She's The Boss

"...In every country and culture that I have visited, from Sweden to Uganda,

from Singapore to Mali, it is clear that when women are given respect, and

the ability and freedom to pursue their personal dreams and ambitions,

life improves for everyone...Women were as capable and as energetic and

as inspiring as men."

- Helen Mirren, Tulane University's

Commencement speech 2017

Women are powerful. It's a universal truth. We've been rulers of empires, warriors, inventors, politicians, industry-changing scientists and doctors, spies, and the list goes on.

We teach our daughters and granddaughters that they can achieve anything they dream of in this modern world, but the undeniable fact is that women as a whole are still fighting for the same level of respect and recognition as their male counterparts. 

Enter the amazing Jules Brooke, founder of She's The Boss, whose passion is supporting, connecting and showcasing women in business to help expand their 'resources and opportunities to grow their circle of influence and offer them a chance to shine'. 

📷 Jules Brooke

Jules has a weekly podcast where she interviews inspiring female founders and women doing incredible things in business, including Bondi Chai co-founder Melissa Edyvean and Australian ex-pat and Chinese business expert Heidi Dugan, as well as running multiple events around Australia where women in business can come together and expand their network and resources.

Listen to She's The Boss Chats podcast:

I sat down with Jules to interview the interviewer, to find out why she is so passionate about She's The Boss and her plans for the future. 

WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO LAUNCH SHE'S THE BOSS?

A couple of things. One is that I found that there are a lot of women's groups out there and I love them all, but I felt that a lot of them were targeting either business mums or startups and talking as if the business owners are 25 years old. Because I am nearly 57, and there are a lot of women like me who have been running businesses for 20 years, I felt that there was a big gap there in terms of support.

I have been interviewing people through my podcast 'She's The Boss Chats', most of them being female CEOs, and I've discovered that the more successful you are, the more isolating it becomes. It could be because as you are working really hard on your business, you might shed friends along the way.

I also feel that a lot of female CEOs feel that people only want to be their friends if they can get something out of it. I really wanted to set up a group that was different, that would support older women who are running their own businesses and looking for peers to hang out with.

There were also some startling statistics that I came across. I had a TV show called She's The Boss on Ticker TV where I started interviewing women who were doing research on female founders and women in business and these were the stats that freaked me out:

Less than 3% of female founders in 202 were getting access to Venture Capital Funding, since then it's dropped 0.7%.

That was one thing that really shocked me and I thought that something needed to be done about it. 

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which is an organisation set up by actress Geena Davis, came out with a stat at the end of 2020 that said that women over 50 are appearing in just 4% of media globally.

Around the same time, I also saw a stat from Media Diversity Australia about who is telling Australian stories and it said that 100% of Aussie program directors are Anglo-Saxon men. Not 70 or 80% - 100%!

I thought, 'That's why we're not seeing women anymore in the media, or older women, because the older men don't think that older women are relevant'. She's The Boss is about making those women more visible through the podcast and the YouTube channel, and then about supporting and connecting them through my events. 

People are talking about diversity all the time, but are you aware - because I wasn't and I know a lot of people aren't - that 25% of the population is disabled?! In almost all countries around the world, it's between 20-25%.

I'm on a mission to lift up and make more visible a lot of these women particularly that I don't think anyone knows about.

We have a couple of women in She's The Boss who help people win awards. They do all the award applications and the stat I heard just last week is that of all the awards out there, women win only 13% of them.

And that seems ridiculously small; I would have thought it would be 50% because we're half the population and 40% of business owners.

One of the women is Annette Densham of The Audacious Agency. and the other is Karen Hall of Reputation By Design, and they are both on a mission to help more women win awards.

Another really interesting thing that I have learned is a hell of a lot (around 60%) of successful female founders I have interviewed started off as lawyers.

One of the things that they often say is how frustrated they are in a boys club, and so they are possibly not treated as well as they could be. I don't want to say all of them, but I think there are a lot of them for whom that is the case.

Other than that, I think if I had a legal background I would feel very safe going into starting a company because I'd know all the ins and outs of what to worry about. I think it's fascinating.

HAVE THERE BEEN ANY INNOVATIONS OR ADVICE FROM THE FEMALE FOUNDERS THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN ON YOURSELF OR RECOMMENDED TO OTHERS?

About a million! I've now interviewed over 250 amazing women, I think I have learned so much from all of them that I don't even know where to start. 

One of the big ones I've learned is to get some balance in your life.

There are so many successful women who have had burnout that it kind of blew my mind. I knew it was a thing, but I didn't realise that burnout for a lot of women could derail their careers and put them in bed for a year. Then they're told, 'You can never go back to that kind of career again'.

That has been a shock and something interesting that I have learned about.

📷 LinkedIn Sales Solutions

Another one, which I am very bad at, is that everyone should be planning before they start a business.

I have to say, I've started my businesses in PR and She's The Boss by flying by the seat of my pants, but the really successful women all say plan, even if it's retrospectively. 

They're just some of the things that I have learned and try to implement. 

DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR THE FUTURE OF SHE'S THE BOSS?

Oh, my goodness, yes I do! What I really want is to start making women over 40, who are business owners, really visible. I want everyone to know about them because another little startling stat that I found was that girls 11 to 16 say that they don't see business role models for themselves. They can't see women doing what they would like to be when they grow older, so I think it's really important that women make themselves more visible. 

Some of the things that I want to do are to hold a lot more events with a lot more members. I also really want to start helping women that traditionally are finding it tougher - women who are disabled, women of colour, migrant and refugee women.

We talk a lot about diversity, but I don't know that a lot of action is being taken and I feel that for those of us that are in the privileged position of being born white in a country that doesn't have wars, it's our job to give those women a lift up. I want to be doing more of that. 

I also want to start running conferences for female founders and start a TV network for women in business. Ultimately I want to continue to connect women and I want them all to back each other. My big message is:

 

"Lift up the women around you. Be that woman that will mention

another woman's name in a room full of opportunities and start helping

other women around you and that way we will all rise together."

- Jules Brooke, founder

She's The Boss

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?

What I would like is for women to step out of the shadows and push themselves forward. I know for a lot of women that feels deeply uncomfortable, but if you take the focus off yourself and put it on the young women around you who are watching you or are looking for role models, I think that's what's really important.

I would love all women to go out of their way to help other women, and what I mean by that is to go out and mention their name, give them a referral; do something to help another woman in her job. It'll always come back to you. Talk to other people, about how great they've been. That will always be the kind of quality that we want out there.

For me, what do I want from She's The Boss? I want people to listen to my podcasts, I want them to know about the women that I'm interviewing, including the fabulous Melissa from Bondi Chai, hearing the stories and talking about the wonderful things they are doing to try to make the world a better place. 

Thanks, Jules, for joining us! It was an absolute pleasure to chat with you and learn more about the history and future of She's The Boss.

Bondi Chai proudly supports Jules in her mission to bring women in business and entrepreneurs into the light. You can view She's The Boss events in your local city here. Be sure to register as spots fill up fast. 

Listen to the She's The Boss Chats podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and YouTube.