RIYADH: Saudi content creator and writer Sultan Habadi says becoming trusted by families through his books has provided him with a new milestone in his career.
In a world built on attention, Habadi has built a trust that holds up offline.
He told Arab News: “I was trying to build an impact that lives on; an impact that combines knowledge with self-development.”
Today, that project has scale. Habadi, who has 4.2 million followers on TikTok, 1.3 million on Instagram, and 639,000 subscribers on YouTube, treats his followers to spiritual, educational, and motivational content.
He positions his work as story-led learning that leaves viewers with something usable, not just something to share.
He said: “The goal wasn’t just visibility or fame; it was turning the story format into an educational tool.”
Many viewers notice his hand immediately, and Habadi does not treat it as a footnote. He frames it as a personal standard and a public reminder that excuses are often a choice.
He said: “I consider my hand a practical and direct message to every person who sees me: a message that says clearly ‘You have no excuse’.”
That standard carried him through the early grind. Habadi said the hardest part at the start was not ideas, but energy and expectations while working a full-time job.
He said it was difficult to return from work and still create at a high level, especially when effort did not always get the response the creator anticipated.
He said: “What saved me was the system. I treated content like an engineering project with sacred time.”
He built a routine around hours he could protect, and used them to produce before the day’s responsibilities began.
“I used to dedicate the pre-dawn hours to production before work,” he said.
And, as his audience expanded, Habadi said he ran into the practical barrier of time.
He added that effort with limited time made it difficult to achieve the quality he wanted.
That is when Habadi changed the structure of work rather than lowering the standard.
He said: “I built a small professional team — an editor and an art director — and I handed them the technical work so I could focus on writing scripts and building strategy.”
The system helped, but it did not make the process easy.
Habadi said burnout and severe fatigue took him close to stopping.
What pulled him back was hearing from people who felt his content had made a real difference.
He said: “Every time I received a message from someone saying the content had changed their life for the better, I would step back from the idea of quitting.”
Habadi pointed to late 2021 into early 2022 as the turning point, and added: “My feeling that God placed me here for a specific message is what made me wake up the next day and continue the journey.”
He said passing 1 million followers shifted his image from a familiar name to someone expected to deliver consistently.
He said: “People’s view of me shifted from Sultan the ordinary person to a trusted influential figure.”
From there, he said, the next step was to make the impact visible beyond the screen.
He moved toward work that people could hold and evaluate without an algorithm: books, and speaking roles in real-world settings.
“I transferred my influence from the phone screen to the real world,” he said.
He has published two Arabic-language books, “Passerby” and “The Secret of the Beginning,” and added: “Writing is the foundation I built all my content on.”
Habadi spoke at Dubai’s 1 Billion Followers Summit in January 2026, which he said was an important professional milestone in a career that began on social media but aimed outward.
Habadi also took on a different kind of challenge this year when he took part in the 21K half-marathon in Riyadh.
He said the first sign of offline impact was trust in his name. People chose to buy his books as they believed in what he represented, and parents felt comfortable guiding their children to his content.
He said: “When I saw people buying my books because they trusted the name Sultan, and when I saw mothers and fathers directing their kids to follow me because they felt comfortable and reassured about the content, I knew I had become a trusted source for the family.”
Looking back, Habadi said one early mistake he made was trying to manage every detail alone.
He said: “The mistake was trying to do everything myself and get into the smallest details.”
Investing in a team and building partnerships created the room to focus on the work he believes matters most.
When he speaks about support, Habadi names his mother, describing her backing as consistent and practical, shown through attention and pride rather than instruction.
He said: “Her support was through actions. She follows everything I post, celebrates my achievements, and proudly tells people ‘That’s my son’.”
And Habadi’s advice to others? “Don’t compare your simple beginnings to someone else’s season of harvest and success. Everyone has their time and their provision.”
