If moving countries is on your agenda - this one is for you! Lauren Tuckerman started her career at ASOS when it was as fast paced as a business could get, juggling multiple shoots and working with endless personalities you'll see across ecom sites and social. Now, she's running a creative studio out in Dubai so, how did she rise through the ranks so quickly, manage to quite literally 'get shit done' and impress the bosses to become the boss?
Name: Lauren Tuckerman
Job Title: Managing Partner
1. What do you actually do day to day? I start by making sure our work environment is as it should be. It may sound odd to most but, having worked in different spaces, I’ve learnt to give focus to ensuring our team can find inspiration in their place of work. Cleanliness, fresh coffee, good lighting, refreshments etc; you name it, but it has an impact. Next, I pen my to-do in order of priority. Again, sounds obvious, but mastering the ability to realistically produce a workflow is critical to getting things done. Then the dreaded emails! Responding to emails and reviewing projects that are in the agency's pipeline is a non-stop affair. Operations is my game, so consistently looking for ways to optimize time is what I strive to achieve. Then a huge chunk of my day is typically meetings, meetings and some more meetings, when I finish a meeting I often have somebody wanting to get my advice or review work. By 6pm I eventually get some time to look at my own to-do list. Which mostly consists of; business development, client project management, and of course more emails.
2. What’s your plotted career history? It all started in Retail, working for House of Fraser (RIP ) shortly after I landed my dream job at ASOS, as an Online Personal Stylist before making my way into the operational side of creativity as an Assistant to the ASOS Insiders. After deciding to take a gap year in Australia, I was given an opportunity to join noon (Amazon's competitor in Dubai) and head up all of their Content Production needs. After 3yrs at noon the old Brand Director asked me to join his boutique creative and marketing agency, DUCKLIFE and work alongside him to “get shit done” (yes that was my JD). At this point I had been in a couple of large corporations and was ready to try something different - the startup world. I joined DUCKLIFE in March 2020 as Production Manager, before swiftly making it to AGM, GM and now today I am the Managing Partner.
3. What got you into your chosen career path? ASOS set the foundations for me. I was lucky enough to be exposed to a lot of opportunities and great people, which later led to different doors opening. In my case, it was not so much what I knew, but who I knew with a layer of “hot shit” work ethic on top. If there’s something I could highlight, it would be that I have proven that a person’s success is most impacted by their effort. Period. Every opportunity, every next step, and every ounce of confidence has come from my core realisation that effort, and effort alone, is going to produce my next accomplishment. The tricky part is that the effort isn’t always where you feel most comfortable. It may be technical skills, emotional skills, or simply personal development. The ability to grow and put endless effort into it has been the driver of my career path.
4. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received in your career? Relationships are EVERYTHING.
5. If you were starting the working world today, what area interests you and why? Business Economics. Today, in my role, I’ve been able to get a real taste of how companies truly work. The REAL inputs and outputs. Seeing a company from the inside-out, rather than staying focused on a particular service or discipline has become quite fulfilling. Understanding how many moving pieces there are, that have a direct impact on a bottom line is something I wish I’d gotten into earlier. Also, bonus points for being able to give a 🖕 to my Maths teacher.
6. In your career, what was the moment when you felt like you really went to the NXT LVL? When I became Managing Partner, owning a company really is NXT LVL. The intensity of it is both exciting and terrifying. The level of ownership, responsibility, and vulnerability that is constantly required is surprising. The personal growth that its driven is daunting but it’s been something I’ve truly enjoyed. I will add that I have also come to the realisation that, for me, I also prefer to be really good at many things rather than perfect at just one thing. I have learnt that my ambitions are better served by being flexible and malleable to opportunities, rather than restricted to one specialty alone. I love being able to entertain the idea of change being my constant. And lastly, I don’t like to work alone. I thrive in partnerships and prefer to tackle the world with colleagues and partners that both support and inspire me. With strong partners, I’ve become incredibly motivated and a consistent achiever.
7. What’s the wildest part of your career? Honestly? People management, turns out there's no cookie cutter approach for that. Who knew managing people would be this tricky? Come to think of it though, of course people aren’t easy. Everyone has their own journey, belief system, and expectations from their work and understanding how to manage that has been a heck of a journey.
8. What’s is your super power and the one thing you’re really fucking good at? Discipline and focus, as it enables me to get shit done no matter what the obstacles may be. I don’t think people understand the weight of that however. The world is noisy and your ability to find a way to drown out the distractions is a MAJOR superpower.
9. What would be your biggest pointer for someone trying to get a job like yours? First, learn at every moment. Listen, grasp the opportunities and believe that you don’t know everything. Second, work really really hard. There are no short cuts and you have to be willing to put in the time and effort to achieving what you might think isn’t possible. Time has shown me that effort correlates perfectly to achievement. Third, build your relationship and network (still working on that one) incessantly. People are connectors to opportunities and execution. Master your ability to build relationships and invest heavily in them. And lastly, put yourself in situations where you might not have the ability to do the job. Take some decisions that scare the crap out of you. Just trust that you’ll figure it out and that gaps are opportunities for growth.
10. What’s in store for you for the NXT big thing? Where do I begin? Right now, I’m figuring out how I can open a boutique hotel, it feels like a perfect match for my blend of creativity and operations. A curve ball to my current role and skills, but something I’ll figure out very soon.