Hey there. Welcome to this very special edition of the Small Business Made Simple podcast. Boy, have I got an episode for you today. It is International Women’s Day in the year 2024, and we are celebrating with a very special edition of this podcast. I put the call out to my community a few weeks ago to say, hey, who wants to come on the podcast? And 15 amazing women answered the call and have, yeah. Now I’ve got a podcast that’s a little bit longer than usual. So feel free to put it on 1 and a half speed or to sit and relax or go for a long walk or just sit and have a bit of a listen.

The wisdom in the ladies on the podcast is. Out of this world. I’ve been just so blown away with some of their answers, some of their insights into the questions that I answered. Oh, I’m sorry. That I asked. I didn’t answer the question. They did. Really, like, there was really only 3 questions.

Introduce yourself to the audience. And then the second question was around, the UN theme this year. So the UN, the United Nations theme for International Women’s Day was count her in invest in women and accelerate progress. It was such an amazing such an interesting theme for this particular year in 2024. I will just say as a side note that there is a website called internationalwomen’sday.com. That is not the theme that we follow on International Women’s Day. That is a business making money out of a business, which is totally fine. Don’t get me wrong.

But the UN is what. The United Nations are what we wanna follow on International Women’s Day, and we want to follow their theme, of course, of count her in Investing Women. So I basically asked my, guests to answer the question of what would, what would help Accelerate Progress Women in their industry, in their communities, in their, trades as such. You know, an answer of 2 or 3 minutes, how could they see their industry, their community, their trade working better to count more women in, to invest more in women, and to accelerate progress of women. The second question was really how are they spending international International Women’s Day. So I keep going to say International Rural Women’s Day, but that’s in October. So it’s International Women’s Day that I’m trying to get out through my mouth. So they were the questions that I asked them.

Their answers, like I said, are really thought provoking, very diverse, and I can’t wait to, have you listen to their answers. Now if by chance you want to connect with any of these ladies, there is a blog on my website, socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/blog. And all their links are in there together with a bit of a, biography, but also a transcript of this podcast. So that might be something you would like to read rather than something you would like to listen to, Or maybe you would like to do both because you’re already here listening. Now for me, how you know, what’s my industry? What’s my trade? What’s my community? I guess I would take a bit of a rural lens on this. Like, I know that International Rural Women’s Day has its own special day. But for me, you know, how can we count more women in, invest more in women, and accelerate progress when it comes to running a small business in a rural or regional area? When it comes to running a big business in a rural or regional area, you know, the farms are big businesses these days. Farmers just aren’t these little tiny businesses or most of them aren’t.

Some of them are multi multimillion dollar businesses that, you know, really, I guess, untapped resources, in rural and regional Australia. So for me, I I think it’s the rising tide lifts all boats. I I it’s that is one of my favorite sayings, and I feel that there’s been a real movement with women. Certainly, the women that I get to surround myself with, these days being in small business. And, yeah, it was very different when I was in law. I really felt like it was every woman for themselves. I don’t know if it’s still like that in corporate land. I don’t live in corporate land anymore.

But in small business land where I am at the moment, I really feel like it’s rising tide lifts all boats, you know, women just lifting each other out. Women saying your name in a crowded room type of theory where, you know, let’s just all band together and make this thing work. Jules Brooke, who is one of my guests today, she is just such a shining example of what I’m talking about of gathering amazing women together to lift each other out and building that community as well. Think whatever industry you’re in, how you can count her in investing women and accelerate progress really just comes down to having a look around yourself. You know, if your workplace is predominantly a male orientated workplace, Is that fair? Is that equitable? Is there changes that could be made? If you’re the board you sit on is mainly made up of men, and there’s only a few women on that board. Is that fair? Is that equitable? Are there changes that could be made? I just really think that we just need to, as women, as men, just need to look around and have a bit of a look. What changes should be made? What changes can be made? I certainly haven’t got the solution, but I’m prepared to be part of the solution. I live the philosophy of, ready for aim as many of you may know.

So for me, it’s all about taking action. We want things to change. We need to take the action, but we need to include the entire community to make that change, not just the women and not just leave it to the men. Not that I think that’s being left to the men or it’s just the women, but I just think that is the way to create change is to include everybody and have more of us take those micro actions, which can then build to big actions. What I’ll be doing on international women’s day is I’m running a, Zoom chat at lunchtime. So if you’re listening to this in real time and you haven’t got anything on at lunchtime, connect with me and let’s do a bit of a Zoom meeting. Bring you lunch. I’ll bring the Zoom connection.

And we’ll just do a bit of networking, a bit of a hello, get to know each other. So that will be my day as well as doing a bit of a cheers at the end of the day with my beautiful daughter and some friends. It’s gonna be good. It’s going to be a nice Friday night. Anyway, happy international women’s day to you. I hope wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, you celebrate it. And if I could ask you one little favor for today, maybe it’s the one thing you do for another woman is share this podcast. Share this podcast on your socials, share this podcast with 5 other women that you know, that you really feel would love to have a listen to the 15 amazing women that you’re about to hear from, because that would mean the world to me and the world to them.

Take care. Happy International Women’s Day, and I really hope you enjoy this podcast. Jenn x

Helga Svendsen:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helgasvendsen/
Website: www.helgasvendsen.com.au

Hi. My name’s Helga Svendsen, and I’m the host of the Take on Board podcast and the founder and connector in chief of the Take on Board community, which is an active, engaged community of women and gender diverse people who want to be their best in the boardroom. We connect through an active Facebook group that helps each other out, supports each other in cheer squads and also events. And of course, the Take On Board podcast. I’m also an executive leadership coach and facilitator, and I love working with individuals and organisations who wanna make the world a better place. So the theme for, this year’s International Women’s Day is countering, invest in women, accelerate progress. I do a lot of work in the board space around diversity, equity and inclusion in the boardroom. And in my view, what would help accelerate the progress for women? It’s pretty simple, just appoint more women to the boardroom.

I find it hard to believe that if there is merit based appointments, there wouldn’t be more women in the boardroom. It’s just not possible that women don’t have the skills or experience for the boardroom. They definitely do. And all of the research around diversity, equity and inclusion is that diverse groups make better decisions. So, boardrooms need women, boardrooms need more diversity. And if the boardroom that you’re involved in, maybe the executive team of or maybe in the boardroom yourself does not at least have gender equality, then I think your board needs to ask itself why that is the case and put in place some systems and processes and practices so that women are equally represented in the boardroom. I would also say to women, you need to apply for board roles. It is a fantastic way of learning new skills and really combining operational experience with strategic thinking.

