THE POWER OF PURPOSE: How to Transform Your Agency by Harnessing Its Purpose

Tue 7 Jun 2022 11:00 am UK Time
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• Most agencies have a proposition…but have you ever used your agency to do something purposeful?
•In other words, does your agency have a point of existing beyond making money?
• In this session, David Glennie, CEO of Voodoo Park shares how harnessing his agency’s purpose has changed his business for the better – and how you can do it too.

“We’re not just giving back to our team, we’re also enabling them to give back to their own communities.” David says.

“As an agency owner, I now have a purpose and a sense of being bound to the work that I do, that I simply didn’t have before,” he says.

David Glennie, CEO at Voodoo Park, pivoted his agency’s purpose from being passively passionate about UX, to actively passionate about its people. 

Here’s what led him to this point:

  • Voodoo Park’s clientele was predominantly travel and leisure, which meant the national lockdown in 2020 caused radio silence across the board.
  • David was approached by a FinTech company; they asked him to put together a team of developers for them to use on a loan basis.
    The loss of clients and the pressure to pay his staff’s wages meant David was forced to accept. This allowed the business to continue its growth journey.

Still unhappy about his agency’s loss of purpose, David began to wonder what else he could do to reignite the passion to work amongst his team (and himself). 

First, he offered new perks and benefits, but he still felt like he could do more.

“If you have privilege and agency, I think you have an obligation to do something with that privilege and agency, other than just increase your own personal wealth,” he says. “We now have the ability to create action with our agency, we’re making money – so what can we do to help?”

So, they set up the Voodoo Park Trust: essentially a money pot to do good things.

“Money raised from the work that people do goes back into their communities via the trust,” David says.“We focus on women’s education, health and businesses. If you want to lift up a community, lift up its women.”

Some of the initiatives they’ve introduced include:

  • Financing micro loans in Guatemala. 
  • Training girls in Nepal to be guides.
  • Paying sewing circles to produce period products for young girls in West Africa.

“Just start asking all the questions again, as if you didn’t already know the answers, and you will arrive at somewhere like this,” David says. “This is what people want to buy. This is where people want to work. This is what my unborn grandchildren need me to do.”

Come along and hear how David pivoted his agency to become community purpose-led, and how it’s transformed the way he feels about his business.