Monday Must: Growing a company and staying sane

Hi! I’m Chelsey, a former journalist who stumbled her way into running an advertising agency in Toronto and is just trying to make a broken industry a tiny fraction of a percent better every day. 

Because navigating a growing company is exasperatingly, laugh-because-if-you-don’t-you’ll-cry difficult and anyone who says otherwise is a sociopath. Kidding. But in all seriousness, it’s easy to lose yourself, your values, your relationships and your sanity along the way unless you have some kind of Inception-esque token to bring you back to earth and remind you what’s actually important. Here’s what’s keeping me somewhat sane these days. 

Athletic Greens and Greenhouse Juice Co.

I am a horrible eater. Atrocious. Busy is not an excuse, but I eat an unacceptable amount of takeout and therefore need to find other sources of bare-minimum nutrients to stay alive and kickin’. I credit my medium-wellness to siphoning off of my partner’s Athletic Greens subscription (don’t tell) and bottles upon bottles of Greenhouse Juice (Gatsby and Genius ftw). Placebo? Maybe. But they make me feel slightly less college-y and therefore are a must.

Love Is Blind Japan

Japanese reality television makes me so calm. It’s something about the language, the wabi-sabi sets, the sheer mundanity of the drama (sorry Japan, love you Japan) that’s like a Benadryl in the bath*. It puts me right to sleep in the best way. 

*as in the Sofi Tukker reference, not that I do this. Often.

Kobo Sage e-Reader

Reading is hands down my favourite activity because I enjoy extreme sports and extroversion. I frequently fantasize about taking days off work to read. But do not mistake this for a healthy habit because my preferred genre is “as murder-y and escapist as possible”. Some faves from the past year: The Maid, The Push, The Magpie Murders, It Ends With Us, Such a Fun Age (not murdery but fucked up in its own rite.) I just started The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley so current Monday Must would be somewhere within those pages. Anyways, I like Kobo because 1- I like to buy books from bed, and 2- they’re our client 😉. 

Comme Si Boxer Alta Pants

Expensive pajamas are my COVID kryptonite. These are so soft and well-made and when I put them on I feel like I have my shit together (just prepare for the duty fees, Canadians).

Mojo Gummies

These microdose focus gummies are magic (pun intended?). I’ll have one on a Saturday for a work sprint or even before assembling IKEA furniture and it just puts horse blinders on my overactive, distracted mind.