Fleur Madden has spent her whole career creating opportunities for women. She is an award winning business woman, experienced CEO/Founder, recognized industry expert and women in business speaker with 18 years experience running her own businesses.

Fleur started her first company The Red Republic at 23 that she sold 14 years later to a multinational. Along her journey, she has acquired other businesses, founded an online beauty company Lulu and Lipstick that she sold in 2016, where just prior her makeup brushes were in the gift bags for the 2016 Oscars. She has sat on an international board and since her semi retirement in 2018, she has been advising other CEO’s on growth strategies and preparing for a business sale.

It was during her ‘ retirement’ that Freelancing Gems as a concept started to come to life.

Fleur has spent her whole career leading teams of women, being passionate about the advancement of women at work and creating opportunities for women to grow and evolve.

You might have seen Fleur over the years in articles in The Collective, Marie Claire, Latte, Today Extra, Studio Ten and The Urban List. She has spoken at conferences around the world, including at home here in Australia as well as in Hong Kong, LA, NYC, Atlanta and South Africa.

Fleur is also a mum to Josiah and wife to Jimmy, she lived in NYC in her early 30’s, loves Pina Coladas and has a Camilla fetish. Her favourite saying driving her at Freelancing Gems is “Don’t Play Small.”

Yasmin is an entrepreneur of impact, who loves people and has an innate passion to help others – it’s her native genius. She loves to win, but more importantly, she loves to see others win. Her mission is to make a difference and create meaningful impact daily.

She is the CEO and Co-founder of the World’s Biggest Garage Sale (WBGS), and a circular economy pioneer in Australia, driving this industry forward by innovating, collaborating, connecting and mobilising multiple stakeholders towards a shared vision, all while providing social good. Havign recently launched Australia’s First Circular Economy Precint, through Recommerce, CANsulting & Education, WBGS are activating the circular economy and resource recovering dormant goods for good!

A passionate advocate of the Sustainable Development Goals, she likes to GSD for the SDGs! Energetic, authentic and an expert of execution, Yas is a master at enrolling talent, communicating long-term vision, and inspiring people along the journey.

Yas and her organisation are living proof that you can provide positive impact for people, planet and profit for purpose.

Ayda Shabanz is the girl next door, whose self-made property empire worth over $10 million means she probably owns it, too.

Successful entrepreneur, property empress, lifestyle influencer, Award winning finance expert and thought leader. 

She’s not just a fresh face, but a fresh voice.

Despite her remarkable success, Ayda remains grounded and relatable. Her goal is to give anyone with the drive and desire to be financially successful or live better with the knowledge and tools to achieve it.

She’s no stranger to a microphone, having spread her positive lifestyle, financial and investment advice to varied audiences across the country. Despite sharing the stage with some of the biggest names, like Roxy Jacenko and Alyce Tran. 

Ayda is regularly featured in the Australian Financial Review, Yahoo Finance, Domain, Australian Property Investor, Sky News, and many more. 

But, don’t let her upbeat personality fool you. Through her leadership at her multi-million-dollar companies, Grow Property Group, Newstead Realty and Grow Lending and Finance, she’s developed a reputation as one of Australia’s sharpest and most respected minds in finance and real estate. 

Passionate, enthusiastic, and relatable, Ayda is someone who genuinely cares about people, and is devoted to helping them find their confidence by gaining the knowledge and the tools to succeed in business, or in life.

Nikki Parkinson is a businesswoman and online community leader who loves helping women find their confidence through the clothes that they wear and the life they lead.

Nikki Parkinson, 54, is a former journalist-turned blogger, author and now fashion designer. At the core of all that she does is her love of helping and supporting women to find greater confidence through their everyday style and the life they lead.

Styling You, a Queensland micro business Telstra Business Award winner, has attracted sponsorship from national brands such as FRANKiE4 Footwear, Allianz travel insurance and Priceline.

Two years ago, Nikki launched her own fashion label, Styling You The Label, offering Australian-made, non-boring wardrobe basics that take the stress out of the what-to-wear question.

She has long advocated for a disruption in the way that fashion is marketed to women. Styling You The Label is the first label globally to invest in showcasing its designs on every size that it sells – size 6-20. Not only does that increase customer confidence but it flips the idea that fashion should only be seen on one size, height, age, colour, belief or ability.

