Working from the couch: A look into ad exec’s career
Anne Marie Holder, 35, likes being in the middle of things. So during the early years of Spark Strategic Ideas, the advertising and marketing firm she started, she worked out of her local coffee shop.
These days, even though her agency is headquartered in a SouthPark office building, Holder still prefers working “in the midst of chaos.” She usually sits with her laptop on the brown couches in the workplace’s open area, rather than huddle in her roomy office, so she can take it all in.
Her 10-person team manages a client base that has included Moe’s Southwest Grill, Smashburger and Girl Scouts Hornets’ Nest Council. Here’s a closer look at how she works:
Can’t work without: Her iPhone 5 and MacBook Pro.
Addicted to apps: Favorites include her phone’s map app for getting around town, and TurboScan to quickly scan and email documents: “We don’t fax anything anymore.”
This morning our CEO, Anne Marie Holder, learned how to toss a pizza at the @PizzaPeel. What’s your boss up to? http://t.co/hrFj3DnR
— Spark StrategicIdeas (@sparkideas) August 20, 2012
How she stays organized: Takes advantage of little breaks between meetings to check things off her list. She keeps several to-do lists for clients, agency business and family matters.
Taking care of herself: She works with a personal trainer at home twice a week. “I do not wake up easily. … My alarm goes off at 6:52. I put my contacts in, brush my teeth, put on my clothes, open the door, 7 o’clock Angelo (the trainer) walks in.”
Emails: About 1,500. “I leave it in my inbox until I’ve done it.”
If only… “While I wish I could power nap, I rarely get a chance between my toddler and a newborn (6 months).”
For an edge: Holder is a member of Vistage International, an organization that uses peer mentoring to develop company leaders, to see “how different people approach a challenge and come up with a solution.”
About those couches … They’ve been the home of great brainstorming sessions, Holder says. When a client wanted to start a new barbecue restaurant, “We got the whole team together out on the couches, just throwing out names and throwing out ideas,” Holder said. “That is how The Improper Pig was born.”
Our CEO, Anne Marie Holder, speaking to the PRSA Young Professionals for a Lunch & Learn about working toward an MBA. pic.twitter.com/MoICADAH
— Spark StrategicIdeas (@sparkideas) April 10, 2012
Photos: Charlotte Observer files
This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Working from the couch: A look into ad exec’s career."