Flexible Professional – Full-on Athlete
The other day I had coffee with flexible professional Amy Kilpin, the Tring-based (and sometimes Lanzarote-based) Triathlete. Amy recently re-launched her career as a freelance marketing consultant. This means she can give her more time and flexibility to concentrate on her progress towards becoming a world-class triathlete.
Two years ago Amy was working full-time as a Digital Marketing Manager for a chain of bars and hotels. She couldn’t swim one length of front crawl, didn’t own a bike and had spent most of her life as a self-classified ‘non-sporty’ person. Then she dabbled (if you can call it that) in a couple of long distance races.
Less than two years later and Amy came 2nd in her age group at the Triathlon England National Middle Distance Championships. This was an incredibly testing Ironman event taking more than 5 hours to complete. She also completed a series of other triathlons and Ironman events, getting herself noticed as an emerging talent.
To support her progress, Amy has enlisted a whole plethora of sponsors from Nutritionists to Coaches to bike and kit sponsors. She’s aiming to become even fitter, faster and more durable that she already is. Taking on a new set of challenges and pitting herself against the best in the world. But you don’t get there without training hard. Very hard.
Reach your full potential
“As the months, thousands of miles on the road and hundreds of miles in the water went by I realised that working ‘full-time flat out’ and training ‘flat out full-time’ were becoming a little incompatible” said Amy. “To reach what I feel is my full potential, my training programme had to become more intense and demand even more of my time so I had to decide how to balance my work and my sport.”
A year ago, Amy made the brave step to become a freelance marketing consultant. This gives her the flexibility in her working day to plan a full training schedule around her projects. “I’m as busy as ever but now I’ve got more flexibility to plan when and where I do my work. I love seeing and visiting clients but much of my work can be done from home and out of hours, which my training schedule loves.”
You can find out more about Amy’s sporting exploits and follow her progress on her website at www.amykilpin.co.uk and on twitter @akilpin.
Background:
At Ten2Two our candidate community is 96% female – the majority of whom are mothers with professional careers. Trying to carve out a life where they can share their time between a job they love and caring for a family they love. But it’s not all mothers. More and more men are sharing responsibilities for childcare where both parents work full-time. The recession also triggered a reversal of roles in some households where the woman became the major breadwinner and the father stayed at home. Increasingly many adults have to work flexibly to care for elderly parents. They can all find the balance they need with flexible employers that recognise the value of talent, experience and commitment over hours. If you’re one of these people and would love to be a ‘flexible professional’, register with us at Ten2Two.
