Clare Muscutt talks human Centred Design, Inclusion and LGBTQ+ Womxn in CX with Lara Husselbee
Episode #216 Show Notes
Clare Muscutt – host:
Welcome to the 16th and final episode of the second series of the Women in CX podcast, a series dedicated to real-talk conversations between women in customer experience. Listen in as we share our career stories, relive the moments that shaped us, and voice our opinions as loudly as we like about all manner of CX subjects.
I’ll be your host, Clare Muscutt, and in today’s episode I’ll be talking to a woman from the gay community in Australia who is putting her human-centred design skills to good use supporting organisations to include the excluded.
Let me introduce you to today’s inspiring guest. She began her career in service design on the agency side and went onto work for and with some of Australia’s biggest banks and retailers, honing her craft in design thinking and HCD to where she uses it today supporting social change, including serving on the Board of Directors for an amazing charity called Wear it Purple supporting rainbow young people.
Please welcome to the show CX sister Lara Husselbee. Hey, Lara!
Lara Husselbee:
Hey, Clare. Thanks for having me today.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Oh, thanks so much for joining me. And welcome to everybody listening along, as well. Whereabouts are you joining me from because it’s dark where you are?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, it is, isn’t it? No, so, I’m in Sydney, Australia. It’s 8.30 here, so you’ll have to excuse the wine glass that’s hovering very close to me right now.
Clare Muscutt – host:
It’s totally fine. I’ve got my coffee, but we are 12 hours behind you. So, thanks so much for joining us today. I’m really excited that we’re going to have an awesome conversation about design thinking, human-centred design, and how you’re using your skills to create safe spaces for LGBTQ communities. Does that all sound good?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it. Prepped and ready.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Prepped and ready to go. Woo! So, my first question – as I ask all my guests – is how exactly did you find your way into customer experience?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, pure luck is the real, honest answer. I did a design degree back at university, after most of my life wanting to be a PE teacher. Then, something just snapped, and I went, ‘I can’t deal with children, so I’ll go into design.’
And I found myself around, like, amazingly creative people who were really good at generating beautiful artworks or beautiful graphic pieces that were going to find themselves in advertising, and I just didn’t really feel like that was me. And so, I thought I was going to be in sales, in advertising – my family has a bit of a background, and I was dating someone at the time who was in advertising – so, it just all kind of made sense.
Then, I did this one subject with one of our major banks here, a bank called Westpac, and it was all around research of the customer, and it was like this new thing that you actually ask them a lot early on. And I loved it, and I worked really hard and ended up being offered an internship, and that really just accelerated my career.
So, pretty much, it’s the only thing that I’ve actually done, if I look back consistently at my career, has been working in CX and human-centred design.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Oh, amazing. Yeah, I don’t think any of us ever woke up and thought, ‘I want to be a CX professional’ or a related discipline to that. We all found our way in.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, but I find it funny now, though, that people, like, kids who are at university are actually saying that, whereas obviously for us, it wasn’t on offer, there weren’t courses, etc. Whereas people now know so much more about it than when I started in the industry.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, maybe we’re showing our age now.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, ugh!
Clare Muscutt – host:
No, I’m only joking! Yeah, so, obviously, I’m obsessed with the design side of customer experience, too. I know that when we first met online through Instagram, wasn’t it? And then, you came to London, and we got to have a coffee and really geek out on our love for service design. But for the benefit of the audience, not everyone might be as familiar as us with some of these terms. So, could you give us your perspective on what is design thinking?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, not a problem, and a really great point to start on. I think often we hear human-centred design, design thinking, service design all interchangeably, but really, they are actually distinct things that work in combination.
So, look, design thinking is what it is: it’s thinking like a designer, using that mindset to unpack problems and actually even challenge if it’s the right problem upfront. It’s often used in line with things like innovation, so you’re kind of testing whether or not, whatever the solution is, be it for a service, or a new product, etc., whether or not that’s going to be desirable – so yes, customer or user – if it’s going to be viable, so can it actually bring in money potentially? Or do we have enough money to fund it? Which is obviously an important question.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Very important.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, or do we want to put that much money behind it? And then, feasibly, do we have the tech stack? Are we able to actually do it? Do we have the resources? So, yeah, design thinking is using an array of different tools and, I guess, approaches to unpack that innovation and those questions.
