2023 Women on the Rise Episode 74 with Sally Porteous
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[00:00:00] Sally Porteous is the founder of Red Lanyard and the Event Planners Workshop. And I am so excited to have Sally on the show today because as female entrepreneurs, events play such an important role in growing our business. So. We're going to find all about what we can do to grow our business through events.
Welcome to the Women on the Rise podcast. I'm Jen Blandos, the founder of Femalefusion, and this is where we look at everything entrepreneurship for female entrepreneurs, whether you are just getting started or you have a seven or eight figure business. We cover the topics that matter most to you as you are building, growing, and scaling your business.
Welcome to the podcast, Sally. Thank you, Jen. It's an absolute pleasure to be here and I'm really honored. Thank you. Well, it's so great to be here on Australia for a female fusion, and I am so excited to hear all about [00:01:00] events from you because events are such a big thing for female entrepreneurs. I would love to know before we dive into that.
What made you get into the world of event organization? The exciting thing about that is you don't realize you're in it until eventually you do something that other people find really hard and you found it really easily and you go, Oh, this is a thing. And I think as female entrepreneurs, a lot of us have been doing what we've been doing forever and we haven't really named it.
And, and that's kind of my, my journey. I've been doing events since I started work. Um, but I didn't know that's what I was doing because I didn't learn that at school. I didn't learn this as a profession. Uh, so I've been in the music industry. I've been in the real estate industry. I've been in public transport.
I've been in every construction industry for a long time. In every place that I've [00:02:00] worked. If I reflect back, I have been the event organizer in every place that I have worked. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. Because it is, I mean, now in university you can do degrees on event organization, which goes to show how important it is as a practice.
Yeah. But back then, I mean, same thing. My initial field of work was PR and communications. Yeah. There are no degrees for that. No. I have a degree in politics. Yes. Yeah. So, so, For female entrepreneurs, organizing events can be quite an important thing to, to have in their business. But I think sometimes, you know, you, you don't know what you don't know.
What do you find are the biggest challenges that people come up against when they're organizing events? Um, uh, Confidence is one thing that people think they're not capable, or they think they don't know enough, or they, they [00:03:00] think, well, I can only stand on other people's stages, I couldn't possibly create my own event, because they have a vision of what they've seen before, or what they've been to before, which is commonly a large event, a large conference, someone highly confident on stage, with a big audience in front of them.
You don't need to start there. You need to start at the beginning. So what would work well for a first event then? Yeah. Um, what's comfortable for you. And this is what I love. If you think about the audience and what it is you want to share with that audience, if you start there, who it is that you want to serve and why you want to serve them and what you want to.
Um, I have this lovely little framework that, uh, it's a little four part framework that you can answer a few questions that will help you decide, well, first of all, it [00:04:00] helps you define. Who it is that you want to serve and what you, what you want to serve them with. But then you start to think about, well, what environment does that look like?
And I often talk about, it's not about the number of people in the room, but the quality of the people in the room. So don't try and fill the room. Don't pick a venue and try and fill it and then work backwards from there. Don't, you don't want to do that. It's such a common, it's such a common thing though, isn't it?
And I see this as well in female fusion with some of our members that they'll look and go, where's the best venue? How can I get the best gifts and not think about that end result first and work backwards. How do you want to feel and how do you want your guests to feel? That's the number one, start there.
And if you keep that in your heart, in your mind the whole way through, you can't go wrong. You really can't go wrong. So the size. of what you're doing can be 10 people, can be 5 people, can be 2 people. An event is a gathering of [00:05:00] people. Do you know, when you were saying this, it made me think of my very first business and how I grew my very first business.
I went to Prague in the Czech Republic. Business was in London. And at that time, there were a number of countries within the European who were joining the European Union. And I did communications and PR training. And I was like, why don't I organize a conference there and call it communicating in the new EU, I had Like we were like, we've got this captive audience and I went to Prague and we ended up getting 70 people to turn up for that conference.
