Welcome to Professionals with Purpose

If you are wondering how you can have a more positive impact while you run a business or earn a living, you’re in the right place. Read on for examples of people who have done this or are achieving it, and often at pace.

It’s possible whether you run a business or work for one. Each week we’ll feature inspiring people from a variety of backgrounds - for-profit businesses, charities, social enterprises, government organisations, and startups.

This week our interview guest is similar but different. The clue’s in the name with Professionals with Purpose and the Purposely Podcast. Professionals with Purpose tells the stories of people growing income and positive impact, and the Purposely Podcast amplifies those of people with purpose from across the globe.

In addition we’ll share opportunities, tools, events and resources to help you in your aims to work with social impact or to find a social impact role or employer.

Howard Lake
Editor
[email protected]

Mark Longbottom: sharing lessons from the purposeful

We caught up with Mark Longbottom, Purposely’s host and founder, to find out where the idea for his podcast came from, and what 150+ episodes have taught him about purposeful people around the world.

Starting life during the pandemic, the podcast started out with Mark talking to charity people from the UK. Yet he’s a Kiwi living in New Zealand – so what’s the story?

Pursuing passions

Essentially, it starts with a strong sense of wanting his career to be purposeful and a keen love of the UK, both of which he’s had since he was a young boy growing up in New Zealand.

Transfixed by the country’s football and culture, and after trying and failing to get his parents to move the whole family over, he relocated to the UK as soon as he could, following a sociology degree and a first charity role in New Zealand. Starting in fundraising at Terrence Higgins Trust, he next took a more commercial role at The Prince’s Trust, before moving on to run St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation for a decade.

Thinking back to his younger self, Mark says: “I had this real strong sense of wanting my career to be purposeful, which seems ridiculous because I was super young then, but I think I had that determination that it would matter beyond money; that there’d be some positive impact to people whatever I did.”

In 2018, with home calling him back by that point, Mark and his family moved to New Zealand. Strangely though, despite being a Kiwi he found the transition harder than his English wife did, missing the strong network of friends and colleagues he’d built up in the UK. This left him feeling somewhat adrift. “I definitely had a wobble,” he admits.

Inspired to listen

But then along came the pandemic, and the idea for the podcast.

“I was in New Zealand, which wasn’t making much sense to me and I wanted a way to reconnect with the UK – so that was one of the drivers,” he explains. “Another was the global pandemic. Suddenly I had all day to think about ‘what next’. I wanted to connect with my old world and try something different that got me out of my comfort zone.”

Having always been “big into audio” and with time on his hands to listen and to think, he started to get inspired by others who were doing podcasts. He’d moved into a more corporate environment work-wise on his return to New Zealand, and wanted something that would provide a way to reconnect with the nonprofit world. This, combined with the challenges the pandemic brought, sparked a desire to shine a light on the stories of others and to connect nonprofit leaders so they could learn from each other and be a little less lonely in a difficult time. A podcast, he thought, would be a really good fit.

“Plus I’m super curious,” he adds. “I love finding out about people’s stories and why they connected to the purpose or the mission that they’re on – and it just started there.”

Exchanges of value

As the podcast took off, what quite quickly became apparent was that the stories he was hearing and sharing weren’t just interesting to listen to for an hour or so, but full of value in terms of the knowledge and learnings they left the audience with.

“I started off thinking ‘this is going to really take off’. And then I realised that actually, the brilliance of it is really the learning that you do. I learn so much from every episode and interaction. It’s an awesome way of knocking on the door of anybody in the world and having a really purposeful exchange of value.

“There’s also that feeling, because it’s an impact focused podcast, that it’s there to shine a light or amplify the stories of people doing good in the world. It feels worthwhile.”

‘A golden sofa’

Since the launch of Purposely, Mark has opened it up to include people in New Zealand and to stretch as far as Australia and the States, spanning social enterprise, charity, and for profit. And while what’s behind their purpose and desire to share their story varies, Mark’s rule is that he’ll interview anyone who approaches him and fits his focus.

This, he says, creates ‘a golden sofa’ – bringing all sorts of unexpected and rich stories.

Everyone is different – American guests for example, tend to be much more comfortable with promoting themselves and their mission than Brits – and he now gets two or three offers a week from people coming to the idea of purpose from every angle.

