Trailblazers and leaders: Iman Leila
Iman Leila | Freelance PR Queen
How did you get into marketing/comms?
I studied journalism in school but I hated it. A friend of mine told me I had the personalist for PR. So I switched courses in my second year. I hated how the course was taught, my lecturer was sexist and wouldn't teach us anything about beauty or fashion PR. I started missing seminars to intern (whilst my age mates missed uni to do enjoyment, I lived a sad life). I was interning in college to be a journalist but once in University, I was interning 2/3 times a year at PR agencies or in-house. After university Dominique Gardiner, my then manager offered me my first role. The rest is history.
What does an average day look like?
No day is the same, especially when freelancing. I have clients in Dubai and LA that email me late/early so I might be up late/early getting back with them. I have an office in my flat dedicated to samples for my clients, so there's a lot of sampling and outreach to press/influencers. When I'm freelancing for agencies (which I'm currently doing) I work full time like a regular 9-5 and that gives me a sense of normality. I network a lot, I make it my business to know everyone or what is happening around me, so I usually end the day meeting someone new at Soho House, dinner with some of my other PR friends or attending events.
What advice would you give yourself knowing there was going to be a pandemic?
Keep doing what you're doing. The pandemic was so horrible but also my biggest blessing. If I wasn't fired during the pandemic I would have never had the confidence to go fully freelance.
What is the one thing you wish you’d known when you started working?
That there aren't enough women that look like me, talk like me and act like me in PR. Especially beauty PR. Black women don't have the luxury to be themselves.
What’s your greatest achievement to date?
I am very hard on myself and shouting my wins but I would say every single piece of coverage I've secured has been an achievement.
Is there a particular comms campaign that you’ve seen in your career that you didn’t work on but wish you had?
Every single Bumble campaign, especially the black love one. Luckily I was selected to participate in the campaign as a singleton but I would have loved to work it.
What’s the key skill you think a successful business owner requires?
Patience. You have to be patient with EVERYTHING. If you're not patiently waiting for coverage, you're waiting to receive feedback from a client. Patience isn't sexy but it's always worth it.