THE CONSULTANCY PR

Day in the Life: Lauren Urband, Founder and President

On Day in the Life, we get a glimpse inside the lives of various members. From PR industry insiders to media and event pros, we follow them through a typical (read: glam but busy) day.

Meet Lauren Urband, Founder and President of THE CONSULTANCY PR. With teams on both coasts, Lauren's typical LA day starts around the same time as NYC's does. While her typical day involves everything from hard hat tours to client meetings, she still finds time to meet with her Office & Culture Manager to ensure the company's quarterly team-building activities are in order. Read on for a snapshot of her day, plus the inside scoop on an upcoming opening and the design events to know.   

5:30am: Wake up and check emails before/as the NY office begins their day; this is typically done from bed before my contacts go in! 

6am: Virtual spin class at home on my Peloton bike (90s hip-hop classes with Robin Arzon are my favorite!) or a Shred class at my favorite local spot, Studio Metamorphosis.

Studio Metamorphosis

7am: Help my husband with the “morning routine;” it takes two people to get my six-year-old son to school and our dog, Sprinkles to daycare on time! After, I listen to “The Daily” podcast from the New York Times while getting ready for work; this podcast was recommended to me by an editor-friend, and it’s one of my favorite ways to take in the news of the day.

8:30am: Call our VP in New York from the car to catch-up while en route to the office.

9:30am: Arrive at the office; meet with our Office & Culture Manager to review pending items from our recent office move, our next staff meeting agenda and our upcoming team-building activities in both offices – we plan different outings each quarter, whether an exercise class, mani/pedis or happy hours. It’s important to our work culture that the team has the opportunity to spend time together outside of the office a few times a year. We just held a joint NY/LA office retreat at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. It was a great way to relax and recharge while also reflecting on our growth, wins and key learnings while setting 2020 goals before the holiday season kicked in.

TCPR Retreat, 2019

10am: Touch-base with our Social Media Account Manager to discuss TCPR’s social media clients and best practices. Next up: new business call to introduce our services to a prospective client.

Noon: Hard hat tour and lunch with an editor from The Hollywood Reporter and our client, The Britely, a new social club opening at the Pendry West Hollywood in Summer 2020. I’m excited to work on this project because it’s really carving its own path among all of the recent openings in Los Angeles. Martin Brudnizki of MBDS (best known for his design of London hotspot Annabel’s) is designing the interiors of the entire property and Wolfgang Puck is doing the food. Plus, there are bowling lanes in the club! It’s going to be incredible.

Rendering of The Britely

2pm: Participate in a meeting with the La Cienega Design Quarter Director and other local PR teams to brainstorm ideas for the annual LEGENDS event in May. LEGENDS is arguably one of the biggest design events in the country, and we have been fortunate to work closely with their team since its inception to get our clients involved, whether in panel discussions, window designs or other events – book signings, cocktail parties, launch events, etc. One of my personal favorites is Chairish’s “Love It or Hate It” panel, where big-name designers (Nate Berkus and Bobby Berk to name a few) duke it out over their most loved and loathed design trends. It gets pretty heated, so it’s a ton of fun to watch.

Chairish 'Love It or Hate It' Panel

3:30pm: Design Within Reach client in town; hold coffee meeting at PLATFORM in Culver City to discuss potential partnership ideas for their recurring +design event during NY Design Week in May.

Platform

4:30 PM: Call from the car with business consultant, Nathan from D:AM to discuss additional staffing needs in light of recent new business wins. He is a friend and confidant – TCPR truly wouldn’t have grown to what it has become without his guidance (and those late-night texts…).

5pm: Pick up my son from school and hear about what he learned that day. Help my son with his homework; prepare dinner and get ready for the next day of school (there’s a lot of work in Kindergarten this year!) While dinner is cooking, I make a quick call to our SVP in Los Angeles to catch up on each other’s days.

8pm: After my son’s bedtime, I hop back online and follow-up on emails from the day. To avoid late-night emails for non-urgent matters, my trick is to draft any responses required, save and send them first-thing the next morning when I wake up so they are in our NY team’s inbox first-thing. That way, they can begin to address anything urgent immediately upon arriving at the office rather than needing to wait for me to get in and sort through my emails first. It’s a super-efficient way to manage a team on both coasts.

9:30pm: Social media time – probably one of my favorite ways to unwind, although blue light before bed is bad, yada yada… Although we’ve recently grown our agency practice to include a social media arm and, as a result, added a team member who is dedicated to monitoring our accounts as well as servicing our clients, I personally love scrolling through Instagram pre-bedtime. There’s so much inspiration on social media, and it’s a great way to learn about goings-on in our world. Also, it’s a really beneficial tool for us as a business to convey our work and point-of-view. Today, for example, we got a DM about a prospective new client, which is always exciting. The power of social media is incredible!

10pm: Lights out! It’s been a long day and knowing I’ll be waking up early, I am pretty rigid about my bedtime – and I’m lucky to be able to fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow!