Australian lifestyle network Are Media, together with the IMAA, hosted an International Women’s Day breakfast in Sydney this morning, bringing together industry leaders to share reflections on ambition, resilience and the changing landscape for women.
The panel featured founder and CEO of Showpo, Jane Lu; singer, songwriter and actress Amy Shark; and editor of ELLE Australia, Jessica Bailey.
Are Media’s general manager of luxury moderated the discussion, moving between the three speakers with questions about the challenges they have faced, who inspired them most, and what excites them about the next generation of women entering their industries.
With long tables adorned with pink, green and white flowers and a beautiful view of high-rise buildings washed in the morning sun, the venue was a fitting backdrop for the celebration of “the women who move culture and each other”.
Speaking to the audience, Lu admitted she realised her hard work at university had led her to an industry she “didn’t love”.
“I think the biggest thing that surprises me is probably the unconventional path I’ve taken to get to where I am today. Growing up, I thought that there was only just that one conventional path — you go to high school to get the degree, to get the marks to get into uni, and you go to uni to get the degree, the degree to get the job, the job and financial security, and then after that it was all about climbing the corporate ladder.
“I followed that path like a formula until 23, when I realised I had been working corporate for three years and it was not for me, I hated it. That was the time to start from scratch.
“And I cannot believe that I had been able to step outside of that and be able to achieve this. That was surprising,” Lu added.
Leaving the corporate world behind after two years, she said she felt like a failure.
Confidence comes in time
Lu highlighted that becoming an entrepreneur requires the willingness to “take that chance”.
“My first business actually failed, and that definitely crushed my confidence. I actually quit my corporate job for it, so I went from having this amazing corporate job — the dream job that I had been working towards my whole life — and then all of a sudden I was unemployed, in debt and a failure,” she said.
“I was absolutely devastated, I lost all my confidence, and it was also in the middle of the global financial crisis, so I couldn’t get another job even if I tried. So out of pure desperation, I had to start another business.”
She admitted Showpo was started “completely by default as a plan B option”.
“When I had left my corporate job, I didn’t have the confidence to tell my parents,” she said.
“I was still living at home, so that meant that every day I would get up and put on a suit,” she laughed.
“My mum worked in the city, so I still had to get the bus and pay for the bus.”
Lu said pretending to still go to work reflected her “not having the confidence” and battling “that voice” in her head.
“It’s that imposter syndrome being like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’. And if you’re already trying so hard to shut that voice up in your own head, you can’t layer it with your Asian parents nagging you every day… so I couldn’t tell them. Confidence definitely came in time.”
Alongside her journey to finding confidence, she said the behind-the-scenes process is what has helped “define” her as an entrepreneur.
“People see the campaigns, the social media content, the activations and all the growth stories… but behind the scenes there are thousands of little decisions, pivots, mistakes, obstacles, lots of late nights and all the hard stuff you have to overcome.
“I think your success isn’t about avoiding the lows, but about having the grit to climb out of them.”
Next generation of women ‘more ambitious than ever’
Bailey believes the new wave of women are “more ambitious than ever — financially, creatively and politically.”
“I think as well we’re consuming social media at an extraordinary speed, and that changes everything. The very act of scrolling social media has made every single one of us in this room ruthless editors.
“These days, content that cuts through is not overly earnest. It’s not over-explained, because we’re intelligent beings, and we don’t tolerate fluff — we can just habitually swipe straight past it.”
“So when you put that into a magazine — if a story feels hollow or performative, or it’s behind in the conversation — we know it will be dismissed immediately.”
However, she said when something is “emotionally honest” and “smart,” it resonates.
Lu added that women speaking about their ambitions out loud has also become “more common”.
“As women, we would downplay our ambitions because we have a fear of failure, and I think the narrative has changed to failing becoming part of the process.
“If you’re not failing enough, you’re not taking enough risks, and if you’re not doing enough that’s unconventional or different — and I think it’s also about carving out those people in your life that might be judging you on your ambitions.
“I think that has really, really shifted.”
It’s all about the people who support you
“I think probably the main one in my whole life would be my nan,” Shark shared, when asked who has left the strongest impact.
“She’s not here anymore, but I think just the stability and having that one figure who remains safe was important. She was very old school and very British, but she guided me to do the right thing, be a good person and learn how to have empathy.”
With a brother six years younger than her and a mother who had her “really young”, Shark said she spent a lot of time learning from her nan.
Lu said the person who helped her the most was the business partner she originally started Showpo with.
“Starting a business can be very lonely at the start, and so having someone to ride out all those very slow days — the slow momentum, the refreshing and there’s no sales — was so important,” she said.
“Having someone to ride all those obstacles with was so important. I probably wouldn’t have had the confidence to start the second business without her. We’re still great friends today, and I learned so much from her.”
Bailey said although everyone says they have the best mum, hers “actually is”.
“A little over a year ago when I got this role, it was the day I was accepting it, and Nikki said to me, ‘You’ve definitely made the right decision Jess. You never lose when you move, progress or transition’, and it really calmed me in that moment.”
“I was coming over to ELLE after 10 years, and change is scary — I’m sure everyone in this room can admit that — and to have someone say, ‘Whatever happens, it’s a good thing, you cannot lose’, meant a lot to me.”
‘Go in and go for it’
Shark told the audience acting was her “first love”.
“I loved acting and doing theatre in school, and then I got into being an angsty teenager and music took over my life,” she said.
“But weirdly, Russell Crowe came to one of my very early shows. He’s just one of those people that when he sees someone who loves what they do — and he’s obviously a big fan of music — he loves putting an arm down and helping people up.”
She said Crowe introduced her to industry figures including Nicole Pittman, Keith Urban and Ed Sheeran.
“One day he called my bluff and sent me a script,” she said.
“He said, ‘I can’t promise anything, but if you want to audition and if you like the sound of it all, the director will be in touch’.”
Shark said she loved the script so much she read it three times that night.
The movie, Beast, an Australian-made sports action film releasing this year, features Shark as an ex-MMA fighter, with Russell Crowe playing her father.
“I just loved the idea because I feel like I’ve been a bit of an underdog and a bit of a fighter my whole life, so it made sense to me. I really wanted it — I really, really wanted it,” she said.
“So I said yes, and it was terrifying. The audition was terrifying.”
“Sometimes you just have to really go for it, and I’m so glad I did, because I showed everyone in the room that I was serious.
“Russell Crowe was there and all the lights and cameras, and I feel like I really kind of turned into the character,” she said.
“I just threw everything I had into it. In moments like that, you just have to.”
