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What does resilience look like in the face of a global pandemic? How can placing purpose at the heart of your business help to change the world for the better? What are some of the toughest leadership lessons to learn when it comes to working with Gen Z employees?
Natalie Luckham is the special guest on ‘Good Journeys with Second Mountain’, the award-winning, purpose-driven YouTube show and podcast, presented by content creator Ben Veal and produced in partnership with Resilient Leaders Elements (RLE).
In episode 027, Natalie Luckham shares her story.
Natalie’s inspirational journey over recent years is illustrative of a resilient leader. She shows what’s possible when you focus on self-care and adapt to the changing environment around you, seizing opportunity in uncertainty.
As the CEO of non-profit community interest company Wiltshire Digital Drive — established during the 2020 lockdown to help bridge the digital divide in society — and the founder of B Corp certified agency Naturally Social, Natalie talks openly about her experiences and dealing with mental health struggles, burnout and adapting her leadership skills to meet the demands and expectations of a younger workforce.
“I’ve learnt about what motivates me, what I actually want out of life, and I have been on a journey with my own mental health,” shares Natalie on the show. “I’ve taken the time I need to understand burnout, why I was working so hard and ignoring the signs of burnout, why that was really detrimental to me, and how I can make sure that, moving forward, I live a fulfilled and healthy live. That’s my focus from now on.”
With communications and marketing businesses hit hard by the first lockdown, Natalie looked outwards to the needs of wider society rather than inwards to the short-term survival of her business, and helped to establish Wiltshire Digital Drive, a Community Interest Company (CIC) with real purpose that has now refurbished and redistributed over 3,000 tech devices to people in need locally, nationally and internationally — all while saving old technology from unnecessarily being sent to landfill sites.
“To put it into context, around 19 million adults in the UK are suffering from some form of digital poverty — and with the rapid change in technology and how it works, more and more people are getting further and further behind: unable to work, unable to contribute to society, feeling isolated and without the ability to talk online to family and friends and access essential online services.
That’s a massive problem, and during the pandemic we started to address one tiny part of that problem … everyone was working from home, children were being homeschooled and everyone was suffering: children’s education, the economy, workplaces; it was tough for all … we recognised the problem was massive, and if we set it up as a separate organisation, we could potentially seek funding and then open the doors to businesses with end-of-life IT and have a much bigger impact on the environment by stopping this kit going to landfill.
Since then, Wiltshire Digital Drive has expanded, grown and developed into this huge beast that I am incredibly proud of today.”