And that's actually one of the pivotal moments in my business that helped me really grow it. And I was like, huh, that's an event. Like the event actually is one of the things that really helped build and grow my business. But I can bet too that the success of that was because you looked at it from what does this audience need to know?
Yes. [00:06:00] Yes. And, and. Often what happens is people don't start there, they start with the venue and the date and then they get nervous about themselves. The event was last minute. Yeah, yeah. The event was like, we thought all about the content and the outcomes. And I remember that, that it was very much, right, where can we find a hotel in Prague?
Yeah, yeah. But it was like, it just goes to show the power, if you get that right, how that can work so well for your business. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And, and. What I'm finding now, and this is sort of just started to bubble up now, is you can't fake yourself in a live event, right? So anyone who's worried about AI or worried about whether Um, you know, that, that is this real, this thing that I'm participating in that can't be faked in a live event.
Yeah. So, so when you see business owners, maybe [00:07:00] they start out with their first event. What are some of the common mistakes that you would see people make? So somebody is listening to this and going, okay, I think I'm going to try this. What things should they be looking out for not to do? Yeah. Uh, well, don't pick the venue first and don't pick the date first.
Um, you can think about those things cause that, that is often what drives us. We think, Oh, I want this beautiful space and this is the time that's right for my market. But, um, some of the mistakes people make, I guess, when they make those choices is when you're picking a venue. Remember, you're picking real estate and you are going to spend money on this real estate.
Now you wouldn't buy a house, sight unseen, no conversation from a website. But people do it. They do it. They do it. I know they do it. Yeah. But if you're going to invest in booking a venue, it's not difficult to, if even if you can't get there, if it's in another country or another place, you [00:08:00] can get in touch with them and just ask them to walk around with their phone.
Yeah. Even if you have that virtual tour to, to get a sense of things. But not even their virtual tour on their website. 'cause they will always show you the best path. Oh, you'll see the good stuff. You're like, I wanna see the corner over there. Yes, . So don't be afraid to ring them and speak to the business development manager and say, look, I just really want you to walk through the room for me so I can get a feel for what this space is like.
For me, events is all about how you feel and how your audience feels. Otherwise, we could just all be on tv. Yeah, like we don't need to be face to face. The second thing that people often forget about is what else is happening on the date that you want to do it for your audience. So not even just major events and that kind of thing.
Look at who it is that you want to attract to your event and make sure. You're not competing against another conference, for example, or if mums are your audience or parents are your audience, is it school holidays, [00:09:00] um, should it be morning, should it be night time, is there some global event going on that you need to be aware of?
So there's two ways to look at that. One is, um, making sure you avoid some of those times, but the thing a lot of people don't think about is leveraging off them as well. So if you've got a Say you're in education and the major education conference for your region is on on this particular weekend and You're in the education sector, but not quite what's happening in that conference Put a side event on, put a little fringe event on, because you've already got a huge market in your region.
So that's a couple of things that. Yeah, no, absolutely. Those are, um, those are so important when you think about that. And sometimes when I see events and you're like, oh, there's that major trade show going on, or the similar event that you're just not going to get the traction, or school holidays also as well are not a, not a good thing sometimes.
Yeah. Um, [00:10:00] can you, one of the things that. I think a lot of people worry about is that they don't want their event to be just another event and to be kind of boring. Have you, have you got examples of business events, maybe that small business owners have put on that have maybe stood out that are because I think, you know, there's no idea that's a new idea.
It's always why reinvent the wheel if it's been done. Yeah. Do you have suggestions for ones that you've either organized or attended that have just knocked it out of the park? Uh, yes I have, and it, and it doesn't have to be about the whole event. So I guess what I want to get across the line to people is, it's the tiniest little things.
that can make the biggest impact. So the experience we've had here today is the members having a different lanyard to the non members in our catch up that we've had today, which makes the members feel really special. Yeah. Um, [00:11:00] an easy way to do it is with your name tags. So I had a wonderful experience doing the World Surf League conference and their name tags are little balsa wood.
