In this part of the magazine, we like to give a shout-out to black women excelling in their careers, no matter what they might be – as there’s no limit to the different ways we can achieve! This month, we learn about a typical day for Shalom Lloyd, a self-made natural skincare boss, who proves just how much can be done in just one day.
Name: Shalom Lloyd
Age: 45
Occupation: Founder & Managing Director, Naturally Tribal Skincare Ltd
City you live in: Milton Keynes
Life motto: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible” (Francis of Assisi)
5.30am: I am a morning person, so I start the day nice and early. With four-year-old twins, how can you not? I reach for my phone, check social media and emails, anticipating the day ahead. I glance at the baby-cam by my bedside and listen to the soft breathing from the dynamic duo, dreading their 7am shout out for mama or daddy, which is usually the cue to get out of their bed into ours!
7am: This is my ‘pretend to be asleep time’, when I hear my husband begrudgingly get out of bed to get the twins. I am bounced on, my eyelids pried open and my face thoroughly kissed – the day has started! Dad gets them dressed and I jump in the shower to start my ‘thinking and day setting time’.
8.10am: I head downstairs to my home office, to-do list in mind, a cup of tea and it’s email time for the next two hours. I quickly sort through emails that have to do with internal operations and customer orders. I then turn my attention to responding to individuals from invitations to speaking events, new stores interested in stocking our products or looking for potential partnership collaboration opportunities to everything else in between.
10.15am: The day kicks into high gear! I kiss the kids goodbye and drive down to our office to meet with my head of operations (working 10 minutes from home is a true delight). Together, we roll our sleeves up, going through our ‘to-do’ board, reviewing and fulfilling orders, planning upcoming events and get knee deep into logistics.
12pm: Down to Stony Stratford High Street to grab a sandwich – a quick treat before rushing back to the office to focus on social media. I always get a kick of adrenaline seeing what customers have to say about our products.
3pm: Stakeholder time! Setting out time for the great relationships I am cultivating is important – from the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council to organisations that could provide potential leads. I stick to my daily login into the Department of International Trade portal to see if there are any new export opportunists to start making waves overseas, and check in with our stockist on progress and feedback.
5pm: I’m winding down the day with one of the coolest aspects of the job: bugging my head of marketing to check out how new upcoming marketing assets and campaigns are coming along – this is where I get see our crazy, quirky and fun ideas come to life.
6pm: Time to head home and start the kids’ bedtime routine – music on, bath time, story time and it’s off to bed at 7pm. Once the twins are in bed, it’s downstairs to the ‘war’ room where our head of sales (who also happens to be my husband) and I have our ongoing sales strategy session – a must, given our focus on raising awareness and growth of the Naturally Tribal brand.
8pm: Back to emails and putting some of our agreed upon tasks into action or adding them to tomorrow’s to-do list – there is only so many hours in day.
11pm: Finally, I’ll watch a bit of mind numbing television to unwind before bed, scroll through social media and just let my body and brain power down before calling it a day….
Shalom Lloyd is the Founder of Naturally Tribal Skincare, a natural, vegan, ethically sourced, African heritage and synthetic chemical-free skincare range. www.naturallytribalgroup.com