Observations on people with purpose

150 or so episodes since launch, and Mark has gained a fair amount of insight into the drivers of purpose. While there’s no one size fits all with the people he interviews, he has noticed some common threads linking purposeful people. It may have been sparked by an experience, or a trauma, or have been with someone since their early years, often linked to religion, or culture. Sometimes, it’s just there.

He says:

“Some people are not that cognisant of why they’ve ended up with purpose but they’ve got the sense of just wanting the career to count for something more. Some have had a point of trauma, and have gone from being super corporate to having something like cancer that has made them really think philosophically about life. For other people, the trauma happened much earlier.”

As an example, he interviewed someone recently who is focused on helping people with debt consolidation. In this case, there was a direct connection between growing up in relative poverty, with debt that almost destroyed her family, and her later life mission and the social enterprise she’s launched. In other cases, he says, “the parental experience has been a positive one that led them to think that their career should be about impact and purpose, or it might just have been a sliding doors moment.”

The power of serving

The idea of serving others is another clear thread. Sometimes it’s a personal, individual thing and at others it’s more about collective purpose, perhaps linked to a religious element, past or present, or something cultural.

“The power of serving – of doing stuff for others before you need something done for you – is huge,” he notes. “Collaborating, going into an interaction with another human being with the idea that you’re going to see how you can help them and be useful has massive power.

“I’m really waking up to the power of that.

“Quite a few of my guests have been brought up in and around religion, where there were the principles of collective thought and caring for others. That is definitely a common thread.”

The idea of collective purpose is certainly something Mark sees in the Maori culture, and in fact learning about this has been an important and inspiring part of his own journey.

“The key Maori principles of whakapapa, which is purpose; manaakitanga, which is cultural and social responsibility; and mana – around justice and equity, go back to Maori origins and guide their people very clearly,” he explains.

“Whakapapa is all about what you do for your family, your extended family, and for your iwi which is your tribe. Everything you do is focused on servicing those groups for the greater good, so their culture is more about the collective while our society has been much more around the individual’s purpose as a drive towards happiness. Learning about that has really enriched my understanding of purpose.”

So far though, he says, this hasn’t featured on his podcast enough and is definitely something he wants to look at more in the future.

Purpose can’t be faked

Mark’s key takeaway from interviewing so many people is that purpose may vary, with differing levels, types and drivers, but it can’t be faked. Purpose, he’s learned, must be truly felt to achieve any real impact.

“People’s sense of purpose might be different but having it is absolutely crucial,” he says.

“And whatever it may be, what’s also super important is enjoying it and feeling like you’re good at it, or getting better at it. So if you find yourself doing something that you really don’t enjoy, don’t stay doing that thing. It’s important to be authentic and not to fake it.”

But there’s more – another (perhaps more selfish) reason having real purpose is important.

In addition to the wider impact it can result in, he adds, he’s also learned that being purposeful can have a positive personal impact. A number of studies in recent years (including here, here and here) have indicated that it leads to a longer and healthier life.

Mark comments:

“There’s been a lot of research over the years around why some people are outliving others with a focus in the past on it being down to the right diet, and having a healthy lifestyle, but there’s a shift now to realising that there’s a huge dollop of purpose in those environments or communities where people are living longer that’s also super important because it keeps you feeling young.”

Certainly, he notes, those with purpose have a drive that spurs them on, and that provides a powerful energy of its own.

For more energy-inspiring stories from charity leaders, social entrepreneurs and others in the nonprofit world, check out the Purposely Podcast.

^{advertisement}

Beehiiv - the newsletter platform built for growth

Resources

Looking to move into the social impact sector, to set up or grow your own purpose-driven company, or want to gain skills and knowledge in this area? Here are some events and opportunities that might help.

Funding for research that inspires awe and wonder

The John Templeton Foundation’s mission is to fund research and catalyze conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder.

Grant applications (“Online Funding Inquiries” or OFIs) are due on Friday, 18 August 2023.

You can also find some more information on what they are looking for and how to apply.

_{advertisement}

The continued growth of B Corps

According to B Lab Europe’s 2022 annual report there are now

• over 1,000 B Corps in Europe

• over 6,000 B Corps globally

• more than 100,000 B Corp employees across Europe

What we’ve been reading

We hope you enjoy Rutger Bregman’s Twitter (OK, X) thread as much as we did. Yes, they are on our list to feature in a future edition.

What readers say

"I can’t believe I’ve not come across this before now – it’s a great read."
Liz Rigby
UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub
27 June 2023