Whereas human-centred design is, again what it says: it’s putting people in the centre of what you’re designing for, but it’s more about usability or hearing from people. It’s that desirability aspect of design thinking. So, it’s really, like, you know, they work hand in hand, and I often call myself a human-centred design professional that uses design thinking and Agile to get information out of people. You know, all the – not buzzwords because I believe in them – but all the lingo.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, yeah. We need to come up with a new version, don’t we? Like a word that summarises all of that as a new discipline.
Lara Husselbee:
It’s true. It’s true. Although, you know, as a queer woman, I’ve got a lot of acronyms anyway when I’m talking about, so it might be a little bit too much.
Clare Muscutt – host:
But I suppose it is a bit of, like, the rainbow of customer experience, isn’t it, when you start thinking about all of the disciplines that actually can drive a significant difference in what customers or users ultimately experience? Without design thinking, I think, these days – especially with digital – and without human-centred design, customer experience becomes a very esoteric, intellectualised thing that doesn’t really deliver that much. So, I’m with you on this being very much part of the future of whatever CX becomes. Sorry, carry on…
Lara Husselbee:
No, I was just going to say, you know, it’s about demystifying both of them for our stakeholders, too, right? Like, even people within the community, but broader, you know, people aren’t going to necessarily engage with what you’re suggesting or co-creating with them if you’re not unpacking that lingo and making it easy for them to use; it’s just a barrier to entry.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah. I suppose in my experience, I’ve always felt, though, because the tolls are so tangible and the outputs are so real, that actually they’re a better way often to bring stakeholders onboard because they can understand the framework. It’s not a framework for CX; it’s a framework for thinking, a framework for arriving at decisions. Because it’s so commercial in being able to say, ‘Well, we’ve listened to our customers or our users, and actually, these are their needs, and this is what we could do for them. But we’re actually going to also put a lens over that of whether or not it’s worth doing from a commercial perspective or a viability perspective.’
I find stakeholders engage with that far more than ideas around strategies for customer experience or changing culture or really – I think realistically what are quite unachievable goals. But the power for me in design thinking and human-centred design is being able to change the culture kind of from the inside out.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, make people feel comfortable with connecting to customer or employee, which surprisingly, you know, we have a privilege in what we do; not everyone has that.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, no. I could go off a tangent now about the empathy we feel as designers and professionals.
Lara Husselbee:
I’m sure that will come up. But this is what we were like at coffee, right? Going off on every tangent.
Clare Muscutt – host:
I know. It’s just so exciting, though, isn’t it? I get genuine chills. So, I think that’s a really helpful description. So, design thinking being the bigger picture of a set of tools that can be used to start with the right problem and guide your way through, refining the approach to it, and human-centred design being very much about usability and – what was the other word that you used?
Lara Husselbee:
Gosh, I don’t know. I guess…
Clare Muscutt – host:
That was a sip of wine ago, wasn’t it?
Lara Husselbee:
Yes! You called me out, Clare.
Clare Muscutt – host:
I’m teasing you. I’m teasing you.
Lara Husselbee:
It’s putting humans in the centre and designing for them. And yes, is it usable, but also is it approachable, I guess? Is it something that they would use? And that’s the kind of extra lens that, paired with design thinking, makes us do what we do, I guess.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, and that has reminded me. The question I was going to ask was about – just having mentioned empathy – so, usability can tend to be quite a practical thing. How do you use your approach to ensure we also deliver on emotional needs for users, customers, employees, whoever you want to fit into that bracket?
Lara Husselbee:
It’s a really great question. And look, I think that there’s lots of different little techniques that you can use and frameworks.
I work with a lot of colleagues at the moment for one of my bigger clients, and they are very much about this whole framework with ‘jobs to be done,’ and I’m certainly not certainly not turning up my nose at it; I think it’s fantastic and I think it’s a great structure. But sometimes, I think there’s smaller things that you can be doing earlier on, so like sharing stories – like you said – giving access to people who don’t have this ability to go out and speak to customers as freely as we get to and sharing those stories back. But then, through time, allowing those roles that might historically not be out engaging with customers have access to that, get that privilege, and that’s a cultural shift, as well, right?
So, I’ve got a great example. When I was quite junior, I was working for an agency here in Sydney, and we were working on a project to improve our rail network. And no surprises here, but a lot of things were delivered in paper form. So, someone would ride a train, get off at the right station when they knew that another train would be coming and passing that particular piece of paper onto the train driver, guard, whatever to relay information. And obviously, that’s not sustainable. I mean, I’m old, but I’m not that old; it wasn’t like that long ago. And so, it was looking at how we could, like, obviously digitise that experience and make it an engaging project for customers, and it was all driven out of IT.
