Meet the team Lucy Baird, Director
We’ve spent three and a half years perfecting our team at Lucky North, and we’ve got some real gems in the office now. But there would be no team without our founders, Lucy and Kiran!
This month, we’re chatting to Lucy about her first steps in the world of PR, and what it means to be running an agency in 2023.
Lucy, you seem to live and breathe PR, was it always going to be your career?
It feels like I couldn’t possibly be doing anything else now, but when I was 18 I had to make a choice about what I’d study at university when I didn’t get the grades to study French and Film in London. The chance to re-evaluate things made me realise I valued the idea of staying in Leeds and being close to family, and PR stood out to me as a really solid career choice. I haven’t looked back!
1. Did family have an impact on how inspired you were?
Definitely. Both of my parents worked incredibly hard when I was younger. They worked full time as a GP and barrister while juggling four kids – it can’t have been easy but they made it work and instilled in me that hard work gets you places. We’d often come down for breakfast before school to find my dad already preparing for his work day, but they were always there to do our homework with us too. It was just this incredible ‘go, go, go!’ energy I’ve really taken with me through life.
It sounds like a great example of work hard, play hard…
Absolutely, and this was reflected in their social lives too. They’d have dinner parties but keep us all very much involved – I can see now it was great practice in speaking skills! We pitched in with the cleaning up and learned about playing your part in every scenario. There’s a lot to be said for lessons like this.
2. Was there a moment early in your career that made you realise what PR was really about?
My year in industry during my degree gave me that first real taste of working in PR full time. I went from a student placement to an account manager in that year, so I took on a lot but it was clear that it was the right career for me and to my colleagues at the time.
Some people use that year to work in-house, but going to an agency in Bristol gave me that immediate sense of just how different every day can be. One day I’d be in the office and the next I was chatting to Bruce Springsteen, it was all very surreal!
3. What do you love about your job now?
My job now is something I’ve curated carefully to get to this point. Kiran and I have built Lucky North from the ground up, and we really appreciate how far we’ve come every day. We both genuinely love our team. We’re growing fast and that can make it tempting to rush things, but we’ve taken so much care to hire the right people for us, we all get along and work so well together. It’s undoubtedly the reason we all get up in the morning. I truly believe you can achieve anything with the right people around you.
4. It's not a surprise you’ve prioritised strong relationships when you consider how you work with your clients. What is it about that that makes you different from other agencies?
We’re not here to take any client. We really believe in the best of the north and we want to champion brands that share that value. Similarly though, we don’t just dive into a campaign when we start a new client relationship. We know that the best work comes out of really meaningfully getting to know them and their business. We’ve created an incredibly strong process we follow with new relationships, and our clients’ success is rooted in this.
5. How have you found the balance of working remotely and in-office the last couple of years?
We have a lot of flexibility in the team and we very much want everyone to lead their own schedules. If everyone comes to work happy that they’re doing so at the time that’s right for them to start the day well, we all benefit.
We’ll make sure we’re office-based on the same days, because as great as it is to get together for meetings and creative sessions, it’s more than the work. We go out for brunch as a team and celebrate our wins. We took the whole team shopping as a treat after winning a pitch last week, so while we love being in the office for the community we’ve created, we’re rarely chained to our desks!
6. What’s next for Lucky North?
We’ve just expanded (again!) and moved into new offices in the city centre. We thought we’d be busy picking out new desks and getting set up but we’ve been non-stop onboarding new clients lately, which feels great. We’re so grateful for them choosing us as their PR partner.
It’s really important to us though, that however fast we grow, we stay true to our values and mission. We want to work with the best the north has to offer, and we’re definitely doing that – but it’s so exciting to see how quickly developments happen and how we can support more and more local brands.
Want to hear more from Lucy? Why not say hello.
