We are women on the RISE

The 10^th of March saw women all over Brisbane descend on the Emporium Hotel in Southbank to celebrate International Women’s Day the only way Freelancing Gem’s knows how – bringing together a powerhouse panel of women to discuss what it takes to be successful in business and challenge the preconceived idea of what strong leadership looks like.

We must thank each and every one who attended for their incredible generosity towards Share the Dignity. With just over 150 guests the raffle raised more than $3000 for the charity and together we donated over 100 period products.

This sell-out event was facilitated by Freelancing Gem’s fearless CEO, Fleur Madden and an all-star panel discussed women rising, professionally and personally.

On International Women’s Day we can look back and celebrate how much we have accomplished but there is no argument that there is still a long way to go if we want to achieve gender equality. Last year was tough for women at work in Australia, the latest statistics out this week are showing that due to the setbacks last year it will now take women 101 years to reach gender equality. This isn’t a statistic we are comfortable with. Before commencing the panel, Fleur urged us all to think about how we personally can choose women in the decisions we make at work or in our businesses.

To open conversations Fleur introduced each of our amazing panel members.

Francesca Webster is CEO and Founder of Brazilian Beauty and the Australian Skin Institute, with 10 salons across Queensland. She has been a finalist in the Lord Mayors Business Awards, EY Entrepreneur of the Year, QLD Women in Franchising and the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.

Rochelle Courtenay is the Founder and MD of Share the Dignity and is on a mission to end period poverty and break the stigma that surrounds periods globally. She leads a team of 5500 volunteers and brings a ray of light into the lives of homeless women and those fleeing from abuse and domestic violence. She has been a finalist for Australian of the year and won the 2016 Cosmo Humanitarian of the Year prize.

Carly Brown is the Founder and CEO of Une Piece and La Beach. Une piece is home to the world’s most beautiful one piece swim suits that have featured in Vogue, Elle, The Huffington Post and The London Times. She won the 2020 Lord Mayors Business Award and the AusMumpreneur Award and was named as a “women who will change the world”!

Councilor Kara Cook has been the local member for Morningside since 2018, she recently won her seat back while pregnant. Prior to this, Kara founded Australia’s first domestic violence law firm Cook Legal. She has been named in many a list as one of Brisbane’s top lawyers and works tirelessly for our local community.

Naby Mariyam, CEO of Coverhero which is a digital insurance platform for freelancers and small business. She Represented Australia at the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Summit in 2017 and 2018. She is an advocate for diversity of thought in technology and women in leadership.

Rochelle led the conversation by sharing with the audience her path and challenges to single-handedly building her charity Share the Dignity and how important the support of her network was in securing her success.

When asked about the challenges faced by women in the finance and technology industries, Naby says that “outside of implicit bias, the biggest challenge women face is access to network.”

She argues that in this day and age, it doesn’t matter how smart or talented someone is, if you aren’t connected with the right people, it is going to be very difficult to establish your credibility.

“To establish your credibility you have to fight for it. You have to position yourself.” – Naby Mariyam

“Building your network is very powerful, because that can open the doors, once the doors are open then things start flowing”.

#Choosetochallenge is the theme for this year’s IWD. We next asked the panel what this means to them and how they live this in 2021.

Carly is challenging what female leadership looks like. She says that she wants to challenge our national and global model of leadership.

“I want to challenge a pretty outdated model of leadership in our country and globally.” – Carly Brown

She elaborates, “I have sat, just sub-CEO level, in multiple companies and have been told if I was more aggressive, more assertive, more ball breaking bitch that I would rise and ascend. I reject that. I am incredibly strong and I, like a lot of women similarly embrace their femininity and they have a strength that isn’t necessarily a masculine strength. My mission is to show that women can still be in leadership and still be kind and empathetic. You can lead in a different way.”

With everything we have seen this year at a federal level, Kara urges us to choose to “challenge our leaders and what we will accept from the people who are the chief law makers and policy makers in our country”.

Rochelle stands by her Share the Dignity mission, to “end period poverty. We need to end the shame and stigma around menstruation and we need to educate. We need to educate boys, girls, women and men.” She also adds, “women are incredible humans when they put their minds to the fact that they want to make a change – they just do it.”

