What does a typical Thursday look like for you, starting from when you wake up – to heading to bed?
Anna-Maria Mountfort:
Cautious optimism – day-before-the-day-before-the weekend.
Wake up early: work on business; mimiTENS. Send mails, invoices, paperwork, etc…Bathe. Eat fruit. Take naturopath drops. Breathe deeply. Apply concealer and blush. Lots. Put on a dress and make effort to look professional.
Wake up kids and have cuddly-cuddlies which is a massive tickle session that ends with kids gasping for air.
Get girls dressed, breakfast, bring kids to school. Get coffee and scone at Ella’s Uncle. Listen to ‘9 to 5’ four or five times on iPod. Check mail on my two PDAs – one for day job, one for mimiTENS.
Go to day job – Departmental Spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture. Do day job which I love. Advise Minister’s Office. Talk to media. Support programs and initiatives. Eat a salad for lunch, lots of croutons.
Day job over, run home, check mimiTENS messages and mails.
Husband picks up kids while I make dinner which is likely leftovers, if it is Thursday. See husband, hug and kiss for a tiny bit. See kids, hug and kiss. Open mail. Pay membership for gym that I don’t go to. Feel guilt. Forgive myself. Move on.
Play with kids, usually drawing and watching Backyardigans at the same time. Bath time for kids which wonderful husband manages. Do mimiTENS business in meantime.
Pajamas, stories, bed time for kids. This takes like an hour. We read to them a lot. Depending on how tired I am, I might fall asleep next to kids, or get up and hang out with my guy or do mittens stuff.
Go to bed. Pray. Thank heaven for how lucky I am and hope for the good fortune of doing it all over again tomorrow but this time, in jeans.
Marina Dempster: Every day is different, so I’ll describe this Thursday…I can’t really call it waking up these days, as I am feeding my 6 month old so often in the night… but at some point I boot up the computer while I hopefully shower, have some breakfast, strap on baby for a nap, check my emails and confirm some photo-shoot gigs, brainstorm on mitten business with Anna on the phone and create some ads for mimiTENS, lament that my spirited wee one only naps in short stretches, plot the curation of and participation in upcoming art exhibitions, work on my artist statement, leave baby with my mother and head out on a photo-shoot, hugs for my husband for making us a yummy dinner upon my return, have a bath with baby, put her to bed and get back to work doing some photo editing and mimiTENS miscellany….chuck some laundry on. Crash.
What was your first job out of school?
AMM: Production Assitant: official hot dog fetcher and parking attendant to inventor of IMAX. They were super nice to me and paid me $10 an hour. I couldn’t believe my luck.
MD:
Worked at a bookstore while in high-school… was disillusioned by the strange men who sheepishly bought porno mags…out of university I waitressed at a sports bar to save enough money to escape to Mexico for a year.
What are the 3 skills you require most to do your job well?
AMM: Empathy, planning and ability to smile through pain and exhaustion.
MD: Creativity, adaptability and courage.
What do you love most about your career?
AMM:
Public servant: lending my skills and heart to my community and country. Working with talented and dedicated people. Feeling that what I do is valuable and is making a difference to others.
Entrepreneur (mimiTENS): This is my opportunity to be as creative as possible. With mimiTENS, I am building something from the ground up. I am working with people that I like. I hope to build my dream company: principled, Canadian, progressive and profitable. It is also deeply great to see kids (unrelated to me) wearing mimiTENS.
MD: I’m my own boss so that I pick and choose where I want to put my energies.
Do you have any warnings?
AMM:
Heirarchy is not always a bad thing. It is just order. Every organization (small or large) has a hierarchy. Learn it, respect it. You need to know where you fit in that hierarchy before you can move up, sideways, or out entirely. I have seen too many young people just figure that their energy and superior computer skills will get them where they want to be. I have also made that mistake once or twice.
MD:
Being self-employed forces you to be ok with the unpredictable. Also means you are your own harshest critic…also at times it hard to say no to exciting opportunities with an already busy plateful … a bit like over doing it at an all you can eat buffet…rarely a good idea!
If you could try a different career on for a year, what would it be?
AMM: So easy: First-ever female midfield star for Manchester United. Oh, it would be the best! I would become Sir Alex Ferguson’s pet and train hard and faithfully. I would play practical jokes on everyone with Rio Ferdinand, arm wrestle with Wayne Rooney, talk about Canada with Owen Hargreaves. And while I would distinguish myself for setting up all of the winning goals in our second treble-winning season, I would insist on fair and equal treatment. Don’t need my own changing room; I’ll shower with the rest of the boys.
MD:
Surfer. (Of the ocean not the web.)
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