I spend close to 20 hours per week working outside the office.
You see, I'm a consultant. That means most of my time is spent working 1-1 with my clients on their marketing strategies.
My clients range from financial services firms to education companies to non-profits.
While many of these are across the country, quite a few are local.
This puts me in a lot of different locations.
That means lots of time going from meeting to meeting...
From coffee shop to coffee shop...
...all over my part of the country (metro Atlanta / northeast Georgia).
Here are 3 hacks I've learned over the years that have made my mobile lifestyle a whole lot easier.
1) Keep a pair of dress shoes in the car at all times
My everyday pair of shoes are a cross between sneakers and dress shoes. Nice and versatile.
But sometimes they just don't work for nicer environments.
On the flip side, dress shoes as the standard isn't an option either.
For example, sometimes I'll squeeze in a more casual meeting in between more formal ones.
In a walkable city like Atlanta, this might mean walking up to 1 mile to a coffee shop.
More comfortable shoes work best here.
Then, for my next meeting, just throw on the dress shoes that I keep in the car.
This means I'm never unprepared. It also leads to my next point.
2) Keep a sport coat or jacket in the car
Recently, I had a lunch meeting where there was a dress code for the restaurant.
Since my first two meetings were more casual in nature, I didn't think about a coat that morning.
Frankly I didn't know there was a dress code at that meeting until I got there and saw on the front door.
Not a big deal since I always keep my nice dress shoes and my jacket in the car.
I threw my coat on and the meeting went on without a hitch.
In a little bit of a shift, my third tip has more to do with saving money.
3) Sign up for every coffee shop reward program
I have spent a lot of money at coffee shops. Starbucks owes me a shoutout or something.
Because of this, I've racked up quite an impressive amount of reward points.
It seems like every time I go into one I've got some kind of a free drink or reward or something.
It's not going to save you money per se, but if you're going to spend the time at coffee shops meeting and working, you might as well get the perks.
These are my three tips for folks who spend a lot of time on the road.
So if this was helpful to you, let me know.
What are your best tips? Leave them in the comments.
p.s. If you need marketing help, we should chat.