A Day
in the Life!
BY MAE MAÑAC AP-JOHNSON
HEIDI BURKHART
CEO • Saxon/Hart
New York, New York
axon/Hart CEO Heidi
Burkhart is relentless in her
passion to fight cancer. In
2013, she founded
Saxon/Hart, a cause marketing alliance
and production firm that partners with
spas and corporations to help create
cause marketing opportunities and
strengthen their social responsibility
efforts. Following a successful
#BLANKCANCER campaign,
Saxon/Hart was recognized as one of
2015 ISPA Innovate Award recipients.
Last November, the firm launched
its “National #BLANKCANCER Week,”
a movement that invited schools,
dance studios, sports and youth organizations to help raise awareness on how
cancer affects children.
“Our mission is ‘Give to Live. Live to
Give.’ We aim to build strong,
withstanding relationships with partner
S
The life of a spa professional is a continuous cycle of daily
responsibilities that help make the spa world go round. Pulse
asks ISPA members to give us a sneak peek into their daily
lives to help us understand the roles they play and the
difference they make on a daily basis.
organizations to continue to support
each other to grow,” Burkhart says.
“With our alliance, this is our way to
interact with the population at large.
We find that when you inspire one, you
inspire many.”
Here’s a look at Burkhart’s typical
day at work:
★ 7 am Starts her daily walk to the
office.
★ 9 am Meets with her team individually to touch base on goals for the
week and goes over the list of target
sponsors.
★ 11 am Calls current clients to
understand issues or opportunities in
working together on future Saxon/Hart
events.
★ 1 pm Reviews social media handles
(@SaxonHartCauses and @BLANK
CANCER) on Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook. “Our goal for this year is to
increase our own numbers tremendously
to create stronger alliances.”
★ 3 pm Calls target sponsors and
organizations to pitch potential
partnerships.
★ 5 pm Brainstorms opportunities and
reviews questions from sponsors,
clients and alliance individuals.
★ 7 pm Gym time! “I enjoy boxing
with my coach and running the
Hudson River Park. Anything that is
challenging makes me sweat and gets
my mind off the day.”
★ 9 pm Cooks dinner and reviews
materials that require editing from the
team. “Some nights, I take a late-night
bike ride around New York City.” ■
WHAT DAY-TO-DAY CHALLENGES
DO YOU COME ACROSS AS CEO?
Daily Operations: “The biggest thing we are focused on right now
is increasing our followers and fan base. Increasing social media
numbers organically is not as easy, unless you buy your followers.
We will not do that as we want to know we are making an impact
and touching hearts.”
Staff management: “Being a new company, we face many
challenges in terms of too many opportunities to work on. So the
biggest issue is: Where do we scale back to scale up? How are we
able to team up with other companies to make all happen—and
create an impact while surpassing goals?”
Client services: “We have key cause organizations, alliance volunteers and others that want to work with us, but we do not have the
right sponsors lined up for certain pitches. We need more clients,
sponsors to work with some truly big initiatives here in New York
City, for instance on cancer and homelessness.”
What is the most rewarding part? “The most rewarding part is
seeing our family, alliance, and sponsor roster expand. On a more
micro level, receiving letters from those who benefit from our
events—those are absolutely priceless.”
May 2016
■
PULSE
57