Season 3 | Episode 8 – Places She Shapes with Zoe Smeeth

Some people map out exactly where they will end up. Kara Carter, owner and director of Spacelab, is not one of them. She was the kid who loved to draw, the teenager juggling three jobs, the graduate who had no idea how you actually turn a talent for art into a living. What she did have was a quiet, stubborn work ethic and a knack for saying yes before she felt ready.

This week Kara joins Zoe to trace a career that started with a summer placement and somehow, 21 years later, ended with her buying the company. There was no grand plan. There was a chance meeting at university, a competition win, and a founder who saw something in her she could not yet see in herself.

But the road to ownership was anything but smooth. Kara is honest about the years of waiting, the con ...