Steven Radney

Hi! Meet Steven of Seismic. I met him last October through working out of @809 (where we host the #WeLoveCLT speaker series). He has a skill. It’s called listening. When we have a conversation I can see that he’s actively participating even though he’s not speaking. Does that sound weird? Well, I think it’s awesome and truly appreciate it. It’s something I’d like to do better myself. He also is the first person to make me not feel like a child for having toys on my desk in the office. That’s awesome.

We asked Steven how he thought people would describe him. His answer is below. To test his response we went ahead and asked two people that know him as well. Here’s what they said.

Addie Holby described him as “super chill, curious, and always ready to brainstorm”
Ramya Mahalingam described him as “hyper-context aware”.

What are you passionate about?

I’m passionate about solving problems and my passion is design. I’ve been a designer for… I don’t know how long but formerly trained for about twenty years. I’ve been designing and sketching and exploring since I was in fifth grade. So a long time.

If you could back in time and instantly change on thing about your life what would it be?

That’s interesting because I have watched enough science fiction to know that if you go back and change one thing it may have really weird consequences on the entire world, right? If you forget to brush your teeth one day and then you come back and aliens have taken over the planet. I think if I could change one thing I would have stayed in Calgary and continued to train for the olympics in speed skating.

How do you think people would describe you?

Probably easy going. I’d say curious. Hopefully smart. I think approachable would be in there as well.

What is your greatest indulgence?

A good latte. I’m all about Not Just Coffee. Lately i’ve found the Daily Press to awesome. Usually hanging around one of those is a safe bet.

Where are you ripe with talent and where do you quickly deflate?

I love building experiences whether it’s digital or physical. I think about products as building experiences. That’s my thing. I hate and am easily deflated by preconceived sort of solutions and ideas where the process isn’t allowed to play out. That’s a huge downer. Process is super important but not process in a prescribed way. It should be flexible.

Jolenna asked if you could recommend one spot in Charlotte that everyone should go to what would that be?

Wing Haven Gardens. It has a lot of history. It’s a hidden gem. I think everyone should see it.

You can find Stephen on LinkedIn here or doing rad work for Seismic Partners.