By Liz
For our team, and yours too, I bet, time management is an absolutely crucial skill. It’s what enables us all to work together effectively as a team, and to deliver quality work to our clients on time. My recent skillshare unpacked four key strategies and here they are:
When Sarah and I started Pomegranite just over six years ago, having babies wasn’t even on our radar. We were about growing the business, quick as a jungle vine, to something real with meetings and clients and invoices. Since then, our roots have deepened with experience, our branches have expanded like our service offering and our trunk has become wide and strong with an incredible core: our team.
By Liz
During my three-month sabbatical, I walked the French Way, one of the routes of the Camino de Santiago, a 600-year old Christian pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela built on an older Pagan pilgrimage to what the Romans believed was the end of the world. It was one of the best things I have ever done for myself and I am so grateful to the amazing Pomegranite team that allowed me to take the time to do it.
It’s impossible to capture my journey in words so I’ll try to answer the most common question I’m asked, then move on to some simple facts, and finally share some images.READ MORE
By Liz
As we start a new year, I thought it would be a good time to reconnect with what’s important to each of us in our work. For my skills share, I simply asked everyone to write down their answers to three questions and share the answers. I was surprised and heartened by many of the answers and I think they give a good sense of who we are as a business.
By Liz
So you’ve sent work for approval and the feedback you receive is finally a description of what was required in the first place. We’ve all been there – whether it’s with a client or within your own team. A solid brief can determine the success of a project but is often not given proper attention because communicating properly takes effort. Here is a look at how to create a good brief and some practical tips for extracting one. READ MORE
By Liz
It’s a big week at Pomegranite HQ. Sarah has joined us from Joburg for the week and we are celebrating our fifth birthday on Friday. The days have been busy seeing clients and workshopping our processes as a team.
To break up the activity and to enjoy something together as humans outside of work, we headed to the Sea Point Promenade for a bike ride, courtesy of our wonderful client, Upcycles, complete with glorious sunshine, fresh air and delicious ice cream.READ MORE
By Liz
At the office on Friday afternoons, we take stock of the week that was and have a short skills share. Each person in the team takes a turn to talk about a specific topic that the whole company can benefit from. We’ve had a wide range of discussions, from Google’s biases to Mailchimp’s amazing lesser-known features. My topic was the word “just” and why we should cut it out of our work emails.
Have you noticed how often you use the word “just” in a professional context, particularly emails? I’ve been thinking about why I use it so much in tricky situations and if it’s something that women use more than men.READ MORE
By Liz
We’re part of a world that continuously pushes us to become better at what we do. But to do that we need to upskill ourselves. For many of us, taking time at the office to learn something new sounds like a scenario you would only encounter if you worked in Silicon Valley. But that’s simply not true.
– Liz
What to do when you make a mistake
I made a mistake recently. While it’s never a great feeling when you mess up, we learned a lot from it, and thought that was worth sharing.
So you’ve chosen a name for your business and you’re ready show the world your brand spanking new logo. Your designer starts asking you a lot of questions and suddenly it all seems like a big decision to make in one meeting.
It’s always a surprise when a parent teaches you something new on your phone. My dad casually dropped these juicy tips during lunch over the weekend and it had us all downing our drinks to put our phones inside our glasses.
Every Friday we give you a behind-the-scenes peak into life at Pomegranite. So today I thought I’d help you get to know Liz a bit more by asking her some really hard interestingly thought-provoking questions.
Happy Friday!
1. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I think it was a toss-up between a vet and an astronaut.
2. What’s your favourite thing about living and working in Cape Town?
Definitely the fact that it’s a walkable city. Growing up in the ‘burbs in Durban, where the city centre was pretty much off-limits apart from driving through on the way to the beach, I had a very glamorous idea of city life. I was determined to live in a New York apartment with a red door. I still might but Cape Town has shaped that idea of city life in a new way and I love it here.
3. If your life was a movie, which actress would play you?
Yoh, that’s a hard one. In high school I used to get told I look a bit like Kate Hudson. That was incredibly awkward, what are supposed to do with that? I quite like Jennifer-Katniss-Aberdeen-what’s-her-face.
4. If your life was a book, what would the title be?
The great adventure of a little girl with a lion heart.
5. If you could have a super power, what would it be and why?
Flying, obviously! Also, telekinesis to hold my book and turn the pages so my arms don’t have to venture out from under my duvet. And some way to secretly help people to let go of whatever heaviness they’re carrying.
6. What song best describes your work ethic?
Mannenburg by Abdullah Ibrahim – classic South African jazz – because I work best when I feel it, there’s not much that’s regimental about my day.
7. What’s the best piece of life advice anyone has ever given you?
Whatever you do, do it well. It doesn’t matter what it is – you never lose a skill.
8. Having worked with me for five months now, what is one thing that you think people should know about me but don’t?
You aren’t afraid to drive a hard bargain but run squealing from numbers on a spreadsheet.
(Aside: This is true. Spreadsheets were put on this earth to END me. Luckily, Liz LOVES them. Hey Liz?)
9. You walk into a bar right now and order a drink. What is it?
Finally! An easy question! Castle Light.
10. What advice would you give someone thinking about starting their own business?
Do it out of excitement and passion, not out of fear or because you don’t know what else to do. If, sometimes, it doesn’t feel like work, you’re on the right track. Keep your ears open and read about everything you can about your industry. Also, it’s ok to make it up as you go along. Everyone else is.
Liz and I go way back. This is back in 2008 when we lived in Ireland for a while. That’s Harry. I sometimes wonder if this is how people feel when they hang out with us.
