A Week in My Life: Saiful Islam, Director, Creed & Culture

Wednesday

Wednesday starts with a call with our UK team, sharing our progress throughout our week. It’s a time for the team to voice any queries or concerns about literally anything! It’s essentially an open floor space to discuss how we can work more efficiently and manage our time effectively.

We usually re-group with the global team in the afternoon for a business update. This is where we really assess our company practices and policies and realign to see if we are working towards where we want to go. During this meeting, we also spend a bit of time focusing on ‘Better Outcomes’ – looking inwards to see what we can improve for our clients, our team members and our culture.

Like all our catch-ups, the meeting ends with a reminder and reflection from a team member, to ensure everything we do is connected to the purpose of why we exist as a company.

At Creed & Culture, we really want our team members to grow as individuals and become more culturally aware of the world around us. We always use the business update sessions to have guest speakers from different backgrounds share their expertise and background, and these sessions have been really well received so far! 

Thursday

Since our main offices in the UK are based in Manchester and London, I often have to split myself between two cities.  As the majority of our clients are based down South, I try to keep those meetings for the back-end of the week. 

Thursday afternoon is a busy one! Not only do we manage content creators, we also create campaigns with some of the biggest brands in the world, like Primark, Anchor Butter and TfL.

Data has found that simply including people from different groups doesn’t mean ads are more engaging than average, so a large part of our work with clients is to help them build meaningful and impactful interactions that positively impact the brand’s ROI, to help them truly resonate.

We have a few calls with brands to discuss proposals and budgets; we then end the day by collating a report for one of our influencer campaigns. Reporting on the success of our campaigns is definitely one of the highlights of working in this field. Especially when working with charities, being able to report on the funds raised has always been one of my favourite parts.

Omar and I have dinner with a long-term client in central London and head back in time for the last train. Long train rides home are the best time to catch up on admin and get a headstart for next week.

Friday

The morning normally starts with our team ‘Friday Funday activity’. It’s a bit of fun and games to build team spirit and compassion, as well as understanding the people we work with on a personal level. A great way to humanise what we’re doing and build better relationships. 

Friday is the highlight of my week. It’s not because it’s almost the weekend, but the fact that it brings together so many cultures and is seen as the “start of the week” for people who practice the Islamic faith.

My Friday is dictated by a special prayer only read on Fridays, the Jummah prayer, which – unlike the other midday prayers – requires Muslim men to attend the mosque to be a part of a sermon delivered by the Imam.

It connects three core stages for me – my childhood and attending the Jummah prayer with my dad; to my present, reflecting and introspecting to see where I am; to thinking where the eventual destination we’re aiming for is. It’s a great reset and opportunity to consider what I stand for. I’m lucky enough to be able to spend those few hours every Friday at the mosque and allow other team members of the same faith to do the same.

I end the day by taking the girls out for a walk and spending time with the family. It’s weeks like this that help me remember how far the business has come in just a year – the team is growing at such a fast pace and we’re incredibly excited for what we have planned for the next year.