Day in the Life
Jared Higgins – Arcfyre Group CEO
‘I tend to wake up early, between 5-5.30am, make coffee, then sit and read through the news across as many papers and online media as possible. I’m especially interested in politics, local and global, the economy, and other topics relevant to our work, so this routine helps me stay informed first thing each morning.
The kids get up, my wife and I get them fed and off to school. It’s much easier now that they’re older and more independent. Then the meetings and calls begin around 7am.
I speak with multiple business units: HR, compliance, finance, operations, GSOC – engagement with leadership to manage the multiple business units within the group.
Between our scheduled meetings, there are of course, the unplanned issues, alongside client calls from the UK, EU and Africa.
During the afternoon, as the US wakes up, I start taking more client calls, starting from the East Coast and as the day goes on, moving across to the West Coast. Between which we have our tri-weekly Operations Overview Meetings to work through the current operations, and the team flags any potential concerns or outstanding issues.
Often between 7-8pm I’m still on the phone.
I’m a stickler for making sure I get what I need to do done on the day. Additional meetings or calls can push this back, and I’m sometimes still working around 10pm, trying to close off my ‘to do list’, which is often still open the next morning.
I aim to get to bed early, I wake up and it’s Groundhog Day again!
I’ve been told by folks across the board that this way of working isn’t sustainable, but it’s been 22 years and I think I’d struggle any other way.
Surprisingly, I’m a huge advocate of work-life balance (provided the work is done), but I admit I’m certainly not a good example. Unfortunately, I’ve been doing it so long, my family is used to it, although begrudgingly.
I stress to those that read this, that this method is not necessarily the right way and definitely not a way to follow!’