Lydia Fenet — A Day In Her Life

This week, we're sitting down with Lydia Fenet, the world's leading charity auctioneer who has raised over a billion dollars for nonprofits, founder of a talent agency for auctioneers, two-time author (her first book optioned by Hulu), and mom of three living in Tribeca. Lydia shares what it's like to spend 90 nights a year on stage, run a household where her day "starts at 7pm," and red-eye home from California just to make the morning school drop-off.

In this week’s conversation, Lydia opens up about leaving Christie's after 23 years to bet on herself, the partnership rules that keep her marriage and travel schedule from breaking, and learning to hold life together "with duct tape and Popsicle sticks." We talk about the hangover that changed her career, treating every work trip as a vacation, parenting three very different kids in the city, and why she's letting perfection drop on purpose.

What We Cover:

How a brand-new puppy turned her whole life into "a 24-hour clock" — including the English Springer Spaniel who rides the NYC subway to school drop-off every morning
The margarita-hangover night, eight years in, when she dropped the "strict British auctioneer" persona, just joked with the crowd, and realized "comedy is what makes people pay attention and bid"
How she travels as a working mom — first flight out, red-eye home after night auctions, and treating every trip as a vacation so the beautiful hotel rooms never feel lonely
The "big red X" calendar system that protects family dates years out, the trade offs that sometimes need to happen
Why her day "starts at 7pm," and the rule that saved her marriage to her husband (also her company's CFO): "when I'm gone, I slide out" — no quarterbacking from afar
Being Type A about work but refusing to be at home, holding things together "with duct tape and Popsicle sticks," and the one ball she's dropping on purpose: perfection
The Greenlight allowance system (a dollar per year of age), why praise notes work on her youngest where punishment backfires, and why the kids pack their own bags — one sock and all
Why she won't let her 13-year-old have social media even though she lives on Instagram, and how they’ve approached screens and devices for the family

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