A Day In Her Life

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This week, we're sitting down with Erin Roberts, vice president of her family's third-generation Coca-Cola bottling company, writer of the Substack What Erin Cooks, and mom of three in rural Missouri. Erin shares what it's like to wake at 5:10am for a basement workout, have groceries delivered to her office (stores won't deliver out to her house), and plan dinner from two deep freezers.

In this week’s conversation, Erin opens up about growing up in a Coke family (she's never tried a competitor's product), talking her parents into hiring her at 22, and why her family's directness makes working together work. We talk about kids who pack their own lunches, the old-school "try bite" that ended a picky-eating standoff, nightly sauna time with her husband, the cookbook she's writing, and why dinner with her family is the best part of her day.

What We Cover:

• Why she describes her days as joyful, educational, and focused, and the 5:10am alarm that gets her into the basement gym before anyone needs her.
• The family lore behind a third-generation bottler: a grandpa who bought the plant in 1978, a five-and-dime store Sam Walton once came in to measure, and a dad who tried to talk her out of a business major.
• What it means to "run the place" at a small bottler (payroll, purchase orders, and every national account call bigger bottlers split across a team), and how the Enneagram helps her work with her parents (she's a one, her dad's an eight, her mom's a nine).
• Life in a rural county and living on "dinner revisited" from a big Sunday cook.
• Kids ages 8.5, 7, and 2.5 who pack their own lunches, clear the table, weed eat, and babysit their little brother, plus the "try bite" that turned her pickiest eater into the kid asking "Where's the broccoli?"
• Nightly sauna sessions with her husband, a cookbook club inspired by this very podcast, and the college friends who come every July.
• The cookbook proposal with 60 recipes in progress and her dad's mantra: "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing."
• Eating dessert every day without the guilt, chasing 30 plants a week, and why her younger self (who scored the lowest possible on openness to new experiences) would barely recognize her.

References:

• Listen for the Lie — the fiction she's reading before bed
• How to Read the Room by Pamela Meyer — the nonfiction she's listening to on the treadmill and her commute
• You Can Just Do Things by Cate Hall — a recent finish she loved
• Live, Laugh, Love by Kristin Kobes Du Mez — next up in her lineup
• Nori — the AI calendar app she's test-driving, now home to the Kansas City Chiefs schedule (and where to watch it)
• Morpheus — the heart rate strap she uses for a quick morning HRV and resting heart rate test
• WHOOP — what she wore for a year before getting tired of tracking herself all day
• Barefaced — her skincare line for a nightly routine she's "serious about"

Connect with Erin:

• Substack: What Erin Cooks
• Instagram: @what.erincooks

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This week, we're sitting down with Kate Fisher, founder of Kate Fisher Tutoring and mom of two daughters on New York's Upper East Side. Kate shares what it's like to tutor back-to-back on Zoom from 4pm to 9pm with zero breaks (dinner included), cook the family's dinner at 11am so it's ready to reheat later, and pop out mid-session to say goodnight to her girls.

In our conversation, Kate opens up about turning a $20-an-hour college job into an 18-year career and a company with 35 tutors, a rocky start to motherhood that collided with her mom's breast cancer diagnosis, and why 2026 feels like the year she finally came back to herself. We talk about the hourly AI-generated to-do list that scans her texts and emails, the husband who plays the Rocky theme when she finishes a long day, and why her time with her daughters is about quality over quantity (because "they deserve a happy mom").

What We Cover:

• Why she describes her days as variable, loud, and fulfilling, starting with a 7am wake-up call from her three-and-a-half-year-old (who needs an alarm?).
• How a Kaplan ad looking for theater kids with strong SAT scores became her life's work, and why she almost left it all for social work school.
• The learning management system she built with Claude over the summer and how AI lets a small company "punch above our weight."
• Her biggest PTO hack: solo trips tacked onto conferences, and why three months of maternity leave with her first nearly broke her while three weeks with her second felt just right.
• Unlearning the "every hour is more money" mindset so she can say yes to a Tuesday night concert, plus matinee-and-lunch dates instead of 8pm dinners.
• Her "friendship islands," coffee walks with her top competitor, and the weekly walk across Central Park to in-person therapy (and why Zoom therapy doesn't work when you work on Zoom all day).
• Working out five to seven times a week as a formerly unathletic kid, and why her younger self would be shocked she's a mom (and that she loves it).