Women are definitely great thinkers, fabulous strategists and curious and ask all of the right questions, which is exactly what makes a good board member. So I really encourage women to put up your hand to be in the boardroom and for those that are already in the boardroom, for the women and the men in the boardroom, I really encourage you to ensure that there is that equality in the boardroom because that will accelerate progress, not just for those individual women, but also for the organizations that they govern. Their profitability will be accelerated, their success will be accelerated and the growth will be accelerated because that diversity in the boardroom means better results. So how will I be spending International Women’s Day on the 8th March? I am spending it in one of my favorite ways possible. Whilst I live in Melbourne, Australia, I will be up in sunny Noosa on International Women’s Day, partly because my beautiful 93 year old uncle lives there, so I will be visiting him. However, on International Women’s Day, first thing in the morning, I will be joining a take on board accelerated group, which is a small group of women who come together once a month to not have different topics about being in the boardroom. And one of the groups is meeting that morning. So, I will be with that group and we are gonna be matching out all sorts of interesting things around our topic of the day.

I will then probably go for a walk in Noosa National Park if it’s not too hot, which will be lovely and perhaps have lunch with my uncle. And then that evening, I am having a take on board meet up at the Noosa Boat House. This is where the take on board community from, you know, sunny Noosa and surrounds come together for a really casual, informal drink where we can just talk, connect, and chat about governance topics and being our best in the boardroom. And indeed, this year about accelerating progress and celebrating what we are doing to accelerate progress, both individually, but for all women in the boardroom. So that’s how I’ll be celebrating International Women’s Day 2024. I would just like to add, Jen, thank you. Thank you so much for, putting out the call to the community to reflect on International Women’s Day and how we can accelerate progress and for inviting responses. And thank you for all that you do for your community and helping us be our best in business as well.

Thanks for all that you do.

Moushumi Sikand:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/moushumis
Website: http://www.ethicalcfo.com.au

Hello everyone. My name is Moushumi. I’m a CP qualified finance professional. I’m so excited to be here on this special edition of Small Business Made Simple. I’ve been working in the Australian accounting industry for over 20 years. My business, Ethical CFO Services and Bookkeeping and Ethical Business Mentoring, was born to provide women entrepreneurs a sanctuary to ask the questions they’ve been hesitant to ask elsewhere and to have the solutions in a straightforward, no nonsense environment. I work exclusively with women because I’ve seen the need for a safe space which is free from judgment and fluff.

In a market cluttered with complicated coaching services, my mission is clear, to provide succinct mentoring that transforms businesses and lives. In conjunction with their own valuable inputs, I help women entrepreneurs unravel the finance related complexities and equip them with life changing tools for business success and happiness. I don’t provide business coaching. I provide tailored 1 on 1 transformative journey to handle the financial as well as mindset side of things within a business. In women, what a great topic. I love it. As an outsource CFO who works with women and a keen social researcher, I find that women are often hesitant in taking control of their finances and it’s often because of their limiting financial know how. I feel empowering women to be friends with numbers, have an objective structured plan for the path ahead, and have a confident ability to make informed, savvy financial decisions, we’ll see a lot more women heading successful businesses.

I often say to my teenage sons, there’s no such thing as a difficult subject. Once you understand the subject, it’s no longer difficult. That’s all there is to it. Women who find numbers, reports, and financial planning difficult simply need a helping hand understanding those things. And they will be able to supercharge their progress within the business world. I believe that my industry, accounting and business insights, can help accelerate this growth by providing no nonsense straightforward business mentoring to women. As a business mentor for women, I feel it’s all about breaking those outdated stereotypes and for those glass and those glass barriers. From crafting killer business plans, establish smart business performance metrics to being able to decode the stories those financial statements are trying to tell.

These are the skills that will help women become business superheroes with a cape in the business world. And this growth journey must occur in a compassionate, friendly, fun, jargon free, and judgment free environment. Another thing I feel in the business world that will accelerate this ascent for women is celebrating those wins. Not just our own but each other’s. Every time we hear us hear a woman’s success story, we can pop the confetti and throw the glitter in celebration of her. And if we hear about a failure, we support, empathize, empower, lend a helping hand where we can. And finally, in the context of business, I’d like to say one more thing. I firmly believe that progress requires us to collaborate and work together.

Men are not just our counterparts in the business world, but in all aspects of life. And it’s crucial that we move forward together creating a more inclusive and equitable world for everyone. We need to move away from the mindset of us versus them. It may seem paradoxical to discuss men on International Women’s Day, but as women, we are capable of it. Compassion and love have always been our strong suits. In the past, men made the mistake in believing that women were inferior. It’s crucial that we don’t perpetuate this mistake. Our aim is equality, not inferiority.

Neither ours nor theirs. Embracing this perspective will foster an environment where we can all coexist, support one another, and celebrate each other, leading to a harmonious atmosphere of well-being rather than hostility. On this International Women’s Day, let’s raise the toes to equality, empowerment, support, and a whole lot of sassy success. What am I doing on International Women’s Day? Well, I’m really excited because I have something really exciting planned. This International Women’s Day, a few women in my book club circle and I decided to do something different to commemorate the day. Early morning, we are going to 1,000 steps, the 1,000 steps for a bit of a hike, and then afterwards, we’ll enjoy some breakfast together. Always fun. While discussing the book we are currently reading by my favorite author of all time, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Strongly, strongly recommend. There’s always so much to unpack from any writing of that incredible woman. I’m sure it’ll be fun and I seriously look forward to it. Well, I really hope everyone enjoys this very special day celebrated as International Women’s Day. Celebrate it the way that’s natural to you. Party. Go hiking. Get a facial.

Have a picnic. Spend it with your friends or the special women in your lives. Celebrating women is celebrating empathy, celebrating talent and hard work, celebrating crazy genius ideas and total lack of any fear to be different, celebrating courage and patience, celebrating female camaraderie and family, celebrating fee freedom to shed tears and ability to be bold in the face of adversity. Celebrating women is to celebrate creation. Enjoy.

Sandra McGuire:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sjmcguire
Website: www.moneywellness.com.au

Hi. I’m Sandra McGuire of Money Wellness. I’m a certified money coach who help people take charge of their finances by demystifying financial management and shifting money mindsets from limiting to limitless. I equip people with the mindset, knowledge and confidence they need to make informed money decisions that are aligned to their life goals and help them create a fulfilling life. My mission is to create a world where everyone has equal opportunity to experience the financial freedom that they deserve. This International Women’s Day, the theme is invest in women and accelerate progress. Unfortunately, we need to have these conversations every single year to recognize that it’s not a level playing field for men and women financially. We have the gender pay gap.

There’s been some data released this week which shows that on average, women earn 14.5% less than men and that could be more depending on what industry you’re working. There’s also the wealth gap at retirement and lower levels of financial literacy and confidence for women. And don’t get me started on the pink tax where women pay more for some items and also due to society standards, have to spend more time and money on their appearance. I want to be a leader in the financial industry, empowering women to achieve their financial potential by normalizing money conversations and providing a safe learning space to admit what we don’t know and not feel embarrassed about mistakes in the past. We can educate women about the basics of personal money management and investing and how to build their wealth and show them it doesn’t have to be hard or complicated to take control and make informed decisions which will improve women’s financial situation. For International Women’s Day, I will be attending 2 different events with panels of interesting speakers. But I’m sick of just talking about the problem. I want firm actions that we can take to fix this inequity.

