WMW #25: Stephanie Bonnet, communications head; blogger and mum
"Work extends to the time you give it"
Hello!
Today’s interview comes to you while I am in Scotland visiting my husband’s side of the family.
We are just back in Glasgow from a few wonderful days in Aviemore and Oban, enjoying the highlands and seeing extended family.
We also made it to Loch Ness this time, a lake known to have the largest volume of freshwater in Britain, and most importantly home to Nessie, the legendary Loch Ness monster.
It seems that Nessie was first spotted in 565AD, and there have been 1148 sightings since, proving that she is not just ancient folklore.
Sightings have been recorded via webcam with the latest one recorded on June 3 2023 which you can see here. Hopefully one day my kids will spot her too; in the mean time they have a cuddly toy monster Nessie that has made it to their beds.
On to this week’s interview…
This week’s interview is super special to me, as it is with someone who gave me my first ever digital training back in 2009! So essentially my career in digital communications started with her.
Stephanie Bonnet and I used to work for Burson Marsteller back in the day, and have stayed connected on and off ever since. We met in person once circa 2010 in Zurich, for a meeting of all digital leads at Burson EMEA.
Stephanie now works at en energy company in the UK, heading up their communications division. She is also a mum to a 16 year old, and runs her own travel blog where she shares her personal collection of well-researched boutique hotels and holiday villas where they have stayed or would like to stay.
All round, Stephanie is a fantastic person who I am very fond of, and she is full of wisdom on work, life and being a mum.
Meet Stephanie Bonnet, head of communications; blogger and mum
Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself
I have worked in communications for over 30 years in various countries, including Paris, London, New York, and Amsterdam.
I am married to a Brit and live in London with our 16-year-old daughter.
Aside from my work, I am passionate about food, particularly eating it :) I am also a bit of geek on the side; I have a blog, a newsletter, an app, and things related to my interest for boutique hotels.
Q. Why did you choose to start blogging? How long have you been doing it?
I started blogging almost 10 years ago. I've always had a passion for the digital space and technology, and after working in digital communications for a while, I decided to create a blog to share my research on hotels and travel destinations. I chose this topic because I actually really like researching nice hotels.
Every time I posted things about nice hotels on Facebook or talked to people about it, they were like, oh, how do you find these? So I thought there was an interest. So instead of having to repeat the same thing, I would just write a blog that would share all of the places we had been to, and all the places we would like to go to.
Q. Where are you on your creator journey at the moment?
It started as a hobby about 10 years ago and really enjoy it because it gives me a window of creativity and also allows me to play with tools and test digital tactics that could be useful for my corporate job.
Now I am making a little bit of money from it, probably just enough to cover costs, but it's not profitable. I want to turn it into a more profitable income stream to support myself as I progressively transition away from my corporate job in the next few years.
Q. What are the challenges you face being a creator and having a full time job?
One of the challenges I face being a creator and having a full-time job is finding the time and the energy to do both. Working full-time is demanding as is it.
And the other thing as well is my limited availability to explore travel options and hotels for my newsletter. So for instance, if I’m invited to press trips for hotels, they are usually during the week and out of season, so if I want to go on a press trip, I need to use my holidays or I can’t go.
If I was working full-time on my blog ‘From the Poolside’, I could engage with brands and PR agencies and other creators and have access to more content to feed my blog and my newsletter.
Q. As a mum and creator, with a full-time job (!) how do you manage your time?
As a mum and creator with a full-time job, it helps that my daughter is 16, so she's much more independent and she can do her own thing. Obviously there are still some demands, in particular emotional support and being present when she is studying for her exams.
In addition, I have blocked 2 days a week between 7 and 9pm which is time for my blog. The days change each week but that's reserved time that for my side project. It's not for personal stuff, it's not for work stuff so I’m really focused at that time.
Q. Working in digital communications professionally, as well as online in the creator space, what are your thoughts on the future potential of this space, especially for mums looking to redesign their lives?
Being able to build something of your own online allows you to have a freedom, a free space that is only yours. It's great to be a mum, a partner, an employee, and so on, but you have to have things that are just for you.
I believe that the online space for moms has huge potential, as long as you focus on one area and are consistent with it.
