My Biggest Lesson: Che-Na Stephenson
Che-Na Stephenson is a group creative director at Venables Bell + Partners with an impeccable design eye and a deep dedication to building collaborative relationships with her clients. She has spent the past two years leading with purpose and inspiring change for Girl Scouts of the USA and Bob Evans Farms. She has also created award-winning work to champion women’s rights and stand up to the rise in Asian hate.
Follow the people
I didn’t dive into advertising at the typical starting point. After portfolio school and a whirlwind of internships, I somehow skipped the junior phase and cannonballed straight into freelancing. And let’s be real: freelancing is basically survival of the fittest. You either swim or sink to continue to get more work, and with a mountain of student loans looming, I had no choice but to swim.
A year into the New York hustle, job offers started rolling in. I found myself at a crossroads, faced with two tempting but wildly different options. Option one: a startup-ish agency where I’d been freelancing. Amazing people, a super scrappy vibe, and a brand-new NYC office, but... not exactly a high-paying gig. Option two: a juggernaut agency offering more cash to work on an iconic brand. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Except for the tiny detail that I’d be just another cog in a very large, very shiny machine.
Cue the existential dread (and student loan anxiety). Less pay but incredible people? Or more pay at a place where I might fade into the wallpaper? I called my mentor from my first internship to untangle my quarter-life crisis. His advice? Follow the people, not the money or the title. The shiny stuff will come, he said, but the right people? They’ll guide you, fight for you, shield you from office politics, and ensure you grow.
So, I took the leap of faith and joined 72andSunny NY as its seventh hire. It was the best decision I could’ve made. I stayed for six incredible years—not because of the stunning office overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge or the endless stash of bougie snacks (though those didn’t hurt). I stayed for the team. The creative directors who taught me everything and pushed ideas, the brilliant strategists who made our hair-brained ideas make sense, and all the kind, driven people who turned “work” into something more meaningful.
It’s a cliché, but it’s true: the people make the place. And looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.
This advice hit me like a wake-up call because, until then, I was so focused on the short game in my career. I was stuck in a loop of comparing myself to my peers, scrambling to snag the fanciest title or the biggest paycheck. It’s such an easy trap to fall into—and our industry makes it easy to jump to the next title. But I’m so grateful someone took the time to shift my perspective. They reminded me that a career isn’t a sprint to the finish line—it’s a marathon. You’ve got to pace yourself and think long-term.
I started paying more attention to who was making the work I was jealous of rather than what agency it was. That’s how I made decisions about where I would land next.
I still greatly value this advice. It's why I've stayed at agencies for longer than the average creative who feels prone to bounce around for the title and salary bumps. I've been at Venables Bell + Partners for three and a half years. It's an unicorn agency where people are kind to each other and only hard on the work. Not to mention, the spirit of the agency from the top down is incredibly considerate and gracious.
Just take Paul Venables' commitment to service and charitable acts of kindness, ranging from his long history as a foster parent to his and his wife's founding of a nonprofit organisation that creates generational change in impoverished areas of India, and you'll see what I mean.
When the person with his name on the door has done so much, not just in our industry but for humanity, you feel it course through the entire agency. We're given PTO to volunteer at a place of our choosing in addition to volunteering at GLIDE each month. And we have a number of more non-traditional days off, like World Mental Health Day, to just take care of ourselves. It's a very people-first mentality, and that's what really matters.
This is my ultimate career advice, my golden nugget of wisdom. But here’s the catch—it’s not always easy for people to take it to heart, especially when a shiny, irresistible carrot is dangling right in front of them. Still, those who manage to resist the lure always come back grateful, and I hope they’ll pay this wisdom forward.