Last week, I attended a function recognising my local Bendigo Community Bank becoming a social enterprise. I was lucky enough to win the raffle prize of a donation to a charity of my choice. So I believe everyone deserves the same opportunity to thrive in life, but some of us have more difficult life circumstances than others. So those of us who can should support and help other women. So I decided to donate $500 to Escobags. They provide necessities in an escape bag for victims of abuse and their children that they may need when they have to leave a dangerous or abusive situation. If you can, I encourage you to support this cause or any other organisations that lift up women? As women, we should take the opportunity to be each other’s support and cheer squad and together challenge the society structures that create financial inequality for women.

Lizzie Macaulay:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizzie-macaulay/
Website: https://write-it.com.au/

Hey there. I’m Lizzie Macaulay. I am the founder, chief copywriter, and chief copy coach over at Write It Copywriting, the copywriting service for small business owners and entrepreneurs who are ready to find, use and amplify their signature voice to build a dedicated following. How could we invest better in women? Well, I think honestly, we need to start by letting them know it’s okay to say what’s on their mind. They don’t have to fall in line with whatever the status quo is. They can beat their own drum, carve their own path and step forward and into whatever it is that makes them really sore. It doesn’t have to be what they’ve been told to do, simply what feels good and right to them. I think that’s where the magic starts.

Okay. You call me. I don’t have any huge plans. This international women’s day. I’ll actually, I’m booked into back to back calls with the women in my space So we can dive into their messaging, dive into what is going to be the most effective for them so that they can make the impact that they need to make and create that ripple effect of positivity that flows out through their communities. So it might not be as glamorous as some other people, have planned, but it’s certainly where my heart is happiest. So I am delighted with my international women’s day plans. Have an amazing day.

Everyone don’t forget the most important thing about being in business is to have fun while you do it. Find the joy, break the rules, do what you want and find a way to do what works for you. Remember if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work. So I’ll leave you with that. Have an amazing international women’s day.

Laetitia Andrac:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laetitiaandrac/
Website: https://www.essentialshift.co/

Hello. My name is Leatitia Andrac, and I am the CEO and the founder of Essential Shift Consulting. I am born and raised in France, in the south of France and I moved to Australia about 10 years ago after burning out in strategy consulting. And I’m very excited now to serve women in business, to help them grow their business, weaving together strategy and intuition for them not to burn out. I am the author of Light It, a book that I published in September 2023, which is all about how to trust your intuition and build a thriving business. I am serving my community through courses, membership, in person retreats, workshop, speaker engagement, and I have my own podcast called The Essential Shift Podcast. I can’t wait to connect with you. Okay.

As we embrace this year’s International Women’s Day theme, count earn invest in women, accelerate progress, it is crucial, I find, to reflect on tangible steps and strategy that can really change the status quo and the paradigm and systemic discrimination that we have towards women in business and in leadership. And in my own business, in my own industry, I think there is so much we can do. So first of all, for small business owner, there is a crucial thing that we need to change which is access to funding. Research consistently shows that women entrepreneurs receive a fraction of venture capital funding compared to their male counterparts. It’s a mere 2% of total VC funding in recent years and it’s critical to address that and I’m committed to help women to put their best foot forward in business to get access to funding. The other element is mentorship and support network. We know the power of mentorship and this is where my business play a role and this is where I think we need to play even more a critical role. It’s making sure we mentor the woman.

We show them what’s possible. We create this network, this supportive network for women to support one another and create ecosystem that really share knowledge, resources, encouragement and significantly impact their growth in business. And last but not least representation. We know that only 25% of executives in your level and management position in main companies are held by women and this this disparity is really impacting us in seeing what’s possible. So those are now the three things that I’d say we need to change very quickly in this year new theme. Thank you. So this year, for International Women’s Day, I will go to a local event with other female entrepreneurs that are from my area rather than heading to the big buzzing city of Sydney and attending a big event. That’s what I usually do, but this year I decided to go to an intimate one that was local.

And I’m also organizing my own International Women’s Day locally as well on the 14th March where I welcome some guest speaker. I absolutely love the energy around International Women’s Day, all of those beautiful events that are being birthed around the city. So, yes, that’s what I would be doing. I’d like to add a deep thank you and gratitude to Jen for organizing this initiative. This is a beautiful symbol of what International Women’s Day is this year, counter in, but also beyond International Women’s Day, how we are committed to support one another as women in business. We need togetherness, call this collective more than ever if we really want to change the status quo, if we really want to have more women at the top of the game in entrepreneurship and in leadership. Thank you again, Jen.

Annette Rose:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/roseannette
Website: https://kidsget.money

Hi. I’m Annette Rose and I am the founder of a social impact startup called Kids Get Money. I live in beautiful bright in regional Victoria. It’s actually just at the foot of Hotham, Mount Hotham. So for those of you that are skiers, you’ll you’ll know where I am. It is literally one of the most beautiful places, I have ever been. And when I visited here, just before COVID, I absolutely fell in love with it, and it’s such a privilege to live here now. I am a mother of 3 pretty much grown up kids.

I have a 17 year old, a 20 year old and a 23 year old. I am also a wife, so life is super busy. Not only that, I have a full time job as well because that’s what we do when as female founders, we are bootstrapping a start up. I wanted to tell you a little bit about Kids Get Money. So Kids Get Money is definitely my baby. I grew up, on a farm in Western New South Wales, living below the poverty line with the family situation that I was adopted into at birth, and it was miserable. It was, pretty much a living hell. That’s how I would describe it.

And I would say that I spent the 1st 17 years of my life really living in trauma response, so that whole fight, flight, fawn, or freeze. And when I left home when I was 18, I took with me a massive money chip on my shoulder. My money mindset was so broken. So despite the fact that I spent my whole career working in financial services, I knew all the things I needed to know. I still found myself completely broke, and with no personal relationship with money when I was 44. So I guess I created kids get money because I want every child to have the opportunity to have a financially positive life. It’s really, really important to me. I believe it’s important to our community.

It’s important to our economy. But most of all, it’s really, really critical for our children that we don’t bring up another generation that is, not financially literate. The world is getting more complex and there is a massive imperative for us to do this. So I feel like, there is no better person and no better time than me, and that is what I’m doing. So I love this year’s UN theme. Count her in invest in women, accelerate progress. And gosh, it’s such a big question in my industry. What would help accelerate progress for women? Well, I count myself as being in the financial services industry, even though I’m an education provider.

