I'm Chourouk, Co-founder and Head of Communications & Partnerships at The Spill
The Spill is a UK-based online publication, launched in January 2021, out of the vision of two women who believe in true diversity, equity, inclusion, and representation. Committed to amplify the voices of people from marginalised communities, The Spill wants to bring interesting content, with a new perspective, that matters to them and their readers. Stories about life experiences, culture, arts, politics, the environment, and explorations of the self. The Spill is on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Describe your job
Because I juggle between 2 jobs – as an employee and an entrepreneur, my day to day is quite different but I usually start my day looking into my professional and company social profiles, and any urgent emails and notifications to make sure to address them before I can get on with other activities.
Whether it’s dealing with an issue with one of my team members, attending back to back meetings, focusing on the PR and/or events strategy - while rallying the troops to progress on their implementation globally, reviewing and aligning on next steps about our blog and social results, finding new contacts to pitch, preparing press releases or pitches and recording an audio for an article; my days are pretty full on and require a lot of organisation and prioritisation.
What are the most important skills you need to do your job?
Copywriting, proofreading, organisation, prioritisation, multitasking, wearing multiple caps, and handling pressure (unfortunately not something I would recommend but true in my environment), interpersonal skills (being a good listener and knowing how to respond to different type of personalities is really important) and again organisation, I won’t say that enough, it’s crucial for me.
I left school and...
I left Paris after graduating from Business School. Being a very competitive environment in France, it didn’t take long before I decided to move to London and take a chance there. My career took a turn for the best then. After 6 months of job-hunting, I finally got a position in a small business, organising various events. I moved after that onto a new job in Communications and really started climbing the career ladder from then on, to becoming Head of PR and Events today. In late 2020, I also co-founded an online publication where I manage the Communications strategy and partnerships.
I’m most proud of...
In my new position as co-founder of The Spill, my business partner Jennifer Hakim and I came to the rapid conclusion that to remain consistent with our message of inclusivity we had to make our content accessible to people with reading disabilities, blindness and visual impairments with easy read and audio format.
We announced it to our audience end of January and have been working since then in updating regularly our online platform. We’re not able to produce as much audio content as we’d want to as we’re still small and rely on personal contributions and donations to finance our business, but we’re dedicated to make it work.
Before I started my career, I wish I knew…
Perfection isn’t your friend.
It’s funny how easily you fall out the wagon when you work, especially when it’s something you deeply care about. I’ve been putting a lot of energy and time into the business from the get-go because we worked against the clock before the launch and wanted everything to be perfect. But I quickly got to realise that perfectionism can be your worst enemy in these instances, and you have to sometimes let go of it to be able to accomplish what you have to do.
A mistake I made which you can avoid repeating is...
Spending a lot of time creating new social visuals and content without having a clear thread or templates already set.
I really love the creative side of things; I think it’s where I thrive the most – trying to come up with new ideas and things that can have a proper impact on the business. But I would sometimes lose track and spend hours creating content and visuals – losing crucial hours that could have gone into something more impactful. Because yes, social is important but you have to treat it carefully if you don’t want to be sucked into that universe and waste your time.
So, what’s next?
It’s hard to say right now. I never thought I’d be an entrepreneur today, while working full-time as an employee, so it’s a shift in my mindset as well.
Co-founding The Spill has been the greatest achievement of my career thus far, not because I get to be my own boss, but because the work I do has a true purpose and impact.
It helps put marginalised people on the map and amplify their voices. My personal goal is to ensure that The Spill continues to grow and touch people over the years to come. I want to make sure we participate to the global effort in fighting for representation, social and racial justice, climate change, mental health and so much more with other individuals, organisations and charities alike. We have people’s best interest at heart and want to continue to raise awareness on important topics, educate, elevate conversations, and give people a platform to share their vision and life stories.
Here's my:
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