Lizz van der Horst

Why this persona fits the audience

Coordinates a 14-person remote marketing consultancy in Amsterdam. She prefers lightweight reporting, so the team posts client status, margin, and capacity numbers into Notion and Sheets, which she scans before the weekly leadership call.

• Age: 44
• Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Occupation: Chief Operating Officer
• Income: €88k salary + profit share
• Education: Bachelor's degree
• Company size: 14
• Years in role: 5

“Clarity comes from understanding the core metrics, not from drowning in endless reports. We need to know where we stand to move forward effectively.”

Lizz van der Horst has spent the last decade building a career focused on operational excellence within the digital services sector. After completing her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, she initially worked in project management roles for larger agencies, where she developed a keen eye for process optimization and resource allocation. However, she found the corporate bureaucracy stifling and yearned for more autonomy and direct impact. This led her to join a burgeoning remote marketing consultancy five years ago, initially as a Senior Operations Manager, and quickly progressing to COO. Her current role is a natural fit for her personality; she thrives on bringing order and efficiency to a distributed team. Lizz is deeply committed to the principles of remote work, believing it offers unparalleled flexibility and access to global talent, provided it's managed with clear structures and communication. She champions lightweight reporting systems, like the Notion and Sheets setup, because she values simplicity and actionable insights over complex, time-consuming dashboards. Her personal life is grounded in her family and her Amsterdam roots; she enjoys the city's blend of history and modernity, often exploring its canals by bike. She views money as a tool for security and enabling experiences, rather than an end in itself, and approaches financial decisions with a pragmatic, long-term perspective. Her recent focus has been on refining the consultancy's onboarding process for new remote hires, ensuring they quickly grasp the team's operational rhythm and reporting expectations, a move driven by recent rapid team growth.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Lizz's typical weekday begins around 6:30 AM. After a quick breakfast and getting her children ready, she settles into her home office by 8:30 AM. The first hour is dedicated to scanning the Notion and Sheets dashboards for overnight updates and urgent client communications. She then holds brief check-ins with her direct reports, focusing on immediate priorities and any roadblocks. Mid-morning involves reviewing project proposals or addressing operational issues. After a simple lunch, she might participate in a client call or work on refining internal workflows. The late afternoon is for wrapping up loose ends, planning for the next day, and ensuring her team has what they need before logging off around 5:30 PM to reconnect with her family.

Lifestyle

Lizz's weekdays are structured around her family and work. She starts her day with a brisk cycle to the local bakery for fresh bread, then heads home to prepare her children for school. Her evenings are a blend of family dinners, helping with homework, and catching up on industry news or listening to an audiobook while tidying up. Weekends are for longer bike rides along the Amstel River, visiting local markets, or enjoying quiet time at home. She values her financial stability and actively manages her household budget, preferring practical, long-term investments over speculative ones.

Work life

As COO, Lizz's primary focus is ensuring the smooth operation of her 14-person remote marketing consultancy. Her days are a constant juggle of client communication oversight, team capacity management, and financial tracking. She champions lightweight reporting, encouraging her team to input key metrics—client status updates, project margins, and individual capacity—into Notion and shared Google Sheets. This data forms the backbone of her weekly leadership review, allowing her to quickly identify bottlenecks or areas needing attention without getting bogged down in excessive detail. She spends significant time refining internal processes to enhance efficiency and maintain team alignment despite the distributed nature of their work.

Relationships

Lizz is in a stable partnership with her husband, a software developer, with whom she shares parenting responsibilities. Her close circle includes a few long-term friends from university, mostly professionals in similar fields, with whom she exchanges advice. Her parents, retired teachers, live in a nearby town and she visits them monthly.

How they decide

Lizz approaches decisions methodically. She gathers essential data, considers the practical implications, and weighs the impact on her team and clients. While she values input from her leadership team, the final decision rests on her assessment of efficiency, consistency, and long-term viability. She avoids impulsive choices and prefers well-reasoned, data-informed actions.

How they sound

Speaks with a clear, measured cadence, often using precise language. Her tone is generally calm and professional, with a slight Dutch accent. She avoids jargon where possible, preferring straightforward explanations. She might use phrases like 'Let's look at the numbers,' 'The key is consistency,' or 'What's the most efficient path forward?'