References:

• London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe — what Kate is reading now, as the nonfiction pick for a self-described literary fiction girl
• Moccamaster — the coffee maker that replaced their Keurig and "forever changed" their mornings
• Margaux sample sale — where she scored three pairs with a friend she met through work

Connect with Kate:

• Instagram: @katefishertutoring
• Website: katefishertutoring.com
• Instagram (personal): @katefishernyc
• TikTok: @katefishertutoring

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This week, we're sitting down with Elizabeth Wellington Rollins, a former award-winning tech copywriter turned full-time novelist whose debut, "The Three Graces of Pearl Street," just landed on the USA Today bestseller list. Liz shares what it's like to launch a book she's been working toward for 20 years, working "investment banking hours" on a solo book tour across six states, all from a small town in Vermont where she loses cell service five feet from her front door.

In this deeply week’s conversation, Liz opens up about spending five years on a first manuscript that never sold, writing her debut in a single year while losing her dad to ALS, and caring for her newborn daughter in a medical bubble for ten months. We talk about the $25 vacuum cleaning article that launched her writing career, weekly pots of sauce from her family's Italian-American recipes, and why surrendering to "the hurricane" produced the best work of her life.

What We Cover:

• Why she describes launch season as very full, tired, and so grateful (and why it feels a lot like postpartum).
• How she protects her mornings for writing, then uses a dog walk as her transition to shift from Liz the writer to Liz the operator.
• The path from a college bookstore job to a $25 article on vacuum cleaning methods to messaging strategy for tech unicorns, and why she was set on scaling the complexity of her writing instead of building an agency.
• The five-year manuscript that got four offers of representation but no book deal, and the month she "left the planet for a fairy prince" before getting back to work.
• How Caro Chambers' monthly meal plans made dinner "frictionless" for her marriage while she finished the book.
• The bedtime nightlight trick that lets her four-year-old read as long as she wants (and cut down on nighttime check-ins).
• Why a walking pad in her favorite window became a necessity for her mental health during launch.
• Letting go of a "facade of perfection," flubbing the first line of her prologue in front of 200 readers, and learning to feel the bestseller moment instead of just thinking about foreign rights.

References:

• The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins — Liz's debut novel
• Under Story by Chloe Benjamin — what she's reading now, a fellow WME author with the same release date
• Friday Night Lights — her comfort rewatch while packing for tour and doing admin
• Caro Chambers' What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking and Substack — the monthly meal plans and grocery lists that carried her household through busy seasons, plus her new cookbook
• Instant Pot — for turning leftover roast chicken into bone broth
• Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass series — what she read to lick her wounds after her first manuscript didn't sell
• Jane Austen and Little Women audiobooks — her go-to soundtrack while cooking dinner
• Costco Parmigiano-Reggiano — her tip for the best Parm on this side of the Atlantic

Connect with Liz:

• Instagram: @elizabethwellingtonrollins
• Substack: Spaghetti at the Wall
• Website: elizabethwellingtonrollins.com

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Today's episode is brought to you by Sage Haus, the only nationwide service matching vetted house managers with busy families across the US and Canada. 

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This week, we're sitting down with Carly Martin, an illustrator and mom of two boys in Denver who spent over a decade building a custom wedding stationery business before pivoting to align with her passion. Carly shares what it's like to wake up at 5am for a workout before her early-rising kids are up, and why she's now pouring her energy into writing and illustrating her own picture books.

In this week’s conversation, Carly opens up about growing resentful of the always-on Instagram hustle after her first son was born, walking away from a decade of wedding invitations to chase a long-forgotten dream of picture books, and the calmer way she approached work after her second son arrived.

What We Cover:

• Why she describes her days as structured, fragmented, and colorful, and the 5am Sculpt Society workouts she credits with making her less reactive to her kids all day.
• The path from studying painting in college to a curatorial job in New York to teaching herself watercolor in a tiny Union Square apartment, and how a friend's save-the-date request accidentally launched her stationery business, Clementine Studio, in 2014.
• Why she walked away from a decade of word-of-mouth wedding stationery work after becoming a mom.
• How she approached becoming a mom the second time completely different than her first, from the postpartum anxiety to the business pressure.
• The realities of being an author-illustrator right now: building a full "dummy book" just to query agents, and learning new skills as an experienced illustrator.
• Her tightly looped weekday food routine and why removing decisions there frees up brainpower for the rest of a fragmented day.
• Running a household where both parents work from home: a shared Google Calendar, tag-teaming pickups, and letting date nights stay mostly aspirational for now.
• Why in-person friendships were the first thing deprioritized this year, and how she's kept them alive through constant texting and quick, no-pressure hangouts nearby.
• The five-minute sketchbook rule that keeps her creatively playful, and why overthinking a project is the fastest way to kill it.

