A day in the life of food content creator Alana Laverty

Did you always want to be a creative director?
No. I always wanted to be a chef or restaurateur but decided to go the food writing route instead. Then I moved into social marketing, branding, and content creation. Now I run my own agency in London, Sage Creative, offering à la carte creative marketing services to SMEs. However, I am starting culinary night school in January – so maybe the chef dream is still within reach!

In college, I studied… journalism at Dublin City University. I loved my experience so much and really made the most of it. 

My most formative work experience to date was… at Crown Creative in New York City. I started out freelancing for the creative agency and was then one of the first full-time hires. I got to work closely with founder Ryan Crown and learned so much. Every day was so different and it was one of my most fun jobs to date – I loved getting to work with amazing hospitality clients all over the city. 

My first real job was… at Lovin Dublin. I invited the editor at the time to come speak to my class in the hopes of asking for an internship, which I did as I walked them out to their taxi as they were leaving. I ended up spending almost two years there before moving to the U.S.

The most invaluable thing I learned early on in my career is… to accept imperfection. Sometimes doing something well enough is good enough. Not everything needs to be 100% perfect and if it means getting 99% of my daily work done versus only 50%, it’s a win. 

A common misconception about what I do is… that it doesn’t require strategy and planning. Yes, some of the best work in social media is reactive, but without a solid strategy to drive decisions and consistency, you won’t succeed in digital. 

My main responsibility in work is to… create effective, results-driven marketing strategies, compelling and engaging content, increase brand awareness, reach my clients’ target audiences, and ultimately convert them into customers. 

Do you have a career mentor or someone you look up to/seek advice from?
Over the last year, my online presence (on TikTok) has grown and with that came interests from brands to work with me directly as a content creator. Since that all kicked off, my friend Kayla, an influencer marketing expert, has given me stellar advice around online influence and how to use it. She has helped me negotiate and land amazing brand deals and create an entirely new revenue stream. I owe her – big time. 

The biggest risk I have taken in my career so far is… moving to New York City at 22 without a job. I ended up working at Billboard Magazine and The Hollywood Reporter for a year, before moving to Crown Creative for close to three years. While NYC wasn’t for me in the long run, the years I spent there were the most formative of my work life – and personal life as I met and married my now husband there! 

I wake at… 8am on an average day, probably later than most, but I work quite late every night. According to my Fitbit, I get my deepest sleep after 5am so I like to listen to my body and wake up naturally where possible. If I have early meetings or shoots, I’ll get up as early 6am. 

The first thing I do every morning is… check my phone, which I know is unhealthy but I’ve tried stopping and it’s impossible. 

My morning routine involves… making the bed, showering, doing my skincare, brushing my teeth – the usual. I make a big smoothie every morning, take my supplements, give our cat some attention, and then rush to start work. If it’s a nice day (unlike at the moment) I’ll head out for some fresh air around the neighbourhood. 

I can’t go to work without… three liquids;  these are mandatory. Generally, it’ll be a glass of water, a huge iced matcha latte, and an electrolyte hydration drink of some kind. 

I travel to work by… walking upstairs to my home office or by taking the tube across London! 

On an average workday, I… am styling and shooting content, writing copy, editing, writing emails, or in meetings all day long. 

I start my working day at… 9:30am most days, but every day really is so different. 

The first thing I do at work is… check emails and make a to-do list mapped out with time slots and durations. 

I usually spend the first portion of the day… shooting content for clients or brand deals as that’s when natural light is best, especially during the winter months. 

I break for lunch… any time between 12pm and 2pm, and usually have shoot leftovers or a Joe and the Juice spicy tunacado sandwich – which I’m addicted to. If my day isn’t too chaotic, I’ll sometimes plan to recipe test or shoot a recipe video for my personal pages during my lunch break.

The most useful business tool I use every day is… Capcut and Lightroom for editing video and photo content. Couldn’t live without them. 

I save time by… batching tasks. I get distracted easily so I find doing similar tasks together is the best way to avoid getting distracted and wasting time. 

I rarely get through my working day without… cooking something. 

The best part of my day is… closing my laptop. I am normally square-eyed come evening and slamming the screen down is the best feeling ever. Ever. 

The most challenging part of my day is… waking up. I am not a morning person and suffer from chronic fatigue so it’s never easy getting up and at it. 

I know it’s been a good day if… I tick off the majority of my to-do list before 7pm. I have been working later and later every day recently as this is my busiest period of the year. 

I usually end my work day at… 8pm, sometimes later! Then I typically edit some organic content for my socials for an hour or two, post, then sleep. 

I switch off from work by… getting into bed. If I’m lucky I’ll watch an episode of something, but don’t often get to in these busier periods. The joys of being self-employed! 

Before I go to bed, I… drink a lot of water to make up for not doing so throughout the day, clean up from any shoots so that I have a blank slate the following day, and I’ll try to give our cat some attention so that he doesn’t climb the walls while we sleep. 

I often prepare for tomorrow by… making lists. I love using Notion and find clearing everything out of my mind helps me sleep and avoid feeling overwhelmed about my workload. 

After a long work week, I destress by… sleeping as much as possible, seeing friends, going for walks or to reformer pilates, discovering new restaurants or corners of London, and attending or hosting my cookbook club. 

The accomplishment I’m most proud of is… being featured in the New York Times, Bon Appetit, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Insider, and ELLE this year from social content I created – and now IMAGE.ie too! 

If you want to get into my line of work, my advice is to… try lots of different things. My career has not been linear at all. I used to be self-conscious of this, but now I’m grateful to have a varied set of skills that can adapt to different projects and clients. Always wear multiple hats! 

I’ve just finished working on… Christmas recipe development and styling for Selfridges, a 3-month long collaboration with Amazon, and Christmas content for my clients, Unique Irish Homes. At the moment I’m working on my new weekly recipe newsletter, collaborations with DELLI and Trouva (where I’m the resident food content creator), some ongoing projects with MOTH and Piglet in Bed, and onboarding some new clients for 2024!  

Imagery courtesy Alana Laverty