A Day in the Life with Cheryl Hickey

“Failure is a huge part of success. It’s all about how you handle it.” – Cheryl Hickey on entrepreneurship.

As the host of Entertainment Tonight Canada, Cheryl Hickey is not only a successful reporter and celebrity; she is also a mother of two, a budding entrepreneur, and a wife. But all of those roles didn’t grow overnight. Cheryl worked diligently and strategically to bring her career to where it is today, and that drive and determination has followed her into her role as mother and entrepreneur. So how does one elegantly juggle so many roles? We asked the comedic mother of two to give us a snapshot of her day.

As told to Meghan Jeffery | Photograph by Katherine Holland

6:30am

I am the CEO of the house. First things first, I get in the shower. If I don’t, I might not get one. Then I get my two kids up and we have the all-important morning cuddle. If we don’t have that, then the morning doesn’t start right. They essentially all lay on me on the couch and it gives us a great foundation to set the tone for the day. After that I delegate breakfast, getting dressed, and important things like checking weather and getting sunscreen on.

9:00am

After my husband drops our daughter off at daycare and I drop our son off at school, I go into ET Canada. I go right into morning meetings where we discuss what everyone wants to see for the show and we choose what to elaborate on. As a team, we determine whether or not we need to bring in an expert to discuss trends and the general direction of the stories. From there I go into hair two days a week with Donato Spa, and the other days I do it myself—big accomplishment in life, right? During makeup and hair, I’m reviewing scripts, sending emails, or doing radio or press interviews. It’s the one moment in the day where people can get me because I’m sitting in one spot!

1:00pm

ET Canada has been incredible at accommodating family life, and unless there is a big interview, my work schedule is able to wrap up after we shoot the show at 1:00pm. As soon as 1:00pm hits, the makeup comes off and my hair goes into a ponytail and I am back in mama mode and off to the grocery store. My husband joked one day when he saw me on set: ‘why doesn’t she come home sometimes?’

2:30pm

Picking up my kids from school is one of the most important things I do; a daily task that is non-negotiable. It is a very special time for my husband and I to give our children the same feeling of security that we had growing up. I want to be the one to see my kids after school and hug them and ask them how their days were. If you haven’t noticed already, family is super important to me.

6:30pm

There are some evenings when I have speaking engagements I have to attend, which are organized through Speaker Spotlight. Predominantly why I signed up to be featured on Speaker Spotlight is because I have a fear of speaking in front of people. I can talk on the camera all day long because I feel like I’m making a video with my friends—but when I get on stage, I start to sweat and look for the exit. I make a point to continue to engage in public speaking because if I don’t, the fear will take over and I’m not down with that.

8:30pm

After dinner is finished, the house is cleaned up, the kids are bathed and in bed, then I start doing my project work. My skincare line, Ours by Cheryl Hickey, is a labour of love and something I have been very passionate about and am so excited I’ve made happen. I also have an ongoing book that has ideas and inventions, and I promised myself I would do my utmost to see some of them through. I’m learning as I go with this entrepreneur thing, and failure is a big part of success. I have fallen down and failed and things have been cancelled—and it has been crushing at times because you want it so badly or you want it to work, but in reality, business is harsh! This past year has been my business school and I have learned so much, and I am still learning. Sometimes I handle it well, and sometimes I don’t—and I think that’s ok. It’s a fun game and I’m lucky enough that ET Canada lets me do some of those things.

A version of this article appears in print, in our Fall 2015 Women of Influence Magazine, Pages 20-21.