And this is so, so close to my heart. There are so many things that, the financial services industry needs to do better to help women to become financially literate, to be financially independent, to have financial freedom. So for me, I would like to see way more investment in helping women to get up that financial literacy curve. I would like to see way more grants so that it is free for women to get this education. I recently was privileged enough to be able to deliver, one of these programs that was funded by the Victorian State Government, grassroots investing in women program. And I believe that the government needs to put a lot more money into this. The other place where I believe that the financial services industry, or perhaps it’s the education industry, needs to do better is that we really need to challenge ourselves to do more to teach kids to be financially literate. Now, my startup is Kids Get Money.

The reason I’ve started this is because I don’t think we can wait anymore. We can’t wait anymore for this to happen. The best place for women to learn to be financially literate is genuinely when they are young and when they’re at school. And on that note, by teaching all of our kids about equity, by teaching our kids about, the economy and sustainability and eco capitalism, sustainable capitalism, These are all things that are going to make this world a better, more equitable place for women. And so those those are all really key things that I think we need to do to accelerate progress for women, and that’s the part that financial services industry, the government, and also the education industry should be playing. On March 6th in 20 24, International Women’s Day, I’m going to be spending time really thinking about the message that I’m going to be delivering at the breakfast that I will be at on Friday, March 8th. I decided this year that I am going to redefine the slogan Sounds a bit bold, right? But I’ve decided that the slogan for me is going to be stop waiting, invest in yourself, accelerate your own equality, and bring other women with you. That’s not to say that women need to fix themselves.

That’s not to say that the system doesn’t need to be fixed. But for me, it is really, really important that women get on this journey that we stop waiting, and that we do what’s needed for ourselves as well as bringing others with us. I’d just like to take a minute at the end of this podcast recording that I’ve been given the opportunity to contribute to to say Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? When I was researching who said that I found that it was an incredible woman called Marianne Williams. I also found that she has been, denied the attribution of that quote in favor of a very famous man. Now don’t get me wrong, the man that it is attributed to is another one of my favourite people on this planet.

But the point is, it’s so often that women are not given the credit for what they do. And so, I just wanted to say to you, remember that you are worthy. You absolutely are. And yeah, I really hope on this International Women’s Day that you take some time to figure out what it is that you want and need, and that in 2024, you invest in yourself to make it happen.

Jenny Wolfe-Wallace:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-rolfe-wallace-948268107/
Website: www.sprouteducation.com.au

Hi. I’m Jenny Rolf Wallace, and I’m director of the Sprout Education Group. Our mission is to help people change how they think and feel about money, building financial well-being through evidence based education. As a financial education specialist I am so excited by the UN theme of Counter in Investing Women Accelerate Progress because it provides our industry and nation more broadly with an opportunity to examine what really needs to be done at a policy, social, and economic level to address the systemic issues which result in women in Australia and around the world to experience financial insecurity, poverty, and homelessness at greater rates than men and especially for diverse women. We need more action at a practical level such as legislating that superannuation guarantee applied to paid parental leave, preventing economic abuse which disproportionately affects women and children, addressing the social expectations that result in the motherhood penalty and burden of domestic duties being carried by women, and strategies to increase the number of women in the financial advice space. Because at the moment, only 1 in 4 Australian financial advisers are women and that leads to a significant bias in the industry affecting the quality of advice provided to clients and the opportunity available to women as advice professionals. There is a growing cohort of amazing diverse women working in the financial education space and we need to be listening to and amplifying their voices more. International Women’s Day is grounded in protest and this year I’m hosting an event called can you afford that cupcake with not a splash of pink or a cupcake insight.

Instead of cheering about the snail’s pace progress towards gender equality in our nation and globally, we will have a panel of 5 local women reflecting the diversity in our community who will share their thoughts and insights from their lived experience and professional expertise about creating pathways to greater economic inclusion for women and girls in line with the UN theme. As a micro business, we have committed to paying our speakers as every organization should do on International Women’s Day, as well as providing a gender pay gap discount on tickets for women and concessional and pay it forward tickets to ensure accessibility for any person who wants to attend. We’ve also put a challenge out to men to come along because to achieve change, we need men to listen and amplify women’s voices as allies. At our International Women’s Day event we will also be launching the It’s Not About the Money Australia podcast featuring conversations with experts on why Australian women are more likely to experience lower levels of financial well-being than men, dispelling the myths and advocating for systemic solutions to create a nation where gender doesn’t determine financial outcomes. As Kate Jenkins says, change takes action, not time. And I don’t know about you, but my patience for progress is running out. This International Women’s Day, I’m drawing the line in the sand, refusing to be satisfied with crumbs under the table, and instead taking up space and promoting agents of change to ensure our children and future generations don’t have to have the same fights for equalities in years to come. As a nation, we can do better, we need to do better, and we should do better.

I think it’s important to remember the protest origins of International Women’s Day more than a 110 years ago, where thousands of women flooded the streets demanding equal pay for equal work, and as shown by the gender pay gap reporting data released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on 27th February this year, we still have a long way to go. As individuals, a society, an economy, a world, we really can’t wait another 100 years to close that gap.

Kylie Pinwill:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylie-pinwill/
Website: https://kyliepinwill.com

Hi. My name is Kylie Pinwill. I have the Hormone Hub podcast, and I help women navigate perimenopause and menopause with confidence and vitality. So definitely helping professional women and entrepreneurs master their health and well-being during perimenopause and menopause is so important, to improve your energy, your mood, your mental clarity, and also, you know, support healthy weight management because, you know, no one likes that spare tire that’s going on around the middle. So what I do is I help women embrace this transformative period, with confidence. And, you know, ladies, we’re not getting old. We’re just getting better. So we wanna make these years our most vibrant and fulfilling yet.

I love this year’s theme. Count her in, invest in women. Working in women’s health, I see all the time, you know, women in their forties and fifties who, you know, will put everybody else first. They will put their you know, the dog starts limping. The dog will go to the vet, you know, for an x-ray. No question. The kid comes in, kid’s limping. Maybe we may might wait a few days, you know, make sure they’re not faking.

Maybe that’s just me. But we don’t put our selves first. You know, I speak to women who have been suffering for years. And I think, you know, we’re very capable, probably to our detriment, because we push through, and we just get the stuff done. We do what we need to do. We make sure everyone else is okay, but are we investing back in our selves, in our own health and well-being? You know, we’re not, and when we are, you know, living at the pace of life that we live at, you know, we, you know, we push through. We get what needs to be done done, but we don’t always kind of stop and take check of, you know, those little niggles, those symptoms that are creeping in our digestive system that, you know, may not be very happy with us right now. Maybe we’ve stopped sleeping.

