Natasha Louckevitch: “You lead by being humble enough to know that even if you are in a leadership position, people will always have something to teach”
You lead by holding hand in hand with your team. You lead by giving people a purpose and a cause to fight for. You lead by providing meaning and acknowledging that everyone is fighting their own private battle. You lead by being an empath. You lead by showing the way, and by being humble enough to know that even if you are in a leadership position, people will always have something to teach. Being a leader is standing firm on your own vulnerability.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Natasha Louckevitch.
Natasha is an experienced Executive Producer. She specializes in international production, strategy, development, and localization. (NA, LATAM, EMEA, AND JAPAC)Her favorite aspect of the many hats she wears is to solve problems regardless of the level of difficulty. In her career, she was responsible for creating teams to enable creatives all over the world to come together and disrupt the status quo. Besides working in the entertainment industry, in her advertising career, she worked with clients such as Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle, Kraft, Mondelez, SC Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, and P&G.
She produced more than 100 commercials in over 20 countries.
In 2007, after finishing her studies at NYU, Natasha continued the path on her career and had the opportunity to leave and work in Brazil, (her native country), Argentina and France. Today, Natasha, along with her husband and their two sons, moved to the creative and thriving capital of Texas, Austin, where she opened her production company C/Purpose. Only one year into it, the company’s first produced web-series for a local winemaker — ‘Dandy’-, got selected for more than eight festivals worldwide and is quickly navigating between the worlds of cinema and advertising. Recently, the series got officially selected for Rebelfest London 2019 and shortlisted for an LIA. (London International Awards)
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have always loved to tell stories. I loved to connect with people on that deep level and make them feel seen. Growing up, it felt like a superpower! It came naturally to me in the form of creating lyrics, poems, stories, characters, jokes, etc. My first “Big Break,” was when I was a ten-year-old girl in Brazil. My grandmother passed away, and I was close to her. I felt very lonely when she died and could only think about her and nothing else for many, many weeks after she passed.
At school, I wrote a verse poem about our relationship. I wasn’t trying to get attention or recognition. It genuinely was a necessity to put into words, the immense pain I was feeling.
I didn’t over-think it, and I wasn’t specifically trying to achieve anything.
That poem not only got me a 10 in school, but it was all everyone talked about for a long time. And as my family later decided, it made it’s the way to her tombstone forever.
It gave me the feeling that even more than when I made people laugh, (I was a bit of a clown), sharing sadness made everyone process it better and feel less lonely. (Including myself!)
When I grew a little older, I started to find out other media to express myself. And I fell in love with filmmaking.
In Brazil, when I was choosing a career path, filmmaking wasn’t exactly something you could rely upon as a career path that would ever pay your bills.
So, I compromised and went into advertising.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
Not only was I opening a new company, but also arriving in a new country with two young boys. For those who haven’t done it before, think of it as opening two companies at the same time. So, when we got our first official project, I had realistic expectations about it. It was a web-series about a local Rose wine.
The results surpassed all my expectations by large. It brought more awareness and revenue to the brand, and we got many world-wide awards for it. (Including a nomination for Raindance Film Festival in London, which is supposed to be strictly Indie Filmmaking.)
It was also in this beginning that I met the wonderful committee of The Austin Jewish Film Festival. It was the beginning of a professional and personal relationship with people I came to admire.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Funniest is easier. I prefer to answer this question than ones about the worst mistakes! I have learned that yelling at a printer won’t make it work. And the biggest lesson from that is that you should always plug it to the outlet for it to do its job!
(It can happen to the best of us. 🙂
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
When I arrived in Austin, TX, fresh from Brazil under two years ago, although I’m not religious, I still wanted to connect with the local Jewish community. I have two little boys, and I want them to be a part of so many beautiful things that the Jewish culture has to offer.
