Nikki Scrivener is co-founder and director at Fourth Day.
Fourth Day is an independent tech PR agency with offices in London, Manchester, Paris, Berlin, Brisbane and Casablanca.
Scrivener has over 20 years experience in PR, communications and crisis management and is based in the Manchester office, which opened in 2011.
With clients such as Zuto and Steamhaus, she heads up client services for Fourth Day and provides strategic support across the agency’s client base.
Scrivener shared all the lessons she has learnt.
Which single daily habit or practice could you not do without?
Walking the dog and buying a coffee first thing, then I’m good to go. Much as I’d like to be that person, I’m not someone who can leap out of bed at the crack of dawn ready to attack the day.
What’s been your luckiest break?
I count myself very lucky. I’ve worked with some awesome people and I’m grateful to so many. But I think my luckiest break has to be when I was interviewed by Xanthe (my Fourth Day co founder), when I first moved to London in 1998.
It wasn’t long after I’d lost my dad and I wasn’t feeling super confident. But she must have spotted something because she hired me. After working together for a few years, we set up Fourth Day in 2002 and we’ve now been business partners, and friends, for over twenty years. I’d call that pretty lucky!
What’s your best failure?
Our ‘best’ failure was probably when we set up a new business venture in addition to Fourth Day, many moons ago. We secured backing and got the business off the ground, but then we sat back too much and let someone else manage everything – without keeping a close enough eye on how it was being run.
It got into all sorts of trouble very quickly and we had to shut it down. We kick ourselves now because, for some reason, we adopted a completely different approach to how we run Fourth Day. But we did learn a lot from the experience – mainly to never take your eye off the detail. That’s helped us enormously since then.
What is the best investment you’ve ever made, either financial or time?
We invest in a whole company offsite every year. We’ve had some great trips – Iceland, Greece, Morrocco, Portugal etc. Every year we weigh up the costs – which do mount up as we keep getting more extravagant! But we’ve never once thought it was anything but a fantastic investment. There’s something quite surreal about having a sauna with your colleagues at 2.30am – but if I ever wrote a business book it would probably make it in there as a useful bonding tip.
Which book would you recommend others to read and why?
Having mentioned business books in my previous answer, it’s unlikely I would ever actually write one – as I don’t have the concentration span to finish reading them. My colleague reads quite a few though, and listens to LOTS of podcasts – so I usually just get the highlights from him to pretend I’m very wise.
I will recommend Thomas Hardy to anyone who’ll listen though. I’ve loved his writing since I was young, hence my middle child is called Jude and our dog’s called Tess. I’ve recently joined the Thomas Hardy Society – which is an actual thing!
What one piece of advice would you give your 21-year-old self?
Don’t beat yourself up about having a ‘work you’ that’s different to the ‘home you’. I think I was a bit preoccupied with that when I started my career. But I haven’t seen any credible evidence that behaving in a certain way at work is any better than just being yourself.
Who or what has had the single biggest influence on your working life?
My mum is an absolute grafter. I have such vivid memories of that growing up that I now feel guilty for sitting down for five minutes! But she’s definitely instilled something in me that makes me keep saying yes to things. I’m really grateful for that, even when I’m knackered.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people.
This is a nightmare question. I even asked my husband and best friend and they couldn’t help me. Maybe I’m too much of an open book. I’m going to put ‘do something surprising’ on my to do list for next year. One person did mention my off the scale, irrational fear of rodents (not the mouse variety). I’m so terrified that I can’t say the word for them out loud. It turns out I can’t type it either!
How will the COVID crisis change work for the better?
Spending all that time at home gave us a glimpse into each others lives that we’ve never had before. Being able to see people in context like that felt quite freeing. We’re all just people trying to do a good job and have a nice life. Covid was a nightmare in so many ways but I liked the way it gave us a better understanding of the people we work with – both colleagues and clients.
What does success look like to you?
To keep learning and moving forward. The beauty of being in an agency is that you have the opportunity to work with so many interesting people and companies. I still get a massive buzz from getting my head around something new and being able to dip into lots of different worlds. Celebrating 20 years of Fourth Day feels like a big milestone this year, and there’s been lots of time spent reflecting. Ultimately, I’m still having fun, I work with great people, love my friends, my husband is still talking to me and my kids are ace. So that’s what success looks like to me.