Surfboards. Oh, cute. Now this happens around the world. So when you attend this conference, they're collectors items. Yeah. Now, they're not cheap, obviously, but they're not super expensive either. What that means is the person who comes to the conference time and time again, they wanna collect. that name tag at each place.
You can do the same thing with delegate bags. So I've done another conference that every year the indigenous print on the delegate bag was different. And so when people are coming time and time again, they're collecting them, but they also don't want to miss out because they like, Oh, if I don't go this year, I won't.
Get part of my collection, right? So, super simple things that you can do there. Um, but yes, the lanyards, the gift boxes, the [00:12:00] experience people have. Don't be running around fixing your AV and all that kind of thing when people arrive. The pre journey, the post journey. If you just look at every single step of the way from your audience's experience, you will make a difference.
No end. Absolutely. You can't automate it. Don't try and automate it. This is in real life stuff. And it's, it's not difficult right now to make an impact by simply showing up and being in person for your guest. And I always find too that I look at that and go, if I went to that event, if I was paying for that event, what would I want from it?
Yeah. What would make it that that is one of those ones that I absolutely have to go to. And it's the easiest thing, like the host greeting me when I walk in the door, right? Not walking in the door going, yeah, what do I do here? You want to immerse people. You want people to, [00:13:00] um, as soon as they arrive, they've forgotten, they've forgotten where they're meant to be or family or work or any of those kinds of things.
Cause you've just brought them into some magical environment. Yeah. And the people, people don't do that. They don't do that for a lot of events. It's like, I, I hear. From people who come to female fusion events, they're like, Oh, you know, I went to another networking event to go and check it out and see what it's like compared to yours.
They're like, it doesn't compare to yours. They're like, it's so nice. You know, I come, you greet me, you've got my name badge. You know, we have raffle prizes. I always, you know, get to meet people and it's really relaxed. Food, I find is another big thing. And I've, so many events I've been to, and especially for me.
Look, everybody knows, I'm the gluten free vegan, you can't, not just gluten free, not just vegan, gluten free vegan together. That's hard and a lot of people don't think about that, but they know that they come to a female fusion event, they [00:14:00] never have to worry about food. That we meticulously look at that and make sure that it's healthy, that it tastes good, that it doesn't matter what food allergy you have, you will always have something to eat.
Yes. But then I'll go to other people's events and it's always like deep fried and pastry and there's nothing gluten free and there's nothing vegan and it just, I don't know, I feel like a little bit let down to be honest. Because they've chosen the menu based on what they want to eat. Right. Not what.
Yeah. They don't look at the audience. And a great example of this recently is I, I did a gala and, um, the menu was chosen. So, uh, I didn't choose the menu. Somebody else chose the menu. Sally had no say. No, I did not. And interestingly, through the process of people registering to attend, there was a large portion of people who were allergic to seafood.
And I kind of just noted as we were going through it, like, this is really unusual to have such, [00:15:00] you know, like 15 percent of the audience was allergic to seafood, not just, I don't want to eat it. They're allergic to it. The entree. Was full seafood. And they didn't have like, vegetarian or vegan option? They do, but you don't want to have to ask for that.
You don't want to be the only, I'm sure you don't want to be the only person at the table with the different meal. I always am. I know you are. I looked at that and thought, why aren't we changing this menu as, as these registrations are coming in and we're noticing, gee, this is really interesting. Why we could, we've got time, we can go back to the venue and go, look, I think we need to change our entree because, because to me it's risky too.
Of course it is hugely risky. Don't know if you don't know, like, for example, for us, the reason why the food is so good is because I am so aware because I face that all the time. So my view is I don't want you to ever turn up to one of our events and not have something to eat. Yeah, [00:16:00] yeah. Um, so that's, that's like one of the things that we think about, but then I go to so many events and they don't even ask about food allergies.
It's like, oh, if you have a food allergy, you're, you're difficult. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It happens a lot. Yeah. But when you don't have food allergies, you don't realize that. I went to a big conference in London earlier this year. No, no changes for food allergies. If you couldn't eat what was on the menu, the restaurant's up there.
