Working Day is a new, regular, content feature, covering a typical day in the working lives of some of our alumni. Here, Polo Lam, who graduated in 2018 with a BA in Business and Management with a Year in Industry, sheds light on a typical day running his own business, Deseo Virtual Reality…
My alarm goes off…
Fairly late, around 8.30am. I am not a morning person and here in the Canary Islands, it gets pretty warm, so we end up doing a lot of work late into the night. Having a personal rule of not reaching straight for my phone or laptop, I do a quick workout circuit to get my brain going and some stretches. I am firm believer in the importance of physical exercise for clarity of mind. I grab a quick breakfast – a bowl of cereal and some fruit – and get down to work in my study.
I am responsible for…
My whole business! I run my own enterprise and while I am on the lookout for staff members right now, at the moment I am the marketing department, the logistics department, the admin department.. you get the jist. My business films 360 degree videos and virtual tours for organisations across the UK and Spain, including the University of Kent itself. I love working from home and not wasting time travelling to an office.
My typical day…
Like most people, my first port of call is to check my emails. 70 per cent of my time is taken up reaching out for new business – I am incredibly proactive. I try to get a video call in with any potential clients. I show them my work and explain the processes and costs. When we leave the call, I put together a budget, a flow chart and then email them out a proposal. Adding up the stats recently, I realised 7 out of 10 enquiries usually end up talking with me, which is a real achievement. I am not shy in saying I hit upon a winning idea at the right time, but I know I also have a strong work ethic which helps win clients. There will usually be several filming opportunities on the horizon so preparing for them takes some time. I will grab a healthy lunch – something heavy in veg and rice based after hitting the gym or the beach for some exercise.
Filming days are different..
When filming, my day will be consumed by it. It hasn’t been unknown for me to work 12 hours straight without a break. My job entails filming using my 360 camera creating a virtual tour or 360 video around a building. It means users of the premises can visualise it without actually going there. Sometimes these institutions are large, and it takes a long time to get every frame needed to create the finished product, but I accept sometimes I will just be flat out.
Work doesn’t stop there…
Most evenings, I have to edit. This involves uploading all the content to the cloud where the model will be built using a system of AI technology. I will then go through manually very carefully as if I am virtually ‘walking’ through the location in the model to check everything is correct. Next, I add interactive points, labels and business details. Once I am sure it is perfect, I send the finished item to the customer. This process can take any amount of time from an hour to a whole evening. Once everything is ready, I share the tour links with the client for them to use it on their web, social media and other marketing materials.
In the evenings I…
Being my own boss means there is no real ‘after work’. I am always working. I will take a break around 7pm to cook a rice based dish or traditional meals from Hong Kong like my family used to serve, when I can get the ingredients. I often work until around midnight, designing social media posts and content and planning marketing. If I take the evening off, I will spend it at the gym or out for dinner. I also love playing beach volleyball – the luxury of living in a holiday destination.
Before bed I always..
Read a book. In Spanish as I am trying to perfect my language skills. Currently I am reading Gol by Luigi Galando.
My other career choice would’ve been...
A chef. Cooking is like a science experiment to me, it is fun and full of surprises. I also love eating so being a chef wouldn’t have been bad!
To learn more about Polo’s Business visit his website here, follow him on Instagram and YouTube.
Polo Lam studied Business and Management with a Year in Industry and graduated in 2018.