So, you know, again I was down in the depths sitting next to all these fabulous IT people who had worked for ages for this particular company – and it’s government-owned – and they had so many different restrictions on them, and they had never had the ability to ever go over and meet the train guys that literally were just over the road. And yet, all of a sudden, I was sitting between the two of them. That for me, as a very junior designer at the time, service designer, realising what a privilege it is for what we do, but also never to like, if you’re agency side, sit there and be like, ‘I can’t believe the client hasn’t done this already,’ because there are so many constraints. And growing up, I’ve certainly learnt that too.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, yeah. I think sometimes, it’s that fresh pair of eyes, isn’t it, that someone like you or I or other people with these skills can come and kind of like take a helicopter view of some of the problems that organisations are facing and be able to see it very much from that human…
Lara Husselbee:
Absolutely.
Clare Muscutt – host:
… perspective? And actually, it’s so insightful, and I’ve had clients comment to me, like, ‘Well, it’s so obvious, but we didn’t see this.’
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah. And I think also we have the privilege of, like you’re saying with that bird’s eye view, we’re coming with fresh eyes to solve potentially what the problem is – and again, thinking of design thinking, it’s about making sure that that’s actually…
Clare Muscutt – host:
It’s the right problem.
Lara Husselbee:
… the problem. Yeah, or one of many that needs to be focused on and prioritised. But also, it’s the problems within the organisation that allow people to not meet those customers or employees. I think we have that privilege of being able to view both.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yep, yep. Yeah, and I think it’s the problem behind the problem we tend to find, isn’t it? So, the problem might be manifesting in a metric somewhere, but actually, the reason or the root cause of that is most of the time a human issue.
Lara Husselbee:
Absolutely. I would even say to extend that, most of the time, it lies in your employee experience…
Clare Muscutt – host:
Agreed.
Lara Husselbee:
… and a lack of focus there because all that fails.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, a hundred per cent.
Lara Husselbee:
So, improving stuff for your employees – when I mean stuff, I mean all of the things they have to do – but it’s about improving their experience, and often, that’s when you get the most wins most rapidly too.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, agreed, agreed. And that’s that kind of like change from the inside out, right? That once people feel empowered, listened to, engaged, and able to better do their job, that’s going to trigger a much bigger landslide of impact than trying to go with a top-down strategy and plan everything out.
So, talking about inclusion, so you referenced yourself as a queer woman. Can you tell us a bit more about why inclusion, especially in LGBTQ – QT, TQ… oh gosh, I think I’ve got it the wrong way round again – is important to you?
Lara Husselbee:
Look, I will say to that, don’t worry about getting the acronym wrong; it’s obviously the intent behind it is with a lot of care. And as someone in a community, it’s easy to stumble across it, as well.
So, look, yeah, I do identify as a queer woman, and I’m in a very privileged position because through a lot of hard work and some amazing support, I feel really confident jumping on a podcast speaking to someone across the other side of the world and identifying and saying that out loud, but there are many, many, many people within my community and other minorities or intersections that don’t have that privilege. And that can be for a raft of different reasons, through past experience, religion, just even what it’s going to be like coming out to their parents or workplace. And I’ve experienced it, as well, you know, again my story is kind of sweet, but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t had my fair share of being excluded even now that I’m a comfortable queer person.
But yeah, I guess for me, inclusion is thinking beyond the mass and looking for minorities and those intersections where actually some really amazing golden nuggets and stories lie that you can improve people’s lives, and that comes back to the empath. And maybe why I was drawn to this career is, you know, the idea that we can improve it even if it’s just one point in someone’s life – obviously sounds so idealistic – but same kind of thing as you don’t know who you’re walking past and what they’re experiencing, so a smile might help. Well, why not do the same for minority groups when you are in a privileged position? And that certainly is not me speaking for those minority groups, but you know, if I have the ability to think beyond mass and think about those minorities, then I’d love to design for them, I’d love to work with them to design for them.
Clare Muscutt – host:
I think it’s a really important word you said there was ‘intersection’, and as an intersectional feminist, I think it’s so important, again, recognising – and I think you’ve said it really beautifully – recognising the privileged position many of us hold in not having the experience of a minority group, yet it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to bring people who feel on the outside in.