Before you come. Wow. So I think little things like that make, make a big difference. Yes, and if you do it early, you can change your menu. So don't think that just because you've told the venue, here's my selection, that you can't change that. Yeah. You can change that probably 14 days beforehand. Yeah. Later than that, it gets a bit more difficult because they will have ordered and prepped and all the rest of it.
But up until then, yeah, it's not difficult. And then, what about Um, [00:17:00] when you have a business event, how important is networking and building that in? Do you need to have considerations for that? Yes, absolutely. People, uh, so yes and no. So yes, you need to have it in there. But in your programming, something that, um, I've done a bit of market research in this, and, uh, there's a lot more introverts in the world, um, than, than.
Possibly were but there's a lot more people who want to get out and about and so In my processes what I've worked out is that people they like the networking But they like to have some sort of activity a presentation or something in between So they can have a break for a minute so they can stop talking to people.
So you you've got to try and service All of the personality types in the room, right? So you've got a bunch of introverts got a bunch of extroverts and you've got People that just kind of want to hide in the background. So I found, you know, the perfect model is networking, some kind of presentation [00:18:00] and then some networking again.
And that, so the beginning allows for the extroverts to come in and go, Oh, Hey, I'm here. That's me. I'm chatting to everyone, kissing everyone. Um. But then the introverts need a break from that. Of course they do. And they want to just sit down and just listen for a minute. They don't want to have to participate.
They just want to hear someone talk. Um, but then it gives them a great opportunity afterwards to have something to talk about. So the really shy people in the room who are scared to death. Then you can be like, Oh, hey, what did you think of that presentation? Yes. Yeah. So when you're thinking about your programming.
Think about, you know, the top four personality types, I guess, and make sure that you have built Something some period of time in your event to accommodate and allow For them to have the same experience as everyone else and how long do you give? People for networking, like what's the ideal amount of time for [00:19:00] 45 minutes, 45 minutes is or less.
Okay. Yeah. So 20, 30 minutes. Does that work as well? Yes. Okay. Yeah, indeed. Um, one thing I have people say to me sometimes is that they, especially the really shy or the introverted people that they're like, I wanted you to facilitate a A way to make it easier for me to network. Have you come up with like any, any things that you can do that?
Cause I've been asked sometimes like, Oh, could you do speed networking? And I always kind of feel speed networking is a little bit awkward. That doesn't serve everyone in the room. Right. So if you can do it, um, and it depends on the size of your event and how well, you know, your audience and you can get to know your audience.
really well. My favorite events, and I do this myself, is I take time to look at who's coming. Who are they? I might go look at them on LinkedIn, I might pick a few people out, and I get to know who they are, what they [00:20:00] do, and then when they arrive, and, and I love this because it's happened to me only with one other event organizer in the past, um, I will introduce you to people.
Yeah. When you arrive, I'll be like, Oh, Jen, you really need to meet this person. And I will take you and I will personally introduce you. It's so important, right? Especially like if it's somebody who is quite shy or who have hasn't met people before. And I, I talked to the team about that for our events that that's kind of part of the whole process.
that if I'm not available, because there's only so much of Jen that can go around that, you know, there's three other people that I want you, that person's new, they've never come before, go and find our most extroverted, connected member and connect them up. Yes. Because then that member will be the one who will be like, Oh, let me introduce you to this person.
That personal, your business does that you need to meet that person. And then all of a sudden you're like. Think about the buddy [00:21:00] system at school. You know, look at your audience. They're your primary school kids. They're the new kids at the school. They want They, they need just one person. You don't need to introduce them to heaps of people, um, but you do need to help them come into the room because a lot of people are very scared of networking.
And then sometimes people as well will turn around and walk out if they, if they feel really uncomfortable that it's just not there. Yeah. If no one's made eye contact with them or, and being an extrovert, I look for those people in the room. I will scan the room and go, Oh, they're still standing by themselves.
I'll go and find them and take them to talk to someone. Um, because no one wants to feel like that. Of course. No. And for most people. I think if I find it hard to walk up to a group of people and break in and say, hi, how are you going? Do you mind if I join you? If, if that's not your jam, it'd be terrifying.