Maybe we’ve lost our our energy, you know, just to get through the day. Brain fog is a big one, and I think it’s really important to know, like, once we hit our our sort of mid and it can start in our mid thirties. But once we sort of hit our forties, you know, through each well fifties, this is the time where we actually need to state take stock, and we need to invest back in ourselves, back in our own health and well-being. It’s you know, the best form of self care is addressing those nickels and taking care of you so, you know, you can put your best self forward. So whether that’s in your business, your career, the way you show up for your family, your friends, you know, maintaining a social life, and, you know, I think for the rest of our lives going forward, it’s what we do now that is gonna have, you know, a huge impact on the quality of our life. So, you know, I think, you know, corporations need to invest back in women going through perimenopause, and menopause. Women need to invest back in themselves during this time as well, so, yeah, ladies, it’s all about investing in you. I will be spending International Women’s Day, hopefully surrounded by other women in business, having a coffee and catch up.

I’ve been on the Sunshine Coast now for 8 years. I’m a Sydney girl at heart, and being in business by yourself can be lonely. So, you know, most of the time, I’m on my own. I meet some great, women online in my podcast, you know, have beautiful, conversations all the time with really amazing, interesting women, but I don’t actually get to meet those women in person very often. So I’m organizing, if you’re on the Sunshine Coast, a coffee catch up at the Novotel Twin Waters, and all amazing interesting women are welcome to come along. So yeah. And I think we’ll celebrate each other and, you know, the strides that I think women in business are making because, you know, we are making in our own little corners, you know, from our own little home offices, from our dining tables. You know, we’re having a big impact on, you know, other women and other women’s health, other women’s business.

You know? And I love that, you know, we can all come together and support each other. So, yeah, I’m gonna be celebrating am I allowed to say shit? Celebrating the shit out of what I do and also other women as well. I think I would like to wrap up by just saying, you know, your most valuable effort, your most bat your most valuable asset is yourself. Okay? So if you have energy, you have everything. If you feel confident within yourself, you know, you can put yourself out there. If you feel good in your body, your body is working the way it should be. Your you feel in control of your hormones. You feel in control of your mood.

You’ve got a good handle on stress. You know, nothing is gonna stop you. Nothing’s gonna hold you back, And I really encourage you if there are areas that, you know, you need support with, put your hand up, reach out for support because, you know, you deserve nothing less than to live your best life. Happy International Women’s Day.

Carolyn Newall:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-newall/
Website: www.weteachwell.com

Hi. I’m Carolyn. I am the cofounder and CEO of We Teach Well, which is a online business where we provide coaching and professional development units for English teachers from any, place. We work on, curriculum neutral, materials so that it can be used by teachers in different countries. We’re just in the way of helping them with, the material they need to, get on with teaching their wonderful classes. I am a retired English teacher, specialist English teacher, which I did for almost 20 years, both in Australia and in, India and Singapore and Abu Dhabi, which was really interesting. Teaching overseas is was a great privilege. I have twin boys, and they, have all grown up and off doing their own thing.

I’m an actor. And the other one is, has a bar in, Brisbane, which he enjoys, running, which is makes him a happy man. We both we all like to travel, and we always have. And, hopefully, I’ll be able to keep doing that for a very long time.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals sit behind everything that we do in our business, especially the 4 that relate to education. WeTeachWell is a female owned brand that seeks to advocate for educational equality. Reducing the education gap globally has become integral to our mission. It’s really at the center of everything that we do. The UN theme for International Women’s Day this year, count her in, invest in women, accelerate progress, is really exciting for us. We know from other development work that when you invest in women, the benefits spread through entire communities. When women earn, their families have better health and education outcomes. When girls are educated, the benefits can be exponential.

If we invest in educating girls, girls who then become teachers, we can make solid progress towards a more equitable world. It really is, in our mind, the best way of looking at how we can actually meet some of those sustainable development goals, by 2030. There is no better way of ensuring the future of your people, your community, your world, than educating girls who become women, who get into politics, and they get into the law and they become doctors, but they also become teachers who teach more girls. That’s what we need to be doing this year, our in our opinion, is pushing for and investing in the education of girls. This International Women’s Day, which falls, Friday, 8th March, it’s Friday this year, which is good, I’m gonna be spending that day with another group with a group of amazing women, who are part of the ONEOF community. A female founders group that, is has been is probably the best networking business women’s group I have come across anywhere. It started as a coworking space in Southbank. And then when COVID hit, it went global, and it went digital, I mean.

And that meant it could expand its horizons. And so there are women from all over the country and some overseas. There are quite a few events on in different states for OR Women. But I’ll be joining the one in one in Peran, a south side one in here in Melbourne, to meet up with an inspiring and amazing group of women who, always make me remember why it is that we do what we do, which is to support and champion women. The world has changed a lot since I was a girl. When I was a girl I’m nearly 70. So when I was a girl, the world was still very much run by men. And while we have made progress, we do know that that gap has not come close to being closed.

And that’s why we have to keep remembering We have to keep remembering to, intentionally work with and invest in women and in girls, because the old way of doing the world was what took us to where we were at now, and only a different way of doing it can make it better. And I think we think that that road comes only through the support, education, and investment in women.

Sabine Christelli:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabine-christelli/
Website: https://www.sabinechristelli.com/

Hi. My name is Sabine Christelli. My passion and expertise is to help women get their ultimate zing back into their lives through the somewhat forgotten out of sleep. During sleep, when it is optimized, the entire body system is designed to repair and integrate. This includes the mind, your emotional self, and all aspects of your life. These integrate. And did you know that you also process out toxins from your brain during the night? It’s called your glymphatic system, and it only happens during deep sleep. Every single one of your organs is replenished during the night, and it is possible to learn how to get those benefits.

Amazingly enough, your hormones profoundly affect your sleep, and your sleep profoundly affects your hormonal health. And us women, because we are much more affected and have more likelihood of insomnia, need to take extra care and look at our sleeping patterns and allow ourselves to assess whether we could improve on getting deeper sleep and what’s out there to do that holistically, to do that in micro steps, to do it in a way that you can weave into your busy life. And that’s what I have created and studied and am passionate about, and lived and lived myself. So on International Women’s Day, the focus is more on inclusion and for women, obviously. And so, really, in research, there has been less research on women due to the fact that we are more complex than males. We have all those hormones. And so my invitation is take care of yourself and get that sleep. Because when you get really optimized sleep, your hormonal system has a chance to balance and harmonize.

And because of that, you’re going to thrive more. You’re gonna be feeling more youthful, energetic, have more clarity, get less disease. So this is what I teach. This is what I talk about, and I would love to hear what your journey was and is, and if you would like any help. Thanks for listening. Happy International Women’s Day. So with the United Nations theme this year, the encounter in and invest in women, it is essential that we look at sleep in women and the fact that more research needs to be done to support the complexities that women have to deal with when it comes to sleep. It is not just our hormonal changes during our teenage years, but it is also perimenopause and menopause.

