If you missed out on day one (we know – someone’s gotta work) then don’t worry – we’ve got you covered.
Thousands (and thousands!) of women walked through our doors today, and we’re not trying to make you jealous or anything, but it was freakin’ awesome.
Read on for our mini recap of today’s awesomeness.
9:20 am Shelley Horton, our emcee, kicks off the day with one of her famous 20-second dance parties
20 second dance parties have begun! Nothing better than getting thousands of women up dancing before 10am at @businesschicks #9ToThrive #businesschicks https://t.co/rjkdXrIb6y pic.twitter.com/ErshUEcGo1
— Shelly Horton 💃🏻 (@ShellyHorton1) August 10, 2018
9:25 am Our CEO, Olivia Ruello, gives everyone a warm welcome
“I really encourage you to meet people you haven’t met before, don’t just stay in your cliques,” says Liv. “We have thousands of members at Business Chicks, and I haven’t met one who wasn’t warm and friendly.”
“Thank you for embracing everything we do at Business Chicks, for being so generous, coming along to our events and for being so loyal.”
We’ll see more of Liv moderating the Do Good panel and talking leadership and strategic thinking on the Realestate.com.au stage later this afternoon.
“There are 5000 of you guys coming through the doors this morning” – @oliviaruello CEO of @businesschicks at this mornings #9tothrive #businesschicks #smj18 @susanstevo pic.twitter.com/WJzxRtMn6J
— Teaghan Wilson (@teaghan_wilson) August 9, 2018
9:30 am – Serial entrepreneur Roxy Jacenko walks onstage to a huge round of applause
“Wow there are a lot of people here,” Roxy says. “And I’m busting!”
Roxy chats about everything from her notorious work ethic (she wakes up at 2 am to check her emails!) her critics, her crazy PR stunts and even a mental breakdown she had a few years back. “I had cancer in 2016-2017, my husband went to jail, I had to care for two children on my own, I was running four businesses, and I was not leading a healthy lifestyle,” she says.
“And basically I had a full mental breakdown.”
She’s known for being the hardest working woman in the PR industry and says “When you haven’t had the opportunity to fall back on university qualifications, your work ethic is all you’ve got.”
“If I wasn’t self-sufficient, I would have been up shit creek two years ago. I wouldn’t have been able to pay the school fees or all the debts that my husband left me with.”
11 am We welcomed our Premium members to the stage
Eight top Aussie women entrepreneurs, joined us onstage to chat all things women in leadership.
They discussed business challenges, listening to your gut instinct, self-determination and overcoming failure. Pack facilitator Karen James spoke about imposter syndrome, something many women struggle with. “We hear about imposter syndrome, but we just don’t allow it in our pack.”
12 pm Our global CEO Emma Isaacs along with Nicole Eckels and Kristy Withers joined us for the Winging It panel.
All three entrepreneurs know a thing or two about ‘winging it.’ Emma Isaacs bought Business Chicks at 24 and has only ever worked for herself, Nicole Eckels started Glasshouse Candles without ever making a candle or running a business, and Kristy Withers was in corporate marketing before she started her furniture design business, Incy Interiors.
Emma says Winging It is “the complete philosophy of [her] life,” – that’s why she made it the title of her new book. When discussing being a female entrepreneur, Emma says when she was in high school she would constantly read autobiographies of business people. “I noticed there were never any written by women,” she says.
“That stayed with me, and I thought why is that? I thought to myself I want to be one of those people. Our ‘why’ at Business Chicks is to make life better for women, and we make every decision against that”.
1:20 pm time for another 20-second dance party!
1.30 pm Our Dream Job panel kicks off!
Natarsha Belling is a famous Aussie journalist, Aisling Finch is the Marketing Director at Google, and Fadzi Whande is an award-winning social justice advocate.
“I always put myself in a position where I don’t see anything as work. I want to see it as things I’m passionate about.” – Fadzi Whande.
All three say that passion is the number one thing that will help you to reach your dream. Fadzi knew she wanted to help others at just six years old. “I always put myself in a position where I don’t see anything as work. I want to see it as things I’m passionate about.”
Aisling adds that you need to spend time understanding what your values and passions are, “Take the time to reflect on when you will be the happiest and where you can have the most impact.”
2.45pm Celina Lazarus, Violet Roumeliotis, and Madeline Buchner join us for the Do Good panel
All three inspirational women commit their lives to helping others and making a positive difference in the world. They say a level of anger is what spurs them on and keeps them going. Maddie believes “It doesn’t help to be angry 24/7. Just get angry in doses”. Celina thinks anger is a good thing because it shows that you are human. While Violet says “Reports that our leaders in ASX companies, top executives, and University Chancellors are 95% men make me angry and that is a good thing”.
4 pm Last session for the day was Swipe Up – with social media stars Tanya Hennessy, Sophie Cachia, and Emmylou MacCarthy.
Click to watch our Facebook Live of the Swipe Up panel.
These women are the queens of engagement, They’ve grown their social media audiences to thousands and are experts at awesome creating content. For anyone struggling with confidence issues, Emmylou says to piece together daily acts of courage, and that will “set the foundation of confidence.”
Tanya doesn’t consider herself to be confident but says she knows she has a strong work ethic. “If someone says something about my work ethic I think ‘I will come for you in the middle of the night because I’m awake because I work 40 fucking jobs!”
That’s just a few of today’s highlights, and we didn’t even get to mention the killer insights from the second stage (coming soon), pink coffees, professional headshots, free financial advice, complimentary make-up and hair touchups, giveaways, food trucks, pink gin cocktails, delicious frosé cocktails from 6ft6wines and so much more.
