How Els Aerts spends the summer

This week Els Aerts shares how she spends her summer.

About: Els Aerts is co-founder and managing partner of AGConsult. Read full bio

Is it simply 'working as normal' or do you slow down?

When I take a break, I slow down. Way down. For me personally, it’s important to take some time now and again to completely disconnect from work.

I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on people these days to ‘always be learning’ or ‘always be on’. When really, sometimes the best way to learn about yourself is to switch off now and again. To take the time to do nothing. And to really sit with your thoughts.

As an agency co-founder, it took me a while to be able to fully let go of work when I’m on holiday. These days I know I can because I’m confident that my team at AGConsult has got everything covered.

I can be a bit of a control freak and it was basically just about me learning I’m not as important to the business as I thought I was. And that everything runs just fine without me. Humbling. 😊

Are you traveling? What kind of trip(s)?

I just got back from a 4x4 trip through the Burgundy and Champagne regions of France. If that sounds like a lot of fun, that’s because it is.

It’s also a bit work-related in a way.

4x4roadbooks is a small business my AGConsult co-founder and longtime friend Karl Gilis and I have together where you can buy 4x4 roadbooks online.
Well, it’s like a 4x4 holiday really since the roadbook also comes with an information guide that alerts you to beautiful spots along the way, interesting museums and monuments to visit.

To make sure the roadbooks are up-to-date and there’s been no change in road signage for example, we need to drive them again every once in awhile just to check.

I know, it’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it.

Preparing for the second half of 2022? Anything exciting you can share?

At AGConsult we’re known for our high standard of user research. It’s why clients choose us specifically. The fact that we’ve been doing user research and user testing specifically for over 20 years of course helps with that.

So we’re always working on ways to improve our research methods and experimentation programs. The way we do online surveys for example has evolved so much over the past years. It’s great to see our team constantly thinking of ways to always do better.

We’ve also got a big research project coming up for a new client, doing qualitative research for a retail brand across different countries. Which I think is always fun.

Some people in the CRO world think I bang on about user testing and qualitative research too much but I honestly have never done user testing where we haven’t learned something no other method could have brought.

I still get genuinely excited when those research insights all come together and lead to successful experiments for our clients.

Reading books?

I’ll not make many friends by saying this but I actually don’t enjoy reading “business” books very much.

I think most business books are bloated. I mean, I know repetition works but there’s a limit to how much I can take. 😊
Most business books could be half as long. So a lot of them I skim rather than read.

One business book that isn’t bloated and that I actually enjoyed reading very much on a previous holiday was April Dunford’s ‘Obviously Awesome’. April’s the absolute authority on positioning. She’s very much a no-bullshit person and her book reflects that.

My academic background is in English and Dutch literature and linguistics. So I also really enjoy reading literary fiction as well. It transports me into another reality and helps me switch off.

On my Dutch reading list for the summer is actually my fellow summer time guest Lucia van den Brink’s novel ‘De geur van een moeder’. I actually rarely read Dutch fiction these days but I’ll happily make an exception for Lucia.