It can also be, in general, our hormonal changes and the things that we navigate as women and how we process them. It is still an important field that needs a lot of updates. And my industry in that context, which is sleep science and women’s wellness and being a coach and working with any traumas that are related around sleep as well. It is really important that we spread that news. It is really important that we talk about this and we don’t brush it under the carpet as if it’s something secondary or we can sleep later or it doesn’t really matter. Because lack of sleep is linked with mental health issues. It’s linked with a lot of problems, not just mentally, but also biologically, emotionally, physically. Basically, it is really depleting, and it means that women are less optimized in their capacity to deal with life and to be in life and to enjoy their lives.

So just sharing this, having this discussion, talking about ways in which we can improve our sleep and in ways in which we can sponsor that research, or in my case, I’m bringing the science out into the public as a sleep scientist. My mission is to educate people about what’s going on in the research field, What’s been written in those articles so that women can make informed choices and enhance their sleep quality naturally. And that is really important and really, really will have an impact on the entire world, on all people, on our capacity to parent, our capacity to work, our capacity to be, looking after aging parents, on our capacity to be innovative and successful in any region of life that we choose. I look forward to spending International Women’s Day this year with a group of other business ladies. I’m the ambassador for a beautiful platform where women get together, women in business, and they support each other. And that that platform is, really helpful in women supporting not just business, but also, of course, mental health, creativity, resources. And so that is called one roof, and I really look forward to a beautiful lunch that I have created for us to have in the art gallery cafe in the city where we can meet up and really celebrate International Women’s Day in style. You may wonder how you’re going to implement this.

How do you know if you’re sleeping enough? How do you know how to optimize your sleep? And even if you’re sleeping well and waking up unrefreshed, what it is that you could do to change that? Well, you can support yourself by supporting my work and cheering me on as I cheer you on by subscribing to my newsletter, which you can find under Sabine Cristelli dot com. And, there’s a section on sleep or following me on Instagram, and you’ll be able to find all those resources in the list below this podcast. But my intention really is to support you and allowing you to truly thrive in your own unique way. And every woman is different. So what works for one may not work for another, which is why I offer a massive smorgasbord of options that you can choose which don’t feel like work. They’re actually playful. They’re actually doable. They actually are micro steps that lead to a huge positive outcome for you, scientifically backed, backed by ancient tradition traditions of yoga and much more than that.

These include mindset, the unconscious mind, and also the pure signs of how do we navigate sleep and how do we optimize it and how are we actually blocking, getting the deepest, most refreshing possible sleep.

Cat Mason:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catmatson/
Website: https://www.impactfulpresenters.com/

You know how it’s when you get really excited about your message, you get really enthusiastic, really passionate about explaining your thing to your listener. And as you get more excited, you either start speeding up or you start rambling or you start going off on all of of the tangents. Well, I work with people so they can still see all of those tangents. They can still be enthusiastic and excited, but so they can land their message every single time, taking their listener, taking their audience on a journey from where they are now to where they want to be. You see, I’ve had 25 plus years of experience, both in the small business space as well as in the public sector. And one of the things that I discovered, particularly in the public sector, is the people who make a difference, the people who make an impact aren’t any more smart, passionate, enthusiastic, committed than those who don’t. The people who make an impact, particularly in the public sector, are the people who can make themselves heard. And when I saw this translated across into the small business space, I realized the same was true.

It’s not about whether you’re smart enough, intelligent enough, experienced enough, passionate enough. It’s whether or not you can make yourself understood. It’s whether or not you can connect with your audience and have them understand how you can help. So, that’s what I do these days. I help impact minded people show up and be heard so they can make their dent in the universe. So, how can we accelerate progress? How can we have more women at the decision making tables? Well, one of the ways is that we need to show women in particular how to speak in a way that is still authentically them and still delivers impact. One of the things that I see often in this coaching speaking industry is that we’re teaching people, in fact, not just women, but we’re teaching people a very formulaic approach. The whole TEDx style, I’m gonna call it a melodrama style storytelling approach doesn’t work for anybody for everybody.

And in fact, it undermines our authenticity a lot of the time. And so rather than teaching people how to be formulaic, we need to show people how to be powerful authentically. We need to show people how to express their ideas in a respectful, thoughtful way, how to encourage conversation, and land our message. So when I think about how do we accelerate progress, it’s not just inviting more women to speak on stages. It’s inviting more women into the conversation, and it’s listening differently. It’s listening for nuance. It’s listening for different forms of insight and not just the traditional, well spoken, charismatic, highly supposedly engaging style speaker, and instead listen for different personalities, different thinking styles, different processing styles, and different approaches. This International Women’s Day, I reflect on the fact that in order to advance women, in order to increase equality and fairness for women, we actually need to create equality and fairness for everyone.

It’s not about a women versus men argument. It’s about showcasing that everybody, everybody has something to contribute. So this particular International Women’s Day, I’m very excited to be attending as a guest of a local council with some public service friends attending the women in digital breakfast here in Brisbane. And at that table will be a group of awesome human beings, small business owners, public servants, impact led human beings. And my outcome is that we will get to facilitate conversations that spark ideas and fuel connections. Happy International Women’s Day. As I wrap up this reflection on International Women’s Day, to me, it’s important to say that righteous indignation and moral outrage doesn’t get us anywhere. We have proven that to ourselves over the last 15 years of social media and echo chambers.

This International Women’s Day, I really hope that collectively, we can facilitate conversations that collectively take our society and our culture higher. When we tear other people down in order to advance our own cause, nobody wins. That’s a zero sum game. Is it a bit utopian? Is it a bit idealistic to think that we can collectively raise the conversation? Perhaps. But that’s what we’re here to do, right, to collectively raise the conversation. So here’s to sparking some ideas, here’s to fueling some connections, and here’s to an inclusive conversation for all that recognizes everybody’s contributions regardless of gender.

Christine Williams:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinewilliamsspi/
Website: www.smarterpropertyinvesting.com.au

Hi there. My name is Christine Williams from Smarter Property Investing. Thank you. This is International Women’s Day. A little bit about myself. I’m a wife, a mother, a grandmother, 66 years of age. I’ve been in my business for 10 years. I actually started just after just after I was 56.

And I’m loving how I’m helping women survive the final path, the walking path of investing in property to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle using property as that vehicle. Girls, ladies, women, as a female who was divorced and had 2 young children who had to enter the property market by myself after selling the family home, I can assure you that a man is not a plan. And what I like to do is to uplift women and show them how I’ve done it to make either a business in property or to create a financially fit family within themselves to become financially fit in retirement or know that females can do this. We don’t need a man. A man is not a plan. We have the strength. We have the uplift. We have the confidence.

