A New Start

The pandemic, like for many, pressed my reset button.

As a virtual agency since its inception in 2009, the talented team at my management, PR and marketing agency Astute.Work had already been working remotely. It was business as usual and in the face of this black swan event we were quickly able to help our clients, many of which were buffered from the crisis, move online and pick up further work when our competitors furloughed.

It was a huge privilege and both humbling and rewarding as an experience. It was also tough at times and I found the time homeschooling particularly gruelling.

Then, as ever, a busy work life collided with the personal. My son was diagnosed with epilepsy. I had two toxic working relationships collide. Most of all I was exhausted from a year of online trolling followed by a year managing the incompetence of The Met, despite the involvement of MPs, the Civil Service and others. But that’s a story to be told another day.

After I was seriously ill from COVID a second time, I pressed stop.

Enforced bed rest gave me the time to think carefully about my life and what I wanted. And with the support of my family, team and clients, I decided to make big, scary, audacious changes, starting with the closure of Astute.Work.

While the agency has been one of the best things I’ve ever done and I’m proud of what we achieved, my personal skills, experience and goals had changed. It was time for a new start.

So welcome to the new me. Sarah Waddington: NED, Activist and Communicator.

I’m thrilled to have three exciting arrows in my quiver.

As before I’ll be providing non-executive director services and management consultancy to the wider business marketplace, with a focus on the North East.

I’ll also be joining the family business, Wadds Inc., as a director to work as a NED for creative agencies and am thrilled two of my existing clients, Resonance and Magic Digits are coming with me.

At Wadds Inc. I’ll be extending the Free To Thrive service I’ve been delivering to help busy agency owners (especially parents) deal with overwhelm.

And finally I’ll be doing the other thing that makes my heart sing - activism to address the systemic issues in society holding people back. This includes a continued focus on Socially Mobile, the community interest company run by my husband Stephen and I, which delivers training to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, as well as under-represented and under-served groups.

I can’t wait to get started. If you’re looking for an experienced non-executive director with expertise in organisational focus and purpose, strategic implementation and performance and stakeholder engagement, let’s chat.