Clock wise: Rocket scientist Flavia Tata Nardini
Rocket scientist Flavia Tata Nardini, co-founder and CEO of Fleet Space Technologies, devotes 10 hours each day to sleep and 10 minutes to email.
06:30 The first thing I do every morning is open my curtains because our house is on the Esplanade [in Semaphore, Adelaide] and the sea is amazing. The second thing is check on the dogs, [border collies] Cookie and Laika. Then I make tea – lemon and ginger – no matter what the time of year. I have two kids and three days a week I do the school drop off so this is the time I get everything ready: pack their bags, shower and dress. Years ago I used to really dress up and think that through but now it’s pants, a T-shirt and sneakers, always. I dress fast, like a pure entrepreneur. If I have a talk or a conference, I’ll bring high heels and wear make-up and it looks fantastic.
07:00 The kids [Caterina, seven, and Vittoria, four] and I have Coco Pops or something healthy, depending on how we feel. Their dad [engineer Stefano Landi] would prefer them to always eat Weet-Bix but I don’t like that.
09:00 Usually I have phone meetings on the way to work but today I check in on friends.
09:30 I arrive at work. Other days I’m in at 7:30am but on my drop-off days I start work late. The first thing I do is open the door to the garden so the dogs can go up and down the warehouse then I touch base with the entire team: a 10-minute stand-up meeting where everyone talks for 10 seconds – what they did yesterday, what they’re up to today, any blockages or issues they have.
09:45 I love mastering my email. It takes 10 minutes. I’m a master flicker. If I receive an email, I delegate it straightaway. If I was to reply with “Thank you Simon, thank you so much” then write another email, “Kay, can you do this?”, it’s just a mess. The thing I don’t like in a startup is that you hold the entire thing together. Now when I go to sleep, everything is actioned, there’s nothing to be done. I’m an email guru. My team loves it and it makes my life better.
10:00 I have a debrief with my executive assistant, who organises me into meetings – three or four each day – with staff, partners, investors, anyone, and they never exceed 20 minutes. Today, I meet with the satellite team [Fleet has launched four nanosatellites – shoebox-sized satellites that deliver Internet of Things connectivity – into space and has a target of 100]. I meet with my CCO, Sasha [Baranikov], to see where we are with sales and then there are two meetings with potential customers. Normally they’re back-to-back but there’s time for me to take a quick walk around the office between each.
12:00 Before lunch, I talk with my co-founder, Matt [Pearson, COO]. We used to go to every meeting together but for the past year we’ve split them.
13:00 Unless there’s something very important on, Matt and I have lunch together and bring the dogs. We like this place in Findon called 94 West because the food is healthy. I get a big salad with pumpkin and chicken and we chat about all the meetings, you know, “What do you think?”
13:30 I always try to keep two to four hours free. That’s my time to prepare contracts, review documents, look at roadmaps – the things that need time.
15:00 Between 3pm and 6pm is usually when employees have a million questions. I like to have this time free for “fires”, which are not always work-related. I’m a female CEO and I say that’s good and bad. People want to talk to you about life things almost every day. They come in and talk about a tool they need or the satellite then the chat turns to their kids, their life. Today, for example, I go for a walk with someone who wants to talk about her role and needs reassurance about herself and her journey. We take the dogs; they’re always on the move.
18:00 On the drive home I listen to disco music and don’t really think about anything. I’m not a big fan of podcasts. Besides, I have a car from 1998 and it only has a radio and cassette player.
18:30 The family takes the dogs to the beach, we have a swim then shower. The kids watch something with superheroes or documentaries about animals while I make ravioli because that’s Caterina’s favourite.
20:20 At 8pm the kids are in bed and at 8:20 I’m in bed. If I read it’s on the weekend and I don’t drink coffee to keep me alive during the day. I sleep 10 hours a night and I’ve always been this way.