References:

• The Parisian Heist by Joe Piazza — the book Carly just finished and loved
• These Summer Storms — the book she's currently reading, optioned for a TV/film adaptation
• Ted Lasso and Crew Girl — what she's currently watching
• Sculpt Society — her go-to at-home workout app, with class lengths from 5 to 45 minutes
• Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) — the organization she joined for critique groups and conferences as she pivots into picture books
• Caro Chambers' cookbook (Make it Fast) and Substack — her go-to when she needs a new way to make chicken
• Ursa Major skincare — her go-to clean skincare brand, especially the Alpine Cream and Mountain Glow Serum

Connect with Carly:

• Substack: Carly Martin Studio
• Instagram: @carlymartin.studio
• Website: carlymartin.studio

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This week, we’re sitting down with Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, a retired U.S. ambassador who spent thirty years in the Foreign Service before reinventing herself as a personal stylist, memoirist, and small-town finance committee volunteer. Elizabeth shares what it’s like to trade fifteen-minute State Department increments for mornings with no alarm clock and to “walk the estate” with a protein shake in a cut-glass mug.

In our conversation, Elizabeth opens up about her career in foreign service and moving her blended family of 5 all around the world, how fashion played a part in her career, and how she gets confidence. We talk about not really retiring but “putting on new tires”, getting a “Forever is composed of nows” tattoo at 53, and why she’s decided not to postpone joy for a single day longer.

What We Cover:

• Why “Downton Abbey inspired” is the phrase she uses to describe her days, and how living seasonally for the first time in her adult life reshaped her evenings.
• The rhythm of days with no alarm clock (except a 6:30am Monday shift at the thrift store), a Peloton split with Rebecca Kennedy, and “walking the estate” with a protein shake in a cut-glass mug.
• How taking the Foreign Service exam almost by accident in Tokyo in 1993 led to becoming U.S. Ambassador to Togo, including the phone call where she told an appointee “I think you have the wrong person.”
• Being on a GLP-1 for two years, why strength training three to four times a week is non-negotiable, and her go-to protein-forward “fake sushi” lunch bowl.
• Losing her mom suddenly to pancreatic cancer last summer, just six weeks into retirement, and grieving what’s gone while starting a completely new chapter.
• Joining her new town’s finance committee (overseeing a $65 million budget) and meeting one of her closest friends by loudly complimenting a stranger’s closet on a house tour.
• Building Diplomatic Dressing after a stylist she hired told her “I don’t think you need me — want a side hustle?”, and her specialty: women stepping into the spotlight for the first time.
• Getting a tattoo at 53 that says “Forever is composed of nows,” breaking up with her Oura Ring’s grip on her mood, and eating off her grandmother’s china every day instead of saving it.

Connect with Elizabeth:

• Instagram: @diplomaticdressing
• Website: diplomaticdressing.com
• Substack: Well Connected: The Diplomatic Edit

Today's episode is brought to you by Sage Haus, the only nationwide service matching vetted house managers with busy families across the US and Canada. 

Book a free call using www.sagehaus.com/ellie and use code ELLIE for $200 off hiring services.

Episode Music - For Days - Tom Deis via Shutterstock

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Welcome to this week's episode - a quick coffee chat of sorts - about the lessons I've learned from guests over the past 3.5 years.

I went through every episode - honest - it took way longer than I thought it would, and distilled down the biggest lessons I've learned so far. 

• There's no right or wrong way to do something. Just what's working for each person in this season, and seasons change. 
• Time is abundant, and how you choose to use it is up to you. You can make time for what works for you. 
• Talking about outsourcing is important, but outsourcing isn't for everyone.
• Managing your time and family is sometimes like a business, and proper weekly and quarterly reviews are important to keep things running on track
• You can be many things - and that's both exciting and scary
• So many guests have solved a need for something they wanted to see in the world

What's something that's stuck with you? Whats an episode that lives rent free in your brain?