Laura Furiosi runs a business coaching business called Bossy Mummy where she works with her clients to achieve their dreams by drawing on her years of experience in creating an international sold children’s label.

She also co-hosts the apple chart topping “The Divorce Course Podcast” with her mother Lyn Galvin and runs an online divorce course to assist with empowering women with legal knowledge and know how to navigate the legal path of divorce.

She also spends time as the Queensland coordinator for Endometriosis Australia in an effort to raise funds, spread awareness and educate women about a disease that impacts 1 in 8 women.

Laura is driven by a passion to empower and educate women in all aspects of their lives. She does this In a hope to create a better future for the next generation of women including her three daughters.

Revie Jane Schulz is one of Australia’s leading content creators, a podcaster and speaker.
Refreshingly honest, Revie courageously shares her personal and professional life to her online community.

Facing adversity throughout her early childhood, the woman now known for her infectious, fun-loving personality has certainly lead an unconventional life. Battling depression and anxiety as a teen, Revie has walked a path most could never imagine.

Embracing the brave direction to choose happiness over darkness, the inspirational entrepreneur was able to rediscover her worth and find her purpose through fitness.

With a natural instinct for business practices, Revie became one of the most exciting young entrepreneurs to watch. At 21 she pioneered one of the first female-only gyms in Australia. Tech savvy and with an eye for digital marketing, it wasn’t long before her business became the most followed female-only gym in the world.

Realising her potential to connect and inspire women, she began sharing more of her hardships with her online community, becoming a strong advocate for mental health and self-compassion. Revie realised that she was ‘Working on Worthiness Out-loud’ and that it was having profound impact on her community; encouraging women around the world to embrace the human experience.

Stacey is the Founder and Managing Director of She Wear. She Wear designs, manufactures and retails safety, work and fashion footwear designed to specifically fit women correctly and comfortably. Launched to market in October 2013 with 2 styles in 3 colours, the range has now grown to incorporate 7 safety styles in 10 colours, work footwear options (for the health, retail, hospitality and education industries), a range of fashion boots and socks for women. They also manufacture boots for kids and retail a full range of workwear and PPE for women.

She Wear is an innovator and disruptor in a very male focused industry where women’s requirements and comfort aren’t seen as a priority. What started as a boot strapped home based start up, has now developed into a Brisbane-based, Australian company manufacturing, retailing and wholesaling globally.

Stacey was named 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards and a 2018 Global Innovation Award for the Women to Watch in Business Disruption.

Pauline Fetaui, General Manager of River City Labs (RCL) joined the ACS Group to continue to pursue her two passions; People creating and living dreams and progressing innovative technologies for the advancement of our society.
Pauline leads her own start up CheeHoo an integrated Assistant, Organiser app, designed to help people juggle smarter whilst helping to stay connected to the most important tribes in our lives.

Pauline also co-founded a Splash of Colour, a Podcast and passion project hosting authentic conversations about navigating the reality of being a Human as we all try to do our best.

Prior to joining RCL, whilst building CheeHoo and a Splash of Colour, Pauline spent her days as an Management Consultant Digital, Tech Transformation and Regulatory Change across Banking, Superannuation, Insurance and Government.

Leslie Crudup Villagarcia is more than just a no-nonsense life coach! She is a life-long challenger of social constructs around success, relationships, monogamy, and authority. This fuels her passion for empowering clients to develop the mindset to make an impact beyond themselves: to their communities and to global society.

She is a triple citizen (USA, Peru, Australia) and has worked as an educator, trainer, curriculum developer, and e-learning designer for businesses and universities in New York City, Europe, Asia and Australia, where she is now a full-time coach.

Through her extensive experience working in cross-cultural capacities around the world, she has developed a keen ability to connect with clients at optimal levels of communication. She holds formal qualifications in Life Coaching as well as a Masters’s degree in Applied Linguistics, which bolsters her hyper-awareness of how language impacts the mind and how the words we use can shape our self-belief and our destinies.

Sharon Orapeleng is a behavioral change expert and a mental health professional. Through Psyched Solutions Training and Consultancy – Sharon is on a journey to create a much more compassionate community that cares by embedding the African philosophy of ‘Ubuntu’’ I am Because We Are’ in all she does.