I know with the Women in CX Community that we’re building, one of our core values is going to be about inclusion, and throughout our design process that we’re going through at the moment, you know, being able to hold that front and centre of whatever we’re doing I think is fundamental to who we’re becoming as a brand, too. So, I’m really interested to learn, I guess, from you whilst we’re on this journey…
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, no problem.
Clare Muscutt – host:
… how are you using human-centred design to include the excluded?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, I mean, great question. I might just, like, flick back I guess to kind of what I do and then go from there.
So, I am a consultant, and I work underneath my own brand. Really, sometimes, I feel like that gives me the tax deduction – I have an ABN structure, which is what we call it here – but other times, it actually allows me to work on multiple clients at the same time, and that’s often where I’m working with various community groups to help them use human-centred design.
So, through that, I’ve been exposed to, I guess, different organisations and one of them was Wear it Purple, which really sings true to me. The organisation exists because basically statistics around LGBTQ youth – I mean statistics in general across the community are horrible but particularly for our youth – where suicide rates are just, they’re just shocking. You know, unless you have a queer kid… and even then, you might not realise how every day can be a battle or you can be excluded from different things. So, I now sit on the board for Wear it Purple, and it’s a lovely full-circle moment for me because I have a bit of a story from high school with that.
And I was brought in basically to use human-centred design to help Wear it Purple go from a real grassroots organisation that was starting to get a lot of focus and continue that focus, but actually make it quite robust and have a lot of rigour and structure to be able to support that. So, instead of getting someone in who was amazing at admin – certainly not me – it was about going, ‘Well, what are we, how are we designing for and supporting the different groups that make up Wear it Purple?’ So, obviously, there’s youth, there’s corporate sponsors, there’s partnerships with other community groups, there’s board members, blah, blah, blah. So, what’s that structure? And instead of me just coming in and designing it, which is not what I do, it’s working with everyone to come up with those principles around inclusion, to come up with our framework, to come up with how we engage those community groups, etc. And is it an uphill battle? Yep, absolutely. We are all volunteers on our day jobs.
And I guess through that, then, it’s also given me a lot of exposure to other queer community groups or charities. So, I’ve done stuff for the Leukaemia Foundation, helping them journey what it’s like for those who are stepping into palliative care. From that, I’m now sitting on an LGBTQ steering committee that is about that intersection of people who are experiencing that very high-level, very sad, traumatic, almost end-of-life experience but are also from the queer community.
I hope to one day step into a similar space around age care because there’s high statistics of those who are queer going back into the closet when they go into age care, as well.
So yeah, look, I would say it’s this – what’s the best way to describe my career? It’s basically going, ‘Well, there’s another opportunity where I can help people understand design principles through design thinking and human-centred design that are going to make these community groups stronger and maximise their reach, really, whilst minimising the risk.’ That’s the big thing for me.
So yeah, I usually have a big client – and usually, it’s a bank at the moment – and with them there I’ll be very involved in one of their Pride groups or gender groups, etc., and then on the outside do a lot of work in the community.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, I really feel you. It’s like having the day job to be able to fund what you really want to do, right?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, absolutely. I’m working for a New Zealand client at the moment and they’re like two hours ahead of us here in Sydney. I’m like, ‘Yes, I get to get up two hours early, start work, and then I’ve got that little bit at the end where I can do all the other stuff.’
Clare Muscutt – host:
Do your own stuff. Oh, bless you.
And you mentioned your own story there from high school. Is that the kind of story that’s helped you to become so engaged with wanting to use your skills to make a difference?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, I think so, and a bit of a pairing of the right time. So, now I have the skills but also now I have the mindset to understand maybe the systemic issues, not just the emotional ones that were me in it. Maybe that’s age, but actually I think it’s kind of where society is at, as well, at being able to understand. You know, there was more discussions around…
Clare Muscutt – host:
Last year.
Lara Husselbee:
… queer culture. Yeah, so basically for me, I had a pretty shocking end of my time at school, but before that had had a brilliant time and went from having great friends, great teachers who would come have a barbecue with – could I sound more Australian?
Clare Muscutt – host:
Have a barbie.