I think the key is not to spread yourself too thin by going into too many social networks. Pick one topic and one channel, so it's either going to be a website or a newsletter or a social media network, whatever you prefer, whatever is more your style. And keep at it consistently. Over time it will grow; it helps to develop a community, an audience, and some opportunities as well.
And then it's a question of making the time to leverage those opportunities. Especially now with the rise of AI, there are opportunities to do some of this stuff in a much shorter time. However, I wouldn't have expectations of a lot of income right away, as it takes a while to grow something of significance.
Q. What is your ultimate goal as a working mum?
My ultimate goal as a working mum is to be a role model for my daughter. We only have one daughter and for me it's always been very important that she sees me working.
Personally yes my job fulfills me; I need to work both for myself and financially.
To be honest, I found it challenging when I was on maternity leave to be 100% focused on the mum stuff. I mean it was very good in many ways but I did need the intellectual stimulation of work and talking to other people.
So selfishly, work is really important for me but like any mum I have moments of guilt of not being able to do something for my daughter because work required me to be somewhere. But at the same time, I think it’s important that she sees that working constantly in a job that you like and being independent is such a great thing, and so important.
At least that's what works for me and it’s a model I want to be for my daughter. I'm not saying that's the only model, if people choose to focus only on parenting I think its great too, it’s a personal choice.
Q. Where do you get your inspiration?
I find inspiration from different online sources on social media, newsletters, and articles. I also gain inspiration from conversations with people outside my field, like engineers at my energy company. They have a different mindset from me and it interests me to see how they approach problems, for instance.
Additionally, I listen to podcasts. Some of my best ones are Amazing If, run by two ladies with a mission to make careers better for everyone; and Ali Abdaal offers some great productivity tips but I think ultimately you do have to build your own productivity system.
Furthermore, I follow creative individuals on Instagram, such as brand stylists, Orla and me with Sarah Tasker, and La Fiancee du Panda, who have a unique and beautiful perspective.
Q. What is your best productivity hack?
Time is relative. The best productivity hack is that work extends to the time you give it. So if you give yourself 3 hours to do something, it's going to take 3 hours; but if you have only one hour, then you could do it in one hour. By setting shorter deadlines, I can still finish the task, albeit not perfectly, but it saves me time in the end.
Another productivity hack for me is where I record my thoughts while walking and have them transcribed by an AI tool called Tana. This saves me time and allows me to easily polish my ideas, especially for my newsletter. I can even see it in French and then you would translate it in English, which you know could make it even better that saves me easily one hour each time.
And the third is a productivity hack for my B2B hotel newsletter. By using a browser extension, I can easily record and format key details about hotels, saving me significant time when writing the 'extra finds' section of my newsletter.
Q. What do you do in your 'me-time' and how does it help you?
So in my me-time, a couple of things that I do. I run, which is really great for health reasons, but also if I have a problem that bothers me, I just run and think about it and it helps me clarify my thoughts. Otherwise, I listen to podcasts, which is another way to save time
I love spending time playing with online tools, and doing puzzles! Puzzles are actually a great way to meditate and forget everything.
Q. Favourite tool that makes your life / business easier?
When it comes to my business or my newsletter, automation tools like Zapier or IFTTT make my life easier. For personal tasks, I rely on Things3 as a convenient to-do list app.
Q. Favourite quote
In my family, we have a saying that has always stuck with me:
“What you're supposed to have, you will have if you do the work”.
This quote reminds me to focus on putting in the effort and trusting that the right opportunities will come my way.
Q. Best thing you have read or watched lately
I recently read a novel called Lessons in Chemistry, which tells the story of a talented young woman chemist in the 1950s USA who faces challenges in finding opportunities due to her gender. It's a well-written and captivating book that sheds light on the progress we have made regarding women's place in society.
—
If you are interested to have access to personally researched boutique hotels and villas for your holidays, you can check out Stephanie’s blog ‘From the Poolside’ here, and sign up to her newsletter, here. Every week she sends out the best 5 to 10 stylish addresses to save you time planning your next holiday. She also can give you personal recommendations if that interests you.
Stephanie is taking the rest of summer off her side projects and will be back in September with new energy and adventures to share from her travels.
That’s all for now.
My best,
Abha x