“Women are incredible humans when they put their minds to the fact that they want to make a change – they just do it.” – Rochelle Courtenay

Naby is challenging the lack of funding that goes into female funded businesses. She argues, “If we want to change an industry, if we want to make progress, we can influence a lot of change by having diversity at the top.”

What has happened to women in the workforce after COVID-19 has been nothing short of a national disaster and Fleur says that “choosing to challenge for Freelancing Gems is helping women get back to work. All of us can think about recruitment differently – because we are redefining the 9 to 5.”

She adds “choose to challenge is also thinking about the women who come after us, because when we also don’t pay ourselves what we are worth the women that is waiting in the wings is also not going to get paid what she is worth.”

Francesca says that she is choosing to challenge priorities, “Last year made gave us the time and space to realize that being busy isn’t some sort of freaking trophy.” COVID has forced a nation to stop sprinting and to realize that you can achieve just as much whilst taking some time out to look after yourself.

The audience also posed some bold questions to the panelists, starting with how to persevere when you hit flat moments within the business, what do you do to pick yourself up again?

Kara reveals that the lows are inevitable. To pick herself up she “reflects on the journey” and talks to the people around her about things that have been accomplished and finds the process to be very uplifting… “You do have those ups and downs, so really being present in those really good times and remembering that feeling and embracing it because there will always come the lows. They are inevitable.”

Naby adds that a strong support team is a must for her. She has an ‘accountability council’ that comprises of valuable people that she really trusts. “There are 3 people in my circle. It could be a business, personal or even a confidence crisis and I can to turn to my person at 2AM and they will explain all the reasons why I am not a fraud”.

“Always remember, we can face harder things.” – Carly Brown

There were a number of women in the audience in the process of moving into a different corporate world. What is the biggest tip you would give to someone who is making that massive change into consulting?

Being set up properly from the get go with the right tools, the right contracts, the right templates, right people (lawyers and accountants, etc.), having a HR contract there so you can employ somebody if you want to and having all that set up so you feel confident to move forward in your business.

Fleur adds that it is crucial to “authentically and genuinely connect with people where you can add value to their business.”

“Think bigger with everything you’re doing and don’t play small” – Fleur Madden

Rochelle explains that she had a vision board when she first started Share the Dignity and it has all come true. She urges us to “create your vision board, just dream it and do it.”

“Believe in yourself and dream exactly what you want and it will happen” – Rochelle Courtenay

For those in the audience who are starting from square one, what do you do when you have absolutely no capital to dip into when starting a business, where do you start?

You don’t need to have everything set up right on day one. There are a few things that are non-negotiable like, contracts, registering your business name, etc.

Fleur suggests “it’s good to have the big dream and the vision but it is the small steps every day that get you there so you just need to keep taking those steps.”

Without capital there is no question that it is difficult to start a business.

There are lots of resources available and tapping into single grant and all existing infrastructure to assist will go a long way, but at the end of the day Kara argues that “there is a lot of hard work and hustle.”

For those who are in the process of launching or already have existing side hustles Carly’s best advice is before anything… “Validate your idea, research it and understand the market for it. If you want your idea to be bigger than a side hustle then you need to know what the point of difference is otherwise, it is just a passion project”.

“Drop the ladder down and help our sisters out. Regardless of the skillset, you can learn something from being a mentor and being a mentee and it’s really important that we do that.” – Francesca Webster

‘Inspiring Rare Birds’ is also a fantastic program out of Sydney and their CEO, Jo Burston, is our Entrepreneur in Residence for this month and you can read more about her here but if you are a new woman in business they connect you with a more experienced woman in business as your mentor and it is free.

Freelancing Gems has also created the ‘Sisterhood Program’ where members are matched with another woman in business to support each other on the journey. This is just one of the many services available.

Two out of three women in freelance and consulting say they are knowingly undercharging for their services. If you are thinking “I am one of those women”, then we hope we have inspired you to challenge how you charge for your services.

We are also urging employers to challenge their traditional recruitment practices and champion women at work. Choose to challenge your next hiring process and build your workforce with experienced, remote freelancers at Freelancing Gems.