I go to work on the subway with gals that are 40 years younger than me. Ouch !!!

I can’t believe I made it. I really made it! Does that tune sound familiar? It is playing over and over in my head at this very moment.

It is 4:25PM on a Friday afternoon. I am probably the only woman my age who is working so late on a summer afternoon. I have been inundated with work because one of our account executives resigned three weeks ago to go to LVMH. She handled Helen of Troy, which was like having seven accounts in one because they make hair appliances, wellness and grooming products under the Revlon, Bed Head, Curlipops, Groupies, Pro Beauty Tools, Laila Ali, Bango, Body Innovations, Beauty Chic, Vidal Sassoon, and Hot Tools brands. Even though the account executive left organized files on every brand, I still had to meet and greet with all the new brand managers, set new goals and follow up on old ones, get closer to the press to understand their editorial needs, write activity reports, do checks and balances on press releases with their corresponding photos, study sell sheets, familiarize myself with the product and personally go in to the closets at my office to check on inventory for the media. My office also gets about six inquiries a day from the beauty magazines to send them product and then we have to update retailer distribution and pricing on-the-spot. Those transactions take a few hours a piece because we have to reach the client, confirm information, and then get back to the press person. The press person usually has a few more questions so we go back and forth a few times.

Meanwhile I am overseeing many other accounts, going after new business, consulting with business friends who got fired, hired and fired again, ghost posting on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest for 11 accounts, writing or editing blogs for others and finally writing and posting Digidame. Thank goodness for Eliot who handles all of the financials, vendors, support staff, office supplies, office duties and urgent matters that he understands better than all of us. For example, we are installing an automatic buzzer in the front door of our office ASAP because three undesirables walked in on me and an intern earlier this week asking for money. There was a small confrontation but they left peacefully with some of our green in their pockets.

On top of all this we had several emergency business meetings with a start up in the restaurant business that needed our counsel. They took up about four hours of my time only to flake out when I told them I wanted a sizeable check upfront. Make note: never work for anyone new without compensation first. It only took me 35 years to learn that. Newbie’s love to pretend they are flush with dough until you ask for proof.

Why am I telling you all this? First and foremost, I just wanted to vent a bit. Secondly, I couldn’t have done all this work without the technology I use every day for copy and pasting, editing, correspondence, chart creation, online file sharing, scanning, templates, business software programs, resource applications, web contacts and content.

Even though I did have the help of some very dedicated staffers who typed, formatted, fact checked and proofed, I still had to scratch and surface all of the intelligence myself. What did we do before computers? I actually know the answer to that. We had a lot more free time because we didn’t have to meet instantaneous deadlines and response demands. I still prefer it this way!