Lara Husselbee:
But they’d come have a barbecue at my house.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Did you have shrimp on it?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, probably… with my parents and my – it was a bit of a community sense. And then, when I came out, I just had zero support and in fact found that there was rumours going through all the school and blah, blah, blah. And whilst now, where I stand it sounds so small because I’ve grown so much from it, what I’ve realised since is that actually it wasn’t just me that didn’t have support; it was the teachers, and the parents, along with the kids, who didn’t have the language or didn’t have the resources to be able to help their kids actually understand that there isn’t a huge difference in that. And the language that we choose to use, those colloquial terms, just can be insulting. So, that’s what Wear it Purple does. Basically, we have a Friday at the end of August, everyone wears purple – I know that you did it before…
Clare Muscutt – host:
I did, yep. Last year.
Lara Husselbee:
But basically, it’s showing visible support for people by wearing purple, and you might never have a conversation, but a kid can see, ‘Hey, that person is wearing purple on that day and it means that they support me.’ People buy merchandise through us, and that means that we can then send free packs to schools that register, and that has a whole array of different decorations.
But also, throughout the year, what we’re also doing is building lots of different resources etc. for teachers to access. Australia’s got some pretty shocking policies around – and particularly politicians pushing stuff at the moment. You know, we have to be very clear around teachers have to engage with us, but the best thing is that we’re seeing more and more schools register, more teachers, more students standing up to principals and saying, ‘We want Wear it Purple in schools,’ and they’re great conversations, right? It’s what it’s about is opening up those conversations, and they certainly didn’t exist when I was at school.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah. So, it’s powerful to be powered by your own backstory.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah. And look, you know, I speak passionately about it because it’s my story, but I’m also very conscious that mine’s sweet compared to a lot of people. And I’ve used it to fuel some fire, but how it probably fuels me in my career is that empathy angle that we were speaking about before, to know what it’s like to sit on the fringe or to have people not ask you questions because they might not know what the right terms are. I can’t count the amount of times someone’s not asked me if I have anyone in my life because they’re worried that I’ll…
Clare Muscutt – host:
Be offended.
Lara Husselbee:
… that they’ll get something wrong, yeah.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, yeah. Like you saw, my awkward moment when I was like, ‘Oh my god, I said the term wrong maybe.’
Lara Husselbee:
But that’s…
Clare Muscutt – host:
But you’re right: it’s recognising the intention, isn’t it, instead of the correctness in it?
Lara Husselbee:
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Clare Muscutt – host:
So, thinking about how the women listening to the podcast could take some advice away – in terms of either personally, or professionally, or in the context of customer experience – be thinking about creating spaces that are genuinely inclusive, not just performative or for the purpose of branding, which we see a lot of businesses do, especially in the last…
Lara Husselbee:
Especially around Pride.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Yeah, especially around Pride. That performative allyship… But how do we make it genuinely inclusive? What would you suggest Women in CX think about or do?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, look, I think that’s a really hard question because if your brand hasn’t been involved in one of these causes for a while, you’re always going to get that scepticism from the outside. But it goes back to what we were talking about before about designing from your employees. And I promise you within a lot of organisations, there are going to be these different intersections that exist in employees that either don’t feel safe to come out or be who they are or don’t feel celebrated or seen even.
So, you know, start by reviewing your culture and looking at how, you know, becoming an ally for one of these particular groups. So, one of the banks that I was working for had a really great diversity and inclusion policy that had lots of different staff groups, so on the structural level that would be my number one is go find those out.
My number two is probably, like, have a listen to other people’s stories and actually listen; don’t come in and be like, ‘Here, I’m going to design for you.’ It’s like, ‘Let’s use co-creation the way it’s meant to be,’ which is cross-functional and collaboration. But listen to those minority groups and get them to design for them, as well. And what that basically involves is a higher level of empathy to seek out stories that might not actually be comfortable, or you might not feel comfortable in certain spaces, but step into them.
And for example, we have this amazing series that runs here in Sydney called ‘Queerstories’, and it’s run by this ace woman called Maeve Marsden, and I think monthly she gets a bunch of different people from the queer community or allies to tell stories, and they can be just like really little things, like extremely funny ones through to heartbreak or their coming out story or whatever. And if I look around the room, I see some amazing people who are probably from the queer community, but I don’t see a lot of like…
Clare Muscutt – host:
Allies.
Lara Husselbee:
… yeah, allies. And it might be that they don’t feel like it’s a safe space, but then when I ask people to come, they feel like it is. And so, I’ll use my mum for an example, she loves writing, she’s a big supporter of mine, but when I’ve asked her, she’s like, ‘Oh, that’s your thing.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, actually, that’s fundamentally me, one, but also two, this is a way to learn.’