Sharon works with workplaces, businesses and community delivering workshops on mental health awareness and wellbeing as well as facilitating cultural diversity conversations.

She also works for the State Government as policy and program lead for mental health community support programs delivered by non-government organisations across Queensland.

Rebecca Dredge, Mother of 2 is the Founder of Kiddo, providing parents freedom and time.

Kiddo does this by connecting parents to local, verified and affordable nannies and babysitters for in-home care services. They launched in October 2019, are an award winning 5 star rated business and have over 9,000 users. She has huge aspirations to scale Kiddo to further assist NDIS families to help make the world a better place.

Rebecca is an experienced business professional, with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. She holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) with distinction and is also a qualified Certified Practicing Accountant.

Shea Morrison left a career in radio advertising in 2014 to focus solely on the development of The Goodnight Co. Always entrepreneurial, Shea has more than 20 years’ experience with fast-growth companies including Austereo and Nova Entertainment. She founded Collaborative Media Group, a boutique marketing agency and has successfully run multiple companies in the beauty/wellness sectors. Shea lives in Brisbane with her husband and two children.

The growth of The Goodnight Co. and the genuine consumer love for the product ranges continues to inspire Shea. “Sleep and wellness is where I want to be, because I know we can make a genuine difference to people’s lives.” As a sleep expert, Shea hosts Sleep Workshops within the corporate space to educate and inform busy employees on the importance of sleep and provides evidence-based ways to fall asleep, stay asleep and manage inevitable sleep disruptions.

Strong, fierce and full of flare. Triple Ms The Big Breakfast, Margaux Parker, brings a new flavour to South East Queensland’s local breakfast show.

Already a veteran of the Brisbane social scene, Margaux has announced herself as an in-demand media identity since the retirement of her husband, former Brisbane Bronco, QLD and Australian rugby league legend, Corey.

A queen of social media and a proud mother of four kids under the age of 11, the Logan local is as comfortable on the red carpet as she is in a pair of uggs at school drop off.

Margaux brings a powerful presence to a studio of big personalities and has undoubtedly been embraced by the Brisbane audiences.

Laura leads the Queensland practice of Deloitte Digital, combining her 20+ years experience leading digital and marketing transformation with her passion for driving results through inclusive leadership.

Industry agnostic (but with plenty of scar tissue gained in high-regulation financial services and high-competition consumer business segments) she is most passionate about ensuring channel of choice for customers. She is obsessed with ensuring organisations get a return on investment from their martech stack, and bringing the people and process lens to technology challenges.

She uses her powers for good too, ensuring she spends at least a third of her annual effort on leading transformation in the profit-for-purpose sector. Her side-hustle is raising a 3-year old feminist, with another on the way.

Heidi is a Speech Pathologist, Founder & CEO at Spot. Spot is a telehealth company that provides speech pathology services to families, hospitals & schools nationwide. She is a country girl and founded Spot (originally SPOT Rural) to promote health equity for rural and remote Australians. Heidi’s passion for Speech Pathology & healthcare originates from growing up with her brother Jack, who has Down Syndrome.

After completing her Bachelor of Speech Pathology at The University of Queensland in 2013, Heidi practiced in acute and rehabilitative hospital settings, community health, and private practice. She launched Spot as a side-gig in early 2016 whilst working full time, before going out on her own to build Spot in April 2018. Along the way, she developed a specialised knowledge and interest in learning disabilities and orofacial myofunctional assessment and therapy techniques. Spot is now known clinically for being experts in these areas.

Spot was one of the very first 100% telehealth clinics in Australia and was established years before the COVID crisis, which saw thousands of healthcare professionals switch to telehealth overnight. As a systems & processes-driven leader, Heidi ensured that Spot was built for rapid growth from its very conception, and this saw the company excell through the crisis. Spot is a telehealth industry leader, growing revenue by 500%, 220%, and 111% respectively in the first 3 years of business. Heidi now employs over 27 women at Spot, with recruitment plans for 1 employee per month to be onboarded for the remainder of 2021.

Dr Jess Blomfield is the Head of Communications and Engagement at Go1, dedicated to creating an employee experience that enables belonging and doing our best work together, through pandemic and beyond. Jess has a background across higher education, corporate and community settings as an educator, facilitator and researcher in organisational behaviour, social change and the future of work.

