Surrey Chambers Interview – 24 hours with Nigel Blake

Surrey Chambers wanted to learn more about what makes our MD, Nigel Blake, tick. Here’s a day in the life of the boss!

06:45 – Alarm goes off and the day begins with coffee, and feeding time for the dogs, ahead of leaving for the office.

07:30 – Arrive at the office and catch up with our Middle East Team who start calling at 6am each day.

07:45 – 45 minutes of uninterrupted time, and a check of the night’s emails, ahead of our European team arriving for the day’s calling.

08:30 – It’s always great to hear our callers chatting in Arabic/French/German/Italian/Russian/Spanish, although it’s a shameful reminder of my inability to master a second language!

08:45 – More coffee and a chat with our campaign managers to ensure everything is in order for the day’s telemarketing campaigns.

09:15 – The UK team arrive, and with over 70% of the team being Actors, the noise levels rise accordingly!

10:00 – Just manage to polish off a bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes ahead of a new client meeting at our offices. One of the nicer parts of my job is the insights I get into other business and industries. I find these insights fascinating, and it really helps with Perfect Pitch, as you hope you can learn from the good and bad in all businesses.

12:00 – Business/Networking Lunch in Guildford with a really interesting speaker. As with all these events you can never really be sure what you might get from it, but I’ve learnt to go with an open mind and a view that for every bad one, there will be a good one, and more often than not it will give me a chance to catch up with someone I may not have seen for a while.

14:30 – Back to the office, and its home time for the ME team, who are replaced with the US team. The office is given a new lease of life and remind me that I am clearly on the wrong team!

16:00 – Admin time, with various emails to respond to, and proposals to send out. Typically something will happen in the day that I did not plan for, and today the drains are blocked in the car park – oh well, never a dull moment here, and one thing I have learnt over the last 6 years is to expect the unexpected!

18:00 – Home for dinner and family time, where we all discuss our day’s events, and get a chance to gain some perspective. I think that sometimes, as a small business owner, there is a danger that work can become all-consuming, and it’s good to tune out for a short while at least.

20:00 – I will have a final check in with our US team leader, and a last check of the emails, before switching off for the day.

21:00 – The last part of the day consists of “I’m a Celebrity” and a glass of red, and then off to bed dreaming of blocked drains and snakes…!

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