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A day in the PR life of Tin Man’s Elly Kestenbaum

My day

6.00am: Alarm goes off and I usually wake to find my two-year-old son has made his way into our bed. After a quick cuddle, I check emails on my phone. Our media monitoring emails tend to come through early – 13 years in the industry and I still get a real buzz from seeing coverage rolling in from our campaigns.

7.30am: The nanny arrives and I make a dash to the station. My commute consists of flicking through my calendar, catching up on news, social media and replying to emails.

8.30am: I’m usually first to arrive at work. I can’t really function before a cuppa so that and checking my ‘to do’ list are my first priorities. In a typical week, there’s usually a bunch of team, client and pitch meetings so I work around whatever’s in the diary.

By 9.00am: The rest of the team is in and the buzz in the office begins. I have a quick catch up with Mandy, Tin Man founder, so that we’re across everything and can ensure we’re cracking through the myriad of things that need to happen in the day. Tin Man is only just two years’ old, but we are growing at an incredible speed so we have a lot to get through each week and are totally results driven. The whole team is involved in devising and delivering our ‘campaigns-with-heart’ ethos and everyone contributes to new business pitches. It’s quite common to have at least one pitch a week, keeping us on our toes creatively.

1.00pm: We’re thinking about our stomachs and we do a quick pit-stop to one of the street food stalls on Leather Lane. I like to get out though as it clears my head after a frantic morning. In fact, we often have our best ideas over a lunchtime brainstorm when the creativity and food is flowing.

The afternoon is often filled with client meetings, brainstorms and conference calls and together with Mandy we ensure all live campaigns are on course for success. We’re not averse to changing tack late in the day if we think it will help the performance of a particular campaign. It’s one of the most exciting things about being part of a fast-moving and nimble PR shop – we can react to things very quickly and change direction if needed. Clients appreciate this and it keeps our team switched on, but also ensures only the highest quality of our work leaves the building.

5.00pm: My husband and I split the childcare so one of us is home every night to relieve the nanny by six. Work-life balance is really important to Tin Man and we all strive to leave work at a reasonable hour and enjoy our evenings – it means we’re more productive in the day and get time to experience what’s going on culturally. Once a week I’ll meet friends for dinner or drinks – usually in Soho or Shoreditch.

Evenings are spent catching up with the kids, homework, dinner (usually cooked by my hubby) and watching a Netflix series  I also catch up on any emails and things I’ve missed throughout the day. Myself and Mandy email and text about work stuff in the evening, but we’re very conscious that the rest of the team don’t.

10.00pm: I’m shattered and literally drop into my bed. I need plenty of sleep to be ready for a new day.

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