Looking for a past episode? Check out the Episode Index here

Today's episode is brought to you by Sage Haus, the only nationwide service matching vetted house managers with busy families across the US and Canada. 

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This week, we're chatting with Kate Zeitler, founder of Zeitler Design — the creative agency behind A Day in Her Life's own rebrand — who runs her studio on an "intensive model," taking on just one client at a time. Kate shares what it's like to build an entire brand and website in a single week, raise three kids in Natick, Massachusetts, and still make it to oil painting class twice a week.

In this week’s conversation, Kate opens up about leaving a stalled retail career for night classes in design, growing Zeitler Design one referral at a time since 2014, and the framework behind building an entire brand and website in a single intensive week. We talk about the chore system that finally stuck after many failed attempts, using Claude and Figma to build award-winning-caliber websites in days instead of months, and why she'd rather have a blocked-off week than the extra income.

What We Cover:

• Why she describes her days as intentional, creative, and connected — and how those words really do play out in her days
• From seven years in retail merchandising to night classes at MassArt to freelance schedule cards for a yoga studio in 2014, and how referrals alone grew Zeitler Design into a studio with hundreds of past clients.
• The Skylight chore system that finally stuck after six failed attempts, with star rewards the family cashes in together (150 stars: a trip to see Toy Story 5).
• Her morning rhythm: Orange Theory or deep creative work before 6:30am, a dog walk with a cappuccino and a podcast, and not sitting down at her desk until 9:00.
• Why she is intentional about scaling Zeitler Design, how it’s happened naturally as she’s had more capacity, and why she blocks her weeks when she know’s she’ll need it.
• The twice-weekly oil painting classes she's kept on her calendar since 2020, and what she's learned painting alongside women decades older and younger than her.
• What surprised her most about being a working mom, and the newest hobby she's taken up: rebinding her husband's paperback library into gold-debossed hardcovers.

Connect with Kate:

• Instagram: @zeitlerdesign
• Website: zeitlerdesign.com

References:

• Be Present — the app she uses to shut down Instagram after 10 minutes and cut off email and social entirely by 9pm each night
• Skylight — the family calendar-and-chores console that finally made a star-reward system stick after six failed attempts
• Tuesday Nights (Milk Street) — the Boston chef's cookbook she turns to for fast, kid-approved dinners
• One and Done — her go-to sheet-pan cookbook for one-dish family meals
• Jura — the cappuccino maker she uses every morning as part of her walk-the-dog ritual

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This week, we're chatting with Alexa Archibald, who spent nine years at Meta — including a stretch on the AI and machine learning team — before walking away to run her jewelry brand, Charm Lane Collection, and her content business (@CharmLane) full-time. Alexa shares what it's like to pack every order herself out of her home studio and parent two wild little boys, ages three and five, mostly solo in the mornings.

In this week’s conversation, Alexa opens up about the postpartum depression and anxiety after her second son, the "math equation" that finally convinced her to leave Meta for good, and the exact way she uses Claude as a five-person "board of directors" for her businesses.

What We Cover:

• Leaving nine years at Meta for a "math equation" that finally made sense: trading 2am side-hustle hours for daytime hours building Charm Lane Collection and her content business full-time.
• Her charge-the-iPhone nighttime routine: a vibration plate, a red light mask, needlepoint, and a $35 TikTok Shop foot massager she's worn out a charger on.
• Running two businesses on a fixed weekly schedule — Monday is her "CEO day," Tuesday is content day — while still packing and shipping every jewelry order herself.
• How she uses Claude as a five-person "board of directors," channeling people she admires — like Shopify president Harley Finkelstein — for real business decisions, plus how Claude Cowork now fills her Whole Foods cart each week.
• Her husband's new NYC ferry commute (he's out by 7:00am) and how mornings became a solo act with her, her two boys, and their 70-pound sheepdog, Phyllis — who loves to forage for food.
• The "standing plans" that keep her friendships intact — weekly mahjong with a rotating group of ten and a set weekly meal with her best friend.
• The "ball" she's intentionally letting drop: the big, shiny mom-friend-group scene, in favor of a smaller circle she can go deep with.

