ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

I'm Faisal, a 27-year old (at the time of writing this!) who founded the podcast and media house known as Freshly Grounded.

So what do you actually do?

I suppose my official role is being the director of Freshly Grounded, a media house that is most well-known for it's flagship weekly podcast.

5% of what I do is host a podcast on camera, 95% of what I do is manage a very small team of editors, camera men, operations, hosts etc. and work on new ideas while building relationships with businesses/potential partners.

What has your career path been?

I started my first business in my early teens, a graphic design company with my older brother. It started out in our bedroom and became a fully-fledged business (with a real office and everything!) but at 18 I left London to start University.

After graduating in criminology I went straight into retail, working for one of the tech giants. It was an amazing experience that taught me a lot about how you can balance productivity in the work place with having fun and giving people responsibility.

The lessons I learnt there were huge. I took those lessons to run my clothing line at the time, Izaha. As Freshly Grounded gained popularity I shifted focus onto that.

What is the best part of your job?

My favourite part of running Freshly Grounded is seeing ideas come to life.

Imagining a piece of content or a specific guest that I want to speak to and then doing everything to make it happen. The feeling you get when you accomplish something that was once just an idea is second-to-none.

Why do you do your job?

I want to be able to provide for others what I would like for myself; the ability to work in a space that values you, that helps you grow as a person and not just in your career, but most of all, somewhere that is fun to work.

I value freedom greatly and so I assume others do too, that's why I find it important to let the team have ownership of their roles. I started Freshly Grounded because I wanted to find others like me, and feel a sense of belonging, it still gives me that every day.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

People won't always understand your vision, but that shouldn't be what you're using as your GPS. Have unwavering morals, don't settle for something that doesn't feel right, but once you have passed that criteria: chase your vision relentlessly. In chasing your vision, strive for consistency and refine your systems as you go along. The end goal is to be super organised and efficient but to begin with it might be quite manual ... and that's okay.

Any parting words?

You know best what works for you.

Through constant iteration, find that out. But don't seek it in others. This structure works for me but perhaps won't for you. The main thing is that you optimise your life for maximum happiness. Find the stuff that stresses you out, and create systems that avoid those things.

Check out Faisal’s socials below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

I wake up between 4:30am and 5:15am every day, that's ME time. Me time is for reading and studying. Me time is disturbed at 6am when both of my boys (2 year old Zakariya and 6 month old Khalil) wake up simultaneously and my house becomes a circus. Between 6am - 9am I spend time with the boys, we have breakfast together and quite-often all end up going for a 7am coffee drive-thru (babyccino for Zakariya, of course).

At 9am I begin work; my studio is located a 12 minute drive away and our office space is shared with my older brother's company, Feedsauce. Now as cliche as it may sound, despite being a creature of habit and routine, no 2 days are the same.

I do start my day by sorting through my emails and taking care of any 'fires that need putting out' but other than that it really does depend what's on the agenda for the day. A typical day that doesn't involve any filming usually means lots of meetings. I try to section my day out in the following way:

9am: My time to go through emails and deal with anything that's urgent or requires deep thought. I can problem solve and think of ideas most effectively in the mornings while I'm fresh.

11am: For this second phase of my day I usually face people (have my meetings). Meetings are often with brands we are working with or internal team members on content planning. I also stay in constant communication with Karim, our operations manager, throughout the day. He is probably the most important person in Freshly Grounded.

2pm-ish: By now I would have had my lunch and will be paying a visit to the office coffee machine for my second dose of caffeine to counter the carb-crash I've just experienced. This final portion of the day is usually spent doing the tasks I enjoy and are most creative. Deep in the afternoon is not a great time for problem solving or doing heavy laborious tasks.

I tend to finish every day at 5pm. You often find people online claiming that running your own business means you can't finish at 5pm and that you have to work through the nights. Those days tend to be rare for me. I'm not saying it's not true, I'm just being honest and for me, my work days end at 5. It might not work for everyone, but I like the structure.

5pm - 7pm is family time. We play, talk, laugh, cry (the kids, usually) and catch up with extended family over Facetime. Once the kids go to bed at 7pm, my wife and I will have dinner together and chill. Once chilling is complete, I'll either do light reading or head to the gym. If no gym, I go to bed anytime between 8:30pm - 9:30pm. If gym is on the agenda, it's close to 10pm. I find I need at least 7 hours sleep to be most effective in the morning and try to protect that as much as possible.

Working for myself means I can be flexible, so while that's my typical day, there are often days when I take chunks of my work day out to do things with family such as appointments. I also tend not to work on weekends, which are exclusively dedicated to family. Again, this can change if we have events or I have a work trip that means I'm out of the city or country.