I got introduced to David Finkel, who is the director of The Austin Jewish Film Festival. AustinJFF is a non-profit organization with the purpose of entertaining, educate, and provoke thought in the Central Texas community by providing a cinematic examination of Jewish life and culture.
Austin Jewish Film Festival builds cultural bridges to the non-Jewish community by exhibiting films on topics of concern to the Jewish culture.
David is the true definition of a “”Mensch.””
He is a person who genuinely puts his heart and soul into everything he does.
When I saw the quality of the films that he and the committee pick, and how costly it is to put together a high standard festival like theirs, I immediately offered to help. David has a knack for recognizing and nurturing talent and quickly introduced me to the Festival’s committee. (Formed by equally amazing people David Goldblatt, Cindy Pinto, and Cynthia Winer)
I brought Norberto Zylberberg aboard. He has an advertising shop here in Austin, TX, and is an award-winning creative director. Alongside him, we would come up with a whole campaign to broaden the festival not only for the Austin Jewish community but as our tagline suggests, ‘’For Jew And You Too’’.
To make a long story short, this exceptional team, combined forces to bring this year’s edition to the next level. It is now a recognized cultural festival and officially part of the city’s cultural scenario!
Can you tell me a story about a particular individual who was impacted by your cause?
I have!!!!!
This is the first time I work as a volunteer in such an extensive length and depth. I was Director of fundraising, media buyer, producer, client affairs, development, you name it!
Not only I’ve re-connected with Judaism, but I also met smart and generous people.
And to see the festival grow from point A to point B, was immensely satisfying. It made me understand that I do have enough time. I just have to set my priorities straight. I am intent to continue getting heavily involved with non-profits and volunteer as much as I can for different causes. And I highly recommend everyone does too. It’s food for the soul.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Honestly, at the end of the day, we are talking about tolerance. The only thing that has any impact on intolerance is education and information. The more people know about a subject that they don’t understand, the less they feel threatened by it. This is true to all minorities.
So, a cultural Festival like this is significant because of it sheds a light on something ‘alien’ in a 360º manner. The movies talk about so many different subjects! And at the end of the day, the message is, we are all human.
We will always have people who hate, regardless of the context. Community/society/politicians have to be the louder voice of a positive message. The hate will always be there. But the more we love, the more we shove hatred away. And organizing a film festival is a labor of pure love.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership, to me, has to be inspirational. You do not lead when sitting alone at the top.
You lead by holding hand in hand with your team. You lead by giving people a purpose and a cause to fight for. You lead by providing meaning and acknowledging that everyone is fighting their own private battle. You lead by being an empath. You lead by showing the way, and by being humble enough to know that even if you are in a leadership position, people will always have something to teach. Being a leader is standing firm on your own vulnerability.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
I got great advice and mentorship. However, some things, even when a third party tells you, you won’t get to understand until you go through them. So, my advice here would be to seek mentorship from people you admire, (you would be surprised by how open people are when you ask for their mentorship) and go for it! Take that leap of faith!
My accountant, who is also a friend, always told me: ‘There is no better (and more expensive) school than the school of life. There’s no way around it.’
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love to see more small companies doing what mine does, although there are a few.
We reserve a few (paid) working periods of the employees so that they can engage in social causes of their choice. It could be something as simple as organizing donations from our colleagues and delivering everything at the closest Goodwill or volunteering for a non-profit organization.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Price is only ever an issue in the absence of value.” That’s it! That defines the scope of work, life, and relationships. You work to get paid because we all have bills to pay. Yes.
But when you let this be the driver instead of purpose, no amount of money will compensate. I am sure of it.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Bill Maher! I am a big fan. I would love to… do what he does with him! ☺
How can our readers follow you on social media?
My companies’ site: https://cpurpose.com/
Our Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/cpurpose
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contentpurpose/
Our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CPurpose/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/c__purpose
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/c-purpose/
This was very meaningful, thank you so much!
Natasha Louckevitch: “You lead by being humble enough to know that even if you are in a leadership… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.