So, seek out those different spaces, and I certainly do it; I need to get better at it. We recently had what other people like to call Australia Day here, and for those who don’t believe it should be on that date, like myself, it’s the 26th January, and I went to some rallies and sat with a lot of different indigenous people, be it friends or those that I don’t know, to hear the stories and why the date is so a horrible date, and that even changing the date is not going to do much; there’s a lot more work that needs to be done.
So, I think, yeah, my other answer is throw yourself into situations which might not be comfortable but with the intent to learn and listen, and then you will empathise.
Clare Muscutt – host:
This happens so often on the podcast, but I get this rush of like emotion, and it makes the hairs on my arms stand up. But a few things that you said there just really resonated with me, like, putting yourself in the uncomfortable space is where empathy starts, right? And we have to normalise that feeling and lean into it because so many of us feel it and then run away immediately.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, totally.
Clare Muscutt – host:
The example you gave even of like your mum not feeling like, ‘Well, that’s your thing, not mine.’ If we could lean into more of those things that aren’t our thing, they’re someone else’s, and genuinely be part of celebrating, I thought was a great word, the experience of others that even though it might not be directly something we’ve experienced or ever will because we won’t have to have a coming out story or face racism or whatever, just that feeling it just gave me then of, ‘Yeah, the way to do this is not spaces that exclude anyone, but that we can come together with a real desire to learn, and share, and grown, and lean in, and understand and support one another.’
So, it doesn’t sound like you’ve got any extra time at all, but we have a diversity and inclusion mini-group forming already, even though we’ve not launched the community. We’ve got our first meeting tomorrow. Obviously, we are on a completely different time zone: one woman’s in South Africa; one woman’s in Canada; I’m in the UK; you’re in Australia.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, I believe I’ve spoken on a panel… is it Mandisa?
Clare Muscutt – host:
Mandisa, yes!
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, I spoke on a couple of panels with Jonathan with her.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Ah, amazing. Yeah, so, she’s our diversity and inclusion lead, but the group is growing so rapidly because, as you said, we’re discovering all these different intersections that we really want to get this right and help to create that space that you’re talking about for people to meet together, find support, but also to learn and feel like we can not have to be scared of the words or not know what to say. So, I’d love you to be in somehow…
Lara Husselbee:
You know I’ll always do what you say, Clare.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Aw!
Lara Husselbee:
I’ll always sign up.
Clare Muscutt – host:
I got you at just the right point in the glass of wine, then, didn’t I, to agree?
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, you did. You did. Well done!
Clare Muscutt – host:
Listen, it’s been amazing talking to you. I know like when I first met you online, I felt that true sense of sisterhood, and then when I met you in London and the ongoing conversations we’ve always managed to have. And I know this has taken way longer than we expected to be able to actually have this conversation, but I’d just like to say thank you so much for sharing your stories, for sharing your perspective and your insights. I found it really valuable, and I’m sure women in CX listening will, too.
Lara Husselbee:
Ah, my absolute pleasure, Clare. Thank you so much for having me. And always, thank you for getting us all onboard. What you’ve created is fabulous, and it’s all done through your determination and grit. So, well done.
Clare Muscutt – host:
The best is yet to come.
Lara Husselbee:
Yeah, I’m excited.
Clare Muscutt – host:
So, thanks ever so much, Lara. Thanks to everyone listening, and we’ll see you all – not next week because this is actually the last in our series. Series 3 will be back in six weeks’ time once we’ve got the community launch event underway, but as this is my side hustle as much as everything else is, we’re going to stop for this little while. So, thanks for being our final episode. You’ve been amazing, and hopefully, I’ll get to see you again soon. Bye, Lara.
Lara Husselbee:
Bye, Clare.
Clare Muscutt – host:
Thanks for listening to the Women in CX podcast with me, Clare Muscutt. If you enjoyed the show, please drop us a like, subscribe, and leave a review on whichever platform you’re listening or watching on. And if you want to know more, please join us at womenincx.community, and follow the Women in CX page on LinkedIn.
We’re taking a break from the podcast for a month to focus on building the Women in CX Community platform and prepare for our launch event on International Women’s Day on March the 8th. We’ll be back for Series 3 then with a list of stellar guests from the business side of CX. The team and I can't wait to see you all at the launch. Bye for now!