Rachelle Hruska MacPherson
Carry Your Day: Rachelle Hruska MacPherson
Founder, Lingua Franca
7:00 AM
I'm not a morning person. I wake up with my kids every morning and get them set up for the day and out the door, and then my husband, Sean, takes them to school and I spend the first hour or two of my day alone at my computer checking through emails and setting myself up for the day. I don't really have much other time to sit alone at a computer undisturbed, so I've found that if I don't give myself that morning time — with a cup of coffee, or two — my day becomes really hectic.
10:00 AM
Last year, Lingua Franca did a collaboration with Tracy Anderson, who truly is a fitness pioneer. I had never tried her work-outs before, but after collaborating with her I discovered her "Online Studio" program, which you can do anytime, anywhere. I'm so turned off by having to schedule work-outs and fit in time to commute to a gym, so when I discovered something at-home, it was a revelation. I usually do 45 minutes of one of Tracy's videos in the morning, or go for a run or do yoga. I find if I don't do it then, I'm not going to be able to make time for it the rest of the day.
11:00 AM
After a work-out, I'm really energized, so I'll head to the office and eat lunch with our COO, Kate. We'll go through various things for the day while we eat, but there's really no typical day. Everything is really manic right now! We're building new product lines — we just launched a natural bath amenity line for hotels called LF Bath. We also have two stores that I check in with each day and are about to add our third in L.A. We usually host one or two events each week, as well — whether it's a book Q&A or an in-store party. Or I might have a photoshoot. If it's market week, it's really crazy, with press and buyers coming through. I'm always in a million different places, and everything always feels a little scattered, so I'm so thankful for my MZ Wallace — it's the one thing I just have organized. I keep my essentials, my cards and money and lipgloss, etc, in the zip pouches, so I know I always have everything together. One of my first "grown-up" bags was an MZ Wallace, I bought it 15 years ago and it was life-changing.
3:00 PM
Besides connecting with our team, I also run all of our social media. It's important to me that as a brand, Lingua Franca is able to respond on social media to what's happening in the world in real time. I usually find time to handle our social — posting our content or responding to DM's — when I'm in transit, either in an Uber on the way to a meeting, or while I'm waiting for appointments. It's one of my favorite parts of the job, connecting with people on social media and in real life at our events and trunk shows.
6:00 PM
Because my husband does drop-off with the kids and I'm not on morning duty, the time between 6 and 7:30 pm is really sacred to me. It's my time to have dinner with my kids and put them to bed. We've been reading the Harry Potter series, which I had never read — right now we're on book six. Once they're in bed, my husband and I might go out and have our own dinner down the street at the Waverly Inn. We try to have dinner alone together at least once or twice a week — between family stuff and both of our jobs, if we didn't have that time together in the evening, we wouldn't be able to really connect.
1:00 AM
I'm naturally a night owl — I feel like I really come alive at night. That's when I want to work! Because I wake up with my kids each morning, I've tried to get into a schedule — Sean and I try to be in bed by 10, and we'll read or watch a show together. But I would say that there's usually one or two nights a week that I'm up until 1 or 2 am, and it's like I can't shut off. If I know I'm super awake, I'll just get out of bed and work. I figure, why not harness that energy when I have it?
I'm always in a million different places, and everything always feels a little scattered, so I'm so thankful for my MZ Wallace — it's the one thing I just have organized.