How Tower 28's CEO Manages Her Productivity And Schedule

In 7 Hours With, we explore the routines of leading professionals in their space to learn the when, why, where and how they work. In each diary, we will look at what they’re doing at seven different check-ins throughout their day.

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Amy Liu is the founder and CEO of Tower 28, a brand that makes high performance beauty products made with skin-loving, clean ingredients.

5 AM

By nature, I’m not exactly a morning person, but with three kids and a growing business, I’ve trained myself out of necessity! I’m typically up at 5 AM to sneak in some quiet time before my family wakes up. I drink coffee, take my dog on a walk, and personally reply to several of the DM’s that come into our Instagram. Then I try to spend some time journaling. I find this helps me get the day started on the best foot when I consciously write out a few things I’m grateful for, along with a few key things I want to accomplish.

8 AM

Pre-pandemic, the morning hustle to get the kids fed, dressed, and out the door would take over most of my morning routine; they are all currently doing virtual classes, which needless to say has made things interesting around the house!

I’ve worked in the beauty world for over 15 years, overseeing various aspects of sales + marketing at fast-growing indie companies including Smashbox, Kate Somerville, and Josie Maran Cosmetics. But it was a personal experience with beauty that led me to found Tower 28. I’ve dealt with pretty severe eczema for most of my adult life, relying on steroids to keep it under control for longer than I’d like to admit.

Because of this, I couldn’t really enjoy the best part of working in the beauty industry: trying out all the products! I saw a gap for makeup that was fun and accessibly priced, while being 100% safe for sensitive skin. This “aha” moment turned into Tower 28: the first beauty brand that adheres to the National Eczema Association’s ingredient guidelines, making it free of every known skin irritant. Our skincare product, the SOS (Save Our Skin) Daily Rescue Facial Spray, was so named because it literally did save my skin! It uses a healing ingredient, Hypochlorous Acid, that’s a miracle worker for angry skin.

9 AM

I kick off my work day around 9 AM, and we have a daily huddle every morning on Zoom to set our goals for the day and share what we’re all working towards. Tower 28 is relatively young (we launched in 2019), and our team is made up of 5 full time employees. Because of this, we all end up wearing multiple hats, so communication is critical.

I honestly can say that I love what I do, and I’m really proud of the community we’ve built with Tower 28. It’s so exciting when you can create something that gives other people joy and confidence, and to be part of that is incredibly rewarding. I’m an entrepreneur at heart, but Tower 28 was my first time acting on that drive. The response has been beyond my wildest dreams when we first launched, and I feel motivated every day to keep growing and improving.

Speaking of our community, we are constantly polling them and chatting with them on social media about what they’d like to see from us, whether that’s a new product, new shades of our existing line, collaborations, etc. I’m so excited to bring a few of these requests to life in early 2021, and can’t wait to hear the reaction from our followers!

12 PM

Lunch is easy. Salads and leftovers. I’ve also been super into making soup since I’ve been home and cooking more!

In terms of how I manage my schedule, I’m pretty religious about my calendar and also have a productivity planner that I love. Every day I write out my top three “daily rocks” – the things I HAVE to get done today so that I can prioritize my “to do” items. Otherwise, it’s easy to finish the day having done lots of little tasks but not feeling a sense of accomplishment.

2 PM

I really try to do my most important, cross-functional meetings in the morning and save the afternoons for more quiet work that I need to do on my own.

But every day is wildly different, but in between calls with our buyers, testing out new product launches, and working on our campaigns, I’m constantly checking on my kids to make sure they’re staying on top of their virtual classes. It’s a lot to keep track of, but I’m also grateful to be spending so much time with my family recently.

6 PM

I always stop my work to have dinner with the kids, hang out and then put them to bed. If I need to, I jump back on after they’re in bed.

I also love that my kids are watching me try and rooting me on. I’d like to think that I’m role modeling for them what it looks like to be a modern woman that juggles tons of different things.

10 PM

My husband has always had a hard rule about no TV in the bedroom, and I’m so glad for it. We really try to spend time together at the end of every night and just make sure to connect, to talk. It’s so easy to live life in parallel with others but not really connect, and if 2020 has taught me anything it’s the importance of connection.