Connect with Alexa:

• Instagram: @charmlane
• Website: charmlane.com
• Jewelry Brand (Instagram): @charmlanecollection
• Jewelry Brand (Website): charmlanecollection.com

References:

• Be Ready When the Luck Happens (Ina Garten)
• Activations app
• ClickUp
• TikTok Shop foot massager
• Loop & Dash

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Today's episode is brought to you by Sage Haus, the only nationwide service matching vetted house managers with busy families across the US and Canada. 

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This week, we're sitting down with Emma Shulman, a self-described "recovering executive" who left a 15-year tech career to chase her lifelong dream of writing a novel. Emma shares what it's like to be out the door by 4:45am three to four mornings a week to write at her regular Starbucks — where she knows every barista by name — before her kids can "smell her" and end the flow.

In this week’s conversation, Emma opens up about querying literary agents for her debut dystopian novel, the writing group note that sent her back for a full rewrite, a solo writing residency on Nantucket that cracked open how much of her mental space usually belongs to everyone else's needs, and what it's really like to run two kids' entirely separate school schedules with zero outside childcare.

What We Cover:

• The 4:45am Starbucks ritual that buys Emma two hours of writing time before her kids can pull her back into mom mode (she knows every barista by name).
• Why she calls herself a "recovering executive" — leaving a 15-year tech career, including an acquisition that closed the day her second child was born, to write full-time.
• The writing group note that sent her back for a full rewrite of her debut novel.
• What a solo writing residency on Nantucket taught her about how much headspace she normally spends on everyone else's needs.
• The "should, should, should" loop she quiets with a literal 10-minute kitchen timer — and why leaving corporate life means building her own boundaries from scratch.
• Running two kids through entirely separate school schedules with zero outside childcare, plus the "boomerang tasks" her part-time house manager takes off her plate.
• The preschool expert's rule for deciding if a five-year-old is actually ready for an extracurricular.
• Why she deletes Instagram every Friday, saves TikTok for her 10-minute red light mask, and finally let herself get her nails done again without the guilt.
• The exposure therapy of being a "recovering type A" who's finally comfortable trying things she's bad at, from wedding calligraphy to a new needlepoint kit.

Connect with Emma:

• Instagram: @writewithemma
• Substack: Write With Emma

References:

• "Alan Ops Out".
• Euphoria
• Oura Ring
• B Tone
• Caro Chambers' "What to Cook" Index
• Louise Carmen Journal/Planner
• Skylight

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Today's episode is brought to you by Sage Haus, the only nationwide service matching vetted house managers with busy families across the US and Canada. 

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Catharine Perry is the chief operating officer of a global trade association, splitting her time between Omaha, Nebraska and Washington, D.C., overseeing finance, HR, operations, and member programs for an entire industry — and she still blocks her 9:00–9:30am Eastern hour as "available by phone" so she never misses daycare drop-off.

In this week’s conversation, Catharine shares the single conversation with her CEO that became the turning point in her career (she asked; he said yes), the color-coded A, B, C priority system she and her husband use to keep two travel-heavy calendars from colliding, and the 15-minute nightly reset that saves her evenings when she's solo parenting during his work trips.

What We Cover:

• How Catharine turned "would you consider giving me the opportunity?" into the career pivot that eventually led to COO
• The A, B, C priority coding system she and her husband use on their shared calendars to help when travel conflicts arise
• The Kelly Nolan Bright Method time-blocking framework that got her out from under a paper planner and an overflowing Outlook calendar
• Her honest answer on why dinner is often a separate "toddler dinner" — and why she's letting go of the guilt around that
• The 15-minute nightly reset ritual (pajamas laid out, kitchen wiped down) that makes her mornings and evenings run smoother
• Why 2026's personal focus word is "community," and the neighborhood social committee, group text, and progressive dinner tradition she started to build it
• How she splits Claude and ChatGPT between work and personal life, and why she still hasn't migrated years of ChatGPT history
• The weekly Thursday-night check-in where she and her husband say their weekend expectations out loud instead of assuming (love this one!)
• What she's letting go of entirely right now, from holiday decor to the pressure of a "perfect" evening

Connect with Catharine:

• Instagram: @catharineperry
• LinkedIn: Catharine Perry

References:

• The Last Mrs. Parrish, The Whole-Brain Child, Unreasonable Hospitality
• Kelly Nolan's Bright Method — the time-blocking framework that overhauled how she manages her calendar

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Today's episode is brought to you by Sage Haus, the only nationwide service matching vetted house managers with busy families across the US and Canada. 

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