We need to hear more about successful women led businesses.
Which is why I delighted to be jumping on a plane to head to Australia (my first international trip since 2018!) to attend the Heart Centred Entrepreneurs Conference, run by Tash Corbin. This is a conference for women, with women speakers.
The venue was Peppers Noosa which was simply divine. Surrounded by nature, and a short walk to the beach, it was a pleasure to be there.
Now business isn’t all about making a million dollars. Yet when I think of the good that these women are doing in the world, employing other women, building schools etc, it fires me up to think bigger. Just think of all the animal rescue centres I could sponsor if I grew my business to that level!!
The epic line up of woman led business speakers and panellists included:
Leonie Dawson– author, artist, and self-made millionaire
Denise Duffield-Thomas – money mindset mentor, author, and self-made millionaire
Brigit Esselmont – tarot card extraordinaire and self-made millionaire.
The key lessons were…
Lesson 1: Be careful of judgments
Leonie is a larger-than-life character. I’d thought she was a bit too much for me when I was getting her emails.
Yet when I met her in person, I saw how wrong I’d been. Yes, her style is wild, and no, she’s not for everyone. But meeting her was like getting a warm hug from a friend you haven’t seen in ages.
She is open and giving and blows the common perspective of what someone who regularly earns 7 figures a year looks and acts like out of the water.
We can become siloed in our thinking in life and business as we often spend time with people who think like us. Gaining a different perspective can only expand our thinking.
Since meeting Leonie I’ve become a member of her Academy. It’s stacked full of useful resources to to help you start and grow your business. Read more about it here.
Lesson 2: Create a business that suits you
The panellists were unashamedly blunt about what they will and won’t do in their business. This is such an important message for women to hear as we’re still being told to people please, not rock the boat. That list goes on and on.
To hear Leonie say that she doesn’t read emails (her team members do that) because it overloads her ADHD and autistic brain was a breath of fresh air.
To hear Denise say she’s happiest when she has a project that she can work on solo and doesn’t care if there is a broken link on her website (that is for her team to manage) had me doing a quiet fist pump.
We do not have to do All. The. Things.
Sure, we might have budget constraints when we first start our business, but we can still design a business that plays to our strengths rather than doing what we think we “should” do.
Lesson 3: Fly your freak flag
This is a classic Leonie saying. Given she was wearing a care bears t-shirt, rainbow cardigan, and tights with a jellybean pattern when I first met her she lives this message.
And I love her for that!
Coming from a legal background there was a standard view of what professional looked like, and maintaining that image was an important element of my career as it met the expectations of my clients.
While I might not be wearing jellybean tights anytime soon, meeting Leonie did get me thinking about how I could bring more of myself into my business.
Lesson 4: Do the unexpected
Brigit Esselmont has been featured in Oprah Magazine and appeared on stage across Australia and the US. She’s the owner of a 7-figure business which is based around tarot cards.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Tarot cards.
Often associated with fortune tellers in tents, crushed velvet, and crystal balls. My only experience with tarot cards is from seeing them read in the movies. I’m a practical kind of woman so reading the cards hasn’t ever been of interest to me.
Yet I was curious. When the owner of such a successful business is talking, it pays to listen.
It’s turns out that Brigit is on a mission to bring Tarot out of the closet and into the mainstream as a modern, intuitive tool for purpose-driven people who are ready to live life at their fullest potential.
I find intuition to be a strange concept when it comes to business. It’s something we naturally have, so why do we need to be taught how to use it?
Now I’m probably not Brigit’s ideal client, but I appreciated her honest answers on stage about where she has messed up in her business (grew her team too big for the kind of business she wanted to run) and went with a publisher based on her ego rather than her intuition.
There’s that word again…
Lesson 5: Become the champion for your dreams
Although I’m unlikely to pick up a pack of cards anytime soon, there is immense value in trusting yourself to make the right decisions for you.
So many times, we listen to the wrong people. Business “gurus” who tell us we must follow their method if we’re to succeed, family and friends who tell us our business idea will never get off the ground, or our harsh inner critic.
Instead of being the champion for our dreams,
we become dream-killers.
How many times have you argued for the negative in your business? I know I have.
“No-one will want to buy this course/membership/product”.
“Who am I to think I can make a living out of this?”
“Why write this blog? No-one will ever read it.”
Those negatives can be exhausting! It’s no wonder so many businesses fail in their first five years.
What could you and I achieve if we argued for the positive? If we listened to ourselves and trusted our decisions.
What if you became the loudest supporter of your business?
Whether you choose to use Tarot as your preferred tool, or a podcast from a favourite speaker, or a book that touches you, or all three, it’s all about finding the right way for you.
The signature on my weekly emails refers to “Systems, strategy & encouragement”. That’s because my clients come to me in a state of self-doubt. They feel like they “should” be able to organise their businesses by themselves, or they think they’re the problem because they’ve not been able to consistently post on social media or get that course out into the world (that list goes on and on).
We often need someone to give us a gentle nudge to trust ourselves or to challenge ourselves to fully embrace our strengths. I do that for my clients as we work on creating a strong foundation for their business.
Photo credit for the header image Miranda Mayle Photography. All other photos are my own.
