Workdays and Weekend: Tricia Fox

This week we catch up with Tricia Fox from Volpa Marketing agency in Perth. Tricia is the managing director and founder and no two days at her work are the same! She can sometimes be found managing press at an event over the weekend, or deep in a dark forest in the middle of the night (it has happened!!). 

1. What does a typical day at work look like for you?

There’s not much typical about any of my work days, if I’m being completely honest! The wonderful thing about running a marketing agency is that we are always working on the future as well as the here and now so my days are split across developing plans to launch new products and services for clients, as well as continually pushing out marketing materials for existing products and services.

As a full service agency, we do everything in house and as a result a typical day might involve writing and issuing a press release, working with the designers on the design for a brochure or advert, updating or building from scratch a website, handling a PR crisis and incoming press requests, to developing engaging content for social media.

With such a diversity of clients our conversations can range from talking about changes in legislation in the morning to what’s the best tasting beer or whisky in the afternoon! It is never, ever dull!

2. What signals the start of your weekend / days off?

A gin and tonic! And sleep, lots and lots of sleep!!

3. What makes for a perfect night in?

I really love a night in and will confess to being a complete box set addict. I’m currently churning my way through several seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. Combine that with some freshly made pasta and pizza from Perth’s finest Italian takeaway, La Serie A, and a bottle of red wine shared with my husband and I’m a happy girl!

4. What makes for a memorable day or night out?

I love an experience to remember and I’ve been very lucky that my job has allowed me to do some very extra-ordinary things including meeting Hollywood movie stars, Royalty and Olympians over the years. However a memorable night out would have to be with my husband, Ian Christie. Ian runs Flybox so catching time together is precious with two entrepreneurs in the house. Dinner for two at some of our favourite Perth restaurants like Grand Italia or Tabla is enough to reset the balance and remind me what life is really all about.

5. Tell us about the weekend you’d love to live again

These are tough questions! Our wedding weekend would be hard to top. We got married at King’s College in Aberdeen and it was a Bank Holiday weekend so it was extra long. The whole thing kicked off with dinner on the Friday night for friends and family, then the formal proceedings on the Saturday on what turned out to be a spectacularly sunny day (despite being in April). The Sunday brought more festivities, seeing friends, dinners out, and we both had the Monday off to recover fully. We share a wedding anniversary with the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge who followed us down the aisle 5 years later, so it means I can never forget the date!

6. And now your best ever day at work?

Hmmmmm. Truthfully this is a hard one to pick just one….. the choices are wide and varied – from Royal visits, red carpet moments with Hollywood stars, massive events and some of Scotland’s most historic locations to work in, that’s a very tough call. But….. if I was pushed, one of the best days at work ever has to be when Etape Caledonia was hit by a tack attack back in 2009. We’d worked really hard all year to get the media up to Pitlochry to cover the event only to be told that Pitlochry was too far away, it was too early on a Sunday and other typical media excuses for events in Highland Perthshire.

Some 3 hours after a rainy but perfectly normal start to the event, we learned that a good number of the participants had been hit by punctures and tacks had been found on the road. I swung into action, fielding hundreds of media calls and suddenly the press who had been avoiding me in the weeks running up to the event were literally jumping in cars from all over Scotland to come and cover the news. Etape Caledonia was the lead story on the news that evening, and for the following week and I was at the centre of the media storm, directing the story, liaising with partners, fielding the calls and managing the media. While it was challenging and hard work, it still ranks as one of my favourite days ever. The following year, the event sold more places than ever before and I put that down to how well we communicated on that day and in the weeks subsequent to the incident.7. Any workday or weekend rituals

Is it a ritual to go out or breakfast every Saturday because you’ve run out of food in the house? If so that’s probably my one and only ritual. Or it could be called disorganisation! That and I get up at the same time every day regardless of whether it’s the weekend or a weekday. 6am, bright and breezy, and I’m up and at ‘em. I’ve tried sleeping in but it just doesn’t work for me. I make the most of the extra hours at the weekend by catching up on reading, writing or listening to the radio.

8. What’s in the perfect day off breakfast?

Bacon, fried eggs, sausages, plum tomatoes, mushrooms sautéed in butter and hot buttered toast. And a cup of hot tea. Ahhhhhhhh.

9. Any words of wisdom for us

Not sure you want wisdom from a woman who can’t plan far enough ahead to have food in the house for a Saturday morning breakfast but I think the best wisdom comes from our dogs:

Every day is a new day – embrace it with enthusiasm.

Who cares if you’re been to the park before, it’s awesome! Walking is awesome! Let’s do it!

When you return to the house, it’s exciting! Let’s pretend we haven’t seen each other for years and give each other a cuddle.

And all food is good for you. All food. Who cares about moderation!

Can’t get wiser than that.

Tricia is the Managing Director at Volpa >>>