A Day with Mancini Duffy's Bolanle Williams-Olley

By Bola Williams-Olley

Bolanle (Bola) Williams-Olley is a Partner and Chief Financial Officer at Mancini Duffy, as well as the Founder of SheBuildsWaves. She walks us through her day, which involves pre-planned workouts, pancakes for breakfast, commute content planning, and a clean-up playlist for her two kiddos.

4:30am: My first alarm goes off, and depending on what time I went to bed (which is usually not a minute after 10pm) and how well I slept, I answer the call. If not, I know there is a 4:45AM alarm waiting for me. Once I’m up, I do a mix of things, priority being my quiet time - reading my devotional and prayers. I do a check of my emails and social media and but that doesn’t last long as I have to be up to work out.

5:15am: I’m changed and head down to my home gym. My workouts are pre-planned (my husband makes them for me, shout out!) and so that all I need to do in the early morning is get my mind right and knock it out. Depending on the workout I’m either praising or mumbling some not-so-nice words to him in my head, but when I’m finished, I’m always glad that my soul and body are fed!

6:20am: I’m back upstairs, showering and getting ready to wake my two munchkins up.

6:45am: I’ve now flipped the lights on and start cajoling (or begging) them to wake up if they are not already up. It’s the race to get ready, and every minute starts to count. We have breakfast together - this can range from cereal to pancakes (my son loves breakfast just like me).

7:45am: At this time, you hear a mix of, “Put on your jacket,” “I can’t find my hat,” “We don’t want to be late,” and “We need to get in the car now.” I have to say, I’m very proud we weren’t late our first term (knock on wood). We get in the car and make it to school just in time for drop off, phew!

Then, I get back home and finish getting ready for work. Because I’ve been up a while, breakfast is typically a must, so I make that with plans to catch the 8:54am train.

9:00am: I am settled in on the train and catch up on a couple of things, my breath first (ha!), work, chats, and my various social initiatives. I’m planning out content, fleshing out ideas, sending emails, and generally maximizing this block of time as long as there are no hiccups on the train.

10:00am: I’m in the office - the first half of the day is filled with meetings, catching up with my team, and making plans for work I have to get done that day.

1:00pm: I usually pack my lunch to make sure I don’t order from my favorite Thai restaurant every single day. Lunch is at my desk except in the spring and summer when and I go to our gorgeous office terrace at Mancini Duffy, to get some sun.

1:30pm: Back to meetings - cue in Rihanna’s Work. In the afternoons, I also I huddle with my team. We have a touch point everyday where we go through what we’ve been working on, what plans we have, and where we are stuck. My favorite bit is that every day, we share a non-heroic core value story and close off with a light question, like what everyone is having for dinner. This is particularly helpful for my remote team members to feel connected to those of us at the office.

4:00pm: Begin to wrap up for the day to catch the train back home.

5:50pm: Train ride home, which is very similar to my morning commute: catch-up time!

7:00pm: The kids have already been picked up by their sitter, done their homework, had dinner, and showered. I’m so grateful for our sitter because this is brand new for us - my husband and I used to do all of this. Now we get to come home, have dinner, and relax for a bit with the kids before it’s their bedtime. If they’ve turned the house upside down, the clean-up song playlist comes on. It’s incredible what a good playlist can do to help get your house back in some fashion of order.

8:30pm: I put the kids to bed, and then sit down and begin to unwind. Usually, one of my kiddos comes down to ask “just one question.”

9:00pm: I have grand plans of more tidying or folding never-ending laundry but my energy is usually completely depleted at this point, so most days you will catch me sitting quietly enjoying the sound of absolutely nothing. Bliss! I properly unwind and climb into bed at 10pm, literally knocked out before we do it all again.