We recently connected with Laura Barrett Larkins and have shared our conversation below.
Laura, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I moved around a lot as a kid, and often at really inopportune times, so I didn’t have much of a choice to be honest! I think adults have a tendency to minimize the things that children are going through but starting new schools in 6th grade, another in 7th grade (in a different state) and then again junior year of high school (again, in yet another state) shaped a big part of who I am today. When you are thrown into a situation or new environment – or school, in my case, in which you know no one, and everyone already has their “cliques” you learn to find your way in. I learned quite early that people aren’t necessarily trying to exclude people or keep them out, they are simply comfortable with their surroundings and not looking around to see if someone else needs a lifeline. That has helped me a lot in my career.
In general I think that has also made me quite an open person because I know what it’s like to be the “new kid” whether that be literally in school or figuratively in the industry marketplace. I don’t gatekeep what I know, I am always open to learning new things from various sources.
That and freelancing. Freelancers are so resilient. Not always knowing where your next paycheck is coming from is a WILD journey and not for the faint of heart.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I wear many hats, a typical multi-hyphenate millennial.
At present, I am largely focused on growing my business, LeBL Creative Consulting. We are a small boutique agency that creates social media content for brands in the lifestyle, fashion, food & beverage, and artisan spaces. I especially love helping makers and artisans curate a digital presence that is on par with luxury brands so they can compete in an oversaturated marketplace.
I am a digital content creator myself over at @thelauralarkins and have a lot of fun flexing my creative muscles there and sharing tidbits of my life and things I love on a personal level. I do not know how to niche down at all on that account though so if you choose to follow me, I hope you enjoy chaos.
And I am also an actress, though between moving to the UK in 2019, Covid, and then the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, it’s been a really strange couple of years to be adjacent to that world and I haven’t had a ton of opportunities to work on projects (but I love being on camera and welcome all opportunities to put myself out there in that way!).
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Love this question!
1. Being adaptable and even comfortable with change. The digital marketing world (and social media in general) is practically living and breathing at this point. It is CONSTANTLY changing, so if you’re someone who really thrives on routine, I think working in social media might not be the best fit. I wake up every morning and read at least 3 articles about new features on various platforms and then I have to go learn how to use them. This is especially true in the dawn of AI. If you want to work in this world, get comfortable with the idea that everything you think you know can and will change in the blink of an eye.
2. Sociology. Believe it or not sociology has been way more impactful in my career than any marketing class has ever been. I find it is more important to understand people, groups of people, how they interact, and what they want than it is to know how to create a generic marketing funnel. Don’t get me wrong, you need to know how to build that funnel, but it is secondary in my experience to understanding consumer behavior.
3. Photography classes. Take photography classes or find a photography mentor. I wish I had done this earlier in my career. You need to be able to shoot content for your clients on something more than a phone.
Take classes, join groups, go to local pop ups where creatives are sharing their craft with you. The more tangible skills you have in this industry the better!
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
A current obstacle I am facing, that I am attempting to turn on it’s head into a positive, is the introduction of AI in my industries.
AI is doing work like copywriting blogs and social media captions in seconds, it is generating images with simple word prompts. The fear is that these tools could put models, writers, and artists out of business, not to mention out-pricing human work during a cost-of-living crisis. However, at the moment, I am using it as a tool for inspiration. There hasn’t been a single AI written blog or caption that I haven’t had to revise and add a human touch to, there hasn’t been a single image AI has created that I haven’t had to photoshop. So i have started using it for things such as mood boarding content for clients, providing me with a blog template or outline rather than writing the entire blog. It’s like a helpful intern who is new at their job so you still need to check their work before it goes live anywhere.
While I believe criticisms of AI are entirely valid, I also don’t think it’s going anywhere so I prefer to use it to my advantage to save myself time, which ultimately saves me money. I am trepidatious, but optimistic that we can learn to utilize AI tools ethically.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.leblcreative.co
- Instagram: instagram.com/thelauralarkins
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-barrett-larkins-a6586870/
- Twitter: No longer on Twitter but I am on Threads! @thelauralarkins
- Other: Personal website: www.laurabarrettlarkins.com