Absolutely terrifying. Now, what about, so kind of. [00:22:00] Looking slightly differently to that bit, one challenge I think people have as well is I've got my event, I'm doing it, but how do I keep engagement going? Like you've got the networking, but what other things can you do? Because I've been to events where sometimes I'd be like, get up, move around, dance.
And people were like, Oh, that's super awkward. I don't want to dance. So from your professional opinion, give me some suggestions if you don't want to do the awkward dancing. What other things can you do to kind of have a bit more engagement going on? Yeah, yeah. Um, bring other things into it. So one great event that I've been to, um, was a business expo.
But if you'd kind of done the expo part, they had a giant Lego. Building exercise going in the middle. So every booth that you visited You've got a piece of Lego and then you could go and put your piece of Lego into something So you're you're kind of doing something that's by [00:23:00] yourself, but you can talk to other people about it if you like as well The other things you can do is have things for people to look at so beautiful artworks or even digital artworks that kind of thing It doesn't have to have any sound, but it's, it's something for people to do who don't want to talk to anyone else, but they, you know, they don't want to stand there, you know, by themselves either, like.
You know, just holding a glass of wine or what have you. So giving people, um, something to look at or something to participate in can be a way to do that. But let me share with you, I had a really interesting, uh, feedback from, uh, one of the questions I ask in some workshops that I do is, how do you feel when someone asks you, asks you to get up and dance?
I've been at something where someone's asked me to sing. As a whole group, and I'm like, that just terrifies me. No, thank you. Exactly. Um, so I asked this question about, well, how does, how do you feel about that? And someone [00:24:00] actually said, I hate it when I'm asked to put my hand up. Yeah. And I was like, wow, tell me more about that.
And they said, well, I don't want people to know my opinion on that. So if I keep my hand down, I'm making an opinion. If I put my hand up, I'm making an opinion. Um, so. Be really conscious I suppose of people don't want to out themselves. Yeah in in situation So keeping people engaged I guess back to your original question.
It's okay. If people are just sitting on the couch talking Um, engagement doesn't mean dancing around a room. Yeah. Know your audience well. And if you're in the room, just ask people, how are you feeling about our event today? Are you having a good time? Yeah. And you will know from how they answer, how quickly they answer and their body language, whether it's for them.
Because I know myself. In situations where games have been played, I can be in the best [00:25:00] conversation with someone and then all of a sudden, someone's yelling at me from a microphone. Okay, now everybody with red dots, I want you to go talk to everybody else with red dots. Yeah, it just feels a bit inauthentic, right?
I was just having a great chat. I really don't want to stop this chat. So be, get good at reading the room. Get good at reading the room, reading people. You will never have red dot, blue dot in female fusion. I don't even think you would have, like, yoga in your chair or any of these things, because I, I know, like, you have so many Different characters, right?
Yeah. That you wanna make sure that everybody goes in and they feel comfortable. Yeah. And the, the one thing that I've been learning a lot of as well is that different size events for different people. Because some people like the extrovert in me. We have some events where there's like 150, 200 people in the room.
Yeah. Our extroverts are like, this is them. Best thing in the world. It is so cool. And [00:26:00] then like they will tell me that is the highlight of their week or the month best event. And then you talk to the extrovert and they were like, what sweet, sweet hell have you brought me into? Like, this is horrible because they're like, it's so many people.
I don't know who to talk to. I would rather be somewhere with 20 people. And so that's where you were saying like the quality could be, yes. Yeah. 20 people at 20 person event can be just as impactful as the 200. Yes, exactly. Exactly. And, uh, Again, it comes down to your audience, knowing your audience well, and hopefully you have, um, you know, created something for an audience that you do know well.
You may not personally know them, like if it's a public ticketed event, you don't necessarily know that person intimately, but you kind of know their personality type, what they enjoy, what they don't enjoy, where they hang out, that kind of thing. So if you're building it for your audience first and [00:27:00] foremost, you'll get it right.
