Member Article

Day In The Life of Loren Nardini

Loren Nardini is the commercial director of Pro Ad, one of the leading marketing merchandise companies in the UK. The company, which celebrated its 40th year recently, is breaking many molds in the industry and here, we take a look at Loren’s working day to understand what is becoming important in this industry.

6am I get up when I hear the children stirring. My 5 and 2 and half year old are full of life so the morning is generally a fun battle to get them out of the door on time. We try to eat breakfast together and I support my wife, who often has to leave early to get to her job in Newcastle

8.30am Having dropped my son with his grandparents who walk him to school, and my daughter at the nursery around the corner from the office, I walk into work arriving around 8.30. I don’t drink caffeine so there is no coffee for me. I get straight to work with my day’s ‘To Do List’, clear my emails and catch up with the team. We have signed up to the Good Charter, so it is important that we touch base and be good employers.

10.30am Knowing the team are all sorted and busy working closely with our clients to deliver solutions to budget that hit key messages such as sustainability and buying British, I get my head down into client work for a few hours myself. I still love this hands-on approach and our clients really appreciate it. I pull together proposals with innovative solutions and make a few calls to take briefs, discussing the ultimate aims of the investment into merchandising.

12.30 After a zoom meeting with a BPMA approved British supplier where he showed me his new products I pop into Morpeth town to pick up a healthy sandwich and cold drink. I think how much I am looking forward to receiving his samples, and then turn my mind to prepping for my 1-2-1 meeting with my mentor this afternoon, clearing my head from the morning and resetting for the rest of the day.

1.30 I meet with Andrew Marsh for my business mentoring session. I have been a member of Vistage for 5 years and even as we went through the pandemic and had to make cuts, the team were keen for us to maintain this membership as its impact on the business is so positive. I talk through our commitment to Ecology, and planting a tree for every order over £500, and look at other strategies for keeping my head clear to drive the business forward in this ever-changing world.

3.30 I check over the next batch of marketing making sure it is aligned to our values, goals and what we are. This includes signing off an award entry put together by our marketing team and catch up with Carlo on a conversation about client projects we have going on and how we are getting along with our own company plans.

I then revisit the goals of some of our clients and put in calls to them to ensure they are getting regular contact. I talk to around 10 clients a day, all of whom are looking to activate their brand in the best way possible.

5.30pm I call it a day and head out to pick up the kids. Once we are home, I help with tea, have some chill time together and do bath and bedtime. Finally, it is time for my wife and I to have some time together, so one of us cooks dinner while the other trains in the garage gym. We then sit down to eat and watch an episode or two of a current box set. If I am in on my own, I catch up on the sport, of course!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Toms .