My days here in Madrid have been filled with lots of exploring. As I become accustomed to the later schedule here in Spain, I have been taking every opportunity to walk from place to place in order to reenergize myself as well as get to know Madrid better. I have discovered so many interesting local shops, restaurants, and landmarks this way. I am starting to memorize my routes and am feeling a lot more comfortable in Madrid.

I have been enjoying tapas and exploring new restaurants with the new friends that I have made. It seems like at every restaurant that I visit, I end up ordering a dish with eggs and black truffle, two of my favorite foods that seem to be super common on the menus here. After work, I have been enjoying running in El Retiro park. I also visited El Prado, which is the world famous art museum here. The museum itself as well as the paintings and sculptures that I saw were stunning. It is a very large museum, and I did not have time to see everything, so I am looking forward to going back another time after work on a weekday when it is less busy. One of my favorite things to do is to go thrifting and antiquing in vintage stores, and I have been looking forward to doing that here because I love the local style. I have explored several different shops so far and have found a few really beautiful pieces that I bought, as well as explored El Rastro market, which is an outdoor market with a lot of vendors selling everything from clothing, jewelry, souvenirs, to antique home decor. Lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed my first flamenco show that I attended with our internship group here.

My first week at my internship was spent doing lead generation and using different types of software to update the contact information for these leads so that we can reach out to them. The first group of leads was for student agencies in Spain who send Spanish students abroad, as well as host foreign students in Spain. After I finished this project, my next project was to conduct market research and lead generation to find potential B2B clients for Joivy’s new hotel that recently opened in Madrid. I generated 500 contacts for the hotel and then helped prepare the sequence in both Spanish and English, which is the promotional message that is sent out to these potential clients.

I have been managing my time in my internship by blocking out my time into sections and setting goals for the number of leads that I ideally would like to have added to the contact list by a specific time. I have typically been splitting the day into 2 parts, so I have a number of leads that I would like to have generated by lunch, and then my goal number for the end of the day. I always make sure to update my boss on my progress and ask if he needs help with anything else before I leave for the end of the day. I have been trying to take initiative as best as I can, brainstorm new ideas, and be teachable.

My boss in the Madrid office and I also share a boss who works remote from Barcelona. An integral part of my time management is keeping her updated on my progress over Microsoft Teams and communicating about our next steps of the projects. I am allowed to work one day remote. During these days I will have to make sure that I am arriving to my meetings on time and communicating with everyone over Teams. I will definitely be blocking out my time as well and creating small goals throughout the day in order to stay focused while working from home. I will also probably work from a café part of the day to explore and get out of the house as well as to avoid the distractions that come with working from home.

I will be starting a new project tomorrow, which I am excited about. I am enjoying learning so much about the logistics of B2B sales and their importance for a company looking to expand their clientele. This is an area of marketing that I have not explored before, but I am super thankful for this opportunity to expand my knowledge and become a better marketer.

This upcoming week, I am looking forward to going back to the Prado, discovering more local hidden gems around the city, and planning a quick trip to another Spanish city over the weekend.

Un abrazo,

Julia