Other Women's Jobs // Amy Brill

NAME: Amy Brill

AGE: 34

INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @brillamy

JOB TITLE: Founder, The Brill Collective

MOVED TO THE UAE IN: 2015

After studying Public Relations at university in the UK, Amy Brill her worked her way up from Junior Account Executive to Head of PR within global comms agencies, before setting up her own business 'The Brill Collective' in 2023. She moved to Dubai nine years ago and is proud to call this city home.

Let's learn a little about a typical day in Amy's life:

8AM: By 8am, I’ve already been up several hours. I enjoy getting out of bed early and feeling as though I have a head start on the day. A cup (or two) of PG Tips in peace, while making lists and attending to anything urgent before the chaos of the school run begins, is blissful. When it comes to things like concentrating on the P&L, or any long form writing, these must be done first thing before I get distracted by emails and calls.  I always notice a difference to the productiveness to my day if, for any reason, I start it on the back foot.

10AM: My favourite time to work out is 9:30-10:30, when I’ve already ticked off any urgent priorities from a work perspective and am waiting for people to get stuck into their workday. I joined Revive Pilates in JGE when it opened last year and go at least three times a week; I love how strong it makes me feel and genuinely look forward to going – which is a first when it comes to exercise classes! I do try to make exercise a part of my week’s rituals and if I can’t get to a class, it’s because an important meeting has gone into the diary. As a business owner, I’ve learnt you have to be very flexible and adaptable with timings and rituals, because an opportunity can spring up at any point in time.

12NOON: I’m always out and about meeting contacts and a business lunch in one of Dubai’s many amazing restaurants is my favourite way to catch up. A lot of my time is spent connecting with consultants who are interested in joining The Brill Collective and understanding how we can work together for everyone’s mutual benefit – including our clients. We have over 150 consultants specialising in everything including PR, digital, web design, event management and creative direction, and are growing in capabilities every day.

If I’m not with consultants, I’m catching up with existing clients, or meeting potential new ones. It’s always exciting to understand their respective business challenges and develop solutions using The Brill Collective’s model and expertise.

Although we work remotely, I catch up with my core team at least once a week, who I adore. Building a business can be terrifying and I’m very lucky to have people around me who understand and support my vision and work so hard to help make it come to life.

2PM: Where possible, I spend the afternoons head down in my office at home. Not being in a traditional corporate office means it’s crucial to have somewhere that is productive. With the help of an interior designer friend @ravensnestdesignstudio, we recently renovated our upstairs landing area into a room, creating a space where I can lock the door, and where I enjoy spending time in. Working remotely means there are a lot of Zoom calls and Whatsapp chats – we send an insane amount of voice notes – but it means we still have that sense of team camaraderie, which is so important.

4PM: Each day, I try to organise my hours to concentrate on the three key elements of the business: Collective, Clients, and Core. 4-5pm is generally spent catching up with my senior team on operational elements and brainstorming new ideas.

6PM: One of the perks of working from home is being able to avoid rush hour traffic (Hessa Street!) and do dinner, bath and bedtime with my daughters, who are three and one. Spending more quality time each day with the family is one of the main reasons I left my old job and, unless I need to do calls with clients in the US, I try my best not to diarise any meetings between 5-7pm; everyone involved in The Brill Collective is encouraged to work in the way that best suits them and their scope of work, with the key elements being communication and trust.

8PM: After dinner, I jump back online to check anything urgent, tend to those last few emails from the team or clients and then try to switch off work-mode for a bit before bed. I’m not great at watching TV (which drives my husband mad), and prefer to create Pinterest boards, research holidays, or read. We love to host, and, regularly towards the end of the week, we have friends over for dinner.

10PM: I’m really into skincare and take a while to get ready for bed but find my night-time skincare routine helps me relax. Normally I can get a few hours’ sleep, before our three-year-old invariably sneaks in in the early hours!