Lara Stephenson, communicator for social impact

Hey, I’m Lara! I really enjoy reading the perspectives of people from around the world, in cultures I don’t have access to in daily media and news. Seeing small pictures of life feels so much more relatable than big news stories and gives a taste of creative and professional life in different places.

Find me on my website and Twitter

My superpower skill

I enjoy telling stories, helping people work through ideas or problems using metaphors, and personifying things and situations. Trying to see things in another way to allow for insights. For example, I use Sefirot’s Intuiti cards in client workshops, which are archetypal-based cards for people to interpret to apply to their situation or get unexpected insights. 

What influenced my career 

I always wanted to be an author and illustrator, and communication design combines that kind of storytelling in a more commercial way – I was influenced to “choose a career that paid you” although to be fair, my career has not done more for me than it would have if I were an author and illustrator and I think that was not good advice!

Then closer to my 30s, my sister and I founded Social Good Outpost to bring the social good element to design, “helping the helpers” to communicate and have good business success while transforming their society for the better.

Favorite way of slowing down to enjoy the moment

I really love camping. But a way I spend time in the moment during the work day is listening to something meditative – music, a talk, or binaural beats.

The last time you talked about a mistake you made 

In a job interview! It was about making assumptions. Sometimes, though, you have to go with what constraints you’ve got. I don’t believe you can hit the nail on the head all the time.

Working with different people

You don’t get trapped in your own culture — we are all people of this planet no matter what culture. It can be about connecting and appreciating our different qualities.

One professional tip that you learned the hard way

Valuing your own skills and time can sometimes be the first step to anyone else valuing them so that advice to work for free in the beginning is quite unhelpful sometimes! Sometimes you just have to go in there and know what you’re doing is valuable and say that.