And these are all the things that I teach my female clients to achieve the things that they want to achieve. We start off in this world knowing that we’re nurturers and we work through that nurturing as a wife, a mother, a female, a sister, a sisterhood. But in actual fact, when we stand together, we can make so many accomplishments. I love holding your hand and working through how I can help you to help yourself to create a better financial future. Thank you. What will I be doing on International Women’s Day? Well, by looking at my diary diary, I have 3 events. 2 are online and one is face to face. The first event is, working with the networking group, sharing my hints and tips about investing in property, and I’ll be talking about risk mitigation, sleep 3 night sleep test, and of course, how to work forward and have a plan step by step.

The second session that I’ll be in is actually another networking group where I’ve been asked as a business owner what were some mistakes I’ve made and what successes have I had, and what’s a tip to get through the day. And my biggest tip there is I have a to do list. I’m very, very old, and I still write it down. I have a to do list, and I I sort of do that the night before to prepare for the next day. And then one of the things that I’ve learned along, the way to create well-being for myself is to, after every task, take a breath, rethink what I’ve just done, acknowledge that I’ve done something, congratulate myself, and move on to the next one. Because by the end of the day, ladies, we do so many things that we actually forget what we’ve done. The third thing is going to be a group of women. We’re going out for a wine, sip, and, artist night.

We’re going to be painting and creative juices. So there’s going to be lots of women in the room sipping wine and, sharing our creative juices. I hope that helps. Hope to talk to you again. Thank you for listening. Bye. A small tip for me is, as women, we are nurturers and we do so many things on a daily basis. We have many, many, many thousands of thoughts and we have many, many, many tasks that we try to achieve.

I think as women, we don’t actually acknowledge that we have power, strength, and confidence. And sometimes we just need to have that great sisterhood banding together and actually cheering everyone on. Because some days it’s really hard to get out of bed. Other days we can bounce out of bed. We have so many people we’re looking after, not just in business, but in our family, our friends and so many other things. So something to do is enjoy being a female because we are unique. You are unique. And I think the other thing is take a breath, take a step back, look at what you’ve achieved and congratulate yourself.

We can ban we can do all this together. But finally, a man is not a plan. Ladies, girls, females, let’s stick together and work that out. Thank you.

Jules Brooke:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julesbrooke/
Website: https://shesthebossgroup.com/

Hi I’m Jules Brooke. I’m the founder of Handle Your Own PR, where I was teaching business owners how to get their own publicity, and I created a PR SaaS platform. I’m also now the founder of the She’s the Boss group in Australia and Australian women speakers. So so after teaching small business owners how to get free publicity for well over a decade now, I started Choose the Boss group right at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 when I realized that we really were all kind of very concerned about what this was gonna do for our business. And that if we all got together and sort of shared collectively our concerns and supported each other, that we would get it through it a little bit better. Since then, I’ve started growing the group. I run online and offline events nationally for female founders and women women running businesses, particularly women over 45.

I’ve also got a podcast called She’s the Boss Chats with over 200 interviews with inspiring businesswomen and founders and a YouTube channel called She’s the Boss that’s got more and different interviews with wildly successful women, both from Australia and around the world. I’ve also got a digital magazine called Maggie. I run international retreats, and my first one is in Bali this year in June. And I also have a new livestream video show called She’s the Boss Live that runs through LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. On the side, I have a course and a mentoring service where I teach women how to become a woman of influence. And along and and that basically includes 7 components that are LinkedIn, networking, podcasting, speaking, awards, PR, and online courses. And in late 2023, I started a group on LinkedIn and Facebook that that I called Australian Women Speakers after I discovered that only 30% of speakers are women, which I thought was crazy because I know thousands of women who are looking for opportunities. Since the end of November, it has grown to over 1700 across Facebook and LinkedIn.

And on International Women’s Day, I will be launching a directory at women’s speakers.com.au where women can register and be found by other people who are looking for women speakers. My overall mission is to make women more visible, particularly businesswomen over 45, as I’ve said. And I really want to showcase all the incredible women that there are out there trying to change the world and make it a better place. I love that this year’s UN theme for International Women’s Day is counter in, invest in women, and accelerate progress because it’s something I feel personally very passionate about. I believe that we are able to accelerate this progress only if we back each other. And if we find those male allies out there that also believe in us, and can support us. One of the stats that, really start me started me on my mission in the beginning was that when I found out that less than 3% of VC funding is going to women. And then since then, I’ve found more and more stats that just kind of horrify me, really.

And so I’m on a mission myself to help accelerate progress for women to close the gap. With Australian women speakers, I set that up particularly to try and move the stat from 30% to 50% of speakers being women. But also, I believe that, there are lots and lots of women out there, both in Australia and around the world, who really want to see this happen. And I think we’ve sat around and waited for things to change slowly for so long. And and, really, the dials hardly moved. So it’s really back it’s it’s up to us now to back ourselves and make it happen for each other. And so one of my favorite sayings is to be that woman who will mention another woman’s name in a room full of opportunities. I would say that would apply to men as well.

But the more that we talk up women, the more that we recommend women, and the more that we refer women, the faster it’s gonna happen. This International Women’s Day on March 8th, I am actually gonna spend it with a woman who’s very important to me, which is my mum. So I am, emceeing an event the day before in my local area in inner west Melbourne. I’ll be talking to a few women during that day. I’m doing a little bit of coaching for a woman, then I’m gonna go down to the Mornington Peninsula and spend the day with my mom and, and catch up with her because she is a super important woman to me. The only other thing that I’d like to add is that, we should all be embracing the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day. And the more of us that it’s helped to accelerate other women, the faster we are gonna get there.

Claire Wu:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-elvera-wu/
Website: www.breatheintopeace.com

Hi. My name is Claire Wu. I’m the founder, CEO of Breathe Into Peace. We help people manage their anxiety through functional jewelry and workshops. I struggle with anxiety from a very young age. I spend a lot of time, money, look money, looking for solutions. During the course of my healing, I create, a breathing necklace that I can use discreetly on the day to day to calm myself and regulate my anxiety. Then I realized there are 1,000,000 in Australia and worldwide like me who can benefit.

That’s when I decide to build Breathing TO Peace. And I am also a therapist and business development expert with 15 years of experiences working with people with complex mental health and also helping business to expand and to grow. I have healed from generational trauma and, I’ve achieved my dreams in life and work, and I really want that for my clients. So we’re actively developing new functional jewelry, mentoring business owners, and conducting nervous system workshops and speaking in Australia. I’m really excited to be here and to connect with you as all. So in my industry, in, health care and in leadership, There are couple of things that will help accelerate the progress for women. Firstly, is that we need to expand and to improve the access to more comprehensive women health services like preventative care, screenings, maternity care, because we know that, you know, healthy women mentally, physically, they’ve been more productive at work, and also they have a higher returns on investments. They contribute more positive intergenerational outcome and to the communities as well.

