I’m Lori Stephenson, the founder of My Big Sky.
For 10+ years I’ve provided coaching services to students to support them as they navigate their post-secondary and longer-term career decisions.
Prior to this I worked with many mid- and long-term professionals who were unhappy in their work. They were either counting down days to retirement or dreaming of an organizational change with a golden parachute. After every exchange like this, I felt sad.
What if we started earlier to help individuals better understand themselves so they could tie it to their education and career direction? I started working with students.
When it comes to my approach, I am a Life Strategist. My purpose is to help individuals grow in awareness of themselves so they can create a vision of their life based on their uniqueness. This vision might be education, early jobs, or career changes. My job is to expand the options, encourage exploration of possibilities and focus on the factors most important to each individual. It’s rewarding.
So why My Big Sky? I am proudly from Saskatchewan - Land of the Living Skies.
In a Saskatchewan sky there is vastness, possibility, clarity and freedom. Almost everywhere you look there is a horizon - where the sky touches the land.
We create our direction starting with a blank canvas, like the sky. We connect to the groundedness of the earth and of what is. The trick is in finding the harmony between the two - not letting the openness overwhelm, or the reality limit. As a coach I help create the harmony between the two.
My Big Sky is one part of my work. Outside of this, I am a Coach, Facilitator, and Speaker, focused on Leadership Development in the private and public sectors. Early days in my career I worked for CIBC and Accenture. In 2004 I launched my consulting business and focused on Talent Development and Career Management.
