A Melbourne-based serial entrepreneur, business owner and PR expert who has created a first-of-its-kind Australian women’s speaker network is calling for female speakers in search of speaking opportunities and engagements to sign up for the new directory.
Jules Brooke, who is the founder of the membership group ‘She’s The Boss Group’ for female founders and women running businesses, is aiming to increase the number of women speakers across Australia as well as increase the visibility and accessibility of women speakers through her speaker’s network idea.
Currently, 67 women speakers have been listed on the Australian Women Speakers (AWS) website, with Brooke hoping to have 1000 speakers listed by the end of the year.
As of June, the Australian Women Speakers LinkedIn group has 930 members, while the Facebook group has approximately 1000 members.
Brooke said she discovered that only 30% of speakers at business events in Australia were women in late 2023 and that they were incredibly hard to find, especially if they weren’t professional speakers or listed with a speaker bureau, after looking for places to list herself as a female speaker.
Now Brooke is focusing on getting the word out about the directory to ensure women speakers are easier to find, making it easier for event organisers to find and lock in female speakers for speaking engagements and getting that 30% statistic to 50%.
Speaking to SmartCompany from Bali, where she is currently holding the She’s The Boss Bali retreat, Brooke said with the launch of the directory there is absolutely no excuse now for saying you can’t find a woman to speak at your event.
“First, I decided to start the LinkedIn group, then I went into Facebook because I thought I know there are women that aren’t on LinkedIn that are on Facebook,” she says.
“Then in March, I decided that we probably needed a directory so that people could search for women’s speakers.
“So I created a directory that you can search by location and topic.”
Brooke said she was amazed that the Australian Women Speakers URL was available and even bought female speakers last week.
“I felt like it’s a real reflection that the bureaus clearly don’t think that there was anything there in women speakers,” she says.
“So I’ve got this directory, I have literally only kind of just started launching and marketing it.”
When asked about the directory being the first of its kind in Australia, Brooke confirmed to SmartCompany that the statement was correct.
“I’ve gone searching, there is a bureau for women speakers. I haven’t looked recently, but I did find a bureau,” she says.
“The other thing that I’m trying to do is kind of disrupt what is going on with the bureaus because I know so many women that have signed up with (a) bureau, are one of the 5000 speakers that they have and none of them are getting any gigs.
“The bureaus tend to favour the women who are being booked all the time, and they’re not pushing forward new talent.
“So what I wanted to do was make it really easy for people to find women, to negotiate directly with them and not take a cut out of any of their payments if they secure payment.
“But also I think that there’s a lot of women that just want an opportunity to speak and they’re not really looking for big fees. They’re just looking for the opportunity.”
Brooke said she asked herself again, where do you find these women?
“The only times that I have ever managed to find women even for my own events is when I have to either reach out to them individually or you see posts in Facebook groups where people are going ‘are there any women here who could come and speak at my event?’” she says.
“And I thought it’s got to be easier than that.
“I also believe that if we all gather together and we all back each other then we’re going to make ourselves easier to find.
“And (when) we start referring each other backwards and forwards then we will change that statistic that really annoys me, (that) only 30% of speakers at business events are women.”
Amongst the many speakers listed in the Australian Women Speakers directory is Michelle Pascoe, a long-term member of the Professional Speakers Association and CEO and founder of Optimum Operating Procedures and Services (OOPS), Sue Ellson, the first woman to sign up to the AWS directory and founder and director at 120 Ways Publishing, and Carolyn Butler-Madden, chief purpose activist at B-Corp certified purpose consultancy, The Cause Effect.
Speaking to SmartCompany, Ellson, who talks about LinkedIn, and career development and is also an author and coach, confirmed that she has been training, speaking, and presenting since 1987.
“I know that we always need to keep moving with the times. Personally, since completing my degree in 2000, I have been attending up to four events per week ever since,” she says.
“The quality of the speakers, I have to say, is variable. I have also been disappointed, particularly at major events, to see the same ‘big names’ out on stage over and over again, without changing their message or offering anything new (and yes, a lot are male).
“Personally, I tailor every presentation for each audience and whilst ‘some’ of the content will be familiar, every presentation is definitely different and not another version of the same old motivational spiel.
“One male ‘speaker coach’ told me that if I wanted to get better speaking gigs, I should lower my voice. I can’t tell you how angry I felt.”
Ellson said Brooke’s directory attracts an authentic and diverse crowd.
“I have been ‘online’ since 2001 – and I know the value of directories,” she says.
“The value of Jules’s offering is that she allows us to include our website link and a number of other search engine optimisation features. When I suggested a video to let members know how to update their LinkedIn Profile with the AWS details, she said yes straight away.
“This is new school thinking. Old-school thinking keeps all of one’s cards close to the chest and doesn’t encourage collaboration.
“As a ‘woman of a certain age’ – we need to be able to showcase our value in a digitally competent way – Jules is helping make this happen.”
Pascoe, who speaks about leadership and customer engagement amongst many other topics, told SmartCompany that Brooke had shared details about the directory while speaking with her on her podcast — The Michelle Pascoe Hospitality Podcast.
“I thought to myself, even though I’m a seasoned certified speaking professional, you know, unless you are known to a bureau or you have many years behind you and client connections. It’s not easy for women to be seen on the stage,” she says.
“The last 30 years of business and being a speaker. It’s so hard to see lineups of speakers are predominantly male, so when Jules said that she’s going to be bringing this directory together, I thought this is ideal.
“Not only for a seasoned speaker, but for those who are starting up and all those in between women, that not only can we put forward our speaking topic, but actually support each other because that’s the biggest thing we’ve got.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to cross-collaborate as well as promote each other, so that was probably one of the reasons or the main reason I joined, to get my profile out there, but also to help others to get their profile out there as well.”
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