges. And most days, it works better than I expected.

The secret isn't having it all figured out. It's just being really honest about what matters most and building everything else around that.

Want a brand that works as strategically as you do? One that attracts the right clients during your golden hours so you can focus on what you do best? Let's talk about building something that fits your actual capacity and grows with it.