Good point. Now, I have a question for you. I always love asking this of people who are in events because you're like a swan, right? That you look so beautiful, all event organizers are like this, that you look so beautiful and calm on the outside, but underneath your face you're going like this because there is Possibly.
There is a lot of crazy stuff that happens with events, especially like bigger events, but even smaller events as well. Sometimes stuff happens like you have an event canceled or a, um, venue canceled on you last minute, or I had something. I had like three hours before we had a massive event, one of the speakers just pulled out and she just WhatsApp me and was like, Oh, I'm really sorry.
I'm busy now. Oh, I was like, wow. And she's like, maybe I can, maybe I can speak at one of your events next month. I was like, never again will you ever speak at one of our events. And in the [00:28:00] end, like you always make stuff happen, but there are things like the speaker pulls out the, um, even at the female fusion event we had today, the AV didn't work.
And I just said to Mel, I'm like, look, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna stand up. I don't need a screen. And I'll just.
So I often say to people who ask me what makes a great event manager is resourcefulness and resilience. Those two things. Everything else can be taught. Resourcefulness means. Uh, simply that you can figure out how to solve a problem. Sometimes problems can't be solved though, and you just have to move on.
You're not saving lives, as you said, your AV doesn't work. It's you they've come to see. So just remember that [00:29:00] it's you invited them. They bought the ticket from you and they want to hear you talk. So if everything else falls apart, you standing in front of your audience is all that needs to happen because that's who they've come to see.
I see people often. If the AV doesn't work, they spend an enormous amount of time trying to fix it. They're not engaging with their audience. Their audience have paid a ticket price or even taken time out of their day. Even if they haven't paid, they've still paid in time and energy to come. And they're just watching you muck around with AV.
So just let it go. Do you know the thing that happens to me? 25 percent of the time I would say one event out of four. Microphone doesn't work. Yes. No matter how many times you test it. The microphone doesn't work. Yes, yes. Yes, indeed. Um, That's probably one thing I would suggest that, uh, someone does try to fix, only [00:30:00] because I see in a lot of events, um, and it happened the other night actually, I was at a networking event, the person who was about to speak was handed a microphone and they said, no, no, no, it's fine, it's fine, I've got a loud voice.
Number one, I don't want to hear you shout at me. Yeah, you can't present well without a microphone. Yeah So if that does happen move closer to your audience Yeah, if you're on stage and your audience is over there, yeah, and your microphone stops walking come down the stairs Walk in walk through. Yeah.
Yeah, shout at people from stage. I know it's hard. I find this well that it impacts It impacts your breathing. It makes it, it makes it difficult to project even no matter how loud your voice is. Do you know what I did? I bought a portable Bose speaker with two wireless microphones. And for most events, we always have it.
It's always like, even though, because so many times I've had, No, we have a B, [00:31:00] it's all perfect. And then you turn up and it's not. Perfect. So it's much easier if you have that portable speaker with you. It is. It is. And don't make your audience tell you they're deaf. Yeah. You know, I don't have great hearing.
I don't, like you experienced today, I don't have great hearing. Yeah. So. When you say I've got a loud voice, well it mightn't be loud enough for me. So I've either got to move to the front of the room or I've got a strain to hear you. I've got to watch your lips really closely and carefully. I don't want that.
I want to be immersed in what you're saying. You've totally lost the impact. Yeah. I'm not going to get into your story if I'm spending the whole time worrying about whether I can hear you or I understood what you said. Make it easy. Yes, and I actually call people out at events normally. Yeah, if I'm at an event publicly I will and someone goes and an audience member wants to ask a question Yeah, and if they're handed a microphone, they say no, thank you.
I'll actually put my hand up and say excuse me. I'm sorry I need you to use the [00:32:00] mic. If you use the microphone, please because there's people in the room that may not be able to hear or be hearing impaired Yeah, they don't wear a t shirt that says I'm hearing a bit. Yeah, I know. I know. Yeah, and I mean that the Disability conversation is a whole other.
Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah, that's so important. It's just caring for events, right? But it's caring about your audience. Yeah, it's that simple. It doesn't have to be a complicated policy System process, but it's being aware, right? Yeah, I guess, you know, it goes back to me having food allergies that I have a lot of friends with disabilities I also um One of my kids has autism as well.
And so also being aware and thinking things like, is your venue? Accessible by a wheelchair, or if somebody, you know, if somebody has a broken foot or they're on crutches, like, do they have to go up crazy stairs or is it safe? Because nobody wants to feel excluded or left out because they have to have somebody carry [00:33:00] them to help get up somewhere.
That doesn't feel good. No, exactly. And they may not want to say what it is. Yeah. They may have a temporary issue. Yeah. Like me. Yes. Who has a broken foot right now. Exactly. Exactly. So I want to talk to you about one other subject related to business but separate from event organization. And you're a member of Female Fusion.
We love having you in Female Fusion. Yes, I love being there. But you're in a couple of other communities as well. Sometimes I hear from people, they'll say to me, they'll be like, Oh, well, I'm only going to be in Female Fusion, or I'm only going to be in this group. Why, how does it benefit you being in a few different communities?
Yeah, I hear this a lot. I hear a lot of the times people say, Oh, I'm not going to, get another course, or I'm not going to get another membership because I'm already in this one, already in that one. I coined a bit of a term for myself, [00:34:00] um, when this started to rise a little bit in me, that I'd curated my own 21st century MBA.
And I looked at what I'd joined and went, well, I've got finance, I've got marketing, you know, I've got administration, I've got legal and compliance. And I thought, wow, this is, This is an MBA, which is current. It's right now. If I went and did an MBA now, that information is so old, right? Yes. Yes. And part of those educations is the cohort, right?
Part of the reason you do an education is because you get the community, which today we sort of see as an online community, but It's learning by osmosis, and so the reason I'm in various different ones is because I'm in one that is where I am right now, which gives me actionable tasks for my business where it is right at this moment.
Um, another one I'm in is, uh, gives [00:35:00] me skills, knowledge, and a cohort of people where I can see myself going. I know I'll be there in a couple of years, and that's helping me on that little pathway, and then of course I'm in Female Fusion, because this is where I see my business ultimately. Um, the global connections, understanding what it's like to do business in a global environment, and what's really funny about that is, I, I, it's a story for another time, but I ended up in an MBA program, um, Not qualified to be in an MBA program.
I did a lot to get there and I didn't realize that I did a lot to get there. But I exited out at international business and I was a mature age student. So this is in the last 15 years. But I exited out at Um, when we got to the unit for international business, because I thought, I'm never going to do international business ever.
Wow. I'm not going to bother with that. And now I'm like, Oh my goodness. But this is where the [00:36:00] opportunities are. Yes. Yeah. And it's, and I've thought about that because international is my thing. That's kind of, I got rejected for. Um, being not local and was like, okay, well, I'll use the international, but I've realized and I reflect back on my career and entrepreneurship experience.
And it's because of the international that opened up so many opportunities, but it's hard, right? It's hard to know, um, without, it can be scary. It can be like, especially if you haven't done it before, it can feel very scary and overwhelming. Yes. And for me, like, as a business owner, one of my first, like, big countries that I went to outside of Europe, because I was already doing a lot in Europe, I went to Saudi Arabia, and this was Saudi Arabia 20 years ago.
Wow. Saudi Arabia 20 years ago, when I went there, women were not allowed in government buildings, and I was I remember I had a meeting with the [00:37:00] government minister and we had to get special permission for me to be allowed into the building. And then we were leaving that building and I had to go to the toilet.
And there were no toilets for women. And so I actually had to use the minister's private toilet. Bathroom because women weren't allowed in and I thought like, it just blows my mind thinking that, you know, young Jen Witton did these things and had these experiences. Of course, like Saudi Arabia is amazing.
