[Women of EO Series] There's Comfort in Discomfort

Cherry Lao is the Co-founder and Creative Director of Citizen Best, an international brand marketing agency with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Bangkok. She draws design inspiration from different cultures, traditions and everyday beauty. Since moving from Bangkok to California, she sees imagery, colors, storytelling, graphics, and symbols as a way to understand cultural differences and bring nuance and clarity to communication.

Cherry is a collaborator first and foremost. She creates inspiring solutions and guides clients through every step of the creative process, providing the necessary rationale for all design elements and strategies. Whether she is directing a photo shoot, developing a fresh concept or offering art direction to existing designs, she believes her role as a creative leader is about elevating the team, not the individual. Outside of work, Cherry can be found with a local dance community, immersing herself in another form of self-expression. She is also involved in entrepreneurial organizations and encouraging diversity in business leadership.

In this episode…

In business, many women tend to fear doing things outside their comfort zones because of their innate fear of making mistakes. They stress over the decisions they need to make and this often limits their opportunities and chances for great success. They fail to see mistakes as a way of learning from them.

Challenges are inevitable and leaders have to find the right solutions to tackle them. It would be helpful for them to surround themselves with people who will offer them support, inspire them, and share their expertise; people who will help them uncover great ideas and possibilities for their business. But more importantly, women need to learn to explore their curiosity and find comfort in discomfort because this will lead them to new discoveries about themselves and will open doors that they probably never even thought to consider before.

In this episode of the Lead Like a Woman Show, Andrea Heuston is joined by Cherry Lao, Co-founder and Creative Director of Citizen Best, to talk about the importance of women being curious and believing in themselves. Cherry shares her background in design, explains what she learned from her parents' business and determination to succeed, the questions she often asks herself and her team, and the role curiosity and diversity has played in her life.