A Day in The Life

A few people have reached out and asked what a typical day is like for me so, I thought it would be fun to bring you into a day in the life.

I start most of my jobs at 6am so my alarm goes off at 4:00 am. No, my husband does not get up with me, he will stay in bed with our oldest dog, Peanut ( yes, they sleep with us, much to my dismay) Matilda and Mouse will come out and we all go into the kitchen so I can let them outside. While they are outside I will make a coffee or one of my Arbonne fizz drinks. The girls come back in and I will let them back in bed with Dave. I’ve been trying desperately not to open up IG or my emails first thing in the morning, I find it’s not the best way to start my day but somehow I end up still doing it. My best days start with my gratitude practice, journaling and pulling an angel card or a spirit animal card. Yes, I am that ‘woo woo’ person. I find that they are incredibly inspiring and I love the thought of my angels looking over me.

I will get dressed and head out on the road. Most, if not all of my clients are in the valley, which means I am on the freeways ALOT. If I have a new set up, I will start at the flower market in downtown LA to pick up anything from jars to fresh cuts. This time of the year the fresh cuts are tall oak limbs from the east coast, berry bushes etc... It’s always so inspiring just to walk through and look at everything. I will often get new ideas from walking the vendors based on what they have brought in. Even though its 6am It always feels like its 10 in the morning with the amounts of people shopping, drinking coffee and socializing. I load my car and head back on to the freeway. Once at the job site, I will offload and walk the store floor. 
While walking the floor, I am looking for holes in vignettes, sell through on stock, what’s new and how shopworn the displays are. If the new merchandise is not placed yet, I will walk the stockroom. I am looking for both the new as well as stock levels that are not on the floor. Often, I will bring more out if we have it available. I am also looking for any props that we can use or reinvent.  Once I have seen everything I will lay out a plan and break it down by how many days I am on site. At that point I am ready to go. I have a very distinct way I attack floor shifts. It’s calculated and it’s from my days at Anthro. I find that it’s the most efficient when you are shifting an entire vignette.

First. I decide where we are starting & I will off load all of the smalls on to a counter or pop up tables. Then I will take any props out and fixtures that we are not going to be using. Once that space is clear, I will clean it down, sweep etc... Nothing is worse than starting with a dirty space. I will re-set the floor with the fixtures and then set the architecture of the tables. This is the most important part, setting the architecture is what starts to tell the story. I talk a lot about this, storytelling in your vignettes. Who lives here, what do they do? Is it a pantry section? Scales, crates, cutting boards, sheet pans etc... all create height and tell the story. Once that is set, I will start building in the inventory from the floor and the stock room. 
The last part of the vignette are the fresh cuts. Pop those in and move on to placing the merchandise on the counter to their new homes. The big stuff is done and the floor is clear so I am calling it a wrap for the day.

Because I start so early, I usually get back on the road around 2 or so, hopefully missing traffic. Once home, I will answer any emails, calls and tend to my very long list of to-dos. The Retail Whore podcast is 100% funded by MC Design Collaboration so often I am recording in the late afternoons or early evening. I am not at the point yet where I can dedicate one or two days to just recording. I have balance the two with MC being the priority. That is sometimes a challenge because it means I literally have to change hats and turn into the host, bubbly and “on” and sometimes, especially during holiday season or gift show set up time it’s a struggle.

If I am recording Dave will get dinner started and after my interview wraps up, we will sit in the backyard and enjoy the rest of the day together. Our backyard has become our oasis, often I don’t even want to come inside. I just want to sit under the umbrella and read or go through magazines for inspiration. I started to call our house an Airbnb because I know if I was staying in an Airbnb that had a yard this big, I would spend every moment possible out there. That mindset has completely changed the way I look at our yard. Dinner and an early bedtime is how my day ends. I have to be in bed early because it all starts again the next day at 4am.

Cheers

M

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