Like it's transformed. You wouldn't even imagine that it was like that 20 years ago, but I was kind of like, I'm going to do it. Yeah. Um, and it does take a bit of bravery because I think for some people they would have experienced that and been like, not for me. Yeah. But if you do have a bit of bravery, and you are willing to get on a plane and go experience a different market, it opens up huge opportunities.
It does. And, and the beauty though, of female fusion, and I'm [00:38:00] not just banging on for the sake of it, um, understanding the cultural differences, having a space where I can go, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this. Is that okay? Is that acceptable? Should I be doing it in a different way? And having such a broad range of people in there who can say, here's how you need to do it here.
If you're going to come to the UK, this is the approach you need to take. If you're going to take that into, You know, Abu Dhabi, this is the approach that you need to take. I feel much more confident now to develop the business to go international. And it's cool, right? Because you realize you're like, they're just like me.
Yes. They're just like me. Okay. Maybe this works a bit differently or culturally, this is what they like, but at the end of the day. We're all women. We're all building businesses. We all want profitable businesses. And there's so much that you have in common with that. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it's excellent. [00:39:00] I love it.
Thank you. So what is next for you? You have, you're working on a few things. You've got some plans to go big? I do. I do. Yes. Yes, I do. So we have the Event Planners Workshop, which has the program, um, and the tools to show you how to produce a successful event. Uh, so with that you get Me essentially holding your hand and making sure that, um, you get the people in the room that you want in the room and you don't forget anything and it's kind of just a little confidence boost, I guess, um, to be able to know that you've sort of got someone in your back pocket who can help you along the way.
Um, I don't think I know of anybody who does that. And like, I can just think right now of so many people who would need that because people are scared. Yes. During events like this. It's easy, but it's not easy. Yeah, especially if you've never done it before and like to have that with you. Wow. How, how many, [00:40:00] like, how long do they have you for doing that?
Is it, it depends on the type of event and, and their, um, their desire, I guess. So, so we have a one day and two day workshops. So if it's something small and not very complex and somebody just wants to. Get the plan down and get done. We can do that in a day, um, or we can do it in a weekend. Uh, there's an eight week course as well, which gives you all the templates, um, for you to go along with and, uh, produce your event, including all the marketing and design and all of that stuff as well.
So it's not just the logistics. So it's like an event in a box. in a way. Yeah, essentially. So it's design, administration, marketing, risk and compliance, um, and execution. So it's from beginning to end. It's, it's idea generation to debrief because I'll make you do a debrief. Um, so it's, it's, it's a five part.
Uh, system I guess is, uh, what we [00:41:00] go through together and then there's a six month coaching program as well. So if you want to do something that's a bit more complex, a bit more multifaceted, perhaps you've got, you know, a series of speakers you want to bring together or it's multi day higher risk, more investment, then, then that's a six month.
So how do people find out about that? Uh, event planners, workshop. com. au is where you will find all the details. That's cool. Now. One question I have for you before we end as well that you mentioned you were talking about how you have a process That's quite important for people to follow in their event Do you have like a blog post or anything where people can I do I do I have I have a lovely free download that They can use that comes with a video that I go through with you how to go through this process And it's a great little feasibility type framework.
So so you will know whether your event has legs or Or how is an idea worth pursuing or it's something that you need to go back to the drawing board on. So how do we find that? That is eventplannersworkshop. [00:42:00] com. au forward slash idea to launch. Okay. Amazing. And so we'll put that in the show notes where, um, if there are no show notes, depending upon where you're listening to it, you can find it on the website.
Thank you, Jen. Sally, thank you so much for joining us. And I appreciate you taking the time to share your wisdom around everything events. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the podcast. If you want to be on top of the numbers in your business, why not download Female Fusion's SME dashboard?
It is the exact dashboard that we use in Female Fusion to track all of our numbers. The financial numbers, the marketing numbers, customer service numbers, it really helps us stay on top of everything in the business. As I say, you can't grow what you don't know. So if you'd like to grab it, we've included a link in the show notes, or you can go to femalfusionnetwork.
com forward slash [00:43:00] SME hyphen dashboard. Now that might be a bit complicated. So just hop on over to the show notes and you can grab it from there.
