Many people stumble upon marketing after trying out another field and realizing it’s not meant for them. Tamara Sykes, on the other hand, ended up here as a means to survive.

As an immigrant from Barbados, Tamara was faced with situations in which she couldn’t legally work in the U.S. “I had to figure out how to literally feed myself,” Tamara explains. “I started out doing website design. Then it was local SEO, where I discovered my love for women-run small businesses. From there, I evolved into helping people build sites and brands and get more visibility online via SEO and PR.”

Though Tamara’s immigration status has since been settled, her multi-hyphenate hustle continues. Currently, she is Head of Client Content Strategy at Stacker, as well as the Founder of both Baydian Girl and Next Level Presence, two businesses focused on women of color and women-owned organizations.

So, how does she get everything done?

Use Time Audits To “Ruthlessly Organize” How You Spend Your Time

Clearly, Tamara’s always been busy, but now that she’s a mom, she’s realized how unpredictable time can be. In the last five years, she’s become adept at what she calls “ruthless organization.”

“When I became a mom, I really had to reassess my priorities with time,” Tamara explains. “How much time do I actually have available to do things? One of my favorite books that helped me was, ‘I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time’ by Laura Vanderkam.”

After finishing that book, Tamara understood that she could, in fact, still pursue what she wanted to do at work and outside of it with her personal brand — while maintaining her sanity — but it was going to take some intention.

Tamara now uses time audits whenever there’s a shift in her schedule or family life to gauge how much time she has to work with. When she has less time, she works with fewer clients in her personal business or spreads them out more throughout the year. On the flip side, when she has more time, Tamara takes on more side projects.

Interested in doing your own time audit? Here are some tips:

  • Figure out the easiest way to keep track of your notes during your audit. That might be a spreadsheet, the Notes app on your phone or something else.
  • Instead of thinking about what you can do in one day, zoom out and look at the weeks and their patterns. What do you do on most Sundays? Is it laundry? Relaxing? Something else? What about most Mondays? etc.
  • Write down what time you went to bed and woke up each day.
  • Note any other activities you undertake throughout the day, such as working for a stretch of time, taking a walk, getting the kids ready for school, taking a lunch break or something else.
  • Consider noting what “buckets” activities fall under. For example, when you’re working, are you in a deep flow state, or are you caught up in a ton of meetings? This information will help you optimize and better spend your time.

Once you have complete notes from at least one week of your life, you can analyze them and see where your time goes. Based on how happy you are with your schedule, you can make tweaks or look for potential trade-offs to make it more balanced or free up more time for something else.

Regular time audits are a great way to prevent burnout — and they’re a solid reminder that, as much as we might want to, we can’t be everywhere at once. As Tamara put it, “Moderately scheduled and well-rested is the vibe. You can burn out so quickly in life, and recovering from that takes so much time.”

Tips For Marketers Pitching Thought Leadership Topics To Outlets

If, after doing your time audit, you find time to finally grow your brand’s thought leadership profile, you might wonder how to pitch an editor your idea. With her deep PR expertise, Tamara has landed placements in Forbes, Newsday and other reputable sites, and here’s what she recommends.

First, get straight to the point as quickly as possible. In our work, sometimes more context is better than less, but with your pitch, you want to include just enough. Journalists and editors have minimal time (don’t we all?), and they want to know you can quickly hook a reader (in this case, them).

Be clear about how this story holds value and aligns with the beat of the person you’re pitching. Do some research to familiarize yourself with the type of content that person publishes beforehand; this is valuable because when you read the stories they’re currently publishing, you can see what they’re drawn to in the way the writers tell those stories. Then, structure your pitch similarly.

Carefully read any calls for pitches and contributors, and don’t reach out if you don’t meet the criteria. This is important! Even if you want to check that box and feel like you’ve completed a pitch, it’s a frustrating experience for an editor to have to filter you out because you don’t meet the baseline criteria.

Finally, be sure to double-check the spelling of first names! This is a common gripe from editors; they get lots of pitches that either misspell their name or are addressed to someone else. Don’t freak out if you make a mistake and send a pitch with a typo, but double-check as much as you can.

And if you’re feeling nervous about pitching an outlet, try not to be. Tamara thinks you might have more success than your typical PR person when building your thought leadership — especially if you’re willing to open up when the assignment calls for it.

“Journalists can be more receptive because they don’t see PR in your signature,” Tamara points out. “You could even reach out to calls for contributors and end up telling stories that are more vulnerable. I was just part of a Market Watch story talking about my life as a mom and multi-hyphenate — why I do this and how it contributes to the trend of more working parents doing multiple jobs. Because I opened up, I was able to be in that story.”