Carly has a fifteen-year history working closely in the fashion industry having been based in Paris, Los Angeles and various States in Australia.  Her titles have ranged from Fashion Editor, Stylist, Creative Director (having owned her own label) and Global Marketing Manager. Carly founded then sold Brisbane Fashion Month before her experience stretched into Fashion Curation in California.  Working for global platform Not Just a Label she built a reputation for having an eye for the most likely to succeed fashion designers.  

Having returned from overseas, now based in Noosa Heads, Carly consults to select fashion labels on their marketing and branding; and often lectures in Universities and Fashion Schools. She has consulted with businesses from university graduate start-ups, to strategically building campaigns for companies with a turnover in excess of $60m.  

Carly leads the community “Women in Fashion”, as she also prepares for her next venture, SHE HER funded by an international tech company which is set to launch late 2021.

She has a passion for sustainability and ethical fashion and hopes in every role she takes on, to have the biggest global impact.  Her stand out career moments have been interviewing Jimmy Choo, chatting with Diane von Fürstenberg, and attending Paris Fashion Week scouting new fashion talent.

Carly has been the judge of prestigious Global Fashion Awards “International Design Awards” for four consecutive years, where she continues to be at the forefront of the world’s leading emerging designers.

Teresa has a personal and professional commitment to helping people experiencing homelessness to live with dignity. This passion is reflected in her accomplished career within human services fields including not-for-profit, housing, and state and federal government employment, disability, and community agencies.

Teresa is currently the CEO of Mangrove Housing Limited, a community housing provider with approximately 600 properties across the southeast corner of Queensland. Since joining Mangrove Housing, Teresa has founded two subsidiary companies, Mangrove Maintenance & Cleaning, and Mangrove Realty. She has also launched the major charity initiative The Forgotten Women, which is focused on housing Brisbane’s homeless women aged 55+.

Teresa is also a founding director of the Jack Reed Foundation, a recipient of Dignity First funding for the successful project ‘1000 Free Haircuts for the Homeless’. The Jack Reed Foundation’scurrent initiative is ‘99 New Beginnings’, offering apprenticeships to disadvantaged and at-risk youth.

Rarely sitting still, Teresa is also a Board member of the peak body QShelter and is completing her MBA, to add to her existing educational qualifications of a Masters Human Services and a  Bachelor of Health and Behavioural Science (Psychology). In her downtime, Teresa spends time with her family and challenges her fitness through running and cycling.

Dr Heidi Peverill is a Specialist Breast and Melanoma Surgeon with an interest in breast preservation and reconstruction. She cares for women and families at high risk of breast cancer, providing genetic testing and long-term management. 

​​Dr Peverill is publicly employed at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Breast Unit, where she helped establish its first breast reconstruction clinic within the Breast Surgery Department. Privately, she consults at Mater Private Hospital and Gold Coast Private Hospital.

She takes time to listen and understand what is important for each patient, so together you can decide on the best treatment plan for you. 

Outside of work, Dr Peverill enjoys spending time with her husband Michael, their young daughter, and their two dogs.

Trenna is deadly serious about changing the world… always in heels (or sparkly flats), a bright lip, and fabulous frock! Vivacious, bright, up with the sun and full of optimism, Trenna is a tireless innovator and experienced entrepreneur. She’s passionate about people and fluent in finance after nearly three decades working in financial services.

As the founder and CEO of Super Fierce Trenna is on a mission to empower women to take control of their financial future. Starting with their super. And with a generous sprinkling of sparkles and confetti thrown in.

“I want to create a fearless financial future for women – to make it easy for women to engage with superannuation confidently, to help them care about it, act on it, and then get on with their lives. The bonus is that every time someone switches their super using our service we donate $100 to Fierce Impact, our not for profit, independent, social impact sister. You have to feel good about that! We certainly do!⁠ Our goal is to donate $100 million to marginalised Australian women by helping 1 million women to save on super.⁠”

Super Fierce is both fun and fierce. Living boldly, with passion and good intentions. It’s deadly serious about changing the world, and having an awesome time along the way! This is part of Trenna’s DNA – it’s how she tackles everything.