Secondly, is that we need to create a supportive work environment, that will prioritize women’s mental health and well-being, including policies that promote work life balance, more flexible work arrangements, and resources and mental health program or workshops that are practical, easy to implement to manage stress, and to prevent burning out. So investing, like, in workshops and wellness programs can really help to create that culture of support for women. Last but not least is to champion women’s leadership, to cultivate a culture that advocate and support women’s leadership at all levels in the organization. That includes recognize and reward contributions, to celebrate achievements and making sure that women receive equal compensations and opportunities, for their advancement. So, yes, I believe that in doing this, to invest better and invest in more women, we can overall improve the outcome of our society. Yeah. So I will be participating at an event for launching the New South Wales domestic violence services with, Torchlight Foundation. I will be interviewed with my life experiences in mental health and domestic violence, hoping to help more people to recover from their trauma and to thrive in life.

We’ll also be showcasing our breaking to peace products at the event. And, yes, you know, join us if you are free through our mission to shining a light on these issues and to create a better future for all of us. We’re dedicated to empowering the communities through education services and resources for those who may be experiencing the family crisis. Alright. I hope to see you there. Thank you very much. I like to, mention that as woman, it’s really crucial to really look after, not just our physical health, but mental health as well. Because 1 in 3 women are experiencing their experience anxiety in life, and women are more twice likely to, experience this than men.

And for women, 58 percent, actually say the key stress has come from family responsibility. 49% are from relationship. And working women are more likely to experience more stress than working men. 49% of women report high stress, and 50% experience burnout. Yeah. So really looking after our own mental health is crucial to our overall health. So, yes, I hope, everyone’s find their ways and tools and programs that might be able to help them.

Brook McCarthy:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookmccarthy/
Website: https://hustleandheart.com.au/

My name is Brook McCarthy. I’m a veteran business coach, a trainer and a facilitator for values based business owners. As I’ve been running my business for 16 years now, I am happily unemployable, hopefully for the rest of my life. Before I started, my own business back in 2,008, I worked in public relations and that was really where I got my start on online publishing and the joys and privilege of having access to the Internet and being able to say something worth listening to and do something worth talking about. So nowadays I help values based business owners to do something similar. And I really believe that the future of business is for profit and purpose working for love and money with hustle and heart. And that is the name of my business hustle and heart. So it’s really the paradox that it’s that’s inherent in this.

The fact that we don’t absolutely do not need to work ourselves to burn out. Most business owners that I am working with come to me because they wanna work less hours, not more hours. They want to get some balance back in their lives. They believe that they do not have to be working all the hours, in order to make a thriving income. And I’m here to tell you, you absolutely don’t. Apart from business, I live in Sydney with my partner. He’s also self employed, and we have 2 teenage daughters who helped me with TikTok. Noodle soup is my love language.

Good day, noodle soup, bad day, noodle soup. That’s all good. We have come a long way, but there is still so much further to go. One thing that I find intensely worrying is that the gender pay gap, widens in self employment. It doesn’t narrow. And at the surface of it, this doesn’t really make sense, right? Because you would think well in self employment, we don’t have the corporate structure to be discriminating against women and to be paying them less. The problem is, or one of the problems are that women are still socialized very much to be grateful, to be thankful, to not assert ourselves, and to not be direct. And of course, I’m generalizing here, but that is generally true when, we are direct.

When we act similar to men, we are discriminated against. So to tell a woman that they just need to do what men do in order to get what men get is simply not true and research reflects that. What would be really, really useful to help accelerate the progress of women is for, positive discrimination. So I am a fan of quotas. I’m a fan of legislation. I think that progress without legislation is very, very slow. And if we wait for, you know, big multinationals, for corporations, for, power brokers to do the right thing, we will be waiting forever. So what I would like to happen is I would like there to be far more quotas than there already are, if there are at all, on employing women and paying them a rate that is commensurate and that is transparent to all.

So frequently what happens in the self employment world, in the start up self employment, business world is that women are often, told they need to act more confidently. They are, invited into startup incubators, and they are kept in this learning pattern where they are kind of being taught or being trained that it’s it’s not quite enough that they need to know more. They need to do more. They need more qualifications and more qualifications. Well, most of my clients are extremely overqualified, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re earning any more money. What I would like to see is positive discrimination towards, paying women towards, bringing women in as freelancers or subcontractors and paying them at a rate that is transparent and commensurate with their male counterparts. This international women’s day, I will be relaxing. I will be taking my time to wake up in the morning without an alarm clock.

I’ll probably pass on my partner until he gets out of bed and brings me coffee. And then hopefully I’ll stay in bed and maybe read a few more pages of my novel. And taking it really, really easy, which seems like a really simple thing, but it’s actually quite radical for a lot of women, especially on, you know, outside of a predesignated Sunday morning to actually just take it easy to relax and to not rush and to not put everybody’s needs in front of your own. I will be meeting up with some self employed business buddies to do a book swap. Cannot wait. And then having lunch with some awesome one roof business women. Again, taking our sweet ass time to kick back to enjoy ourselves because when you’re self employed, these are some of the perks that we have. We do not have to rush back.

There is nobody that we need to report to. We are our own bosses and yet, you know, unlearning a lot of these things, retraining ourselves, you know, and and figuring out which parts are actually really unhelpful, and which parts we’d like to adopt into the future is a pretty big and radical thing for so many of us. So that’s how I’m going to be spending international women’s day this year. In 2024, it is still very much a man’s world. And some days, I allow this to really get me down. Some days, it feels like a massive insurmountable task. And everywhere I look and everything I see, I see misogyny and I see discrimination against women. And a lot of this is also internal, which I think is very confusing to a lot of people because when you’ve grown up in a society that is misogynistic, that is racist.

This is the air that you breathe and this becomes part of your conditioning without you even being fully aware of it. I thought I was a feminist when I was a teenager. I was the eldest of 4 girls. It was easy for me to identify as a feminist and you know, I really thought I was a champion of other women. And it took me many, many, many, many years before I started to see the misogyny inside my own psychology. So this can be very discombobulating and it can be, you know, a hugely stabilizing thing when we’re aware of this. But, you know, awareness is the first step towards change. And when we can embrace all that we are and when we can appreciate how under tapped and underappreciated and under resource under resource, half of the population is then we can see the massive potential if only the systemic and intrinsic changes would take place.

Jenn Donovan:

So like I said, it was a little bit longer than normal, but wow. Wasn’t it great? Some of the answers, some of the things that those women spoke about have really made me sit back, think, and just view the world maybe micro differently today than what I did before. I listened to those amazing diverse women. I hope you enjoyed it. Check back for normal episodes of the Small Business Made Simple coming your way every single week. But otherwise, again, happy International Women’s Day, and enjoy whatever it is that you’re doing. And remember my small business peep, as my opening song says, there is no point in dreaming small. I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, the Yorta Yorta people on which I record this podcast and conduct my business today and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I extend this respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here with us today as well.