Why did you decide to become a mentor?
I decided to become a mentor because I know how confusing the early stages of building a career or business can be. When you’re starting out, there’s an overwhelming amount of advice online and a lot of it comes from people who haven’t actually built anything themselves. I thought it would be useful to offer a perspective that comes from real projects, real clients, and real outcomes. Mentoring has also forced me to clarify my own thinking. When you have to explain why something works or why a strategy fails, you start to see your own process more clearly. I enjoy helping people avoid mistakes that can waste years of their time, especially when it comes to content, branding, and building something that actually has value in the market. It’s rewarding to watch someone take an idea, apply a few key shifts in how they think, and suddenly start moving in the right direction.
How did you get your career start?
I studied Film and TV at UAL, and not long after graduating I decided to start a production company with two friends. At the beginning we had no real roadmap. We literally walked the streets going from shop to shop asking if they needed video content or ads. At that stage we understood how to make things look good, but we didn’t fully understand the business value behind what we were offering. The turning point came when we started taking strategy seriously. We realised that great visuals alone were not enough. Content needed a purpose, a clear audience, and a measurable outcome. Once we invested time into understanding marketing, branding, and performance driven creative, the opportunities started to change. That shift eventually led us to work with major organisations such as the BBC, Sofa.com, Flo, Remedy Drinks and others. Looking back, those early days knocking on doors were actually one of the most valuable parts of the journey. It forced us to learn how businesses think, what they actually care about, and how creative work fits into that. That experience shaped how I approach projects today and why I focus so heavily on strategy rather than just production.
What do mentees usually come to you for?
Most of the people I mentor fall into two groups. The first are founders who know content could help grow their business but are not quite at the stage where it makes sense for them to hire a full production team yet. In those cases I usually guide them on the most efficient way to approach it themselves, often through personal or founder led content. This tends to be the fastest way to build trust, test ideas, and start attracting the right audience without needing large budgets. The second group are early stage creatives who are trying to figure out how to grow their careers in a competitive industry. With them we focus on positioning, portfolio strategy, and understanding the business side of creative work, not just the craft. Across both types of mentorship, my goal is to give people clear thinking and practical direction so they avoid wasting time on things that look impressive but don’t actually move them forward.
What's been your favourite mentorship success story so far?
A few mentees come to mind who made huge progress once we refined their approach to content. One of them creates children’s content. We worked on tightening her storytelling process and positioning her as the face behind the content rather than just the creator behind the scenes. Once she started building a personal brand alongside the content, things accelerated quickly. She now has over 10,000 followers and several videos with millions of views, and people in that space now see her as a trusted voice. Another mentee runs a YouTube channel focused on Arab culture. His content was interesting but it wasn’t packaged in a way that made people want to click or share it. We worked on hooks, titles, and the structure of his videos so the ideas landed more clearly. Since then he has had several viral videos with over a million views. I also worked with an AI content creator who was making longer narrative videos that weren’t getting traction. We shifted the format and focused on short form ideas that were more native to how people actually consume content online. After making that adjustment he started seeing multiple viral videos and a much stronger response from the audience. Seeing those kinds of shifts happen from a few strategic changes is always the most rewarding part of mentoring.
What are you getting out of being a mentor?
Being a mentor forces me to articulate things that I normally do instinctively. After working in content and marketing for years, a lot of the decisions I make are based on pattern recognition and experience. When you mentor someone, you have to slow that process down and explain why something works or why something is likely to fail. That process sharpens my own thinking and helps me refine the frameworks I use in my own business. It also keeps me connected to people who are earlier in their journey. Founders and creatives at that stage are usually experimenting more and asking questions that people further along sometimes stop asking. That perspective is valuable. It reminds me what problems people are actually trying to solve and where they tend to get stuck. In many ways mentoring becomes a two way exchange. I help them move faster, and their questions often lead me to clearer ways of thinking about strategy, content, and growth.
