5:00 or 6:00 am: I get up early in the morning to work out before the girls wake up. (I have two little girls: 3-year-old Ruby Jane and 1-year-old Eleanor.) 90 percent of my workout is straight running—right now, I use the treadmill because it’s been so darn cold [in Kentucky], but I’ve done a couple marathons and a bunch of half-marathons and smaller races. Then I shower, drop Ruby Jane off at pre-school around 8:30ish and come to the office. 

9:30 am: I don’t sit down and check email right away, because that totally distracts you from everything. Instead, [I make] a to-do list. I leave it on my desk, and then try and visualize my day and where I’m going to put my time.

10:00 am: Time for some emails! I really try to sit down and tell myself, “Be productive and don’t sit here for eight hours and get five hours of work done.” When I leave, I’m done for the day. With two young kids, I’ve made an emphasis to get stuff done before I get home; I try not to let it seep in [to home life].

11:00 am: We couldn’t become JAM Brands without the people we have. I normally check in with Tara Harris, VP of Sales and Development, to see what’s going on. Early in the week, I definitely check in with our brand leaders to see how the weekend went, hot buttons, whatnot—and, obviously, to discuss the next week’s events. It’s the same thing every week, in terms of events ending and events starting. (This dialogue continues throughout the day.)

Noon: For lunch, I try to do 50/50, bringing lunch and going out to eat, but it doesn’t usually work out like that.  There’s a rotation of places around the office I go to: Qdoba, Jason’s Deli, Backyard Burger, Chick-fil-A, Subway….

2:00 pm: Check in with the judging department to see how they’re doing. It’s important to make sure that I’m staying up to speed on what’s going on.

4:30 pm: Head home to be back with the girls. The girls take an afternoon nap, so I spend the rest of their waking hours with them until they go to bed. We do anything from arts and crafts to going downstairs to the playroom. Just being a present dad is the most important thing, and I’m lucky that I can do that. That’s my wife Shannon’s time to step away from the girls for a bit.

6:00 pm: Lucky for me, Shannon likes to cook! She makes very good, healthy dishes for us; we love her chili and fish dinners.

7:45 pm: The girls go to bed around 7:30, so Shannon and I try to go downstairs and have adult talk about how our days were. (Even during dinner, it’s a lot of Ruby Jane saying, “Mom! Mom!”)

8:00 pm: Like most people, we have shows that we like to watch on DVR; it’s just trying to enjoy quality time being together. We’re addicted to season one of “Breaking Bad” right now; we also got hooked on “Nashville” and “Boardwalk Empire.” Shannon and I are really big sports fans, so on Saturdays, we’ll be watching games like football and basketball depending on the season.

9:30 pm: Jokingly, but seriously, I’ve been known to fall asleep on the couch. It’s kind of like, go ‘til you’re done, and then you shut it off. There are nights when I could stay up all night and watch meaningless TV, but I have to get up at 5 or 6 am!